Chris Licht is out after a year as chief executive at CNN, following a series of missteps and plunging ratings.

David Zaslav, the CEO of CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, announced the leadership change on CNN’s morning editorial call on Wednesday.

Zaslav appointed a four-person leadership team to lead the network in the interim.

Licht replaced Jeff Zucker as CNN’s chief executive last year, with a mandate to make the network move the network more toward the political center. But a town hall meeting with Donald Trump received wide criticism, and a revamp of the network’s morning show imploded with the firing of Don Lemon.

A lengthy profile of Licht in Atlantic magazine that came out on Friday proved embarrassing and likely sealed his fate. Only two days ago, Licht promised on the same morning editorial call to fight to regain the trust of CNN employees.

But internally, Licht couldn’t gain the support of many at the network who felt loyal to Zucker, who was forced out following the revelation of an improper relationship with a work colleague.

CNN’s May ratings were dismal, with prime-time viewership less than half of rival of MSNBC, with Fox News Channel still leading among the cable networks.

Zaslav appointed four current CNN executives — Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley, Eric Sherling and David Leavy — to run the network while a search for a replacement is conducted.

“We are in good hands, allowing us to take the time we need to run a thoughtful and thorough search for a new leader,” Zaslav said in a memo to CNN staff.
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More than a dozen U.S. states were under air-quality alerts on Wednesday as smoke from hundreds of wildfires burning in eastern Canada wafted south, casting a dull gray pallor over the skyline of New York and other big cities.

Health authorities in 15 states from Vermont to South Carolina as well as Ohio and Kansas in the Midwest warned that fine matter in the atmosphere could exceed unhealthy levels and make breathing difficult for millions of residents.

Washington, D.C., was also under an air-quality warning, according to the National Weather Service.

People were instructed to limit time outdoors, while those with respiratory issues were advised to consider wearing a mask.

The smoke is crossing the U.S. northern border from Canada, where wildfire season got off to an unusually early and intense start due to persistent warm and dry conditions. Canada is on track for its worst-ever wildfire season.

The skies above New York and many other North American cities were a uniform gray, and the air smelled like burning wood. In many places, the early morning sun appeared as a small glowing orange disc.

New York City’s skyscrapers, which can be seen for miles away on a clear day, were rendered nearly invisible.

The city’s schools were open for class on Wednesday, although outdoor events and activities, including a middle school graduation, were canceled, postponed or moved indoors.

Canadian authorities on Wednesday issued a starker air-quality warning for the residents of the country’s financial capital Toronto due to several raging wildfires that have burned through a record area this year.

While Canadian wildfires are common in the country’s western provinces, the eastern province of Nova Scotia is experiencing its worst-ever season. The federal government has sent the military to the region.

There are blazes in nearly all of Canada’s 10 provinces and territories, with Quebec the worst affected. Multiple fires were touched off by lightning strikes.

The air quality in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa, which stands on Ontario’s border with Quebec, remained in category 10+, which Canada’s Air Quality Health Index said was “very high risk.”

About 3.3 million hectares have already burned — some 13 times the 10-year average — and more than 120,000 people have been at least temporarily forced out of their homes.
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After a history-making victory, Nigerian immigrant Yemi Mobolade was sworn in on June 6 as mayor of Colorado Springs, the second-largest city in the western U.S. state of Colorado.

Colorado Governor Jered Polis said he is inspired by Mobolade’s story.

“Somebody who has dedicated his life to making Colorado Springs and America a better place, whose story we can all identify with, who came here, who started businesses,” Polis said at the inauguration ceremony.

Mobolade moved to the U.S. 27 years ago as a student and became a U.S. citizen in 2017. He started a family, opened two restaurants and a church, and then won election in this traditionally conservative city as its first elected Black leader.

“I wake up every morning and I think it’s a dream, and then I realize, no, this really happened,” Mobolade said.

But what earned him the trust of many residents, some said, is his stint as the small business development manager for Colorado Springs from 2019 to 2022.

Some residents told VOA that Mobolade’s electoral victory sends a message that their state is welcoming to people from all walks of life.

“Colorado Springs is lavishly hospitable,” Michael Lipede told VOA. “If the natives of Colorado have not received us with an open heart, there is no way we will accomplish all we have accomplished,” said Lipede, a lead pastor at Redeemed Christian Church of God Living Faith Sanctuary in Colorado Springs.

In a city of nearly 500,000 people that is more than 75% White, residents found hope in the fact that so many voters were willing to support someone from a different background.

