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US Democrats picked a 51-year-old progressive activist on Saturday as their new leader, who must rebuild a party still reeling from last year’s crushing presidential defeat — and figure out how best to oppose Republican Donald Trump. “The Democratic Party is the party of working people, and it’s time to roll up our sleeves and outcompete everywhere, in every election, and at every level of government,” Ken Martin, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), said in a statement.The DNC, the party’s governing body, raises millions of dollars each year to support and build infrastructure for candidates across the country, culminating every four years in the presidential election.Martin, a relative unknown outside of the party, stressed the need for Democrats to reconnect with blue collar voters, and to take the electoral fight to all 50 states — even bastions of conservative politics.”Donald Trump and his billionaire allies are put on notice — we will hold them accountable for ripping off working families, and we will beat them at the ballot box,” Martin said.Party grandees were meeting near Washington as the DNC carries out a postmortem of their November loss.They elevated Martin, formerly the chair of the party’s Minnesota branch, to devise their national battle plan. “This is not a game of chess where everyone is moving their pieces back and forth in a respectful, timed manner. This is guerilla warfare in political form,” said Katherine Jeanes, deputy digital director of the North Carolina Democratic Party, ahead of the vote.Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a rising Democratic star, warned that the party must “not to go into hiding until the next general election.”The moment calls for boldness, added Shasti Conrad, chair of the party’s Washington state branch, saying that many Americans have lost the faith. “They don’t trust us to be able to make things better. They don’t trust that when we are given power, that we know how to use it,” Conrad said.And the fight starts now, she added — there can be no waiting until the next presidential election, set for 2028.- Sports and video games -Facing a Republican majority in Congress and a second term for Trump, who has roared back into the White House with all the provocative rhetoric of his first administration, Democrats say they must pick their battles.”We have to be able to decipher crazy rhetoric versus policy violence,” said Conrad, and not be like a “dog chasing the car.”While many are “exhausted” after the last election campaign, Jeanes said the party must learn to respond to the frantic pace of shock moves from the Trump administration.Much of Democratic success going forward will be in how the party presents itself to an American public weary of politics.That includes engaging with voters “in places that have sometimes been uncomfortable” for Democrats, according to Conrad.After his victory in November, Trump credited a series of interviews on largely right-wing podcasts, including the popular “Joe Rogan Experience,” for aiding his return to the White House. “We need to be getting on sports podcasts and video games and trying to make sure that we’re reaching into apolitical spaces,” Jeanes said.

President Donald Trump is due to unleash fresh tariffs Saturday on major US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China, threatening upheaval across supply chains from energy to automobiles.Trump promises 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, pointing to what he said was their failure to halt illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl across US borders.He also vows a 10 percent tariff on imports from China, the world’s second biggest economy, charging that it had a role in the synthetic opioid’s production.Trump has repeatedly expressed his love for tariffs, and has signaled that Saturday’s action could be the first volley in further trade conflicts to come.This week, the US president pledged to impose duties on the European Union.He has also promised tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper, pharmaceuticals as well as oil and gas.Trump returned to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for the weekend with no public events on his official schedule. He headed to the golf course Saturday morning.Canadian public broadcaster CBC reported Saturday that Ottawa has been told to expect 25 percent across-the-board US tariffs, although energy imports would see a lower rate of 10 percent.These would take effect Tuesday, CBC added.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to hold a press conference around 6:00 pm (0000 GMT), two Canadian government sources told AFP.- Growth concerns -Imposing sweeping tariffs on three key US trading partners carries risks for Trump, who swept to victory in November’s election partly on the back of public dissatisfaction over costs of living.Higher import costs would likely “dampen consumer spending and business investment,” said EY chief economist Gregory Daco.He expects inflation would rise by 0.7 percentage points in the first quarter this year with the tariffs, before gradually easing.”Rising trade policy uncertainty will heighten financial market volatility and strain the private sector, despite the administration’s pro-business rhetoric,” he said.Trump’s supporters have downplayed fears that tariff hikes would fuel inflation, with some suggesting his planned tax cuts and deregulation measures could boost growth instead.Democratic lawmakers criticized Trump’s plans, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying Friday: “I am concerned these new tariffs will further drive up costs for American consumers.”Canada and Mexico are major suppliers of US agricultural products, with imports totaling tens of billions of dollars from each country per year.Tariffs would also hit the auto industry hard, with US light vehicle imports from Canada and Mexico in 2024 accounting for 22 percent of all vehicles sold in the country, according to S&P Global Mobility.The research group added that automakers and suppliers also produce components throughout the region, meaning tariffs will likely increase costs for vehicles.