AFP USA

Traditionally, when US secretaries of state make their international debuts, they travel to major US allies and offer bromides about working together.Marco Rubio’s first trip will be different. He will travel to five small Latin American nations to aggressively push President Donald Trump’s doctrine of US self-interest, starting with the Panama Canal.Rubio will start his trip Saturday in Panama, after Trump charged that China has unfair influence over the canal and vowed that the United States would be “taking it back.”Rubio will then head to El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic to hammer leaders for cooperation on one of Trump’s priorities — deporting millions of people, mostly Latin Americans, living illegally in the United States.Days before Rubio’s trip, Trump showed the punishment he can dole out for resistance.When Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, refused US military aircraft of detained citizens and pleaded for more humane treatment, Trump threatened massive tariffs on the longstanding US ally and Rubio suspended visa services. Petro quickly backed down.- Raw self-interest -Rubio, in an interview with SiriusXM radio ahead of the trip, said he sought “stronger” partnerships in the Western Hemisphere and that Central American nations had their own incentive to decrease instability.”I think we’re going to have a Western Hemisphere that’s more secure” and “our interest in the Panama Canal will be more secure,” he said.Rubio, a former senator and presidential contender, is the first Hispanic and first fluent Spanish speaker to serve as the top US diplomat. But Trump’s style also marks a return to an earlier time — the “big stick diplomacy” of the early 20th century when the United States brandished force to get its way, including in building the Panama Canal.Trump in his inaugural address evoked that era as he said the United States still had a “manifest destiny” to expand.”Trump’s comment about somehow needing to take back the canal really brings up old ghosts, the ghosts of US imperialism,” said Leland Lazarus, an expert at Florida International University and the Atlantic Council.He noted that Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino has said his country, which took full control of the canal in 1999, would “jealously preserve and protect its sovereignty.”But Lazarus also pointed to “silent movement” by Panama to review China’s clout including through an audit of Hutchison Holdings, the Hong Kong company that operates ports on both sides of the canal.- Championing the right -Maureen Meyer, vice president for programs at the Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes human rights, expected many in the region to be concerned about a relationship built not on “mutual cooperation and respect, as much as by bullying and sometimes a transactional relationship.”  But she said that all wanted to avoid tariffs by their giant neighbor to the north.”Each of these countries has their own interest in developing a good relationship with the Trump administration,” she said.Rubio, a Cuban-American vociferously opposed to the island’s communist government, is also expected to promote Latin American conservatives in the region’s ideological tug-of-war.Chief among them is El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who has earned hero status within Trump’s Republican Party for his no-holds-barred crackdown on crime in which tens thousands of people have been rounded up.Human rights groups have criticized Bukele over detentions of innocent people. But once prevalent homicides have dropped sharply and he was re-elected last year with 80 percent of the vote, with Donald Trump Jr. attending his inauguration.Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader for his part has championed a Trump-style hard line on chronically unstable and impoverished Haiti, starting work on a wall and ramping up deportations.Rubio will find a different dynamic in Guatemala whose president, Bernardo Arevalo, is an anti-corruption advocate who faced down threats by the conservative elite to take power after his upset 2023 election victory.Arevalo — whose country is a major source of migrants — has been quick to cooperate with Trump, including by accepting deportees.”Arevalo is looking for support from the Trump administration, because he knows his own government has been threatened by internal forces that oftentimes have had strong relationships with members of the Republican Party,” Meyer said.

