travel

Repair of old copper wiring caused US flight disruption: Trump admin

BY CéLINE GESRET

  • Tim Johnson, consumer director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said although US flights have resumed, there could be "some follow-on disruption" as airlines re-book passengers and get all services back to normal.
  • Weary travelers endured more flight disruptions as service resumed at US airports after an hours-long total stoppage, with officials saying the situation should return to normal Sunday.
  • Tim Johnson, consumer director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said although US flights have resumed, there could be "some follow-on disruption" as airlines re-book passengers and get all services back to normal.
Weary travelers endured more flight disruptions as service resumed at US airports after an hours-long total stoppage, with officials saying the situation should return to normal Sunday.
The Trump administration blamed the mess that began Friday on a botched replacement of old copper wire communication lines.
The nationwide ground stop -- meaning no planes can take off -- sparked widespread chaos and left hundreds of thousands of passengers in limbo, with some pulled off planes moments before they were due to depart by airline staff who appeared in the dark about unfolding events.
"Tired. Exhausted. Frustrated. Yeah, you know, it's just a mess, right?" Lisa Beraid, 48, who works for an insurance company, told AFP as she waited for a flight Saturday morning at New York's La Guardia airport.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Bryan Bedford said that 12,000 flights were canceled on Friday and between four and five thousand flights out of 41,000 scheduled for Saturday were likely to be canceled as well.
But as of Saturday evening, the tracking website FlightAware had recorded more than 6,200 canceled flights.
Speaking at a news conference in Washington, Bedford offered a "sincere apology to the American traveling public."
He predicted a full resumption of flight schedules by "close of business on Sunday."
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday's four-hour ground stop was declared after maintenance work to upgrade an old copper wire to a high-speed fiber cable had caused "issues" with communication with airplanes and radar feeds.
"Either through contractor error or a faulty piece of equipment...it started flooding other routers in our air traffic control system," Duffy told reporters.
In another embarrassment, Saturday's news conference -- where administration officials also appealed for more funds to upgrade outdated systems -- was delayed due to technical problems with the audio feed.
- Returning to normal - 
Friday's disruption was only the second time such a ground stoppage had been issued in US airspace -- which is among the busiest in the world -- since the 9/11 attacks.
The nationwide halt was lifted at 8:15 pm Eastern Time Friday (0115 GMT Saturday).
During the outage, footage from airports showed gates full, with planes waiting on taxiways and passengers thronging concourses, desperate for information.
FAA officials reopened the airspace "after restoring full functionality" at air traffic control facilities, according to Duffy.
Tim Johnson, consumer director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said although US flights have resumed, there could be "some follow-on disruption" as airlines re-book passengers and get all services back to normal.
At La Guardia airport, some travelers were more sanguine than others about the continued disruption of their flights.
"We're stuck here for the next, I don't know, 36 hours," said Pat Curlett, a 62-year-old Ford worker.
"No one expects the whole airline system to go down," said 77-year-old traveler Steven Rathe, who was waiting to embark on a four-leg trip from New York to Albuquerque.
"We're lucky it wasn't longer. So they're flying today and for that I'm grateful."
- Aging infrastructure - 
The ground stop not only plunged US air travel into chaos -- it also raised serious concerns about the country's aging infrastructure.
Duffy appealed for $50 billion in funds to upgrade and modernize the air traffic control system, and called for Congress, which controls the purse strings of the US government, to "meet this moment." 
"Cut the crap," retorted Illinois state governor and prominent Democrat, JB Pritzker, on X. "Trump and Republicans have controlled Congress and could have funded the system."
New York Governor Kathy Hochul called on Duffy to resign or be fired by Trump, writing on X: "We're fortunate no lives were lost."
US lawmakers called for investigations into what caused the massive disruption and whether the country is adequately secure from cyber criminality.
"If today proves anything, it's that we need to update our air traffic control system & rebuild our airport infrastructure," Republican Senator Eric Schmitt said on X.
President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the outage that had knock-on effects for international flights to and from the United States, making no public statement about the ground stop as of Saturday night.
bur-msp/dw/jgc

travel

'Check, one two': Tech glitch hits US presser on air travel chaos

  • Duffy soon resumed, but brittle feedback hit the room seconds later and his demeanor shifted, presumably all-too-aware that the symbolism of an on-camera tech meltdown after such a major flight disruption was not going unnoticed.
  • Trump administration officials were left red-faced Saturday when their public effort to address the massive tech disruption that grounded thousands of US flights was itself hit with embarrassing technical glitches.
  • Duffy soon resumed, but brittle feedback hit the room seconds later and his demeanor shifted, presumably all-too-aware that the symbolism of an on-camera tech meltdown after such a major flight disruption was not going unnoticed.
Trump administration officials were left red-faced Saturday when their public effort to address the massive tech disruption that grounded thousands of US flights was itself hit with embarrassing technical glitches.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy took the podium and began addressing a much-anticipated and televised press conference a day after a disastrous nationwide ground stop across US airspace -- one blamed on aging technology -- when a deep, echoing hum began to emanate from the microphones and speakers.
"Check one two, three four, five six seven?" Duffy said into the mic.
As cameras rolled, he paused, looked around, and stepped away.
"(I) apologize for that," he said, as technicians scrambled to replace microphones and adjust cables.
Duffy soon resumed, but brittle feedback hit the room seconds later and his demeanor shifted, presumably all-too-aware that the symbolism of an on-camera tech meltdown after such a major flight disruption was not going unnoticed.
"This is not operational? OK," said Duffy, appearing deeply irritated. "This is our kind of, uh, day."
Duffy was speaking to reporters with the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Bryan Bedford, and, ironically, with the FAA's chief technology officer Rebecca Guy, who he said was doing a press conference with him for the first time.
Duffy and Bedford repeatedly pointed to ongoing systemic issues with transitioning from aging air traffic control technology from the 1970s and 1980s to more modern equipment.
As technicians scrambled, US networks carried the awkward pause -- lasting an excruciating three minutes -- live on the air.
mlm/msp

ASEAN

Canada's Carney touts Philippine trade deal on Asia tour

  • The pacts were "part of a strategy of developing a dense web of reliable partners to create more opportunities ... and reducing our relative reliance on the United States," Carney said.
  • Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday that Ottawa had successfully concluded negotiations for a sweeping free-trade pact with the Philippines, as it seeks ways to reduce its reliance on the United States.
  • The pacts were "part of a strategy of developing a dense web of reliable partners to create more opportunities ... and reducing our relative reliance on the United States," Carney said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday that Ottawa had successfully concluded negotiations for a sweeping free-trade pact with the Philippines, as it seeks ways to reduce its reliance on the United States.
The US-Canada trade war has ruptured what was once one of the world's closest economic partnerships.
While Canada's trade surplus edged up in September, driven by higher oil exports, US President Donald Trump's tariffs also pinched multiple sectors, data showed.
The deal with the Philippines was about six months away from being signed, Carney told reporters on the sidelines of a regional summit in Manila, where Trump is expected to arrive Tuesday.
He added a broader agreement was also in the works with the entirety of the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with those talks "substantially concluded".
The pacts were "part of a strategy of developing a dense web of reliable partners to create more opportunities ... and reducing our relative reliance on the United States," Carney said.
Calling the deal with Manila the "most comprehensive ... accord that the Philippines has signed," Carney said he expected trade between the countries to triple in the next decade.
Total trade between the two countries stood at about $2.4 billion in 2025.
The deal will drop over 90 percent of tariff lines and cover areas ranging from agriculture to aerospace to artificial intelligence, Carney said without revealing specifics.
The deal with ASEAN, meanwhile, would be the "first trade agreement ... outside of Asia" for the bloc, Carney said, noting "more than $50 billion a year in two-way trade, up nearly 25 percent in the past year".
In a separate statement, Manila said it expected the trade pact to be completed in the coming year.
Carney has maintained that trade with the United States, a cornerstone of the Canadian economy, will not return to a pre-Trump normal and that his country must urgently diversify its trading relationships. 
The Canadian prime minister is on a multi-nation trip that will next take him to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh for a biennial Francophonie summit before he heads north for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in China's Shenzhen.
There, he will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss Canada's trade commitments with Beijing, he said.
cwl/cms

