AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Geoff Bennett is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: The Federal Aviation Administration issues a rare nationwide ground stop for all flights due to so-called extraordinary circumstances.

Fallout from the Nvidia scandal.

The treasury secretary points fingers at the head of the Commerce Department, as lawmakers call for more restrictions on chip exports to China.

Chuck Schumer faces a challenge to his Senate leadership.

Can fellow Democrat Chris Van Hollen garner enough support boosted by newly elected Democrats?

And high mortgage rates, low home sales, how the ever increasing cost of housing is squeezing Americans out of the market.

CHESTER CARL BOSTEK, Colorado: I'm hoping that the housing market will improve.

There's got to be some increase in income and relief from some of the affordability questions that have been facing us.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Air travel across the country is at a standstill tonight after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a rare nationwide ground stop, citing extraordinary circumstances and reasons of safety.

Runways across the country were emptied tonight, and hundreds of flights have been impacted so far.

A short time ago, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters he did not believe this was tied to a specific attack.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN, U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary: I want to make sure we say this again.

There's no reason for the public to be afraid or scared for your loved ones.

This isn't another 9/11.

I just can't repeat that enough.

People are making that assumption because that's the last time we had a nationwide ground stoppage.

This is a telecommunication outage.

This is much different.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's just the third time in recent decades that there's been a nationwide grounding.

The last time was in January of 2023 after the failure of a pilot communications system.

Information is still very limited, but let's try to answer what we can.

Our aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien, is here for just that.

Miles, welcome back, and thanks for joining us.

These kinds of nationwide ground stops are extremely rare.

I know you have been talking to your contacts.

Do we know what's behind this moment?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, there's a lot of speculation right now, Amna.

We should characterize that, that no one really knows for sure, or at least is not saying so.

But what you have is a systemwide problem in a system that is built on redundancy, and so you have to wonder what the single-point failures could be and why those exist.

There are 22 regional en route centers that manage aircraft at cruise altitude passing across the country.

They are connected to each other by simple landlines, kind of old-fashioned landlines, and there's some speculation that that system of connecting those en route centers has failed.

Now, what caused that?

Could that have been some sort of hacking event potentially?

Or could it have something to do with the modernization of the system, which we all know relies on floppy disks and paper strips and spinning radars which go back to the 1940s?

So, what the FAA is trying to do is attach a rocket booster to a horse and buggy.

And that's where you start realizing the vulnerabilities in a system that should have layer upon layer redundancy on them.

AMNA NAWAZ: I mean, Miles, just to give people a sense of the scope of this ground stop, take a look at this flight tracker graphic.

This is showing all the flights across the U.S.

and in the region there halted.

Those are yellow.

Those are not moving.

And so, Miles, tell us about this communications outage as the secretary alluded to there.

Obviously, some folks are asking, could this have something to do with the massive Microsoft outage that we have been talking about?

And does it potentially give way to other vulnerabilities here?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, that's just it.

It shouldn't be that vulnerable.

And if it is possible to take down one layer, there should be at least another layer.

This is a function once again, Amna, of kicking the can down the road, as Congress and Washington has done for years and years, on infrastructure in the air.

This is a system that is bursting at the seams.

Travel is at an all-time record, in spite of the cost of it.

You know what it's like getting on these planes, and we're still using systems that date back many decades.

This -- it is high time that we got serious about investing in this system and creating something that is more resilient, more redundant, and God forbid we end up with a situation where we have a mishap.

Fortunately, everybody's safe, extremely inconvenienced, but at least everybody is safe through all this.

And that is a testament to the heroic air traffic controllers who work in this system, antiquated as it is, heroically every day to make it work.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is our aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien, with the very latest.

Miles, thank you so much.

Appreciate your time.

MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: We start the day's other headlines in New Orleans, where a tanker collided with a river cruise boat this afternoon.

Eyewitness video shows the larger ship slamming directly into the American Heritage paddle boat, and then another angle captures the ship as it starts tilting on its side.

Officials say there were nearly 130 people on board at the time, and multiple individuals were rescued from the water.

The city's mayor says more than 30 people are being treated at local hospitals, and that all passengers are accounted for.

Following the collision, the cruise ship could be seen on its side in the water.

It was just finishing an eight-day cruise to several Mississippi River destinations.

Some Microsoft users were offline for a second day as the company scrambled to restore its widely used suite of workplace software.

Services like Outlook and Teams, as well as the AI tool Copilot, went down worldwide yesterday, disrupting operations for millions of businesses and institutions.

Today, Microsoft said it is deeply sorry for the disruption and blamed the outage on -- quote -- "an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change."

The company added it was not related to cyber or AI agents.

Russian authorities say they shot down nearly 1,200 Ukrainian drones overnight and into today.

It was one of Kyiv's largest aerial attacks since the war began.

In the meantime, Russia kept up attacks of its own.

A barrage of more than 100 drones damaged a hospital in Kyiv and tore into an apartment block in Zaporizhzhia, injuring dozens.

The attacks come after a week of diplomacy and, in particular, a push to include Europe in future talks.

In Dublin, today, European leaders agreed to send officials from five countries and the E.U.

itself to the next round of negotiations.

ANTONIO COSTA, President, European Council: The weeks ahead will be a decisive test of Russia's readiness to bring this war to an end.

