(Reuters) — Amazon is planning to end its long-standing tie-up with the U.S. Postal Service as the e-commerce giant prepares to expand its nationwide delivery network, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.
The online retailer has long been the top customer for USPS, providing more than $6 billion in annual revenue in 2025, the report said. Losing its business would be a major blow to the independent government agency that has been hit by an 80% decline in first-class mail volume since 1997.
For Amazon, building out its delivery network would bolster its standing in a parcel industry where it is already a major player thanks to its sprawling warehouse network and a largely non-union workforce that has allowed it to control costs.
Last year, Amazon Logistics handled 6.3 billion parcels, just behind the 6.9 billion handled by USPS, according to Pitney Bowes&#8217; parcel shipping index. The company is expected to overtake USPS in parcels by 2028, the data showed, a milestone it could hit sooner if the tie-up ends.
The retailer plans to pull the billions of packages it sends through USPS by the end of 2026, although the plans are not final and could change, the Washington Post report said.
AMAZON&#8217;S DELIVERY NETWORK EXPANSION
The company has already pledged more than $4 billion in April to expand its U.S. rural delivery network by the end of next year.
&#8220;Amazon has been building its distribution capabilities for several years and now has minimal reliance on other logistics companies,&#8221; said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria, adding that the company was in a position to be &#8220;almost entirely self-reliant.&#8221;
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Still, the expansion of the delivery network will require more resources at a time when Amazon is pouring tens of billions of dollars on data centers to stay competitive in the artificial intelligence race.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Amazon said it wants to reach an agreement with USPS, while the agency did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
TOUGH TALKS
The plans to end the tie-up follow talks between Amazon and USPS over &#8220;negotiated service agreements&#8221; — contracts that lock in rates and speed deliveries for the agency&#8217;s biggest customers — which largely ended without a new deal, the report said.
Those agreements have largely favored big companies over individual retailers and small businesses, but Postmaster General David Steiner, appointed earlier this year, has said he wants to democratize them by opening them up to smaller-scale customers, the report added.
He plans to run a reverse auction early next year, offering access to postal facilities to the highest bidder rather than directly to Amazon, a proposal that largely ended the talks that had been under way since February, the report said.
Steiner met virtually with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on November 14, according to the report.
USPS, which posted a $9.5 billion loss last year as electronic communications erode mail volumes and private rivals expand their footprint, has also drawn the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump said in February he was considering merging USPS — which he called &#8220;a tremendous loser for this country&#8221; — with the Commerce Department, a move Democrats said would violate federal law.
&#8220;USPS needs Amazon a lot more than Amazon needs USPS,&#8221; said New York-based ecommerce analyst Juozas Kaziukenas. &#8220;Amazon has all the cards in their hands in this case.&#8221;
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Arnav Mishra, Helen Reid and Ruchika Khanna; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Leroy Leo)

Amazon

Amazon Plans To Cut Ties With U.S. Postal Service As It Builds Its Own Network

Economy

United States Postal Service (USPS)