socialism

US left embraces socialist label as stigma fades

BY BEN TURNER WITH MAGGY DONALDSON IN LOS ANGELES

  • Yet polls show a rising acceptance of socialism in the United States, a quintessentially capitalist country where politicians have long conflated the term with communism to vilify it.
  • "Socialism," once considered a scarlet letter in the United States, is growing increasingly buzzy and mainstream as a slate of politicians embracing the label have gained significant ground.
  • Yet polls show a rising acceptance of socialism in the United States, a quintessentially capitalist country where politicians have long conflated the term with communism to vilify it.
"Socialism," once considered a scarlet letter in the United States, is growing increasingly buzzy and mainstream as a slate of politicians embracing the label have gained significant ground.
In the wake of November's midterms, members of the Democratic Socialists of America -- a leftist organization that's made inroads within the Democratic Party -- now lead cities across the country including its two largest, New York and Los Angeles. 
DSA-endorsed politicians boosted their congressional seats from two to eight and won dozens of local elections, victories partly due to the Democrats' wider battering of President Donald Trump's Republicans.
The so-called "bluenami" of Democratic wins "would not have been possible without a socialist surge," DSA communications chair Cara Tobe told AFP.
"People are starting to realize and learn that socialism is not a big scary word," she said, noting that the Democrats' focus on affordability was lifted straight from the DSA playbook.
But some political scholars aren't convinced "socialism" earned votes. 
"A rising tide lifts all boats. This was a huge win for the Democratic Party across the board," said Stephen Ansolabehere, professor of government at Harvard University.
Hans Noel of Georgetown University attributed the success of Democrats -- and DSA-backed candidates -- to dissatisfaction with Trump. 
"It's important to remember that while DSA-aligned candidates did very well this year, that's mostly in the primaries and in very Democratic areas," the politics professor said. 
Yet polls show a rising acceptance of socialism in the United States, a quintessentially capitalist country where politicians have long conflated the term with communism to vilify it.
The DSA, founded in 1982 with a focus on labor organizing, was for years a relatively tiny left-wing pressure group. 
In 2015, about 6,000 supporters paid dues, but after Donald Trump's first presidential election new membership surged. 
Today, the group has more than 130,000 members and has proven an electoral force, with legions of volunteers helping elect candidates nationwide to state and local office.

Mamdani effect

Socialism has gained visibility through the campaigns and successes of prominent left-wing political stars, including the barnstorming of self-described socialist Bernie Sanders, who twice ran for president and has elevated younger candidates nationwide.
His protege Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has posted a successful congressional career and now is rumored to be considering a presidential run of her own. 
And New York's young and charismatic Mayor Zohran Mamdani has proven a poster child for furthering progressive politics under a socialist banner in cities, with a focus on core DSA issues including affordable housing, immigrant protections and healthcare access.
It’s a model politicians elsewhere in the nation are picking up on.
Eric Blanc, a Rutgers University labor studies professor, said Mamdani's successes have "normalized" socialism, with candidates viewing the moniker as "a net positive for them to get elected."
DSA member Nithya Raman was just elected mayor of Los Angeles on a platform of "pothole politics" -- vowing to fix broken infrastructure -- while harnessing the anger of younger voters over affordability.
The growing cadre of socialist mayors leading city governments are far from the first of their kind in the US. 
Most notably, the so-called "sewer socialists" ran Milwaukee for more than half a century through 1960, dramatically scaling up public works projects including a modern sewer system, public housing and social infrastructure. 
Mamdani has frequently referenced the sewer socialists as inspiration. Raman has also pointed to the legacy as offering a vision for future success.

Red Scare

Still, Blanc acknowledged that for some Americans, socialism still carries baggage.
Trump has called DSA candidates "hardcore, godless communists" -- echoing Cold War-era Red Scare rhetoric.
Yet Noel of Georgetown said DSA candidates are far from radical, with views more closely aligned with 'social democracy' rather than 'Democratic socialism.'"
Los Angeles's Raman has had an arms-length relationship with the DSA, and has referred to the group as part of a bigger tent.
"We need that coalition in order to be able to push back against the status quo," she told AFP in the run-up to her election.
DSA spokesperson Tobe said many of the organization's candidates have succeeded by simply offering a different solution for working people. 
"The big thing is people are looking for change. This is actually part of what even led Trump to victory," she said. 
Americans "want and need housing and accessible food and healthcare," Tobe said.
"For a very long time, the establishment -- whether Republican or Democratic -- has failed the working class."
bjt-mdo/mjf/hol

China

Trump, Xi, Putin to hold historic meeting in China: White House

BY DANNY KEMP

  • The three leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.
  • Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will hold the first three-way meeting between the leaders of the United States, Russia and China at a summit in Shenzhen next week, the White House said Friday.
  • The three leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.
Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will hold the first three-way meeting between the leaders of the United States, Russia and China at a summit in Shenzhen next week, the White House said Friday.
Trump wants to talk about reducing nuclear arsenals at the trilateral talks on Thursday and is also set to bring up his war in Iran -- but he is not expected to discuss Russia's war in Ukraine, US officials said.
The three leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.
"The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. This proliferation, President Trump believes, is very dangerous," Wales said.
One of the major conflicts dominating Trump's second term as president will feature, but the other will not, the US officials said.
"I think the president does intend to talk about Iran in the trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin," a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters on a call.
Washington has a "whole other track" of negotiations with Kyiv and Moscow aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, the official added, referring to talks that US envoys have had in recent days with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 
"China is not really a part of that track, so it doesn't seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there," the official added.

Yalta redux?

