Black Hawk, plane crash; Trump’s Guantánamo Bay plan : NPR

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Today’s top stories

A regional American Airlines jet carrying 64 people collided in midair with a Black Hawk helicopter as the plane was approaching a runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last night, according to federal aviation officials. The Pentagon told NPR the helicopter was carrying three soldiers. First responders are searching for occupants in the Potomac River. There is no official word on fatalities, but the incident could be the most significant disaster in U.S. airspace in at least 15 years. Here are live updates of what we know.

• 🎧 Webcam footage from nearby shows a small aircraft, presumably the helicopter, colliding with the passenger jetfollowed by an explosion before both aircraft crashed into the river, NPR’s Joel Rose tells Up First. DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said first responders were at the crash scene within 10 minutes of the first reports at 8:48 p.m., and about 300 are involved in the search effortswhich is taking place in icy water about 8 feet deep. There are audio recordings of communications between the air traffic controllers and the helicopter, with the pilot asked to confirm seeing the plane and instructed to go behind it.

President Trump says he plans to use a migrant holding facility at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to house up to 30,000 criminal migrants deported from the U.S. He brought this up at a bill signing event with the notion to detain “the worst criminal illegal aliens.” Trump raised the idea of reusing the base during his first term but never did. The Homeland Security secretary acknowledged that the administration would need Congress to approve spending money on the concept.

• 🎧 The naval base has had a detention facility for decades that houses migrants intercepted at sea; however, it has been mostly empty for years, NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer says. Trump wants to expand the facility to make room for deported migrants. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said yesterday the plan isn’t to hold the migrants indefinitely and that it would be a waystation until the administration finds other countries to take them. The administration has not provided a dollar figure for the workbut it would require construction, food and lodging for the people there, guards and staff to oversee the location and more.
• ➡️ Trump signed the first bill of his second presidency, the Laken Riley Act, into law yesterday. It expands the scope of federal immigration officers’ ability to arrest, detain, and deport people.

Dozens of Jan. 6 defendants who received pardons from Trump had past criminal convictions for charges including rape, manslaughter, domestic violence and drug trafficking. The president gave blanket clemency for Jan. 6 crimes regardless of whether they violently assaulted police. Some of the defendants had no criminal record prior to the crimes committed during the Capitol riot.

• 🎧 NPR’s Tom Dreisbach says one case that sticks out is Matthew Huttle’s, who has a lengthy recordincluding drunk driving and one incident where he “spanked his 3-year-old son so hard that he left bruises.” Huttle continued to rack up charges after the Capitol riot. Federal judges factor in a defendant’s criminal history when deciding a sentence. Trump, in general, said the defendants received sentences that were too long. The pardons only applied to Jan. 6 chargesleaving some people still in legal trouble for other cases.

Editor’s Note: This story includes descriptions of violent crimes and sexual abuse involving both adults and children that may be disturbing to readers.

Picture Show

Just before dark, six Ukrainian soldiers climbed down a ramp into a trench hidden beneath a forested hill near the Dnipro River. Behind camouflage netting, they operate a massive armored vehicle they call Nike, used to prevent Russian forces from crossing the river and seizing Kherson. Roman Kostenko, a former military commander and current member of Ukraine’s parliament, says the Kremlin clearly aims to take control of the city to establish dominance over the Black Sea and support military operations in southern Ukraine towards Odesa.

Today’s Listen

Imogen Heap’s song “Headlock” debuted on Billboard‘s Hot 100 at No.100 last week and climbed to No. 98 this week. Her career stretches roughly three decades, but she has never landed one of her songs on the main pop chart until now. The song, which is from her 2005 album Speak For Yourselfreceived a resurgence with the help of a social media trend. Listen to snippets of the song and read more about the other songs making up the charts this week.

3 things to know before you go

1. The Doomsday Clock now stands 89 seconds away from metaphorical midnight after ticking one second closer this week. It’s the first move it has made in two years.
2. Bookshop.org has launched a new platform that allows readers to buy and download ebooks from local bookstores or Bookshop. This is intended to help bridge independent bookstores’ sales gap with e-books.
3. Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of HTS, the Syrian rebel group that overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s government, was named the country’s interim presidentaccording to the Syrian news agency, citing a government spokesperson.

This newsletter was edited by Yvonne Dennis.