“Lawyers for the Trump administration on Thursday withdrew an emergency Supreme Court appeal centered on whether it must fully fund the nation’s largest anti-hunger program during the government shutdown — ending a roughly three-week court fight over a benefits program that impacted millions of Americans. The Justice Department said in withdrawing its emergency request that it considers the issue mooted after Congress passed a bill to reopen the government, ending a 43-day government shutdown that is now the longest in U.S. history.” (11/13/25)
“Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt on Thursday commuted the death sentence of a man who was set to be executed to life in prison after a state panel recommended his life should be spared. Tremane Wood, 46, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on Thursday. The Pardon and Parole Board issued an uncommon clemency recommendation last week. … Stitt, who has served two terms and cannot run for reelection in 2026, had granted clemency only once during his nearly seven years as governor prior to Thursday. Wood was sentenced to die for his role in the stabbing death of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farmworker from Montana, during a botched robbery attempt at a north Oklahoma City hotel on New Year’s Day 2002. Wood’s attorneys have not denied that he participated in the robbery but maintain that his brother, Zjaiton Wood, was the one who stabbed Wipf.” (11/13/25)
“White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Thursday the government would release the closely watched employment report for October, but without the jobless rate after a weeks-long federal government shutdown. ‘The household survey wasn’t conducted in October, so we’re going to get half the employment report. We’ll get the jobs part, but we won’t get the unemployment rate. And that’ll just be for one month,’ Hassett told Fox News'[s] ‘America’s Newsroom’ program. ‘We probably … will never actually know for sure what the unemployment rate was in October.’ The 43-day government shutdown, the longest on record, caused the suspension of data collection, processing and publishing by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics as well as the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis.” (11/13/25)
“Syria’s foreign minister officially reopened the country’s embassy in London on Thursday after more than a decade-long closure, the latest step in Syria’s reintegration into the international community after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad. The visit by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani to the United Kingdom came after a historic visit to Washington by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the first by a president from Syria since the country’s independence in 1946.” (11/13/25)
“The European Commission has opened an antitrust probe into Red Bull as it suspects the energy drink manufacturer of abusing its dominant position by restricting competition for rival products. … The Commission suspects that Red Bull implemented the strategy at least in the Netherlands. This consisted of granting incentives to retailers to stop selling rival energy drinks and of misusing ‘its position as category manager at off-trade customers so that competing energy drinks sold in sizes exceeding 250ml are delisted or disadvantaged,’ the Commission said.” (11/13/25)
“South Korean workers began returning to a factory in Georgia last month after the State Department reissued their visas, as the Trump administration seeks to undo the damage from a large workplace immigration raid. About 180 people who were in the United States on B-1 business visas have had them restored, said Kim Min-su, who was among those [abducted] in the raid on Sept. 4 in southern Georgia. Two lawyers representing the workers confirmed that all the B-1 visa holders who were [abducted] — out of 317 South Koreans [abducted] in total — had their visas restored. At least 30 of those workers have gone back to the battery plant, which is owned by Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, said Mr. Kim, who has surveyed the South Korean ex-[abductees] in preparation for a class-action lawsuit against U.S. immigration authorities over their [abduction].” (11/13/25)
“Adolf Hitler has long been rumored to have had just one ball — but also possibly had a micropenis, according to a new DNA analysis. The Nazi dictator is believed to have had a hidden genetic disorder known as Kallmann syndrome, which can thwart the development of sexual organs, according to a stunning new documentary analyzing his biological makeup. The condition, which can also inhibit the normal progression of puberty, means Hitler had a 1-in-10 chance of having a micropenis, the Times reported. … The findings have been laid bare in a Channel 4 documentary — ‘Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator’ — that will air on Saturday, and will be later published in a scientific journal. The research zeroed in on a DNA profile created from a sample of a bloodstained piece of fabric that a US army colonel cut from the sofa where Hitler killed himself in a Berlin bunker in 1945.” (11/13/25)
“Israeli [squatters] torched and defaced a mosque in a Palestinian village in the central West Bank overnight, scribbling hateful messages in a show of defiance a day after some Israeli leaders condemned a recent attack by [squatters] against Palestinians. One wall and at least three copies of the Quran and some of the carpeting at the mosque in the Palestinian town of Deir Istiya had been torched when an AP reporter visited Thursday. … Soldiers from Israel’s military, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, were present at the scene.” (111/13/25)
“Fewer than half of Americans now say religion is an important part of their daily lives, a 17 percentage point drop since 2015, which ranks among the largest declines in the world, according to a new Gallup poll. The U.S. was once exceptional for its high religiosity among wealthy nations. The shift reflects profound cultural changes that could reshape politics, social ties and even national identity. In the latest Gallup Poll released Thursday, only 49% of U.S. adults say religion is essential to their daily life, down from 66% in 2015.” (11/13/25)
“A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of one of the richest passengers on the Titanic is expected to fetch £1m at auction. Isidor Straus and his wife Ida were among the more than 1,500 people who died when the vessel travelling from Southampton to New York sank after hitting an iceberg on 14 April 1912. His body was recovered from the Atlantic days after the disaster and among his possessions was an 18 carat gold Jules Jurgensen pocket watch that will go under the hammer on 22 November. … Mr Straus was a Bavarian-born American businessman, politician, and co-owner of Macy’s department store in New York. … On the night of the sinking, it is believed his devoted wife refused a place in a lifeboat as she did not want to leave her husband and said she would rather die by his side. Ida’s body was never found.” (11/13/25)
