US airlines have begun cancelling flights because of a federal government shutdown. They are required to cut traffic 10 percent by November 14 due to inadequate air traffic controller staffing. Many controllers are working without pay during the shutdown.
Published On 7 Nov 20257 Nov 2025
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Nov. 7 (UPI) — A new survey by the University of Michigan suggested that Americans may be frightened over the economy as the ongoing U.S. government shutdown reverberates with no end in sight.
The survey released Friday showed consumer sentiment at its lowest in three years and near its worst at UM’s second-lowest reading since at least 1978 as the shutdown sent confidence to near-record lows as economic concerns deepen.
“With the federal government shutdown dragging on for over a month, consumers are now expressing worries about potential negative consequences for the economy,” according to survey Director Joanne Hsu.
The University of Michigan’s monthly Index of Consumer Sentiment posted a more than 6% decline to a little over 50% for the month. It was a 30% decline from about a year ago.
“This month’s decline in sentiment was widespread throughout the population, seen across age, income and political affiliation,” Hsu added.
UM’s well-documented survey showed a gradual decline in consumer confidence over the year starting in February in the wake of tax-like tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Across the economy, segments of the population are increasingly dealing with tighter financial conditions,” Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, told CNBC.
Renter said that is “certainly true for federal workers and people dependent on food assistance from the federal government. But it’s also likely increasingly true for middle income Americans.”
US airlines are experiencing severe delays and cancellations after the Trump administration ordered flight reductions at major airports across the country.
The order was made due to a shortage of air traffic controllers during the longest government shutdown in history.
As a result, there are expected to be thousands of flight delays and cancellations at short notice.
Airlines have estimated that around 3.2million travellers will be impacted due to the government shutdown.
On Wednesday, the US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ordered 10 per cent of flights to be cut, starting today, at 40 major US airports including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
Yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revised this plan and said that airlines must cut four per cent of domestic flights starting at 6am today through to Monday.
Read more on travel inspo
This will then rise to a 10 per cent cut by November 14.
It comes after the US government shut down on October 1 after the Republicans and Democrats could not agree to pass a bill on funding government services.
Air traffic controllers are employed by the FAA, which is part of the US government and as a result is one of the services impacted, with controllers expected to work without pay.
For American Airlines, this means 220 flights cancelled each day from today through to Monday.
Delta Air Lines announced that it would be cancelling 170 US flights due to fly today.
United Airlines then confirmed that it would have less than 200 daily flight cancellations.
During the government shutdown, 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 security screeners have been forced to work without pay.
Before the shutdown, the FAA was already approximately 3,500 air traffic controllers short.
The delays and cancellations aren’t impacting international flights, meaning for Brits travelling from the UK to America or vice-versa, they will not be impacted.
However there will be issues for Brits catching flights within America, including connecting flights.
For example, you could be on holiday in New York and decide to go to Boston – well, in this case your flight might be delayed or cancelled.
In addition, due to internal flights being delayed or cancelled, there may be reduced or congested service when flights land in America.
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has warned: “There could be travel disruptions, including flight delays and longer queue times at some airports, due to the current US federal government shutdown.
“Check for messaging from your travel provider or airline and follow their guidance.
“There may also be restrictions on access to some federally-managed tourist attractions.
“Please check the relevant websites in advance.”
The Sun’s Head of Travel, Lisa Minot said: “Scenes of travel chaos as the US government shutdown enters its 38th day are always going to be a concern to travellers.
“While most flights to the United States with our traditional carriers are running ok at the moment, British passengers who have connecting flights in the States are right to worry they could be impacted.
“If the longest shutdown in US history continues, Brits should brace themselves for delays and longer queue times at airports across the country.
“But your passenger rights are very different depending on where you are flying to or from – and on which airline.
“If a flight from the UK to the US is delayed or cancelled, passengers should be flown to their destination as quickly as possible.
“If the delays are significant, your airline has a duty of care and should be providing you with food and drink and if necessary, overnight accommodation.
“If you are flying back to the UK on a British or European airline, the same rights apply.
“But, take a note of exactly WHO you are flying with.
“Some tickets bought from the likes of British Airways may be code-sharing flights with their partner American Airlines, the same applies for those who have bought Virgin Atlantic flights if the plane they are travelling on is owned by Delta, their code-share partner.
“If you are flying on an American or Delta plane and there are significant delays or cancellations, the same passenger rights do NOT apply.
“The best advice is to check exactly who you are flying with and make sure you check with your airline regularly in the run up to your flight.”
FULL list of airports ordered to reduce flights by 10 per cent…
In other air travel news, a UK airline goes into administration after 28 years – after axing ALL flights.
Plus, airlines are now banning Bluetooth earbuds from going in checked luggage.
In July, the humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) revealed that Nigeria’s northwestern region is facing an alarming malnutrition crisis, with Katsina State at the epicentre, and is currently witnessing a surge in admissions of malnourished children. It was not the first time the organisation had raised the alarm. It had also done so several times in the past year.
Against this backdrop, government leaders, international organisations, and civil society convened in Abuja, the federal capital city, on Thursday to mobilise against the escalating crisis in the region.
Hosted by the Katsina State Government, the Northwest Governors Forum, and MSF, the event drew participation from the Office of the Vice President, UNICEF, WFP, the World Bank, the INGO Forum, ALIMA, IRC, CS-SUN, and the European Union.
MSF’s country representative, Ahmed Aldikhari, noted that 2025 has been flagged as the worst, recording the highest cases of malnutrition in the last five years.
“We are here to highlight the situation and solidify commitments, collaborations, and engagement from all partners and government officials.”
He echoed a silent sentiment: “We acknowledge that resources are invested in conferences like this, but the real solutions lie within the communities. So, we must go beyond the hall and get practical in finding real solutions.”
HumAngle had reported the broader impact of this crisis, noting that displacements, armed conflicts, limited access to healthcare, and climate change have compounded the nutritional emergency. In one of our reports, we documented how 30 per cent of children under five in Katsina’s Jibia and Mashi local government areas are suffering from acute malnutrition.
Most recently, HumAngle produced a 21-minute-long conversation via The Crisis Room, a monthly podcast series that focuses on crisis signalling and explores existing responses and solutions to crises in Nigeria. The conversation with the state’s MSF coordinator focused on the state’s malnutrition crisis—where aid workers fight to save lives on the edge.
Despite these reports, malnutrition in Katsina and northwestern Nigeria remains dire with limited systemic change.
While reacting to MSF’s latest report on the scale of the issue in Katsina state, the governor said he saw it as an opportunity to find feasible solutions to the crisis in the state.
“Instead of criticising the latest MSF report on malnutrition, my administration saw it as a call to action for confronting the crisis head-on. To address this challenge, we set up a high-level committee to investigate the root causes of malnutrition across the state,” he said.
“We are promoting local production of therapeutic foods such as Tom Brown to reduce dependency on imports, distributing thousands of food baskets to at-risk families, and training hundreds of women to produce nutritious meals at the community level.”
However, the commercialization of Tom Brown and other therapeutic food is a present threat that has been documented all over the country, and was highlighted in his speech. This suggests that beyond making the foods available, the distribution process needs to be strengthened.
The federal government’s concerted efforts are also needed for an enduring impact, an area many, especially displaced people, have found insufficient. Uju Vanstasia Anwukah, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Health, who was present at the event as the Vice President’s representative, said the government was committed to fixing the issue.