“Coloradans … don’t believe in ethnicity, they believe in competence and capacity and capability, and they found out that Mr. Yemi has it all.” Olawale Akinremi, a Colorado Springs resident told VOA.

“I feel hopeful about today. I love our new mayor, Yemi Mobolade. He is a man of strength, faith, character, and courage. And we are so fortunate to have him leading our city,” Cindy Aubrey, Colorado Springs resident said.

Another resident, Nkechi Onyejekwe said “I think it is something that is very amazing to celebrate and I think it is something very timely as well,” she told VOA, adding that “Colorado Springs has a very diverse population and I think that their legislative bodies should also reflect that.”

Ami Bajah-Onyejekwe, a Pueblo Colorado resident said it is important for people to see someone they can look up to in positions of leadership. “Just by seeing someone who looks like you, who has similar background to yours and see where that person has reached, and the goals they have achieved,” she said, “gives hope and says, ‘I can do it as well.’”

Mobolade has pledged to be a leader for all of Colorado City’s increasingly diverse population.

“I think today matters for a lot of young black kids because it tells them that the sky’s the limit, that they too can step into the arena and lead,” he said.

This story originated in VOA’s Hausa Service.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to meet Wednesday with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council as part of his visit to Saudi Arabia.

He met earlier with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah where the State Department said he expressed thanks for Saudi Arabia’s help evacuating Americans from Sudan earlier this year.

“The two affirmed their shared commitment to advance stability, security, and prosperity across the Middle East and beyond, including through a comprehensive political agreement to achieve peace, prosperity, and security in Yemen,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a readout of the meeting. “The secretary also emphasized that our bilateral relationship is strengthened by progress on human rights.

Miller said the meeting also included discussion of “deepening economic cooperation, especially in the clean energy and technology fields.”

Ahead of the trip, Blinken said Monday the United States “has a real national security interest in promoting normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

Dating at least to the administration of former President Jimmy Carter, the United States has worked to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab nations, including Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

Blinken told a meeting of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC that part of his visit to Saudi Arabia would involve working toward boosting Israeli-Saudi relations.

“We believe that we can, and indeed we must, play an integral role in advancing it,” Blinken said. “Now, we have no illusions that this can be done quickly or easily.”

On Thursday, Blinken and bin Farhan will host a meeting of the 80-strong coalition of countries fighting Islamic State militants.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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Anti-government extremist organizations in the U.S. surged last year, even as some militias disbanded and hate groups declined, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The SPLC counted 702 anti-government groups in 2022, a 44% increase from 488 in 2021. This was the highest number since 2015.

The surge was primarily driven by the designation of the conservative parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty and 11 other “anti-student inclusion groups,” according to Travis McAdam, senior research analyst with SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

“Their number of chapters grew quickly as they targeted local schools with campaigns of malice and misinformation that degrade the LGBTQ+ community and try to erase the teaching of accurate history,” McAdam said via email.

On its website, Moms for Liberty says it is “dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.” 

Asked about the SPLC designation, Moms for Liberty co-founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich said in a statement emailed to VOA, “Name-calling parents who want to be a part of their child’s education as ‘hate groups’ or ‘bigoted’ just further exposes what this battle is all about: Who fundamentally gets to decide what is taught to our kids in school — parents or government employees? We believe that parental rights do not stop at the classroom door, and no amount of hate from groups like this is going to stop that.”

The surge in the number of anti-government groups came even as militias — the “paramilitary wing of the anti-government movement” as the SPLC refers to them — shrank in number in the wake of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The SPLC identified 61 active militia groups in 2022, down from 92 in 2021.

One of the most prominent anti-government militias, the Oath Keepers, lost many of its local chapters after its leaders were arrested in connection with the January 6 assault.

Last month, Stewart Rhodes, the group’s founder, and a former top lieutenant received 18- and 12-year prison terms respectively for their roles in the attack. Several other Oath Keepers have also been given lengthy prison terms.

The SPLC said the number of Oath Keepers chapters dropped to five in 2022, down from 70 in 2020.

Rachel Rivas, deputy director of research, reporting and analysis at SPLC’s Intelligence Project, attributed the surge in anti-government groups in part to backlash in the anti-government movement against the Biden administration’s policies.

“This is a trend we’ve seen over time during the Obama years,” Rivas said.

Driven by distrust

Before last year, anti-government groups had been declining since reaching a record 1,360 in 2012 during President Barack Obama’s first term in office.

But experts say the groups are driven by a deep distrust of government and seize on issues such as election denial and so-called woke indoctrination in workplaces and schools to draw fuel for their agenda.

