Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett.

And I'm Amna Nawaz. On the news hour tonight, some of the president-elect nominees could face

steep opposition in the U.S. Senate. Will the chamber serve as a check on Trump's power or pave

the way for his agenda? National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan discusses the uncertain future of

the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as the Biden administration gives way to a second Trump presidency.

I believe that our legacy has already been substantially defined on Ukraine, and it can be defined in two

words. Keev stands. And tensions and fears rise in Europe after anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli soccer fans.

Welcome to the News Hour. The U.S. Senate returns to Washington tonight, now facing more tough decisions about controversial nominations by Donald Trump. That says the president-elect is also

pushing to bypass the Senate entirely in confirming his key appointments.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin is here to bring us up to date and take a bigger look at the Senate as a check on presidential power.

It's always great to see you, Lisa.

So let's start with this.

What's the latest on President-elect Trump's most controversial cabinet selections? Let's talk about two in particular for the Department of Defense and Attorney General. Let's start there with Matt Gates, the controversial nominee for Attorney General. We know a little bit more about him. A Florida attorney says he is representing two young women who saw Gates having a sexual encounter with a woman who was 17. Gates himself has denied any wrongdoing.

He's saying he has been politically persecuted and targeted in all of this.

But there is an update on the House ethics report for that long investigations of the House

had on this exact incident.

That committee meets this week, and the chair of that committee, a Republican, has said that

Speaker Johnson, who has said he didn't, doesn't want them to release the report, he said

that that word shouldn't affect the committee's decision.

Will it or won't it?

We don't know.

But the ranking Democrat on that committee, Susan Wilde, has said it should be released.

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