All Activity

America stops Flightradar24, a global flight tracking service, posted this snapshot of 3,100 aircraft bound for U.S. airports as the nationwide ground stop began. Image: Flightradar24 via X The chaos from the FAA's nationwide ground stop continues today, with nearly 3,500 flights already canceled as airlines played catch-up. Why it matters: Millions of travelers will be inconvenienced over what the government says was simply old technology that couldn't keep up with modern upgrades. The Friday the 13th ground stop, the longest since 9/11, lasted 4 hours, 21 minutes — from 3:54 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. ET. FlightAware reported more than 6,000 cancellations yesterday. Passengers waiting for rebooking formed huge lines in airport lounges. At a White House briefing last night, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the ground stop was issued after outdated air traffic control communications equipment suffered from "overloaded data, and they went down." Duffy said the problems weren't linked to a new AI-powered system the FAA is rolling out: "This is all the old legacy equipment. All of the new equipment that's been deployed did not go down." Duffy spent much of the press conference pushing Congress for more funding — $50 billion — for upgrades. He said similar problems could occur again without more money. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin added that officials are looking into incompatibilities between that older equipment and newer technology currently being installed. Mullin said there's no evidence that the problems were tied to a cyberattack. But Duffy and Mullin didn't specify the exact initial cause of the problems. Get the latest ... More photos.