- Ready to respond -Canada and Mexico have said they are prepared if Trump goes through with his plan.Trudeau said Friday that Ottawa is ready with “a purposeful, forceful” response.Doug Ford, premier of Canada’s economic engine Ontario, warned Saturday that “the impact of these tariffs will be felt almost immediately,” predicting job losses and a slowdown in business.Canada should “hit back hard and hit back strong,” he said at a local election campaign stop.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum previously said her government would await any announcement “with a cool head” and had plans for whatever Washington decides.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, however, on Friday dismissed concerns of a trade war.Hiking import taxes on crude oil from countries like Canada and Mexico could bring “huge implications for US energy prices, especially in the US Midwest,” noted David Goldwyn and Joseph Webster of the Atlantic Council.Trump said Friday he was mulling a lower tariff rate on oil.”We think we’re going to bring it down to 10 percent,” he told reporters.Nearly 60 percent of US crude oil imports are from Canada, according to a Congressional Research Service report.Canadian heavy oil is refined in the United States and regions dependent on it may lack a ready substitute.Canadian producers would bear some impact of tariffs, but US refiners would also be hit with higher costs, said Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service.

Music world A-listers took the stage Friday to honor the Grateful Dead at an annual pre-Grammys benefit gala, which this year raised millions for musicians impacted by the recent wildfires that devastated Los Angeles.The 34th annual MusiCares Person of the Year gala — which benefits the charitable wing of the Recording Academy, behind the Grammys — honored the psychedelic jam band as it raised more than $5 million in one evening.The sum brings its total funds raised since the fires broke out in early January to more than $9 million, organizers said.The broader mission of MusiCares involves offering a parachute for artists and other workers in the precarious US music industry, providing assistance for physical and mental health, addiction recovery and human services including basic living expenses like rent.”So many people who work in music have no safety net. They are living paycheck to paycheck, and they are incredibly vulnerable,” Theresa Wolters, MusiCare’s vice president of health and human services, told AFP in an interview prior to the gala.As of January 28, she said the organization had received nearly 3,000 claims related to the Los Angeles fires — a number that’s on top of the assistance requests MusiCares normally receives.She noted that the disastrous fires came on the heels of deadly hurricanes that hit southern and eastern regions of the United States last year, and also led to a surge in need.Wolters explained that typically the organization’s immediate emergency aid includes $1,500 in financial assistance and a $500 grocery card, and longer-term support can include help with insurance deductibles, medical bills, rent or musical instrument replacement.Private forecaster AccuWeather has estimated the total damage and economic loss from the fires at between $250 billion and $275 billion. – ‘Give some back’ -Donors Friday night included Dead member Bob Weir, who raised his paddle during an auction-style donation round before settling in to hear a wide range of tributes to the vast influence of his band.The Grateful Dead members, including icon Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, were key figures in the counterculture that began in the 1960s.The band that was beloved for never performing the same show twice revolutionized fan engagement, as followers recorded and swapped bootleg tapes of the concerts in a communal, drug-addled camp environment.Friday evening featured a number of cuts from the band’s extensive catalogue, including Norah Jones with a twangy, slowed-down rendition of the classic “Ripple,” and Vampire Weekend with “Scarlet Begonias.” Sammy Hagar of Montrose and Van Halen meanwhile brought the crowd to its feet for “Loose Lucy.”John Mayer — who for years has been playing with the band Dead & Company, which includes former Dead members Weir, Hart and Kreutzmann — had the audience rapt with an impressive version of “Terrapin Station.”And he took the stage again as the honorees joined him to perform a trio of all-timers to close the night: “Althea,” “Sugar Magnolia” and “Touch of Grey.””Longevity was never a major concern of ours; lighting folks up and spreading joy through the music was all we really had in mind, and we got plenty of that done,” said Weir in accepting the honor.He also emphasized the night’s mission in quoting his bandmate Garcia: “All along, my old pal Jerry used to say, ‘You get some, you give some back.'”

