DC plane crash, Fed decision, RFK Jr under microscope and Arctic drones
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Today, the latest after a deadly plane crash in Washington, D.C. Why the Fed's in a holding pattern on rate cuts. Democrats grill RFK Jr. over vaccines. And why NATO is scrambling for drones that can survive the Arctic. It's Thursday, January 30th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the frontlines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Jonah Green in New York. And I'm Tara Oakes in Liverpool.

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Scores of people are feared dead after an American Airlines regional passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided, crashing into the Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport. Air traffic control recording the moments just after the incident. 38-year-old Abadi Ismail witnessed the crash.

I was getting ready to go to bed, laying down when I hear the bang-bang, very unusual sounds. I looked up at the sky, I looked out the window, and all I could see at that moment was just smokes from the south side of Reagan Airport. Part of the river is totally frozen. We're talking about manoeuvring through ice to get to the crash scene. Officials have not yet provided a death toll from the collision.

But US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, where the flight originated, has suggested that all on board died. It's really hard when you lose, you know, probably over 60 Kansans simultaneously. Russian state media is reporting that ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the American Airlines plane.

possibly with their son Maxim, who had been competing at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. U.S. Figure Skating says that several members of its skating community were on the plane. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said an investigation has been launched by the Army and Defense Department. We have a live page running on Reuters.com and the Reuters app to follow the latest as news develops.

We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo. President Donald Trump is instructing the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to prepare a detention center at Guantanamo Bay to hold roughly 30,000 migrants. Meanwhile, his administration appears to have abandoned its proposed freeze on hundreds of billions of dollars in domestic aid.

Facing legal setbacks and widespread opposition, the White House Budget Office told federal agencies it was rescinding a memo that had ordered the pause in grant and loan payments. An Iraqi refugee who is an anti-Islam campaigner has been shot dead in Sweden hours before he was due to receive a court verdict following a trial over his burning of the Koran. Swedish media reports that Salman Mameka was streaming live on TikTok at the time he was shot.

Celebrations in Tel Aviv as Palestinian militants begin the handover of three Israeli hostages in Gaza. The latest stage of a ceasefire deal will also see 110 Palestinians freed. And Israel's ban on UNRWA comes into effect today. Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem will lose access to education, healthcare and other services provided by the UN agency.

We see things as in a really good place for policy and for the economy. And so we feel like we don't need to be in a hurry to make any adjustments. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell explaining the decision by the central bank to keep interest rates unchanged.

Howard Schneider covers the Fed and breaks down what's behind the decision to slow down. I think what came through to me is they really, as much faith as they have in further cooling of inflation, they're now back in a situation of wanting to see that happen before they move again and make sure it's going to happen again.

And of course, the backdrop to that is a load of stuff from deportations to tariffs to possible stimulus coming in the form of tax cuts from the Trump administration. How that seeps through the economy into stoking demand or higher prices or whatever's going to happen. They need to see that before they make any more commitments on rate cuts. And in this weekend's episode of Econ World, Kamal Crimmins looks at the risk of bond vigilantes returning.

If Trump's policies misfire. It's available now wherever you get your podcasts.

I find your presentation to be both untrustworthy and unprepared. Senate Democrats grilled Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it. Lawmakers accusing him of covering up his anti-vaccine views and embracing conspiracy theories to dissuade use of life-saving medicines.

Reporter Stephanie Kelley has been covering Kennedy. I would say it was a very contentious hearing. It was very lively. And that was not only from the senators' lines of questioning to Kennedy, but even in the room, there were several occasions where protesters had to be escorted from the room. There were also plenty of people...

who were supportive of Kennedy wearing Make America Healthy Again hats. And it seemed like the central theme of Kennedy's argument was that things that had been said about him, such as that he is against vaccines, are inept.

inaccurate and that past statements he's made have been taken out of context or are misrepresentations. I want good science and I want to protect the vaccine. Overall, he got a lot of support from Republican senators. At the same time, there are some Republicans that have questioned his previous comments in support of abortion rights. And Kennedy said,

that he will be in line with whatever Trump is supportive of and Kennedy is in agreement with Trump that states should have say over abortion access. Russia has stepped up military activity in the Arctic. President Donald Trump has revived U.S. claims to Greenland. And NATO states in the region are reporting more acts of sabotage on energy and communications lines.

All reasons that governments in the far north have put developing drones which can cope in the Arctic's tough conditions top of the agenda.

Jacob Grönhold-Pettison in Copenhagen has more. Russia was a first mover in the military build-up in the Arctic. So NATO has been sort of on the back foot and Arctic NATO states have started to invest more and more in unmanned systems, including drones. Drones have been used for military purposes for years in the Middle East primarily. So most of them were designed for sort of warmer temperatures.

milder climates. Now with the war in Ukraine has shown even greater importance of unmanned systems and in particular drones on the battlefield and for surveillance. Militaries have found out that unmanned systems can play a really important role in the Arctic because it's very difficult conditions to have lots of troops in those regions. So how are drones particularly vulnerable there? Essentially when temperatures drop

What that does is it causes a thin layer of ice to form on the propellers or on the wings of the drone. And that can essentially cause the drone to malfunction and crash battery strain very quickly when it's cold. So what kind of solutions are companies looking at to mitigate these issues? Some of them are looking at anti-icing systems.

You have companies working on heated propellers and heated wings. You have other companies working with fast-spinning propellers that spin so fast that they turn ice droplets that land on them to turn them directly into a gas form. And a third option that's also being followed by, for example, the United States is just to buy cheaper models and buy a lot of them. They're so cheap that you don't care if you lose some.

And what about Trump's latest comments on Greenland, for example? Have they pushed the Arctic drone agenda? Absolutely. Denmark, which controls Greenland, this week announced that they would buy additionally two long-range drones to help monitor the vast areas of the Arctic seas and Greenland, doubling the number of drones they had that initially planned to buy. To stay ahead in fast-moving markets...

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And for today's recommended read: Why blocking China's DeepSeek from using US AI may be difficult. Top White House advisors have expressed alarm that DeepSeek may have benefited from a method that allegedly piggybacks off the advances of American rivals called distillation. Essentially, one AI system learning from another. You can read more about it by following the link in today's pod description.

And for more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.