United States President Donald Trump has said the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela is to be closed “in its entirety”, as tensions between the countries escalate.
There was no immediate response by Venezuela to Trump’s social media post on Saturday.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s post comes amid weeks of escalating rhetoric by senior US officials against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his government.
While the Trump administration has said it is targeting Venezuela as part of a push to combat drug trafficking, experts and human rights observers have warned that Washington appears to be laying the groundwork for an attempt to unlawfully remove Maduro from power.
The US has deployed an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean and carried out a series of deadly bombings on vessels it accused of being involved in drug trafficking, killing dozens of people in what United Nations experts have described as extrajudicial killings.
Earlier this week, Trump also warned that he would start targeting Venezuelan drug trafficking “by land” soon.
During a speech broadcast on national television on Thursday, Maduro said Venezuelans would not be intimidated.
The government announces the closing of all government offices and schools as weather conditions grow worse.
Published On 28 Nov 202528 Nov 2025
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Sri Lanka has closed government offices and schools as the death toll from floods and landslides across the country has risen to 56, with more than 600 houses damaged, according to officials.
Sri Lanka began grappling with severe weather last week, and the conditions worsened on Thursday with heavy downpours that flooded homes, fields and roads, and triggered landslides across the country.
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More than 25 people were killed on Thursday in landslides in the central mountainous tea-growing regions of Badulla and Nuwara Eliya, which is about 300km (186 miles) east of the capital, Colombo.
Another 21 people were missing and 14 were injured in the Badulla and Nuwara Eliya areas, according to the government’s disaster management centre, quoted by The Associated Press news agency.
Others died in landslides in different parts of the country.
Daily life heavily impacted
As the weather conditions grew worse, the government announced the closing of all government offices and schools on Friday.
Due to heavy rains, most reservoirs and rivers have overflowed, blocking roads. Authorities stopped passenger trains and closed roads in many parts of the country after rocks, mud and trees fell on roads and railway tracks, which were also flooded in some areas.
Local television showed an air force helicopter rescuing three people stranded on the roof of a house surrounded by floods on Thursday, while the navy and police used boats to transport residents.
Footage on Thursday also showed a car being swept away by floodwaters near the eastern town of Ampara, leaving three passengers dead.
RAIL passengers travelling on a major route can expect delays as planned engineering work gets underway.
Commuters are being advised to plan ahead of the partial line closure, which will affect a busy UK airport.
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Planned engineering work will mean no trains are scheduled to run between Gatwick Airport, Brighton, Hove, Lewes or Horsham on Sunday, November 30Credit: Govia Thameslink Railway
Essential engineering work is due to be carried out on the Brighton Main Line south of Gatwick Airport on Sunday, November 30.
The scheduled maintenance means no trains will be running between Gatwick, Brighton, Hove, Lewes or Horsham.
Passengers are advised to plan ahead, with buses set to replace services on the closed part of the route.
Planned works
All four tracks in this section are due to be closed as major work gets underway.
Among Network Rail’s major package of works is the replacement of sections of the track.
This will take place at Tinsley Green Junction near Crawley, at Three Bridges, and between Copyhold Junction and the Ouse Valley viaduct.
Meanwhile, drainage systems at Wivelsfield station will also be renewed and maintenance will also take place at Keymer level crossing and other locations.
According to Network Rail, these improvements are vital to keep services safe and reliable.
Lucy McAuliffe, Network Rail’s Sussex route director spoke to Sussex Express about the planned works.
“We know closing the railway is frustrating, and we are sorry for the disruption this causes,” she said.
“This work is essential for us as we try and prevent speed restrictions or emergency closures occurring in the future, which would cause even bigger delays at these locations and on the wider rail network.”
She went on to thank passengers for their understanding, and advised them to “plan ahead and check before you travel if you are travelling on Sunday, November 30, as your journey will take longer”.
Alternative routes
As well as replacement buses, a diverted Southern train service will run between Brighton and London Victoria calling at Hove, Shoreham-by-Sea, Worthing, Angmering, Littlehampton, Horsham, and Clapham Junction.
Anyone travelling between Brighton and London on the affected date is strongly advised to use this train service rather than the limited replacement bus service.
Passengers are also reminded that travelling by replacement buses on routes between Brighton, Lewes, Haywards Heath, or and Gatwick Airport, they will require a transfer.
Passenger advice
All lines are closed between Brighton and Gatwick Airport, which means no trains will run between:
Brighton, Hove, Lewes and Horsham to/from Gatwick Airport
Replacement buses will run between:
Three Bridges and Gatwick Airport
Brighton and Three Bridges
Horsham and Three Bridges
Lewes/Cooksbridge/Plumpton and Haywards Heath and Three Bridges
Commuters will need to change buses at Three Bridges for a separate shuttle bus service between Three Bridges and Gatwick Airport.
