The National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed that all 64 people aboard American Airlines Flight 5432 were killed Wednesday evening when a U.S. military helicopter collided with the passenger jet, sending both aicraft crashing into the Potomac River as Flight 5432 made its final approach to Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C. All three people aboard the Black Hawk helicopter were killed, as well. Investigators say the helicopter was on a training mission and had veered off its pre-approved flight path shortly before the disaster.

The Washington Post reports the air traffic control tower was understaffed ahead of the crash, with two air traffic controllers doing double duty Wednesday night. One day earlier, another jet had to abort its first landing attempt after a helicopter approached its flight path.

During a news conference on Thursday, President Trump admitted that the cause of the crash is still unknown, but he proceeded to place the blame, without evidence, on Democrats and federal workplace DEI initiatives.

President Donald Trump: “The initiative is part of the FAA’s diversity and inclusion hiring plan, which says, 'Diversity is integral to achieving FAA's mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel.’ I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I think it’s just the opposite.”

In a fact-check of Trump’s comments, The Washington Post found the FAA launched a program to hire air traffic controllers with the very disabilities that Trump attacked in 2019 during Trump’s first term. We’ll have the latest on the crash after headlines.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a second day of Senate confirmation hearings for health secretary on Thursday, refusing to disavow the debunked link between vaccines and autism. Kennedy also gave incorrect information about Medicare and Medicaid and refused to acknowledge COVID-19 vaccines are lifesaving. He’s questioned here by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: “Was the vaccine, COVID vaccine, successful in saving millions of lives?”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “I — I don’t know. We don’t have a good surveillance system, unfortunately.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders: “We don’t know?”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “I don’t think anybody can say that.”

Trump’s pick to head the FBI, Kash Patel, refused to explicitly say whether he would target Trump’s critics during his hearing, downplayed his own history of embracing conspiracy theories and refused to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 election.

Sen. Peter Welch: “You understand what I’m asking you. Can you say the words 'Joe Biden won the 2020 election'?”

Kash Patel: “Joe Biden is the — was the president of the United States.”

Patel’s hearing came amid reports that top officials at the FBI have been told to retire or be imminently fired.

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence also faced questions from Senators Thursday, who grilled the former Hawaii congressmember about Edward Snowden; her 2017 meeting with Syria’s then-leader Bashar al-Assad; and past comments blaming NATO for Russia’s war on Ukraine. We’ll have more on all these hearings later in the show.

CBS’s parent company Paramount Global is in settlement talks with Trump’s legal team, which is suing the network for $10 billion under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Trump’s lawsuit accuses CBS of deceptively editing a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris last year. The New York Times reports controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is pushing for a deal with Trump, and Paramount executives reportedly believe settling the lawsuit would increase their odds of securing a planned $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.

The social media giant Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Trump after Facebook and Instagram suspended Trump’s accounts following the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Most of the funds will be directed toward Trump’s future presidential library.

Newly appointed Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr has ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS stations, as the Trump administration seeks to cut off funding to public broadcasters. Carr says he’s focused on whether underwriting announcements from corporate sponsors cross the line into prohibited advertisements, but the attack comes after Trump adviser Elon Musk proposed ending Congress’s $535 million annual allocation to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

A federal judge has lifted travel restrictions on Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, after President Trump commuted his 18-year prison sentence as part of a mass pardon for 1,500 January 6 rioters. Rhodes will no longer be barred from entering Washington, D.C., or the U.S. Capitol grounds. In 2022, a federal jury found Rhodes guilty of seditious conspiracy after prosecutors showed he played a key role in planning the January 6 insurrection.

The Trump administration has removed a security detail protecting retired General Mark Milley, who served as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during President Trump’s first term. After the Capitol insurrection, Milley became one of Trump’s most prominent critics, describing him as “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.”

President Trump has issued two executive orders targeting K-through-12 education, including one that would block federal funding for schools that protect transgender students and teach critical race theory. The order also promotes so-called patriotic education. A separate executive order directs the Education Department and several other government agencies to redirect taxpayer funds from public education to private school vouchers.

More than 100 Palestinians, including over two dozen children, were freed by Israel Thursday as part of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage exchange deal. Massive crowds gathered in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, to celebrate and welcome prisoners returning home.

