Congress

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop on departing flights on Friday evening, 13 Nov, after more than four hours, ending at about 20:15 Eastern Time. Officials said more than 2,000 flights were cancelled during the halt, with later counts rising to nearly 7,500 cancellations and over 10,000 delays. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed outdated communications equipment overloaded with data at air traffic control centres. The stop was the second nationwide ground halt since the 11 Sep 2001 attacks.

Pope Leo XIV arrived in Lima on 11 Nov for a six-day visit to Peru, the final leg of a South American tour that began in Uruguay. President Keiko Fujimori received him at an air base near the capital. The Vatican estimated about three million people lined his motorcade route from the airport. He spent more than two decades in Peru as a missionary priest and later bishop, and holds Peruvian citizenship. He is due back at the Vatican on 17 Nov.

The US State Department has approved a possible sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine, valued at an estimated $2.1 billion. Canada, Germany and Norway are financing the purchase through the JUMPSTART programme, alongside Ukrainian national funds backed by an EU loan, with no US funds involved. Congress must still review the sale. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had waited almost a month for the decision. Officials report that a Russian drone strike killed at least 14 people on a rail platform in Dnipro on Thursday, and that one person died in Kyiv in a late-evening missile strike.