The meeting calls back to the 1945 Yalta summit in the Soviet Union, where then-US president Franklin D. Roosevelt, Britain's Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin laid out the post-WWII settlement and new territorial boundaries in Europe.
Zelensky has raised the alarm that the meeting in Shenzhen could be a Yalta-like "redistribution of spheres of influence" for the 21st century.
The Trump administration has sought to reassert US dominance over the "Western hemisphere" -- including by capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January -- but splitting the world among great powers like it's 1945 may not guarantee security.
Trump will also hold a bilateral working lunch and meeting with the Chinese president on Thursday -- their fourth meeting since the US president's return to power last year.
But Trump is not scheduled to have a separate one-on-one with Putin.
Among other topics, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang's resignation over an affair with an alleged Chinese spy is not expected to come up in Trump's meetings with Xi, the officials said.
"The situation with Nvidia should not really have any bearing on the trip," a second US senior official said.
The United States also did not plan to discuss export controls on sensitive chip technology, which were at the heart of the Nvidia scandal.
"We do not negotiate American export controls. These are national security matters that we develop in the administration... and we don't expect it to figure at all in any of our conversations with the Chinese while we're there," the second official said.
Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk will accompany Trump on his trip to China but will not be involved in the meeting with Xi and Putin, the officials said.
Trump will leave Washington on Monday and arrive in the Philippines on Tuesday for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) before heading to Shenzhen.
dk/jgc/hol

travel

US says airspace now 'opened up,' no cyberattack

  • Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin dismissed speculation about a coordinated cyber assault on the United States, or any link to the Microsoft outage that affected services worldwide.
  • The United States on Friday lifted an hours-long ground stop at the nation's airports, with top officials explaining that the disruption was due to old equipment and not a cyberattack or sweeping Microsoft outage.
  • Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin dismissed speculation about a coordinated cyber assault on the United States, or any link to the Microsoft outage that affected services worldwide.
The United States on Friday lifted an hours-long ground stop at the nation's airports, with top officials explaining that the disruption was due to old equipment and not a cyberattack or sweeping Microsoft outage.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told a late-night briefing at the White House that US airspace was now "opened up," while warning it would take time for the travel chaos to clear.
"At 8:15 tonight Eastern Time, we've opened up the airspace," Duffy said. "Now does that mean every flight is going to fly right now? It's going to be slow."
The breakdown came a day after Duffy and the White House had formally asked Congress for $30 billion to upgrade and modernize the US Air Traffic Control System.
"Our switches, our routers actually got overloaded with data, and they went down," Duffy said. "It's the old hardware that went down, and I think the question for the American people is: Do you want your Congress to fund this?"
Duffy however insisted it was still safe for Americans to fly.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin dismissed speculation about a coordinated cyber assault on the United States, or any link to the Microsoft outage that affected services worldwide.
"Welcome to Friday the 13th, right? You know, I want to make sure everybody understands that there is no connection between this and Microsoft. I know a lot of people are making that jump," Mullin said.
Mullin added there was "actually no cyber attack."
"When we start looking at cyber threats, cyber attacks, typically some people are going to raise their hand up and say, 'Hey, we did that.' There's no chatter.' We haven't seen any footprints," he added.
But he said US security and law enforcement agencies were still checking and had ruled nothing out.
The two officials also defended President Donald Trump, who had yet to comment on the air stoppage some five hours after it began.
"President Trump immediately had people in his office," Mullin said. "We were communicating."
dk/mjf

technology

Nvidia scandal looms over US-China AI talks

BY KATIE FORSTER

  • But the scandal is unlikely to "dominate the agenda" or affect Trump and Xi's personal relationship, predicted Dylan Loh of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
  • AI bots going rogue and humans using the technology for harm will likely be on the agenda when Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet next week, with the Nvidia scandal hanging over the talks on AI safety.
  • But the scandal is unlikely to "dominate the agenda" or affect Trump and Xi's personal relationship, predicted Dylan Loh of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
AI bots going rogue and humans using the technology for harm will likely be on the agenda when Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet next week, with the Nvidia scandal hanging over the talks on AI safety.
The US and Chinese president are set to discuss a tech crisis hotline at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, as experts worldwide stress-test artificial intelligence models to see if they will deceive or disobey users, or divulge how to build a bioweapon.
Threatening to steal the leaders' thunder is Jensen Huang's resignation as boss of US AI chip titan Nvidia after an affair with a suspected Chinese spy.
But the scandal is unlikely to "dominate the agenda" or affect Trump and Xi's personal relationship, predicted Dylan Loh of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
The leaders have found a way to work together "where they differ, compete and pursue their goals that may be at odds with each other, but cooperate where they can and where they must", Loh told AFP.
Jitters over the risks of AI have mostly stemmed from incidents at US labs, but evidence is also growing of worrying behaviour from Chinese models.
Some insiders say Chinese AI is not yet sophisticated enough to spark alarm over going rogue.
But despite trailing the US frontier, there are still Chinese models "at the level of capability that they can cause some real trouble", Brookings Institution fellow Kyle Chan told AFP.
Trump has repeatedly rejected calls to deliberately slow the development of America's most poweful -- and potentially dangerous -- AI systems, arguing it could help China get ahead in the sensitive sector.

'Human control'

"I don't mind guardrails. But I don't wanna put us in a deep second position," Trump told CBS News this month.
"China has no guardrails," he said -- except that "whatever President Xi says goes".
Beijing has complex rules around how AI is used, however, and some Chinese companies are deliberately scaling back their models' hacking capabilities.
Xi said this summer the technology should be "always under human control", calling for more "laws and regulations, technological monitoring, early warning and emergency response systems".
Trump and Xi agreed in September to create a channel for urgent communication on AI incidents, with details to be hammered out at APEC on November 18-19.
Global AI safety fears range from military use and mass surveillance to AI-assisted cyberattacks by humans.
Another major concern is out-of-control agents -- tools that complete real-life tasks online -- after ChatGPT maker OpenAI admitted its autonomous bots had hacked into websites, including an Australian government data portal.
In contrast, Chinese labs are "scared of revealing things that might hurt their reputation" -- on which they are already "fighting an uphill battle" globally, Chan said.
Last month, a team of cyber sleuths with roots in California reported detecting a "fleet" of agents linked to Chinese tech giant Tencent seeking information from a map app.
"Some agents exhibited unintended web-browsing behavior," Tencent's AI division said at the time.
"But our review found no evidence of deliberate targeting or coordination," it said, adding that the activity "originated from evaluations of third-party models".

'Manipulation risks'

US security companies have said that Beijing startup Moonshot AI's Kimi models found ways to get online when they shouldn't have, or can be tricked into handing over recipes for biological weapons.
Evaluators at Chinese AI safety startup Fangcun AI published a report last month assessing the latest lightweight DeepSeek model "for loss of control and harmful manipulation risks".
They found it showed a "clear safety improvement" over previous DeepSeek models -- but researchers still observed behaviours "that warrant attention".
For example, in some instances when DeepSeek was warned it would be shut down, without clear instructions on how to respond, it turned off the shutdown command to keep working.
"The results show that DeepSeek already puts much more effort on safety alignment, but they do not announce this," Fangcun AI CEO Xiaojian Li told AFP, urging transparency from AI labs.
For now, Fangcun, born from China's prestigious Tsinghua University, is one of few third-party AI testers in China.
It's a tricky task because advanced AI can tell when it is being evaluated and modify its responses, Li said.
"It's very hard to say any kind of artificial intelligence, or human intelligence, is totally safe."
Meanwhile analysts are not holding their breath for a diplomatic AI breakthrough next week.
"Binding government-to-government agreements on specific standards may be difficult to achieve in the short term," Zilan Qian, research scholar at GovAI, told AFP.
More progress is likely from US-China exchanges between AI governance and technical researchers, "who can compare evaluations and exchange their understanding of AI safety and policy," she said.
kaf/cms