Brian Levin, executive director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said the SPLC report’s most “disturbing finding” was the “continued vibrancy of antigovernment groups.”

“In a highly charged and politically divided atmosphere, anti-government vitriol and conspiracies are an easier initial ‘gateway’ sell than the more blatant xenophobic and racist propaganda of adjacent extremists,” Levin said.

Hate groups go mainstream

The number of hate groups dropped to 523 last year from 733 in 2021. The number has fallen significantly since peaking at more than 1,000 in 2018.

But SPLC officials said this does not mean there was a decrease in hate and extremism.

The line between hard-right extremism and mainstream politics has become increasingly blurred, they said, as hate groups have gone mainstream in a post-January 6 shift in strategy.

“Main Street America is now seeing organizing locally to pursue a hateful agenda in public view, including the targeting of community safe havens like schools and houses of worship,” Margaret Huang, president and CEO of SPLC, said during a press call.

The SPLC defines a hate group as an organization or collection of individuals that “attack or malign” a whole category of people usually for things they cannot change such as their race or gender.

The SPLC has been publishing its annual hate report since 1990.

In recent years, some conservative groups have criticized the SPLC, saying it unfairly labeled them as extremist groups.

Huang defended SPLC’s “rigorous” research methodology, saying the group “carefully labels an organization or a group of individuals, as either a hate group or an anti-government extremist group, based on specific criteria and clear evidence of action during the calendar year of 2022.”
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James Rubin, special envoy for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, spoke Tuesday to VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching about countering Chinese and Russian disinformation.
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Moving around metropolitan areas can present challenges for individuals who are obese or have height limitations, as many public spaces are not designed to accommodate their needs. However, a new law adds weight and height to the list of characteristics that are protected from discrimination in New York City. Aron Ranen has the story.
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Washington reacted swiftly Tuesday to Tehran’s unveiling of a new hypersonic missile by placing a fresh round of sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program, with White House officials calling Iran’s moves “destabilizing.”

“The Biden administration has been very clear, very concise, and very firm on pushing back on Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region, to include the development of an improving ballistic missile program,” said John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council. “I’m not going to talk about the specific reports of this alleged hypersonic missile, but we have laid down very clear sanctions and other activities to push back on what Iran is doing in the region, again, to include their ballistic missile program.”

State television in Iran says the missile — named Fattah, or “Conqueror” — has a range of up to 1,400 kilometers. That’s just short of the aerial distance between Tehran and Jerusalem. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi described the new weapon as “an anchor of lasting security and peace” in the Mideast region.

The U.S. Treasury said Tuesday that new sanctions target seven individuals and six entities in Iran, China and Hong Kong that supply Tehran’s missile program with “sensitive and critical parts and technology,” including items such as centrifuges, often used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

The sanctions show ”our commitment to respond to activities which undermine regional stability and threaten the security of our key partners and allies,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “The United States will continue to target illicit transnational procurement networks that covertly support Iran’s ballistic missile production and other military programs.”

Raisi boasted that the missile is entirely Iranian-designed and manufactured.

“This missile is a deterrent,” he said. “Its power is an anchor of lasting security and peace for the regional countries.”

But analysts say this is likely to only increase tensions.

“Regardless of whether the Iranian hypersonic missile works as intended, it nevertheless highlights the growing threat that Iran poses to the U.S. and its strategic interests in the Middle East,” said Nicholas Carl, an Iran-focused analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.

“Tehran has become increasingly aggressive in pursuing its regional objectives in recent years. Those objectives include attaining regional hegemony, destroying the Israeli state and expelling American forces from the region. And Iranian leaders have continually demonstrated their readiness to involve their growing missile capabilities in this more confrontational approach.”

That said, Carl questioned whether the new weapon lives up to the hype. At the unveiling ceremony, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ aerospace branch, said the missile can destroy others’ anti-missile systems.

“There is still a big question mark over whether Tehran actually can field the missile that it has described,” he said. “Regime officials tend to often overstate their military capabilities.”

Without a direct line between Washington and Tehran, other nations will need to play a role in reducing tensions. This week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Saudi Arabia, a nation that very recently renewed its diplomatic ties with Tehran.

When asked by VOA about the implications of that, Kirby said: “If the Iranians opening up an embassy in Riyadh can help increase transparency of what they’re doing and why — if it can de-escalate tensions, if it can lead to a reduction in their destabilizing behavior, including intercepting maritime shipping as they attempted to do over the last several days in the Strait of Hormuz — then all that’s to the positive.”