Meta shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook and Instagram after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health, according to unredacted filings in a class action by U.S. school districts against Meta and other social media platforms.
In a 2020 research project code-named “Project Mercury,” Meta scientists worked with survey firm Nielsen to gauge the effect of “deactivating” Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta documents obtained via discovery. To the company’s disappointment, “people who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness and social comparison,” internal documents said.
Rather than publishing those findings or pursuing additional research, the filing states, Meta called off further work and internally declared that the negative study findings were tainted by the “existing media narrative” around the company.
Privately, however, staff assured Nick Clegg, Meta’s then-head of global public policy, that the conclusions of the research were valid.
“The Nielsen study does show causal impact on social comparison,” (unhappy face emoji), an unnamed staff researcher allegedly wrote. Another staffer worried that keeping quiet about negative findings would be akin to the tobacco industry “doing research and knowing cigs were bad and then keeping that info to themselves.”
Despite Meta’s own work documenting a causal link between its products and negative mental health effects, the filing alleges, Meta told Congress that it had no ability to quantify whether its products were harmful to teenage girls.
In a statement Saturday, Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the study was stopped because its methodology was flawed and that it worked diligently to improve the safety of its products.
“The full record will show that for over a decade, we have listened to parents, researched issues that matter most, and made real changes to protect teens,” he said.
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The allegation of Meta burying evidence of social media harms is just one of many in a late Friday filing by Motley Rice, a law firm suing Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat on behalf of school districts around the country. Broadly, the plaintiffs argue the companies have intentionally hidden the internally recognized risks of their products from users, parents and teachers.
TikTok, Google and Snapchat did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Allegations against Meta and its rivals include tacitly encouraging children below the age of 13 to use their platforms, failing to address child sexual abuse content and seeking to expand the use of social media products by teenagers while they were at school. The plaintiffs also allege that the platforms attempted to pay child-focused organizations to defend the safety of their products in public.
In one instance, TikTok sponsored the National PTA and then internally boasted about its ability to influence the child-focused organization. Per the filing, TikTok officials said the PTA would “do whatever we want going forward in the fall… (t)hey’ll announce things publicly(,), (t)heir CEO will do press statements for us.”
By and large, however, the allegations against the other social media platforms are less detailed than those against Meta. The internal documents cited by the plaintiffs allege:
1. Meta intentionally designed its youth safety features to be ineffective and rarely used, and blocked testing of safety features that it feared might be harmful to growth. 2. Meta required users to be caught 17 times attempting to traffic people for sex before it would remove them from its platform, which a document described as “a very, very, very high strike threshold.&#8221; 3. Meta recognized that optimizing its products to increase teen engagement resulted in serving them more harmful content, but did so anyway. 4. Meta stalled internal efforts to prevent child predators from contacting minors for years due to growth concerns, and pressured safety staff to circulate arguments justifying its decision not to act. 5. In a text message in 2021, Mark Zuckerberg said that he wouldn’t say that child safety was his top concern “when I have a number of other areas I’m more focused on like building the metaverse.” Zuckerberg also shot down or ignored requests by Clegg to better fund child safety work.
Meta’s Stone disputed these allegations, saying the company’s teen safety measures are effective and that the company’s current policy is to remove accounts as soon as they are flagged for sex trafficking.
He said the suit misrepresents its efforts to build safety features for teens and parents, and called its safety work “broadly effective.”
&#8220;We strongly disagree with these allegations, which rely on cherry-picked quotes and misinformed opinions,” Stone said.
The underlying Meta documents cited in the filing are not public, and Meta is opposing their unsealing.
A hearing regarding the filing is set for January 26 in Northern California District Court.
(Reporting by Jeff Horwitz in San Francisco; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

FILE PHOTO: Illustration shows Meta logo

Meta Buried ‘Causal’ Evidence Of Social Media Harm, U.S. Court Filings Allege

Courts

Social Media

TikTok

U.S.

Jamaica has declared an outbreak of the bacterial disease leptospirosis, suspected of causing six deaths, following the devastation from Hurricane Melissa in late October.
The Category 5 hurricane slammed into the Caribbean island on October 28, causing catastrophic flooding and landslides with some 30 inches (76 cm) of rain. The resulting stagnant, contaminated water has created a breeding ground for the disease, officials said.
Health Minister Christopher Tufton announced on Friday that nine cases were confirmed between October 30 and November 20, with 28 additional suspected cases.
Leptospirosis is spread through water or soil contaminated by the urine of infected animals, such as rodents. The infection can enter the human body through cuts in the skin or through the eyes, nose and mouth.
While initial symptoms such as fever, headache and muscle aches can be mistaken for the flu, the disease can progress to a severe and potentially fatal form. It can cause kidney failure, liver damage, meningitis and severe internal bleeding.
&#8220;The outbreak follows the passage of the storm which has created conditions that have increased the risk of exposure to contaminated water and soil,&#8221; Tufton said at a press conference.
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He warned that anyone coming into contact with floodwaters could be at risk, including &#8220;farmers, persons engaged in cleanup activities, emergency responders and others navigating flood areas.&#8221;
Hurricane Melissa left an estimated $10 billion in damages, according to Jamaican officials, hobbling the nation&#8217;s key tourism and agriculture sectors and damaging nearly 200,000 buildings.
(Reporting by Zahra Burton; Writing by Iñigo Alexander; Editing by Kylie Madry and Bill Berkrot)

