“The Federal Aviation Administration will begin cutting the number of flights in the ‘high traffic’ parts of the country as the government shutdown grinds on and local airports have reported staffing shortages, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday. ‘There is going to be a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations,’ Duffy said. ‘This is about where’s the pressure and how do we alleviate the pressure.’ FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the reduction in capacity, spurred by ‘fatigue’ plaguing air traffic controllers, would start Friday.” (11/05/25)
“Bitcoin rose 1.31% to $103,127 on Thursday, marking a brief rebound as overall market sentiment remained cautious ahead of key U.S. jobs data. At around 11:38 AM IST, Bitcoin was trading 1.51% higher over the past 24 hours, while Ethereum gained 2.03% to $3,387. Major altcoins, including BNB, XRP, Solana, Tron, and Cardano, were up over 4%, whereas Dogecoin and Hyperliquid slipped nearly 1%. The global crypto market cap rose 1.41% to $3.44 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. The cryptocurrency tumbled as much as 7.4% on Tuesday, slipping below the $100,000 level for the first time since June and has now fallen over 20% from the record high it touched just a month ago.” (11/06/25)
“Bulgaria is drafting new legislation that will allow it to seize control of an important oil refinery belonging to Russia’s sanctioned oil giant Lukoil. The Burgas refinery is the only one of its kind in Bulgaria and was a vital party of Lukoil’s foreign business empire. The company is now facing US sanctions over Russia’s war on Ukraine. Earlier, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered preparations for nuclear weapons testing after president Donald Trump announced last week that the US would be running its first tests in over three decades. … At the same meeting on Wednesday, Putin ordered the heightened defence of Russia’s oil refineries from Ukrainian drone attacks, signing a new law deploying millions of reservists to the task. And on the battlefield, Russia claimed its troops were advancing inside the key city of Pokrovsk, where the Ukrainian army said its units were battling hard to avoid being encircled by Moscow’s forces.” (11/06/25)
“An attack on a funeral in the key city of El-Obeid in Sudan’s central Kordofan region killed 40 people, the UN said Wednesday, as paramilitaries looked poised to launch an offensive. The United Nations'[s] humanitarian office did not specify when the attack took place or who was behind it, but said that the situation in the Kordofan region was continuing to worsen. The war in Sudan, which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more, has spread to new areas in recent days, sparking fears of an even greater humanitarian catastrophe. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the military since 2023, was preparing to launch an assault in Kordofan after capturing El-Fasher, the last army stronghold in the vast western Darfur region.” (11/05/25)
“The Supreme Court justices sounded skeptical Wednesday of President Trump’s claim that he has the power to set large tariffs on products coming from countries around the world. Most of the justices, both conservative and liberal, said Congress, not the president, had the power to impose taxes and tariffs. And they agreed Congress did not authorize tariffs in an emergency powers law adopted in 1977. It has ‘never before been used to justify tariffs, and no one had argued it before this case,’ Chief Justice John G. Roberts told Trump’s top courtroom attorney. ‘The imposition of taxes on Americans … has always been a core power of Congress.’ Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer argued that tariffs involve the president’s power over foreign affairs. They are ‘regulatory tariffs, not taxes,’ he said.” (11/05/25)
“The city of Paris has announced a lottery with a twist: Instead of a cash prize, entrants can instead win the chance to be buried in one of the French capital’s most celebrated cemeteries. The unusual plan aims to restore tombs that have fallen into disrepair, while also giving Paris residents a rare opportunity to secure one of the sought-after plots, the city hall said in a statement published Friday. … winners of the lottery will be granted the opportunity to buy and restore one of 30 tombs …. 10 plots up for grabs in Père-Lachaise cemetery, which counts ‘The Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison, playwright Oscar Wilde and singer Édith Piaf among its illustrious residents. There are also 10 plots in Montparnasse cemetery, home to writers Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Susan Sontag, as well as 10 more in Montmartre cemetery, where painter Edgar Degas, author Émile Zola and dancer Vaslav Nijinsky are all buried.” (11/05/25)
It’s a “Hybrid Thursday” at the freedom movement’s daily newspaper. We’ve got a full email / social media edition for our subscribers (https://rationalreviewnewsdigest.eo.page/jrwp6), plus another 30 or so news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links available only here at the web edition.
Yesterday was a “zero-dollar day” in our year-end fundraiser. As of 5am on Thursday, we’re stuck at $1,025.34.
Our goal is $2,750.50. Or, rather, $5,501. Supporter GL has pledged to “match funds” for the SECOND half, but before he kicks in we need the rest of our readers to cover the FIRST half.
“The rest of our readers” means you. If you haven’t supported our work this year, or maybe ever, please do so now at:
We only run one fundraiser per year. This is it. Once we reach our goal, I’ll shut up about money entirely for the remainder of 2025, and mostly until October of 2026. Help shut me up!
“The death toll in a catastrophic airplane crash that sent a United Parcel Service aircraft into a ball of flames has risen to nine on Wednesday as authorities continue search and rescue and investigate a cause, officials said. The UPS plane was departing for Honolulu from the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport when it crashed at about 5:15 p.m. local time Tuesday, authorities said. Video of the crash showed flames on one of the plane’s wings, and a huge fireball erupting as the aircraft hit the ground.” (11/05/25)
“A palliative nurse was convicted on Nov 5 of the murder of 10 patients with lethal injections and the attempted murder of 27 others and was handed a life sentence by a German court. Prosecutors had argued that the nurse injected his mostly elderly patients with painkillers or sedatives to ease his workload at night. The crime was found to be particularly severe, said a spokesperson for the court in Aachen, meaning the nurse has little chance of being released after 15 years, the minimum time that can be served for a life sentence in Germany.” (11/05/25)
“A video taken by a bystander, and seen by CBS News Chicago, captured two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents [abducting] a woman inside a North Center daycare Wednesday morning. The video shows two masked federal agents in plainclothes and wearing vests labeled ‘POLICE’ inside the Rayita del Sol Spanish Immersion school and daycare’s Roscoe Village location. A woman can be heard screaming through the glass doors as the agents physically wrestle her out the door, at one point picking her up. They slam her, face-first, into the outer door as they push her outside. … Once outside, she’s pushed against a dark grey sedan parked outside the building as agents try to handcuff her with her hands behind her back.” (11/05/25)