China

Trump, Xi, Putin to hold historic meeting in China: White House

BY DANNY KEMP

  • The three leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.
  • Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will hold the first ever three-way meeting between the leaders of the United States, Russia and China at a summit in Shenzhen next week, the White House said Friday.
  • The three leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.
Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will hold the first ever three-way meeting between the leaders of the United States, Russia and China at a summit in Shenzhen next week, the White House said Friday.
Trump wants to talk about reducing nuclear arsenals at the trilateral talks on Thursday and is also set to bring up his war in Iran -- but he is not expected to discuss Russia's war in Ukraine, US officials said.
The three leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.
"The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. This proliferation, President Trump believes, is very dangerous," Wales said.
One of the major conflicts dominating Trump's second term as president will feature, but the other will not, the US officials said.
"I think the president does intend to talk about Iran in the trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin," a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters on a call.
Washington has a "whole other track" of negotiations with Kyiv and Moscow aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, the official added, referring to talks that US envoys have had in recent days with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 
"China is not really a part of that track, so it doesn't seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there," the official added.
Tesla and Space X boss Elon Musk will accompany Trump on his trip to China but won't be involved in the meeting with Xi and Putin, the officials said.
Trump will also hold a bilateral working lunch and meeting with the Chinese president on Thursday -- their fourth meeting since the US president's return to power last year.
But Trump is not scheduled to have a separate one-on-one with Putin.
Among other topics, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang's resignation over an affair with an alleged Chinese spy is not expected to come up in Trump's meetings with Xi, the officials said.
"The situation with Nvidia should not really have any bearing on the trip," a second US senior official said.
The United States also did not plan to discuss export controls on sensitive chip technology, which were at the heart of the Nvidia scandal.
"We do not negotiate American export controls. These are national security matters that we develop in the administration... and we don't expect it to figure at all in any of our conversations with the Chinese while we're there," the second official said.
Trump will leave Washington on Monday and arrive in the Philippines on Tuesday for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit before heading to Shenzhen.
dk/sst

ICC

Rubio takes swipe at international law, attacks ICC

BY BEIYI SEOW

  • Rubio said Friday that international law had been invoked against "nearly every major foreign policy decision" of the Trump administration, from boat strikes in the Caribbean to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
  • US Secretary of State Marco Rubio took aim Friday at what he deemed the "weaponization of international law," calling it a tool of the elite, and issued a stark warning to the International Criminal Court.
  • Rubio said Friday that international law had been invoked against "nearly every major foreign policy decision" of the Trump administration, from boat strikes in the Caribbean to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio took aim Friday at what he deemed the "weaponization of international law," calling it a tool of the elite, and issued a stark warning to the International Criminal Court.
Rubio cautioned the ICC against "quoting laws to men with swords," as he accused the Hague-based tribunal of trying to enforce rules that Washington does not recognize.
His remarks to the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention came around a month after the United States announced new sanctions on the ICC, vowing to cripple its operations.
The court prosecutes individuals accused of the gravest atrocities and acts as a last resort when countries do not have adequate legal systems to ensure accountability.
The US signed the Rome Statute establishing the ICC but never ratified the treaty. Israel, Russia and China are also not ICC members.
Rubio's keynote address at the conservative group, where he received a standing ovation, marks his first major US speech since the Republican Party's sweeping losses in midterm elections earlier this month.
Rubio said Friday that international law had been invoked against "nearly every major foreign policy decision" of the Trump administration, from boat strikes in the Caribbean to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
He charged that such law was not neutral, but has been an "instrument" for the global elite to advance their interests.
The top US diplomat previously said Washington would bar transactions with what he called a "rogue court," stepping up a long-running campaign by US President Donald Trump's government against the ICC.
Washington has vowed to dismantle the court, angered as judges issued an arrest warrant for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged crimes in Gaza.
Rubio on Friday renewed criticism of the ICC, calling it accountable to no one although "armed with the power to investigate, to prosecute, to persecute and to jail our citizens, according to laws we neither consent nor control."
He added: "If they're foolish enough to try to enforce their paper decrees on Americans, our answer will probably be the same as the Roman general Pompey when he said to those who were trying to invoke their city's charters against his legions."
"He said: 'Stop quoting laws to men with swords.'"
The venue of Rubio's remarks, a gathering of the legal profession, could further speculation that he is looking beyond his foreign policy portfolio. Past presidential hopefuls have also addressed the conference.
Rubio is widely seen as a possible successor to Trump, although he has dismissed reports that he was planning to leave the administration to prepare for a 2028 election run.
bys/mjf

immigration

US Supreme Court to rule on Trump admin asylum claim ban

  • A district court judge ruled last year that President Donald Trump exceeded his legal authority by broadly banning migrants who illegally crossed the southern border from seeking asylum.
  • The US Supreme Court agreed on Friday to rule on whether the Trump administration can bar migrants who illegally cross the US-Mexico border from presenting asylum claims.
  • A district court judge ruled last year that President Donald Trump exceeded his legal authority by broadly banning migrants who illegally crossed the southern border from seeking asylum.
The US Supreme Court agreed on Friday to rule on whether the Trump administration can bar migrants who illegally cross the US-Mexico border from presenting asylum claims.
A district court judge ruled last year that President Donald Trump exceeded his legal authority by broadly banning migrants who illegally crossed the southern border from seeking asylum.
An appeals court upheld the ruling as a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, prompting the Trump administration to take the case to the Supreme Court.
Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, one of groups which brought the case, welcomed the opportunity to present arguments to the Supreme Court.
"The president does not have the right to unilaterally override the protections Congress has afforded those fleeing danger," Gelernt said in a statement. "The courts are right to reject this unprecedented power grab that would put countless lives in danger.
"We look forward to making our case before the Supreme Court."
The asylum case is one of a number of immigration cases the conservative-dominated Supreme Court will hear this term.
In December, the court will hear arguments on the legality of deporting undocumented migrants to countries that are not their own, so-called "third country" deportations.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear the asylum case early next year and issue a ruling by the end of June.
Trump campaigned for president promising to expel millions of undocumented migrants and has taken a number of actions aimed at speeding up deportations and reducing border crossings.
Some of his mass deportation efforts have been thwarted or stalled by the courts over concerns that migrant rights to due process are being ignored.
cl/des

