President Donald Trump said 67 people perished in the mid-air collision over the Potomac River near Washington on Wednesday.  |
- President Donald Trump said 67 people perished in the mid-air collision over the Potomac River near Washington on Wednesday. Here are five takeaways from the president's briefing.
- Officials and aviation experts are zeroing in on the flight altitude of the military helicopter that collided with a passenger plane near Washington.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Kash Patel in the hearing on his nomination for director of the FBI on a range of topics, including Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation, the January 6 prison choir, and his alleged "enemies list."
- A federal appeals court ruled Jan. 30 that a decades-old government prohibition of handgun sales by licensed firearm dealers to adults under 21 is unconstitutional in light of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that set a higher bar for restricting Second Amendment rights.
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Emergency response units work at the crash site of the American Airlines plane on the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., on Jan. 30, 2025. (Al Drago/Getty Images) |
Officials and aviation experts are zeroing in on the flight altitude of the Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines jet near Ronald Reagan National Airport on the night of Jan. 29. All 64 people aboard the jet, along with the three military officers in the helicopter, perished, making it the deadliest U.S. plane crash in more than two decades. Based on flight data that has yet to be independently verified, the helicopter was operating at roughly 300 feet above the ground when it collided with the jet. Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation, said that the Black Hawk's maximum altitude for flying the corridor near Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the Potomac River is 200 feet above the ground. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said elevation played a role in the incident. "There was some sort of an elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the [Department of Defense] and army level," Hegseth said. The president said the "helicopter obviously was in the wrong place at the wrong time." "I'm saying there are things that you could question, like the height of the helicopter, the height of the plane being at the same level," Trump said. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) could not confirm the helicopter's exact altitude at the time of the crash. "We can't validate or basically corroborate any of that until we get more of the electronic data and the data that's on the plane," NTSB member J. Todd Inman said. The NTSB has not yet recovered the plane's black boxes, which are flight recorders used by investigators to determine the cause of aviation incidents. (More) More Politics: |
- Several figure skaters, including two Russian nationals, were aboard the regional passenger plane.
- Trump signed an aviation safety memorandum on Jan. 30 to reverse hiring practices related to diversity, equity, and inclusion agendas for air traffic controllers and other transportation officials.
- The president suggested that the Biden administration's diversity-based hiring practices were a factor in the deadly crash.
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Kash Patel, nominee for director of the FBI, is sworn in ahead of his testimony before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 30, 2025. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times) |
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Kash Patel in the first formal hearing on his nomination for director of the FBI. The cordial back-and-forths with Republicans and tense exchanges with the Democrats shed light on some of the controversies surrounding the nomination. No Retribution, No 'Enemies List' Democrats suggested that Patel could target opponents of the Trump administration, particularly those who were in conflict with the president during his first term. Yet the nominee stated that he did not intend to take such steps, including against former FBI Director Christopher Wray. Weaponization of Justice In exchanges with Republican lawmakers, the nominee stressed his commitment to fighting the weaponization of the FBI and other elements of law enforcement. "There should be no politics in the FBI. Having been the victim of weaponization of law enforcement against me, I know what that feels like," Patel told Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.). Commutations for Violent Jan. 6 Defendants Patel was also pressed to weigh in on Trump's pardons and commutations for individuals involved in the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021. The nominee stressed his opposition to violence directed at law enforcement, including when questioned about clemency for people convicted of violent offenses against police on Jan. 6. J6 Prison Choir Production Multiple Democrats questioned Patel on his production of "Justice for All," a charity record featuring Trump and the J6 Prison Choir, which consisted of people imprisoned in connection with the U.S. Capitol breach. Released on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast, "Justice for All" reached No. 1 on Billboard's chart for Digital Song Sales. Patel told Blumenthal that he did not know every member of the choir. Epstein, Sex Trafficking Patel told Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) that he would aid her work on identifying the parties involved in deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking activities. "Child sex trafficking has no place in the United States of America, and I will do everything if confirmed as FBI director to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened in the past," Patel said. (More) More Politics |
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Wednesday that the Trump administration will cancel funding to nongovernmental organizations that facilitate illegal immigration.
- Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said his department is taking action to remove stringent fossil fuel emission standards instituted by the Biden administration.
- Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has been confirmed by the Senate to lead the Department of the Interior, where he will manage 500 million acres of public lands and 1.7 billion offshore acres in orchestrating Trump's "unleash American energy" agenda.
- We're tracking the confirmation progress for every major Trump appointee in one place.
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Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek has stunned the market by introducing a chatbot built at a fraction of the cost of U.S. rivals. But questions are growing over whether the firm may have taken a shortcut. ChatGPT creator OpenAI said on Jan. 29 that DeepSeek might have "inappropriately" used its data. "We know that groups in the PRC are actively working to use methods, including what's known as distillation, to try to replicate advanced U.S. AI models," an OpenAI spokesperson told The Epoch Times, using the acronym for the Chinese regime's official name, the People's Republic of China. "We are aware of and reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled our models, and will share information as we know more." Distillation is an AI technique in which a developer trains an AI model by siphoning data from a larger one. OpenAI, in its terms of service, states that it does not allow anyone to take data from its system to build competing products. David Sacks, the White House AI czar, suggested DeepSeek has done just that. "There's substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is, they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI's models," he said in a recent Fox News interview. "I don't think OpenAI is very happy about this." (More) More U.S. News |
- Shares of UPS dipped to their lowest price since 2020 after the shipping giant announced it will slash its business with Amazon.
- California prosecutors said on Jan. 28 that they have reached a plea deal with pro-life advocates Sandra Merritt and David Daleiden over their alleged roles in secretly videotaping conversations with individuals at conferences and other events attended by Planned Parenthood officials.
- Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump after it suspended his accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach. The social media giant agreed to pay $25 million to settle the lawsuit, of which $22 million will go toward a fund for Trump's presidential library and the rest to legal fees and other plaintiffs in the case.
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Marshall Islands' Celsius Nicosia cargo ship is seen at the Manzanillo international port in Colon, Panama on Jan. 29, 2025. (Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images) |
President Donald Trump's promise to take back control of the Panama Canal has put a spotlight on the expanding relationship between China and the Central American nation. Security analysts say U.S. officials are right to be concerned about Panama's deepening strategic partnership with China. This partnership has been fueled by a years-long lack of U.S. investment in key sectors of the Latin American country. Beijing hasn't been shy about making moves to further its economic and political interests in the Americas. The communist regime has been successful in creating a web of influence through large-scale infrastructure projects and "debt trap" loans to countries that allow China to gain influence over local governments that end up in default. "The real issue is influence through economic relationships, human ties, and with that, the opportunity for the Chinese to sort of bend Panama's government to their will," Evan Ellis, an analyst and research professor for the U.S. Army War College, told The Epoch Times. Some of this persuasion has been gained through China's controversial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Panama was the first Latin American country to join the BRI just months after breaking diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 2017. Historically, the United States has been Panama's top trade partner and largest provider of foreign direct investment at $3.8 billion. However, China has curried favor in Panama through a willingness to invest in large-scale development projects such as bridges, loans, and support for some of the country's more neglected sectors. (More) More World News: |
- Panama's president said on Thursday that he would not hold any negotiations about ownership of the Panama Canal, following President Donald Trump's suggestion that the United States would reclaim ownership of the waterway.
- Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he would return the U.S. Typhon missile system stationed in the country if the Chinese regime stops its aggression in the South China Sea.
- One of the world's biggest steel manufacturers, ArcelorMittal, announced earlier this month it'll soon stop operating in South Africa, as the shockwaves felt in other parts of the world from a flood of cheap imports from China now reach Africa.
- Russia has been holding Chinese railway cargo shipments on the China–Europe Railway Express since late October 2024, with thousands of containers being detained, according to recent Chinese media reports. Observers say the situation is related to Western sanctions on Russia and that there's more to it than meets the eye.
- An Israeli ban on the lead United Nations agency for Palestinians because of its ties to terror groups, including Hamas, went into effect on Thursday after Israel's Supreme Court rejected a petition from a rights group opposing the move.
- Trump said he will likely go ahead with placing 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada starting on Saturday.
- The European Central Bank lowered interest rates on Thursday and hinted more cuts are likely coming, signaling it's prioritizing actions that address sluggish economic growth over concerns about lingering inflation.
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