November 14, 2026 Good morning. The F.A.A. shut down all air travel in the United States for more than four hours Friday evening, apparently because new technology upgrades overwhelmed antiquated telecommunication systems. Here’s what to know: It was only the second full ground stop since 9/11. The Homeland Security secretary said there was no evidence of a cyberattack, but added: “We’re not going to rule it out.” Chaos spread through airports as some 6,600 Friday flights were canceled. Thousands of travelers remain stranded after the hourslong ground stop ended on Friday night. Follow our live coverage here. Now that you’re up-to-date, let’s talk about everyone’s favorite pants. Melissa Kirsch is on vacation, and Jacob Gallagher, who hosts our newsletter about fashion, has some feelings about jeans. Linh Pham for The New York Times Forever in bluejeans By Jacob Gallagher I cover men’s fashion, and host a newsletter called The Fashions. Sometime in my mid-20s, I stopped wearing jeans. I’d spent my youth romping around in baggy hand-me-down Gap jeans, their knees stained with grass. As a mopey teenager, maturing under the twin moons of skateboarding and hard-core punk, I favored dark skinny jeans that hugged my calves. Emerging from college, I saved up for a plywood-stiff pair of raw denim from the French label A.P.C. I wore those slim-straight jeans into oblivion, until holes sprouted at the pockets and they grew feline-like whiskers at the knees. And then one day, I just quit them. As I slid into the work force, I became preoccupied with being taken seriously. I had a beard but looked younger than my 22 years, my face still bearing the aftershocks of acne. Jeans, to me, underscored that. I migrated instead to dress trousers, cotton in summer, wool in winter. They were wider than the J.Crew norm, but I had only black and navy. The whole idea was for no one to notice them. I vacillated between crewneck and V-neck sweaters, and cycled between striped shirts and solid ones. But for years, those pants were a constant. A few years ago though, I tired of them. It was as if I had eaten the same coconut-flavored yogurt for breakfast for a decade until one day, even the thought of it made me retch. I decided my wool pants were a stylistic void, a dark wormhole where something more varied, or just something worth even a split-second of closer inspection, could’ve gone instead. This is what can happen to all of us with clothes. Our eyes wander, taking in new influences. You see someone in a chartreuse sweater and suddenly your gray knits feel creaky. A friend arrives to dinner in a tweed coat that you can’t stop looking at, and with that, your peacoat is cooked. It’s good to be open to change. I was open enough on a reporting trip in Paris — cry for me! — three years ago that when a pair of beautifully battered bluejeans beckoned to me from across a vintage store, I bought them. They were by Yohji Yamamoto, fleecy from decades of wear, and priced at $175. When I became a dad a yearish later, I put on those jeans day after sleep-deprived day of my paternity leave. They became my literal Dad Jeans. Despite their princely sounding provenance, the Yamamotos are essentially recreation straight-legged Levis, only a bit crisper in shape. Their indigo hue gives way to white from wear; their knees are frosted with cloudlike wisps. They’re like something James Dean would have worn in “Giant.” I wear them at least three times a week now. I’ve learned that my fears about appearing unserious were unfounded. Glance around on your commute and you’ll realize it’s nearly impossible now to discern someone’s job based on how they dress. Jeans are really a norm in most offices. And now I can’t seem to stop buying them. I’m up to seven pairs in a range of washes and fits, in a foolhardy pursuit of perfection. In the wearing, deficiencies come into focus: One pair is too short, another too wide, a third too … blue? I’m currently hunting the utopian pair of dusty, straight-legged black jeans. A pair of Levi’s from eBay is en route to me as I write this. I’m sure when they arrive, I’ll love them. Well, that is, until I get sick of them. More from Jacob: Critic’s notebook: How Jensen Huang’s signature leather jacket came back to bite him. Get The Fashions delivered to your inbox. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Rory Doyle for The New York Times Even Scott Colom’s fiercest supporters were skeptical he could pull it off. Here’s how the Democrat toppled a Republican incumbent to become the first Black person elected to the Senate from Mississippi since Reconstruction. The Supreme Court said it would review the Trump administration’s policy of categorically denying asylum claims by people crossing the southern border. Representative Lauren Boebert, a hard-line Republican and Trump ally, narrowly lost her bid for re-election in a conservative Colorado district. The Democrats who will soon control Congress plan to rein in White House budget powers and boost funds for climate, education, health and housing. A popular Ohio restaurant hosted Vivek Ramaswamy after his attack ad featuring Amy Acton’s mother. Then customers turned against it. Around the World Russia, negotiating with Trump’s envoys to end the war in Ukraine, revived its demand that NATO pull back its troops to positions they held in 1997. Gadi Eisenkot, who is trying to form the next Israeli government, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of fueling a racist campaign against the country’s Arab citizens. Nvidia Scandal Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blamed the Commerce Department for not sanctioning Megaspeed, the Singaporean firm at the center of the Nvidia spy scandal. Silicon Valley start-ups face an uncertain future after the abrupt resignation of Jensen Huang, whose company holds some $48 billion in stakes in hundreds of companies. More on A.I. Anthropic’s financial picture could get murkier when it goes public, because of employee stock compensation and the growing costs of the A.I. build-out. Dario Amodei, the company’s chief executive, often warns about the dangers of A.I. Others in the industry are getting fed up with his message. Other Big Stories The Brooklyn district attorney’s office opened a criminal investigation into a building collapse this week that killed eight people, including two children. Sister June, the oldest Shaker in the United States, died at 88. Only two practicing members remain in the country’s last active Shaker group. THE INTERVIEW The New York Times “I turned 40 a couple of years ago, and I suddenly felt more present in my body and more connected to my sense of confidence and sexuality than ever.” — Olivia Wilde, who directed and stars in the Oscar contender “The Invite.” She spoke to David Marchese about identity, relationships, career and “aggressive rage.” Watch, listen or read a transcript. GAMES OF THE WEEK Leah Hennel/Getty Images Hockey homecoming: The N.H.L.’s best team, the Carolina Hurricanes, are playing the Seattle Kraken in Finland this afternoon at 1 p.m. Eastern. It’s a homecoming for Sebastian Aho, the Finnish center who has been the engine behind Carolina’s offense for the last several years. But it won’t be a vacation: The Hurricanes cherish their blue-collar, work-through-everything reputation. They lift a cinder block after every workout. Football for breakfast: European audiences are also being treated tomorrow with an N.F.L. game in Munich. The Detroit Lions are playing the New England Patriots — two teams The Athletic projects will make the playoffs. Kickoff is at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. — Matthew Cullen THE WEEK IN CULTURE Opera Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Today’s final performance of the Metropolitan Opera’s blockbuster premiere of “Lincoln in the Bardo” will be live-streamed on YouTube. It’s the first time the Met has streamed an entire opera, a move that could transform the institution’s audience. Chile’s principal opera house struck a deal to have its dance students trained by the Paris Opera Ballet School. Film and TV After a long and drama-filled hiatus, Johnny Depp returns as Dickens’s notorious holiday miser in “Ebenezer.” Our critic says he isn’t playing Scrooge so much as trying to mount a comeback. The new Netflix series “The Body” leans on millennial nostalgia to tell the story of teenagers caught up in a suspicious death. In “I Play Rocky,” the director Patrick Farrelly charts Sylvester Stallone’s effort to get “Rocky” onto the big screen. Watch him narrate a breakthrough scene. More Culture The Times and the New York Public Library announced their list of this year’s best illustrated children’s books. Take a look. Did you get married in the last five years? We want to know where you splurged, where you saved and how much money you really spent. Watch live on Nov. 18: Conversations with Musk, Mamdani, Altman and more. Stream select interviews from the DealBook Summit on nytimes.com or in the app, free. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Dane Tashima for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Maple Roasted Chicken Millie Peartree’s maple roasted chicken thighs have a smoky, tangy sweetness from the combination of maple syrup, cider vinegar and a dash of smoked paprika. If you let them marinate overnight, they’ll be able to absorb even more of those complex flavors. So, throw them together today for a satisfying Sunday supper tomorrow. REAL ESTATE Katherine Marks for The New York Times The Hunt: A New York couple tried living in the suburbs, but decided the city better suited their needs. Could $1 million get them a Manhattan two-bedroom? Play our game. What you get for $800,000: A 1900 house with Craftsman-style details in Saugatuck, Mich., a 1977 Gambrel house in Hartford, Vt., and a 1950 cottage in Greenville, S.C. are all on the market. Which would you pick? $1.5 million homes in Mexico: A four-bedroom with modern touches in Cuernavaca, a contemporary home with a pool in Chapultepec and a seven-bedroom Mexican-colonial in Acapantzingo are all on the market. T MAGAZINE Victoria Sambunaris Read this weekend’s issue of T, The New York Times Style Magazine. LIVING Caroline Gutman for The New York Times Chop house: This vacation home was built from an old Virginia barbershop. Fresh energy: In newly magnetic Marseille, a family of designers are incorporating the city’s gritty past into their work. Look inside their home. Going car-free: It’s not always practical. Here are the places it works best. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Just get them a sweater from Scotland Around this time every year, friends ask me the same question: Where to look for a great gift sweater? Wirecutter, of course, recommends many excellent sweaters, including a classic rollneck and various cashmere options. But my personal advice is always the same: Get your loved one a sweater made in Scotland. The country’s wool mills and knitters manufacture some of the greatest sweaters in the world. Many of them have been doing so without pause since the 19th century. Shetland wool sweaters are a reliable place to start. They come in an armada of colors, a range of price options and are exceptionally durable. Even for the person who wants for nothing, a Scottish sweater is an excellent gift that’ll last for years. — Alexander Aciman NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was cacophony. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson

THIS DAY IN HISTORY November 14 1851 Herman Melville publishes 'Moby-Dick' in the U.S. Moby-Dick, by Herman Melvilsule, is published. The novel is now considered a classic of American literature and contains one of the most famous opening lines in fiction: “Call me Ishmael.” Read More Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT American Revolution 1776 English newspaper announces Benjamin Franklin has joined rebellion in America Arts & Entertainment 1941 Alfred Hitchcock’s 'Suspicion' premieres Black History 1960 Ruby Bridges desegregates her school Cold War 1951 United States gives military and economic aid to communist Yugoslavia Crime 1882 Frank Leslie kills Billy “The Kid” Claiborne Inventions & Science 1832 NYC’s first mass transit debuts: a horse-drawn streetcar Space Exploration 1969 Apollo 12 lifts off Sports 1970 Plane crash devastates Marshall University football team Vietnam War 1965 Major battle erupts in the Ia Drang Valley World War I 1914 Ottoman Empire declares a holy war

English screenwriter and actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge lends her London flat to playwrights from underprivileged backgrounds. (More) Strangers raise more than $76K for a woman who works food delivery shifts while also serving as a full-time caregiver for her 82-year-old mother. (More, w/video) Italy invests $2.2M to support shelters and rehabilitation facilities that find loving homes for dogs rescued from fighting rings. (More) Mother notices her Doberman behaving oddly around her infant, alerting her to a potentially dangerous condition. (More) One hundred poets write poems about homelessness and donate proceeds to local shelter. (More, w/poem) Today, we're sharing a story from reader Gilda H. in Monticello, Indiana. "Last week we visited Vézelay, a very small village in France. We were trying to find our small hotel in very narrow, unmarked streets. An elderly gentleman with a white beard and cane noticed we had stopped and looked confused. He smiled, nodded his head, and motioned for us to follow him. He led me personally to the hotel and spoke to the proprietor in French (which I don’t speak). Then he went back to our car and guided my husband to the parking space. Then, with a kind smile and not a word spoken, he went on his way."

