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  • Air Force One safely returns to Washington area due to minor electrical issue, White House says

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    President Donald Trump’s plane, Air Force One, returned to Joint Base Andrews about an hour after departing for Switzerland on Tuesday evening.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the decision to return was made after takeoff when the crew aboard Air Force One identified “a minor electrical issue” and, out of an abundance of caution, decided to turn around.Related video above: “You’ll find out:” Trump asked how far he’ll go to acquire Greenland ahead of overseas tripA reporter on board said the lights in the press cabin of the aircraft went out briefly after takeoff, but no explanation was immediately offered. About half an hour into the flight reporters were told the plane would be turning around.Trump will board another aircraft and continue on with his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos.The two planes currently used as Air Force One have been flying for nearly four decades. Boeing has been working on replacements, but the program has faced a series of delays. The planes are heavily modified with survivability capabilities for the president for a range of contingencies, including radiation shielding and antimissile technology. They also include a variety of communications systems to allow the president to remain in contact with the military and issue orders from anywhere in the world.Last year, the ruling family of Qatar gifted Trump a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet to be added to the Air Force One fleet, a move that faced great scrutiny. That plane is currently being retrofitted to meet security requirements.Leavitt joked to reporters on Air Force One Tuesday night that a Qatari jet was sounding “much better” right now.Last February, an Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Germany had to return to Washington because of a mechanical issue. In October, a military plane carrying Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had to make an emergency landing in United Kingdom due to a crack in the windshield.

    President Donald Trump’s plane, Air Force One, returned to Joint Base Andrews about an hour after departing for Switzerland on Tuesday evening.

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the decision to return was made after takeoff when the crew aboard Air Force One identified “a minor electrical issue” and, out of an abundance of caution, decided to turn around.

    Related video above: “You’ll find out:” Trump asked how far he’ll go to acquire Greenland ahead of overseas trip

    A reporter on board said the lights in the press cabin of the aircraft went out briefly after takeoff, but no explanation was immediately offered. About half an hour into the flight reporters were told the plane would be turning around.

    Trump will board another aircraft and continue on with his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

    The two planes currently used as Air Force One have been flying for nearly four decades. Boeing has been working on replacements, but the program has faced a series of delays. The planes are heavily modified with survivability capabilities for the president for a range of contingencies, including radiation shielding and antimissile technology. They also include a variety of communications systems to allow the president to remain in contact with the military and issue orders from anywhere in the world.

    Last year, the ruling family of Qatar gifted Trump a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet to be added to the Air Force One fleet, a move that faced great scrutiny. That plane is currently being retrofitted to meet security requirements.

    Leavitt joked to reporters on Air Force One Tuesday night that a Qatari jet was sounding “much better” right now.

    Last February, an Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Germany had to return to Washington because of a mechanical issue. In October, a military plane carrying Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had to make an emergency landing in United Kingdom due to a crack in the windshield.

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  • Trump ‘inclined’ to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela

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    President Donald Trump said Sunday that he is “inclined” to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela after its top executive was skeptical about oil investment efforts in the country after the toppling of former President Nicolás Maduro.“I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One as he departed West Palm Beach, Florida. “They’re playing too cute.”Video above: President Trump asks oil giants for $100B to restart Venezuela’s oil industryDuring a meeting Friday with oil executives, Trump tried to assuage the concerns of the companies and said they would be dealing directly with the U.S., rather than the Venezuelan government.Some, however, weren’t convinced.“If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable,” said Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest U.S. oil company.An ExxonMobil spokesperson did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.Also on Friday, Trump signed an executive order that seeks to ensure that Venezuelan oil revenue remains protected from being used in judicial proceedings.The executive order, made public on Saturday, says that if the funds were to be seized for such use, it could “undermine critical U.S. efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela.” Venezuela has a history of state asset seizures, ongoing U.S. sanctions and decades of political uncertainty.Getting U.S. oil companies to invest in Venezuela and help rebuild the country’s infrastructure is a top priority of the Trump administration after Maduro’s capture.The White House is framing the effort to “run” Venezuela in economic terms, and Trump has seized tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, has said the U.S. is taking over the sales of 30 million to 50 million barrels of previously sanctioned Venezuelan crude, and plans to control sales worldwide indefinitely.Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Florida.

    ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE —

    President Donald Trump said Sunday that he is “inclined” to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela after its top executive was skeptical about oil investment efforts in the country after the toppling of former President Nicolás Maduro.

    “I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One as he departed West Palm Beach, Florida. “They’re playing too cute.”

    Video above: President Trump asks oil giants for $100B to restart Venezuela’s oil industry

    During a meeting Friday with oil executives, Trump tried to assuage the concerns of the companies and said they would be dealing directly with the U.S., rather than the Venezuelan government.

    Some, however, weren’t convinced.

    “If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable,” said Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest U.S. oil company.

    An ExxonMobil spokesperson did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.

    Also on Friday, Trump signed an executive order that seeks to ensure that Venezuelan oil revenue remains protected from being used in judicial proceedings.

    The executive order, made public on Saturday, says that if the funds were to be seized for such use, it could “undermine critical U.S. efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela.” Venezuela has a history of state asset seizures, ongoing U.S. sanctions and decades of political uncertainty.

    Getting U.S. oil companies to invest in Venezuela and help rebuild the country’s infrastructure is a top priority of the Trump administration after Maduro’s capture.

    The White House is framing the effort to “run” Venezuela in economic terms, and Trump has seized tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, has said the U.S. is taking over the sales of 30 million to 50 million barrels of previously sanctioned Venezuelan crude, and plans to control sales worldwide indefinitely.

    Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Florida.

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  • Spirit Airlines Pilot Reportedly Warned to ‘Get Off the iPad’ After Veering Too Close to Air Force One

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    President Trump was in the air recently en route to the United Kingdom for a meeting with the nation’s leadership, and as Air Force One flew over Long Island, the craft got just a little too close to another plane, a Spirit Airlines flight on its way to Boston.

    The New York Times reports that the Spirit flight was given a stern warning by the air traffic control tower, which condescendingly told the pilot to “get off the iPad” and pay better attention to the path of the plane they were supposed to be flying. It is unclear whether the pilot was, indeed, looking at an iPad at the time the remark was made.

    “Spirit 1300, turn 20 degrees right,” the tower initially told the flight crew, the newspaper notes. However, the pilot seems to have missed the directions, because the tower was forced to repeat its instructions several times. “Pay attention, Spirit 1300, turn 20 degrees right. Spirit 1300, turn 20 degrees right now. Spirit Wings 1300, turn 20 degrees right immediately.”

    The air traffic control official then got testier:  “I’m sure you can see who it is,” they reportedly said, adding, “Keep an eye out for him. He’s white and blue.” It then, apparently, got worse:

    The tone of the air traffic controller’s voice grew more exasperated as he apparently tried to get the distracted pilot’s attention. The audio escalated as the controller said, “I got to talk to you twice every time” and “Get off the iPad.”

    Citing flight data from Flightradar24, the Times notes that the Spirit plane flight 1300 was approximately 11 miles away from Air Force One when it finally began to “deconflict its flight path” from the president’s plane. The newspaper notes that the closest the two planes came to one other was “eight miles apart, laterally”—which doesn’t seem like very much until you remember that commercial airline jets travel at speeds of 500-600 mph.

    When reached for comment by Gizmodo, a Spirit Airlines representative provided the following statement:

    Spirit Airlines flight 1300 (FLL-BOS) followed procedures and Air Traffic Control (ATC) instructions while en route to Boston (BOS) and landed uneventfully at BOS. Safety is always our top priority.

    The FAA told Gizmodo that it is “aware of social media posts about Air Force One and a Spirit Airlines flight in Boston airspace on Tuesday, Sept. 16.” The agency simply said that “required separation was maintained between the aircraft.”

