D.C. plane crash and Senate hearings for RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard: Morning Rundown

Dozens are feared dead after a passenger jet crashed into an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C.’s Reagan Airport. The Senate readies for another day of confirmation hearings after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to distance himself from the anti-vaccine movement. And a look at the real-time censorship of DeepSeek’s AI model. 

Here’s what to know today.

Massive rescue effort after plane collides with Army helicopter near Washington, D.C.

Search-and-rescue crews have recovered been working overnight in freezing temperatures to recover bodies of those who died in a midair crash between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Reagan Washington National Airport near Washington, D.C., yesterday evening. Officials have not yet said how many casualties there were. 

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The crash happened just before 9 p.m. Eastern. American Eagle Flight 5342, which was coming from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, American Airlines said in a statement. Among the passengers were figure skating athletes, coaches and family members who had been at a development camp in Wichita, U.S. Figure Skating said. The Army confirmed that the aircraft involved in the incident was a Black Hawk helicopter on a training flight, with three people were aboard. 

Follow our live blog for the latest updates.

RFK Jr. distances himself from vaccine skepticism in confirmation hearing

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces a second day of questioning from senators, and Tusli Gabbard will face the Senate Intelligence Committee as both seek spots in Donald Trump’s Cabinet. 

In yesterday’s hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, the most aggressive lines of inquiry came from Democrats who challenged Kennedy’s long history of vaccine skepticism. Kennedy attempted a delicate balancing act: defending and denying his controversial past (referring to it in an opening statement as being “pro-safety”), while pledging to be a responsible steward for the agency. Kennedy also stumbled when lawmakers pressed him about potential changes to Medicaid, with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking member of the finance committee, suggesting Kennedy didn’t seem to know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. Here’s what else came up yesterday. Kennedy is set to meet today with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.  

Meanwhile, Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence who switched parties and endorsed the president’s 2024 campaign, will face questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee. She’ll likely have to convince Republican senators that she supports a surveillance program she once tried to repeal — an issue that will likely hold more weight than scrutiny over past sympathetic comments about Russia or a controversial meeting with former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to run the FBI, will also face the Senate for the first time today. For hints about how Patel’s political agenda might take shape if he is confirmed, look to “The Suspendables,” three conservative former FBI special agents who have been critical of the bureau and its sprawling investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 

Trump eyes sending migrants to Guantánamo Bay

President Donald Trump signed a memo yesterday that set in motion preparations for a facility to house thousands of migrants at the U.S. military camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The announcement caught many officials at the Pentagon off-guard, five defense officials said.

Trump previewed the directive at a signing ceremony for the Laken Riley Act, an immigration detention measure and the first bill signed in his second term, saying he would “instruct the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Fox News that the naval base “is a perfect spot” for Trump’s mass deportation plans.

However, federal officials have questions about how Trump’s directive should be carried out. A defense official said it is unclear whether the military will be involved, and others said they do not know how many beds for migrants are at Guantánamo or whether it would be a short-term or long-term mission. Read the full story here. 

More immigration coverage:

• How former “Dr. Phil” host Phil McGraw suddenly became so outspoken about immigration. 
• Venezuelans in the U.S. will lose about one year of temporary protection from deportation after an extension issued by then-President Biden was canceled. 

More politics news: 

• The Trump administration rescinded an order to put a widespread freeze on most federal grants and loans amid significant criticism. 
• Trump’s backtrack on the federal aid freeze unwittingly gave Democrats a political gift. 
• Trump signed a sweeping executive order that would prioritize federal funding to expand school choice programs. 
• Here’s what the polls say about the start of Trump’s second term. 
• A person who has been affiliated with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and a former aide to one of the FBI’s toughest Congressional critics are working as advisers to the bureau’s director, sources said, sparking fears of partisan interference.
• Former Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey was sentenced to 11 years in prison for a yearslong bribery and corruption scheme. 

Read All About It 

• Hamas has released eight hostages, with 110 Palestinian prisoners and detainees set to be freed in latest stage of the Gaza ceasefire deal . Follow live updates.
• Meta said it would pay $25 million to settle a four-year-old lawsuit over its decision to suspend Donald Trump’s accounts after the Jan. 6 riot. 
• A man who planned to marry the woman suspected of killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent last week in Vermont has himself been accused of a murder that happened just three days before.
• NASA scientists discovered the key building blocks of life in samples brought back to Earth from the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu.  
• Artificial intelligence and cameras could replace NFL first-down markers sooner than you might think. Here’s how it works.

Staff Pick: On DeepSeek, users can see censorship in real time

The overnight popularity of the artificial intelligence assistant from DeepSeek made a huge impression in the tech world this week. But the Chinese-owned app isn’t without its own quirks. We asked DeepSeek 10 questions about politically sensitive topics in China, and in every instance, the AI assistant either declined to answer or produced an answer that took an explicit pro-Chinese government stance. Sometimes, it even begins to write out an answer before backtracking, deleting its own response before a user’s eyes.

When asked about the apparent censorship, Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said: “Artificial intelligence is not outside the law, and all governments are managing it according to law, and China is no exception.” — Angela Yang, culture & trends reporter

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified 

It’s one of oral care’s biggest questions: What is fluoride? NBC Select reporter Zoe Malin, who has written about oral care and hygiene for five years, spoke with dentists to answer all of your fluoride-related questions. Plus, we covered the launch of Dyson’s latest handheld vacuum. 

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