Its record so far, with escalation and strikes on the Ukrainian civilians, suggests otherwise.

Russia must change course.

AMNA NAWAZ: European leaders have expressed concerns about President Trump's trip next week to China, where he will meet with both President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

They're worried that the U.S.

president could agree to concessions that favor Russia without Europe or Ukraine having a chance to weigh in.

In Washington, D.C., the White House is tightening rules on how staffers interact with lobbyists.

A memo from the new chief of staff, Stephen Miller, says employees must first get permission before discussing government business with lobbyists on the building's grounds.

A White House official tells the "News Hour" that, according to the memo -- quote -- "Staff are expected to dedicate their time unwaveringly to the working people of the nation."

The official called this -- quote -- "a much stricter process than before."

Miller took over the role from Susie Wiles, who had come under criticism over her ties to lobbying groups.

In Colorado, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has lost her reelection bid in a close race against Democrat Eileen Laubacher.

The Associated Press called the race for Laubacher this afternoon.

The retired Navy rear admiral and Afghanistan war veteran is just the latest Democrat to flip a House seat.

Democrats will hold at least 256 seats when the new Congress begins in January.

Boebert was a hard-line Republican and MAGA favorite known for her controversies and clashes with fellow lawmakers.

She had moved to a more conservative district after a narrow win in 2022, but even that wasn't enough to secure victory.

In Peru, Pope Leo made an emotional return today to the Diocese of Chiclayo, the city that helped to shape him.

The Vatican estimates that one million people lined the streets to greet the pontiff, known affectionately there as Padre Roberto.

Leo served as bishop of Chiclayo for nearly a decade, and he rejoiced in today's homecoming.

POPE LEO XIV, Leader of Catholic Church (through translator): What a joy to return to Chiclayo.

It is a blessing for me to be with you again.

AMNA NAWAZ: Leo presided over mass in the nearby desert venue of Pampas de Pimentel and gave thanks for the support during his recent hospitalization for lung cancer.

The pope is set to conclude his South American visit with a final mass in Lima on Monday.

The head coach of the U.S.

men's soccer team, Mauricio Pochettino, is heading to the U.K.

to take over at Manchester United.

MAURICIO POCHETTINO, Outgoing U.S.

Men's Soccer Head Coach: One of the most difficult in our career.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you so much.

AMNA NAWAZ: The 54-year-old got emotional at a press conference announcing the news.

He helped lead the American team to the Round of 16 at this year's World Cup.

Just a few months ago, he signed a deal to stay on through the 2030 tournament.

Pochettino takes over a Manchester United squad that is far from its past glories.

The club has won 20 English titles, but is off to its worst start of the season in four decades.

On Wall Street, today, stocks ended mixed to close out a turbulent week.

The Dow Jones industrial average managed a gain of about 50 points, but the Nasdaq fell nearly 1 percent.

The S&P 500 also ended lower.

Still to come on the "News Hour": ICE touts a record number of deportations in the agency's 23-year history; David Brooks and Ruth Marcus weigh in on the week's political headlines; and a celebrated countertenor discusses his career singing in the highest of ranges.

Today, the fallout of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's downfall expanded into a public fight between two of President Trump's top advisers.

The treasury secretary accused the commerce secretary of failing to prevent China from obtaining Nvidia's most advanced chips.

Former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang played an outsized role in President Trump's technology policy.

Nick Schifrin looks at today's finger-pointing and the ongoing efforts to control advanced technology exports to China.

JENSEN HUANG, Former CEO, Nvidia: Here it is, our brand-new GeForce RTX 50 Series Blackwell architecture.

NICK SCHIFRIN: They're the American chips powering the AI revolution.

And, for years, Jensen Huang wanted them sold to China.

WOMAN: Jensen, how do you like China?

JENSEN HUANG: I love China.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And Huang had an administration ally.

JENSEN HUANG: Howard is the person I talked to most in the administration.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose agency controls the entity list of countries and companies banned from buying U.S.

technology.

HOWARD LUTNICK, U.S.

Commerce Secretary: We want to keep having the Chinese use the American technology stack.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Last year, Commerce and the Trump administration decided to let China buy some less advanced Nvidia chips.

But international companies believed to collaborate with Beijing, including the Singapore-based Megaspeed, the company whose leader Huang had an affair with, reportedly gave China access to the most advanced chips.

And, today, Lutnick was accused of looking the other way.

SCOTT BESSENT, U.S.

Treasury Secretary: Treasury, War, USTR, and State, they were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months.

But Commerce has the pen.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, on CNBC, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blamed the Commerce Department for not implementing the U.S.'

export blocks on Nvidia's most advanced chips.

SCOTT BESSENT: I am frustrated when President Trump made it very clear that China should not receive any Nvidia chips above H100s.

And so any leakage is very frustrating because it hurts the -- our -- hurts our great companies in the AI race, gives the Chinese an advantage.

CHRIS MCGUIRE, Council on Foreign Relations: If we did prevent them from getting these chips, they actually would be, instead of months behind us in AI, they would be years behind us in AI.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Chris McGuire is a senior fellow on the council of foreign relations and was the director of technology on President Biden's National Security Council staff.

He says the effort to restrict Chinese access to chips began when the first Trump administration blocked the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from buying semiconductors with U.S.

technology.

The U.S.

realized the export restrictions were some of the best ways to constrain Chinese military and AI advancements, so they continued into the Biden administration.

