AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EST

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.” More from this section How protection of public land shapes political strategies in the American West What happens after a midterm tsunami? Lessons from 1974 and 1994 Young Black men in Philly are more likely to be pulled over if driving with friends, study shows 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 mi