Jamaica

Jamaica Reports Deadly Disease Outbreak After Hurricane Melissa

Disease

Hurricane Melissa

Severe Weather

World

Tyson Foods will close a major beef plant in Lexington, Nebraska, with about 3,200 employees in January after U.S. cattle supplies dropped to their lowest level in nearly 75 years, the meatpacker said on Friday.
The closure in the heart of cattle-feeding country signaled that supplies will remain tight, forcing meatpackers to pay steep prices for cattle to process into steaks and hamburgers.
Beef prices have set records due to low supplies and strong demand, raising costs for consumers. President Donald Trump said last month that he was working to bring down prices.
Tyson said it will also reduce operations at a beef plant in Amarillo, Texas, to a single, full-capacity shift, affecting about 1,700 workers.
&#8220;Tyson Foods recognizes the impact these decisions have on team members and the communities where we operate,&#8221; the company said in a statement.
Tyson said the changes were expected around January 20 and that it will increase production at other facilities to meet customer demand.
Beef prices soared this year as cattle supplies dwindled and meatpackers increasingly competed for limited supplies of livestock.
Ranchers slashed their herds after a years-long drought burned up pasture lands and hiked feeding costs. Some have slowly started to rebuild their herds, though it takes at least two years to raise full-grown cattle.
Tyson&#8217;s beef business suffered adjusted losses of $426 million in the 12 months ended on September 27 and $291 million over the previous year. The meatpacker projected the unit will lose $400 million to $600 million in the 2026 fiscal year.
&#8220;We all expected a plant to be closed at some point in 2026,&#8221; said Rich Nelson, chief strategist for Allendale. &#8220;I&#8217;m a little surprised they&#8217;re doing it preemptively.&#8221;
Losses in Tyson&#8217;s beef business were a turnaround from the fat profits it and other processors reaped during the COVID-19 pandemic, when meat prices soared as infections among plant workers slowed output.
The Lexington plant can process roughly 5,000 cattle per day, or about 5% of total U.S. slaughtering, but it has already been operating below capacity, said Matt Wiegand, commodity broker for FuturesOne in Nebraska. Its closure will shock the city of about 10,000 residents and hurt local feedyards that fatten cattle, he said.
&#8220;Tyson&#8217;s announcement will have a devastating impact,&#8221; said U.S. Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska. &#8220;It&#8217;s no secret that just a few years ago, packers like Tyson were making windfall profits while the rest of the industry was continuously in the red.&#8221;
In Amarillo, Tyson&#8217;s plant can slaughter roughly 6,000 cattle per day, according to industry estimates.
The White House had no immediate comment.
Trump has sought to boost beef imports from countries such as Argentina to ease prices for U.S. consumers, angering American ranchers. On Thursday, he removed 40% tariffs he had imposed this summer on Brazilian food products that slowed imports of beef used to make hamburger meat.
Trump has also accused meatpacking companies of driving up U.S. beef prices through manipulation and collusion, and ordered the Justice Department to investigate.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Nia Williams and Bill Berkrot)

Beef

Tyson Foods To Close Major U.S. Beef Plant As Cattle Supplies Dwindle

Food

General

Jobs

The U.S. National Archives on Friday released several batches of records related to the 1937 disappearance of famed aviator Amelia Earhart over the Pacific, following President Donald Trump&#8217;s recent order to declassify and release all such material held by the government.
The release of 4,624 pages of documents, including log books of U.S. military vessels involved in the air-and-sea search for Earhart, was announced by National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard.
Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were last seen taking off in her twin-engine Lockheed Electra airplane on July 2, 1937, from Papua New Guinea en route to Howland Island, some 2,500 miles (4,000 km) away, during an attempt to fly around the world. Radio contact with the plane was lost hours later after Earhart, 39, reported running low on fuel.
A massive naval search, the most extensive ever at that time, was unsuccessful. Earhart&#8217;s fate remains one of the most enduring mysteries of the past 88 years.
In addition to U.S. Navy and Coast Guard reports about the Earhart search were various memos, newspaper clippings, letters and telegrams.
The correspondence included a letter from a woman claiming she had deduced by mental telepathy that Earhart was still alive, one from a man insisting she was buried in Spain and a series of government telegrams and memos discounting rumors that Earhart had been taken captive by Japanese forces and executed.
The National Archives said more records would be digitized and posted on a rolling basis.
The fate of Earhart and Noonan remains an open question. But researchers from the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery have pieced together evidence suggesting the pair died as castaways on the tiny coral atoll of Nikumaroro, in the Kiribati islands of the western Pacific.
A series of expeditions to that island turned up what appeared to be a jar of anti-freckle cream from the 1930s, bits of clothing, human bone fragments and a pocket knife of the type Earhart carried. A patch of aluminum believed to have come from their plane was also recovered.
In addition, TIGHAR said a sonar image taken from just beyond the shore of the remote atoll revealed what could be a wing or part of the fuselage of Earhart&#8217;s aircraft.
Some 80,000 records pertaining to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released on Trump&#8217;s order in March.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by William Mallard)