    In recent years, more scrutiny has been aimed at the potential safety issues impacting the commercial airline industry, as controversies involving plane makers (like Boeing) have broken into the news cycle. In 2023, the New York Times claimed that “near collisions” between commercial jets happen on a near-weekly basis. One of the key issues impacting airline safety has been adequate staffing of air traffic control towers. A report released by the National Academies of Sciences states that a small percentage of the FAA’s air traffic control centers are overstaffed, leading to staffing shortages at other locations.

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    Lucas Ropek

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  • It Looks a Lot Like Taylor Swift Had Two Private Jets for Her Super Bowl Flight

    It Looks a Lot Like Taylor Swift Had Two Private Jets for Her Super Bowl Flight

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    Flying from Tokyo, Japan back to the U.S. to get to the Super Bowl and watch her boyfriend Travis Kelce play was very important to pop superstar Taylor Swift—so important that she apparently had a second private jet on standby.

    What to Watch For: Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” What to Watch For: Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” vinyl sales

    The existence of a second private jet for Swift, who was in Tokyo giving a series of concerts, was reported on Saturday by FlightRadar24, a global flight tracking service, and aptly named “Backup Quarterback” on its website. Jason Rabinowitz, co-host of FlightRadar24’s AvTalk podcast, added that private jet operator VistaJet had mechanics on standby at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in case something went wrong.

    “The logistics of flying #TaylorSwift across the planet to a football game is quite a production,” Rabinowitz said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “I’m told @vistajet didn’t just have mechanics at HND [the Haneda Airport code] in case anything broke, it had a whole second jet there on standby. Basically, a private Air Force One.”

    Rabinowitz told Gizmodo he was told about the second jet, a Bombardier Global 6000 with call sign VTJ968, from friends in the private jet industry who have access to the information, but he declined to be more specific. Gizmodo reached out to Swift’s team and VistaJet for comment on the purported second jet but did not receive a response.

    Luckily, there was nothing wrong with the first jet, also a Bombardier Global 6000 with call sign VJT993, which FlightRadar24 named “The Football Era.” But how can we be sure this was Swift’s flight? Ian Petchenik, FlightRadar24’s communications director, told Gizmodo in an email that while they couldn’t confirm whether she boarded the plane, the team had a “high degree of confidence” that this was her flight based on the information they had received.

    VJT993 departed Tokyo at 11:36 p.m. local time and is set to arrive in Los Angeles at 3:27 p.m. local time Saturday, giving her plenty of time to get to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl on Sunday. An average of 6,000 people monitored Swift’s 9-hour flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles on Saturday at any given moment, Petchenik said. In the final hour of the flight, Gizmodo confirmed that were there more than 10,400 people monitoring the flight live.

    As for the “Backup Quarterback,” also known as VTJ968, it appeared to take off in the opposite direction after Swift’s flight took off.

    If a second jet for Swift was indeed on-site in Tokyo, that would take her carbon footprint to an entirely new level. It’s one thing to lend out your private plane to your friends or use it to go see your boyfriend, but it’s another thing entirely to have a second plane fly out just in case the first one breaks and then send it back empty.



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    Jody Serrano

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  • John F. Kennedy Assassination Fast Facts | CNN

    John F. Kennedy Assassination Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s some background information about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

    November 22, 1963
    – 11:37 a.m. – Air Force One arrives at Dallas’ Love Field with the President and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John B. Connally Jr. and his wife, Idanell Connally. Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, arrive in a separate plane. It is a campaign trip for the coming 1964 election, although not officially designated as such.

    During a 10-mile tour of Dallas, the President and Mrs. Kennedy and the governor and Mrs. Connally ride in an open convertible limousine. The motorcade is on the way to the Trade Mart where the President is to speak at a sold-out luncheon.

    – 12:30 p.m. – As the President’s limousine passes the Texas School Book Depository, shots are fired from a sixth-floor window.

    President Kennedy and Governor Connally are both wounded and are rushed to Parkland Hospital.

    Wire services report three shots were fired as the motorcade passed under Stemmons Freeway. Two bullets hit the President and one hit the Governor.

