Good morning! Today is Thursday, the 17th of July, 2025. In this issue, George looks at the tens of thousands of global flight delays and cancellations in recent days that are stranding as many as several million passengers, Britain’s plans to change the minimum voting age to 16, how world markets were roiled Donald Trump’s reported discussion of wanting to fire Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, the opening of the Bregenzer Festival Opens in Austria, and the start of the world’s oldest golf tournament, the British Open, in Northern Ireland.
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A stack of newspapers in Vienna’s Café Prúckel, each in an Original Wiener Zeitungshalter
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Thousands of flight delays and cancellations took place Wednesday in the United States, thanks in great part to thunderstorm activity in the Midwest and Northeast. Along with the thousands of flights delayed and cancelled in the since Sunday night, millions of travelers have become stranded or forced to make alternate plans.
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FlightAware, which tracks such information, reported that 90 flights had been cancelled at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday, with hundreds more delayed. In addition, it said that 86 had been cancelled at Chicago O’Hare, 75 at Ronald Reagan Washington National, 56 at Newark Liberty International, 41 at John F. Kennedy International, and 40 at Washington Dulles International airports, all also with thousands more delayed. At noon EDT on Thursday, Newark Liberty was experiencing inbound flights delayed at their origin an average of 1 hour and 42 minutes. That figure was 1 hour 39 minutes for JFK.
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In China, 29% of flights at Shanghai Pudon International Airport have been thus far delayed on Thursday and that figure is 24% for Beijing Capital International Airport. In Indonesia, 36% of flights have been thus far delayed at Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. All are due to heavy rain and fog in the region.
Airplanes from multiple airlines including Delta, United, and Spirit waiting to depart
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World markets panicked Wednesday after reports that U.S. President Donald Trump had discussed plans to figure Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The dollar fell sharply and Treasury yields rose as a result. Mr. Trump later said it was “highly unlikely” that he would fire him. The president of the United States can only remove the head of the Fed for cause, not merely for policy disagreements. The Federal Reserve is designed to be independent of political pressure to ensure that its decisions are based on economic factors rather than short-term political goals.
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After a five-year-long trial, Lee Jae-yong, the de facto head of Samsung, was cleared of corruption by South Korea’s Supreme Court. Mr Lee was accused of accounting fraud and stock manipulation during a merger between two of the group’s firms in 2015. The deal paved the way for his rise to the company’s top job. The ruling draws a line under a decade-long scandal that has plagued the family-run conglomerate.
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In Austria, Präsident Alexander Van der Bellen officially opened the Bregenzer Festspiele, or Bregenz Festival, an event held every July and August in the city of Bregenz in Vorarlberg, Austria’s westernmost province. The festival features the Seebúhne, a large floating stage situated on the Bodensee, or Lake Constance. It has taken place annually since its first year in 1946, with the exception of 2020, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2018, the Bregenzer Festspiele broke previous attendance records, attracting some 400,000 people, in great part thanks to the inclusion of Bizet’s “Carmen.” This year, Carl Maria von Weber’s “Der Freischütz” on the Seebühne and George Enescu’s “Œdipe” at the Festspielhaus.
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The U.K. government said it would lower the country’s voting age to 16, a change that is likely to face some degree of scrutiny in Parliament. Citizens who are 16 can already vote in national elections in multiple countries including Argentina, Austria, and Brazil. In Britain, they can already vote in local elections in Scotland and Wales.
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The 153rd Open Championship, the oldest golf tournament in the world and one of the most prestigious, kicks off on Thursday at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. Founded in 1860, the tournament was originally held annually at the Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. It is often referred to as The Open or the British Open.
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@FIGURE OF THE WEEK
@QUOTE OF THE WEEK
@FOTO OF THE WEEK
@U.S. AND EUROPEAN WEATHER Forecast for Major U.S. and European Cities
@PASSINGS
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Figure of the week. 30, the number of flight attendants at American Airlines, the world’s largest airline, who are above the age of 80. By comparison, there are 1,498 24 years of age and under
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Quote of the Week
“Wer das Kleine nicht ehrt, ist des Großen nicht wert.” Austrian and German saying. In English: “He who does not honor the small is not worthy of the great.”
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The Riesenrad, or giant ferris wheel, a symbol of the city of Vienna and is prominently featured in the 1949 film noir directed by Carol Reed, and starring Orson Wells Joseph Cotten, Valli, and Paul Hörbiger.
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A 1970 Cadillac DeVille convertible in Los Angeles traffic
The weather across the United States Thursday morning as this issue went to press ranged from 86° F and partly sunny in New York City, and 87° F and partly sunny in Philadelphia, while further south along the I-95 corridor, Washington, D.C. is currently seeing 85° F with partly sunny skies. Elsewhere in the country, the forecast called for 69° F and overcast in Chicago, 87° F and partly sunny in Dallas, 72° F and partly sunny in Sedona, Arizona, 67° F and partly sunny in San Francisco, and 69° F and sunny in Los Angeles.
Here is the National Weather Service forecast issued on Thursday: “A system in the Gulf could produce heavy rainfall and flash flooding for portions of the north-central Gulf Coast into Saturday. Widespread showers and thunderstorms are likely this afternoon into Friday from Central Plains into the mid-Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley, and Central Appalachians. Dangerous heat is expected from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic today.”
In Europe, the forecast on Thursday at noon Central European Time ranged from 29° C and sunny in Oslo, 16° C and rainy in Reykjavík, 18° and rain in Berlin, 20° C and partly sunny in Vienna, and 26° C and partly sunny in Brussels. In London, the forecast called for 26° C and rain, and the thermometer should reach 33° C with occasional rain in Rome.
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Connie Francis, Whose Songs Dominated ‘50s and ‘60s Pop, Dies at 87
Connie Francis, the pop singer who in the 1950s and 1960s topped the charts with classics of the period such as “Stupid Cupid,” “Where the Boys Are,” and “Pretty Little Baby,” which recently went viral on TikTok, died on Wednesday. She was 87.
Ron Roberts, her long-time publicist, announced her death in a post on Facebook. He did not say where she died or cite a cause.
“It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that I inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night,” he wrote.
Ms. Francis was one of the defining female singers of the ‘50s and ‘60s, becoming the first woman to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, this with the song “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool.” Her powerful set of lungs and an ease with a wide variety of material allowed her to have hit songs in a variety of genres including rock ‘n’ roll and country, as well as in Yiddish, Italian, Swedish, and as many as a dozen other languages.
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Tim Perry, Jonathan Spira, Kurt Stolz, Anna Breuer, and Paul Riegler contributed to this issue of George.
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