Brain Mapping Milestone A global consortium of more than 50 institutions has created the most detailed cellular atlas yet of the brain's most disease-relevant region (w/diagrams), potentially inspiring treatments for a range of neurological and psychiatric conditions. The data is publicly available, with findings detailed across 26 research papers published this week. Researchers profiled 25.5 million individual cells from the basal ganglia of human, macaque, and marmoset brains to build the atlas. It is a group of interconnected structures deep within the brain that influence movement, habit formation, decision-making, and emotion (watch 101). Dysfunction and damage within basal ganglia circuits have been linked to Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other conditions. The atlas has already yielded promising discoveries, including a previously unrecognized brain cell type associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and genetic changes in specific cell types that may contribute to autism. Scientists say the basal ganglia atlas marks a major step toward mapping the entire human brain. Watch a neuroscientist explain brain mapping at five levels of difficulty.

‘You cannot build peace on a burning planet,’ UN chief tells Cop31 in farewell speech António Guterres says climate action central to every aspect of UN’s work, as leaders depart Cop31 and talks go on https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/nov/13/cop31-antonio-guterres-united-nations-climate-action?

Eisenkot condemns Netanyahu’s ‘racist’ campaign against Israel’s Arab citizens Prime ministerial hopeful calls Arab minority ‘an integral part of the Israeli story’ as he seeks to form government https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/nov/13/eisenkot-accuses-netanyahu-of-racist-campaign-against-israels-arab-minority?

UK tells blind Nigerian pensioner to go to India for medical treatment A blind Nigerian pensioner who has lived in the UK for 26 years has been told by the Home Office she can safely go to India, a country she has never visited, for medical treatment. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/nov/14/uk-tells-blind-nigerian-pensioner-to-go-home-to-india?

Terror from the skies: drones are redefining warfare in Sudan, and massacring its civilians Strikes with huge death tolls are an increasing occurrence as UAVs ‘bring the war to places that were once safe’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/nov/14/drones-redefining-warfare-sudan-massacring-civilians?