Amelia Earhart

National Archives Releases Amelia Earhart Records Promised By Trump

Donald Trump

National Archives

Trump Administration

Tulsi Gabbard

President Donald Trump said on Friday he would likely sue the BBC next week for as much as $5 billion after the British broadcaster admitted it wrongly edited a video of a speech he gave but insisted there was no legal basis for his claim.
The British Broadcasting Corporation has been plunged into its biggest crisis in decades after two senior leaders resigned following accusations of bias, including over the editing of Trump&#8217;s speech on January 6, 2021, when his supporters entered the Capitol.
Trump&#8217;s lawyers had initially set a Friday deadline for the BBC to retract its documentary or face a lawsuit for &#8220;no less&#8221; than $1 billion. They also demanded an apology and compensation for what they called &#8220;overwhelming reputational and financial harm,&#8221; according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The BBC, which has admitted its editing of Trump&#8217;s remarks was an &#8220;error of judgement,&#8221; sent a personal apology to Trump on Thursday but said it would not rebroadcast the documentary and rejected the defamation claim.
&#8220;We&#8217;ll sue them for anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week,&#8221; Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to Florida for the weekend.
&#8220;I think I have to do that, I mean, they&#8217;ve even admitted that they cheated,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They changed the words coming out of my mouth.&#8221;
Trump said he had not spoken with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with whom he has built a solid relationship, about the issue, but that he planned to call him this weekend. He said Starmer had tried to reach him, and was &#8220;very embarrassed&#8221; by the incident.
The documentary, which aired on the BBC&#8217;s flagship &#8220;Panorama&#8221; news program, spliced together three video excerpts from Trump&#8217;s speech, creating the impression he was inciting the January 6, 2021, riot. His lawyers said this was &#8220;false and defamatory.&#8221;
In an interview with British right-leaning TV channel GB News, Trump said the edit was &#8220;impossible to believe&#8221; and compared it to election interference.
&#8220;I made a beautiful statement, and they made it into a not beautiful statement,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Fake news was a great term, except it&#8217;s not strong enough. This is beyond fake, this is corrupt.&#8221;
Trump said the BBC&#8217;s apology was not enough.
&#8220;When you say it&#8217;s unintentional, I guess if it&#8217;s unintentional, you don&#8217;t apologize,&#8221; he said.
BBC Chair Samir Shah sent a personal apology on Thursday to the White House and told lawmakers the edit was &#8220;an error of judgement.&#8221; The following day, British culture minister Lisa Nandy said the apology was &#8220;right and necessary.&#8221;
The broadcaster said it had no plans to rebroadcast the documentary and was investigating fresh allegations about editing practices that included the speech on another program, &#8220;Newsnight.&#8221;
The dispute has escalated into the broadcaster&#8217;s most serious crisis in decades. Its director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness quit this week over the controversy amid allegations of bias and editing failures.
Starmer told parliament on Wednesday he supported a &#8220;strong and independent BBC&#8221; but said the broadcaster must &#8220;get its house in order.&#8221;
&#8220;Some would rather the BBC didn&#8217;t exist. Some of them are sitting up there,&#8221; he said, pointing to opposition Conservative lawmakers.
&#8220;I’m not one of them. In an age of disinformation, the argument for an impartial British news service is stronger than ever.&#8221;
The BBC, founded in 1922 and funded mainly by a compulsory license fee, faces scrutiny over whether public money could be used to settle Trump&#8217;s claim.
Former media minister John Whittingdale said there would be &#8220;real anger&#8221; if license payers&#8217; money covered damages.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Andrea Shalal in Washington, Costas Pitas in Los Angeles and Sam Tabahriti in London; editing by Leslie Adler, Tom Hogue and Shri Navaratnam)