    Emergency efforts by Drs. Malcolm Perry, Kemp Clark and others are unsuccessful at reviving the president. Governor Connally’s injuries are critical but not fatal. From one bullet, he sustains three broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken wrist. The bullet finally lodged in his left thigh.

    – 12:36 p.m. – The ABC radio network broadcasts the first nationwide news bulletin reporting that shots have been fired at the Kennedy motorcade.

    – 12:40 p.m. – The CBS television network broadcasts the first nationwide TV news bulletin also reporting on the shooting.

    – 1:00 p.m. – Kennedy is pronounced dead by Parkland Hospital doctors, becoming the fourth US president killed in office.

    – 1:07 p.m. – News of the shooting causes the New York Stock Exchange to halt trading after an $11 million flood of sell orders.

    – 1:15 p.m. – Lee Harvey Oswald kills Dallas Police Patrolman J.D. Tippit approximately 45 minutes after the assassination.

    – 2:00 p.m. – A bronze casket carrying the President’s body, accompanied by Mrs. Kennedy and the Johnsons, leaves Parkland Hospital for Air Force One.

    – 2:15 p.m. – Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, is arrested in the back of a movie theater where he fled after shooting Tippit.

    – 2:39 p.m. – Johnson is sworn in on the runway of Love Field aboard Air Force One. Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes, of the Northern District of Texas, administers the oath of office. Witnesses include Jacqueline Kennedy and Johnson’s wife.

    – 5:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. ET) – Air Force One arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. The coffin bearing the President’s body is taken by ambulance to Bethesda Naval Hospital for an autopsy. The flag-draped coffin is taken to the East Room of the White House early the next morning following the autopsy.

    – 7:15 p.m. – Oswald is arraigned for the murder of Tippit.

    November 22-25, 1963 – Major television and radio networks devote continuous news coverage to ongoing events associated with the President’s assassination, canceling all entertainment and all commercials. Many theaters, stores and businesses, including the stock exchanges and government offices, are closed through November 25.

    November 23, 1963 – Oswald is arraigned for the murder of the president.

    November 23, 1963 – Johnson designates November 25 as a day of national mourning.

    November 24, 1963 – As Oswald is being transferred from the Dallas city jail to the county jail, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shoots and kills him. The shooting is inadvertently shown live on TV. Ruby is immediately arrested.

    November 24-25, 1963 – Kennedy’s flag-draped casket lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

    November 25, 1963 – Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors and representatives from more than 90 countries in attendance.

    November 26, 1963 – Ruby is indicted in Dallas for the murder of Oswald. He is later convicted, has the conviction overturned on appeal, and dies of cancer in 1967 awaiting a new trial.

    November 29, 1963 – Johnson appoints the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. Commonly called the Warren Commission, its purpose is to investigate the assassination.

    September 24, 1964 – The Warren Report is released with the following conclusions: “The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository.” And: “The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.”

    October 26,1992 – President George H.W. Bush signs the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act into law. The law directs the National Archives to establish a collection of records consisting of any materials, by any state or federal agency, that were created during the federal inquiry into the assassination.

    October 26, 2017 – The US government releases more than 2,800 records relating to Kennedy’s assassination in an effort to comply with a 1992 law mandating the documents’ release. President Donald Trump keeps roughly 300 files classified out of concern for US national security, law enforcement and foreign relations. In a memo, Trump directs agencies that requested redactions to re-review their reasons for keeping the records secret within 180 days.

    April 26, 2018 – Trump extends to 2021 the deadline for the public release of files related to the assassination. More than 19,000 documents are released by the National Archives, in compliance with the records law and Trump’s 2017 order.

    October 22, 2021 – The White House announces that it will further postpone the release of more documents related to the assassination, pointing to the “significant impact” of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    December 15, 2021 – The National Archives releases almost 1,500 previously classified documents related to the assassination.

    December 15, 2022 – The National Archives releases over 13,000 previously classified documents collected as part of the government review into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

    June 30, 2023 – The White House announces the National Archives has concluded its review of the classified documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy, with 99% of the records having been made publicly available.

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