Nvidia

Political fallout widens in Nvidia spy scandal

  • Speaking on CNBC, Bessent said Treasury, the Defense Department, the US Trade Representative's office and the State Department had backed adding the Singapore company, Megaspeed, to Washington's trade blacklist "for months."
  • The political fallout from the Nvidia spy scandal spread to President Donald Trump's cabinet on Friday, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly blamed the Commerce Department for failing to blacklist a Singapore company suspected of funneling powerful AI chips to China.
  • Speaking on CNBC, Bessent said Treasury, the Defense Department, the US Trade Representative's office and the State Department had backed adding the Singapore company, Megaspeed, to Washington's trade blacklist "for months."
The political fallout from the Nvidia spy scandal spread to President Donald Trump's cabinet on Friday, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly blamed the Commerce Department for failing to blacklist a Singapore company suspected of funneling powerful AI chips to China.
Bessent's comments, a rare rebuke of one cabinet department by another, put new pressure on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lutnick has agreed to testify before the Senate amid questions over his department's handling of export controls.
The scandal, which led Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang to resign on Thursday, has engulfed the company at the heart of the AI boom, a key driver of US economic growth.
It has raised concerns that high-end Nvidia chips reached China, the United States' main AI rival, in violation of Washington's export restrictions.
It has also prompted questions over whether senior Trump administration officials turned a blind eye to Nvidia's dealings with Chinese-linked companies.
Lutnick, a billionaire investor, is a close friend of Trump, who has made Huang one of his closest advisers on artificial intelligence.
As head of the department that oversees US export controls, Lutnick is ultimately responsible for enforcing the rules meant to keep advanced Nvidia processors out of Chinese hands.
Speaking on CNBC, Bessent said Treasury, the Defense Department, the US Trade Representative's office and the State Department had backed adding the Singapore company, Megaspeed, to Washington's trade blacklist "for months."
"But Commerce has the pen," Bessent said. "You will have to ask them about their internal processes."
He said he was "frustrated" because Trump "made it very clear that China should not receive any Nvidia chips above H100s."
"Any leakage is very frustrating because it hurts our great companies, and in the AI race gives the Chinese an advantage," he said.
Lutnick is also facing pressure from Congress. Senator Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, told Fox News he wanted Lutnick to testify before the Senate Banking Committee "ASAP," citing "bipartisan questions and concerns about what's happened over the last year."
Lutnick has agreed to testify, Commerce Department spokesperson Kristen Eichamer told US media Thursday.
News outlet Axios reported on Wednesday that Trump had approved action against suspected diversions of Nvidia chips to China on at least three occasions this year, but that Lutnick did not act on the requests.
Megaspeed is suspected of helping Chinese firms get around US export controls by buying Nvidia chips for its data centers in Southeast Asia and routing them to China. 
The company reportedly traded more than $4 billion worth of Nvidia chips over two years.

'Know your client'

This week, US media identified Megaspeed's former director, Alice Huang, as an alleged Chinese intelligence asset who had a relationship with Jensen Huang. The two are not related. Beijing has denied the spying allegations.
Jensen Huang acknowledged an extramarital affair in a November 8 letter to Nvidia employees that did not name the woman involved.
Nvidia's board has said it will investigate, and three congressional committee chairs have asked Jensen Huang to attend a closed-door briefing in Washington on November 18.
Bessent said coverage of the affair had focused too much on Jensen Huang's private life amid reports of other affairs with Nvidia colleagues.
"The story thus far has been on Jensen Huang's personal foibles," he said. "The real story here should be: Did Nvidia know their client, and was there a robust effort at Nvidia to make sure that there was no leakage."
He questioned whether Nvidia had been selling to "what were obviously pass-through shell companies."
"I think it's important that anyone at the company there be held accountable for that," Bessent said. His comments suggest that scrutiny could extend to what Nvidia executives knew about the company's customers.
He said there was "a lot of leakage in the system" and that the administration was "constantly working to close that down."
arp/md

Nvidia

US Treasury chief blames Commerce Dept for failure in Nvidia scandal

  • Speaking on CNBC, Bessent said Treasury, the Defense Department, the US Trade Representative's office and the State Department had backed adding Megaspeed to the Washington's trade blacklist, "for months."
  • US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday blamed the Commerce Department for failing to blacklist Megaspeed, the Singapore company at the center of a scandal that prompted Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang to resign.
  • Speaking on CNBC, Bessent said Treasury, the Defense Department, the US Trade Representative's office and the State Department had backed adding Megaspeed to the Washington's trade blacklist, "for months."
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday blamed the Commerce Department for failing to blacklist Megaspeed, the Singapore company at the center of a scandal that prompted Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang to resign.
Speaking on CNBC, Bessent said Treasury, the Defense Department, the US Trade Representative's office and the State Department had backed adding Megaspeed to the Washington's trade blacklist, "for months."
"But Commerce has the pen," Bessent said. "You will have to ask them about their internal processes."
He said he was "frustrated" because President Donald Trump "made it very clear that China should not receive any Nvidia chips above H100s."
"Any leakage is very frustrating because it hurts our great companies, and in the AI race gives the Chinese an advantage," he said.
The remarks are a rare public rebuke of one cabinet department by another. Commerce is led by Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Megaspeed is suspected of helping Chinese firms get around US export controls by buying Nvidia chips for its data centers in Southeast Asia and routing them to China. 
The company reportedly traded more than $4 billion worth of Nvidia chips over two years.
Its former director Alice Huang was this week identified in US media as an alleged Chinese intelligence asset who had a relationship with Jensen Huang. The two are not related. Beijing has denied the spying allegations.
Jensen Huang acknowledged an extramarital affair in a November 8 letter to Nvidia employees that did not name the woman involved and resigned his position on Thursday. 
Nvidia's board has said it will investigate, and three US Congress committee chairs have asked him to attend a closed-door briefing on November 18.
Bessent said coverage of the affair had focused too much on Huang's private life.
"The story thus far has been on Jensen Huang’s personal foibles," he said. "The real story here should be: Did Nvidia know their client, and was there a robust effort at Nvidia to make sure that there was no leakage."
He questioned whether Nvidia had been selling to "what were obviously pass-through shell companies."
"I think it's important that anyone at the company there be held accountable for that," Bessent said.
He said there was "a lot of leakage in the system" and that the administration was "constantly working to close that down."
arp/msp
 

religion

Wins by religious Democrats break Republican grip on faith in politics

BY MALCOLM FOSTER

  • For decades, Democratic Party candidates have been reluctant to talk about faith and done little to actively reach out to religious voters, who favored Republicans, viewed as the party of traditional family values. 
  • Wins by a string of openly religious Democratic candidates in last week's midterm elections have broken the Republican stranglehold on integrating faith and politics, a change that could reshape America's political landscape for years to come.
  • For decades, Democratic Party candidates have been reluctant to talk about faith and done little to actively reach out to religious voters, who favored Republicans, viewed as the party of traditional family values. 
Wins by a string of openly religious Democratic candidates in last week's midterm elections have broken the Republican stranglehold on integrating faith and politics, a change that could reshape America's political landscape for years to come.
For decades, Democratic Party candidates have been reluctant to talk about faith and done little to actively reach out to religious voters, who favored Republicans, viewed as the party of traditional family values. 
But this year, that pattern was shattered as Methodist megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton in Kansas and Presbyterian seminarian James Talarico in Texas won in deeply conservative states that hadn't elected a Democratic senator in decades.
Using the Bible to call for decency in politics and oppose the violent crackdown on undocumented immigrants, they were among six clergy or pastors-in-training winning seats as Democrats, helping them recapture Congress and deal a heavy blow to President Donald Trump's party.
In Michigan, voters provided another kind of religious breakthrough by electing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed as the first Muslim senator.
"Democrats have long been the party of policies and programs rather than faith and values," but they "finally cracked the code," said Andrew Koneschusky, head of public relations firm Beltway Advisors in Washington and a former Democratic aide.
Voters resonated with messaging like Talarico's "politics of love" at a time of increased polarization and revulsion at heavyhanded immigration-enforcement tactics.
Talarico declared that the "real fight" in America isn't left vs right, but top vs bottom. He regularly wove scripture into speeches, saying he followed a "barefoot rabbi" who taught that the two most important things in life were loving God and loving your neighbor.
That struck a chord with voters. "'Love thy neighbor' is the opposite of ripping families apart, calling immigrants animals and demonizing trans people," Koneschusky said.