“This partnership with MSF and the convening of this high-level conference reaffirm the government’s understanding that real progress begins with the health and nourishment of every child,” she said.
Adding to the discussion, Nemat Hajeebhoy, Chief of Child Nutrition at UNICEF, outlined an affordable financing strategy.
“The global architecture of financing is changing, but there is still very much the recognition that there is a need to invest and support countries. UNICEF is here to partner with the government. They are our clients, so to speak, but children are our bosses.”
She introduced UNICEF’s Child buy-one-get-one-free-to-one match initiative: “It’s a buy one get one free. For every Naira the government invests—federal, state, or LGA—we will match it to help procure high-impact nutrition commodities.”
“But we need more. It’s not sufficient. This is the pavement for the future. It’s no longer just about aid—it’s about partnership.”
While commending the Katsina State government, Nemat emphasised the need for a 360 advocacy, involving bilateral engagement with governors, technical communities, media, and champions like actors.
“We also need communities to speak out and demand. There is hope. The Nutrition 774 Initiative, launched by the vice president in February, puts accountability and action at the LGA level. Nigeria is a big country, and unless we go ward by ward, we may not see change.”
Though the conference seems to have set the stage for concrete, coordinated action to protect the health and future of millions of vulnerable communities, citizens are eager to see improvement in the coming months and years.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has highlighted a severe malnutrition crisis in Nigeria’s northwest region, particularly in Katsina State, leading to a surge in malnourished children. In response, a high-level conference in Abuja brought together government officials, international organizations, and civil society to address the crisis, with MSF urging for practical solutions at community levels.
The crisis is exacerbated by displacements, conflicts, and climate change, with UNICEF and the Nigerian government collaborating on economic strategies for nutrition improvement.
Despite significant efforts, the crisis remains critical, necessitating sustained actions and local community involvement for lasting improvement.
Volunteers stack donated food for the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry in Los Angeles on October 24, ahead of the suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for 42 million recipients across the country. Photo by Allison Dinner/EPA
Nov. 6 (UPI) — The Trump administration has one day to fully distribute Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for November, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.
U.S. District Court of Rhode Island Judge Jack McConnell ordered the program funding after earlier requiring the Trump administration to access available money to at least partially fund SNAP benefits amid the federal government shutdown.
McConnell required the Trump administration to apprise the court on Wednesday of efforts to fund the program formerly known as “food stamps.”
“People have gone without for too long,” McConnell said during an emergency hearing on Thursday, as reported by CNN.
“Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable,” he added.
He said the Trump administration has not done enough to access an estimated $4.65 billion in contingency funds to partially fund the SNAP benefits that cost about $9 billion per month to help 42 million recipients put food on their tables.
If SNAP is not funded fully, “people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened, and needless suffering will occur,” McConnell said on Thursday, according to CNBC.
“That’s what irreparable harm here means,” he continued. “Last weekend, SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time in our nation’s history.”
He called it a “problem that could have and should have been avoided.”
McConnell ordered the Trump administration to provide the full amount of November SNAP benefits to respective states by Friday, which would enable them to distribute benefits to their residents within a few days.
The federal judge also referenced a Truth Social post made by President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
In that post, the president said SNAP benefits only would be funded “when the radical-left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before.”
The social media post served as evidence that the Trump administration would ignore McConnell’s prior order requiring it to access as much funding as possible to distribute SNAP benefits.
He criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision not to access contingency funds to continue SNAP benefits instead of allowing them to be suspended as of Saturday.
“Even when Nov. 1 came, [the] USDA refused to use the congressionally mandated contingency funds,” McConnell said.
“USDA cannot now cry that it cannot get timely payments to the beneficiary for weeks or months because states are not prepared to make partial payments.”
McConnell is presiding over one of two federal cases filed by up to 25 states seeking to continue federal funding of SNAP benefits despite the record 37-day federal government shutdown that started on Oct. 1.
New York is party to both suits, and state Attorney General Letitia James welcomed McConnell’s ruling on Thursday.
“A judge in Rhode Island just stopped the federal government from starving millions of Americans,” James said in a prepared statement.
“I am relieved that people will get the food they need,” she added, “but it is outrageous that it took a lawsuit to make the federal government feed its own people.”
The federal government shutdown is now the longest in US history.
America’s longest government shutdown is becoming more painful by the day.
At least 40 million Americans are struggling to get food, more than a million federal workers haven’t been paid, health insurance premiums are rising, and flights are getting disrupted.
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Congress has been locked in a standoff over a bill to fund government services, with Democrats demanding tax credits that will make health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans and an end to federal agency cuts.
Democrats won decisive victories in state and local elections this week. President Donald Trump is blaming the shutdown for this setback to the Republican Party.
So, will he now be willing to negotiate? Can the two sides agree to a comprise?
Presenter: Bernard Smith
Guests:
Mark Pfeifle – Republican strategist
Jeremy Mayer – Professor of political science at George Mason University
David Bolger – Democratic strategist
Published On 6 Nov 20256 Nov 2025
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has cleared the way for President Trump to remove transgender markers from new passports and to require applicants to designate they were male or female at birth.
By a 6-3 vote, the justices granted another emergency appeal from Trump’s lawyers and put on hold a Boston judge’s order that prevented the president’s new passport policy from taking effect.
“Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth,” the court said in an unsigned order. “In both cases, the Government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson filed a dissent, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
She said there was no emergency, and the change in the passport policy would pose a danger for transgender travelers.
“The current record demonstrates that transgender people who use gender-incongruent passports are exposed to increased violence, harassment, and discrimination,” she wrote. “Airport checkpoints are stressful and invasive for travelers under typical circumstances—even without the added friction of being forced to present government-issued identification documents that do not reflect one’s identity.
“Thus, by preventing transgender Americans from obtaining gender-congruent passports, the Government is doing more than just making a statement about its belief that transgender identity is ‘false.’ The Passport Policy also invites the probing, and at times humiliating, additional scrutiny these plaintiffs have experienced.”
Upon taking office in January, Trump ordered the military to remove transgender troops from its ranks and told agencies to remove references to “gender identity” or transgender persons from government documents, including passports.
The Supreme Court has put both policies into effect by setting aside orders from judges who temporarily blocked the changes as discriminatory and unconstitutional.
U.S. passports did not have sex markers until the 1970s. For most of time since then, passport holders have had two choices: “M” for male and “F” for female. Beginning in 1992, the State Department allowed applicants to designate a sex marker that differed from their sex at birth.
In 2021, the Biden administration added an “X” marker as an option for transgender and non-binary persons.
Trump sought a return to the earlier era. He issued an executive order on “gender ideology extremism” and said his administration would “recognize two sexes, male and female.” He required “government-issued identification documents, including passports” to “accurately reflect the holder’s sex” assigned at birth.
The ACLU sued on behalf of transgender individuals who would be affected by the new policy. They won a ruling in June from U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick who blocked the new policy from taking effect.
The transgender plaintiffs “seek the same thing millions of Americans take for granted: passports that allow them to travel without fear of misidentification, harassment, or violence,” the ACLU attorneys said in an appeal to Supreme Court last month.
They said the administration’s new policy would undercut the usefulness of passports for identification.
“By classifying people based on sex assigned at birth and exclusively issuing sex markers on passports based on that sex classification, the State Department deprives plaintiffs of a usable identification document and the ability to travel safely…{It} undermines the very purpose of passports as identity documents that officials check against the bearer’s appearance,” they wrote.
But Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer argued the plaintiffs had no authority over official documents. He said the justices should set aside the judge’s order and allow the new policy to take effect.
“Private citizens cannot force the government to use inaccurate sex designations on identification documents that fail to reflect the person’s biological sex — especially not on identification documents that are government property and an exercise of the President’s constitutional and statutory power to communicate with foreign governments,” he wrote.
WASHINGTON — Elections this week that energized Democrats and angered President Trump have cast a chill over efforts to end the record-breaking government shutdown, raising fresh doubts about the possibility of a breakthrough despite the punishing toll of federal closures on the country.
Trump has increased pressure on Senate Republicans to end the shutdown — now at 37 days, the longest in U.S. history — calling it a “big factor, negative” in the poor GOP showings across the country. Democrats saw Trump’s comments as a reason to hold firm, believing his involvement in talks could lead to a deal on extending health care subsidies, a key sticking point to win their support.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune opened what’s seen as a pivotal day in efforts to end the government shutdown by saying the next step hinges on a response from Democrats to an offer on the table.
“It’s in their court. It’s up to them,” Thune told reporters Thursday.
But Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer held firm in opening remarks Thursday, saying voters “fired a political torpedo at Trump and Republicans” in Tuesday’s election.
“Donald Trump clearly is feeling pressure to bring this shutdown to an end. Well, I have good news for the president: Meet with Democrats, reopen the government,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
Trump is refusing to meet with Democrats, insisting they must open the government first. But complicating the GOP’s strategy, Trump is increasingly fixated instead on pushing Republicans to scrap the Senate filibuster to speed reopening — a step many GOP senators reject out of hand. He kept up the pressure in a video Wednesday, saying the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to pass legislation should be “terminated.”
“This is much bigger than the shutdown,” Trump said. “This is the survival of our country.”
Senate Democrats face pressures of their own, both from unions eager for the shutdown to end and from allied groups that want them to hold firm. Many see the Democrats’ decisive gubernatorial wins in Virginia and New Jersey as validation of their strategy to hold the government closed until expiring health care subsidies are addressed.
“It would be very strange for the American people to have weighed in, in support of Democrats standing up and fighting for them, and within days for us to surrender without having achieved any of the things that we’ve been fighting for,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
Meanwhile, talks grind on, but the shutdown’s toll deepens. On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced plans to reduce air traffic by 10% across 40 high-volume markets beginning Friday to maintain safety amid staffing shortages. Millions of people have already been affected by halted government programs and missed federal paychecks — with more expected as another round of paydays approaches next week.
Grassroots Democratic groups nationwide touted Tuesday’s election results as voter approval of the shutdown strategy — and warned lawmakers against cutting a deal too soon.
“Moderate Senate Democrats who are looking for an off-ramp right now are completely missing the moment,” said Katie Bethell, political director of MoveOn, a progressive group. “Voters have sent a resounding message: We want leaders who fight for us, and we want solutions that make life more affordable.”
Some Senate Democrats echoed that sentiment. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats and a leading voice in the progressive movement, said Democrats “have got to remain strong” and should secure assurances on extending health care subsidies — including “a commitment from the speaker of the House that he will support the legislation and that the president will sign.”
Still, how firmly the party remains dug in remains to be seen. Some Democrats have been working with Republicans to find a way out of the standoff, and they held firm after the election that it had not impacted their approach.
“I don’t feel that the elections changed where I was,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. “I still feel I want to get out of the shutdown.”
Some Republicans also shared in Trump’s concerns that the shutdown is becoming a drag on the party.
“Polls show that most voters blame Republicans more than Democrats,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican. “That’s understandable given who controls the levers of power.”
While some Democrats saw Trump’s comments on the shutdown Wednesday as evidence he’d soon get more involved, he’s largely stayed out of the fray. Instead, the talks have intensified among a loose coalition of centrist senators trying to negotiate an end to the shutdown.
Trump has refused to negotiate with Democrats over their demands to salvage expiring health insurance subsidies until they agree to reopen the government. But skeptical Democrats question whether the Republican president will keep his word, particularly after his administration restricted SNAP food aid despite court orders to ensure funds are available to prevent hunger.
Trump’s approach to the shutdown stands in marked contrast to his first term, when the government was partially closed for 35 days over his demands for money to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall. At that time, he met publicly and negotiated with congressional leaders. Unable to secure the money, he relented in 2019.
This time, it’s not just Trump declining to engage in talks. The congressional leaders are at a standoff, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sent lawmakers home in September after they approved their own funding bill, refusing further negotiations.
Johnson dismissed the party’s election losses and said he’s looking forward to a midterm election in 2026 that’ll more reflect Trump’s tenure.
In the meantime, food aid, child care money and countless other government services are being seriously interrupted. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed or are expected to work without pay.
Central to any resolution will be a series of agreements that would need to be upheld not only by the Senate but also by the House and the White House, which is not at all certain in Washington.
Asked if the House would guarantee a vote on extending health care subsidies if the Senate struck a deal, Johnson said Thursday, “I’m not promising anybody anything.”
Senators from both major parties, particularly the members of the powerful Appropriations Committee, are pushing to ensure the normal government funding process in Congress can be put back on track. Among the goals is guaranteeing upcoming votes on a smaller package of bills to fund various aspects of government such as agricultural programs and military construction projects at bases.
More difficult, a substantial number of senators also want some resolution to the standoff over the funding for the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at year’s end.
With insurance premium notices being sent, millions of people are experiencing sticker shock on skyrocketing prices. The loss of enhanced federal subsidies, which were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic and come in the form of tax credits, are expected to leave many people unable to buy health insurance.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has promised Democrats at least a vote on their preferred health care proposal, on a date certain, as part of any deal to reopen government. But that’s not enough for some senators, who see the health care deadlock as part of their broader concerns with Trump’s direction for the country.
Cappelletti, Mascaro and Jalonick write for the Associated Press.
Video shows Israeli drones launching intense airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday. At least one person was killed in the town of Toura. Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah sites despite a ceasefire agreed to with the group last year.
Published On 6 Nov 20256 Nov 2025
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Nov. 6 (UPI) — A reduction in flights will affect 40 airports amid the federal government shutdown, which has put a strain on air traffic control staffing, unnamed sources said Thursday.
The Federal Aviation Administration hasn’t listed the airports, but sources released the tentative list to ABC News, CBS News and The Washington Post.
Most of the airports affected are in major cities, such as New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles. But other, less-busy airports are also on the list, such as Tampa Bay, Fla.; Anchorage, Alaska; and San Diego.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the 10% flight reduction on Wednesday, and said the cuts will begin on Friday.
“Our sole role is to make sure that we keep this airspace as safe as possible. Reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations. This is not based on light airline travel locations. This is about where the pressure is and how to really deviate the pressure,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford Bedford said Wednesday.
”If you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos,” Duffy said on Tuesday.
A source told ABC News that the flight reductions will start at 4% Friday and work up to 10%. The flight reductions will be from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and tentatively affect the following airports:
The reduction could affect cargo and commercial travelers. It could also cause issues as people prepare to travel for Thanksgiving.
Deadly protests followed the 92-year-old president’s re-election, which opponents have called ‘fraudulent’.
Published On 6 Nov 20256 Nov 2025
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Cameroon’s longtime leader, Paul Biya, has been sworn in for a new seven-year term following his victory in last month’s presidential election, which his opposition rival has described as “a constitutional coup”.