And, in early 2025, the Biden team pushed through new regulations that required most foreign companies to get Commerce Department permission to buy advanced chips.

CHRIS MCGUIRE: It was slated to go into effect in May 2025, but two days before it went into effect, the Commerce Department said they're not enforcing it.

If the Commerce Department had enforced this, Megaspeed would not have been able to get chips unless the U.S.

government green-lighted it.

But because they didn't enforce it, Megaspeed could just buy whatever they wanted completely uninterrupted.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, Bessent also blamed Nvidia for selling to Megaspeed.

SCOTT BESSENT: Did Nvidia know their client?

And was there a robust effort at Nvidia to make sure that there was no leakage and that they were selling to what were obviously pass-through shell companies?

NICK SCHIFRIN: But it was Huang, who is a celebrity in China, who helped push President Trump to allow the sale of U.S.

chips to China in the first place.

JENSEN HUANG: Why is it that we don't come up with a regulation that's more balanced so that Nvidia can win around the world, instead of giving up the world?

We want United States to win at every single layer, including the chip layer.

And conceding the entire market is not going to allow the United States to win the technology race long term.

CHRIS MCGUIRE: Well, Jensen certainly wins if they if they sell chips to China, but I would argue America does not win.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In fact, independent researchers this week discovered that China's AI models were all developed thanks to smuggled Nvidia advanced chips.

CHRIS MCGUIRE: While I think the poor implementation on export controls has probably cost us years of advantage, we still -- doubling down now will still give us years, even potentially decades of advantage in the future, as long as we actually manage it right.

But if we don't, China is going to stay close and that will have catastrophic impacts for U.S.

national security.

NICK SCHIFRIN: There's a debate over that, which will continue.

But Jensen Huang's departure will empower advocates of stricter export controls, including a push on Capitol Hill to further restrict the world's leading technology from going to the U.S.'

chief international competitor.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

AMNA NAWAZ: Sales of existing homes in the U.S.

fell last month to their lowest level in more than 16 years.

That's according to a new report by the National Association of Realtors.

In October alone, sales dropped to 3.75 million homes.

That's an 8.8 percent drop compared with the same time last year.

Stephanie Sy has more on what's driving the decline.

STEPHANIE SY: Amna, high mortgage rates are a key part of all of this.

They haven't been this high in nearly a generation.

As of today, the average rate is 7 percent for a 30-year fixed mortgage.

And even though prices are dropping, in some markets, they're still unaffordable for a lot of folks.

We spoke to a handful of people either trying to buy or sell a home in this environment.

CHESTER CARL BOSTEK, Colorado: Chester Carl Bostek.

I am currently in Montrose, Colorado.

LESLIE SHIPMAN, New York: Leslie Shipman.

I live in Ridgewood, Queens, New York City.

CHRISTIAN LIEN, Iowa: Christian Lien, Des Moines, Iowa.

CHESTER CARL BOSTEK: I'm not trying to sell this home or want to sell it.

The reason is health-related.

Montrose is at an elevation of about 6,000 feet, and I have had pulmonary issues in the past, which have continued to get somewhat worse.

It's harder to breathe up here than it is at sea level.

So I want to relocate to sea level.

LESLIE SHIPMAN: Well, the truth is I don't want to leave New York.

I'd love to stay in New York.

I love this town, but my husband and I are solidly middle-class people who have been renting in this town for decades.

So what we have decided to do is to buy something so we don't spend our retirement moving from one apartment to another.

So we're going to take some of our savings to put aside for a down payment.

But we can't afford to do it in New York.

CHRISTIAN LIEN: Within months of us moving here, we kind of decided the neighborhood wasn't for us, but that was over five years ago.

LESLIE SHIPMAN: I'm looking at other medium to large mid-Atlantic and East Coast cities.

And I have a realtor and I have started the process, and I have identified some really great places to go that my husband and I can afford to buy something.

I think a lot of sellers are somewhat nervous about putting their places on the market right now.

It's a buyer's market because of interest rates.

So it's just a confusing time.

CHESTER CARL BOSTEK: Unfortunately the market is gone very badly.

Interest rates are up, I think 7.5 percent for new fixed 30-year mortgage.

That being the case, I haven't tried to sell yet.

I'm exploring the possibility of encouraging a VA eligible buyer to take over my VA loan, which is at 2.5 percent.

LESLIE SHIPMAN: Our biggest thing is trying to control what our monthly housing costs will be.

CHRISTIAN LIEN: What we got prequalified for plummeted, and so there just wasn't anything in terms of availability.

And plus, with the housing prices going up, that's -- again, so you're getting limited on what you can afford, and then the places that you want are going up.

I know our house here, I estimate it's increased in value based off of appraisal by about 40 to 50 percent since we purchased it.

So that's something that's helping and hurting at the exact same time.

CHESTER CARL BOSTEK: I'm hoping that the housing market will improve.

There's got to be some increase in income and relief from some of the affordability questions that have been facing us.

There needs to be relief from those factors that drove the election results.

LESLIE SHIPMAN: It's very important for us to have things in place for lower-middle-class working folks to have those programs in place.

But I do kind of feel like the middle class frequently is overlooked.

STEPHANIE SY: To make sense of what's happening in the housing market, I'm joined by Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist and vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors.

Jessica, welcome to the program.