The United Nations is also watching. When asked by VOA on Tuesday whether the missile launch violates United Nations resolutions aimed at stopping Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general, said: “I don’t have the data and information to opine on that. We do believe that Iran needs to live up to its commitments regarding Security Council resolutions.”
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As thousands walked the beaches of Normandy, France, to honor those who fought to liberate Europe in World War II, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin drew parallels between D-Day and the fight to free Ukraine from its Russian invaders.

Austin called on nations to defend the principles for which the Allied forces fought “with undimmed vigor,” in a world “where sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected.”

“If the troops of the world’s democracies could risk their lives for freedom, then surely the citizens of the world’s democracies can risk our comfort for freedom now,” he said Tuesday.

Speaking directly to some of the veterans who stormed Omaha beach, Utah beach and three other French beaches on June 6, 1944, Austin praised them for their courage that “won out over terror” and tyranny.

“We salute you. You saved the world,” he said.

The 79th anniversary was marked as Ukraine was preparing to launch a counteroffensive to push back Russian ground forces trying to maintain control of parts of Ukraine they have occupied.

Many of the same allied nations that fought against the Nazi forces in Europe during World War II have now provided billions of dollars in weapons and training to Ukrainian soldiers defending their territory and citizens.

“Peace and freedom are never guaranteed. They must be guarded and cherished and sometimes fought for and paid in blood,” said U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who also attended Tuesday’s ceremony.

D-Day refers to the amphibious Allied invasion of occupied France in 1944. Officially called “Operation Overlord,” it was the largest amphibious invasion in military history, which successfully won a foothold from which the Allies eventually took control of Europe from Nazi Germany. 

The operation involved more than 150,000 troops and more than 5,000 ships and landing craft. At least 12 countries joined forces during the Normandy invasion, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
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U.S. lawmakers warned Tuesday that an extension of a COVID-era patent waiver could jeopardize U.S. innovation and favor China in the global race for strategic competition. 

The World Trade Organization waived global patent protections established under the 1995 TRIPS Act for the COVID-19 vaccine last June and is currently considering an expansion of that waiver that would include diagnostic and preventative tools. The Biden administration asked the U.S. International Trade Commission, or USITC, to investigate what impact the expansion could have on U.S. pharmaceutical innovation. 

Representative Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, introduced the measure known as the No Free TRIPS Act Tuesday. Companion legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Republican lawmaker Marsha Blackburn.

Issa said, “Any expansion of the TRIPS waiver agreement will undermine the very innovation and record-breaking, rapid development that we saw for COVID-19. And for that reason, we are here today to talk not just about the risk of helping China, but the very risk to the innovation that we all enjoy here in the United States.”

If passed, the No Free TRIPS Act would prevent the Biden administration from engaging in or concluding negotiations on the WTO agreement without congressional authorization. Since 1995, TRIPS has required members of the WTO to obey minimum rules for the protection of intellectual property.

The concern is on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. Congress, according to Representative Hank Johnson, the leading Democrat on the House Judiciary subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet.

While maintaining that the waiver was necessary to prevent the global spread of COVID-19, he said Tuesday, “I do not dismiss the concerns of those who oppose the TRIP waiver, particularly those who fear that the Chinese government will take advantage of the waiver to access American technology and to use this technology to compete with American companies.”

Johnson added: “We know that the Chinese government has a history of using theft and strong-arm tactics to acquire foreign intellectual property, which hurts our inventors’ ability to compete and succeed.” 

When the Biden administration initially backed the waiver, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi applauded the decision, saying in a statement, “Accelerating the production and distribution of life-saving vaccines across the globe is both a moral imperative and an urgent necessity to crush the virus pandemic and prevent the spread of more virulent coronavirus variants. We cannot be fully safe from the virus anywhere until we defeat it everywhere.” 

But Marc L. Busch, a professor of international business diplomacy at Georgetown University, told lawmakers Tuesday, “The TRIPS waiver was a mistake. Expanding it will make things worse. It won’t help fight COVID but it will hurt U.S. innovation, and it will contribute to other countries realizing their industrial policy goals. Moreover, it will potentially lead to the U.S. facing greater efforts, not least on the part of China and at economic coercion.” 

Legislation introduced previously in Congress to limit the administration’s authority to negotiate waivers has failed to advance. 
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The PGA Tour, European Tour and rival Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit announced a landmark agreement on Tuesday to merge and form a commercial entity to unify golf.

“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a joint news release.

