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Navy accused of neglecting brain injuries among pilots in new House probe
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FIRST ON FOX: Leaders on the House Oversight Committee are pressing the Navy for answers on the prevalence of traumatic brain injuries among aviators and flight officers, accusing the service of failing to fully understand or address the psychological toll of flight operations.
In a new letter to Navy Secretary John Phelan, the lawmakers requested documents and data on brain injuries, cognitive dysfunction, and mental health issues in the fleet, warning that the Navy has never conducted a comprehensive investigation into the risks facing pilots.
«The Committee is concerned that the Navy is failing to adequately understand or address the underlying causes of traumatic brain injuries, cognitive dysfunction, and mental health issues affecting aviators and flight officers,» reads the letter by Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., chair of the Military and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee.
Congress is requesting more information on brain injuries seemingly associated with fighter jet pilots who operate at high speeds. (US Navy;Reuters )
«The lack of information on this issue also raises concerns about the adequacy of the information that is being provided to Congress and decisionmakers regarding the health and welfare of our warfighters,» it went on.
«It is critical that the Navy take all necessary steps to identify the potential health risks facing aviators and flight officers.»
The letter requested all «reports, statistical data, medical studies, situational assessments, and substantive communications, including memoranda or email attachments, relating to F-18 aviator mental and physical health and/or suicide from January 1, 2023, to the present.»
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It specifically demanded information related to the cases of six different aviators, whose names have been redacted.
The Navy did not return a request for comment before publication deadline.
Earlier this year, Comer and Timmons wrote asking for information about a secret Navy TOPGUN project launched in 2024 to study the brain injury phenomena, called Project Odin.
«Landing aboard an aircraft carrier, it’s literally a car crash. It’s the equivalent force of sitting in your driveway, in your car, and having a crane take you up to the second story and dropping you,» Matthew ‘Whiz’ Buckley, a TOPGUN graduate and F/A-18 fighter pilot, told Fox News Digital earlier this year. He said he suffers from the brain injuries scrutinized by the project.
In a new letter to Navy Secretary John Phelan, the lawmakers requested documents and data on brain injuries, cognitive dysfunction, and mental health issues in the fleet. (SONG KYUNG-SEOK/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
«The catapult shot, you go from zero to about 150, 200 miles an hour in a second to a second and a half. So your brain’s kind of being jarred, you know, back and forward.»
«As a fighter pilot, pulling Gs, so I would fight the jet on the edge of consciousness,» said Whiz, referring to the gravitational pull pilots experience when maneuvering tight turns in a jet.
«I’d merge with a bad guy in training, pull seven, eight, nine Gs. When you do that, the blood rushes out of your head.»
Comer wrote earlier this year that the project, which reportedly was adopted without formal approval from Navy Medical and Air Commands, «raises additional questions about the Navy’s knowledge of potential issues and whether it is acting to mitigate these issues in a comprehensive and effective manner.»
Buckley, founder of veterans’ anti-suicide group No Fallen Heroes, said the Navy loves to capitalize on the «cool» factor of flying jets popularized with movies like «Top Gun,» but fails to warn pilots about the risks associated with years of high-speed flights.
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A February New York Times report detailed how a number of F/A-18 Super Hornet crew members suffered brain injuries after years of catapult takeoffs and dogfighting training.
Symptoms included insomnia, anxiety, depression and PTSD-like feelings.
Buckley recalled feeling confusion, forgetfulness, and being quick to anger – symptoms he at first attributed to the Navy’s drinking culture. He said many of those he flew alongside suffered back and neck injuries.
«I remember really being hard on myself, like. Well, what is wrong with you, man? You’re a fighter pilot. You’re on top of the world. What’s wrong with you? So that would cause its own spiral,» he said.
«In 15 years of flying fighters, I’ve lost three F-18 brothers to suicide.»
Many Navy pilots go on to seek jobs in the commercial airline industry, where they often fail to disclose suffering brain injury symptoms on applications.
While the Navy can’t avoid putting aviators through the extreme conditions that combat training requires, Buckley argued the service must do more to make sure veterans receive proper care for the long-term strain of the job.
«The military does an incredible job of training us to do some pretty awful things to another human,» he said.
«But when they’re done with us, they do a pretty crappy job of transitioning us back to being a human.»
He said he fought the Veterans’ Affairs Department for years after they classified his injuries as not service-related.
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«One day you go from flying an F-18 Hornet and having a top-secret clearance, the highest level of trust of the government. And when you’re out the next day, you’re a liar, right?»
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Mamdani’s response to Trump’s Iran strike sparks conservative backlash: ‘Rooting for the ayatollah’
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New York City’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing blowback from conservatives on social media over his post condemning the U.S. attack on Iran that led to the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Saturday, as a joint strike on Iran by the United States and Israel was developing, Mamdani blasted the Trump administration’s decision in a post on X that has been viewed roughly 20 million times.
«Today’s military strikes on Iran — carried out by the United States and Israel — mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression,» Mamdani wrote.
«Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change.»