You heard those voices.

They seem to be describing a broken housing market.

For some, it's getting harder to sell, but at the same time, it's still pretty hard to buy.

Is that a fair assessment?

JESSICA LAUTZ, Deputy Chief Economist and Vice President of Research, National Association of Realtors: It is.

For homebuyers today, especially first-time homebuyers who I believe were several of the voices that we heard, it is very difficult to be able to find and afford a home and save for a down payment with many other expenses that Americans have today.

STEPHANIE SY: How much is the supply part of this crunch driven by people still holding on to their homes because they bought them at those super low interest rates of 2 to 3 percent that we saw for years after the Great Recession versus a lack of inventory that can meet demand?

JESSICA LAUTZ: So it's both.

We know that we have been underbuilding homes since the Great Recession, and we know that builders have a lot of headwinds bringing in new properties into the market, whether it's labor, the cost to do so, the cost of land, regulations.

And so that's part of the problem.

But the other part of the problem is people holding on to their homes.

They have no motivation to move if they're in a low interest rate mortgage and they're looking at the future cost of a mortgage, the cost of homes.

And even though they could translate that with a lot of housing equity and a large down payment, many of them are unwilling or unable to make that move.

STEPHANIE SY: So you have this 16-year low in home sales.

Where are you hearing about serious drops in sales, and how concerned are you looking into this next year and probably not an improvement in interest rates at this point?

JESSICA LAUTZ: Right.

So we do expect that interest rates are going to stay about where they are right now, which is a headwind certainly for homebuyers.

And when we look at home sales activity, we can see that locally, especially in the West region, with the cost of homes what they are, it is very difficult for many people to make a move and to actually be able to find that new property.

So, certainly, the West is hard-hit.

If we look at the Midwest, there's slightly more housing affordability there, but it's not universal.

And frankly, if you have a household income of below $75,000 in most areas of the country, you're going to probably have a very hard time finding a property that you can afford.

STEPHANIE SY: At the same time, you have starter homes in a lot of cities in America right now that start at a million dollars, and you have people that are able to pay cash.

I mean, how does a first-time homebuyer even begin to compete with that?

JESSICA LAUTZ: Right.

And that's the crux of the issue is, when we look at the housing market today, we know we have a K-shaped economy, but, frankly, we have a K-shaped housing market.

We know that there's a lot of people who can make housing trades right now.

In fact, nearly one in three primary residents, repeat buyers who are out there are making all cash purchases.

They're taking money from their housing equity that they have earned, and they're also using financial assets.

They're combining those two and they're making an all-cash purchase.

And then you have competition from first-time homebuyers, who are desperately trying to enter into the market and are having a very difficult time being able to do so.

So it's a very divided housing market right now.

STEPHANIE SY: And when you talk about that K-shaped housing economy, you see that people that have wealth continue to grow that through their housing equity, and people that are renting continue to sort of lose out on that.

So that has ramifications, doesn't it, for the future.

JESSICA LAUTZ: It does.

We know that homeowners are continuing to build that wealth.

They're building generational wealth really through homeownership.

And we know the net worth of an owner is now nearly $460,000, while the net worth of a renter is just over $10,000.

And so that divide is continuing as mortgage holders pay down that mortgage, as their home continues to gain in value, and then renters are struggling to invest in the stock market, they're struggling to invest in real estate, certainly.

And so we can see that divide continuing to grow.

STEPHANIE SY: Are there any easy answers for what a first-term -- first-time homebuyer can do in this environment, Jessica?

JESSICA LAUTZ: Sure.

So we can learn from successful homebuyers this year.

When first-time homebuyers did purchase, they made a lot of sacrifices, whether that's sacrificing on cutting spending on luxury items, on goods, on taking a second job, but some of them even moved in with family, and that allowed them not to pay rent for a temporary time period, save for a down payment, get their financial house in order, looking outside that ideal area, taking advantage of government loans that are out there, so an FHA loan or a VA loan.

Those are the steps that successful homebuyers were able to take.

But important to keep in mind that first-time homebuyers today have higher incomes and they're wealthier than we have historically seen.

STEPHANIE SY: That is Jessica Lautz, economist with the National Association of Realtors, joining us.

Jessica, thank you.

JESSICA LAUTZ: Thank you so much for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, Senate Democrats won back the majority last week.

Now they're fighting over who will lead it.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen has thrown his hat in the ring and says he spoke with current Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer before officially launching his challenge.

SEN.

CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): We understand that this will be a competition.

I think it's important to give Senate Democrats a choice.

That's what we just gave voters all over the country, a choice.

They chose change.

And I think that the Democratic Caucus needs to be open to new ideas, a different way of governing, and a different way of conducting and approaching politics.

AMNA NAWAZ: Our congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is here with more on the first serious challenge Schumer has faced to his party leadership.

Lisa, good to see you.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hi.

AMNA NAWAZ: So why does Senator Van Hollen say he's running?

LISA DESJARDINS: First of all, this is a groundswell that has been developing outside of Washington, including from some in the Democratic base, especially progressives, for some time about Schumer.

But Van Hollen says it is about the election results specifically.

He said these new senators who were elected were part of a movement not just about new lawmakers, but about new leaders altogether.

Van Hollen himself is 67 years old.

He's been in Congress since 2003.

But this is by far his most assertive move, going up against Chuck Schumer.

