Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declined to apologize for the nationwide ground stop on Friday that stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers across the country following a router issue that derailed air traffic control communications.

Instead, the secretary blamed his predecessors for “30 years of a lack of investment,” telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that previous presidential administrations did not do enough to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system.

“It happened on my watch, but we have to be clear: I am moving at an incredible speed that no one has done at the FAA or in decades, and I’m proud of the work we’re doing, the attention we’re bringing to this issue,” Duffy said.

Federal Aviation Administration contractor L3Harris was working on replacing a copper line with a fiber line at a remote site when the work led a router to overwhelm the national FAA telecommunications network, Duffy said Saturday.

On “Meet the Press,” the transportation secretary reiterated a call he’s made all weekend for more funding from Congress to modernize the nationwide air traffic control system, which has long been outdated and faced problems.

Duffy expects airports and airlines to resume normal operations by the end of the day or early Monday morning.

Sen.-elect Scott Colom says investing in the South can help Democrats

Sen.-elect Scott Colom, D-Miss., emphasized on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that Democrats need to invest more in Southern states like Mississippi, where he flipped a seat blue for the first time in decades.

“What we need to do now as a Democratic Party is understand we can’t continue to allow that lack of investment to occur,” he said.

Colom’s projected win brings Democrats to a 55-seat majority in the Senate, with Alaska’s Senate race yet to be called. His victory over Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican, marked a seismic political shift in a state that last elected a Democrat to the Senate 44 years ago and has not had a Black senator since the Reconstruction period.

Mike Pence says GOP voters ‘didn’t turn left’ but were ‘turned off’ in midterms

Former Vice President Mike Pence said on “Meet the Press” he disagrees with Vice President JD Vance’s assessment of Republican midterm losses, saying that the problem Americans have with the Iran war is that the U.S. “stopped short.”

“We sunk their navy, we had complete air superiority, took down 15,000 military sites in Iran. And then, we paused and began to embrace the politics of appeasement,” Pence said.

Why Democrat Mary Peltola is likely to win Alaska’s Senate race

Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola speaks during an election night watch party in Anchorage.Justin Sullivan / Getty

As Alaska continues to count and report votes weeks after Election Day, it is increasingly unlikely that Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan will hang on to his job.

His Democratic challenger, Mary Peltola, is on track to win the still-unresolved Senate race under either possible scenario — with an outright majority, or if the race goes to ranked choice ballots, according to an NBC News Decision Desk analysis of outstanding and tabulated votes.

It’s possible that the final result won’t arrive until Nov. 18. Wednesday is Alaska’s deadline for election officials to receive final mail absentee ballots, one reason why this close race has lingered for so long.

Politics in brief

• Widening the lead: Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has won the Alaska governor’s race, NBC News projects, flipping the office from Republican control and extending Democrats’ gains at the state level in this year’s elections.
• Par for the course: The Trump administration cannot close East Potomac Park to the public for now, a federal judge in Washington ruled Saturday, dealing a blow to the president’s effort to renovate the park’s golf course.

Megaspeed says Alice Huang left in 2025 as company conducts probe over Nvidia fallout

Jensen Huang and Alice Huang at a restaurant in Taipei in 2025.TVBS via AP

Singapore-based cloud computing company Megaspeed International said that Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, whose relationship with former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sparked U.S. national security concerns, left the company last year.

Megaspeed, which is under scrutiny over alleged transfers of advanced Nvidia chips to Chinese companies, also announced an internal investigation led by outside lawyers.

Could a viral teen comedy be Netflix’s answer to YouTube?

Hyde Healy, Julia Dicesare, Grace Reiter, Ryan Micho, Tommy Armstrong and Aidan Micho in "Minimum Wage."Netflix

Inside a make-believe pizza shop overlooking Onondaga Lake, a team of digital creators, filmmakers and young actors spent months cooking up a show that they hope will serve Netflix something it craves: a fresh audience.

“Minimum Wage,” a mockumentary that follows teens who work at a pizza shop, has garnered more than 30 million views across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram since launching in May 2024.

The media company’s decision to acquire the show for its platform reflects a broader shift in Hollywood’s battle for younger viewers, as streamers increasingly turn to internet creators and their built-in fan bases to drive subscriptions and engagement.

More culture news

• PSA for CEOs: Former “Saturday Night Live” repertory player and writer Bowen Yang returned to help open the show this weekend with his portrayal of Jensen Huang.
• Warm welcome: Johnny Depp is back at the top of the box office with “Ebenezer,” his first studio movie in eight years, and first since the fallout from a contentious court battle with ex-wife Amber Heard.

Women with autoimmune diseases often misdiagnosed for 4 years or more

Women with autoimmune diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to be misdiagnosed or get delayed treatment compared with men.BSIP / Universal Images Group via Getty

Women with autoimmune diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to be misdiagnosed or get delayed treatment compared with men, with their symptoms often dismissed as “psychological.”

An online survey by British researchers found that it took women with an autoimmune disorder about four years to get a diagnosis, while it took men around three months to less than a year.

“Women in particular felt not listened to or not heard or not believed by their medical professionals,” said Sydnae Taylor, a co-author of the study published recently in eClinicalMedicine.

Autoimmune conditions can affect anyone but are more common in women than in men, according to the federal Office on Women’s Health.

Notable quote

Can you believe it? Look at her! Baby, she’s back!

SpaceX’s Starship made a triumphant return to Earth on Saturday, caught in midair by giant mechanical arms where its journey began 22 hours earlier. It was the first ever capture of a Starship flying back from space.

In case you missed it

• The New Orleans port sued to make sure federal investigators can seize the vessel that crashed into a cruise ship on the Mississippi River.
• A suspicious device at an ethanol plant in Peoria, Illinois, triggered temporary evacuations.
• Costco-brand whipped cream was recalled over the potential presence of a cleaning chemical.
• Saudi-backed Yemeni forces said they were withdrawing from an area overlooking the strategic Bab el Mandeb strait, leaving it in the hands of the Iran-aligned Houthis.
• The Philippines and Australia signed a defense cooperation agreement to ease bureaucratic hurdles to joint military activities as they deepen security ties.