Freed prisoner: “We are part of these people who tell the world we do not leave our prisoners inside the prison. Our message is national unity. This people deserves national unity.”

One of those released was the prominent Palestinian resistance leader Zakaria Zubeidi, who in 2021 notably broke out of an Israeli maximum-security prison through a tunnel with five others. They were recaptured days later. In 2006, Zubeidi co-founded the world-famous Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp, where Zubeidi was born.

Meanwhile, the U.N. is calling for 2,500 Palestinian children to be immediately evacuated from Gaza to receive urgent medical treatment, as they could die in the coming weeks.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, M23 fighters say they will march on the city of Bukavu, after the Rwanda-backed group seized control of the eastern city of Goma. The head of the Congo River Alliance, a coalition of armed groups that includes M23, has vowed to topple President Félix Tshisekedi’s government. The DRC has criticized international actors for failing to intervene in the mounting conflict and called for young people to mobilize in support of its military. On Thursday, protesters in Bukavu gathered to support the mobilization.

Valet Chebujongo: “We will use all the means at our disposal, all the resources we have, to end this war. It will be long, but we will win, rain or shine. I believe the enemy, Rwanda and its allies, will be too small for their big shoes, because we are starting now, right now. We are starting the mobilization.”

Uganda has confirmed its first Ebola outbreak in two years, reporting the death of a nurse in Kampala. Authorities are tracing the nurse’s contacts as they rush to curb the spread of the highly infectious disease. The last Ebola outbreak to hit Uganda in 2022 and 2023 killed at least 55 people. Separately, a potential Ebola outbreak has been reported in the western part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In Germany, massive crowds of demonstrators took to the streets to protest against two mainstream conservative parties — Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, and Christian Social Union, or CSU — cooperating with the far-right Alternative for Germany, AfD, to pass an anti-immigrant measure. The nonbinding motion would allow authorities to reject asylum seekers at the German border and facilitate deportations. In a rare move, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned her successor as head of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, for collaborating with the extreme right. This is a protester speaking from Dresden Thursday.

Uta Fuchs: “I find that simply inconceivable, because, yes, for the first time since 1932, no, 1945, this is the first time that a fascist party or a party with very strong fascist tendencies — I don’t want to belittle that at all — exercised power here and that must not be allowed to happen in Germany.”

Germans will head to the polls for a federal election on February 23.

In Ukraine, at least nine people were killed and 13 others wounded when a Russian drone struck a residential block in the eastern city of Sumy earlier today. The bombing came after Russian forces seized another town in eastern Ukraine, bringing Russia closer to its goal of seizing the entire Donbas region. Last week, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief admitted to a desertion crisis, with troops increasingly abandoning their positions on the frontlines.

In Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa has been named as interim president to lead the transition. Sharaa is head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which led the rebel coalition that toppled Bashar al-Assad. On Thursday, Sharaa vowed to unite Syrians.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa: “We will work on forming an inclusive transitional government that reflects Syria’s men, women and youth, and take charge to rebuild new Syria institutions.”

Sharaa says he will establish a temporary legislative council to govern Syria until a new constitution is adopted and elections can be held — a process he said could take four years. The European Union announced this week it will begin easing sanctions against Syria as the country rebuilds after nearly 14 years of war.

President Trump vowed Thursday to impose his 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico starting tomorrow, February 1, though he added that oil may be excluded. The move is expected to further increase the cost of consumer goods, including groceries, and disrupt key industries such as auto manufacturing and energy.

A group of Quaker congregations has filed suit against the Trump administration following its order allowing federal agents to raid what’s considered “protected areas,” including schools, hospitals, shelters and places of worship. The lawsuit argues, “The very threat of that enforcement deters congregants from attending services, especially members of immigrant communities,” adding Trump’s order thus denies “guarantee of religious liberty.”

The Democratic National Committee is gathering Saturday to elect a new chair. Faiz Shakir, Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign manager, only entered the race two weeks ago but is seen as the most progressive choice, vowing to push Democrats to become the party of the working class. Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, have been campaigning for two months and are seen as favorites to win the DNC chairmanship. Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson is also running.