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Venezuela on Monday rejected a US terrorist designation of an alleged drug cartel as a "ridiculous lie" amid a major American military buildup in Caribbean waters."Venezuela categorically, firmly, and absolutely rejects the new and ridiculous lie from the Secretary of the Department of State, Marco Rubio, who designates the alleged Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organisation... to justify an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.Washington's listing of the "Cartel de los Soles" (Cartel of the Suns) as a foreign terrorist organiSation officially took effect on Monday, opening the door to new forms of US pressure on leftist President Nicolas Maduro.US President Donald Trump's administration alleges that the shadowy group is run by Maduro. No evidence has been made public to support the accusation of Maduro's involvement in the group.The designation is part of a US campaign against drugs and illegal immigration from Latin America.The US has deployed the world's largest aircraft carrier and other military forces in Caribbean waters as part of the Trump administration's anti-drugs campaign, but officials in Caracas suspect that the United States is mounting an operation to topple Maduro, Venezuela's leftist leader.US forces have killed at least 83 people in air strikes on boats accused of ferrying drugs in international waters since September, according to an AFP tally of publicly released figures. But no evidence has been made public that drugs were in the boats.However, with a major military presence now deployed in the Caribbean, including an aircraft carrier, the FTO designation will give legal cover for more pressure on the Venezuelan authorities.The Cartel of the Suns is responsible for "terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere," Rubio said on November 16.The Trump administration has been vague about how far it is willing to go in Venezuela, but the huge military build-up and regular killings of people in small boats have rattled nerves -- and prompted concerns in Washington that the US military may be breaking the law.On Saturday, six airlines announced they were canceling flights to Venezuela due to safety concerns.The US Federal Aviation Administration on Friday urged civilian aircraft in Venezuelan airspace to "exercise caution" due to the "worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela."

The Federal Aviation Administration resumed traffic at Reagan Washington National Airport on Tuesday after briefly halting operations because of a bomb threat against a United Airlines plane.The FAA said operations were resuming after earlier issuing a ground stop due to a reported security issue. Passengers were removed from the plane, and the aircraft was moved away from the terminal while authorities investigated.A person briefed on the matter said a bomb threat had been made against the plane and in an abundance of caution the plane was being checked.United referred questions to the FBI. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Reagan Airport is just five miles from the White House and U.S. Capitol and the FAA imposes special security restrictions around the airspace.FlightRadar24, a flight tracking site, said the issue was prompted by an unconfirmed threat against a United flight that had arrived from Houston.More than 190 flights have already been delayed at Reagan Airport, according to FlightAware.

A number of Palestinian factions, during a meeting in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, have affirmed their support for and continued implementation of the ceasefire agreement measures in the Gaza Strip.These measures include the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Strip, the complete lifting of the blockade imposed on it, the opening of all crossings, including the Rafah crossing, the entry of all humanitarian and health supplies, and the initiation of a comprehensive reconstruction process that will restore normal life to the Strip and end the suffering of its residents.The factions explained in a statement Friday that their meeting in Cairo came at the invitation of Egypt, complementing the efforts of mediators in Qatar, Egypt, and Turkiye to stop the war on Gaza and address its repercussions.The statement noted that the meeting aimed to discuss developments in the Palestinian issue and the second phase of US President Donald Trump's plan to stop the war on the Gaza Strip, as part of the preparations for holding a comprehensive national dialogue to protect the Palestinian national project.According to the statement, the attendees expressed their appreciation for Arab, Islamic, and international efforts, including those of President Trump, to halt the war on Gaza.They emphasised that the current phase requires a unified national stance and a political vision based on unity of voice and destiny, and the rejection of all forms of annexation and displacement in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem.They also condemned the Israeli parliament's (the Knesset) approval of the preliminary reading of the "Applying Israeli Sovereignty to the West Bank" law, considering it a dangerous aggression against Palestinian identity and existence.They also praised the US president's decision to halt this move and his promise not to repeat it. They emphasised that Palestinian national unity is the decisive response to these policies and the need to take all necessary steps to achieve this.The statement indicated that the attendees agreed to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to an interim Palestinian committee composed of independent "technocrats" from the Gaza Strip.This committee will be responsible for managing daily life and basic services in co-operation with Arab partners and international institutions, based on transparency and national accountability.They also agreed to establish an international committee to oversee the funding and implementation of the Gaza Strip's reconstruction, while emphasising the unity of the Palestinian political system and independent national decision-making.They also agreed to take all necessary measures to maintain security and stability in the Gaza Strip, stressing the importance of issuing a UN resolution regarding the interim UN force to monitor the ceasefire.They called for an end to all forms of torture and violations against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, and stressed the need to hold the occupation to relevant international laws and conventions. They emphasised that the issue of prisoners will remain a top priority until their freedom is achieved.The Palestinian factions affirmed their continued joint efforts to unify visions and positions to confront the challenges facing the Palestinian cause, including calling for an urgent meeting of all Palestinian forces and factions to agree on a national strategy and revitalise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to include all components of the Palestinian people and its vital forces.The participants pledged to "make this meeting a true turning point toward national unity in defense of the Palestinian people and their right to life, dignity, and freedom, and to safeguard the trust of the Palestinian cause and the rights of future generations, as well as their right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, while ensuring the right of return for Palestinian refugees."