Addressing Parliament on Thursday, the world’s oldest president promised to stay faithful to the confidence of the Cameroonian people and pledged to work for a “united, stable and prosperous” country.
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There were deadly protests in several parts of Cameroon days after the October 19 vote, followed by a three-day lockdown this week after former minister and key contender Issa Tchiroma claimed victory and alleged vote tampering.
The government has confirmed that at least five people were killed during the protests, although the opposition and civil society groups claim the figures are much higher.
The incumbent, Africa’s second-longest serving leader, took the oath of office during a session of Parliament in what residents describe as the heavily militarised and partially deserted capital, Yaounde.
Priscilla Ayimboh, a 40-year-old seamstress in Yaounde, does not see a new term for Biya as likely to change anything.
“I’m tired of Biya’s rule and I no longer care whatever he does. It’s a pity. I wonder what will become of Cameroon in the next seven years: there are no roads, water, and jobs,” she said.
Munjah Vitalis Fagha, a senior politics lecturer at Cameroon’s University of Buea, told The Associated Press news agency that Biya’s inauguration was “taking place in a tense yet controlled political atmosphere, marked by deep divisions between the ruling elite and a growingly disillusioned populace”.
Fagha added: “The ceremony occurs amid calls for political renewal, ongoing security challenges in the Anglophone regions, and widespread concerns over governance and succession.”
Cameroon’s top court on October 27 declared Biya the winner of the election, with 53.66 percent of the vote, ahead of his ally-turned-challenger, Tchiroma, who secured 35.19 percent.
Tchiroma insists Biya was awarded a “fraudulent” victory in the election.
“The will of the Cameroonian people was trampled that day, our sovereignty stolen in broad daylight,” Tchiroma wrote on Wednesday night. “This is not democracy, it is electoral theft, a constitutional coup as blatant as it is shameful.”
Biya came to power in 1982 following the resignation of Cameroon’s first president and has ruled since, following a 2008 constitutional amendment that abolished term limits. His health has been a topic of speculation as he spends most of his time in Europe, leaving governance to key party officials and family members.
He has led Cameroon longer than most of its citizens have been alive – more than 70 percent of the country’s almost 30 million population is below the age of 35. If he serves his entire term, Biya will leave office nearly 100 years old.
The results of his nearly half-century in power have been mixed; armed rebellions in the north and the west of the country, along with a stagnant economy, have left many young people disillusioned with the leader.
A months-long siege on the Malian capital, Bamako, by the armed al-Qaeda affiliate group, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), has brought the city to breaking point, causing desperation among residents and, according to analysts, placing increasing pressure on the military government to negotiate with the group – something it has refused to do before now.
JNIM’s members have created an effective economic and fuel blockade by sealing off major highways used by tankers to transport fuel from neighbouring Senegal and the Ivory Coast to the landlocked Sahel country since September.
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While JNIM has long laid siege to towns in other parts of the country, this is the first time it has used the tactic on the capital city.
The scale of the blockade, and the immense effect it has had on the city, is a sign of JNIM’s growing hold over Mali and a step towards the group’s stated aim of government change in Mali, Beverly Ochieng, Sahel analyst with intelligence firm Control Risks, told Al Jazeera.
For weeks, most of Bamako’s residents have been unable to buy any fuel for cars or motorcycles as supplies have dried up, bringing the normally bustling capital to a standstill. Many have had to wait in long fuel queues. Last week, the United States and the United Kingdom both advised their citizens to leave Mali and evacuated non-essential diplomatic staff.
Other Western nations have also advised their citizens to leave the country. Schools across Mali have closed and will remain shut until November 9 as staff struggle to commute. Power cuts have intensified.
Here’s what we know about the armed group responsible and why it appears to have Mali in a chokehold:
JNIM is the Sahel affiliate of al-Qaeda and the most active armed group in the region, according to conflict monitor ACLED. The group was formed in 2017 as a merger between groups that were formerly active against French and Malian forces that were first deployed during an armed rebellion in northern Mali in 2012. They include Algeria-based al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) and three Malian armed groups – Ansar Dine, Al-Murabitun and Katiba Macina.
JNIM’s main aim is to capture and control territory and to expel Western influences in its region of control. Some analysts suggest that JNIM may be seeking to control major capitals and, ultimately, to govern the country as a whole.
It is unclear how many fighters the group has. The Washington Post has reported estimates of about 6,000, citing regional and western officials.
However, Ulf Laessing, Sahel analyst at the German think tank, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), said JNIM most likely does not yet have the military capacity to capture large, urban territories that are well protected by soldiers. He also said the group would struggle to appeal to urban populations who may not hold the same grievances against the government as some rural communities.
While JNIM’s primary base is Mali, KAS revealed in a report that the group has Algerian roots via its members of the Algeria-based al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM).
The group is led by Iyad Ag-Ghali, a Malian and ethnic Tuareg from Mali’s northern Kidal region who founded Ansar Dine in 2012. That group’s stated aim was to impose its interpretation of Islamic law across Mali.
Ghali had previously led Tuareg uprisings against the Malian government, which is traditionally dominated by the majority Bambara ethnic group, in the early 1990s, demanding the creation of a sovereign country called Azawad.
However, he reformed his image by acting as a negotiator between the government and the rebels. In 2008, he was posted as a Malian diplomat to Saudi Arabia under the government of Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure. When another rebellion began in 2012, however, Ghali sought a leadership role with the rebels but was rebuffed, leading him to create Ansar Dine.
According to the US Department of National Intelligence (DNI), Ghali has stated that JNIM’s strategy is to expand its presence across West Africa and to put down government forces and rival armed groups, such as the Mali-based Islamic State Sahel, through guerrilla-style attacks and the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Simultaneously, it attempts to engage with local communities by providing them with material resources. Strict dress codes and bans on music are common in JNIM-controlled areas.
JNIM also destroys infrastructure, such as schools, communication towers and bridges, to weaken the government off the battlefield.
An overall death toll is unclear, but the group has killed thousands of people since 2017. Human rights groups accuse it of attacking civilians, especially people perceived to be assisting government forces. JNIM activity in Mali caused 207 deaths between January and April this year, according to ACLED data.
JNIM began blocking oil tankers carrying fuel to Bamako in September.
That came after the military government in Bamako banned small-scale fuel sales in all rural areas – except at official service stations – from July 1. Usually, in these areas, traders can buy fuel in jerry cans, which they often resell later.
The move to ban this was aimed at crippling JNIM’s operations in its areas of control by limiting its supply lines and, thus, its ability to move around.
At the few places where fuel is still available in Bamako, prices soared last week by more than 400 percent, from $25 to $130 per litre ($6.25-$32.50 per gallon). Prices of transportation, food and other commodities have risen due to the crisis, and power cuts have been frequent.
Some car owners have simply abandoned their vehicles in front of petrol stations, with the military government threatening on Wednesday to impound them to ease traffic and reduce security risks.
A convoy of 300 fuel tankers reached Bamako on October 7, and another one with “dozens” of vehicles arrived on October 30, according to a government statement. Other attempts to truck in more fuel have met obstacles, however, as JNIM members ambush military-escorted convoys on highways and shoot at or kidnap soldiers and civilians.
Even as supplies in Bamako dry up, there are reports of JNIM setting fire to about 200 fuel tankers in southern and western Mali. Videos circulating on Malian social media channels show rows of oil tankers burning on a highway.