This is due to insufficient space at Gatwick Airport for the required temporary queuing systems.
The Three Bridges station car park will be converted into a temporary bus hub with different queues for buses serving various destinations.
To facilitate this bus hub, the station car park at Three Bridges will be closed from the evening of Saturday, November 29 until early morning Monday, December 1.
Jenny Saunders, customer services director for Govia Thameslink Railway, advised passengers to plan ahead.
“Any of our customers travelling between the coast and Gatwick this Sunday should please take note that this essential work is going to extend their journeys considerably,” she said.
“Please plan ahead at nationalrail.co.uk and check live running information online before you leave for the station.”
Further major works will also take place on the Brighton Main Line over three weekends in January, between Gatwick Airport and Purley and East Croydon.
Branch lines between Reigate and Redhill and Redhill to Tonbridge will also be affected by this work.
And there will be a closure between Three Bridges and Brighton on Sunday, February 1.
Replacement buses will run where trains are not operating, and detailed travel advice about those closures will be shared in December.
Berlin, Germany – Organisers of a pro-Palestine conference are suing authorities in Berlin who shut the event down last April soon after it began.
They hope a panel of judges at the Berlin Administrative Court will rule that police acted unlawfully in cracking down on the Palestine Congress, a forum of solidarity activists and human rights experts who were gathering to discuss Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Germany’s alleged complicity.
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The hearing begins on Wednesday.
The defendant, the State of Berlin, argues the police were right to act preemptively as they predicted criminal statements would be made at the conference, specifically incitement to hatred, dissemination of propaganda or use of symbols of unconstitutional and “terrorist” organisations.
The police justified this prediction in part on the basis that in a news conference held prior to the event, organisers allegedly did not distance themselves from the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
On the day in question, April 12, 2024, officers in riot gear descended in their hundreds on the venue usually used for wedding receptions and pulled the plug – cutting off the power to ensure that none of the planned speeches could be heard or broadcast via livestream.
“I’m not aware of any other instance where a conference was shut down without any crime having been committed,” Michael Ploese, the lawyer representing the conference organisers, told Al Jazeera.
He said that German law only allowed restrictions on gatherings in private rooms where there was high probability that a criminal act would be committed, and that the right to freedom of expression usually took precedence.
Among the groups organising the conference was Juedische Stimme (Jewish Voice), a sister group of the US collective of the same name that organises Jewish peace activists who are critical of Israeli actions regarding Palestine.
“I saw it as a success that we had even been able to begin it at all, but I wasn’t expecting it all to end an hour later,” said Wieland Hoban, the chair of Juedische Stimme, who gave opening remarks at the conference.
Adding to the sense of repression, the British Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah, one of the main speakers, said officials at the airport in Berlin prevented him from continuing his journey and told him to return to the United Kingdom.
Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek left-wing economist and former minister of finance, posted online the speech he had planned to make. Like Abu Sittah, Varoufakis faced an entry ban after the furore. The Berlin Administrative Court later ruled that the ban on Abu Sittah’s political activity was unlawful.
Throughout Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, German police and security services have repeatedly claimed protests in support of those being bombarded are anti-Semitic or are to be interpreted as revering Hamas. Thousands of individual protesters have been arrested, and many planned demonstrations have been banned outright.
Germany is Israel’s biggest diplomatic supporter in Europe and enforces strict limits on speech that criticises or attacks Israel, with some arguing this is necessary because of Germany’s genocide of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
It is a justification that Wieland Hoban rejects, saying the laws are even used against Jewish people who speak up for Palestine.
“Even if you lost family in the Holocaust, you can still be lectured by some German about what you can say,” said Hoban. “Simply mentioning the Holocaust can get you accused of relativierung” – a word that is used to suggest someone is playing down the Holocaust by drawing comparisons to other, lesser, crimes against humanity.
Last month, a group of United Nations experts said they were alarmed by the “pattern of police violence and apparent suppression of Palestine solidarity activism by Germany”.
If this week’s case goes in favour of the conference organisers, it will be a blow to Germany’s controversial stance.
Videos of police using force to shut down nonviolent protests for Gaza on the streets of German cities have coursed around the world.
But what marked the state’s intervention in the Palestine Congress apart was that it represented the silencing of an event consisting of talks and debates in an indoor venue – a sphere of political expression that lawyers had previously thought was off-limits for police repression.
THOUSANDS of travellers are being warned to brace for major disruption this weekend as engineering works are set to cause significant delays at the UK’s busiest airport.
Heathrow, which is set to handle around 84 million passengers this year, has announced that major rail connections to and from the airport will be closed this weekend while essential maintenance work is carried out.
