Rescue workers in Washington, D.C., have launched a massive search operation in the Potomac River after an American Airlines flight and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair late Wednesday, with both aircraft crashing into the water. So far no survivors have been found; at least 30 bodies have been pulled from the river. American Airlines Flight 5342 had 60 passengers and four crew members on board and was en route to the D.C.-area Reagan National Airport from Wichita, Kansas. Several passengers were members of U.S. Figure Skating, who were heading home after a training camp. The Black Hawk helicopter had three soldiers on board conducting a training flight. An investigation is underway by the National Transportation Safety Board, aided by the Federal Aviation Administration.

On social media, President Trump called the crash “a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented.” Just one week prior to Wednesday’s deadly crash, Trump fired the head of the Transportation Security Administration and all members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee.

The crash comes just days after the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Mike Whitaker, stepped down barely one year into his tenure. FAA administrators usually serve five-year terms. Trump has not named a replacement. Whitaker announced his planned departure in December, after Elon Musk repeatedly attacked him on social media, tweeting, “He needs to resign.”

The White House on Wednesday rescinded a memo from the Office of Management and Budget that briefly froze trillions of dollars of federal grants and loans, even though the money has already been appropriated by Congress. The order set off panic and mass confusion across the federal bureaucracy, briefly disrupting funding for Medicaid, housing and other public services Tuesday before a federal judge put a temporary hold on the plan. On Wednesday, a second federal judge, U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell in Rhode Island, signaled he, too, would block the Trump administration from withholding federal disbursements, writing, “I am … very concerned about the irreparable harm which has clearly been put forth.” On Wednesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted the reversal was not a rescission of the federal funding freeze and said the White House would continue to seek ways to eliminate funding for what it called “woke ideologies.”

President Trump has signed the Laken Riley Act into law, which allows federal immigration authorities to indefinitely detain undocumented immigrants arrested for certain nonviolent crimes without due process. Forty-six Democrats from the House and 12 from the Senate joined their Republican colleagues in voting in favor. At the signing ceremony for the first piece of legislation of his second term, Trump announced plans to send “the worst criminal aliens” to Guantánamo Bay. The military was reportedly unaware of Trump’s plan, which would require new infrastructure to house up to 30,000 people. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said, “The U.S. government’s decision to imprison migrants at the Guantánamo Naval Base, in an enclave where it created torture and indefinite detention centers, shows contempt for the human condition and international law.”

Deportation flights to Latin America are continuing amid Trump’s escalating crackdown. Recently deported Guatemalans say the crackdown has targeted “everyone” in the immigrant community.

Walfred Ortiz: “Trump said that he was only going to catch the criminals, but now the police are also collaborating with immigration. So, if you are driving and there are two or three people in the car, they will get caught, even if they are not criminals. They are taking everyone.”

Hermelinda Matias: “I left two children there, and now I’m here in Guatemala. I don’t know how I can get them back. They took me away from my children. It’s tough to live, because I am a mother. I can’t live without my children.”

At least four U.S. military planes carrying deported individuals landed in Guatemala this week, following Colombia’s refusal to accept military deportation flights. Colombia instead sent its own aircraft to fly deportees home “with dignity.”

In more immigration news, Trump officials have rescinded the Biden administration’s 18-month extension of Temporary Protected Status for over 600,000 Venezuelans. The order means those affected only have protection under TPS until April and September of this year.

The Senate has confirmed former Long Island Republican Congressmember Lee Zeldin as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Three Democrats sided with Republicans in Wednesday’s vote to confirm Zeldin: Arizona Senators Rubén Gallego and Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman. The youth climate action group Sunrise Movement condemned Zeldin’s confirmation as a disaster for the planet and a win for fossil fuel executives, writing, “He took $420K from Big Oil, pledged to undo climate protections, and has been all-in with Trump, backing corporate polluters at the expense of working people.”

Meanwhile, Democratic senators grilled health and human services nominee RFK Jr. at his confirmation hearing Wednesday. We’ll have more on that after headlines with Oregon Senator Ron Wyden.

On Wednesday, senators advanced the nominations of Pam Bondi for attorney general and Kelly Loeffler to lead the Small Business Administration.

Meanwhile, Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, former Hawaii Democratic Congressmember Tulsi Gabbard, faces an uphill battle for confirmation when she appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee today. Fox News reports Gabbard does not currently have a majority of the votes needed, with half of the committee’s Republicans still undecided.

Israel is scheduled to free 110 Palestinians, including 30 children, from its prisons, after Hamas said it had released three Israelis and five Thai nationals held hostage in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Their release came after Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Israel and became the first senior American official to enter Gaza in nearly 15 years. Witkoff toured the Israeli-occupied Netzarim Corridor separating northern and southern Gaza, embedded among Israeli soldiers.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’d accepted President Trump’s invitation to meet at the White House next Tuesday. Also on Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order to deport noncitizen college students and other international visitors who take part in pro-Palestinian protests. Trump said in a statement accompanying the order, “I will … quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathisers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes have killed two Palestinians despite the ceasefire agreement. Separately, an Israeli civilian contractor working with Israel’s military in Gaza was shot dead by Israeli soldiers, apparently after being mistaken for a Palestinian.

In the occupied West Bank, an Israeli airstrike on the Palestinian town of Tammun late Wednesday killed 10 people and left several other Palestinians wounded. The attack came as Israel’s army arrested 26 Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank. Separately, Israeli warplanes have fired two missiles at a building in the Jenin refugee camp earlier today. On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would remain in the Jenin refugee camp and would continue to occupy additional territory it recently seized in Syria’s Golan Heights.

International staff working for the U.N.'s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been forced to leave their posts after Israel's ban on the agency came into effect earlier today. UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler said Israel’s decision could trigger a collapse of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

Jonathan Fowler: “In East Jerusalem, we serve 70,000 patients who are at the sort of bottom of the economic ladder, the most vulnerable members of society, people who don’t have access to affordable healthcare alternatives and use our free healthcare system. These people need us. They need these services. It’s like a nightmare scenario, and it’s also completely outlandish.”

A federal judge in Manhattan has sentenced former New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez to 11 years in prison following his conviction on corruption charges. In July, jurors found Menendez guilty of bribery, wire fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt. He’s due to report to prison on June 6. Menendez spoke to reporters following his sentencing Wednesday, stoking speculation he’s seeking a pardon from President Trump.

Bob Menendez: “Welcome to the Southern District of New York, the Wild West of political prosecutions. President Trump is right: This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”

The Justice Department is reportedly in talks with federal prosecutors in Manhattan about dropping corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams was indicted last year on five counts, including bribery, conspiracy and campaign finance violations. A growing number of Adams’s allies have also been indicted, or resigned.