Laessing of KAS said the group is probably hoping to leverage discontent with the government in the already troubled West African nation to put pressure on the military government to negotiate a power-sharing deal of sorts.
“They want to basically make people as angry as possible,” he said. “They could [be trying] to provoke protests which could bring down the current government and bring in a new one that’s more favourable towards them.”
Ochieng of Control Risks noted that, in its recent statements, JNIM has explicitly called for government change. While the previous civilian government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (2013-2020) had negotiated with JNIM, the present government of Colonel Assimi Goita will likely keep up its military response, Ochieng said.
Frustration at the situation is growing in Bamako, with residents calling for the government to act.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, driver Omar Sidibe said the military leaders ought to find out the reasons for the shortage and act on them. “It’s up to the government to play a full role and take action [and] uncover the real reason for this shortage.”
In Mali, the group operates in rural areas of northern, central and western Mali, where there is a reduced government presence and high discontent with the authorities among local communities.
In the areas it controls, JNIM presents itself as an alternative to the government, which it calls “puppets of the West”, in order to recruit fighters from several ethnic minorities which have long held grievances over their perceived marginalisation by the government, including the Tuareg, Arab, Fulani, and Songhai groups. Researchers note the group also has some members from the majority Bambara group.
In central Mali, the group seized Lere town last November and captured the town of Farabougou in August this year. Both are small towns, but Farabougou is close to Wagadou Forest, a known hiding place of JNIM.
JNIM’s hold on major towns is weaker because of the stronger government presence in larger areas. It therefore more commonly blockades major towns or cities by destroying roads and bridges leading to them. Currently, the western cities of Nioro and gold-rich Kayes are cut off. The group is also besieging the major cities of Timbuktu and Gao, as well as Menaka and Boni towns, located in the north and northeast.
For revenue, the group oversees artisanal gold mines, forcefully taxes community members, smuggles weapons and kidnaps foreigners for ransom, according to the US DNI. Kayes region, whose capital, Kayes, is under siege, is a major gold hub, accounting for 80 percent of Mali’s gold production, according to conflict monitoring group Critical Threats.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (Gi-Toc) also reports cattle rustling schemes, estimating that JNIM made 91,400 euros ($104,000) in livestock sales of cattle between 2017 and 2019. Cattle looted in Mali are sold cheaply in communities on the border with Ghana and the Ivory Coast, through a complex chain of intermediaries.
JNIM expanded into Burkina Faso in 2017 by linking up with Burkina-Faso-based armed group Ansarul-Islam, which pledged allegiance to the Malian group. Ansarul-Islam was formed in 2016 by Ibrahim Dicko, who had close ties with Amadou Koufa, JNIM’s deputy head since 2017.
In Burkina Faso, JNIM uses similar tactics of recruiting from marginalised ethnic groups. The country has rapidly become a JNIM hotspot, with the group operating – or holding territory – in 11 of 13 Burkina Faso regions outside of capital Ouagadougou. There were 512 reported casualties as a result of JNIM violence in the country between January and April this year. It is not known how many have died as a result of violence by the armed group in total.
Since 2022, JNIM has laid siege to the major northern Burkinabe city of Djibo, with authorities forced to airlift in supplies. In a notable attack in May 2025, JNIM fighters overran a military base in the town, killing approximately 200 soldiers. It killed a further 60 in Solle, about 48km (30 miles) west of Djibo.
In October 2025, the group temporarily took control of Sabce town, also located in the north of Burkina Faso, killing 11 police officers in the process, according to the International Crisis Group.
In a September report, Human Rights Watch said JNIM and a second armed group – Islamic State Sahel, which is linked to ISIL (ISIS) – massacred civilians in Burkina Faso between May and September, including a civilian convoy trying to transport humanitarian aid into the besieged northern town of Gorom Gorom.
Meanwhile, JNIM is also moving southwards, towards other West African nations with access to the sea. It launched an offensive on Kafolo town, in northern Ivory Coast, in 2020.
JNIM members embedded in national parks on the border regions with Burkina Faso have been launching sporadic attacks in northern Togo and the Benin Republic since 2022.
In October this year, it recorded its first attack on the Benin-Nigeria border, where one Nigerian policeman was killed. The area is not well-policed because the two countries have no established military cooperation, analyst Ochieng said.
“This area is also quite a commercially viable region; there are mining and other developments taking place there … it is likely to be one that [JNIM] will try to establish a foothold,” she added.
When Mali leader General Assimi Goita led soldiers to seize power in a 2020 coup, military leaders promised to defeat the armed group, as well as a host of others that had been on the rise in the country. Military leaders subsequently seizing power from civilian governments in Burkina Faso (2022) and in Niger (2023) have made the same promises.
However, Mali and its neighbours have struggled to hold JNIM at bay, with ACLED data noting the number of JNIM attacks increasing notably since 2020.
In 2022, Mali’s military government ended cooperation with 4,000-strong French forces deployed in 2013 to battle armed groups which had emerged at the time, as well as separatist Tuaregs in the north. The last group of French forces exited the country in August 2022.
Mali also terminated contracts with a 10,000-man UN peacekeeping force stationed in the country in 2023.
Bamako is now working with Russian fighters – initially 1,500 from the Wagner Mercenary Group, but since June, from the Kremlin-controlled Africa Corps – estimated to be about 1,000 in number.
Russian officials are, to a lesser extent, also present in Burkina Faso and Niger, which have formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) with Mali.
Results in Mali have been mixed. Wagner supported the Malian military in seizing swaths of land in the northern Kidal region from Tuareg rebels.
But the Russians also suffered ambushes. In July 2024, a contingent of Wagner and Malian troops was ambushed by rebels in Tinzaouaten, close to the Algerian border. Between 20 and 80 Russians and 25 to 40 Malians were killed, according to varying reports. Researchers noted it was Wagner’s worst defeat since it had deployed to West Africa.
In all, Wagner did not record much success in targeting armed groups like JNIM, analyst Laessing told Al Jazeera.
Alongside Malian forces, the Russians have also been accused by rights groups of committing gross human rights violations against rural communities in northern Mali perceived to be supportive of armed groups.
Laessing said the fuel crisis is pressuring Mali to divert military resources and personnel to protect fuel tankers, keeping them from consolidating territory won back from armed groups and further endangering the country.
He added that the crisis will be a test for Russian Africa Corp fighters, who have not proven as ready as Wagner fighters to take battle risks. A video circulating on Russian social media purports to show Africa Corps members providing air support to fuel tanker convoys. It has not been verified by Al Jazeera.
“If they can come in and allow the fuel to flow into Bamako, then the Russians will be seen as heroes,” Laessing said – at least by locals.
Laessing added that the governments of Mali and Burkina Faso, in the medium to long term, might eventually have to negotiate with JNIM to find a way to end the crisis.
While Goita’s government has not attempted to hold talks with the group in the past, in early October, it greenlit talks led by local leaders, according to conflict monitoring group Critical Threats – although it is unclear exactly how the government gave its approval.
Agreements between the group and local leaders have reportedly already been signed in several towns across Segou, Mopti and Timbuktu regions, in which the group agrees to end its siege in return for the communities agreeing to JNIM rules, taxes, and noncooperation with the military.
WASHINGTON — The government shutdown has entered its 36th day, breaking the record as the longest ever and disrupting the lives of millions of Americans with program cuts, flight delays and federal workers nationwide left without paychecks.