The death toll from the crash of a medical jet carrying a Mexican child home from a hospital in Philadelphia has risen to seven, officials said Saturday, with 19 others wounded.The crash — the second major aviation disaster in the United States this week — occurred Friday when the twin-engine Learjet 55 plummeted towards a busy Philadelphia neighborhood, exploding on impact and showering wreckage over homes and vehicles.Officials had earlier said that all six on board — a young girl who had been in the United States for medical care, her mother, and members of the flight and medical crews with her — were killed. They were all Mexican nationals.On Saturday, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said that at least one other person, who was in a car, had also been killed, and that 19 people had been wounded.Speaking at a press conference, Parker warned that the toll was “not etched in stone” and could yet rise. “We have a lot of unknowns about who was where on the streets of this neighborhood last night at the time of impact,” said the city’s managing director Adam Thiel, warning that it could be days before the full toll emerged. He said the impact area covered four to six blocks, and there was also debris in a “remote area where something happened with the aircraft.”Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum posted her condolences on social media platform X. The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) said it was launching an investigation with the National Transportation Safety Board.Both agencies are already probing the deadliest US air disaster in almost a quarter century, after a passenger jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary collided with a Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday.The airliner with 64 people onboard was landing at Reagan National Airport in the Washington area — just miles from the White House — when it collided with a US Army helicopter on a training mission.

A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the Sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles.It may sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than one percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years.Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists aren’t panicking yet, but they are watching closely.”At this point, it’s ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s get as many assets as we can observing it,'” Bruce Betts, chief scientist of The Planetary Society, told AFP.- Rare finding – Dubbed 2024 YR4, the asteroid was first spotted on December 27, 2024, by the El Sauce Observatory in Chile. Based on its brightness, astronomers estimate it is between 130 and 300 feet (40–90 meters) wide.By New Year’s Eve, it had landed on the desk of Kelly Fast, acting planetary defense officer at US space agency NASA, as an object of concern.”You get observations, they drop off again. This one looked like it had the potential to stick around,” she told AFP.The risk assessment kept climbing, and on January 29, the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), a global planetary defense collaboration,issued a memo.According to the latest calculations from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, there is a 1.6 percent chance the asteroid will strike Earth on December 22, 2032.If it does hit, possible impact sites include over the eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea, and South Asia, the IAWN memo states.2024 YR4 follows a highly elliptical, four-year orbit, swinging through the inner planets before shooting past Mars and out toward Jupiter.For now, it’s zooming away from Earth — its next close pass won’t come until 2028.”The odds are very good that not only will this not hit Earth, but at some point in the next months to few years, that probability will go to zero,” said Betts.A similar scenario unfolded in 2004 with Apophis, an asteroid initially projected to have a 2.7 percent chance of striking Earth in 2029. Further observations ruled out an impact.- Destructive potential -The most infamous asteroid impact occurred 66 million years ago, when a six-mile-wide space rock triggered a global winter, wiping out the dinosaurs and 75 percent of all species.By contrast, 2024 YR4 falls into the “city killer” category.”If you put it over Paris or London or New York, you basically wipe out the whole city and some of the environs,” said Betts.The best modern comparison is the 1908 Tunguska Event, when an asteroid or comet fragment measuring 30-50 meters exploded over Siberia, flattening 80 million trees across 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometers).Like that impactor, 2024 YR4 would be expected to blow up in the sky, rather than leaving a crater on the ground.”We can calculate the energy… using the mass and the speed,” said Andrew Rivkin, a planetary astronomer at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.For 2024 YR4, the explosion from an airburst would equal around eight megatons of TNT — more than 500 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb.If it explodes over the ocean, the impact would be less concerning, unless it happens near a coastline triggering a tsunami.- We can stop it -The good news, experts stress, is that we have plenty of time to prepare.Rivkin led the investigation for NASA’s 2022 DART mission, which successfully nudged an asteroid off its course using a spacecraft — a strategy known as a “kinetic impactor.”The target asteroid posed no threat to Earth, making it an ideal test subject.”I don’t see why it wouldn’t work” again, he said. The bigger question is whether major nations would fund such a mission if their own territory wasn’t under threat.Other, more experimental ideas exist.Lasers could vaporize part of the asteroid to create a thrust effect, pushing it off course. A “gravity tractor,” a large spacecraft that slowly tugs the asteroid away using its own gravitational pull, has also been theorized.If all else fails, the long warning time means authorities could evacuate the impact zone.”Nobody should be scared about this,” said Fast. “We can find these things, make these predictions and have the ability to plan.”