Trump Says He’ll Likely Sue BBC For Up To $5 Billion Over Edited Speech

Media

Media Bias

The United States and Switzerland announced a framework trade agreement on Friday that includes Washington slashing its tariffs on imported Swiss products to 15% from 39% and a pledge by Swiss companies to invest $200 billion in the U.S. by the end of 2028.
The United States and Switzerland, joined by Liechtenstein, aim to conclude negotiations to finalize their trade deal by the first quarter of 2026, the White House said in a statement.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the agreement tears down longstanding trade barriers and opens new markets for American goods. He welcomed &#8220;massive Swiss investment to help reduce our deficit in pharmaceuticals and other key sectors&#8221; that will generate thousands of jobs across the U.S.
At least $67 billion of the $200 billion in pledged Swiss investments in the United States will come in 2026, the White House said in a statement.
The total includes prior U.S. investment commitments including $50 billion from drugmaker Roche and $23 billion from Novartis along with pledges from engineering group ABB railway equipment maker Stadler.
In addition to pharmaceuticals &#8211; Switzerland&#8217;s largest export to the U.S. &#8211; the investments in U.S. production will target medical devices, aerospace and gold manufacturing, the White House said.
&#8220;This agreement puts Switzerland on an equal footing with the European Union and brings the tariff level down from 39% to 15%,&#8221; Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin said in announcing the deal, which affects about 40% of Switzerland&#8217;s exports.
&#8220;Of course, we would prefer (the $200 billion) to be invested in Switzerland,&#8221; Parmelin added. &#8220;And that’s why the Federal Council in parallel is doing everything to see how we can reduce costs for our businesses.&#8221;
The lower tariff rate is likely to be activated within &#8220;days, weeks,&#8221; as soon as the U.S. customs processing systems can be adjusted, said Helene Budliger Artieda, director of Switzerland&#8217;s  State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
The deal guarantees a 15% tariff ceiling for Swiss pharmaceutical producers, limiting the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s forthcoming Section 232 national security duties for the sector, which could reach 100% on certain patented drugs.
Parmelin said the 15% cap would also apply to other future Section 232 duties, including semiconductors, putting key sectors on the same footing as the EU.
&#8220;The risk of much higher sector-specific tariffs is therefore ruled out,&#8221; Parmelin added.
A Swiss government statement said the tariff agreement will reduce Swiss import duties on U.S. industrial products, fish and seafood and agricultural products &#8220;that Switzerland considers non-sensitive.&#8221;
Switzerland will grant the U.S. duty-free bilateral tariff quotas on 500 tons of beef, 1,000 tons of bison meat and 1,500 tons of poultry meat, the government said.
The White House statement said Switzerland agreed to remove a range of tariffs across agricultural and industrial  sectors including certain fresh and dried nuts, fruits, seafood and chemicals.
The White House also said Switzerland will recognize U.S. motor vehicle safety standards, a step toward addressing Trump&#8217;s frequent complaint that European countries do not buy American-made cars and trucks.
Swiss industrial groups welcomed the deal, saying it would put them on a level playing field with competitors from the European Union, which agreed to a 15% tariff on EU exports to the U.S.
&#8220;For the industrial sector, which was subject to a 39% tariff since August 1, this is good news. For the first time, we have the same conditions in the U.S. market as our European competitors,&#8221; said Nicola Tettamanti, president of Swissmechanic, which represents small and medium-sized manufacturers.
Switzerland&#8217;s machinery, precision instruments, watchmaking, and food sectors, which export to the U.S., would see the most relief, said Hans Gersbach, a director of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich.
KOF forecasts Swiss economic growth of 0.9% in 2026, but this would exceed 1% with the lower tariff rate, he added.
Switzerland had a $38.3 billion goods trade surplus with the U.S. in 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. This rose to $55.7 billion in 2025 through July, reflecting primarily the front-loading of U.S. imports from Switzerland during the first quarter, before Trump imposed his &#8220;reciprocal&#8221; tariffs in early April.
Nadia Gharbi, an economist at Swiss bank Pictet, said the tariff reduction removed the main downside risks for the country&#8217;s economy and represents a clearly positive development for Swiss industries and for the overall growth outlook.
&#8220;Under the previous tariff regime, Switzerland suffered a significant loss of competitiveness — not only because of the strength of the Swiss franc, but also because neighboring European economies were subject to tariffs of only around 15%,&#8221; she said.
Swiss industry on Friday reported a 14% fall in exports to the U.S. during the three months through September, technology industry association Swissmem said, while machine tool makers saw shipments slump 43%.
(Reporting by John Revill in Zurich; Additional reporting by Dave Graham in Zurich, Emma Farge and Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva, Miranda Murray in Berlin, and Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Writing by David Lawder and John Revill, Editing by Rod Nickel and Matthew Lewis)

