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All four crew members ejected safely after two Navy jets collided and crashed Sunday during an air show at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho, officials said. The collision involved two US Navy EA18-G Growlers from the Electronic Attack Squadron 129 in Whidbey Island, Washington, said Cmdr Amelia Umayam, spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, US Pacific Fleet. The aircraft were performing an aerial demonstration when the crash occurred, Umayam said in a statement. The four crew members from both jets safely ejected, and the crash was under investigation, she said. The crew members were in stable condition, base officials said. Nobody at the military base was hurt, said Kim Sykes, marketing director with Silver Wings of Idaho, which helped to plan the air show. "Everyone is safe, and I think that's the most important thing," Sykes said. Planes fell to the ground together ----------------------------------- The base said in a social media post that it was locked down .
US President Donald Trump said his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was "100 per cent correct" in his assessment that the US was a nation in decline, but the remarks referred to the years of his predecessor Joe Biden. "When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100 per cent correct," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He said the US "suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women's sports, Diversity-Equity-Inclusion (DEI), horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!" Trump asserted that the US has seen "an incredible rise" during the first 16 months of his administration and pointed to record stock markets and 401(k)s, military victories, renewed economic strength and what he described as a booming job market. Trump als
President Donald Trump on Monday nominated David Cummins to head the Transportation Security Administration - which has had a rocky few months as employees went without paychecks and security lines grew long at airports across the country. Cummins, who worked as a senior vice president at Serco, a government contractor that works with local and federal agencies, would take over a TSA bruised by the longest partial government shutdown in history which ended late last month. During periods of the shutdown, employees at the TSA, currently overseen by acting administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, went without pay, thousands didn't show up to work and hundreds quit entirely. It left travellers frustrated over delays and missed flights and politicians pointed fingers over who was to blame for shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. Cummins has experience in transportation at Serco, and says on a LinkedIn profile, which appears to have been taken down, that he was co-awarded a "dozen
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Monday asked businesses to manufacture in the US to access local markets and offered companies L-1 visas to bring employees to launch projects here. Addressing the SelectUSA Investment Summit at National Harbour in Maryland, Lutnick said the US has flipped the script and was now encouraging companies to set up shop in the US instead of outsourcing production to other countries. "If you want to successfully sell in the United States, build here. Build here. If you want to access our markets..., hire our workers and do it here," Lutnick said. He described it as the "old model" where the US exported its intellect and intellectual property and all other countries built the factories. "We sort of outsourced production everywhere else in the world, but with Advanced manufacturing, we can bring it back," he said. "Our trade agenda has made it clear. If you build here, and you hire here, and you strengthen our industrial base, we will help you. We w
The White House is warning Congress that funding to pay Department of Homeland Security personnel will "soon run out," sparking new threats of airport disruptions and national security concerns as the House slow-walks legislation to end what has been the longest-ever lapse in agency funding. In a memo late Tuesday to lawmakers, the Office of Management and Budget said money that President Donald Trump tapped to pay Transportation Security Administration and other workers through executive actions will be exhausted by May. It called on the House to quickly approve the budget resolution senators approved in an all-night session last week that would pave the way for full funding for the department. "DHS will soon run out of critical operating funds, placing essential personnel and operations at risk," the memo said. The pressure from the Trump administration could help House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose narrow Republican majority has been stalled out, tangled in internal party disputes
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that the US does not plan to renew a waiver allowing the purchase of Russian oil and petroleum products that are currently at sea. And, he said, a renewal of the one-time waiver for Iranian oil at sea is totally off the table. "Not the Iranians," Bessent told The Associated Press. "We have the blockade, and there's no oil coming out." "And we think in the next two, three days, they're going to have to start shuttering production, which will be very bad for their wells." Bessent's statements come as the world is on edge over the US-Israeli war in Iran, and global energy markets have been ensnarled by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The US originally issued a waiver for Russian oil sales and petroleum products in March with the intent of stabilising global energy markets after crude oil prices surged above USD 100 per barrel. The Treasury Department renewed the waiver two days after Bessent said at the White House that he had no plan
The US has initiated the process of refunding reciprocal tariffs from April 20, and Indian exporters should proactively engage with American buyers to seek a share of the refunded duties, think tank GTRI said on Tuesday. The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said that the engagement will be important as the refunded payments go only to US importers, and exporters have no legal right to claim them. Indian exporters will have no direct legal route to claim refunds, it said. The US tariffs, imposed from April 2, 2025, affected export of many Indian products, it said, adding that the total refund is about USD 166 billion, with roughly USD 12 billion linked to goods from India. To get refunds, US importers must file detailed claims online with shipment data, tariff lines and proof of payment. The reciprocal tariff regime began at 10 per cent on April 2, 2025 and was rapidly escalated. Rates for India rose to 25 per cent by Aug. 7, 2025 and to 50 per cent by August 28, remaining a
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is out of President Donald Trump's Cabinet, the White House said Monday, after multiple allegations of abusing her position's power, including having an affair with a subordinate and drinking alcohol on the job. Chavez-DeRemer is the third Trump Cabinet member to leave her post after Trump fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March and ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month. Unlike other recent Cabinet departures, Chavez-DeRemer's exit was announced by a White House aide, not by the president on his social media account. "Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector," White House communications director Steven Cheung said on the social media site X. "She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives." He said Keith ...