President Trump has refused to negotiate with Democrats over their demands to salvage expiring health insurance subsidies until they agree to reopen the government. But skeptical Democrats question whether the Republican president will keep his word, particularly after the administration restricted SNAP food aid despite court orders to ensure funds are available to prevent hunger.
Trump, whose first term at the White House set the previous government shutdown record, said this one was a “big factor, negative” in the GOP’s election losses Tuesday and he repeated his demands for Republicans to end the Senate filibuster as a way to reopen the government — something senators have refused to do.
“We must get the government back open soon,” Trump said during a breakfast meeting Wednesday with GOP senators at the White House.
Trump pushed for ending the Senate rule, which requires a 60-vote threshold for advancing most legislation, as a way to steamroll the Democratic minority on the shutdown and pass a long list of other GOP priorities. Republicans now hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and Democrats have been able to block legislation that would fund the government, having voted more than a dozen times against.
“It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster,” Trump told the senators.
That push is likely to go unmet by Republican senators but could spur them to deal with the Democrats.
Trump has remained largely on the sidelines throughout the shutdown, keeping a robust schedule of global travel and events, including at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Instead, talks have intensified among a loose coalition of centrist senators trying to negotiate an end to the stalemate.
Expectations are high that the logjam would break once election results were fully tallied in the off-year races widely watched as a gauge of voter sentiment over Trump’s second term. Democrats swept key contests, emboldening progressive senators who want to keep fighting for healthcare funds. Moderate Democrats have been more ready to compromise.
The top Democrats in Congress demanded that Trump meet with Capitol Hill leaders to negotiate an end to the shutdown and address healthcare.
“The election results ought to send a much-needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Trump’s approach to the shutdown stands in marked contrast to his first term, when the government was partially closed for 35 days over his demands for money to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall. At that time, he met publicly and negotiated with congressional leaders. Unable to secure the money, he relented in 2019.
This time, it’s not just Trump declining to engage in talks. The congressional leaders are at a standoff and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent lawmakers home in September after they approved their own funding bill, refusing further negotiations.
A “sad landmark,” Johnson said at a news conference Wednesday. He dismissed the party’s election losses and said he is looking forward to a midterm election in 2026 that will more reflect Trump’s tenure.
In the meantime, food aid, child-care money and countless other government services are being seriously interrupted. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed or expected to come to work without pay.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted there could be chaos in the sky next week if air traffic controllers miss another paycheck. Labor unions put pressure on lawmakers to reopen the government.
“Can this be over now?” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said as he returned from the White House breakfast. “Have the American people suffered enough?”
Thune also said there is not support in the Senate to change the filibuster. “It’s not happening,” he said.
Central to any resolution will be a series of agreements that would need to be upheld not only by the Senate, but also the House, and the White House, which is not at all certain in Washington.
Senators from both parties, particularly the members of the powerful Appropriations Committee, are pushing to ensure the normal government funding process in Congress can be put back on track.
Among the goals is guaranteeing upcoming votes on a smaller package of bills where there is already widespread bipartisan agreement to fund various aspects of government such as agricultural programs and military construction projects at bases.
“I certainly think that three-bill package is primed to do a lot of good things for the American people,” said Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who has been in talks.
More difficult, a substantial number of senators also want some resolution to the standoff over the funding for the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at year’s end.
With insurance premium notices being sent, millions of people are experiencing sticker shock on skyrocketing prices. The loss of enhanced federal subsidies, which were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic and come in the form of tax credits, are expected to leave many people unable to buy health insurance.
Republicans are reluctant to fund the healthcare program, also known as Obamacare, without changes, but negotiating a compromise with Democrats is expected to take time, if a deal can be reached at all.
Thune has promised Democrats at least a vote on their preferred healthcare proposal, on a date certain, as part of any deal to reopen government. But that’s not enough for some senators, who see the healthcare deadlock as part of their broader concerns with Trump’s direction for the country.
Mascaro and Jalonick write for the Associated Press. AP writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Joey Cappelletti and Matt Brown contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — As the federal shutdown has dragged on to become the longest in American history, President Trump has shown little interest in talks to reopen the government. But Republican losses on election day could change that.
Trump told Republican senators at the White House on Wednesday that he believed the government shutdown “was a big factor” in the party’s poor showing against the Democrats in key races.
“We must get the government back open soon, and really immediately,” Trump said, adding that he would speak privately with the senators to discuss what he would like to do next.
The president’s remarks are a departure from what has largely been an apathetic response from him about reopening the government. With Congress at a stalemate for more than a month, Trump’s attention has mostly been elsewhere.
He spent most of last week in Asia attempting to broker trade deals. Before that, much of his focus was on reaching a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and building a $300-million White House ballroom.
To date, Trump’s main attempt to reopen the federal government has been calling on Republican leaders to terminate the filibuster, a long-running Senate rule that requires 60 votes in the chamber to pass most legislation. Trump wants to scrap the rule — the so-called nuclear option — to allow Republicans in control of the chamber to push through legislation with a simple-majority vote.
“If you don’t terminate the filibuster, you’ll be in bad shape,” Trump told the GOP senators and warned that with the rule in place, the party would be viewed as “do-nothing Republicans” and get “killed” in next year’s midterm elections.
Trump’s push to end the shutdown comes as voters are increasingly disapproving of his economic agenda, according to recent polls. The trend was reinforced Tuesday as voters cast ballots with economic concerns as their main motivation, an AP poll showed. Despite those indicators, Trump told a crowd at the American Business Forum in Miami on Wednesday that he thinks “we have the greatest economy right now.”
While Trump has not acknowledged fault in his economic agenda, he has began to express concern that the ongoing shutdown may be hurting Republicans. Those concerns have led him to push Republicans to eliminate the filibusters, a move that has put members of his party in a tough spot.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota has resisted the pressure, calling the filibuster an “important tool” that keeps the party in control of the chamber in check.
The 60-vote threshold allowed Republicans to block a “whole host of terrible Democrat policies” when they were in the minority last year, Thune said in an interview Monday with Fox News Radio’s “Guy Benson Show.”
“I shudder to think how much worse it would’ve been without the legislative filibuster,” he said. “The truth is that if we were to do their dirty work for them, and that is essentially what we would be doing, we would own all the crap they are going to do if and when they get the chance to do it.”
Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said last week he is a “firm no on eliminating it.”
“The filibuster forces us to find common ground in the Senate. Power changes hands, but principles shouldn’t,” Curtis said in a social media post.
As the government shutdown stretched into its 36th day Wednesday, Trump continued to show no interest in negotiating with Democrats, who are refusing to vote on legislation to reopen the government that does not include a deal on healthcare.
Budget negotiations deadlocked as Democrats tried to force Republicans to extend federal healthcare tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year. If those credits expire, millions of Americans are expected to see the cost of their premiums spike.
With negotiations stalled, Trump said in an interview aired Sunday that he “won’t be extorted” by their demands to extend the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
On Wednesday, Democratic legislative leaders sent a letter to Trump demanding a bipartisan meeting to “end the GOP shutdown of the federal government and decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis.”
“Democrats stand ready to meet with you face to face, anytime and anyplace,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a letter to Trump.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Democrats’ letter.
“The election results ought to send a much needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis,” Schumer told the Associated Press.
Trump’s remarks Wednesday signal that he is more interested in a partisan approach to ending the shutdown.