Switzerland Wins Tariff Rate Cut To 15%, Pledges $200 Billion In U.S. Investments

Global Politics

Politics

Switzerland

Tariffs

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it halved a requirement that U.S. airlines reduce domestic flights at 40 major airports from 6% to 3% starting Saturday to address air traffic control safety concerns after the end of the government shutdown.
Airlines have been pushing for the FAA to end the required cuts entirely and were largely not in compliance with the FAA order that required the 6% cut on Friday. It remains to be seen if they will be in compliance with the 3% order.
&#8220;The 3% reduction will remain in place while the FAA monitors system performance throughout the weekend and evaluates whether normal operations can resume,&#8221; the FAA said.
Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, said airlines canceled just 2% of overall flights Friday, down from 3.5% on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, air traffic controllers and other FAA employees began receiving back pay equal to about 70% of what they are owed excluding overtime.
Airlines have been privately making the case to the FAA that it is time to end the cuts and some said earlier they plan to cut few or no flights on Saturday, officials told Reuters.
The FAA opted on Wednesday to ease those required cancellations after disruptions due to air traffic control absences declined dramatically as Congress voted to reopen the government after a 43-day shutdown. The FAA had initially planned to hike the cuts to 8% on Thursday and 10% on Friday.
Separately, a group of House Democrats led by Representative Rick Larsen, the ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, asked the administration on Friday to turn over the specific safety data and how it compares to the last six months.
United Airlines said it had canceled 134 flights for Friday, or almost 3% of its flights, after cancelling 222 flights on Thursday.
The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels. Many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown led to them working without pay.
Air traffic absences led to tens of thousands of flight cancellations and delays since October 1, when the 43-day shutdown began.
(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Nick Zieminski, William Maclean)

Duffy Warns Of Worsening US Flight Delays As Paychecks Run Out

FAA Halves Flight Cuts To 3% After Shutdown Chaos Comes To An End

Air Travel

Congress

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Government Shutdown

UPS and FedEx said on Friday they have grounded their combined fleet of more than 50 McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo planes following a crash in Louisville, Kentucky this week that killed at least 14 people.
A UPS MD-11 crashed late on Tuesday, erupting into a fireball moments after takeoff from Louisville&#8217;s international airport. The death toll from the crash, the cause of which is still under investigation, has risen to 14, according to a post on X by Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg on Friday.
UPS and FedEx, the world&#8217;s largest cargo carriers, said in separate statements that they grounded the aircraft &#8220;out of an abundance of caution.&#8221;
FedEx said it operates 28 MD-11s and, according to a UPS factsheet, UPS had 27 in its fleet prior to the crash.
&#8220;We made this decision proactively at the recommendation of the aircraft manufacturer,&#8221; UPS said in its statement.
Boeing, which acquired the MD-11 program through its 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas, said in an emailed statement it recommended that UPS and FedEx suspend flight operations of the MD-11 freighter.
&#8220;This recommendation was made in an abundance of caution and we will continue coordinating with the FAA on this matter,&#8221; a Boeing spokesperson said.
Production of the MD-11 planes ended in 2000, and passenger service officially ended in 2014.
FedEx, which has a total fleet of 700 aircraft, said it was &#8220;immediately implementing contingency plans&#8221; to avoid disruptions. UPS said that its MD-11s account for only 9% of its fleet.
Still, any potential disruptions could have far-reaching consequences as FedEx and UPS are the workhorses for transferring goods around the world for major retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart, and Target, as well as for manufacturers and businesses.
UPS is the No. 1 air cargo service provider for the U.S. Postal Service, transporting Priority and other speedy mail products.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is leading the probe into the crash of the 34-year-old MD-11 freighter at the Louisville airport. The plane reached about 100 feet (30.5 meters) above ground level before plunging in flames off the runway and destroying two nearby businesses.
One of the plane&#8217;s three engines detached from the left wing as it rolled down the Louisville airport runway.
On Friday, U.S. safety investigators said that as a warning bell sounded in the cockpit, three UPS pilots had tried to wrestle control of the plane just before it crashed.
While UPS flight 2976 began uneventfully, a repeating bell was heard on the aircraft&#8217;s cockpit voice recorder just 37 seconds after the crew called for takeoff thrust, NTSB member Todd Inman told reporters.
NTSB anticipates issuing a preliminary investigation report into the crash in about 30 days.
The last UPS cargo plane to crash was in August 2013, when an Airbus aircraft went down on a landing approach to the international airport in Birmingham, Alabama, killing both crew members.
(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Dheeraj Kumar in Bengaluru and Joe Brock in Los Angeles; Editing by William Mallard, Thomas Derpinghaus and Himani Sarkar)