US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is launching a new podcast that he says will begin "a new era of radical transparency in government," according to a teaser video first obtained by The Associated Press. The show, titled 'The Secretary Kennedy Podcast', will launch next week and feature Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine crusader who has reshaped the country's health policy, in conversation with doctors, scientists and agency staff, US Department of Health and Human Services officials told the AP ahead of the launch. In the teaser video, in a slick HHS-branded studio with ominous music playing in the background, Kennedy bills it as a new way to expose corruption and lies that have made Americans sick. "We're going to name the names of the forces that obstruct the paths to public health," Kennedy says in the nearly 90-second clip. Joining the Trump administration last year gave Kennedy a new platform for his views, some of which contradict the overwhelming consensus of scientist
The Trump administration will pay USD 1 billion to a French company to walk away from two US offshore wind leases as the administration ramps up its campaign against offshore wind and other renewable energy. TotalEnergies has agreed to what's essentially a refund of its leases for projects off the coasts of North Carolina and New York, and will invest the money in fossil fuel projects instead, the Department of Interior announced Monday. President Donald Trump's administration has tried to halt offshore wind construction, but federal judges repeatedly overturned those orders. The Interior Department hailed the "innovative agreement" with the French energy giant and said, "the American people will no longer pay for ideological subsidies that benefited only the unreliable and costly offshore wind industry". Environmental groups denounced the deal as an alternate way to block wind projects, with one group calling it a "billion-dollar bribe" to kill clean energy. "After losing again a
A bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security failed to advance in the Senate amid growing concerns about long lines to get through screening at some of the country's biggest airports. Democrats declined to provide the support needed to move the funding measure toward final passage. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he would offer an alternative measure Saturday to fund just the Transportation Security Administration, which screens passengers and luggage for hazardous items. That too is likely to fail as lawmakers hold a rare weekend session. Behind the scenes, work toward resolving the standoff intensified Friday as White House border czar Tom Homan was set to meet for the second consecutive day with a bipartisan group of senators. Democrats are demanding changes to immigration enforcement practices by federal agents following the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that he sees "deal
Jeffrey Epstein's longtime personal attorney testified to a House committee that he was unaware of the late financier's sexual abuse of underage girls at the time it was happening, becoming the latest person connected to Epstein to take that stance. Darren Indyke, who worked as Epstein's attorney for roughly two decades, told the House Oversight Committee in his opening statement that he "had had no knowledge whatsoever" of Epstein's abuse and would have quit working for him if he had known he was trafficking women and underage girls. Other associates of Epstein, including his former accountant Richard Kahn, one of his largest clients Les Wexner, and former President Bill Clinton, have also told the committee in sworn depositions that they didn't know about Epstein's abuse. Democrats on the committee aired their frustration during a break from Indyke's deposition, saying that the lawyer had taken a "defensive" posture in the face of questioning. Indyke, along with Kahn, are executo
In the escalating war in Iran, the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs would ordinarily be at the centre of the geopolitical fray. The bureau's role would be to coordinate US foreign policy across an 18-country region, much of which has become a chaotic battlefield scarred by drone and missile strikes as the US and Israel remain locked in conflict with Iran. But now that bureau is also working with fewer resources. The administration's most recent budget proposed a 40 per cent cut to the bureau, though Congress eventually enacted less dramatic cuts. The administration also eliminated the dedicated Iran office, merging it with the Iraq office. Personnel and management choices - coupled with President Donald Trump's moves to shrink government and confine decision-making to a tight circle - are limiting the ability of the United States to handle a global emergency, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former US officials. Veteran diplomats with deca