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Power has been restored to much of Puerto Rico following an island-wide outage. Full restoration is possible Sunday, company says

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Power has been restored to much of Puerto Rico following an island-wide outage. Full restoration is possible Sunday, company says
As of 11:30 p.m. Saturday, energy had been restored to greater than 1.3 million of the island’s roughly 1.5 million utility prospects, energy grid operator LUMA Power stated.

“Whereas the overwhelming majority of consumers energy has been restored, the danger of intermittent energy outages might happen as advanced strategy of full restoration proceeds,” the utility stated.

The outage started as an island-wide blackout that closed colleges and courts for days and precipitated different interruptions for the US territory’s 3.2 million residents.

Pointing to current restoration progress, LUMA stated Saturday that it is potential electrical energy will attain remaining prospects by Sunday and crews had been working in a single day.

Nonetheless, the facility firm urged prospects to preserve electrical energy when potential to assist scale back demand and help full restoration.

The large outage started round 8:45 p.m. Wednesday when an unspecified failure led to a hearth on the Costa Sur Substation, stated Kevin Acevedo, vice chairman of LUMA Power. Firefighters have since extinguished the flames on the facility outdoors the city of Guayanilla on the southwest coast.

The precise trigger wasn’t instantly recognized, the utility has said.

Initially, all prospects misplaced energy “as a result of all of the producing items went offline,” in response to Josué Colón, the island’s lead telecommunications and infrastructure engineer.

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Along with energy disruptions, the outage additionally precipitated interrupted water service to tens of 1000’s of houses and companies, said Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, who cited the island’s aqueducts and sewers authority.

Faculties throughout the island additionally canceled lessons for college kids on Thursday and Friday, although principals, custodians and faculty cafeteria staff had been informed to report back to work Friday, the island’s training division stated.

By Thursday afternoon, all hospitals had been operational both by way of energy restoration or mills, Secretary of the Inside Noelia García Bardales stated.

Trigger of fireside is beneath investigation

Because the lights are turning on within the remaining houses and companies, little is understood about what precipitated the fireplace that plunged the island into darkness.

“Each single (piece of) gear (on the plant’s switchyard) must be inspected and examined to ensure that when it is again in service, we will restore energy for patrons reliably and safely,” Shay Bahramirad, LUMA Power’s senior vice chairman of engineering and asset administration, informed reporters Friday in San Juan.

The utility stated Thursday the “large island-wide blackout” might need been “attributable to a circuit breaker failure” on the Costa Sur plant.

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Acevedo, LUMA’s vice chairman, stated the reason for the fireplace stays beneath investigation, noting that the gear was updated on upkeep inspections.

Alternative components for the facility plant have been ordered, and cleanup efforts had been underway, Acevedo added.

LUMA is a three way partnership of Quanta Providers and the Canadian vitality firm ATCO, which the Puerto Rican authorities selected to take over the operation of the facility grid from its earlier public electrical utility, the Puerto Rico Electrical Energy Authority. LUMA has been in control of the facility grid since June 1.

CNN’s Jason Hanna, Rafy Rivera and Michelle Watson contributed to this report.

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Two Bodies Found in Plane’s Landing Gear at Fort Lauderdale Airport

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Two Bodies Found in Plane’s Landing Gear at Fort Lauderdale Airport

Two bodies were discovered in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue plane on Monday after a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the airline said in a statement on Tuesday.

JetBlue Flight 1801 departed Kennedy Airport in New York at 7:49 p.m. Monday and landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport at 11:10 p.m., according to flight tracker data. The bodies were discovered during a routine post-flight maintenance assessment of the plane, the airline said.

Paramedics pronounced the two people dead at the scene, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. It was unclear how long the people had been in the landing gear compartment.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages Kennedy Airport, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about how the individuals may have gained access to the aircraft.

Landing gear compartments, located under an aircraft’s wings and at the front of the plane, have long been used by people attempting to travel undetected on airplanes. The airline did not say whether the two people who were found dead on Monday were stowaways.

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Such attempts to hide in landing gear compartments have proven deadly in the past. The compartments open and close upon takeoff and landing to deploy and retract wheels and other landing components, and other stowaways have fallen to their deaths from the openings, sometimes landing in public spaces along flight paths.