UPS Plane

UPS And FedEx Ground MD-11 Fleets After Deadly Louisville Crash

FedEx

Kentucky

Louisville

Plane Crash

U.S. airlines and travelers slogged through a second day of flight cuts across the country on Saturday as the government shutdown was expected to drive more cancellations in the days to come.
The Federal Aviation Administration instructed airlines to cut 4% of flights on Saturday at 40 major airports because of the shutdown. The cuts will rise to 6% on Tuesday and then to 10% by November 14.
The cuts, which began at 6 a.m. ET (1100 GMT) on Friday, include about 700 flights from the four largest carriers &#8211; American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.
Airlines will cut fewer flights on Saturday than Friday because of lower overall volume. United will cut 168 flights, down from 184 Friday, while Southwest will cancel just under 100 flights, down from 120.
During the record 39-day government shutdown, 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 security screeners have been forced to work without pay, leading to increased absenteeism. Many air traffic controllers were notified on Thursday that they would receive no compensation for a second pay period next week.
The Trump administration has ramped up pressure on Congressional Democrats to agree to a Republican plan to fund the federal government, which would allow it to reopen.
Raising the specter of dramatic air-travel disruptions is one such effort. Democrats contend Republicans are to blame for the shutdown because they refuse to negotiate over extending health insurance subsidies.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it was possible that he could require 20% cuts in air traffic if things get worse and more controllers do not show up for work.
&#8220;I assess the data,&#8221; Duffy said. &#8220;We&#8217;re going to make decisions based on what we see in the airspace.&#8221;
Separate from the cancellations, absences of air traffic controllers on Friday forced the FAA to delay hundreds of flights at 10 airports including Atlanta, San Francisco, Houston, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., and Newark. More than 5,600 flights were delayed Friday.
Earlier this week, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said 20% to 40% of controllers were not showing up for work on any given day.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)

U.S. Hit With Second Day Of Flight Cuts As Shutdown Drags On

The U.S. is investigating meatpacking companies, the attorney general said on Friday, after President Donald Trump accused the companies of using price manipulation and collusion to drive up beef prices.
The probe shows the Trump administration is seeking to tackle high food prices that have outpaced inflation. The Department of Justice is already probing whether egg producers conspired to inflate the price of eggs.
Beef prices set records in 2025 after a years-long drought burned up pasture lands and hiked feeding costs for cattle, forcing ranchers to slash the nation&#8217;s herd to the smallest level in nearly 75 years. Consumer demand has remained generally strong despite high prices.
&#8220;I have asked the DOJ to immediately begin an investigation into the Meat Packing Companies who are driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation,&#8221; Trump said in a post on Truth Social, without naming companies.
Ranchers have long complained about consolidation in the packing industry, where Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS USA and National Beef Packing Company slaughter about 80% of U.S. grain-fattened cattle that are made into steaks, beef roasts and other cuts of meat.
Cargill declined to comment. Spokespeople for the other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
&#8220;This entire industry is highly concentrated and well beyond the level that&#8217;s normally considered a harm to the economy,&#8221; said Bill Bullard, CEO of cattle producers&#8217; group R-CALF USA.
JBS USA is owned by Brazilian meatpacker JBS, while Brazil&#8217;s Marfrig Global Foods SA holds a controlling stake in National Beef Packing Company.
The administration of former President Joe Biden also blamed meatpacking companies for rising food prices.
Tyson, Cargill and JBS have paid tens of millions of dollars to settle lawsuits accusing the companies of conspiring to inflate U.S. beef prices by restricting supply. They have denied wrongdoing.
The DOJ has already begun an investigation, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, who leads the DOJ&#8217;s antitrust division, are working together on the probe, Bondi said.
The antitrust division has both civil and criminal investigative authority, and can issue subpoenas for documents and witness testimony in its investigations into suspected anticompetitive conduct.
Slater, a former economic adviser to Vice President JD Vance, has said the DOJ&#8217;s antitrust division will focus on &#8220;pocketbook issues&#8221; facing consumers, such as food, housing and transportation.
Bipartisan calls for antitrust enforcement in the packing industry have mounted in recent years.
At a hearing in June, Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, and Cory Booker, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, called for antitrust enforcement in the sector.
&#8220;We need transparency, accountability, and a fair market that rewards those who actually raise and produce our beef — not the corporate middlemen gaming the system,&#8221; Rollins said in a post on X.
Trump recently angered ranchers by urging them to lower cattle prices and suggesting the country could increase low-tariff imports of Argentine beef to lower U.S. beef prices. Economists said increased imports from Argentina would not meaningfully reduce grocery store prices for U.S. consumers.
In August, Trump implemented a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods that has slowed imports of a major source of beef that was mixed with U.S. hamburger meat, further tightening supplies.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, Bhargav Acharya in Toronto, Tom Polansek in Chicago and Jody Godoy in New York; editing by Chris Sanders, Costas Pitas, Rod Nickel)