Schumer has been the Democratic leader since President Trump first took office in 2017.

He's a New Yorker.

He knows how to kind of use the strength of leadership.

And timing is everything.

Schumer has been lining up these votes for some time.

And he actually has some ideas that are the same as Van Hollen, including they both want to end funding for the Iraq War, perhaps even risking a shutdown.

But Van Hollen is more progressive.

He is someone who's openly saying it's time to end the filibuster.

AMNA NAWAZ: So what are Van Hollen's actual chances here?

Is this a real challenge for Schumer?

LISA DESJARDINS: It is a real challenge, but Schumer, as I'm saying, has a much greater advantage.

And I want to go over exactly why.

The math favors Schumer.

First of all, these are 11 new senators who have so far been elected.

There will be a 12 if Mary Peltola is also confirmed in Alaska.

But take those 11 new senators, the majority of whom oppose Schumer, and compare them with the 44 members of the Senate now who will be voting on this leadership election there in yellow.

You see one of them is Van Hollen, so he has that vote.

But Schumer has been working on this crowd for months getting their votes.

And timing is everything here.

Van Hollen announced relatively late in the game.

So let's look at exactly how many votes each one of them has so far.

You see those opposing Schumer.

There's a number especially of new senators, but he already has locked up all of those commitments.

Schumer has the advantage.

It is notable, of course.

Schumer's the leader right now.

He doesn't have a majority yet publicly pledged to him.

But he says he has the votes.

We will find out in December.

AMNA NAWAZ: We will find out indeed.

Lisa Desjardins, thank you so much.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: The Supreme Court said today it would hear the Trump administration's ban on asylum claims at the southern border.

President Trump enacted the ban the first day of his second term, and a lower court judge has since ruled the policy is illegal.

This comes as the Department of Homeland Security reports immigrant deportations and arrests hit an all-time high.

William Brangham has the latest.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Amna, more than 491,000 people were arrested by U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in the last fiscal year, and more than 483,000 of those people were deported.

That record high is being touted by the Trump administration, which has said it aims to deport one million immigrants annually.

For more on these numbers, we turn to John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE director under President Obama.

John, very nice to have you back on the program.

This new set of numbers is a record high for ICE deportations and arrests, breaking last year's record.

What do you make of these numbers?

JOHN SANDWEG, Former Acting ICE Director: Yes, it's a truly remarkable number, William.

You have to remember historically a significant portion of ICE's deportations actually came from the border.

So these were individuals that were not arrested by ICE agents, but rather Border Patrol agents handed over to ICE, and then ICE executes the removal.

Typically, the reason that's significant is those individuals can be deported much more quickly.

And if you look back in 2012, the prior -- the original record during the Obama administration of 410,000 removals, over about 250,000 of those individuals were actually those apprehended at the border.

So what it highlights for me is just the remarkable way in which the Trump administration has really wrangled the immigration enforcement system to move at a pace like we have never seen before, expediting -- not only increasing the number of arrests, but expediting the processing of those individuals on the back end and then removing them from the country.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And the administration argues it's only halfway there.

It would like to notch up to a million deportations.

Does our system have that capacity to do that?

JOHN SANDWEG: You know, look, the administration's put a lot of resources in increasing the size of ICE.

And what that does is certainly increase the number of individuals that could be apprehended annually.

But their biggest challenge is on the back end, which is the immigration courts.

The majority of the immigrants that are in the interior of the United States -- at the border, there are ways to administratively what's called expedite a removal.

If you have -- catch someone as they enter the United States, you can quickly serve them a deportation order without seeing an immigration judge.

But for the population in the interior, where most of this work is now focused, most of these individuals are required to see an immigration judge.

We have not seen significant -- we have seen the Trump administration put a lot of pressure on those courts to expedite cases, but we haven't seen them put significant resources in there.

Unless and until we see a real expansion of the immigration courts so that these new handpicked judges by the Trump administration can issue those deportation orders more quickly, it's really hard to see -- even with all these new ICE resources coming online, really hard to see them getting up to a million deportations in a year.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, as you well know, ICE's actions on the interior have caused a great deal of blowback.

We have seen children being arrested.

We have seen U.S.

citizens being arrested.

Of course, several Americans were killed.

There was a great deal of pushback against the administration.

We saw some of that reflected in the midterm elections.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin was asked about whether or not he had been told by the administration to dial that back recently.

Here's what he had to say.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX News Anchor: And my question to you tonight is, have you been given instructions to lighten up on enforcement?

MARKWAYNE MULLIN, U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary: Not at all.

Not at all.

LAURA INGRAHAM: Not at all?

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: Not at all.

We have changed our priorities from doing -- from doing, let's say, job site raids to doing warrant raids, meaning that we go into cities and we go after the worst of the worst.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Worst of the worst, that's what you hear from the administration constantly.

Are these types of raids the best way to try and capture and remove the hardened criminals in this country?

JOHN SANDWEG: Yes, unfortunately not.

As you look at this data today, right, what you're seeing is it's really not about the worst of the worst.

The problem, the challenge that the secretary faces, and the contradiction in what he says is that, in immigration enforcement, if you're trying to drive up the total number of deportations, trying to hit a high number like this administration is trying to do, it pushes ICE to focus on more on those noncriminal populations.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

The first is that generally that population is easier to find.

