NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-30-2025 6PM EST

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Following last night's crash involving an Army Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet, the Pentagon says it's halting flights. Duly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the helicopter was on a training exercise when the mid-air collision took place. The military does dangerous things. It does routine things on a regular basis. Tragically last night a mistake was made. The cause of the crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the cause won't be known for some time. Officials

confirmed three people aboard the helicopter, all 64 aboard the regional jet were killed. The search for victims of the crash continues in the icy waters of the Potomac River. NPR's Windsor Johnston spent the day at Reagan National Airport talking to passengers flying with American Airlines as flights resumed. Amanda Rush was taking an American Airlines flight from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia. She described the crash as surreal. It's chilling really to think about and especially, I mean, I've been going to this airport, I have flown that route a million times in my life. American Airlines passenger Michael

Gantt is a former pilot he says incidents like this are extremely rare. I know that from an aviation perspective they'll find solutions and implement changes to make sure that doesn't happen again. Passenger Craig Martin was flying to Fort Worth. I feel safe I feel like airlines are safe even though we had substantial cuts in the FAA yesterday. President Trump has announced those cuts, but they haven't taken effect yet. Windsor-Johnston and PR News, Washington. The nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the country's top health official was the focus of debate for a second

straight day, this time before the Senate Health Committee. A key Republican, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, joined Democrats to raise concerns over RFK Jr.'s frequent denunciations of childhood vaccinations as ineffective and unsafe. Cassidy ended the confirmation hearing telling Kennedy he was, quote, struggling over whether to confirm him. 110 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released from Israeli jails today. It comes in exchange for three freed Israeli hostages, part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Kat Lonsdorf has more. Among the released Palestinians are prisoners who had been serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis. Most serving life sentences were deported to other countries in the region. After chaotic scenes at the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza earlier in the day, Israel delayed the release of Palestinians for a few hours, seeking reassurances from the mediators of the ceasefire deal that such chaos would not be repeated. Five Thai hostages were also released today. This was the third hostage

for prisoner swap in a six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The next is expected to happen this upcoming Saturday. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Tel Aviv. You're listening to NPR. In eastern Congo, the leaders of the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels held their first press conference after capturing the city of Goma. They declared they're here to stay and raised the prospects of further expanding their control of the mineral-rich region. Emmett Livingstone reports from Goma. It was the first time the residents of Goma, an important mining and transport hub in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, were being addressed by their new leaders, the M23 rebel group and its political branch, the AFC. The message was loud and clear, we're here to stay. The Tutsi-led rebel leaders also announced that Congo's government is corrupt and that their aim was for every ethnic community to be treated fairly. They also promised to restore internet and electricity in the city of more than two million people, blaming the government for outages. The Rwanda-backed M23 fighters, armed and in battle fatigues, are a strong presence across the city, which still bears the signs of the recent battle. For NPR News, I'm Emmett Livingstone in Goma. Two NASA astronauts who've been stranded aboard the International Space Station for

almost eight months took their first walk in space today. Astronauts Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore floated in space outside the station doing maintenance work. The pair were initially only expected to be at the orbiting outpost for a week. There were problems with Boeing's Starliner capsule left them stranded after NASA decided to bring the capsule home empty rather than risk anything happening. They're expected to be brought home via a SpaceX flight in late March or early April. Critical futures prices edged up slightly today. Oil gained 11 cents a barrel to end the session at $72.73 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News Now, Planet Money, Ted Radio Hour, ThruLine,

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