Twelve B-1 bombers leave an English airfield, and Eric Schmitt traces why
A day later, a half-hour Times investigation into the questions around Jeffrey Epstein's death joined it among the channel's fastest starts.
Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 135,300 views a day, 12 times a normal first day on this channel (11,435).
How the U.S. Is Being Forced to Pull Back
Among the news channels nearest its size, The New York Times is the one running furthest past its ordinary pace, at roughly twice its usual daily views. Two very different pieces of reporting are behind it.
The first is a Short from Eric Schmitt, the paper's national security correspondent, and it starts far from any battlefield. Twelve B-1 Lancer bombers were pulled out of R.A.F. Fairford in England after an Iranian drone threat, and five men were arrested near the base. "This isn't in a war zone now," Schmitt says, "this is more than 2,000 miles away in England, a staunch ally of the United States." From there the maps widen to strikes on American bases in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, troops moved into hotels or sent back to Europe, and his closing question: "What will be the American footprint around the world?"
The comment section filled about five times faster than on a usual first day for the channel's Shorts. Viewers argue over how the war began, and several doubt that the Fairford arrests had anything to do with Iran. Others pick up Schmitt's last question and ask it again in their own words.
The second video is longer and slower. In "The Truth About Jeffrey Epstein's Death," Natalie Kitroeff sits down with investigative reporters Jan Ransom, Steve Eder and Michael Rothfeld, along with Charles Homans of The New York Times Magazine. Seven years after the death was ruled a suicide, they work through it in three chapters: his state of mind, the failures at the jail, and whether murder was possible.
Published on Trari
Where next?
- Channel
- The New York Times
- Subscribers
- 5,290,000 ▲ 10,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 6,049,884
- Channel views, pace per day
- 1,426,048 (on a normal day: 683,635)
- Video published
- October 7, 2026
- Video views so far
- 169,514 (2 days online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 156,156
The numbers
Two news videos in two days, each starting far beyond what this channel usually sees, and together they doubled its daily views.
💡 Test your knowledge
The B-1 Lancer bombers moved out of R.A.F. Fairford were originally built by which American company?
Rockwell International designed and built the B-1, which entered U.S. Air Force service in the 1980s; its aerospace business later became part of Boeing.