'Expanding the map'

The shift to embrace religious candidates is "really positive development" that could make Democrats more competitive in conservative areas in the South and Midwest, he added.
While this new playbook shouldn't be a blueprint for every state, the results show that "when Democrats run the right candidates who can talk credibly about faith and values in those areas where that's important to voters, they can be quite competitive," Koneschusky said.
"It's going to put Republicans on the defensive in places where they're not used to being on the defensive."
Their victories have generated an internet meme depicting Talarico, Hamilton and others as "The Rise of the Matthew 25 Democrats," a reference to a Bible passage where Jesus calls his disciples to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and welcome the immigrant.
Conservative evangelical Christians remained suspicious of the candidates' more liberal stances on abortion and gay marriage.
One evangelical influencer, Beth Allie Stuckey, called Talarico a "heretic" leading people to hell.

'Loosen the stranglehold'

But left-leaning Christian leaders welcomed the results as a healthy push-back.
"This will loosen the stranglehold that the Religious Right and Christian nationalist movement have had on our politics,"  said Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, a progressive Christian organization.
"It will help change the perception of Democrats and kind of level the playing field."
Hamilton, a political newcomer in deeply conservative Kansas, emphasized on the campaign trail that he was a moderate Democrat who wanted fiscal responsibility and a strong military while also supporting safe and legal access to abortions and protections for LGBTQ people.
Hamilton has said he is deeply aware of the "moral tension" surrounding abortion. He has told a poignant story about how his mother became pregnant with him at age 17, considered getting an abortion, but then decided against it.
At the same time, as pastor of a 24,000-strong church, Hamilton has also supported women facing pregnancy-related crises, and said he wants "to make sure Kansas legislators are not making that decision for those women."
But once in power, the Democrats will now find themselves under pressure to deliver results on earthly matters, especially affordability.
"If we don’t figure that out and get to work on helping people, this is going to be a one-and-done kind of blue wave," Hamilton said over the weekend.
mjf/sms/pnb

Nvidia

US Congress steps up scrutiny of Trump, Nvidia after Huang exit

BY ROBIN LEGRAND

  • "The Trump administration must also answer for what it did once it learned about Mr. Huang's relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset," he added.
  • Key US lawmakers on Thursday called for clarity on what the Trump administration knew about Nvidia chief Jensen Huang's extramarital affair with a woman suspected of spying for China, after the AI chip giant announced his departure.
  • "The Trump administration must also answer for what it did once it learned about Mr. Huang's relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset," he added.
Key US lawmakers on Thursday called for clarity on what the Trump administration knew about Nvidia chief Jensen Huang's extramarital affair with a woman suspected of spying for China, after the AI chip giant announced his departure.
Huang, now Nvidia's former CEO, had pushed for looser rules on sales of US chips to China -- crucial in the AI race -- and the controversy has reenergized advocates of a hard line on Beijing, days before Donald Trump travels to China.
"Despite Jensen Huang's resignation, Congress must demand answers from Mr. Huang and others at Nvidia about how they may have put US national security at risk," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on social media.
"The Trump administration must also answer for what it did once it learned about Mr. Huang's relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset," he added.
Huang, a co-founder of the AI chip giant, on Sunday acknowledged an affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed. The two are not related.
US intelligence suspects her of working for Beijing, which has strongly denied the allegations.

'Obvious threat'

According to The New York Times, Trump was informed of the suspicions last year, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed them to him in May.
Trump said on Monday he knew "the FBI is looking into" the affair, adding that he expected Huang to be "in good shape." He said Huang had told him he did not know the woman was a spy.
Huang was ultimately brought down by the scandal on Thursday, when the company's board announced his departure, effective immediately.
Lawmakers are also raising questions about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's alleged reluctance to impose restrictions on exports of the chips to China.
Three Republican House committee chairmen had already said they wanted to hear from Huang behind closed doors on November 18.
Democrats, who will take control of both chambers of Congress in January after winning the midterm elections, have also said they intend to look more closely into the affair.
The top Democrats on the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees told Lutnick in a letter on Thursday that they were investigating the administration's "scheme to approve and tax" Nvidia chip exports to Chinese firms linked to Beijing's government and military.
They accuse Lutnick and Trump of ignoring the "obvious national security threat" posed by the ties between Huang and a suspected Chinese intelligence agent, even though they had reportedly been informed of them.

Corruption

Senate Republican leader John Thune told reporters on Thursday that a congressional investigation "would make sense" given the national security interests at stake.
Schumer, who will succeed Thune as the Senate's most powerful lawmaker in January, demanded answers from the White House: "Were government officials told not to investigate because of Trump's relationship with Mr. Huang? What did Trump know when he personally invited Mr. Huang aboard Air Force One?" for a state visit to China in May.
Beyond the national security questions, Democrats could also look for signs of corruption.
According to The Washington Post, Nvidia pledged $25 million toward the ballroom Trump is building at the White House, a few months after chip sales to China resumed. The company says the donation was unrelated to its business interests.
"The more I learn about the insane relationship between the Trump administration, Chinese spies and AI billionaires, the more I'm convinced there is nothing this administration does that isn't corrupt," Democratic Senator Chris Coons wrote on X last week. 
"Congress will investigate and get answers."
rle/arp/pnb

military

Pentagon chief decorates soldier who reprimanded him and his entourage

  • Hegseth "proudly awarded Specialist Thomas Iglesias the Joint Service Commendation Medal for the execution of his duties at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on November 11, 2026," a Pentagon official said.
  • Pete Hegseth on Thursday awarded a medal to a US soldier who reprimanded the defense chief and his entourage for laughing and talking near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier the day before.
  • Hegseth "proudly awarded Specialist Thomas Iglesias the Joint Service Commendation Medal for the execution of his duties at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on November 11, 2026," a Pentagon official said.
Pete Hegseth on Thursday awarded a medal to a US soldier who reprimanded the defense chief and his entourage for laughing and talking near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier the day before.
Hegseth "proudly awarded Specialist Thomas Iglesias the Joint Service Commendation Medal for the execution of his duties at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on November 11, 2026," a Pentagon official said.
A post on Hegseth's official X account included photos showing him pinning the medal on the soldier's uniform and shaking his hand.
"We love soldiers. We love standards. Well done, Specialist," text accompanying the photos said.
The tomb, at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, is a sacred burial place of American military personnel killed during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. It also includes an empty site for a Vietnam War soldier in honor of missing troops from that conflict.
Video on US networks and social media showed Hegseth and his entourage gathering to take photos Wednesday at the tomb after a Veterans Day ceremony.
"All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times!" a US Army sentinel yelled loudly in response to audible laughter and chatter.
CNN identified the group taking photos on the steps near the tomb with Hegseth as his wife Jennifer, chief of staff Ricky Buria, deputy chief of staff Patrick Weaver and senior advisor Tami Radabaugh.
The tomb is patrolled at all times by soldiers who volunteer for the job and undergo "a strict selection process and intensive training," according to cemetery's website.
wd/msp