An Expectation of Chaos (Aaron M. Sprecher / AP)   View in browser Every civilian airplane in the United States has been told not to fly, owing to a nationwide FAA ground stop. As I write this, very little is known about the nature of the safety risk or the issue underlying it. According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, “a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers” necessitated the action, which was undertaken for reasons of safety. The stop could keep planes on the ground for hours, or much longer. Even when the stop ends, unwinding the inevitable backup will take more time. If you’re in the air, your plane will land. But if you are at the airport waiting for one, it might be best to give up and go home. In a sense, chaos such as this arrived long before today. Air travel has become terrible, and it has done so slowly and over a long period of time. In terms of safety, air travel is far less dangerous than driving, although an erosion of oversight, funding, infrastructure, and other factors might be changing that. James Fallows, a longtime contributor to The Atlantic, just wrote a lengthy article for The New York Times Magazine about exactly this risk. Setting aside actual safety, the experience of traveling by commercial airline has been getting worse and worse for years. Once blue with clarity, the American skies are now clouded with uncertainty. Risk and failure are now presumed. My son’s flight from Boston to LaGuardia was delayed earlier today, before the ground stop, by weather. “You should have taken the train,” I texted him. He made it out mere hours before all planes were grounded. New York City–area airports have suffered delays in recent days due to weather—a seemingly constant issue flying in or out of that city. My son and his sister, who both live in Manhattan, decided months ago not to even try to leave town for Thanksgiving, because delays and cancellations have become so commonplace. The reasons are many. Industry consolidation reduced routes to medium-size cities, sending more passengers through a smaller number of hubs. Passengers might have to make connections for routes that once flew direct, or drive longer distances to reach a bigger airport. Extreme weather has worsened flying conditions headed into and out of almost any airport, making arrivals and departures less reliable. Delays and disruptions can mean that equipment and crews don’t arrive for a flight on time or at all. Even when the planes and pilots are available, the Air Route Traffic Control Centers are more sparsely staffed than they once were, while the number of flights each one manages has increased. The ARTCCs are FAA facilities distributed around the country, each one responsible for guiding aircraft through a specific region’s airspace. For example, the Chicago center handles northern Illinois and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan. That center might hand off traffic bound for Dallas to the Kansas City center, or to Indianapolis for planes en route to Atlanta. What airport-control towers do for takeoff and landing, these centers do for the cruising portion of a flight—keeping aircraft safely spaced out from one another by assigning them altitudes or by guiding pilots around weather. On the internet, where citizens seem to revel in conspiracism, some people have connected today’s FAA ground stop with yesterday’s Microsoft Outlook outage—and the murky notion that advanced AI models might be responsible for both, and more. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters at a news conference that a cyberattack is unlikely to have caused ground stop. Even so, a Government Accountability Office report from September identified threats in certain aspects of FAA communication systems that malicious actors could, in principle, exploit. And just yesterday, the FAA expanded the use of an AI-based air-traffic-management tool to all 22 control centers. The controllers on the ground may not know much about the cause yet, either. “We lost all of our approach frequencies, and other facilities did too,” an air-traffic controller based in the Midwest told The Atlantic. “For this to be affecting multiple facilities nationwide doesn’t make any sort of sense.” Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport has run out of tarmac space already, causing planes to be diverted elsewhere, the controller added. “This is going to be a mess for days, if not weeks.” Whatever the cause, once the delays inevitably happen, even big, newer airports often become inhospitable hosts. Long walks through huge hubs now feel required. Limited seating at gates makes waits of any kind uncomfortable. Frequent flyers don’t fare much better, because long queues to get into overcrowded lounges have turned those spots into marginally less horrible waiting rooms (albeit ones that also offer free cheese). The frequent traveling that would formerly have gotten you into those lounges (or upgraded to first class after leaving them, should your flight actually depart) has become optional; the airlines have found that travelers are willing to pay for those perks instead, or earn them by spending money with their airline-branded credit cards. Customer service can be truculent or impossible, requiring long telephone wait times, confusing and unreliable apps, or the traversal of even more airport hallways to self-service kiosks—none of which are guaranteed to produce results. The entire experience of flying is adversarial. When travelers do get disrupted, like so many have been today and will be this weekend (and perhaps subsequently), they are likely to get limited assistance from the airlines, which now have more limited incentives to help and reduced consequences for failing to do so. This ground stop is not the airlines’ fault, but travelers have become inured to being treated badly no matter the cause of their travel headaches. Almost exactly a year ago, the Department of Transportation withdrew initiatives that the Biden administration had put in place to require compensation, meals, lodging, and rebooking for airline-caused disruptions, such as equipment failures. Penalties for failing to accommodate passengers also began to fall away, in favor of voluntary compliance and faith in capitalism-driven competition—even though only four major airlines (American, Delta, Southwest, and United) now account for more than three-quarters of U.S. airline seats. Eventually, and perhaps soon, Americans will learn more about the cause of today’s nationwide ground stop. According to CNN, some airlines were told that network-router problems at Chicago Midway had cascaded nationwide, but that proximate issue might suggest different ultimate causes. Even after the cause becomes known, let alone put on the path to remedy, the deep and seemingly permanent misery of commercial flight in the United States will still roar into the air above it. Related: Flying is weird right now (From 2024) What happened to JetBlue?

Trump, Xi and Putin plan unprecedented joint meeting on APEC sidelines, White House and Kremlin say WASHINGTON (AP) — The leaders of the United States, China and Russia plan to meet Thursday on the sidelines of next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China’s tech hub of Shenzhen — an unprecedented gathering of the heads of the world’s biggest nuclear powers. https://apnews.com/article/trump-xi-putin-summit-china-5fe92253ef38100bae913834a9b74d72?

Wages, Inequality, and the Roots of America’s Affordability Crisis Outside of a crisis or recession, Americans’ perceptions of how the country and economy are being managed have never been so negative. Many have attributed this voter unhappiness to a crisis of “affordability.” https://www.aft.org/ae/fall2026/shierholz_bivens? Affordability’s key ingredient is union power Tripling union membership would raise wages, reduce inequality, and strengthen communities. Policymakers should take note. https://www.epi.org/blog/affordabilitys-key-ingredient-is-union-power-tripling-union-membership-would-raise-wages-reduce-inequality-and-strengthen-communities-policymakers-should-take-note/?

