Top 5 US news stories

Two Years After War, Israel Emerges Stronger, More Isolated as U.S. Support Wanes

Air Traffic Controller Shortages Amid Shutdown Cause Flight Delays in New York, Denver, Los Angeles

Gallup: Just 28% of Americans Trust Mass Media, an All-Time Low

Cities Grapple With Vacant Historic Buildings Too Expensive to Save, Too Prominent to Demolish

U.S. Trio Wins Nobel Prize in Physics for Quantum Discoveries

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…US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENTERS 7th DAY…

1. Two Years After War, Israel Emerges Stronger, More Isolated as U.S. Support Wanes

A. Two years after deadly Hamas attacks triggered wars across the Middle East, negotiators are gathering in Egypt to try to end the bloodshed with a hostage deal and an Israeli pullback from the devastated Gaza Strip. Israel is emerging from the carnage as the regional hegemon with a string of military victories. But the country’s fight against Palestinian militant group Hamas also has left it increasingly politically isolated and at risk of losing long-term Western support that has been vital to its survival. The deaths of more than 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local authorities, have revived global calls for Palestinian statehood and put Israel at odds with a solidifying international consensus. Once recovered from the initial shock of the Hamas breakthrough and murderous spree on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s military has delivered a succession of crippling blows to the entire constellation of its strategic foes. Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have been decapitated, the Assad regime in Syria has collapsed, and Iran’s military leadership, missile and nuclear programs have been badly damaged. Anger at Israel has spread from the Muslim world to Europe and increasingly the U.S., where large parts of the Democratic Party and a growing part of the MAGA movement have now turned against American assistance to Israel. While President Trump has remained supportive, Israel’s new isolation has given him unusual leverage—a power that he has already exercised to block plans for annexing the West Bank, to make Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologize for a strike on Qatar, and to make Israel acquiesce to the latest Gaza cease-fire plan. This alienation of Israel’s erstwhile friends around the world stands to erode, in a potentially lasting way, not only the standing of Netanyahu and his successors but also the long-term viability of Israel’s founding project.

B. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Although Americans remain more likely to say their sympathies in the Middle East situation are with the Israelis rather than the Palestinians, the 46% expressing support for Israel is the lowest in 25 years of Gallup’s annual tracking of this measure on its World Affairs survey. The previous 51% low point in this trend of Americans’ sympathy for Israelis was recorded both last year and in 2001. At the same time, the 33% of U.S. adults who now say they sympathize with the Palestinians is up six percentage points from last year and the highest reading by two points.

WSJ, Gallup

2. Air Traffic Controller Shortages Amid Shutdown Cause Flight Delays in New York, Denver, Los Angeles

Flights into airports serving New York, Denver and the Los Angeles area were delayed on Monday night because of shortages of air traffic controllers, hours after the transportation secretary warned that flying could be disrupted by the government shutdown. The delays began in the late afternoon at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where incoming flights were delayed nearly an hour on average, and at Denver International Airport, where arriving flights were delayed about 40 minutes. Later in the evening, Hollywood Burbank Airport near Los Angeles reported average incoming delays of about two and a half hours, according to a Federal Aviation Administration advisory. The air traffic control tower that serves Burbank had no controllers working on Monday night, so management of incoming flights was being assumed by counterparts at Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control in San Diego, one of the busiest air traffic facilities in the world. The delays, which were caused by staffing shortages, according to the F.A.A. advisories, came not long after the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, warned that air service could be disrupted by the government shutdown. Air traffic controllers are required to work through the shutdown, but will only be paid retroactively when it ends. As the 2019 government shutdown wore on, controllers at important facilities began calling in sick at high rates, contributing to widespread flight delays and bringing a swift end to that shutdown. On Monday, Mr. Duffy said officials had seen a “slight tick-up” in sick calls from controllers since the current shutdown began last week.

NYT

3. Gallup: Just 28% of Americans Trust Mass Media, an All-Time Low

Twenty-eight percent of Americans in 2025 say they trust the mass media “a great deal” or “a fair amount.” This is the lowest in Gallup's trend following several years of gradual decline. A combined 70% express limited or no trust in the media, with 34% reporting “none at all.”

Partisan trust levels in the mass media are at or near record lows among all party groups: 8% of Republicans, 27% of independents, and 51% of Democrats express a great deal or fair amount of confidence in media reporting.