The US administration will start mass layoffs of federal workers if President Donald Trump decides negotiations with congressional Democrats to end a partial government shutdown are "absolutely going nowhere," a senior White House official said on Sunday. As the shutdown entered its fifth day, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNN he still saw a chance that Democrats would back down, averting a costly shutdown and federal employee layoffs that have been threatened by White House budget director Russell Vought. "President Trump and Russ Vought are lining things up and getting ready to act if they have to, but hoping that they don't," Hassett said. Later on Sunday, Trump was asked by reporters when the administration would begin laying off federal workers. Trump responded, without elaborating: "It's taking place right now." No tangible progress has been reported in negotiations between congressional leaders and the White House since their meeting last week. The shutdown began on October 1, marking the start of the 2026 fiscal year, after Senate Democrats rejected a short-term funding measure to keep federal agencies operating through November 21. On Monday, the Senate is scheduled to vote for the fifth time on the stopgap funding bill previously approved by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, as well as on a Democratic alternative. Neither measure is expected to secure the 60 votes required to advance. With Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate and one GOP lawmaker opposed to the House bill, party leaders would need at least eight Democrats to support the measure, but only three have done so thus far.

One of Afghanistan's worst earthquakes killed more than 800 people and injured at least 2,800, authorities said Monday, as rescuers struggled to reach remote areas due to rough mountainous terrain and inclement weather.The disaster will further stretch the resources of the war-torn nation's Taliban administration, already grappling with crises ranging from a sharp drop in foreign aid to deportations of hundreds of thousands of Afghans by neighbouring countries.Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the health ministry in Kabul, called for international aid to tackle the devastation wrought by the quake of magnitude 6 that struck around midnight local time, at a depth of 10km (6 miles)."We need it because here lots of people lost their lives and houses," he told Reuters.The quake killed 812 people in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, administration spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said.Ziaul Haq Mohammadi, a student at Al-Falah University in the eastern city of Jalalabad, was studying in his room at home when the quake struck. He said he tried to stand up but was knocked over by the power of the tremor."We spent the whole night in fear and anxiety because at any moment another earthquake could happen," Mohammadi said.Rescuers were battling to reach remote mountainous areas cut off from mobile networks along the Pakistani border, where mudbrick homes dotting the slopes collapsed in the quake."The area of the earthquake was affected by heavy rain in the last 24-48 hours as well, so the risk of landslides and rock slides is also quite significant — that is why many of the roads are impassable," Kate Carey, an officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), told Reuters.Rescue teams and authorities are trying to dispose of animal carcasses quickly so as to minimise the risk of contamination to water resources, Carey said.Casualties could rise as rescue teams access more isolated locations, authorities said."All our ... teams have been mobilised to accelerate assistance, so that comprehensive and full support can be provided," said health ministry spokesperson Abdul Maten Qanee, citing efforts in areas from security to food and health.Reuters Television images showed helicopters ferrying out the affected, while residents helped security forces and medics carry the wounded to ambulances in an area with a long history of earthquakes and floods.Military rescue teams fanned out across the region, the defence ministry said, with 40 flights carrying away 420 wounded and dead.The quake razed three villages in Kunar, with substantial damage in many others, authorities said. At least 610 people were killed in Kunar with 12 dead in Nangarhar, they added.Some villagers sat weeping amid the piled ruins of their homes. Others began laboriously clearing the debris by hand, or carried out the injured on makeshift stretchers."This is Mazar Dara in Nurgal district. The entire village has been destroyed,” one victim told reporters. "Children and elders are trapped under the rubble. We need urgent help.”Another survivor said: "We need ambulances, we need doctors, we need everything to rescue the injured and recover the dead.”It was Afghanistan's third major deadly quake since the Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign forces withdrew, triggering a cut to the international funding that formed the bulk of government finances.Diplomats and aid officials say crises elsewhere in the world, along with donor frustration over the Taliban's policies towards women, including curbs on those who are aid workers, have spurred the cuts in funding.Even humanitarian aid, aimed at bypassing political institutions to serve urgent needs, has shrunk to $767 million this year, down from $3.8bn in 2022.Humanitarian agencies say they are fighting a forgotten crisis in Afghanistan, where the United Nations estimates more than half the population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid."So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work," a spokesperson of Afghanistan's foreign office said on Monday.Later, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry said it was ready to provide disaster relief assistance "according to Afghanistan's needs and within its capacity".Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar of India said it had delivered 1,000 family tents to Kabul and was moving 15 tonnes of food material to Kunar, with more relief material to be sent from India starting on Tuesday.The US State Department's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs posted its condolences on X yesternday for the loss of life in the earthquake, but did not immediately respond when asked if the United States would provide any assistance.Afghanistan has been badly affected since US President Donald Trump's administration in January began slashing funding to its humanitarian arm, USAID, and aid programmes worldwide as part of a broader plan to end what it deems wasteful spending.UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said its mission in Afghanistan was preparing to help those in areas devastated by the quake. Pope Leo also sent condolences for the dead.Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.A 6.1-magnitude earthquake that killed 1,000 people in the eastern region in 2022 was the first major natural disaster faced by the Taliban government.

