The US aviation regulator FAA lifted the nationwide stop on takeoffs at airports after around four hours. This was announced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Thousands of flights had previously been canceled and long queues formed at many airports. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had spoken of a precautionary measure after communication problems in the flight control system.
It was only the second nationwide stop to air traffic in the United States since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The FAA last resorted to this radical measure in January 2023 when the system that transmits messages to pilots failed. Back then the interruption lasted 90 minutes - this time more than four hours.
The specific cause of the current problems initially remained unclear. Machines that were still in the air at the time of the stop were gradually able to land. Once the problems have been overcome, there will likely be a significant impact on further air traffic, as a number of aircraft are now missing where they would have been needed for further flights as planned.
With takeoffs suspended, tens of thousands of passengers were stuck at airports and initially had no clarity about how quickly things could continue. Shortly after the flight stop was announced on Friday, American Arlines announced that connections until the end of the day would definitely be affected.
Due to technical problems with the US flight control system, no aircraft are currently allowed to take off from Europe to the USA. The European aviation security authority Eurocontrol announced this overnight.
The US aviation regulator stopped all takeoffs at all US airports on Friday evening (local time) after technical problems. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin spoke of a precautionary measure after communication problems in the flight control system. At the same time, he emphasized that there was no danger to passengers or the public. Thousands of flights were canceled or initially reported as delayed. One by one, machines that were still in the air at the time of the stop landed.
How long the stop could last initially remained unclear. But it will be “some time” before it is lifted, Mullin told reporters at the White House. So far there is no evidence that an attack caused the problems. There is also no danger to passengers or the public. Aviation radio traffic is functioning normally in two US regions, Mullin said, without naming them.
According to the financial service Bloomberg, the Federal Police FBI was checking whether the problems could be due to a software update. The news channel CNN reported that machines that were in the air at the time of the stop had to switch to emergency frequencies.
It is only the second nationwide stop of air traffic in the USA since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The FAA last resorted to the radical measure in January 2023 because the system through which messages are transmitted to pilots failed. However, Friday's aviation disruption lasted much longer than the 2023 incident.
In the USA, tens of thousands of passengers were stuck at airports and initially had no clarity about how quickly things could continue. The News York Times newspaper, citing flight data company Cirium, reported that 1.5 million passengers had scheduled connections when the disruption occurred. By early evening (New York time), 600 flights had been diverted or vice versa.
LaGuardia Airport, New York City: People waiting at the baggage carousel. Getty/AFP
Washington National Airport: Standing passengers. AFP
The White House has announced a three-way meeting between US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin next week in China. Trump also wants to talk about a possible reduction in global nuclear weapons stocks. The government headquarters in Washington announced this on Friday evening (local time).
The stop was called shortly before 4 p.m. local time. At that time, more than 30,000 arrivals and departures were scheduled for the rest of the day, reports the New York Times, citing the flight tracker app Flighty. At many airports, passengers are sometimes taken off planes that are already on the runway. Others are sent home. How long the stop will last is still unclear.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered a nationwide stop to takeoffs at airports. The reason was communication problems in the flight control system, said Transport Minister Sean Duffy on the online platform X. FAA technicians were working on it. New information will be communicated immediately.
It is only the second nationwide stop of air traffic in the USA since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The FAA last resorted to this radical measure in January 2023. At that time, the trigger was the failure of the system through which messages are transmitted to pilots. In this case, the stop was lifted after a few hours.
Last year, Congress approved $12.5 billion to overhaul the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's aging communications system. Just on Friday, the FAA and the White House asked Congress for $30.1 billion to address other problems.
The specific cause of the current problems initially remained unclear. Several flight control centers reported communication problems, media reports said. At the same time, the news channel CNN reported, citing information from security authorities, that initial findings indicate that the trigger was not a cyber attack. However, US Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said he did not want to rule out any cause for the outage, including a cyber attack. There is currently no reason to believe that there is a threat to national security behind the communications failure that paralyzed all US flights.
However, according to Mullin, there is no connection to the massive global failure at Microsoft. “I see no reason at all to connect these two incidents,” he told reporters at the White House.
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.
“Three executions in one day are rare in this day and age of capital punishment,” USA Today wrote, pointing out that such a triple execution had already taken place in August. Previously, the last triple execution in the United States took place 16 years ago, the newspaper said. The three people now executed were all men who had been sentenced to death for killing other people. They were all given a lethal injection.
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.
The department's data shows a significant increase in deportations since Trump took office. While there were well over 400,000 deportations in the two years that fell entirely or mostly during his term in office, last year there were 271,000 under his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
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.
The Defense Minister now posted pictures of the award on the X platform. "We love soldiers. We love standards. Well done, specialist," he wrote. Specialist is a rank in the US military.