Faced with the first big test of his new administration, Donald Trump wanted to show he was in control. Not just as America’s consoler-in-chief, but as its chief prosecutor and air accident investigator-in-chief too.Trump started his White House briefing on a midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter in Washington with a traditional presidential tone and a moment of silence in what he called an “hour of anguish for a nation.”But he quickly pivoted to blame — and culture war politics.He blamed the helicopter pilots for the crash that killed 67 people. He blamed night-vision goggles. He talked about landing tracks and altitudes.”We have some very strong opinions,” Trump announced.Above all, the 78-year-old Republican blamed the crash on diversity hires, in an astonishing attack on his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”Because I have common sense, OK? ” Trump replied when asked how he had reached the conclusion that programs to counter racism and sexism had played a role.But the underlying message as Trump took the podium, flanked by a parade of tribute-paying officials, was that he had the situation under control — and the crash wasn’t his administration’s fault.The deadliest US plane crash for a decade came as questions swirl about Trump’s plans for a radical right-wing reshaping of the federal government — including its aviation agency.- ‘Not your fault’ -Trump’s briefing had echoes of his appearances during the Covid pandemic in his first term when the abiding theme was: only I can fix this.On one famous occasion Trump mused about injecting disinfectant as a “cleaning” for the disease. Like then, Trump’s first instinct on Thursday was to put himself at the center of the story, and to launch political attacks on his opponents.And, like then, Trump rolled out people to praise him. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Secretary of Defense chief Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance were all called up to the famed lectern.”It’s not your fault,” Trump said as he summoned a stunned-looking Duffy, who was sworn in less than six hours before the crash.Duffy duly said the “president’s leadership has been remarkable.”Hegseth took his turn, thanking Trump for his “leadership and courage” in what he calls a war on “woke” politics in the military, including a ban on transgender service members. It was far from the first time Trump had used the traditional presidential role as consoler of the nation in times of tragedy to attack his opponents.Last week he visited victims in fire-scorched California and hurricane-hit North Carolina — launching broadsides at Democrats and threatening to shut down the federal disaster agency.- ‘Madness’ -But Trump’s preemptive assault on diversity on Thursday allowed him to deflect wider questions about whether his purge of the federal government will strain the agencies he will need to probe the air crash — and future crises like it.It came just a day after the White House was forced into a major climbdown, rescinding an order freezing funds for federal aid that caused chaos across the country.The Federal Aviation Adminstration had no full-time leader at the time of the crash because its leader stepped down on inauguration day after Trump’s cost-cutting chief Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, demanded that he quit.Trump announced a replacement during the briefing on Thursday.The FAA was also one of the first targets for Trump’s slew of executive orders after his inauguration, with one targeting diversity “madness” at the agency.The spotlight also remains on Hegseth, a former Fox TV contributor and military veteran, who is also in his first week in the job.His campaign against “woke” in the US military was criticized by his predecessor Lloyd Austin, who said that rejecting “qualified patriots” would make the armed forces “weaker.”Hegseth is also under pressure to deliver after squeaking through his confirmation process due to allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and concerns over inexperience.

US President Donald Trump — speaking as the bodies of 67 people were pulled from Washington’s Potomac River — launched an extraordinary political attack Thursday blaming diversity hires for the midair collision between an airliner and a military helicopter.The Republican confirmed the deaths of all those aboard both aircraft, and also cited pilot error on the helicopter in the nighttime crash.But he chiefly used a press conference to open fire at what he said were left-wing diversity practices under his Democratic predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama that he claimed kept out good employees at the Federal Aviation Administration.”I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first,” Trump said.”They actually came out with a directive: ‘too white.’ And we want the people that are competent.”As Trump spoke in the White House, police divers searched for more bodies in the water.Wreckage of the Bombardier jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary protruded from the river surface, surrounded by emergency vessels and diving teams. It had been carrying 64 people.The army Blackhawk helicopter, which had three soldiers aboard, was also in the river.”We are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly said. Twenty eight bodies had already been found.The collision — the first major crash in the United States since 2009 when 49 people were killed near Buffalo, New York — occurred late evening on Wednesday as the airliner came into land at Reagan National Airport after a routine flight from Wichita, Kansas.Reagan National is a major airport located a short distance from downtown Washington, the White House and the Pentagon. The airspace is extremely busy, with civilian and military aircraft a constant presence.Dramatic audio from air traffic controllers showed them repeatedly asking the helicopter if it had the passenger jet “in sight,” and then just before the crash telling it to “pass behind” the plane.- Trump politicizes crash -Trump opened his press conference by speaking of the nation’s “anguish” and said that the investigation would take time.However, he then launched into an extended broadside against so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies.Trump — who began his presidency a week ago with an onslaught against decades-old measures aimed at preventing sexism and racism in the United States — singled out Biden’s openly gay transport secretary Pete Buttigieg.”He’s run it right into the ground with his diversity,” Trump said.The message was hammered home as Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, and new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, took turns at the podium to repeat that diversity measures kept capable Americans out of responsible jobs.Asked again by reporters whether he was blaming workplace diversity for the crash, Trump answered: “It could have been.”Buttigieg responded on X, calling Trump “despicable.””As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” he said.- Skaters among victims -Hundreds of rescuers were rapidly at the scene, but found themselves battling darkness and floating ice through the night. Some of the debris was located a mile downriver.Among those on the airliner were several US skaters and coaches, US Figure Skating said. Officials in Moscow also confirmed the presence of Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the 1994 world pairs title.The violence of the collision soon made it clear that survivors were unlikely.”I just saw a fireball and it was gone,” one air traffic controller was heard telling a colleague after communication with the helicopter was cut.- What happened? -Transport officials said both aircraft were on standard flight patterns on a clear night with good visibility.Hegseth said the Black Hawk chopper had “a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation.””Do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.Trump, in addition to blaming racial and other kinds of diversity policies, offered extended remarks on the flight paths.The helicopter was “going at an angle that was unbelievably bad,” Trump said.

It was a cold and clear night in Washington as a passenger plane descended towards a runway at the US capital’s airport, seemingly unaware that an army helicopter was flying into its path.American Airlines flight 5342, with 60 passengers and four crew, was in the final minutes of its journey from Wichita, Kansas — where some figure skaters onboard had taken part in a competition and training camp.Meanwhile, a Black Hawk helicopter with three military personnel was flying at the same altitude over the Potomac River during what was described as a routine nighttime training flight.The first warning of an impending collision came from air traffic controllers.”Pat 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight?” a controller asked, using the call sign for the Black Hawk helicopter, asking if it could see the airplane.Gasps could then be heard moments later, with one voice asking “tower, did you see that?””I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river,” another air traffic controller said after the crash.A webcam at the nearby Kennedy Center captured the moment the helicopter flies into the well-lit plane, producing a bright flash followed by a plume of smoke, before the two aircraft fall from the sky.Witness Ari Schulman was driving home when he saw the plane, saying it “looked normal” before looking back seconds later to see it “banked all the way to the right.””I could see the underside of it. It was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it,” he told CNN.The plane and helicopter plunged into the icy waters below, prompting a desperate rescue mission that began with at least 300 first responders.Working with spotlights in pitch darkness, they began scouring the river for survivors — a search that soon turned to a recovery operation of 67 bodies, with all those involved presumed dead.At Reagan National Airport, some were waiting to greet their loved ones from the flight when they learned of the crash. Hamaad Raza, whose wife was on the plane, told news outlet WUSA that she sent a message to say they were landing in 20 minutes.”The rest of my texts did not get delivered, that’s when I realized something might be up,” he said.