“It is time for Republicans to do what they have to do and that is to terminate the filibuster,” Trump told GOP senators. “It’s the only way you can do it.”
If Republicans don’t do it, Trump argued Senate Democrats will do so the next time they are in a majority.
Democrats have not signaled any intent to end the filibuster in the future, but Trump has claimed otherwise and argued that it is up to Republicans to “do it first.”
The agency made the announcement as it confronts staffing shortages caused by air traffic controllers who are working unpaid.
Published On 5 Nov 20255 Nov 2025
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The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will reduce air traffic by 10 percent across 40 “high-volume” markets beginning Friday morning to maintain safety during the ongoing government shutdown, it has said.
The agency made the announcement on Wednesday as it confronts staffing shortages caused by air traffic controllers, who are working unpaid, with some calling out of work during the shutdown, resulting in delays across the country.
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FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the agency is not going to wait for a problem to act, saying the shutdown is causing staffing pressures and “we can’t ignore it”.
Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said they will meet later Wednesday with airline leaders to figure out how to safely implement the reduction.
The shutdown, now in its 36th day, has forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers to work without pay. This has worsened staff shortages, caused widespread flight delays and extended lines at airport security screening.
The move is aimed at taking pressure off air traffic controllers. The FAA also warned that it could add more flight restrictions after Friday if further air traffic issues emerge.
Duffy had warned on Tuesday that if the federal government shutdown continued another week, it could lead to “mass chaos” and force him to close some of the national airspace to air traffic, a drastic move that could upend American aviation.
Airlines have repeatedly urged an end to the shutdown, citing aviation safety risks.
Shares of major airlines, including United Airlines and American Airlines, were down about 1 percent in extended trading.
An airline industry group estimated that more than 3.2 million passengers have been affected by flight delays or cancellations due to rising air traffic controller absences since the shutdown began on October 1. Airlines have been raising concerns with lawmakers about the impact on operations.
Airlines said the shutdown has not significantly affected their business, but have warned bookings could drop if it drags on. More than 2,100 flights were delayed on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, FAA’s Bedford said that 20 percent to 40 percent of controllers at the agency’s 30 largest airports were failing to show up for work.
The federal government has mostly closed as Republicans and Democrats are locked in a standoff in Congress over a funding bill. Democrats have insisted they would not approve a plan that does not extend health insurance subsidies, while Republicans have rejected that.
1 of 2 | Director of the Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville department store Karl-Stephane Cottendin cuts the ribbon at the opening of Chinese e-commerce giant Shein’s first physical store at the BHV department store in Paris on Wednesday. Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/EPA/Pool
Nov. 5 (UPI) — The French government said it would begin action against online retailer Shein on Wednesday, just hours after the company opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Paris.
An outcry erupted last weekend after it was discovered that Shein was selling sex dolls that look like children, but on Tuesday, the company announced it was banning all sex dolls from the site.
On Wednesday, the government issued a statement saying: “On the instructions of the Prime Minister [Sébastien Lecornu], the government is initiating the procedure to suspend Shein for the time necessary for the platform to demonstrate to the public authorities that all of its content is finally in compliance with our laws and regulations.”
The store, which is the first Shein store in the world, also opened to chaos, as shoppers lined up to get in and protesters shouted at them, “Shame!”
Andreia Chavent, a worker at BHV Marais, said many employees were upset by the opening of Shein in Paris.
“We are directly concerned by how people work, what the conditions are like and how the clothes are made, even if it’s not in France,” Chavent, a member of the CFDT, France’s largest union, told The New York Times.
Shein has seen criticism over the way workers are treated in the Chinese factories that sell on the site.
The sex dolls controversy made things worse, Chavent added.
But not everyone is against the store.
“When I saw that Shein was coming to France, I said, ‘Yay!’ Because it still takes 20 weeks” for clothing from the site to arrive, Philippe Hamard, 27, told The Times.
He said that he doesn’t buy from Shein often because of “environmental issues and all that.” But said “I still buy from time to time for fun.”
On the sex doll controversy, he said, “I think there are a lot of controversies at the moment. But people will forget about it.”
Shein has plans to open seven stores in other cities in France.
Shein and AliExpress are also facing investigation in France over the dissemination of pornographic content to children, the prosecutor’s office told the BBC.
The Paris Office des Mineurs will handle the cases. The office oversees the protection of minors.
AliExpress said the adult listings violated its policies and were removed once the company learned of them.
“Sellers found to violate or trying to circumvent these requirements will be penalized in accordance with our rules,” AliExpress said in a statement, the BBC reported.
WASHINGTON — Dick Cheney was the public face of the George W. Bush administration’s boundary-pushing approach to surveillance and intelligence collection in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
An unabashed proponent of broad executive power in the name of national security, Cheney placed himself at the center of a polarizing public debate over detention, interrogation and spying that endures two decades later.
“I do think the security state that we have today is very much a product of our reactions to Sept. 11, and obviously Vice President Cheney was right smack-dab in the middle of how that reaction was operationalized from the White House,” said Stephen Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor.
Cheney was arguably the administration’s most prominent booster of the Patriot Act, the law enacted nearly unanimously after 9/11 that granted the U.S. government sweeping surveillance powers.
He also championed a National Security Agency warrantless wiretapping program aimed at intercepting international communications of suspected terrorists in the U.S., despite concerns over its legality from some administration figures.
If such an authority had been in place before Sept. 11, Cheney once asserted, it could have led the U.S. “to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon.”
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies still retain key tools to confront potential terrorists and spies that came into prominence after the attacks, including national security letters that permit the FBI to order companies to turn over information about customers.
But courts also have questioned the legal justification of the government’s surveillance apparatus, and a Republican Party that once solidly stood behind Cheney’s national security worldview has grown significantly more fractured.
The bipartisan consensus on expanded surveillance powers after Sept. 11 has given way to increased skepticism, especially among some Republicans who believe spy agencies used those powers to undermine President Trump while investigating ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign.
Congress in 2020 let expire three provisions of the Patriot Act that the FBI and Justice Department had said were essential for national security, including one that permits investigators to surveil subjects without establishing that they’re acting on behalf of an international terror organization.
A program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of non-Americans located outside the country for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence, was reauthorized last year — but only after significant negotiations.
“I think for someone like Vice President Cheney, expanding those authorities wasn’t an incidental objective — it was a core objective,” Vladeck said. “And I think the Republican Party today does not view those kinds of issues — counterterrorism policy, government surveillance authorities — as anywhere near the kind of political issues that the Bush administration did.”
As an architect of the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Cheney pushed spy agencies to find evidence to justify military action.
Along with others in the administration, Cheney claimed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction and had ties to al-Qaida. They used that to sell the war to members of Congress and the American people, though it was later debunked.
The faulty intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq is held up as a significant failure by America’s spy services and a demonstration of what can happen when leaders use intelligence for political ends.
The government’s arguments for war fueled a distrust among many Americans that still resonates with some in Trump’s administration.
“For decades, our foreign policy has been trapped in a counterproductive and endless cycle of regime change or nation building,” Tulsi Gabbard, the director of the Office of National Intelligence, said in the Middle East last week.
Many lawmakers who voted to support using force in 2003 say they have come to regret it.
“It was a mistake to rely upon the Bush administration for telling the truth,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said on the invasion’s 20th anniversary.
