Military Helicopter Crashes into American Airlines Plane in Washington D.C.
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Newsbites
Trump appointees sit before Senate committees: Three of Trump’s most controversial cabinet picks, including Robert F Kennedy Jr (Health and Human Services), Kash Patel (FBI) and Tulsi Gabbard (National Intelligence), had their confirmation hearings this week. With only 53 Republicans in the Senate, there is little margin for Republican dissent as all Democrats are expected to vote no. We picked out one interesting highlight from each of the hearings for you to watch: (RFK Jr hearing) (Kash Patel hearing) (Tulsi Gabbard hearing)
All federal employees, totaling more than 2M people, received an email this week offering them 8 months of full pay and benefits if they voluntarily resign. The invitation, which is called “Fork in the Road”, is part of DOGE’s effort to cut government spending and headcount, and generally reform the federal workforce. It drew comparisons to Elon Musk’s emails to Twitter employees shortly after he acquired the company. Federal employees have until February 6 to accept the offer. The four pillars of the “reformed workforce” are: return to office, performance culture, more streamlined and flexible workforce (downsizing), and enhanced standards of conduct.
More: The government posted a FAQ page about the resignation invitation as it created confusion among some employees.
Reading scores for 4th and 8th grade students in the U.S. continue to decline, per the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The average reading scores for both 4th and 8th grade students declined 2 points from 2022 to 2024, and are about 5 points lower than 2019. While the decline in reading scores accelerated in the wake of the pandemic, they have been on a downward trend since about 2013. For example, in 2013, 78% of 8th graders scored at a “basic” or higher level in reading. In 2024, it had fallen to 67%. A similar trend has occurred among 4th graders, as well as math scores for both 4th and 8th graders.
More: The NAEP is administered every two years to 4th and 8th grade students to assess their math and reading abilities.
New Jersey Drones update: President Trump released a statement about the mysterious drones that flew over New Jersey and his golf course in December 2024: “The Drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons. Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Levitt announced that independent journalists, podcasters, bloggers, and social media influencers are allowed into press briefings. Levitt started the press briefing by allowing the “new media” row to ask the first set of questions. The move is a result of the shift in media and news consumption. For example, Trump’s 3-hour interview with Joe Rogan received 55M views and had an impact on the election. In January of this year, CNN is receiving an average of 522,000 viewers during primetime.
Chart of the week: Global antidepressant users per 1,000 people
Military Helicopter Crashes into American Airlines Plane in Washington D.C.
What happened?
A U.S. military helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet on Wednesday, tragically killing everyone involved (video). The plane, which departed from Wichita, KS, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, while the military aircraft, carrying out a routine test flight, was operated by three U.S. soldiers. No one aboard either aircraft survived the crash which occurred directly above the freezing Potomac River near Reagan National Airport.
Footage from VASaviation shows the regional airplane flying exactly in the right path heading toward its landing when a military helicopter takes off right in its line of sight crashing into the plane.
It is the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. in more than 20 years.
Several members of the U.S. figure skating organization were on the airplane returning from a development camp and Russian state media says two of its world champion skaters were on board.
Important “black boxes” recovered from plane
The two black boxes, which are actually bright orange devices about the size of a shoebox, were successfully recovered from crash debris in the river. The first black box captures data such as speed, altitude, and plane positioning. The second records hours of audio from the cockpit. If successfully accessed, both will provide insight into what went wrong.
The initial report from the FAA said that staffing for air-traffic controllers was "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic." Apparently, one air-traffic controller was operating two jobs at the time of the crash and the audio transcript (found below) is concerning in its lack of urgency and clarity.
A couple other factors:
The area around Reagan National Airport is one of the most congested airfields in the U.S., as commercial planes share space with government and military helicopters that make dozens of trips in the vicinity every day.
The airport was designed to facilitate about 15M passengers annually, but today the actual volume is about 25M, as more flight routes have been authorized. For example, in 2024, Congress approved 10 additional daily flights through the airport, despite pushback from some lawmakers, such as Senator Tim Kaine, that the move would increase delays and safety risks.
The day before the fatal crash, another commercial jet (operated by Republic Airways) was preparing to land at Reagan National Airport when it aborted the landing in order to avoid a helicopter in its path.
Audio from the air-traffic controllers before and after the crash:
"PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ," an air-traffic controller said, giving instructions to the military helicopter to maneuver behind the regional jet to avoid collision.
Seconds later, another aircraft called in to air-traffic control, saying, "Tower, did you see that?" - apparently referring to the crash.
"Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three," one of the air-traffic controllers can be heard saying in the audio.
"I don't know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach into 33. We're going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future," another controller remarked.
"Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river," a third air traffic controller can be heard saying.
"It was probably out in the middle of the river…I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven't seen anything since they hit the river. But it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit."
Trump blames DEI policies
President Trump held a press conference at the White House blaming “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” policies implemented by the Obama and Biden Administrations. He insinuated that the deadly crash could have a direct link to the diversity policies, arguing less smart people are in roles they shouldn’t be. Here are some of the quotes:
"We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we'll probably state those opinions now, because over the years I've watched as things like this happen and they say, well, we're always investigating.”
"We have to have our smartest people. It doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. What matters is intellect, talent. The word 'talent.' They have to be talented geniuses…we can't have regular people doing that job. They won't be able to do it."
"The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website."
Pete Buttigeig, the former Secretary of Transportation, responded on X to Trump’s criticisms, writing, "As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch."
Chinese DeepSeek AI Model Goes Viral, Challenging ChatGPT
There’s a new star model on the AI runway, only this time, it’s not from the U.S.
DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company, released its latest model last weekend and has triggered fears that the U.S.’ supremacy in AI is in jeopardy. It also brought enthusiasm that the golden age of AI is approaching, as capabilities appear to be rapidly accelerating.
DeepSeek’s founder and CEO is Liang Wenfeng, who runs a hedge fund called High-Flyer.
What is significant about DeepSeek?
In its announcement, DeepSeek said its model exhibits performance essentially equivalent to ChatGPT’s leading o1 model, but at a fraction of the cost (3% of the cost).
Following the release, DeepSeek rose to the top of the iPhone app store, and the company reported large outages on Monday following the surge in traffic.
The stock of NVIDIA, the U.S. maker of the specialized computer chips used to train most AI systems, fell 17% on Monday alone, losing about $600B of market cap.
How did DeepSeek build a more efficient model?
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