US President Donald Trump is set to unveil fresh tariffs Saturday on major trading partners Canada, Mexico and China, threatening upheaval across supply chains from energy to autos and raising inflation concerns.Trump has promised to impose 25 percent tariffs on immediate neighbors Canada and Mexico, pointing to their failure to stop illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl across US borders.He also vowed a 10 percent rate on imports from China, the world’s second biggest economy, charging that it had a role in producing the drug.The United States runs “big deficits” with all three countries too — and this is another issue the president has honed in on.But imposing sweeping tariffs on the three biggest US trading partners carries risks for Trump, who swept to victory in November’s election on the back of public dissatisfaction over costs of living.Higher import costs would likely “dampen consumer spending and business investment,” said EY chief economist Gregory Daco.He expects inflation would rise by 0.7 percentage points in the first quarter this year with the tariffs, before gradually easing.”Rising trade policy uncertainty will heighten financial market volatility and strain the private sector, despite the administration’s pro-business rhetoric,” he said.Trump’s supporters have downplayed fears that tariff hikes would fuel inflation, with some suggesting his policy plans involving tax cuts and deregulation could help fuel growth instead.- Ready to respond -Democrat lawmakers criticized Trump’s plans with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying Friday: “I am concerned these new tariffs will further drive up costs for American consumers.”Canada and Mexico are major suppliers of US agricultural products, with imports totaling tens of billions of dollars from each country in a year.Tariffs would also hit the auto industry hard, with US light vehicle imports from Canada and Mexico in 2024 representing 22 percent of all vehicles sold in the country, said S&P Global Mobility.It added that automakers and suppliers also produce components throughout the region, meaning tariffs will likely increase costs for vehicles.”We should be focused on going hard against competitors who rig the game, like China, rather than attacking our allies,” Schumer said in a statement.Both Canada and Mexico have said they are prepared to respond if Trump acts on tariffs, raising the specter of an escalating conflict.But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday dismissed concerns of a trade war.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that Ottawa is ready with “a purposeful, forceful, but reasonable, immediate response.””It’s not what we want. But if he moves forward we will also act,” he said, referring to Trump.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government would await any tariff announcement “with a cool head.””We have a plan A, plan B, plan C for whatever the US government decides,” she said, without giving details.- Lower oil tariff? -Hiking import taxes on crude oil from countries like Canada and Mexico could also bring “huge implications for US energy prices, especially in the US Midwest,” according to David Goldwyn and Joseph Webster of the Atlantic Council.Trump previously said he was considering an exemption for Canadian and Mexican oil imports, and on Friday added he was mulling a lower rate on oil.He told reporters: “I’m probably going to reduce the tariff a little bit on that.””We think we’re going to bring it down to 10 percent,” he added.Nearly 60 percent of US crude oil imports are from Canada, noted the Congressional Research Service.Canadian heavy oil is refined in the United States and regions dependent on it may lack a ready substitute.Canadian producers would bear some impact of tariffs but US refiners would also be hit with higher costs, said Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service. This could bring gasoline price increases.

Six Americans detained in Venezuela were released Friday and returned to the United States with President Donald Trump’s special envoy, following his meeting with President Nicolas Maduro who called for a “new beginning” in ties with Washington.”We are wheels up and headed home with these 6 American citizens. They just spoke to @realDonaldTrump and they couldn’t stop thanking him,” Richard Grenell, an outspoken Trump ally who serves in a broad role as envoy for special missions, posted on X.The six men, who were not identified, were photographed smiling on a plane alongside Grenell.”Just been informed that we are bringing six hostages home from Venezuela. Thank you to Ric Grenell and my entire staff. Great job!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.Grenell had traveled to Caracas to demand that Maduro’s government accept the unconditional return of Venezuelans deported from the United States or face consequences.He and Maduro met at the Miraflores presidential palace in one of the first known meetings by the second Trump administration with a government it considers hostile.But Maduro — accused by Washington of stealing last year’s presidential election — stressed the meeting had “zero agenda” and that he sought a “new beginning in bilateral relations” with the United States, according to a statement from the government in Caracas.”We say to President Donald Trump: we have taken a first step. Hopefully it can be sustained, we want to sustain it,” Maduro said later during a speech.