Why are all testnet transactions currently unconfirmed and all faucets empty? what is happening with btc testnet, all transactions are unconfirmed and all faucets are empty? 

For an example that is on of my transactions: 
https://live.blockcypher.com/btc-testnet/tx/d32652489a8131657ad05fba8a57bb075e16b20567c824ad67ded067f6b350c4/
Last time I checked there were about 10x as many transactions in mempool as fit in a block. This means it can take easily about 3 hours for a particular transaction to confirm, on average. Strangely, increasing the miner fee does not seem to help the situation.

Unfortunately, the only faucet that ever worked for me (https://testnet.manu.backend.hamburg/faucet) is now down for maintenance, but there is no indication that it is "empty".