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks to reporters during a news conference in New York Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Mamdani said Americans prefer «relief from the affordability crisis» before speaking directly to Iranians in New York City.
«You are part of the fabric of this city — you are our neighbors, small business owners, students, artists, workers, and community leaders,» Mamdani said. «You will be safe here.»
The post was quickly slammed by conservatives on social media making the case that Mamdani’s response appeared sympathetic to Iran’s brutal regime and pointing to his lack of public reaction to the Iranian protesters killed in recent years.
«Comrade Mayor is rooting for the Ayatollah,» GOP Sen. Ted Cruz posted on X. «They can chant together.»
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«Do u say anything pro American ?» Fox News host Brian Kilmeade posted on X. «do u know any Iranians – ? they hate @fr_Khamenei they celebrate his death, you should be celebrating his death ! hes killed thousands of American’s and just killed 30k Iranians, did u even say a word about that? You are an embarrassment !! Please quit.»
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, questions Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Hart building Jan. 15, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
«I don’t feel safe in New York listening to someone like you, Mamdani, who sympathizes with the regime that killed more than 30,000 unarmed Iranians in less than 24 hours,» Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad posted on X.
«We Iranians do not allow you to lecture us about war while you had nothing to say when the Islamic Republic shot schoolgirls and blinded more than 10,000 innocent people in the streets. You were busy celebrating the hijab while women of my beloved country Iran were jailed and raped by Islamic Security forces for removing it.
«And NOW you find your voice to defend the regime? No. I will not let you claim the moral high ground. The people of Iran want to be free. Where were you when they needed solidarity?»
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«How is it that you can’t differentiate between good and evil?» Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman posted on X. «Why is this so hard for you?»
«It takes a particular kind of audacity, or ignorance, for a city mayor to appoint himself the conscience of American foreign policy while his constituents step over garbage on their way to work,» GOP Rep. Nancy Mace posted on X. «History will not remember his bravery. It will not remember him at all.»
«Iranian New Yorkers are thrilled today and see right through you,» Republican New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino posted on X.
Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management LP, speaks during the WSJ D.Live global technology conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., Oct. 17, 2017. (Patrick Fallon/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
«When Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, UAE, Bahrain all support today’s operation eliminating world’s #1 sponsor of terror, but New York City’s Mayor @ZohranMamdani is shilling for Iran,» Republican New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov posted on X.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s office for comment.
Shortly after Mamdani’s post, it was announced by President Trump and Israeli officials that the military operation resulted in Khamenei’s death.
Israeli leaders confirmed Khamenei’s compound and offices were reduced to rubble early Saturday after a targeted strike in downtown Tehran.
«Khamenei was the contemporary Middle East’s longest-serving autocrat. He did not get to be that way by being a gambler. Khamenei was an ideologue, but one who ruthlessly pursued the preservation and protection of his ideology, often taking two steps forward and one step back,» Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of FDD’s Iran program, told Fox News Digital.
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Iran goes dark amid ‘regime paranoia’, blackout follows Israeli, US strikes on compound
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Iran was plunged into an internet blackout Saturday after Israel and the U.S. launched military strikes around the country, according to a global internet monitor.
Within hours of the strikes — which officials said targeted infrastructure and killed dozens of senior regime figures at a compound in Tehran— NetBlocks CEO Alp Toker confirmed connectivity started «flatlining.»
«We’re tracking the ongoing blackout, but our assessment is that this is straight out of Iran’s wartime playbook and consistent both technically and strategically with what we saw during the 2025 Twelve-Day War with Israel,» Toker told Fox News Digital.
«Iran’s internet connectivity is now flatlining around the 1% level, so the original blackout the regime imposed during the morning has been consolidated,» he confirmed.
«The blackout was imposed just after 7:00 UTC, not long after the attack on the Iranian regime compound,» Toker clarified, adding that Iran had been largely offline for approximately 12 hours following the attack.
«At 06:10 UTC, there is the main compound strike; at 07:10 UTC, telecoms disruption starts; at 08:00 UTC, the blackout is largely in effect; and by 08:30 UTC, connectivity flatlines.»
«Wartime national blackouts are exceedingly rare around the world, and it’s something we’ve only really seen at this scale in Iran,» he said.
President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Iran following an Israeli strike in Tehran on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (@WhiteHouse/X)
In the wake of the attack, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the «heavy and pinpoint» bombing in Iran «will continue uninterrupted throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!»
He claimed Iranian security forces and members of the regime’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were already seeking immunity. He urged them to «peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots.»
«We are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces no longer want to fight and are looking for Immunity from us,» Trump said in the post. «As I said last night, ‘Now they can have Immunity; later they only get Death!’»
Toker argued the timing of the blackout suggested it was imposed deliberately as the regime sought to secure communications amid fears of further targeting.
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TEHRAN, IRAN – FEBRUARY 28: Smoke rises over the city center after an Israeli army launches 2nd wave of airstrikes on Iran on February 28, 2026. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
«The Iranian regime will have deployed this new blackout to counter potential cyberattacks during their own military operation, but also to avoid leaking the locations of senior regime figures through metadata and user-generated content,» he said.