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier that Grenell would demand Caracas allow repatriation flights for members of the Tren de Aragua — the Venezuelan criminal gang Trump has designated a terrorist group.”President Trump expects Nicolas Maduro to take back all of the Venezuelan criminals and gang members that have been exported to the United States, and to do so unequivocally and without condition,” Mauricio Claver-Carone, US special envoy for Latin America, said separately.”There will be consequences otherwise,” he told reporters, adding that Grenell was also demanding that “American hostages” being held in the South American country “need to be released — immediately, unequivocally.”- Open channels -Maduro was sworn in for a third presidential term on January 10 despite being accused of election fraud last July. The opposition and much of the international community considers rival Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia the rightful winner.According to Caracas, the Maduro-Grenell meeting was held in “mutual respect” and various issues were discussed including migration and the “negative impact of economic sanctions.”The government statement also expressed Venezuela’s “willingness to maintain open diplomatic channels.”Claver-Carone said the talks did not imply any softening of the position on Maduro, whose previous term Washington had also considered illegitimate.Former US president Joe Biden’s administration had agreed to relax sanctions on oil as part of a deal for American prisoners and free elections.Venezuela freed 10 Americans in a swap. But Biden reimposed sanctions after Maduro did not follow through on democratic reforms.Maduro recently announced the capture of seven “mercenaries” and said two were US citizens — including a “senior FBI official.”The Foro Penal rights group said before Friday’s release that eight Americans were imprisoned in Venezuela, plus two people of unknown nationalities who had resided in the United States.- Top Trump priority -Trump has made the deportation of undocumented people in the United States paramount. During his campaign, he described immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of the nation.Since returning to the White House he has pressed countries to take back deportees — a top priority for Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he starts a five-nation tour of Latin America on Saturday.In his first week back in office, Trump vowed crushing tariffs on Colombia, a longstanding US ally, after its president called for more humane treatment of repatriated citizens.The Trump administration quickly ended protections from deportation for more than 600,000 Venezuelans living in the United States under a special status.The Biden administration had allowed them to stay due to fears for their safety if they return to Venezuela.Trump also signed a law making it easier to detain migrants who commit crimes, naming it after a nursing student murdered by an undocumented Venezuelan migrant who had been arrested but released twice.

A small jet with six people onboard crashed into a busy Philadelphia suburb Friday, officials said, showering wreckage over a wide areas and sparking blazes that caused extensive damage to homes and vehicles.The aircraft, which the Federal Aviation Administration said was a Learjet 55 executive aircraft, crashed around 2330 GMT into the densely-populated district of the city, packed with homes, shops and busy roads.It was bound for Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri, and had taken off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, the FAA said in a statement confirming that it would investigate along with the National Transportation Safety Board.”We have no reports on the number of fatalities,” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said at the scene, adding “several dwellings and vehicles were impacted.”Governor Josh Shapiro, who the mayor said was heading to the crash site, said he was “offering all resources as (emergency services) respond to the small private plane crash.” “We’ll continue to provide updates as more information is available.”The crash in the city on the US East Coast came just two days after a passenger jet and military helicopter collided off Washington’s Reagan National Airport, killing 67 people in the deadliest US air disaster in almost a quarter century.US President Donald Trump on Friday took to his Truth Social platform to say he was “sad” to see “more souls lost” in the Philadelphia tragedy, praising first responders and adding: “God Bless you all.”- ‘Major incident’ -The Learjet that crashed was an aircraft used to transport medical patients, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.Philadelphia’s Office of Emergency Management wrote on X that there was a “major incident” underway and that roads in the vicinity were closed, calling on the public to avoid the area.Dozens of first responders were on the scene outside Roosevelt Mall, a strip mall in Northeast Philadelphia with retailers and food outlets.The police and fire department did not respond to calls for comment.A major response by the FAA and NTSB was already underway in Washington to probe the cause of the deadly mid-air crash there, with no formal conclusions expected for at least several weeks.Investigators on Thursday found the helicopter’s black box after having already retrieved the cockpit voice and flight data recorder from the Bombardier jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary.Forty-one victims have been pulled from the frigid Potomac River, and rescuers voiced confidence the other 26 would be retrieved in the operation to recover the passenger jet.”The NTSB will lead the investigation and will provide all updates,” the FAA said referring to the Philadelphia incident.

