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Heathrow reopens after blaze but airlines warn of more disruption

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Heathrow reopens after blaze but airlines warn of more disruption

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Heathrow airport reopened on Saturday morning following a complete shutdown caused by an electrical outage, but airlines warned of further disruption as they restarted operations.

Thomas Woldbye, Heathrow’s chief executive, defended the airport’s contingency planning and said he was “proud” of its response to the fire caused by an electrical outage.

The airport fully reopened for flights on Saturday morning and the first aeroplanes took off just after 6am.

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Heathrow said it was “open and fully operational”, but airlines had cancelled 100 of Saturday’s flights by 11.30am as they began the logistical challenge of restarting their operations with planes, crews and passengers out of place and scattered across the world.

Some airline executives were privately frustrated at the airport’s messages that it had fully recovered, given that they were still cancelling flights and dealing with stranded passengers.

British Airways, by far the largest airline operator at Heathrow, said it expected to cancel about 15 per cent of its schedule to and from Heathrow on Saturday, which would be about 90 flights.

“To recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex . . . it is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday’s power outage at the airport,” the airline said.

Heathrow was closed in the early hours of Friday after a fire at a local electricity substation in west London caused a power outage at the airport.

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National Grid, which owns and operates the west London substation that caught fire, said it was taking steps to improve resilience on its network © AFP via Getty Images

The airport and National Grid both face intense scrutiny over how the failure of one of the three substations could lead to Heathrow’s closure for nearly 24 hours.

Willie Walsh, the former boss of BA and a long-standing critic of Heathrow, said there had been a “clear planning failure” by the airport.

Woldbye said the airport’s backup power supplies for its critical functions including the runway lights and control tower had kicked in, but that these were not designed to power the entire airport.

“We would need a separate standby power plant on the site . . . I don’t know of an airport that has that,” he told the BBC.

“We will of course look into this and say can we learn from this, do we need a different level of resilience if we cannot trust that the grid around us is working the way it should.”

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National Grid on Saturday said it was taking steps to improve resilience on its network.

The FTSE 100 company owns and operates the North Hyde substation in Hayes, west London, which caught fire late on Thursday night, triggering questions about the vulnerability of the UK’s critical infrastructure.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated but National Grid said power had now been restored to all customers.

“Power supplies have been restored to all customers connected to our North Hyde substation, including Heathrow, allowing operations to resume at the airport. We are now implementing measures to help further improve the resilience levels of our network,” it said.

On Saturday morning at Heathrow, passengers noted minimal disruption.

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Dana Pane, a passenger flying home to Bologna, had arrived at the airport six hours early “just in case” of disruption, but had not seen any.

“British Airways advised to get here early, so I did,” she said. “But honestly there has been very little issue.” 

Heather Moore, who landed at Heathrow just after 7am from Vietnam, said she had seen the news on Friday and feared her flight would be cancelled.

“[But] everything has been fine in the end,” she said. 

An airliner is loaded before a flight from Heathrow
Airlines face challenges restarting their schedules as many planes, pilots and cabin crew are in the wrong places © Getty Images

About 1,300 flights were cancelled on Friday and flights already in the air were either turned around to their original airport or diverted to other hubs around Europe.

That has left airlines facing a big challenge as they restart their schedules: many of their planes, pilots and cabin crew are in the wrong places, while many staff will also be unable to work because of strict rules on rest between flights.

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“All these long-haul aircraft — particularly BA’s — have ended up at airports they were never supposed to be at. If there are no crews there to pick them up, then airlines will struggle to get their aircraft moving again as normal,” said John Strickland, an aviation consultant.

“Crew will also need a day or two’s rest before they can restart, and every additional day is extra cancellations running into the days ahead. It’s a domino effect.”

Heathrow said it has added an extra 50 take-off and landing slots to its schedule, which would enable a further 10,000 passengers to travel on Saturday, if airlines can find planes and crew for them.

London’s Metropolitan Police’s counterterrorism command continued to lead enquiries into the fire at the substation, but on Friday evening the Met said they were not treating the incident as suspicious.

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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former Army serviceman they accused of distributing instructions on how to build explosives that were used by a man who conducted a deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day last year.

