In the USA, the aviation authority FAA has imposed a nationwide flight ban. The FAA announced on Friday that the causes were extraordinary circumstances and safety reasons. All departures would have to remain on the ground. Incoming international flights would be assessed on a case-by-case basis. There are serious communication problems that affect all air traffic control centers, said US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. FAA technicians investigated the incident.
The nationwide flight halt is only the second since the attacks of September 11, 2001. The first came in January 2023, when the FAA suspended all domestic flights for less than two hours. Last year, Congress approved $12.5 billion to overhaul the FAA's aging communications system. Just on Friday, the FAA and the White House asked Congress for $30.1 billion to address other problems.
After the Democrats' resounding victory in the congressional elections, a vote for the post of majority leader in the Senate is looming. Senator Chris Van Hollen announced that he would run against current Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Van Hollen sees it as a dispute over direction. Voters not only rejected President Donald Trump's policies, but also wanted a tougher stance against an economic system that was "rigged in favor of the very wealthy and against working people." To do this you have to reject the status quo.
Schumer, who was the Democratic majority leader in the Senate from 2021 to 2025, then emphasized that he still had enough support to take the leadership post again in January.
The Democrats went into last week's election with 47 of the 100 Senate seats. After victories in some regions that traditionally sympathize with Trump's Republicans, they now have a majority of 55 seats - and their candidate Mary Peltola is leading the race for another seat in Alaska.
In the House of Representatives, the Democrats also gained a clear majority with 255 of the 435 seats so far. Some of the party's politicians, like Van Hollen, point out that the voters had called for more radical policies with their clear vote.
Following new questions about possible deliveries of Nvidia chips to China, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and former CEO Jensen Huang have been summoned before a Senate committee. Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, a Republican, asked them to appear for a public hearing in December. Scott cited national security concerns. Lutnick has already agreed, as a spokesman for the ministry told the TV station NBC.
Huang resigned as Nvidia boss on Thursday. There had previously been media reports about his close relationship with a woman from China who, according to US security authorities, may have been recruited by Chinese intelligence. Huang admitted over the weekend that he had been unfaithful to his wife. The decisive factor for his departure after more than 30 years at the top of the company was probably the revelation of another affair with a top Nvidia manager who reported to him.
At the same time, the scandal threw a new spotlight on possible deliveries of Nvidia chips to China in order to circumvent US bans. The Chinese woman with whom Huang had an affair worked for a time for the Megaspeed company. This Singapore-based company was suspected by US authorities of secretly shipping AI chips purchased from Nvidia to China. According to US media reports, Nvidia supplied Megaspeed with technology worth around four billion dollars. Trade Minister Lutnick will now have to ask himself why this was possible.
The US government wants to slow down Chinese progress in artificial intelligence by banning the sale of high-performance chips from Nvidia. Huang, on the other hand, was in favor of chip sales and argued that this would tie China to US technology - instead of encouraging the development of competing systems that could compete with Nvidia on the global market.
Despite the failed execution of Christa Pike and the renewed discussion about the death penalty in the USA, individual states are continuing their executions. Two people sentenced to death were executed in Indiana and Florida on Thursday, the respective prison authorities announced. According to the media, the death penalty was carried out on a 54-year-old in Alabama - that would be three executions in one day in the USA.
Pike, who was convicted of murder, was scheduled to be executed in the US state of Tennessee at the end of September. She survived. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there is no comparable case known in recent history in the United States in which the execution drugs were administered and the condemned person lived on. Her case reignited the debate over executions in the United States, but the 50 states continue to handle them differently.
The US government says it deported almost half a million people within a year. In the fiscal year that ended at the end of September, more than 483,000 people were taken out of the country, the Department of Homeland Security said. Never before has the responsible migration authority, ICE, deported more people in one year.
President Donald Trump significantly tightened the USA's deportation policy after taking office. The actions of the migration authority ICE have been particularly criticized. There were serious incidents during large-scale ICE operations; two people were killed at the beginning of the year. Human rights organizations complain that migrants are also deported to third countries that are not their country of birth or homeland. In addition, many people are denied the opportunity to challenge their deportation decision in court.
After the call to order against a group led by Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, he honored the guard in charge. The infantryman had reprimanded Hegseth and his group at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier near Washington for laughing loudly - on Veterans Day of all days. Hegseth now awarded the soldier the Joint Service Commendation Medal for his performance of duty that day.
When Hegseth and his wife and companions visited Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, the group was noticed because loud laughter rang out from among them. A guard reprimanded them, as can be seen and heard on CNN recordings: “All visitors must ensure an atmosphere of calm and respect at all times,” the soldier shouted before turning away again.
US President Donald Trump has signaled that he wants to force a change of power in Cuba in the two remaining years of his term in office and could also be prepared to use military force to achieve this. “I want Cuba checked off before I go,” Trump said in a radio interview.
According to insiders, the US government is discussing a replacement for Trade Minister Howard Lutnick following the alleged espionage scandal involving former Nvidia boss Jensen Huang. Corresponding discussions are being held in the White House, two people familiar with the process told the Reuters news agency.
Historic victory for the Democrats in Mississippi: Democrat Scott Colom wins against Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith and takes her place in the US Senate, as the AP news agency reported more than a week after the vote based on vote counts and exit polls.
Driven by hopes of a more liberal US immigration policy, more than a thousand migrants moved north through southern Mexico towards the US border on Wednesday.