The LIV Golf series is bankrolled by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and critics have accused it of being a vehicle for the country to attempt to improve its reputation in the face of criticism of its human rights record.

The rival circuit launched in 2022 and has lured a number of big-name players from the PGA Tour, including Hall of Fame golfer Phil Mickelson, former world number one Dustin Johnson, reigning PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and Australian Cameron Smith.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is looking at how artificial intelligence can be used to help identify goods made with child or forced labor and prevent those goods from entering the country. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels Tuesday to Saudi Arabia for talks about security and economic issues.

Ahead of the trip, Blinken said Monday the United States “has a real national security interest in promoting normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

Dating back at least to the administration of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, the United States has worked to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab nations, including Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

Blinken told a meeting of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC that part of his visit to Saudi Arabia would involve working toward boosting Israeli-Saudi relations.

“We believe that we can and indeed we must play an integral role in advancing it,” Blinken said. “Now, we have no illusions that this can be done quickly or easily.”

Blinken’s schedule includes a ministerial meeting Wednesday with the Gulf Cooperation Council to discuss promoting “security, stability, de-escalation, regional integration, and economic opportunities across the Middle East,” the State Department said.

On Thursday, Blinken and his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan co-host a meeting of the 80-strong coalition of countries fighting the Islamic State group.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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For decades, American Jews have been Israel’s strongest supporters, from raising money for the nascent Jewish state to encouraging U.S. government support of Israel. But the Israeli government’s current plan to overhaul the judiciary has some American Jews questioning their support. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem. Camera: Ricki Rosen.
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The pilot of the business jet that flew over Washington and crashed in Virginia appeared to be slumped over and unresponsive before the crash, the fighter jet pilots reported, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the matter. The officials were not authorized to discuss details of the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Federal investigators trudged through rugged terrain Monday in search of wreckage from a business jet to solve the mystery of why the plane veered off course and slammed into a mountain, killing four people.

A day after the plane flew over the nation’s capital, prompting the military to scramble fighter jets, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a brief update that the pilot and three passengers were killed and that the plane was “destroyed” in the crash. Their identities weren’t immediately released.

NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt told reporters it will take investigators a while to reach the remote crash scene about two to three miles north of Montebello. They expect to be on the scene for at least three to four days. Investigators had to hike to the site on foot because of the mountainous terrain.

Attention on the crash and its cause was heightened by its unusual flight path over Washington, D.C., and a sonic boom caused by military aircraft heard across the capital, and parts of Maryland and Virginia. The North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement that military aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds, which caused the sonic boom, in an effort to investigate the plane. The aircraft also used flares to try to get the pilot’s attention.

Air Traffic Control audio from the half-hour before the plane crashed captures voices identifying themselves as military pilots trying to communicate with the pilot of the plane, according to recordings on LiveATC.net.

“If you hear this transmission, contact us,” said one pilot who identifies as being with the Air National Guard.

Several minutes later, a military pilot says: “You have been intercepted. Contact me.”

Speaking at a briefing Monday morning, Gerhardt said the wreckage is “highly fragmented” and investigators will examine the most delicate evidence on the scene, after which the wreckage will be moved, perhaps by helicopter, to Delaware, where it can be further examined, he said. The plane is not required to have a flight recorder, but it is possible that it has other avionics equipment that will have data that can be examined, Gerhardt said.

Virginia State Police said the crash site is more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the Blue Ridge Parkway in Augusta County, near the Nelson County line. Along with NTSB, they are beginning evidence collection and body recovery efforts. Remains collected at the scene will be transported to the medical examiner’s office in Virginia for autopsy and positive identification.

Investigators will look at when the pilot became unresponsive and why aircraft flew the path that it did, he said. They will consider several factors that are routinely examined in such probes including the plane, its engines, weather conditions, pilot qualifications, and maintenance records, he said.

“Everything is on the table until we slowly and methodically remove different components and elements that will be relevant for this safety investigation,” Gerhardt said.

A preliminary report will be released in 10 days and a final report will be released in one to two years, he said.

Meanwhile, the White House expressed its “deepest condolences” on Monday to the family of those on board the plane.

“We need to keep them front and center,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said.

Kirby deferred questions about a follow-up report on the security response over Washington airspace to the Pentagon and U.S. Secret Service. But he said, “What I saw was just a classic, textbook response.”

The White House was continuously informed as Air Force jets tried to contact the pilot of the civilian plane and monitored the small aircraft’s path from Washington airspace to rural Virginia, Kirby said.