Justice Dept Probes Meatpackers Over ‘Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing’ Driving Up Prices

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Department of Justice

Executive

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Saturday took aim at Beijing over an increase in &#8220;destabilising actions&#8221; in the South China Sea and committed to support Southeast Asian countries with technology to help them respond jointly to Chinese threats.
On a second day in Kuala Lumpur packed with meetings that included multilateral talks with allies Australia, Japan and the Philippines, Hegseth proposed to ASEAN defence ministers the building of shared maritime domain awareness and said China had shown a lack of respect and threatened their territorial sovereignty.
&#8220;You live it on the threats we all face from China&#8217;s aggression and course of actions in the South China Sea and elsewhere,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;We need to develop our joint capabilities to respond, and this includes being able to monitor maritime conduct and develop the tools that allow us to respond quickly &#8230; ensuring that whoever is on the receiving end of aggression and provocation is then, therefore, by definition, not alone.&#8221;
&#8220;No one can innovate and scale like the United States of America, and we&#8217;re eager to share those capabilities with allies and partners,&#8221; Hegseth added.
Hegseth&#8217;s remarks came a day after the armed forces of Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and the U.S. held a drill in the South China Sea, a patrol that a Chinese military spokesperson said &#8220;seriously undermined peace and stability.&#8221;
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea via a line on its maps that overlaps with parts of the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
China has deployed an armada of coast guard vessels hundreds of kilometers off its mainland that has repeatedly clashed with vessels of the Philippines and been accused of disrupting energy activities of Malaysia and Vietnam.
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Beijing denies acting aggressively and says its coast guard has operated professionally in defending Chinese territory from incursions.
On Friday, its Defense Minister Dong Jun said it was necessary for China and ASEAN to work together to &#8220;pool Eastern strength&#8221; and safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.
Hegseth&#8217;s visit to Southeast Asia came soon after U.S. President Donald Trump announced on social media that he had asked the U.S. military to &#8220;start testing our Nuclear Weapons,&#8221; after a halt for 33 years, a move that appeared to be a message to rival nuclear powers China and Russia.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump meant nuclear-explosive testing, which would be carried out by the National Nuclear Security Administration, or flight testing of nuclear-capable missiles.
Asked by reporters what kind of testing Trump was referring to, Hegseth said his department would comment later, adding: &#8220;We have very capable nuclear capabilities, and testing them is only prudent.&#8221;
In addressing the defense ministers&#8217; forum, Hegseth touted Washington&#8217;s peace credentials and said the U.S. was dedicated to building a military &#8220;unmatched in global power,&#8221; while stressing its commitment to allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.
He said U.S. dialogue with China was important and the opportunity to talk to his Chinese counterpart on Friday was of value, but warned Beijing&#8217;s actions must be watched closely.
&#8220;We seek peace. We do not seek conflict, but we must ensure that China is not seeking to dominate you or anybody else,&#8221; Hegseth told ASEAN counterparts.
(Reporting by Danial Azhar and Mandy Leong. Writing by Martin Petty. Editing by Mark Potter)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Testifies In Senate Hearing

Hegseth Says U.S. Ready To Share Tools To Help Allies Counter ‘Aggressive’ China

Communist China

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Pete Hegseth

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