TV News LIES

Nearly 50% of the 30 busiest US airports faced shortages of air traffic controllers, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday, leading to flight delays nationwide as a federal government shutdown hit its 31st day.

The absence of controllers on Friday is by far the most widespread since the shutdown began, with one of the worst-hit regions being New York, where 80% of air traffic controllers were out, the agency said.

At least 35 FAA facilities, including several at the largest US airports, reported staffing problems. Airports affected included facilities in New York City, Austin, Newark, Phoenix, Washington, Nashville, Dallas and Denver. At some airports, delays averaged one hour or more.

The shutdown has forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers to work without pay.

“After 31 days without pay, air traffic controllers are under immense stress and fatigue,” the FAA said late on Friday.

More...

The US Senate rejected an effort on Wednesday to halt a contentious US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) plan to kill nearly half a million barred owls in order to save their cousin, the northern spotted owl.

John Kennedy, the Republican senator from Louisiana, had hoped to block the proposal by bringing the matter to a vote with a joint resolution under the Congressional Review Act. The effort failed with 25 votes to 72 votes.

“The barred owls are not hurting anybody. They’re just doing what nature teaches them to do. We’re going to change nature?” Kennedy said in a speech before the Senate. “We’re going to control our environment to this extent? We’re going to pass DEI for owls?”

Barred owls have been expanding their habitat west, increasing competition for the spotted owl. The more aggressive barred owls come from eastern North America and are slightly larger and better able to adapt than the spotted owl. The spotted owl has been imperiled over the years, facing major habitat loss as logging and development destroyed old growth forests in the Pacific north-west.

More...

The Trump administration is inching closer to entering the U.S. into war with Venezuela without providing evidence justifying it, pursuing any formal debate or authorization or outlining a plan to deal with the chaos experts say will almost certainly ensue.

U.S. officials have now chosen targets for airstrikes in the South American country and believe they may be approved imminently, The Wall Street Journal and Miami Herald reported on Friday.

The move would escalate President Donald Trump’s two-month campaign of strikes in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, which have killed at least 57 people. The administration, which has claimed the strikes around South America target people bringing drugs to the U.S., has not demonstrated that any of its victims were a threat, nor did it attempt to prosecute them. Military officials told Congress on Thursday that they do not know exactly who they have killed so far, Democratic lawmakers said after a briefing.

Simultaneously, an attack would represent America’s second assault on a nation that has not attacked the U.S. in less than a year — the first being against Iran in June — risking a domino effect of strife and bloodshed, and underscoring the hollowness of Trump’s claims he is enhancing world peace.

More...

An explosion inside a Harvard University medical building early Saturday morning appears to have been “intentional,” police said.

A Harvard University Police Department officer arrived at the Goldenson Building after a fire alarm went off at 2:48 a.m., Harvard police said in a statement.

While responding to the call, the officer noted that he saw two “unidentified individuals fleeing from the building,” according to the statement. The officer “attempted to stop the individuals,” but was unsuccessful.

More...More...

U.S. President Donald Trump pressed Hamas to act faster in returning the bodies of deceased hostages amid a delicate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire deal by withholding the bodies of the remaining 13 deceased hostages thought to have died during or after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

Hamas has said the return of the remaining bodies "may take some time" due to the destruction wrought in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday instructed the country's military to "carry out powerful strikes in Gaza," a statement from his office said, in response to alleged ceasefire violations by Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday they had resumed the ceasefire.

The International Committee of the Red Cross facilitated the transfer of three bodies to Israeli authorities on Friday, the ICRC said in a statement.

The bodies will be taken to Israel for identification.

A further 30 bodies were transferred from Israeli authorities to authorities in Gaza via the International Committee of the Red Cross, the organization said in a statement on Friday.

More...

At a secret location in rural Ukraine, columns of attack drones are assembled at night and in near silence to strike deep inside Russia.

Their targets are strategic: oil refineries, fuel depots, and military logistics hubs. Since the summer, Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign has ramped up dramatically, pounding energy infrastructure across Russia and stretching Moscow’s air defenses thin.

Built from parts made in a scattered network of workshops, these drones now fly much further than at any point in the war.

Officers in body armor move with quick precision; headlamps glow red to stay hidden. Engines sputter like old motorcycles as exhaust fumes drift into the moonless night. Minutes later, one after another, the drones lift from a makeshift runway and head east. The strikes have caused gasoline shortages in Russia, even forcing rationing in some regions and underscoring a growing vulnerability in the country’s infrastructure. Lt. Gen. Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, said Friday that more than 160 successful strikes had been carried out against Russia’s oil extraction and refining facilities so far this year.

More...

For months doctors at the last functioning hospital in the wartorn Sudanese city of el-Fasher performed operations by torchlight, desperately trying to save lives in the most impossible conditions.

The Saudi Maternity Hospital was a last refuge for the sick and injured in the besieged city, as fighting raged around them. Despite no electricity, shortages of supplies, and frequently coming under heavy shelling, medical staff kept going.

"They are heroes, honestly," said Dr Mohamed Faisal Elsheikh, a Sudanese medical doctor based in Manchester and a spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network.

"They really work in a very difficult environment, they had no medical instruments, there's no any medicines over there, there's no electricity…and yet with all dedication and commitment…they saved as much as they could of people's lives."

More...

Authorities in Tennessee have dropped a felony charge against a man who was jailed for more than a month over a Facebook post he made about the 10 September killing of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Whereas many people across the US lost their jobs over social media comments about Kirk’s death, Larry Bushart’s case stood out as one of the few instances where such online speech has led to criminal prosecution.

His arrest – on a charge of threatening mass violence at a school – alarmed free speech advocates, who said the Perry county sheriff, Nick Weems, had targeted Bushart because of his political views. Bushart was released on Wednesday after prosecutors sought to dismiss the charge.

Bushart, a 61-year-old former law enforcement officer, had posted numerous memes on Facebook making light of Kirk’s killing.

More...