Trump has long criticized Cheney, but he’s relying on a legal doctrine popularized during Cheney’s time in office to justify deadly strikes on alleged drug-running boats in Latin America.
The Trump administration says the U.S. is engaged in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and has declared them unlawful combatants.
“These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Oct. 28 on social media. ”We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”
After 9/11, the Bush-Cheney administration authorized the U.S. military to attack enemy combatants acting on behalf of terror organizations. That prompted questions about the legality of killing or detaining people without prosecution.
Cheney’s involvement in boosting executive power and surveillance and “cooking the books of the raw intelligence” has echoes in today’s strikes, said Jim Ludes, a former national security analyst who directs the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina University.
“You think about his legacy and some of it is very troubling. Some of it is maybe what the moment demanded,” Ludes said. “But it’s a complicated legacy.“
Vladeck noted an enduring legacy of the Bush-Cheney administration was “to blur if not entirely collapse lines between civilian reactions to threats and military ones.”
He pointed to designating foreign terrorist organizations, a tool that predated the Sept. 11 attacks but became more prevalent in the years that followed. Trump has used the label for several drug cartels.
Protecting the homeland from espionage, terrorism and other threats is a complicated endeavor spread across the government. When Cheney was vice president, for instance, agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, were established.
As was the case then, the division of labor can still be disputed, with a recent crack surfacing between Director Kash Patel’s FBI and the intelligence community led by Gabbard.
The FBI said in a letter to lawmakers that it “vigorously disagrees” with a legislative proposal that it said would remove the bureau as the government’s lead counterintelligence agency and replace it with a counterintelligence center under ODNI.
“The cumulative effect,” the FBI warned in the letter obtained by The Associated Press, “would be putting decision-making with employees who aren’t actively involved in CI operations, knowledgeable of the intricacies of CI threats, or positioned to develop coherent and tailored mitigation strategies.”
That would be to the detriment of national security, the FBI said.
Spokespeople for the agencies later issued a statement saying they are working together with Congress to strengthen counterintelligence efforts.
Tucker and Klepper write for the Associated Press.
The US government shutdown has now lasted for 36 days, making it the longest on record. Some welfare payments, including those that allow low-income families to buy food, have been halted. The shutdown means more than a million government employees are not being paid.
Published On 5 Nov 20255 Nov 2025
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CHICAGO — A judge heard testimony Tuesday about overflowing toilets, crowded cells, no beds and water that “tasted like sewer” at a Chicago-area building that serves as a key detention spot for people rounded up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Three people who were held at the building in Broadview, just outside Chicago, offered rare public accounts about the conditions there as U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman considers ordering changes at a site that has become a flashpoint for protests and confrontations with federal agents.
“I don’t want anyone else to live what I lived through,” said Felipe Agustin Zamacona, 47, an Amazon driver and Mexican immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for decades.
Zamacona said there were 150 people in a holding cell. Desperate to lie down to sleep, he said he once took the spot of another man who got up to use the toilet.
And the water? Zamacona said he tried to drink from a sink but it “tasted like sewer.”
A lawsuit filed last week accuses the government of denying proper access to food, water and medical care, and coercing people to sign documents they don’t understand. Without that knowledge, and without private communication with lawyers, they have unknowingly relinquished their rights and faced deportation, the lawsuit alleges.
“This is not an issue of not getting a toilet or a Fiji water bottle,” attorney Alexa Van Brunt of the MacArthur Justice Center told the judge. “These are a set of dire conditions that when taken together paint a harrowing picture.”
Before testimony began, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said the allegations were “disgusting.”
“To have to sleep on a floor next to an overflowing toilet — that’s obviously unconstitutional,” he said.
Attorney Jana Brady of the Justice Department acknowledged there are no beds at the Broadview building, just outside Chicago, because it was not intended to be a long-term detention site.
Authorities have “improved the operations” over the past few months, she said, adding there has been a “learning curve.”
“The conditions are not sufficiently serious,” Brady told the judge.
The building has been managed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for decades. But amid the Chicago-area crackdown, it has been used to process people for detention or deportation.
Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol commander who has led the Chicago immigration operation, said criticism was unfounded.
“I think they’re doing a great job out there,” he told the Associated Press during an interview this week.
Testifying with the help of a translator, Pablo Moreno Gonzalez, 56, said he was arrested last week while waiting to start work. Like Zamacona, he said he was placed in a cell with 150 other people, with no beds, blankets, toothbrush or toothpaste.
“It was just really bad. … It was just too much,” Moreno Gonzalez, crying, told the judge.
A third person, Claudia Carolina Pereira Guevara, testified from Honduras, separated from two children who remain in the U.S. She said she was held at Broadview for five days in October and recalled using a garbage bag to clear a clogged toilet.
“They gave us nothing that had to do with cleaning. Absolutely nothing,” Guevara said.
For months advocates have raised concerns about conditions at Broadview, which has drawn scrutiny from members of Congress, political candidates and activist groups. Lawyers and relatives of people held there have called it a de facto detention center, saying up to 200 people have been held at a time without access to legal counsel.
The Broadview center has also drawn demonstrations, leading to the arrests of numerous protesters. The demonstrations are at the center of a separate lawsuit from a coalition of news outlets and protesters who claim federal agents violated their First Amendment rights by repeatedly using tear gas and other weapons on them.
Fernando writes for the Associated Press. AP reporters Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.
There have already been numerous flight delays as the FAA slows down or stops traffic when it is short of controllers.
Published On 4 Nov 20254 Nov 2025
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United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said that there could be chaos in the skies next week if the government shutdown drags on and air traffic controllers miss a second paycheck.
Duffy made his comments on Tuesday as the US government shutdown dragged into its 35th day, matching the shutdown in US President Donald Trump’s first term as president and which was the longest at the time.
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There have already been numerous delays at airports across the country — sometimes hours long — because the Federal Aviation Administration slows down or stops traffic temporarily anytime it is short on controllers. Last weekend saw some of the worst staff shortages, and on Sunday, flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey were delayed for several hours.
Duffy and the head of the air traffic controllers union have both warned that the situation will only get worse the longer the shutdown continues and the financial pressure continues to grow on people who are forced to work without pay. FAA employees already missed one paycheck on October 28. Their next payday is scheduled for next Tuesday.
“Many of the controllers said, ‘A lot of us can navigate missing one paycheck. Not everybody, but a lot of us can. None of us can manage missing two paychecks,’” Duffy said. “So if you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos. You will see mass flight delays. You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it, because we don’t have air traffic controllers.”
Most of the flight disruptions so far during the shutdown have been isolated and temporary. But if delays become more widespread and start to ripple throughout the system, the pressure will mount on US Congress to reach an agreement to end the shutdown.
Normally, airlines strive to have at least 80 percent of their flights depart and arrive within 15 minutes of when they are scheduled. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said that since the shutdown began on October 1, the total number of delays overall has not fallen significantly below that goal because most of the disruptions so far have been no worse than what happens when a major thunderstorm moves across an airport.
But on Sunday, only about 56 percent of Newark’s departures were on time, and the Orlando airport reported that only about 70 percent of its flights were on time, according to Cirium.
As of midday Tuesday, there have been 1,932 flight delays reported across the US, according to www.FlightAware.com. That is lower than what is typical, although the FAA did say that flights in Phoenix were being delayed on Tuesday morning because of staffing shortages. Strong winds are also causing delays at the Newark and LaGuardia airports on Tuesday.