Police said Sunday night that rescuers had reached the crash site in a rural part of the Shenandoah Valley and that no survivors were found. Virginia State Police said officers were notified of the potential crash shortly before 4 p.m. and rescuers reached the crash site by foot around four hours later.

Flight started in Tennessee

The FAA said the Cessna Citation took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, on Sunday and was headed for Long Island’s MacArthur Airport. Inexplicably, the plane turned around over New York’s Long Island and flew a straight path down over D.C. before it crashed around 3:30 p.m.

The plane flew directly over the nation’s capital, though it was technically flying above one of the most heavily restricted airspaces in the nation.

According to the Pentagon, six F-16 fighter jets were immediately deployed to intercept the plane. Two aircraft from the 113th Fighter Wing, out of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, were the first to reach the Cessna to begin attempts to contact the pilot. Two F-16 aircraft out of New Jersey and two from South Carolina also responded.

Flight tracking sites showed the plane suffered a rapid spiraling descent, dropping at one point at a rate of more than 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) per minute before crashing in the St. Mary’s Wilderness.

In Fairfax, Virginia, Travis Thornton was settled on a couch next to his wife, Hannah, and had just begun recording himself playing guitar and harmonica when they were startled by a loud rumble and rattling. The couple jumped up to investigate. Thornton tweeted that they checked in with their kids upstairs and then he went outside to check the house and talk to neighbors.

Passengers included mother and daughter

The plane that crashed was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc, which is based in Florida. John Rumpel, a pilot who runs the company, told The New York Times that his daughter, 2-year-old granddaughter, her nanny, and the pilot were aboard the plane. They were returning to their home in East Hampton, on Long Island, after visiting his house in North Carolina, he said.

Rumpel told the newspaper he didn’t have much information from authorities but suggested the plane could have lost pressurization.

“It descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed,” Rumpel told the newspaper.

The episode brought back memories of the 1999 crash of a Learjet that lost cabin pressure and flew aimlessly across the country with professional golfer Payne Stewart aboard. The jet crashed in a South Dakota pasture and six people died.
…

People living in and around the nation’s capital experienced a rare, if startling, sound: a sonic boom.

The boom was heard Sunday after the U.S. military dispatched six fighter jets to intercept an unresponsive business plane flying over restricted airspace.

The Air Force gave the F-16s permission to fly faster than the speed of sound — something civilian aircraft rarely get to do — as the jets scrambled to catch up with the Cessna Citation. The result was a thunderous rumble that resonated across a metropolitan area that’s home to more than 6 million people.

The business jet eventually crashed in rural Virginia, killing the pilot and three passengers.

Below is an explanation of what sonic booms are, their history in the U.S. and their potential future.

What is a sonic boom?

Sonic booms are heard on the ground when airplanes overhead fly faster than the speed of sound. That speed is typically about 760 mph (1,220 kph) near sea level, but can vary depending on the temperature, altitude and other conditions, according to the Congressional Research Service.

As the plane speeds through the air, molecules are pushed aside with great force, “and this forms a shock wave, much like a boat creates a wake in water,” according to NASA.

“When this line of shock wave passes by, listeners on the ground hear a very loud noise,” according to an explanation from Australia’s University of New South Wales.

The F-16s flying over Washington on Sunday were “probably trying to go as fast it could to catch up” with the wayward Cessna airplane, said Anthony Brickhouse, an associate professor of applied aviation sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon can fly 1,500 mph (2,410 kph) or twice the speed of sound, known as Mach 2, according to the Air Force.

What is the history of supersonic travel — and sonic booms?

In 1947, test pilot Charles “Chuck” Yeager became the first person to fly faster than sound in an orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane. His exploits were told in Tom Wolfe’s book The Right Stuff, and in the 1983 film it inspired.

In the movie, someone on the ground asks, “What’s that sound?” as Yeager’s plane flies above the Mojave Desert and breaks the sound barrier.

Interest in supersonic flight initially focused mostly on military planes, according to the Congressional Research Service. But it grew to include supersonic civil aircraft in the 1960s.

For example, the Soviet Union became the first country in 1968 to fly a supersonic passenger plane, the Tupolev TU-144. But a fatal crash at the 1973 Paris Air Show ended that ambition.

In 1963, the U.S. government announced a major program to develop a supersonic passenger aircraft. But serious problems soon surfaced, including massive development costs and doubts about financial viability. The program was terminated in 1971.