Donald Trump’s picks to lead the US intelligence community and top law enforcement agency were assailed over their lack of experience and past judgment calls Thursday as the Republican president’s most contentious cabinet nominees faced showstopping Senate confirmation hearings.Tulsi Gabbard, tapped for director of national intelligence, sat before the Senate Intelligence Committee for the most consequential confirmation hearing to date, while Kash Patel was questioned on his ambitions to head the FBI. Gabbard, a former Hawaiian congresswoman who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, is considered Trump’s most vulnerable cabinet-level nominee, and her grilling marked the biggest test of his sway over Senate Republicans since he took office.She is regarded with suspicion over her past support for NSA leaker Edward Snowden, seen on both sides of Congress as having imperiled national security.She also faced questions over her lack of national security experience, her 2017 meeting with now-deposed Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and her peddling of Russian propaganda, particularly false conspiracy theories about the Ukraine war.Just one Republican “no” vote would stop Gabbard’s nomination from making it to the Senate floor with a favorable report, and the party’s leadership has indicated that she wouldn’t get a vote without committee support.Tom Cotton, the panel’s Republican chairman, said he was “dismayed” by attacks on Gabbard’s patriotism and loyalty, pointing to her two-decade military career and five FBI background checks that he said showed her to be “clean as a whistle.” But Mark Warner, the top Democrat, argued that foreign allies may not be able to trust Washington with their secrets if Gabbard is put in charge of the constellation of 18 intelligence agencies.- ‘Weaponization’ -In his opening statement he said the US intelligence mission “is all predicated on trust — trust that our allies will protect each other’s secrets.””It appears to me you have repeatedly excused our adversaries’ worst actions and instead often blame them on the United States and those very allies,” he added.But Gabbard hit back, arguing that her critics were upset that “I refuse to be their puppet” and saying that Trump won a clear mandate to end the “weaponization and politicization” of the intelligence community.She acknowledged that Snowden had broken the law by leaking highly classified information in 2013 but repeatedly refused under questioning from both sides to call him a traitor.”I’ll begin by leading by example, checking my own personal views at the door and committing to delivering intelligence that is collected, analyzed and reported without bias, prejudice or political influence,” she told the panel.On a day of drama on Capitol Hill, there were fiery exchanges between Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and FBI director-designate Kash Patel, although he appears to be on a surer footing than Gabbard. Democrats argued that he is an unrepentant conspiracy theorist and brought up a list of 60 supposed “deep state” actors — all critics of Trump — he included in a 2022 book, whom he said should be investigated or “otherwise reviled.”Senator Dick Durbin, the panel’s top Democrat, said Patel had “neither the experience, the temperament nor the judgment to lead” the FBI.Patel has denied that he has an “enemies list,” and told the committee he was merely interested in bringing lawbreakers to book.In one unexpected exchange he distanced himself from at least some of Trump’s pardons of hundreds of criminals convicted of violence over the 2021 US Capitol insurrection.”I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement,” he said.At the same time Robert F Kennedy Jr was appearing for a second hearing on Capitol Hill, a day after coming under attack from Democrats over his promotion of vaccine misinformation, and his sudden embrace of anti-abortion policies.Thursday’s questioning turned to past allegations of sexual assault from a babysitter who received an apology from Kennedy after claiming he groped her in 1999.Kennedy denied sexual misconduct, saying the accusation had been “debunked,” and added that he texted the alleged victim an apology for “something else.”Trump has chosen Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

US President Donald Trump — speaking as the bodies of 67 people were being pulled from Washington’s Potomac River — launched an extraordinary political attack Thursday, blaming diversity hires for the midair collision between an airliner and a military helicopter.The Republican confirmed the deaths of all those aboard both aircraft, and also cited pilot error on the helicopter in the nighttime crash.But he chiefly used a press conference to open fire at what he said were left-wing diversity practices under his predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama that he said kept out good employees at the Federal Aviation Administration.”I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first,” Trump said. “They actually came out with a directive: ‘too white.’ And we want the people that are competent.”As Trump spoke in the White House, police divers searched for more bodies in the water.Wreckage of the Bombardier jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary protruded from the surface, surrounded by emergency vessels and diving teams. It had been carrying 64 people.The army Blackhawk helicopter, which had three soldiers aboard, was also in the river.”We are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly said. Twenty eight bodies had already been found.The collision — the first major crash in the United States since 2009 when 49 people were killed near Buffalo, New York — occurred late evening on Wednesday as the airliner came into land at Reagan National Airport after a routine flight from Wichita, Kansas.Reagan National is a major airport located only a short distance from downtown Washington, the Pentagon and other major sites in the capital. The airspace is extremely busy, with civilian and military aircraft a constant presence.Dramatic audio from air traffic controllers showed them repeatedly asking the helicopter if it had the passenger jet “in sight,” and then just before the crash telling it to “pass behind” the plane.