The hardened criminals are more adept at hiding, and they make it harder on the agents to track them down.

It requires a lot more work just to make that one apprehension.

But the second problem is that, because of those due process issues I mentioned a moment ago and these backlogs in the immigration court, it pushes the ICE agents to focus on populations not based on whether or not you have a criminal history, but whether or not on -- or on how quickly ICE can actually deport you after they arrest you.

And so what you're seeing, a lot of what we're seeing the ICE do today, through these tactics and through some of their targeted operations, is focusing on populations that are quick, easy to deport, because either, A, let's say they were previously ordered to deport five, six years ago, but ICE gave them a stay, allowed them to stay in the country for humanitarian circumstances, or just people who didn't leave the country, but were not detained when they went through the court process.

In either of those cases, typically, those populations tend to be the more sympathetic populations, right, the populations that lived here longer, that don't have a criminal history.

And so that's the juxtaposition's position.

As they feel this pressure to ramp up the number of arrests, the only way to do that is not by focusing on the worst of the worst, but on the rest of the population, which is just easier to remove.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, that is former Acting Director of ICE John Sandweg.

Always great to hear from you.

Thank you.

JOHN SANDWEG: Thank you so much.

AMNA NAWAZ: To discuss the fallout of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's resignation and the continued fallout from last week's midterm elections, we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and Marcus.

That's "The Atlantic"'s David Brooks and Ruth Marcus of "The New Yorker."

Jonathan Capehart is away this evening.

Welcome to you both.

DAVID BROOKS: Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's start with Nvidia, shall we?

The finger-pointing Nick Schifrin was reporting on earlier at the White House in the wake of the scandal and the departure of Nvidia's CEO.

You have the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, essentially blaming the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, for not cracking down on those export controls for chips to China.

David, I'm sort of less interested in the palace intrigue here and whether or not you think there's going to be accountability in the wake of these revelations.

DAVID BROOKS: I'm super interested in the palace intrigue.

AMNA NAWAZ: You go for it then.

RUTH MARCUS, "The New Yorker": Me too.

DAVID BROOKS: I know.

When agencies go at each other, it's like popcorn for people like Ruth and I. AMNA NAWAZ: So Washington.

Here we go.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I -- right, at this stage, I have questions.

What was Trump told about Huang's situation last month?

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

DAVID BROOKS: What was -- what did Howard Lutnick know?

Why did Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick's old firm, which his kids now run, why did they cut their position in Nvidia by 50 percent?

Why did we do nothing?

What kind of chips were sold?

There's a whole -- just a whole series of questions, that things look pretty bad.

And the fact that one agency is going on for another makes you suspect that Scott Bessent isn't talking for nothing, that he knows something that is going to make this a bigger story.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ruth?

RUTH MARCUS: I think we have a twist on the old Watergate question.

What did the president know?

When did he know it?

And when did he forget it?

RUTH MARCUS: Because we have been told that the president was briefed twice, including right before Jensen Huang hitched a ride with him on Air Force One to China, that Jensen Huang was having an affair with a Chinese asset.

And what did the president do about this?

Your questions are very serious and highfalutin.

My question is, why is the president expressing condolences to Jensen Huang and he's been through hell, the president said, when, as an American citizen, I would like him to be worried more about what this might have -- what might have happened to our national security than what happened to his friend who couldn't keep his pants zipped.

Sorry.

AMNA NAWAZ: And lawmakers have questions.

We're going to see if we get any answers.

Let's talk about the continued fallout from these midterm election results, and specifically how Republicans, how this administration is responding.

There is new reporting today that Vice President Vance is considering not running in 2028 after those terrible losses for Republicans.

Just a reminder for everyone out there, he wrote a very lengthy tweet after the elections.

He basically said it was a loss because of the Iran war.

And then, yesterday, the president seemed to respond in another post, saying the vice president was no longer working on the Iran war, saying we don't need to deal with Iran, telling Vance to focus on corruption and crime taking place, as he put it, in Democrat-run cities.

David, what do you take away from this about Vance's future and the future of MAGA?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, I think Vance has no near-term political future.

I think the fallout from this will be such that people will not want anybody near the top of the Trump administration, including Marco Rubio, come 2028.

I think we're past peak populism, at least in this country right now.

I think this win was so big that a historic hinge has happened, at least in America.

Europe may be different.

And so I just think Republicans are eager, or some of them are -- well, there's some Republicans who are fighting over why we lost.

There's that dogfight.

But then a lot of Republicans, a surprising number, are saying, let's just change.

Let's just change.

We're not happy.

Let's just change.

And I think there's a lot of that energy bubbling up.

As for the -- moving Vance off Iran, I have been noticing on my MAGA Twitter feed and all those other sources that the charge that the Democrats stole this election has been rising by the hour.

AMNA NAWAZ: Really?

DAVID BROOKS: And so there are a lot of the usual suspects who we remember from January 6 who are saying, look at this, they stole it in this city, they stole it in that city.

RUTH MARCUS: Yes, they stole it in Mississippi.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

And how do you claim that an election you lost by 14 percentage points was stolen from you?

This is beyond me.

But he -- Trump may actually believe that the election fraud is the most important thing the administration should pay attention to.

And this may not be the demotion it appears to be for J.D.

Vance, at least in Donald Trump's mind.

RUTH MARCUS: Oh, come on, David.

