Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky launches bid to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Thomas Massie moved Monday to force a vote to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, pressing his fellow Republicans to remove one of the Trump administration's most prominent figures following sweeping election losses blamed in part on fallout from the war in Iran.
Massie, a Kentucky Republican, read the impeachment resolution from the House floor just hours after it opened for the first day of sessions after the midterms. It largely focuses on the war in Iran but also includes references to Hegseth’s role in carrying out military actions in Yemen and Venezuela.
The congressman, who was defeated by a Trump-backed challenger in a primary earlier this year, said Hegseth's actions amounted to “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Hegseth, he said, “knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders” and “remains a threat to the Constitution.”
President Donald Trump lashed out at Massie personally just hours after the congressman read the resolution, calling him a “loser” who “has a lot of hatred in his heart.”
___
Trump says FBI is looking at Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's affair with alleged Chinese agent
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that the FBI is investigating Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese government agent, but said he doesn’t think the executive who has helped to develop artificial intelligence has a reason to worry.
“I know the FBI is looking into it in terms of something else, and I think that he’ll be in good shape,” Trump said at a White House briefing.
The sudden emergence of Huang's infidelity has rocked the political class and America's tech sector, creating new concerns about whether China has been able to access the cutting-edge chips designed by Nvidia that are powering the development of artificial intelligence.
Trump suggested the extraordinary step of directly involving himself in a counterintelligence investigation, a sign of his friendly relationship with Huang and the possible geopolitical stakes.
“I did speak to him today just to see if he’s feeling all right, how you’re doing," Trump said. "He said he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy.”
___
Trump after meeting with Qatari PM says he believes war with Iran is militarily 'effectively over'
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters he believes the war in Iran “militarily is effectively over," suggesting that — at least for now — he’s not prepared to resume the bombardment that has devastated the Islamic Republic and caused reverberations across the global economy.
The president made a surprise visit to the White House briefing room after meeting earlier in the day with Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.
“Iran militarily is effectively over,” Trump said. “We’re just keeping it the status quo.”
He added that Iran has been “decapitated” but said he is still looking to make sure there’s a long-term solution to ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is defanged.
It was some of Trump's most definitive comments about moving away from his threat to resume strikes on Iran after the U.S. midterm elections had passed.
___
US stocks rally and recover most of last week's losses as oil prices swing lower
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market rallied Monday and recovered most of its big loss from last week as oil prices swung lower. The strength came even though Nvidia, one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks, sank.
The S&P 500 jumped 2.3% for a second straight gain following a wipeout on worries that Democratic victories in the U.S. midterm elections could lead to a slowdown in the construction of AI data centers. The best day for the index since April has it sitting just 3.4% below its all-time high set last month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 1,104 points, or 2.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 2.7%.
Stocks broadly got a lift from a 5.8% drop for the price of a barrel of Brent crude to $92.57. It’s been coming down from more than $112 at the start of the month amid uncertainty about what will happen with the war with Iran.
The latest leg lower came after President Donald Trump told CNN over the weekend that a resumption of strikes is “highly unlikely” if the United States sees progress in negotiations, though U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that Iranian demands for ending the war had sometimes been “outrageous and ridiculous.”
___
Thune and Schumer face questions about Senate leadership in aftermath of elections
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators from both parties returned to Washington on Monday with questions about the future of their leadership after last week’s election decisively gave Democrats a significant new majority.
Republicans who are losing around a quarter of their conference to election losses and retirements are debating whether to immediately reelect South Dakota Sen. John Thune as leader in votes scheduled for Tuesday. Across the aisle, Democrats who could hold as many as 56 seats next year are having private discussions about whether New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is still the right person to lead them, even as he carried the party to historic wins.
Both men are expected to easily win the backing of a majority of their members in closed-door, secret-ballot elections — the Republicans this week, and Democrats likely in December. But the internal discussions on both sides could prove consequential to their parties’ effectiveness in the next Congress and how voters perceive them leading into the 2028 presidential election.
The soul-searching comes as lawmakers are trying to wrap up the year’s work — funding the government and seeing if there are some issues they can work together on, including national security money and energy permitting. Republicans will try to confirm as many of President Donald Trump’s nominees as they can before the new Congress begins Jan. 3, and Democrats will strategize on how to best keep up their momentum into next year.
“The American people are not looking for socialist government and leftist fantasies,” Thune said on the Senate floor Monday, reflecting on his party’s “tough night” last week and how Republicans will handle minority rule in the Senate. “We will oppose any attempt to balloon the size of government or tear down American institutions.”
___
Supreme Court clears the way for border wall construction in Texas’s Big Bend to resume
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for the Trump administration to resume border wall construction in the Big Bend region of Texas, a blow to bipartisan opponents who had argued the project is a waste of money that threatens the unique landscape.