- Trump politicizes crash -Trump opened his press conference by speaking of the nation’s “anguish” and said that the investigation would take time.However, he then launched into an extended broadside against so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies.Trump — who began his presidency a week ago with an onslaught against decades-old measures aimed at preventing sexism and racism in the United States — singled out Biden’s openly gay transport secretary Pete Buttigieg.”He’s run it right into the ground with his diversity,” Trump said.The message was hammered home as Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, and new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, took turns at the podium to repeat that diversity measures kept capable Americans out of responsible jobs.Asked again by reporters whether he was blaming workplace diversity for the crash, Trump answered: “It could have been.”- Skaters among victims -Hundreds of rescuers were rapidly at the scene, but found themselves battling darkness and floating ice through the night. Some of the debris was found a mile downriver.Among those on the airliner were several US skaters and coaches, US Figure Skating said. Officials in Moscow also confirmed the presence of Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the 1994 world pairs title.The violence of the collision soon made it clear that survivors were unlikely.”I just saw a fireball and it was gone,” one air traffic controller was heard telling a colleague after communication with the helicopter was cut.- What happened? -Transport officials said both aircraft were on standard flight patterns on a clear night with good visibility.Hegseth said the Black Hawk chopper had “a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation.””Do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.Trump, in addition to blaming racial and other kinds of diversity policies, offered extended remarks on the flight paths.The helicopter was “going at an angle that was unbelievably bad,” Trump said.”The air traffic controller said, ‘Do you see… Do you see him?’ But there was very little time left when that was stated,” the president added, blaming a “confluence of bad decisions.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday that if US counterpart Donald Trump hiked tariffs on Brazilian products, he would reciprocate — but that he would prefer improved relations over a trade war.The Latin American giant is one of the countries that Trump has threatened with higher tariffs.”It’s very simple: if he taxes Brazilian products, Brazil will reciprocate in taxing products that are exported from the United States,” the 79-year-old Lula told a press conference.Lula, currently in his third term, said he would prefer to “improve our relationship with the United States” and boost trade ties with Brazil’s second-largest trading partner after China.”I want to respect the United States and for Trump to respect Brazil. That’s all,” he said.Citing Trump’s comments that he plans to take back the Panama Canal or get control of Greenland, Lula said “he just has to respect the sovereignty of other countries.”Lula also underscored the global threats facing democracy.”For me, democracy is the most important thing in humanity right now … Either we keep democracy working or we will have states more authoritarian than Hitler and fascism.”Lula, whose country will host the COP30 UN climate talks in the Amazonian city of Belem in November, added that Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord was “a step back for human civilization.”He said he did not want a summit where “measures are approved, everything looks very nice on paper and then no country complies,” slamming wealthy nations for failing to meet previous promises to give billions of dollars to help developing nations deal with the fallout of climate change.”We want something very real so that we can know if we are serious or not about the climate issue.”- Seizing back the narrative -The president held a wide-ranging press conference in the capital Brasilia, urging journalists not to hold back in their questions as his government seeks to reclaim the narrative after battling a wave of disinformation.After undergoing emergency surgery to stop a brain bleed in December linked to an earlier fall, Lula vowed he was fully recovered and had “the energy of a 30-year-old.”With less than two years left of his third presidential term, Lula’s approval rating has sunk to 47 percent, according to a Quaest poll published this week, with a notable drop in support from his key electoral base in the low-income northeast of the country.Lula said he was “not worried” about opinion surveys, and brushed off concerns about high interest rates and public debt.As expected, the central bank on Wednesday hiked the key interest rate by one point to 13.25 percent, despite a new bank president being appointed by Lula — who has in the past criticized interest rate hikes.”The president of the central bank cannot make a U-turn in a stormy sea,” Lula said, adding that he had faith in new bank chief Gabriel Galipolo who would have “autonomy to do whatever is necessary.”Lula also sought to ease concerns over government interventions to lower food prices and vowed his commitment to “fiscal responsibility.”His government is weighing reducing import tariffs on certain goods, and he highlighted the need to provide more financing to ramp up production, saying he was working on a plan with banks for “the largest credit program in the history of this country.”Concerns over Brazil’s ability to curb public spending in December sent its currency, the real, to record lows against the dollar.