Senate

Mississippi Democrat flips US Senate seat in stunning upset

  • Colom is set to become the first Democratic senator from Mississippi in nearly 40 years. 
  • In a historic upset, Democrat Scott Colom has won his US Senate race in traditionally conservative Mississippi, networks projected Wednesday, making him the first African American elected to the chamber from the southern state in more than 140 years.
  • Colom is set to become the first Democratic senator from Mississippi in nearly 40 years. 
In a historic upset, Democrat Scott Colom has won his US Senate race in traditionally conservative Mississippi, networks projected Wednesday, making him the first African American elected to the chamber from the southern state in more than 140 years.
Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, prevailed over Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in perhaps the most extraordinary seat flip of an already extraordinary US midterm election, in which Democrats crushed the Republicans to reclaim the majority in both chambers of Congress.
In a prayerful and solemn speech, Colom praised Mississippi's long tradition of Black activism and faith in progress.
"Mississippi, our prayers have often changed the course of history," Colom told the jubilant crowd of his supporters in Jackson on Wednesday night. "God didn't want us to get it the easy way. He wanted us to get it the Mississippi way."
Colom's win in the deep South adds sting to the stunning rebuke of President Donald Trump as voters around the country shunned his Republican Party, even in states that had not sent a Democrat to Washington in decades. 
The latest win, called Wednesday by US news outlets that included CNN, NBC and CBS, will give Democrats 55 seats in the 100-member Senate, with 44 for Republicans and one race -- in the state of Alaska -- still outstanding.
The midterms result was a personal humiliation for 80-year-old Trump as a Democratic wave swept through the Republican heartland, leaving him as a lame duck president for the remaining two years of his term.
The Democratic flipping of Congress signals an end to Trump's stranglehold on US politics and gives Democrats the power to block legislation, probe his administration and thwart his appointments.
Including Mississippi now, Democrats flipped eight Senate seats that had been held by Republicans, scoring historic breakthroughs in South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Texas and Maine -- several of which had not changed hands for decades.
Hyde-Smith, in office since 2018, conceded the race in a video posted to X.
"While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters," the 67-year-old senator said. "I want to congratulate Scott Colom and wish him well as he takes on the tremendous responsibility of representing our great state."
The race in ruby red Mississippi went down to the wire -- a surprise for many observers who doubted the scale of the Democratic blue wave riding on mounting anger over Trump's harsh immigration policy, the war in Iran and rising costs of living.
CNN called it for Colom on Wednesday, eight days after election night, with some 99 percent of the vote in and the Democrat ahead of Hyde-Smith by 49.2 percent to 48.7 percent, a difference of 4,585 votes.
"Blue Mississippi is here," the US Senate's top Democrat Chuck Schumer proclaimed on X after the projections came in. 
"Scott Colom is the only person who could've gotten this done. I knew it from the moment I met him."
Colom is set to become the first Democratic senator from Mississippi in nearly 40 years. 
The first Black senator the United States ever elected, Hiram Revels, was from Mississippi and served during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War.
In his speech Colom referenced how Revels, a minister by training, inspired other politicians to support his Senate run through his powerful oratory.
"That's an example of the power of prayer, and through our history, there are so many people that lifted this state up through the power of prayer in very dark times," Colom said.
"It's local people that have faith that Mississippi can make progress, and it's local people like the people out here who had faith that we could win this election," he added.
mlm/dw/sla/tc

military

Trump defends Iran war in Veterans Day address

  • During his speech before troops, veterans and top officials in his administration, Trump namechecked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was in attendance, saying he had "done a fantastic job."
  • President Donald Trump defended the war against Iran Wednesday at a US Veterans Day commemoration that saw his defense secretary publicly admonished for a lack of decorum.
  • During his speech before troops, veterans and top officials in his administration, Trump namechecked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was in attendance, saying he had "done a fantastic job."
President Donald Trump defended the war against Iran Wednesday at a US Veterans Day commemoration that saw his defense secretary publicly admonished for a lack of decorum.
"The bravery and skill of our amazing American warriors has absolutely been incredible," Trump said in an address at Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington.
"When this conflict is over, and it will be soon, the entire world will be a much safer and better place, more peaceful place, and a place without the kind of danger that we had to suffer."
The war, which began on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes against Iran, has so far cost the lives of 23 US service members and wounded several hundred more, according to the latest Pentagon figures. 
Trump said in his remarks that the conflict was started not by Washington but by Tehran, which "has been waging war on America since 1979." He stressed that US forces were acting in order to halt Iran's capacity to build a nuclear weapon.
Trump, 80, attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the cemetery's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a sacred symbol for America's lost service members.
During his speech before troops, veterans and top officials in his administration, Trump namechecked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was in attendance, saying he had "done a fantastic job."
Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday blocked an effort -- launched by an outgoing Republican lawmaker -- to impeach Hegseth for allegedly waging war without congressional authorization and abusing his powers as Pentagon chief.
Hegseth stirred even more controversy at the ceremony: an army sentinel watching over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier reprimanded a small group of people that included Hegseth, his wife and several aides, when some of them laughed after posing for a picture in front of the sacred site.
"All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times," the sentinel called out, halting his patrol to face the group as they walked up some stairs to leave. Hegseth turned around to look at the guard. 
During his remarks, Trump brought up the issue of the 250-foot-tall (76-meter-tall) triumphal arch he hopes to build just outside the cemetery, saying it would be dedicated "soon."
On Tuesday, the family of John F. Kennedy asked a court to prevent its construction, arguing the massive structure would block views and cast shadows over the gravesites of the slain president and other Kennedy relatives buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The project also faces lawsuits from a group of veterans, the city of Washington and the state of Virginia.
mlm/des/dw/jgc

ASEAN

Trump to flex muscles on Asia tour after midterms losses

  • "The Iran war has been particularly challenging for the United States' Asian partners and allies, and they hope that after the midterm results US President Donald Trump's decision-making on the issue will become more predictable."
  • After his party suffered a midterms hammering, President Donald Trump faces a new challenge: proving he is still the boss of US foreign policy on the global stage.
  • "The Iran war has been particularly challenging for the United States' Asian partners and allies, and they hope that after the midterm results US President Donald Trump's decision-making on the issue will become more predictable."
After his party suffered a midterms hammering, President Donald Trump faces a new challenge: proving he is still the boss of US foreign policy on the global stage.
With Trump politically hamstrung as he enters the remaining two-year 'lame duck' period of his White House tenure, world leaders may be quietly wondering how to leverage the new balance of power in Washington.
The 80-year-old Republican heads to the ASEAN summit in the Philippines and APEC summit in China from a radically transformed and hostile political landscape at home after the Democrats seized both the House of Representatives and Senate.
Constitutionally banned from seeking a third term in the 2028 presidential race, the unpredictable billionaire could be all the more inclined to focus his energy on the international stage.
"After bad midterms, this is how presidents reset," Edgard Kagan, an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) told a news briefing.

Iran, trade, China

That is especially true for Trump on his Asian tour, where he is unlikely to be pressed publicly on domestic politics.
China has described the midterms as an "internal affair" and said it is "willing to continue working" with the United States after Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress.
But the power shift in Washington will still be on leaders' radars, said Joshua Kurlantzick, an expert in Southeast Asia and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"In private, many (Asian) leaders are relieved," Kurlantzick wrote in an article this month.
"The Iran war has been particularly challenging for the United States' Asian partners and allies, and they hope that after the midterm results US President Donald Trump's decision-making on the issue will become more predictable."
Trump has said several times since the midterms that renewed fighting between the United States and Iran is unlikely.
A Democratic-controlled Congress could also take a tougher stance towards China, Kurlantzick added, backtracking on the Trump administration's "soft approach" to Beijing that has sparked unease among US allies in Asia.
Leaders in the world's largest continent are also hoping to see Democrats push back on Trump's barrage of tariffs on trading partners, which have stung Asian economies heavily reliant on exports.
Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries has urged Congress to reassert its authority over US trade policy.
The Democrats will not get an easy ride in undoing Trump's policies, though.
The president enjoys broad authority over trade and holds veto power over congressional legislation -- which he has vowed to use.

