Passenger jet collides with Army helicopter while landing at Reagan Washington National Airport

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — A passenger jet collided Wednesday with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River.

There was no immediate word on casualties or the cause of the collision, but all takeoffs and landings from the airport near Washington were halted as helicopters from law enforcement agencies across the region flew over the scene in search of survivors. Inflatable rescue boats were launched into the Potomac River from a point near the airport along the George Washington Parkway, just north of the airport.

President Donald Trump was briefed, his press secretary said, and Vice President JD Vance encouraged followers on the social media platform X to “say a prayer for everyone involved.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said the midair crash occurred around 9 p.m. EST when a regional jet that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military Blackhawk helicopter while on approach to an airport runway. It occurred in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over three miles south of the White House and the Capitol.

Investigators will try to piece together the aircrafts’ final moments before their collision, including contact with air traffic controllers as well as a loss of altitude by the passenger jet.

___

While signing Laken Riley Act, Trump says he’ll send ‘worst criminal aliens’ to Guantanamo

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the Laken Riley Act into law, giving federal authorities broader power to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally who have been accused of crimes. He also announced at the ceremony that his administration planned to send the “worst criminal aliens” to a detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The bipartisan act, the first piece of legislation approved during Trump’s second term, was named for Riley, a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was slain last year by a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally.

“She was a light of warmth and kindness,” Trump said during a ceremony that included Riley’s parents and sister. “It’s a tremendous tribute to your daughter what’s taking place today, that’s all I can say. It’s so sad we have to be doing it.”

Trump has promised to drastically increase deportations, but he also said at the signing that some of the people being sent back to their home countries couldn’t be counted on to stay there.

“Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re gonna send ’em out to Guantanamo,” Trump said. He said that he’d direct federal officials to get facilities in Cuba ready to receive immigrant criminals.

___

What to know about Guantánamo Bay, the base where Trump will send ‘criminal aliens’

President Donald Trump, who made the deportation of immigrants a central part of his campaign and presidency, said Wednesday that the U.S. will use a detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to hold tens of thousands of the “worst criminal aliens.”

“We’re going to send them out to Guantánamo,” Trump said at the signing of the Laken Riley Act.

He later signed a presidential memorandum and said he’d direct federal officials to get facilities ready to receive criminal immigrants in the US illegally. Border czar Tom Homan said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would run the facility. Still, details of the plan weren’t immediately clear.

Here’s a look at the U.S. naval base, widely known as “Gitmo,” and its history:

While the U.S. naval base in Cuba is best known for the suspects brought in after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it has a small, separate facility used for decades to hold migrants.

___

Trump White House rescinds memo freezing federal money after widespread confusion

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s budget office on Wednesday rescinded a memo freezing spending on federal loans and grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country.

The memo, which was issued Monday by the Office of Management and Budget, had frightened states, schools and organizations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington.

Administration officials said the pause was necessary to review whether spending aligned with Trump’s executive orders on issues like climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

But on Wednesday, they sent out a two-sentence notice rescinding the original memo. The reversal was the latest sign that even with unified control of Washington, Trump’s plans to dramatically and rapidly reshape the government have limits.

Administration officials insisted that despite the confusion, their actions still had the intended effect by underscoring to federal agencies their obligations to abide by Trump’s executive orders.

___

Takeaways from RFK Jr.’s first confirmation hearing as Trump’s nominee for health secretary

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was pressed to clarify his views on vaccines, abortion and public health priorities in the first of two Senate hearings as he tries to make the case to become President Donald Trump’s health secretary.

Kennedy is seeking to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the $1.7 trillion agency that funds medical research, public health outreach, food and drug safety, hospital oversight, funding for community health care clinics as well as Medicare and Medicaid.

Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee expressed hope Kennedy could help reduce chronic diseases and health care costs. Democrats repeatedly used quotes and transcripts from his books and public appearances to pin him down on several issues, especially vaccines and abortion.

Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, argued that “from abortion to universal health care, Mr. Kennedy has changed his views so often it’s nearly impossible to know where he stands.”

On Thursday Kennedy will appear before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee.

___

Police say at least 30 people have died in a stampede at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in India

PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — At least 30 people were killed and many more injured in a stampede at the world’s largest religious gathering early Wednesday, police said, as millions of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred waters during the Maha Kumbh festival in northern India.

Police officer Vaibhav Krishna in Prayagraj city said another 60 injured were rushed to hospitals.

Wednesday was a sacred day in the six-week Hindu festival, and authorities expected a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers. Hindus believe that a dip at the holy site can cleanse them of past sins and end the process of reincarnation.

The stampede happened when pilgrims tried to jump barricades erected for a procession of holy men, Uttar Pradesh state’s top elected official, Yogi Adityanath, said in a televised statement.