The deadliest US plane crash for a decade poses the first major test for Donald Trump’s fledgling administration — and for the president’s plans to radically reshape the government, including the civil aviation agency.The collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter came only six hours after Trump’s new transportation secretary was sworn in, and just days after the arrival of the new Pentagon chief.Trump quickly weighed in with a critical take, saying the crash “should have been prevented,” and questioning both why the helicopter did not “go up or down, or turn” and why the control tower did not “tell the helicopter what to do.”His administration is at pains to show it has a grip on the situation following the crash, which unfolded just miles from the White House, likely leaving more than 60 dead and no survivors.Trump was to speak from the podium in the White House briefing room on Thursday.He spent the night of the crash being briefed by officials in the Situation Room, and his national security advisor was seen arriving back at the White House early Thursday.”I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident,” Trump said on his Truth Social account. “May God bless their souls.”- Diversity ‘madness’ -Yet the crash also shines a spotlight on how Trump’s right-wing administration is putting a strain on the civilian and military agencies he will need to properly investigate the crash, and deal with future crises.The Federal Aviation Authority, which controls America’s skies, has no full-time boss because its leader stepped down on inauguration day after Elon Musk demanded that he quit. The billionaire Space X owner, who is heading Trump’s cost-cutting Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Trump’s administration, had criticized Mike Whitaker for the agency’s oversight of rocket launches.Separately, the FAA was also one of the first targets for the slew of orders that Trump unleashed after his inauguration on January 20 targeting “woke politics.”The order targeted “DEI madness” in hiring employees for the FAA, referring to “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs.The crash meanwhile marks the grimmest possible start to work for Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who promised a “golden age of transportation” when he was sworn in at the White House on Wednesday by Vice President JD Vance.A day later he was giving a press conference on the crash at Reagan Airport, insisting that the United States had the “most safe and secure airspace in the world.”- ‘Tragedy’ -The spotlight will also be on new US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a former Fox TV contributor and military veteran, who is also in his first week in the job.Signs were mounting that the military Black Hawk helicopter involved may have been to blame for the mid-air crash with a passenger jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary.Hegseth has pledged a war on “woke” in the US armed forces to restore their “lethality”, and Trump has signed an order to rid the military of what he calls  “transgender ideology.”But his predecessor Lloyd Austin appeared to criticize Trump’s plans before his departure, saying that a military that “turns away qualified patriots” would become “smaller and weaker.”Hegseth will also be under pressure to deliver after squeaking through his confirmation process due to allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and concerns over inexperience.He said in a video message on Thursday that the Pentagon was “actively working to investigate” why the helicopter on a training flight had collided with the passenger jet.”It’s a tragedy, a horrible loss of life,” Hegseth said. “As we get updates, you will have them.” 

The US economy expanded at a solid clip in 2024, helped by consumer and government spending, official data showed Thursday, signaling its resilience as President Donald Trump takes over the reins.Trump won a commanding victory in last November’s election on the back of public dissatisfaction over cost-of-living pressures, even as inflation has cooled while the job gains continued.In the October to December period, the world’s biggest economy grew at an annual rate of 2.3 percent, the Commerce Department said, slowing from the 3.1 percent rate in July-September.Trump took office January 20, inheriting robust growth as his term kicks off.The latest figure was in line with a consensus forecast by Briefing.com.For 2024, GDP rose 2.8 percent from the annual level a year prior.Consumer spending, investment and government spending were among the drivers behind last year’s growth, according to Commerce Department data. The US economy has broadly held up in the face of high interest rates, helped by a resilient labor market with low unemployment and still-growing wages.This has allowed consumers to keep spending, even as they drew down on savings accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic.- ‘Souring mood’ -“Consumer spending on both goods and services continued to drive a substantial portion of growth,” said Joel Kan, deputy chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association.The latest data indicate the economy and job market remain strong, consistent with the US central bank’s view, he noted.Wages have continued to outpace inflation, while recent hurricanes triggered “replacement demand” for items like vehicles, said KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk in a note.Another factor was “massive wealth effects from sharp increases in equity and home values,” boosting spending in particular among higher-income households, added Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic.But Swonk warned that “the economy continues to look better on paper than it feels to most Americans.”The overall gains mask a “souring mood among consumers,” she believes, citing “inequality and the unease beneath the surface due to the high level of prices of the basics of food and shelter.”Swonk earlier told AFP that government spending could also have been stronger than expected as the outgoing administration of former president Joe Biden pushed funding out the door in its final months. This included defense spending for Ukraine.