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Travellers are being urged to consider alternative routesCredit: Shutterstock / van Blerk
The disruption will affect travellers using the Heathrow Express and Elizabeth line on Saturday November 15 and Sunday November 15, prompting airport officials to advise passengers to plan ahead and allow extra time for their journeys.
Heathrow Airport announced the closure on X, formerly Twitter, warning: “Due to planned engineering works, there will be no Heathrow Express or Elizabeth line train services to/from Heathrow on Sat 15 & Sun 16 November 2025.
“Piccadilly Line services to/from #Heathrow will be running as normal. Please plan your journey in advance as other services will be busier than normal.”
The engineering works are taking place between Hayes & Harlington and Heathrow Airport stations, and according to National Rail, “all lines” on the route will be closed during the two-day period.
The National Rail website also states: “No trains to / from London Heathrow Airport from Saturday 15 to Sunday 16 November.”
This means that both the Heathrow Express and Elizabeth line will be completely out of service over the weekend, affecting thousands of passengers travelling to or from the airport.
Routes listed as affected include the Elizabeth line between Shenfield and Heathrow Airport and the Heathrow Express between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport.
To help travellers plan ahead, Heathrow has released the times of the final trains before the closures begin.
The last Heathrow Express service from Terminal 5 will leave at 11.57pm on Friday, while the final train from Terminals 2 and 3 will depart at 12.03am.
From London Paddington, the final Heathrow Express departs at 11.25pm.
As for the Elizabeth line, the final service to central London will depart Terminal 5 at 12.07am, Terminals 2 and 3 at 12.12am, and Terminal 4 at 11.37pm.
The last Elizabeth line train from Paddington will leave at 11.24pm.
Those travelling from Terminals 2 and 3 to Terminal 5 can catch the final Elizabeth line service at 11.37pm, while the last train from Terminal 4 to Terminals 2 and 3 departs at 11.52pm.
Despite the disruption, the Piccadilly line will continue to operate as normal, providing the only direct underground connection to Heathrow throughout the weekend.
Travellers are being urged to consider alternative routes, including TfL Rail replacement buses, coach services, and taxis, which are likely to experience increased demand.
A Heathrow spokesperson reminded passengers: “We encourage everyone travelling on 15 and 16 November to check before they travel and allow extra time for their journey.
“With trains not running, roads and alternative transport will be busier than usual.”
The works form part of ongoing infrastructure improvements aimed at maintaining safety and reliability on the network.
However, the timing has sparked frustration among passengers planning half-term holidays and weekend getaways.
Experts have also warned that disruption could spill over into Monday morning as services return to normal and trains are repositioned.
For up-to-date travel information, passengers are being advised to check the Heathrow Express, Elizabeth line, and National Rail websites before setting off.
The Sun has approached Heathrow for comment.
The disruption will affect travellers using the Heathrow Express and Elizabeth line on Saturday November 15 and Sunday November 15Credit: pablorebo1984
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.
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America is facing thousands of flight delays and cancellations due to a government shutdownCredit: Alamy
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.
What has happened?
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.
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.
So what does this mean for British travellers?
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.
Though international flights are not impacted, Brits could still face delays or cancalletionsCredit: AFP
“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.”
What should you do if you are in America and due to get an internal flight?
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.
Internal flights are impacted, meaning Brits travelling within America could have their flight delayed or cancelledCredit: Alamy
“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.”
Adrian Kempe scored his 200th NHL career goal and Drew Doughty broke the Kings record for goals by a defenseman as they beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-0 on Tuesday night.
Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves and Kevin Fiala added a late power-play goal to help the Kings get their first home win of the season in six games.
Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for the Jets, who dropped their first road game in five tries.
Kempe scored late in the first period to put the Kings in front, getting his sixth goal of the season by attacking the crease to put in Joel Armia’s centering pass from the trapezoid. Kempe is the ninth member of the 2014 draft class to reach 200 goals, getting there in 644 games.
Doughty passed franchise stalwart Rob Blake with his 162nd goal in 1,221 games with an empty-netter with 54 seconds remaining.
The Kings made changes by moving Armia to the top line and reuniting Mikey Anderson with longtime partner Doughty on the first defensive pair, and there were immediate returns as Armia and Anderson had the assists on Kempe’s goal.
Kings forward Corey Perry played in his 1,400th career game, becoming the 44th player in NHL history to do so and joining Brent Burns (1,511), Alex Ovechkin (1,503) and Anze Kopitar (1,464) among active players who have appeared in that many games.
Jets captain Adam Lowry made his season debut after undergoing hip surgery in late May, centering the third line. Lowry had a career-high 18 goals last season.