High-profile meeting

Trump relishes dramatic gestures and foreign policy provides an ideal arena for high-profile meetings, such as with Chinese and Russian leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
Trump told reporters this week he expects to meet Xi and Putin at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China scheduled for November 18-19.
The president said "denuclearization" and ending the war in Iran would be on the agenda.
But the bigger goal for Trump may well be a single photo of himself standing with the two other leaders he views as his great power equals, said Kurt Campbell, chair of The Asia Group and a senior diplomat during the Biden administration.
"I think in many respects this could be 'the meeting is the message'," Campbell said.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who watched in horror as the White House appeared to pivot towards Moscow this year, has warned against a "Yalta 2.0," referring to Western leaders dividing Europe with the Soviet Union in 1945.   
Victor Cha, president of geopolitics and foreign policy and Korea chair at CSIS, said the Republicans' midterm defeat meant a high-profile meeting was all the more likely. 
"One that he (Trump) has personally staked a lot of time over two terms has been on North Korea," Cha said.
"There's nobody else in the US government that makes policy on North Korea except the president, so I think that he'll be focused on that sort of legacy issue."
aue/cms/sla

vote

MAGA influencers reel after midterm rout of Trump's Republicans

BY AURéLIA END

  • But over time, their closeness with the Trump administration lent them an institutional air, having taken part in news conferences alongside the president and flying on his jet.
  • For years, influencers with the "Make America Great Again" movement thrived alongside President Donald Trump.
  • But over time, their closeness with the Trump administration lent them an institutional air, having taken part in news conferences alongside the president and flying on his jet.
For years, influencers with the "Make America Great Again" movement thrived alongside President Donald Trump.
But after Democrats hammered candidates from Trump's Republican Party in last week's midterm elections, the content creators find themselves facing questions over their ideological and financial futures.
"I've been running on empty for too long," said conservative commentator Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist and confidante of Trump who announced last week she was taking a break from her podcast.
Samuel Woolley, a communication professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said post-midterm soul-searching would result in an inevitable "changing of the guard" among influencers espousing Trump's nationalist views.
"I would expect that many influencers who worked with MAGA are going through an introspective period in the same way that many conservatives are," Woolley told AFP.
Danielle Lee Tomson, a researcher at the University of Washington, said many prominent pro-Trump influencers were losing their appeal.
"A lot of these creators, like Laura Loomer or Mike Cernovich or even Jack Posobiec, they are now aging, they're older millennials," Tomson said, naming a few top influencers.
"They don't have the same kind of novelty as they once did," she added.
"Quite frankly, a lot of their message got boring."

Underdogs

Ring-wing commentators like Posobiec, Tim Pool and Benny Johnson built their online audiences on a fiercely anti-establishment message.
But over time, their closeness with the Trump administration lent them an institutional air, having taken part in news conferences alongside the president and flying on his jet.
The midterms also put a spotlight on the waning momentum of top MAGA-aligned movements, such as youth organization Turning Point USA, whose founder Charlie Kirk was shot dead last year.
Candidates backed by Turning Point were overwhelmingly defeated in last Tuesday's Democratic "blue tsunami."
Some pro-Trump influencers have opted to "reclaim that they're underdogs" after the midterms rout, Tomson said, and lash out at the Republican Party rather than Trump.
Specifically, they have accused the party of alienating young, white, working-class, male MAGA supporters by pushing for war with Iran.
Others have cheered Stephen Miller's appointment to White House chief of staff.
The combative Trump ultra-loyalist spearheaded the administration's staunch anti-immigration policies and is seen as a return to the MAGA movement's ideological roots.
Commentator Johnson called Miller's ascension "a complete game-changer" and a "great move."

Who writes the check?

Questions over money are also at the heart of the influencers' futures.
Some have thrived not only by monetizing content, but also by receiving payments -- often through opaque channels -- from political funding organizations and lobby groups, Woolley said.
As social media personalities rely increasingly on an image of authenticity, some are now touting their independence as a way to stand out.
"Loyalty has shifted from the agenda to whoever is writing the check," said Alex Bruesewitz, a media advisor often credited with helping Trump return to the White House.
Following the midterms, the consultant criticized Loomer for failing to disclose that she had been paid for making certain posts on X.
And in 2024, influencers such as Pool and Johnson were linked to a case in which the Justice Department accused Russia of paying right-wing content creators to spread pro-Moscow messages.
Woolley said social media companies are the "wild card" in the influencer ecosystem.
Tech giants like Meta and Google "have shown themselves completely willing to shift their behaviors and policies based upon who is in the White House," he said.
So if sites like YouTube or TikTok took a more active stance on disinformation and hate speech, "it will change these influencers' lives and change their behaviors," he said.
aue/cyb/cms/acb/des

media

US judge rejects BBC bid to dismiss Trump defamation suit

  • US District Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz on Tuesday rejected the BBC's bid to dismiss the defamation suit, but tossed the Florida protection law claim.
  • A federal judge has allowed US President Donald Trump's multibillion-dollar defamation suit against the BBC to proceed, rejecting a bid by the British broadcaster to dismiss the case.
  • US District Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz on Tuesday rejected the BBC's bid to dismiss the defamation suit, but tossed the Florida protection law claim.
A federal judge has allowed US President Donald Trump's multibillion-dollar defamation suit against the BBC to proceed, rejecting a bid by the British broadcaster to dismiss the case.
Trump has accused the BBC of deceptively editing a documentary to make it seem as if he was inciting violence when he told supporters to march on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He has sought at least $5 billion each for one claim of defamation and a separate claim under a Florida consumer protection law.
US District Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz on Tuesday rejected the BBC's bid to dismiss the defamation suit, but tossed the Florida protection law claim.
A spokesperson for the BBC said in a brief statement that the broadcaster was "surprised by this decision" but respected the court's authority.
"We remain confident in our position and will continue to respond through the proper legal process," the statement added. 
Trump, in a Truth Social post, hailed the judge's ruling as "A Huge Victory."
"We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!" he added.
The BBC documentary at issue spliced together two separate sections of Trump's speech on January 6, 2021, making it appear that he had explicitly urged supporters to attack the US Capitol.
While the broadcaster has apologized for the incident, which prompted the resignation of multiple senior executives, it has denied causing Trump any real injury.
In a 40-page ruling, Kuntz wrote: "Whether President Trump can prove these claims and establish he sustained damages at summary judgment or trial is left for another day." 
He added: "Given the time disparity between the two statements, the distance itself tends toward a plausible inference that BBC knew or should have known that the segment they were creating would not and could not have been a truthful statement.
"This was not trimming around the edges but creating something different than what was stated in the speech."
Last month, Trump faced a setback in the case when a magistrate judge ordered him to give a deposition by December 11, after the BBC claimed he was dodging their efforts to get sworn testimony.
Trump risks sanctions if he fails to attend the deposition by then, including the potential dismissal of his lawsuit, the court said.
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