Those who can stay within the compartment risk being crushed by landing gear when it is withdrawn back into the aircraft, along with other hazards, including severe temperatures, pressure changes and lack of oxygen. Many stowaways die of hypothermia.

As recently as Christmas Day, a body was discovered in a wheel well of a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Hawaii. In 2023, a man was found alive in a landing gear compartment after a commercial flight from Algeria to France, though he was suffering from severe hypothermia.

An investigation was underway on Tuesday to determine the identities of the two individuals discovered in Fort Lauderdale and how they might have accessed the aircraft before it departed from New York, JetBlue said.

“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the airline said.

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Meta ends third party fact-checking scheme

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Meta ends third party fact-checking scheme

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Facebook owner Meta is ending its third party fact-checking programme and will instead rely on its users to flag misinformation.

The social media platform on Tuesday said it would “allow more speech by lifting restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discourse and focusing our enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations” and “take a more personalised approach to political content”.

Starting in the US, Meta will move to a so-called “community notes” model, similar to the one employed by Elon Musk’s X, which allows users to add context to controversial or misleading posts. Meta itself will not write community notes.

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Jimmy Carter’s body set to be transferred today to Washington, D.C., for state funeral

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Jimmy Carter’s body set to be transferred today to Washington, D.C., for state funeral

Former President Jimmy Carter‘s casket is being transferred Tuesday to Washington, D.C., for the next phase of his state funeral.

Carter has been lying in repose in Atlanta, as part of six days of observances that began Saturday with a service at his boyhood home in Plains, Georgia. 

“This is somebody from a small town in south Georgia who was a peanut farmer who ultimately became the president of the United States,” said Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, at the Plains service on Saturday. “It’s a pretty remarkable American story.”

Carter, the 39th president, died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100 — living longer than any president in U.S. history. His beloved wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, died in November 2023.

On Tuesday, Carter’s body will be flown from Atlanta to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where his casket will be transferred with ceremony to a hearse. From there, a motorcade will proceed to the U.S. Navy Memorial, where his casket will then be transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson with ceremony.

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Jimmy Carter
Members of the joint services military honor guard conduct a changing of the guard near the casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, on Jan. 6, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. 

Erik S. Lesser / AP


The caisson will travel to the U.S. Capitol, where Carter’s casket will be carried up the stairs into the Rotunda by military body bearers. Members of Congress will be able to pay their respects during a service.

Beginning Tuesday afternoon, Carter will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until Thursday, when his funeral service will be held at the National Cathedral before his remains are flown back to Georgia. President Biden is will be delivering a eulogy at Thursday’s service, along with several others. President-elect Donald Trump said he will attend

There will be a final private service in Plains, and Carter will be buried next to Rosalynn Carter at his family’s peanut farm. 

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Full schedule of Tuesday’s events (all times Eastern): 

  • 9:30 a.m.: A departure ceremony from the Carter Presidential Center.
  • 10 a.m.: The motorcade departs for Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia.
  • 10:40 a.m.: The late president and his family arrive at Dobbins Air Reserve Base and board Special Air Mission 39 after an arrival ceremony.
  • 11:15 a.m.: Special Air Mission 39 departs for Washington.
  • 12:45 p.m.: Special Air Mission 39 arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, and Carter’s remains are transferred with ceremony to the hearse.
  • 1:15 p.m.: The motorcade departs for the U.S. Navy Memorial.
  • 2 p.m.: The motorcade arrives at the U.S. Navy Memorial and Carter’s remains are transferred from a hearse to a horse drawn caisson with ceremony.
  • 2:15 p.m.: The funeral procession begins marching up to the U.S. Capitol via Pennsylvania Avenue, turning left onto Constitution Avenue.
  • 2:40 p.m.: Upon arrival at the U.S. Capitol, the late president is carried up the stairs by military body bearers and into the Rotunda.
  • 3 p.m.: Congress pays their respects during a service in the Rotunda.
  • 3:45 p.m.: Carter begins lying in state while the military maintains a guard of honor.
  • 7 p.m. to midnight: Lying in state opens to the public.

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