During the 1960s, NASA was tasked with helping to develop commercial supersonic aircraft and researched the effects of sonic booms. It found that people who experienced them were not happy with the loud sounds, describing them as “annoying,” “irritating” and “startling.”

In 1973, the Federal Aviation Administration prohibited supersonic flights over land, “based on the expectation that such flights would cause a sonic boom to reach the ground,” the Congressional Research Service wrote.

The Concorde, an Anglo-French supersonic jetliner, saw success for a number of years after making its first commercial flights in 1976. However, its ear-rattling sonic booms irritated people on the ground and led to restrictions on where the jet could fly.

In the U.S., the plane flew mainly over the Atlantic to New York and Washington. It could fly at twice the speed of sound. And it promised to revolutionize long-distance travel by cutting flying time from the U.S. East Coast to Europe from eight hours to three and a half hours.

The Concorde never caught on widely. The plane’s economics were challenging, and its sonic booms led it to be banned on many overland routes. Only 20 were built; 14 of which were used for passenger service.

In 2003, British Airways and Air France both stopped Concorde service.

Sonic booms are still heard in the U.S. from the nation’s military aircraft. In 2021, a sonic boom from F-15 fighter jets caused widespread concern that there was an earthquake on the Oregon coast.

What is the future of supersonic passenger travel — and sonic booms?

In 2018, the Congressional Research Service noted a revival of interest in supersonic aircraft, with startups hoping new technology could make them quieter and profitable.

Since then, American Airlines and United have bought supersonic jets from manufacturer Boom Supersonic. The aircraft are still on the drawing board and years away from flying — and not all industry observers believe they’ll be profitable.

Meanwhile, NASA’s X-59 airplane is designed to fly faster than sound — but with drastically reduced noise — over land, according to an April blog post from the agency.

“People below would hear sonic ‘thumps’ rather than booms, if they hear anything at all,” NASA wrote.
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Days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a team of U.S. soldiers training Ukrainians inside Ukraine were ordered to evacuate. Two months later, the soldiers — from the Florida National Guard’s Task Force Gator — restarted and expanded their training of Ukrainians in Germany. The public has not seen video of the training, because the Biden administration refused to release it — until now. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb traveled to Tampa, Florida, and Germany to bring you more on their mission.
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Florida appears to have arranged for a group of South American migrants to be transported from Texas to California and dropped off in Sacramento, California’s attorney general said, noting that he’s looking into whether any crimes may have been committed.

If true, the 16 Colombian and Venezuelan migrants who turned up at the Roman Catholic Church diocese’s headquarters in Sacramento on Friday would be the latest to have been moved from a Republican-led state to one led by Democrats.

The migrants had documents that appeared to be issued by the state of Florida, though the circumstances surrounding their arrival were still under investigation, Attorney General Rob Bonta said Saturday.

He also said he’s evaluating whether violations of civil or criminal law took place.

“While we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting,” Bonta said in a statement.

The migrants entered the U.S. through Texas. Eddie Carmona, campaign director at PICO California, a faith-based group that helps migrants, said U.S. immigration officials had already processed the young women and men and given them court dates for their asylum cases when “individuals representing a private contractor” approached them outside a migrant center in El Paso, Texas, and offered to help them get jobs and get them to their final destinations.

“They were lied to and intentionally deceived,” Carmona said, adding that the migrants had no idea where they were after being dropped off in Sacramento. He said they have court dates in cities throughout the country, not only in Texas, and that none of them meant to end up in California.

The migrants were transported from Texas to New Mexico and then flown by charter plane to California’s capital, where they were dropped off in front of the diocese’s headquarters, California officials said.

The migrants’ documents said they were transported through a program run by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management and carried out by contractor Vertol Systems Co., said Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Bonta. She said she couldn’t share the documents because they are part of an active investigation.

Florida paid the same contractor $1.56 million last year to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and for a possible second flight to Delaware that never took place. The Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have previously sent thousands of migrants on buses to New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., but the rare charter flights are an escalation in tactics.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for president, has been a fierce critic of federal immigration policy under President Joe Biden and has heavily publicized Florida’s role in past instances in which migrants were transported to Democratic-led states.

DeSantis has made the migrant relocation program one of his signature political priorities, using the state legislative process to direct millions of dollars to it.

Before the flight from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard last year, DeSantis signed off on a Republican-backed budget that earmarked $12 million to relocate people in the country illegally from Florida to other locations.

When questions arose around the legality of the Martha’s Vineyard fight because it originated in Texas, not Florida, in apparent violation of budgetary language, DeSantis had Republicans legislators create a program in his office dedicated to migrant relocations and specify that the state can transport migrants from locations anywhere in the country.