The event’s main draw is the thousands of ash-smeared Hindu ascetics who make massive processions toward the confluence to bathe.

___

Hamas will free 3 Israelis and 5 Thais in next hostage release Thursday

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas will release three Israelis, including two women and an 80-year-old man, as well as five Thai nationals during the next hostage release set for Thursday, Israel and Hamas said Wednesday as their tenuous ceasefire moves ahead.

The Israeli women are Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Agam Berger, 20, and the man is Gadi Moses. The identities of the Thai nationals were not immediately known.

A number of foreign workers were taken captive along with dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that set off the war in Gaza. Twenty-three Thai hostages were released in the first ceasefire in November 2023. Israel says eight remain.

Thursday’s release would keep up the momentum of the ceasefire that began earlier this month and paused the 15-month war in Gaza.

Hamas is releasing hostages in phases in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The prisoners range from individuals detained over minor offenses in recent months to senior militants serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks on Israeli civilians. Some have been held without charge or trial.

___

Former US Sen. Bob Menendez gets 11 years in prison for taking bribes and acting as agent of Egypt

NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt — crimes his lawyer said he’s been mocked for as “Gold Bar Bob.”

The judge delivered the sentence after Menendez tearfully addressed the court, saying he’d lost everything he cared about, except his family. The Democrat resigned last year after becoming one of only a handful of U.S. senators ever convicted while in office.

“You were successful, powerful, you stood at the apex of our political system,” U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein told Menendez in a packed Manhattan courtroom. ”Somewhere along the way, and I don’t know when it was, you lost your way and working for the public good became working for your good.”

The ex-senator was convicted of selling his once-considerable clout for bribes worth a fortune. FBI agents who searched his house found $480,000, some of it stuffed inside boots and pockets of clothing, and gold bars worth an estimated $150,000.

Prosecutors said that in exchange for the loot, which also included a luxury car, Menendez did corrupt favors for three New Jersey businessmen. They said he tried to protect associates from criminal investigations, helped two of them in business deals with foreign powers, and also met with Egyptian intelligence officials and took steps to help that country access millions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

___

A mysterious meeting with Syrian president is at the center of spy chief’s nomination fight

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Tulsi Gabbard returned to Washington from a clandestine sit-down with Syria’s then-president Bashar Assad eight years ago this month, she was greeted with a flurry of criticism.

Lawmakers and civil society groups chastised Gabbard, then a Hawaii congresswoman, for her meeting with an avowed U.S. adversary whose administration has been credibly accused of war crimes and major human rights abuses. A Republican congressman even called the meeting a “disgrace.”

At the time, Gabbard defended the trip by saying she had gone to try to find a peaceful resolution to a long and bloody conflict. But the details of what the pair discussed remain a mystery — dogging Gabbard to this day and has taken on new salience as rebels have swept Assad from power and President Donald Trump has nominated her to be the nation’s spy chief.

Gabbard can afford to only lose votes from three Republican senators if all Democrats oppose her nomination. Several GOP lawmakers have refused to say how they will vote. Echoing other Republicans, Sen. Lindsey Graham told NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the weekend that he needed to see how Gabbard handled her confirmation hearing, slated for Thursday, before making a decision. Among the top questions Graham wants answered: “Why did you go to Syria? What did you do regarding Assad?”

A key moment in Gabbard’s eight-year stint on Capitol Hill, the Assad sit-down also provides insights into the nominee’s worldview and is emblematic of an unorthodox and iconoclastic approach to politics that has fueled her rise from progressive favorite to one of Trump’s most vocal defenders in the 2024 campaign. Since arriving in Washington in 2013 as a Democratic legislator representing Hawaii, Gabbard has routinely staked out foreign policy and national security positions that put her on the opposite side of every presidential administration, including Trump’s.

___

Are we all aliens? NASA’s returned asteroid samples hold the ingredients of life from a watery world

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Asteroid samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world, scientists reported Wednesday.

The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that asteroids may have planted the seeds of life on Earth and that these ingredients were mingling with water almost right from the start.

“That’s the kind of environment that could have been essential to the steps that lead from elements to life,” said the Smithsonian Institution’s Tim McCoy, one of the lead study authors.

NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft returned 122 grams (4 ounces) of dust and pebbles from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, delivering the sample canister to the Utah desert in 2023 before swooping off after another space rock. It remains the biggest cosmic haul from beyond the moon. The two previous asteroid sample missions, by Japan, yielded considerably less material.

Small amounts of Bennu’s precious black grains — leftovers from the solar system’s formation 4.5 billion years ago — were doled out to the two separate research teams whose studies appeared in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy. But it was more than enough to tease out the sodium-rich minerals and confirm the presence of amino acids, nitrogen in the form of ammonia and even parts of the genetic code.