The shortage of air traffic controllers keeping watch over America’s skies prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to embark on a massive recruitment drive.Now, the FAA has another problem: There are not enough instructors to teach all those new recruits the ropes.Teachers at the FAA’s training academy in Oklahoma City, mostly retired former controllers in their 60s, are increasingly required to work from 7am to midnight, powering through with endless cups of coffee they pay for themselves.Although a new labour contract has boosted instructors’ pay and benefits somewhat — many work part time, earning about $46 an hour — their daily grind isn’t getting any easier as an influx of fresh recruits into the academy has put additional strain on teachers, according to shift schedules and emails obtained by Bloomberg News and interviews with eight current academy instructors who requested anonymity as they’re not authorised to speak to the media.July saw the highest number of academy students in the FAA’s history (550), and August and September could top that. Schedules obtained by Bloomberg News show a sharp rise in the number of double shifts required for instructors, most of whom who are employed by the federal contractor Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), not by the FAA. They teach aviation basics, complex air-traffic scenarios and other courses during the recruits’ two months of training.On March 6, for example, just six of the 105 instructors who teach one facet of the academy curriculum and were on duty that day had a double shift. A preliminary schedule for September 2, distributed in late August, showed 42 instructors from the same group assigned to doubles. (That figure could change slightly as schedules get finalised.) While some instructors request double shifts, in order to make as much money as possible in a short period of time, others refuse.“Due to the surge in hiring for the last 4-5 months of FY25, we will be averaging significantly higher student requirements,” Richard Klumpp, a program management senior director at SAIC, said in a July 30 email viewed by Bloomberg News. “We have way more work than we have instructor availability in September thru mid-December.”In the email, Klumpp also expressed his “concern” in having enough instructors “to help reduce the doubles load on the team.” That load results in some instructors “walking around like zombies,” according to one instructor. A spokesperson for SAIC declined to comment.Some of the instructors who spoke to Bloomberg News said they decline to work double shifts out of concern for their physical and mental health. (At least one teacher at the academy is well into his 80s.) Many of them said they don’t need the extra money, as they earned six-figure salaries before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56 for air traffic controllers and are financially secure. They teach because they enjoy the job and the camaraderie among instructors, or simply to ward off boredom.“Most of the people who work choose to, it’s not because they have to,” said Andrew Hudson, a financial adviser who works almost exclusively with air traffic controllers. “These people just don’t want to sit around all day.”The FAA was short about 3,900 certified air traffic controllers at the close of its 2024 fiscal year in October, and has said it anticipates it will hire about 2,000 controllers this fiscal year after speeding up the hiring process and boosting salaries for trainees. It expects to hire at least 8,900 controllers through 2028, but admitted in a recent workforce report that “the number of instructors at the FAA Academy creates a practical limit” on the number of trainees that can move through the system.US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said he wants to plug the gaps in instructors amid the surge of trainees by using teaching assistants and other “expert educators” who aren’t former controllers. Those other instructors will begin work in a few months after getting hired and trained. The FAA has research showing they can perform the job just as well as former air traffic controllers, but declined to share it.Several longtime instructors, though, said those substitutes can’t provide the know-how that only comes from years of experience as a controller. Academy classes include basic tabletop exercises with model planes along with more technical instruction on the FAA’s air-traffic tracking and management system, known as ERAM. The FAA is also reviewing the academy curriculum, and could make changes that would reduce the number of instructors required for some courses.Some instructors have recently quit, others are considering doing so, and replenishing the ranks isn’t easy as there’s often little incentive for retired controllers to commute back and forth every few months from, say, Florida or New York, to Oklahoma City. Although instructors say they enjoy teaching the next generation of controllers, persuading former colleagues to ditch their grandkids and golf courses to join them can be a significant recruitment challenge.The previous collective bargaining agreement between SAIC and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union that represents 317 academy instructors, provided a $60 daily reimbursement for those who didn’t live in Oklahoma City. But that amount only went so far, leading many instructors to rent an apartment in Walnut Gardens, about a 30-minute drive to the FAA Academy.The new labour agreement raises the daily reimbursement to $90 in January and provides 3% wage increases annually over the three-year contract, which works out to an additional $1.40 or so per hour from the $46.73 per hour many instructors earn now. (Those who teach basic courses make less.) The IAM called it a “major step forward” but said “we still have some work to do to help us recruit and retain instructors while improving quality of life for a workforce that has carried a heavy load to meet the mission.”Instructors who work double shifts often don’t get to sleep until 1am, then might need to get back up around 5am to get to the academy during rush hour for a morning class, or another double shift. Many admitted that it’s impossible to give students their“The thing nobody knows about us is we’re all voluntary — we do not have to be here,” one instructor said. “I can quit today and I’m done.”