A South Carolina man convicted of murdering a high school friend was put to death by lethal injection on Friday in the first execution in the United States this year.Marion Bowman Jr, 44, was executed at a prison in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, for the 2001 murder of 21-year-old Kandee Martin, the state’s Department of Corrections said.Martin’s body was placed in the trunk of her car, which was set on fire.Bowman, who was 20 at the time, acknowledged selling drugs to Martin but denied any involvement in her murder and professed his innocence in a final statement.”I did not kill Kandee Martin,” he said. “I’m innocent of the crimes I’m here to die for.”Bowman said if his death brings some relief to Martin’s family “then I guess it will have served a purpose.””I hope they find peace,” he said.Bowman also read a poem he had written which included the line “Did I take a last breath or sigh of relief?”Bowman had filed numerous appeals seeking to put off his execution, including a claim that the attorney who defended him at trial “held racist attitudes.”Bowman is Black. Martin was white.Bowman’s attorneys also argued that two witnesses who testified against him and received plea deals suffered from “credibility issues.”Bowman further sought to halt his execution because of the possibility of complications stemming from his size — he weighed nearly 400 pounds (180 kilograms).That would expose him to a “potentially torturous execution process,” his lawyers said.A judge rejected the appeal, saying Bowman could have opted for the electric chair or a firing squad.A journalist from the South Carolina Daily Gazette who witnessed the execution said it began at 6:04 pm with Bowman taking several deep breaths which subsided into shallower breaths.Bowman’s chest stopped moving at 6:06 pm and a doctor entered the execution chamber at 6:26 pm and pronounced him dead, the Daily Gazette reporter said.There were 25 executions in the United States last year. Three used the controversial method of suffocation by nitrogen gas, while the rest relied on lethal injection.Four more executions are scheduled over the next two weeks — two in Texas, one in Alabama and one in Florida.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.Three states that had paused executions — Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee — recently announced plans to resume them.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in the White House called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

Prior to this week’s fatal airplane crash in Washington, the US air traffic control (ATC) system was regarded as an understaffed operation beset with old and sometimes obsolete equipment.While the investigation into the collision between a regional passenger jet and a military Black Hawk helicopter remains at an early phase, the tragic end to the United States’ 16-year streak of no fatal commercial air crashes promises to keep the ATC’s issues in focus.A government auditor warned last year the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) troubling record on technology upgrades risked leaving it overwhelmed amid rising demand.Turning things around “will be the work of many years and billions of dollars,” Kevin Walsh of the Government Accountability Office told a Senate panel.Longstanding troubles have led to periodic efforts to privatize US air traffic control — something conservatives were positioning for ahead of the second Trump administration.In December, the libertarian Cato Institute described the ATC system as “antiquated, mismanaged and… headed for a crisis,” arguing the ATC was ideal for privatization under White House advisor and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s push to slim down government.But Michael McCormick, a former FAA control tower manager, noted that privatization campaigns have previously failed because of opposition from established aviation interests.”This tragic accident is definitely going to put a spotlight on the national air traffic system and may finally result in a proper funding level so the system can be upgraded and maintained,” he said in an interview.McCormick credited newer technology with enabling the ATC system to shift from ground- to satellite-based infrastructure, facilitating the ability of controllers to transmit messages directly to planes without using a phone.- Staffing crunch -The agency’s staffing shortfall is a longstanding problem, McCormick added, due partly to the mandatory retirement age and periodic government shutdowns that have hit recruitment. These problems worsened during the pandemic, which temporarily halted training.A shortage of air traffic controllers became a major gripe when airlines began ramping up service amid a surge in travel demand from consumers eager to see the world after Covid-19 lockdowns.Busy hubs like New York City and Miami now have two-thirds or fewer of the number of needed air traffic controllers.In light of the shortage, the Federal Aviation Administration has waived minimum flight requirements at New York airports, allowing carriers to fly fewer flights while still retaining their takeoff and landing slots.The FAA has renewed this waiver — first granted in 2023 — through October 2025 in a sign the agency does not expect the air traffic controller labor crunch to ease this summer.Industry officials point to a FAA report which cited a staff shortage of about 3,000 controllers.There were around 10,800 air traffic controllers at the end of 2024. The agency hired more than 1,800 last year and has a goal of hiring 2,000 this year, the Department of Transportation said in December. Airlines for America, which represents major US carriers, has worked with the FAA and universities to expand controller training at more schools, expanding capacity beyond the FAA’s training center in Oklahoma City.Louisiana Tech University was recently approved by the agency to offer curricula. It will begin offering basic instruction this spring under its four-year undergraduate program. The FAA “really want us to get in the program,” said Matthew Montgomery, head of professional aviation at Louisiana Tech University. “They want more people in there to relieve the stresses.”