The former serviceman, Jordan A. Derrick, a 40-year-old from Missouri, was charged with one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing explosive materials without a license; one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device; and one count of distributing information relating to manufacturing explosives, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. The three charges together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.

Starting in September 2023, the authorities said, Mr. Derrick was using various social media sites to share videos of himself making explosive materials, including detonators. His videos provided step-by-step instructions, and he often engaged with viewers in comments, sometimes answering their questions about the chemistry behind the explosives.

The authorities said that Mr. Derrick’s videos were downloaded by Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, who was accused of ramming a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, in a terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens. Mr. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police. Before the attack, Mr. Jabbar had placed two explosives on Bourbon Street, the authorities said, but they did not detonate.

The authorities later recovered two laptops and a USB drive in a house that Mr. Jabbar had rented. The USB drive contained several videos created by Mr. Derrick that provided instructions on making explosives. The authorities said the explosives they recovered were consistent with the ones Mr. Derrick had posted about.

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Mr. Derrick’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Derrick was a combat engineer in the Army, where he provided personnel and vehicle support, the authorities said. He also helped supervise safety personnel during demolitions and various operations. He was honorably discharged in February 2013.

The authorities did not say whether Mr. Derrick had any communication with Mr. Jabbar, or whether the men had known each other. In some of Mr. Derrick’s videos and comments, he indicated that he was aware that his videos could be misused.

“There are a plethora of uh, moral, you know, entanglements with topics, any topic of teaching explosives, right?” he asked in one video, according to the affidavit. “Of course, the wrong people could get it.”

The authorities also said that an explosion occurred at a private residence in Odessa, Mo., on May 4, and the occupant of the residence told investigators that he had manufactured explosives after watching online tutorials from Mr. Derrick.

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Mr. Derrick’s YouTube account had more than 15,000 subscribers and 20 published videos, the affidavit said. He had also posted content on other platforms, including Odysee and Patreon. Some videos were accessible to the public for free, while others required a paid subscription to view.

“My responsibility to my countrymen is to make sure that I serve the function of the Second Amendment to strengthen it,” Mr. Derrick said in one of his videos, according to the affidavit. “This is how I serve my country for real.”

Outside of the income he received through content creation, Mr. Derrick did not have any known employment. He did receive a monthly disability check from Veterans Affairs, the affidavit stated.

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded
Allegations pile up, but Child Protective Services declines to investigate and the school district continues to promote Ronnie Stoner. We include an update at the end of the episode. “The Girls” is a 4-part series from the Louisville Public Media’s investigative podcast, Dig.
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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

A streamer known for hurling racist slurs in public settings under the nickname “Chud the Builder” was charged with attempted murder after a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse on Wednesday, the authorities said.

The streamer, Dalton Eatherly, 28, was involved in a confrontation with an unidentified man that escalated to gunfire outside the Montgomery County Court in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Both men sustained gunshot wounds and were in stable condition, the office said.

In addition to attempted murder, Mr. Eatherly was charged with employing a firearm during dangerous felony, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s office said.

Mr. Eatherly, who is white, has accumulated an online audience by livestreaming confrontations in which he uses racist language toward Black people in public.

Law enforcement did not provide any details about the second man involved in Wednesday’s shooting. Mr. Eatherly posted an audio recording online of paramedics treating his wounds in which he claims he shot the man in self-defense.

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A video posted by the website Clarksville Now shows Mr. Eatherly on a stretcher with a microphone attached to his lapel.

Mr. Eatherly is being held at the Montgomery County Jail, pending arraignment, the sheriff’s office said.

According to court records, Mr. Eatherly was scheduled to appear for a court hearing on Wednesday morning in an unrelated case brought by Midland Credit Management, a collections agency.

A lawyer listed in court records from a separate harassment case in which Mr. Eatherly was a defendant in November did not respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, three days before the shooting in Clarksville, Mr. Eatherly was arrested in Nashville. According to a police affidavit, Mr. Eatherly live streamed his meal at a restaurant, Bob’s Steak and Chop House, on Saturday even though the restaurant had asked him ahead of time not to do so.

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When he was confronted, Mr. Eatherly “became disruptive and started making racial statements, yelling, screaming and otherwise creating a scene,” according to the affidavit.

He then refused to pay for his $370 meal. Mr. Eatherly was charged with theft of services, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was released on $5,000 bond.

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