The border wall is a signature project of President Donald Trump, who has long vowed to build a wall from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
Landowners and business owners in the Big Bend region, environmentalists and others who’ve opposed the construction project were bitterly disappointed with the court’s decision.
“This horrific decision clears the way for contractors to bulldoze pristine desert and dynamite canyon walls before the courts have even decided whether this destruction is legal," said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that sued to stop the construction. “They’re signing off on the permanent destruction of the wildest place in Texas, and the theft of a great American river from all of us.”
Republicans in Congress last summer funded the project with $46 billion, and Customs and Border Protection has been rapidly erecting 12 miles of barriers a week across the entire border with a goal of eventually covering the entire 2,000-mile border with a mixture of 30-foot-tall steel walls, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology designed to stop illegal immigration and smuggling.
___
FBI is investigating a possible killing aboard a cruise ship out of Texas
HOUSTON (AP) — The FBI is investigating a “suspected homicide” aboard a cruise ship that returned to port after departing from Texas, and a suspect is in custody, the agency said Monday.
The FBI did not say whether any charges had been filed. The name of the suspect was being withheld pending notification of the victim's family, the agency said on the social platform X.
The MSC Seascape, which took off from Galveston, is a towering white vessel that has 2,270 cabins, more than 1,600 crew and can host nearly 5,900 guests, according to the company's website.
“On reporting a guest incident aboard our ship, we were instructed by the authorities to return to the Port of Galveston,” MSC Cruises said in a statement. It added that it was cooperating with authorities and providing support to those impacted.
The company said the vessel has resumed its voyage and left Galveston as of Monday afternoon.
___
FDA adds rare vision-loss warning to popular GLP-1 drugs
WASHINGTON (AP) — Popular weight loss drugs including Ozempic and Wegovy will carry a new warning about a possible rare side effect that can sometimes lead to permanent vision loss, U.S. health regulators announced Monday.
The Food and Drug Administration said the risk will be added to the labeling of all GLP-1 drugs, the blockbuster medications used to treat obesity, diabetes and several other medical conditions. The class includes a dozen injectable or pill-based drugs, including widely used brands like Zepbound and Mounjaro.
The eye condition, known as non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, can cause significant vision loss. The problem, which has been reported with all GLP-1 drugs, is caused by decreased blood flow to the optic nerve, although the underlying cause isn't understood, the FDA said.
FDA scientists began looking into the problem after the publication of a 2024 medical paper tying the condition to certain patients taking semaglutide, the active drug in Eli Lilly's Ozempic.
An FDA analysis of more than 125 clinical trials found that the problem occurred in roughly 6 of every 100,000 patients who took a GLP-1 for at least one year. The comparable rate for people taking a placebo or other types of glucose-lowering medications was less than 4 per 100,000, the FDA said.
___
Russell Brand is sentenced to 10 1/2 years in British prison for rape and sexual assault
LONDON (AP) — Russell Brand was sentenced Monday to 10½ years in prison for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others during a time when his bawdy behavior was indulged and celebrated during his rise to stardom.
Judge Joel Bennathan denounced Brand's “casual and arrogant disregard” for any woman who said no to him, and castigated him for the series of lies he told in testimony denying assaults that dated to 2004.
“About 20 years ago, Russell Brand, you were becoming famous,” Bennathan said. “You were clever — and in many people’s eyes, funny and charismatic. You had also become a sexual predator.”
Brand showed little emotion during the stinging rebuke. He turned to mouth the words “we'll be OK” to his wife after he stood up and was led away by court officers after the hearing.
The 51-year-old actor-comedian, known for outrageous stand-up routines and provocative behavior on television and radio broadcasts, as well as battles with drugs and alcohol, had maintained his innocence and testified that all his encounters were consensual.
___
College Football Playoff decides to double down and a 24-team playoff is set for next season
College football will expand its playoff to 24 teams beginning next year in a move that resets decades of tradition surrounding a once all-important regular season and dumps conference championship showdowns that used to be among the sport's marquee events.
The announcement from the College Football Playoff and ESPN on Monday made official a deal that's been in the works for months. The network reported it would pay an additional $1.7 billion over five years on top of the original $7.8 billion contract that runs through the 2031 season.
The new format will grant the Power Four conference champions automatic spots and give one more to the best team from the Group of Six. But that slot and the other 19 will be decided by a selection committee that will serve as the latest set of decision makers in college football's long history of polls and opinions having lasting impacts on teams' fates.
Beginning next year, around 30% of college football's 68 power-conference schools will have a chance to play for the title, drawing the CFP closer to the NFL, which allows 43% of its teams into the playoffs. It leaves behind the last vestiges of yesteryear, when between four and eight teams entered December with a legitimate shot to win it all.
It's a seismic shift that even ESPN conceded comes with some question marks. The network pays billions to televise regular-season games that might — or might not — have more meaning under the new system.