Napping driver whose truck accelerated on Kansas soccer field, killing 2, won't be charged A soccer mom napping in her pickup truck when it suddenly accelerated onto the field at a Kansas youth tournament where her child was playing, killing two people, won’t face criminal charges, a prosecutor said. Read More.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will soon celebrate its 100th edition: Which stars are in the lineup? Megan Moroney,Teddy Swims, Queen Latifah, Keke Palmer, Jimmy Fallon & The Roots and JoJo will help celebrate the 100th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year, a lineup that includes a record-breaking, very appropriate 100 inflatables in the sky, including Bluey, Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty. Read More.

Flights halted at airports across US due to air traffic control communications problems, FAA says The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights nationwide Friday afternoon because of communications problems at regional air traffic control centers.. The FAA notice said the ground stop was being imposed “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” Read More. Flights slowly resume after US aviation agency lifts nationwide ground stop Transportation secretary Sean Duffy says the airspace is now open and the problem has been identified https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/nov/13/faa-nationwide-ground-stop-flights?

‘Hell, I was living it’ In his new memoir, former President Joe Biden dedicates a chapter to rebutting questions about his mental acuity, his decision to seek reelection and how he thinks he was treated unfairly after tanking his debate with Donald Trump. 📖 ‘I’m glad we did’: Biden and Pelosi are mending fences

Overcoming the odds Imagine not being heard — ever. Wouldn’t you be terrified? Payam was diagnosed with autism as a toddler and spent 14 years trapped in silence. Now he has a message for the world.

🥩 Big Senate beefs The number of split-party Senate delegations is on track to triple in January, leaving senators to make up fast after a cycle that became deeply personal. 🥩 Why it matters: Personal beefs can make it harder to coordinate on home state priorities, funding and judges. In South Carolina, Sen. Tim Scott (R) repeatedly referred to Sen.-elect Annie Andrews (D) as "tranny Annie" on the campaign trail. Her victory marks the first time in decades that an NRSC chair has lost a GOP seat in their home state. In Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz (R) called Sen.-elect James Talarico (D) a "very weird dude" and even spent some of his super PAC cash against him. Scott and Andrews spoke over the phone two days after the election. Cruz and Talarico also spoke over the phone since the election. 😡 In Ohio, the bad blood between Sen. Bernie Moreno (R) and Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown (D) is the stuff of legends. As of Election Day, they hadn't spoken or been in the same room together. After a fraught 2024 election full of mudslinging, Brown never directly conceded to Moreno. Moreno has spent much of the past few months mocking Brown's decision to run again, calling him a "loser" and saying he just "needs to find a job." Moreno congratulated Brown on his victory last week on X. Between the lines: Not every incoming senator has beef with their state's sitting senator. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) talks extensively in her book about her friendship with Mary Peltola, who is currently leading Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), though the race has not been called. Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton (D-Kan.) has promised to work with Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.): "I want to be his best friend in Washington," Hamilton told NPR. — Stef Kight Republicans acknowledge voters rejected them but show little appetite for breaking with Trump Rep. Richard Hudson wanted a triumphant return to Capitol Hill this week after steering Republicans to another majority. Instead, the North Carolina Republican is facing the reality that he and dozens of colleagues will soon clear out their offices. Read More.