- Policy uncertainty -One drag on growth, however, was that businesses invested less in inventories than anticipated, according to Robert Frick, corporate economist with the Navy Federal Credit Union.This could be a response to economic uncertainty surrounding the new presidential administration, he noted.The sequencing and magnitude of policies on tariffs and immigration remains to be seen, Swonk said, expecting that their effects will also take time to materialize.She expects growth to cool in 2025 and that tariffs will increase, although the hikes will not necessarily translate into full-blown trade wars with all countries.Matthew Martin, senior US economist at Oxford Economics, told AFP that even though Trump has used “inflammatory words” on trade policy, these appear to be more of “a negotiation tactic.””The question is how far does this go,” said Dan North, senior economist for Allianz Trade North America, referring to the scale of tariffs and retaliation from other US trading partners.”Trade wars tend to be losers for everybody involved,” he told AFP.Looking ahead, analysts anticipate January’s employment figures will take a hit from devastating wildfires in California.Brendan Boyle, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, called the fourth quarter growth figure “undeniable proof” that policies under Biden have proven effective.

Divers pulled bodies from the icy waters of Washington’s Potomac river Thursday after a US military helicopter collided midair with a passenger plane carrying 64 people, with officials saying there were likely no survivors.As dawn broke over the crash site just three miles (five kilometers) from the White House, wreckage from both aircraft protruded from the water and emergency vessels and diving teams scoured the area.”We are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly told a news conference at Reagan National Airport.”We don’t believe there are any survivors,” he said, adding that 28 bodies had been recovered so far — including one from the helicopter.At least 300 first responders were involved in the operation — conducted in pitch darkness for several hours — with recovery teams discovering debris a mile downriver.”These responders found extremely frigid conditions, they found heavy wind, they found ice on the water, and they operated all night,” Donnelly said.There were no details on the cause of the crash, with transport officials saying both aircraft were on standard flight patterns on a clear night with good visibility. “Do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told the news conference.Dramatic audio from air traffic controllers showed them repeatedly asking the helicopter if it had the passenger jet “in sight,” and then just before the crash telling it to “pass behind” the plane.- ‘A fireball and it was gone’ -“I just saw a fireball and it was gone,” one air traffic controller was heard telling another after communication with the helicopter was cut.Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac river, and the fuselage of the passenger jet was broken into three sections.US Figure Skating said several athletes, coaches and officials were aboard the flight, while officials in Moscow confirmed married Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov — who won the 1994 world pairs title — were also on the jet.The Bombardier plane operated by an American Airlines subsidiary, with 60 passengers and four crew on board, was approaching the airport at around 9:00 pm (0200 GMT) after flying from Wichita, Kansas, when the collision happened.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Black Hawk chopper had “a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation.””They did have night vision goggles,” he added.Witness Ari Schulman was driving home when he saw “the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land.””Three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right… I could see the underside of it, it was lit up a very bright yellow,” Schulman told CNN.- Trump criticizes traffic control -President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak on the matter at 11:00 am (1600 GMT), but in the meantime posted a critical take on social media.”The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.”Why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all planes at Reagan National, with operations set to resume at 11:00 am (1600 GMT).American Airlines’ chief executive Robert Isom expressed “deep sorrow” and said the plane pilot had six years’ experience.US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas called the collision “nothing short of a nightmare.”- Crowded airspace -It was unclear how a passenger plane with modern collision-avoidance technology and traffic controllers could collide with a military aircraft over the nation’s capital.The airspace around Washington is often crowded, with planes coming in low over the city to land at Reagan National and helicopters — military, civilian and carrying senior politicians or officials — buzzing about both day and night.The same airport was the scene of a deadly crash in 1982 when a Boeing 737 plummeted after takeoff, hitting a bridge and crashing through the ice into the Potomac. Seventy-eight people died.burs-gh/bgs/bfm