Gallup

4. Cities Grapple With Vacant Historic Buildings Too Expensive to Save, Too Prominent to Demolish

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—The beloved 26-story office tower that defines this capital city’s skyline has been empty since Bank of America pulled out in 2013. Its owner proposed converting it into apartments, but local officials balked, insisting it remain a commercial hub. It swiftly became a symbol of downtown blight. This July, a solution finally seemed in reach. The 70-year-old developer who owned it, David Sweetser, had cobbled together a $308 million financing package for a conversion plan blessed by local officials. Then Sweetser died, once again clouding the future of the tower known locally as the Superman Building, for its resemblance to the fictional Daily Planet headquarters. “This is the tallest building in the city,” said Providence Mayor Brett Smiley. “It’s on every postcard. And it’s empty. That has a psychic effect.” The Superman Building’s uncertain fate raises a larger question faced by many cities: What do you do when your most prominent landmark is too historic to tear down, yet too costly to save? Many cities whose skylines took shape in the early and mid-20th century have them: the Chrysler Building in New York; Times Mirror Square in Los Angeles; Renaissance Center in Detroit; the LaSalle Street corridor in Chicago. Once a building’s vacancy hits a certain point, its deterioration tends to accelerate, and its retail outlets often shut down. Ten years ago, about 15% of U.S. office buildings had a vacancy rate over 25%. Today it’s more than 20%. Buildings 25% or more vacant today account for nearly 80% of vacant U.S. office space, up from about 65% one decade ago, according to CoStar. Many cities are exploring converting office space to much-needed housing. Some developers have been able to pull off conversions, especially in cities like New York where rents are high enough to justify the development risk. But getting from blueprint to reality is a long and treacherous road in many places, particularly with inflation and high interest rates driving costs higher. Often conversion projects don’t pencil out unless governments provide generous subsidies.

WSJ

5. U.S. Trio Wins Nobel Prize in Physics for Quantum Discoveries

A trio of professors in the U.S. won the Nobel Prize in physics for their work on the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit. John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis will share the prize. “There is no advanced technology used today that does not rely on quantum mechanics and quantum physics. Examples are easy to find in the room, mobile phones, computers, cameras and the fiber-optic cables that connect our world,” said Olle Eriksson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, during the announcement ceremony Tuesday. Quantum mechanics allows a particle to move through a barrier via a process called tunneling. But when large numbers of particles become involved, quantum mechanical effects typically become insignificant. The trio conducted a series of experiments in the mid-1980s in which they demonstrated quantum mechanical properties held on a macroscopic scale—in a system big enough to hold in your hand. Clarke is associated with the University of California, Berkeley; Devoret is associated with Yale University and the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Martinis is from the University of California, Santa Barbara, according to the Nobel Prize committee.

WSJ

October 7 2023: Hamas launches deadliest attack in Israeli history

The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas launches an attack on Israel by land, sea and air, killing nearly 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, and taking about 250 hostages into Gaza. The attack, which caught the Israeli military by surprise, was the deadliest single day of violence since the nation’s founding in 1948. At around 6:30 a.m., Hamas began its assault with a barrage of thousands of rockets aimed at military and civilian sites in Israel. Then, in a multi-front attack, hundreds of Hamas terrorists and armed Palestinian militants from other terrorist groups in Gaza breached Israel’s border defenses. They blasted through border walls, stormed beaches on speedboats and evaded radar with low-flying paragliders.   

Once inside Israeli territory, armed militants stormed more than 20 towns and villages near the border with Gaza. One of the worst hit was Kibbutz Be'eri, a small communal village where more than 100 residents were killed, including young children and the elderly. Militants set homes on fire, then shot families as they fled.  Another civilian target was the Nova Music Festival, an outdoor music festival held in the desert near the Gaza border. Hamas fighters blocked off escape routes and swarmed the festival site, firing into crowds of people. Some 378 people were murdered at the festival, mostly young people in their 20s. Dozens more were taken hostage.  

As they announced the attack, Hamas' military chief stated the operation was in reaction to Israel's ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories. The blockade of the Gaza Strip, implemented by Israel and Egypt since 2007, was a response to Hamas’ political and military takeover of the territory.

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Sources

1. https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/after-two-years-of-war-israel-is-strongerand-more-isolatedthan-ever-dc500e33?mod=hp_lead_pos3
2. https://news.gallup.com/poll/657404/less-half-sympathetic-toward-israelis.aspx
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/us/politics/flight-delays-faa-shutdown.html
4. https://news.gallup.com/poll/695762/trust-media-new-low.aspx?utm_source=gallup_brand&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=front_page_1_october_10072025&utm_term=information&utm_content=image_imagelink_2
5. https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/office-buildings-empty-conversion-16cf3a62?mod=hp_lead_pos7
6. https://www.wsj.com/science/nobel-physics-prize-2025-john-clarke-michel-devoret-john-martinis-67e47032?mod=hp_lead_pos10