🥊 Dems finally fight Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images As House Dems barrel toward a speakership coronation, Senate Democrats are getting their first contested race for leader in over 30 years. 🤺 Why it matters: Democrats have spent years tearing themselves apart over the party's direction — without forcing their leaders to win a head-to-head vote. Senate Democrats will get that fight this year for the first time since Tom Daschle vs. Chris Dodd in 1994 — courtesy of Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) challenging Chuck Schumer. But no one's challenging Hakeem Jeffries for speaker. The last contested Democratic House leader race was in 2016, when Tim Ryan failed to beat Nancy Pelosi for minority leader. ☎️ Between the lines: House Democrats are being bombarded with calls and emails urging them to oppose Jeffries, but the two most frequently floated alternatives — Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) — don't appear to want the job. Raskin told us that chairing the Judiciary Committee is his "dream job" and that he's "absolutely ... not a candidate for speaker in any way." "I am supporting Hakeem and voting for Hakeem," Raskin added. Pressley has privately told colleagues she isn't interested, multiple House Democrats told us. 🤬 The big picture: Since the last contested Democratic leadership election, Republicans have endured the rise of MAGA, former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell's fall from power and a revolving door of House GOP leaders. In 2018, Kevin McCarthy drubbed Jim Jordan 159–43 to become House minority leader. In 2022, McConnell had to beat Rick Scott after the Florida Republican challenged him for Senate GOP leader. In 2023, McCarthy needed 15 ballots to become speaker and was ousted later that year. Republicans burned through nominations on Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan before settling on Mike Johnson. In 2024, John Thune had to beat two challengers — Rick Scott and John Cornyn — to succeed McConnell as Senate GOP leader. In 2026, Jim Jordan ... well, you know what happened. It was Tuesday. 🧏🏻 The intrigue: Van Hollen told reporters in Denver today he's stopped "pursuing" a 2028 presidential bid because the "size and scale of these majorities provides an opportunity for the United States Senate to answer the call with the American people." Van Hollen is up to five public votes (himself included) ahead of the Dec. 1 secret ballot. Schumer's at 14. The winner will need 29. Over in the House, the real question at this point feels like whether any House Democrats will oppose Jeffries on the House floor on Jan. 3. Jeffries has enjoyed unanimous support from his caucus since becoming leader in 2022 and is "confident that we're on a positive trajectory" but takes "nothing for granted," he told reporters yesterday. 🎭 The bottom line: For once it's the Senate, not the House, providing all the drama on Capitol Hill. — Andrew Solender, Stef Kight and Justin Green

🎬 1 film thing: Glenn Close gets honorary Oscar Glenn Close in March 1989. Photo: John Downing/Hulton Archive via Getty Images Iconic actress Glenn Close, 79, will receive an honorary Oscar at Sunday's Governors Awards, after eight lifetime nominations but no wins. Close tells AP: "My first reaction was I don't need a consolation prize. And my second reaction was, I don't know ... do I want to end my loss record?" 🍿 Honorary Oscars, also known as Academy Honorary Awards, aren't given for a specific film, but for a body of work and contributions to the motion picture industry. Go deeper.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC's "Squawk Box" today that while his department and others agreed on placing Megaspeed on a special list of companies that pose national security concerns, the Commerce Department "has the pen." Bessent didn't deny reports of tension with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has come under scrutiny for his inaction over Megaspeed. Get the latest ... Watch the clip. Bessent blames Lutnick's Commerce Department for not restricting Nvidia chip exports Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday he was frustrated with the Commerce Department’s delay in placing restrictions on Nvidia chip exports to a company led by an alleged Chinese spy. Read More.

👩‍💻 Outlook crawls back to life Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Microsoft says it's making progress in bringing its popular workplace software back online as a global outage reaches its second day. The outage, which has affected Outlook, Teams and AI assistant Copilot, has left millions of people, institutions and businesses worldwide without access to their email and other tools. 📧 Microsoft said today: "We're seeing encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure." The company added that users may have "intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery as mitigation progresses across the remaining affected infrastructure." 👾 The company hasn't fully explained the outage, but says there's no indication it was caused by malicious activity. Get the latest.

SpaceX aims for historic rocket catch SpaceX's mega rocket Starship ahead of today's test flight from Starbase, Texas. Photo: Eric Gay/AP SpaceX is about to try to catch both its next-gen Starship rocket and its Super Heavy booster back at their launch pad for the first time, Alex Fitzpatrick reports. A successful attempt would make rocketry history — and mark a huge step toward realizing SpaceX's vision of Starship as a fully reusable, 171-foot space launch behemoth. That reusability could dramatically cut launch costs, potentially ushering in a new era of commercial spaceflight. ⏱️ Starship is scheduled to launch from South Texas as early as 5:45 p.m. ET this afternoon, barring weather or mechanical troubles. The Super Heavy booster will separate and return for a catch attempt a few minutes after launch. (SpaceX has caught Super Heavy before, but never Starship.) 🛰️ Starship will then orbit Earth about 14 times over 22 hours, while deploying new satellites for SpaceX's Starlink internet service. It will then head Earthward, flip itself upright and attempt to land in the huge mechanical "chopstick" arms of its launch tower. ✅ Reality check: A test flight this novel leaves lots of room for things to go wrong. Go deeper ... Watch live.

Supreme Court will consider Trump’s executive order suspending asylum access at the southern border WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to consider President Donald Trump’s ban on asylum at the southern border, a pillar of the Republican president’s far-reaching crackdown on immigration. https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-trump-asylum-aeed6eb39a46b6f9e56f4b6940a5cfe4?