Of course it's a demotion.

It's -- the president said, some people criticize J.D.

Vance's tweet, but it didn't bother me.

Like, if you believe that, I have a bridge across the Strait of Hormuz that I will sell you.

DAVID BROOKS: But Donald Trump Jr.

echoed that tweet.

RUTH MARCUS: Yes, but that may say something more about Donald Trump Jr.

's relationship with Sr.

than it does about anything else.

I think the president is not happy with J.D.

Vance.

I think J.D.

Vance is not happy with the president.

He's in a terrible situation, as is every sitting vice president who wants to succeed essentially a two-term president.

There's a reason it's only Martin Van Buren and George H.W.

Bush.

And if you're -- it's even worse for you if you're the sitting vice president for a president whose approval ratings are in the toilet.

But J.D.

Vance is in a terrible position because, if he doesn't run this year, it could be past his sell-by date.

He will look like he was just taking a pass this year as part of his continued belief in doing things for his own ego and political future, rather than to do things the right way.

So I think -- and I agree with you on this part -- he is electoral toast, really.

AMNA NAWAZ: Electoral toast, quite a phrase.

Let's talk about some of those leadership battles that Lisa was reporting on earlier in Congress.

The leadership is starting to take shape of some kind.

We saw Republicans last week in the House elected Jim Jordan as their leader.

In the Senate, they selected John Thune to lead them once again.

House Democrats are going to elect their leader next week.

It is widely expected to be Hakeem Jeffries.

Senate Democrats hold their elections in early December, and Chuck Schumer is officially facing a challenge now from Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen.

David, what do you make of how the leadership is shaping up?

And who do you think is going to lead Senate Democrats?

DAVID BROOKS: I think Chuck Schumer will get reelected.

It's very hard as an outsider to know what's going on inside, because in those kind of races, what we know doesn't matter.

It's all about the personal relationships of those 100 or those 57 or 56 individuals.

And so what has he done for me?

What has he not done for me?

And so what can he do for me in the future?

And so it's all that.

It's super insidey baseball.

I would say, for the public perception, Chris Van Hollen is only -- he's going to be 68 when they meet next year.

And by Senate years, that's like 35.

(LAUGHTER) RUTH MARCUS: That sounds good to me.

And so he looks a lot younger.

He presents younger than Chuck Schumer does.

And I think a lot of Democrats still have Joe Biden scars and do not want to look like the old person's party.

To my mind, though, Chris Van Hollen, red flag, he's against the filibuster.

And I think you destroy the filibuster, you do damage to America, because we will have party after party after party, radically different policies going in and out.

I think it would just be very bad for the Senate, bad for the country.

So that would be the one vote -- I would never vote for him.

But he's a more appealing face to the -- as the Senate -- for Senate Democrats.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ruth?

RUTH MARCUS: Well, I thought Angus King, the independent from Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, asked a really good question.

He said, why would you fire the manager when you just won the World Series?

Now, Schumer, let's be clear, did not manage the team to the World Series.

Actually, Donald Trump helped them win the World Series, and Republicans helped them win the World Series.

But the best -- I think the best thing for Schumer and the best thing for Democrats, more importantly, would be if he were to remain majority leader for two years.

I think that's going to happen, based on the conversations that I had after this announcement from Van Hollen, Senator Van Hollen, last night, and if he were to -- and this is not easy for politicians to do -- recede gracefully from the scene and not have an ugly reelection fight in 2028.

But I think the thing that's really important for Senate Democrats to keep in mind here is, this election was not an endorsement of them.

It was a repudiation of Republicans, and these seats are all extremely precarious.

And if they run it to the -- run to the left, they will just rediscover how unhappy it is to be in the minority.

AMNA NAWAZ: We will see what happens.

Ruth Marcus, David Brooks, always great to see you both.

Thank you so much.

DAVID BROOKS: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Anthony Roth Costanzo cuts an unusual figure in the world of music.

A leading international opera singer, he also now heads an opera company.

This unexpected voice is also now performing in the Metropolitan Opera's Wildly popular "Lincoln in the Bardo," which is being streamed free for the public tomorrow night on YouTube.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown has that story for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JEFFREY BROWN: The Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten in the opera by contemporary composer Philip Glass, a signature role for singer Anthony Roth Costanzo, sung in a high and highly distinctive voice, that of the countertenor.

ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO, General Director and President, Opera Philadelphia: You know, countertenor is just a guy who sings high.

JEFFREY BROWN: A guy who sings high.

ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO: That's me.

But it's not your speaking voice.

It's this other register.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, here's your speaking voice.

ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO: My speaking voice is like this, and I sing... (SINGING) ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO: Up like that.

JEFFREY BROWN: The countertenor is a male singer with an unusually high range, a trained falsetto, reaching those of female singers.

And that, says Costanzo, takes the emotions and for some the strangeness of opera up several notches.

ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO: We have to express an emotion, a feeling that goes so far beyond speaking.

Beyond just the normal voice, the countertenor expresses the extraordinary.

JEFFREY BROWN: His new book and an accompanying recording, both titled "Countertenor," offer both a history of this voice and a personal history, a boy who spent his early years in Durham, North Carolina, and from the beginning loved to sing, eventually on national tours And Broadway by the time he was 13, and with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, before becoming an opera star in his own right, performing on leading world stages.

ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO: When my voice started to slowly change, and I was just getting into opera, somebody said, maybe you're a countertenor, and I said, a what?

And they said, oh, you know, it's this thing where you can keep singing high.

And I said, well, sign me up.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's not that easy, of course.

It requires very specialized vocal training, breath management, and technique to give the voice that kind of strength in such high registers.

Earlier countertenor history, as Costanzo details, involved the castration of young boys before their voices changed.

And some of these so-called castrati became world-famous figures.

Major composers, including Mozart, Vivaldi, and Handel, wrote for them.

ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO: They became the rock stars of their era.

There's a lot of connection to what Michael Jackson was doing.

If you watch Michael Jackson hit his high notes, you see women faint.

And women were fainting when the castrati were singing.

So there's some connection between having men sing high, whether it's natural or unnatural, and people responding in an extreme way because it excites them.

JEFFREY BROWN: Think Prince, The Bee Gees, The Weeknd, and so many others.

Falsetto has been exciting people forever, a big part of pop music history.

In opera, there's an ongoing renaissance in roles for the countertenor, with Costanzo very much part of it.

Here he is in the new production of "Lincoln in the Bardo" by composer Missy Mazzoli.

But Costanzo is also eager to bring his sound beyond traditional classical music stages and to address contemporary cultural issues.

That was seen in "Only an Octave Apart," a cabaret show alongside transgender performer Justin Vivian Bond, blending opera, standards and pop, with plenty of emphasis on gender subversion.

ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO: You know, you have someone who looks a very particular way and sings low, and someone who looks like me and sings high.

It is so much fun, and it also brings into the foreground this question of what identity is.

JEFFREY BROWN: Costanzo's newest and perhaps most ambitious role is a highly unusual one for a leading singer.

ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO: I'm Anthony Roth Costanzo.

I'm the general director and president here at Opera Philadelphia.

JEFFREY BROWN: In 2024, he became general director and president of a major opera company, Opera Philadelphia, his goal, to foster the art form's continuing relevance and accessibility.

ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO: Thank you for choosing opera.

And I felt that opera wasn't changing quick enough.

I felt like it wasn't adapting to our contemporary times.

I think that the business model holds opera back.

JEFFREY BROWN: In addition to adventurous programming, one big experiment, $11 tickets, or pick your price.

Costanzo says that's quickly brought in first-time and younger audiences, along with new funders excited to lend support.

Opera has for a long time had this question of hanging out there, about accessibility, aging audiences, elitism.

ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO: It's just all the structures around it that keep people away, as well as their preconceptions.

So it's not only about the price of the ticket.

It's about the art you put on stage, but also the brand that you build.

What I'm selling to people at Opera Philadelphia is an experience that's really fun.

It costs less than a movie, but there's also a happy hour.

And there's a whole way of branding it.

We have put ads on the trash cans in Philadelphia.

So, as you walk down the street, you encounter opera on a trash can, so that it doesn't feel so foreboding.

JEFFREY BROWN: "Try any and every thing," says the great pharaoh, "with every voice you have."

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in New York.

AMNA NAWAZ: Returning now to our top story, the nationwide ground stop on airlines.

Miles O'Brien is back with an update.

So, Miles, we're hearing some planes are landing safely, some international flights are taking off.

How is this happening?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, let's start with the international flights, East Coast flights headed across the Atlantic to Europe are not availing themselves of these en route centers.

There are 22 en route centers that handle high-altitude traffic in the United States.

If you're heading east to Europe, they don't come into play, and so they're being allowed to take off on a case-by-case basis.

As for landings, it is also case-by-case.

First and foremost, navigation systems are not out.

The aircraft can still navigate.

They still operate on the same flight plan, and, in many cases, they're able to thread their way through the communication gaps to finally make contact with control towers and land.

And that's how this is all happening safely, in some cases with diversions.

AMNA NAWAZ: Miles, in the few seconds we have left here, how long should passengers expect disruptions?

MILES O'BRIEN: This is going to take a long time to unwind, Amna, because it is a delicate ballet on a good day.

And on top of the fact that aircraft won't be where they should be, crews have limited times on which they can stay on duty, and they will time out in places where they don't have a way to get to another duty station.

So, it's a huge mess.

It's going to take days, many days to unwind all this, even if they fix this right this moment.

AMNA NAWAZ: Aviation correspondent Miles O'Brien, thank you so much.

MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, be sure to tune in to "Washington Week With The Atlantic later tonight right here on PBS.

Jeffrey Goldberg and his panel will analyze this eventful week.

And be sure to watch "Compass Points" this weekend.

Nick Schifrin and his panel debate the state of the Middle East after President Trump dismisses a deal with Iran.

And watch "Horizons" tomorrow for a look at why measles is making a devastating comeback.

You can watch both "Horizons" and "Compass Points" on our YouTube channel, wherever you get your podcasts, or on your local PBS station.

Check your local listings.

And before we go, we want to mark a somber anniversary for all of us here at the "News Hour."

We are marking 10 years since the passing of our beloved anchor Gwen Ifill.

We, like so many of you, miss her every day.

We miss her smile, her laugh, her vision, and her leadership.

But all of that continues to guide our journalism today.

Ten years later, as we cover the news, we still ask ourselves one crucial question: What would Gwen do?

She covered history.

She made history.

And for a generation of journalists for whom she paved a path, including myself, she was and she remains a North Star.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.