«Communications would have been limited, and Iran’s leadership would have proceeded with the assumption that all communications, including satellite or whitelisted networks, carry risks,» he said before claiming that «paranoia would be well grounded at this point, with the blackout a belated but direct response to that.»
«Those participating directly would already know to avoid technology that could betray their whereabouts,» Toker said.
«However, the metadata may well have played a part in determining that the meeting of regime leaders was being held at the Tehran compound, who was in attendance, and at what time.»
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In this handout image provided by the Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the nation in a state television broadcast on June 18, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran via Getty Images)
Toker revealed that the broader network around the regime leaders and around the compound wouldn’t have had the same strict restrictions.
«This kind of adjacent ‘background noise’ can be correlated against other intelligence sources to build an understanding of activity on the ground,» he added.
«Smartphones are a readily available, almost ‘free’ source of intelligence, and even when locked down, they eventually connect to international online services and generate insights that can be used to pinpoint regime figures,» Toker said.
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«In the aftermath of Saturday’s strike, this concern will have been high on the remaining Iranian leadership’s minds, especially if they didn’t have a clear and specific understanding of how the meeting was compromised.»
Iran has previously imposed sweeping internet shutdowns during periods of domestic unrest, including nationwide protests in January, which saw thousands killed, often seeking to curb the spread of information and restrict coordination.
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El Salvador registra más de 25,000 inmuebles inscritos en el primer bimestre de 2026 y mantiene dinamismo en la creación de empresas
En lo que va del año 2026, el Centro Nacional de Registros (CNR) reporta la inscripción de 25,381 inmuebles, una cifra que equivale a $720 millones, según datos oficiales difundidos por el director ejecutivo del CNR, Camilo Trigueros. Este comportamiento refleja la continuidad de una tendencia positiva que se consolidó en 2025, cuando se efectuaron 151,567 transferencias de dominio, generando un movimiento superior a $4,212 millones en el mercado inmobiliario salvadoreño. El incremento interanual en las transferencias de dominio alcanzó el 13%, impulsado tanto por la recuperación de zonas residenciales antes afectadas por la violencia, como por el renovado interés de inversionistas y ciudadanos residentes en el exterior.
Trigueros explicó en entrevista con el Noticiero Hechos, de Canal 12, que el proceso de transferencia de dominio responde principalmente a operaciones de compraventa, aunque también se registran casos de donaciones y herencias. Un estudio interno del CNR identificó que, en años recientes, las compraventas en colonias bajo control de pandillas eran prácticamente inexistentes debido a la falta de compradores y al temor de los propietarios a vender. Actualmente, tras mejoras en las condiciones de seguridad, estas zonas experimentan una reactivación del mercado inmobiliario, con participación de inversionistas nacionales, extranjeros y miembros de la diáspora salvadoreña.
El dinamismo del sector inmobiliario se suma al crecimiento sostenido de la actividad empresarial en el país. De acuerdo con datos publicados por Infobae el 4 de enero, El Salvador cerró 2025 con la creación de 8,373 nuevas empresas y más de 13,000 solicitudes de registro de marca, alcanzando cifras récord para la economía nacional. El crecimiento interanual en la conformación de nuevas empresas fue del 11%, mientras que las solicitudes de marca aumentaron un 18%, con especial énfasis en los sectores de gastronomía y comercio. Entre los factores que explican esta expansión se encuentran la digitalización de trámites, la simplificación de procesos y la implementación de figuras jurídicas más accesibles, como las Sociedades por Acciones Simplificadas (SAS).
El inicio de 2026 mantiene la tendencia al alza. Según datos oficiales, solo en enero se constituyeron cerca de 900 nuevas entidades, lo que proyecta que, de mantenerse el ritmo actual, El Salvador podría superar las 10,000 empresas creadas al finalizar el año. La digitalización de los servicios del CNR permite que el 70% de los usuarios obtenga respuesta a sus trámites en menos de 24 horas, lo que ha fortalecido la confianza de los inversionistas y emprendedores.
La recuperación del sector inmobiliario y el auge en la creación de empresas se explican, en parte, por la percepción de mayor seguridad, la estabilidad macroeconómica y el fortalecimiento institucional. De acuerdo con el balance presentado por Trigueros en medios radiales y televisivos, la mayoría de las nuevas empresas corresponden a sectores de servicios y comercio, con énfasis en pequeñas empresas familiares y emprendimientos gastronómicos. Además, la eliminación de barreras burocráticas y la gratuidad de trámites electrónicos han sido determinantes para el aumento de la formalización empresarial.
En 2025, la demanda de servicios del CNR creció un 11.1%, con más de 130,000 atenciones registradas a nivel nacional. El Instituto Adam Smith de la Universidad de la Florida ubicó a El Salvador en la quinta posición de facilidad para abrir una empresa en Latinoamérica, subiendo quince posiciones respecto a años previos. Las autoridades anticipan que la continuidad de las reformas y la ampliación de los servicios digitales mantendrán el ritmo de crecimiento en ambos rubros durante 2026.
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