DeSantis’ administration has selected three vendors to help transport migrants.

Neither Vertol Systems nor DeSantis’ office responded to requests for comment. Alecia Collins, a spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which oversees Florida’s migrant flights program, said in an email Monday that she couldn’t immediately confirm whether the agency was involved in this latest instance.

The flight, if proved to have been arranged by Florida, would intensify a prolonged political feud between DeSantis and California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. The two have offered conflicting visions on immigration, abortion and a host of other issues.

Newsom said in a statement that he also met with the newly arrived migrants and that officials were working to ensure that they are “treated with respect and dignity” through this process.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg issued a more forcefully worded statement: “Whoever is behind this must answer the following: Is there anything more cruel than using scared human beings to score cheap political points?”
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Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork Monday declaring that he was running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, a longshot bid to overtake his former boss, Donald Trump, to become the party’s standard bearer to try to reclaim the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden.

Pence, a conservative former Indiana governor, for four years was a loyal No. 2 to Trump but had a falling out with him when Pence refused Trump’s demands to upend the congressional certification of the 2020 election results showing they had lost, leading to the January 6, 2021, riot by Trump supporters storming into the U.S. Capitol and the arrest of more than 1,000 people.

Pence, who had no constitutional power to overturn the election, fled for safety that day, hiding with his family and their security detail at a Capitol loading dock as some protesters shouted, “Hang Mike Pence!” and erected makeshift gallows on the National Mall within eyesight of the Capitol.

Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.” Pence has said that Trump “endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day” and that history will hold him accountable. More recently, Pence testified before a grand jury investigating Trump.

Now, Pence is hoping to convince Republican voters that he, not Trump nor an array of other declared or likely Republican candidates, deserve the Republican presidential nomination.

But national polls of Republicans show Trump, even as he faces multiple criminal investigations linked to his presidency, is far ahead in the nomination contest, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in second place 30 percentage points or so behind, and Pence and others even further back with less than 5% support apiece.

Pence is formally announcing his presidential bid Wednesday, his 64th birthday, in the midwestern state of Iowa, whose Republican caucuses next year kick off the party’s voting for the presidential nomination. He made his candidacy official Monday by filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.

Pence, who has often described himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order,” is planning to campaign extensively in Iowa, hoping to capture the votes of evangelical Christians who favor his staunch anti-abortion stance and other right-wing positions.

In early campaign jousting, he has portrayed himself as favoring many of the policy positions from his time in the White House with Trump, but with a reserved persona and absent the frequent chaos of the Trump presidency.

Pence has warned against the growing populist tide in the Republican Party, and advisers claim he is the only traditional, conservative in the race, reminiscent of the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the country’s leader in the 1980s.

Aside from his conservative viewpoint on cultural issues, Pence has said the U.S. should offer more support to Ukraine against Russia’s military invasion, while rebuking “Putin apologists” among Republicans unwilling to stand up against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Pence is joining a crowded field of Republican presidential candidates that includes Trump, DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to launch his own campaign Tuesday evening in New Hampshire, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is also announcing his bid Wednesday.
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The U.S. military Monday released a video of what it described as an “unsafe” Chinese maneuver in the Taiwan Strait over the weekend in which one of Beijing’s navy ships cut sharply across the path of an American destroyer, forcing the U.S. vessel to slow to avoid a collision.

During the Saturday incident, the U.S. military said a Chinese guided-missile destroyer overtook the USS Chung-Hoon on its port side, then veered to the right across its bow at a distance of about 137 meters (150 yards), according to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. The American destroyer held its course, the video showed, but the military said its speed was reduced to 10 knots “to avoid a collision.”

The close encounter occurred as the American vessel and the Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal were conducting a so-called “freedom of navigation” transit of the strait between Taiwan and mainland China, which China claims as part of its economic zone, while the U.S. and its Western allies say it is governed by the freedom of international passage.

After cutting across the bow of the U.S. ship, the Chinese vessel straightened out to again start sailing in a parallel direction.

The Chinese ship did not attempt a similar maneuver on the Canadian frigate, which was sailing behind the American destroyer.

“Chung-Hoon and Montreal’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the combined U.S.-Canadian commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the Indo-Pacific Command said. “The U.S. military flies, sails, and operates safely and responsibly anywhere international law allows.”

The incident came on a day when both U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu were in Singapore for an annual defense conference. 

Li defended his country’s response Sunday, contending that the passage of the allied Western vessels on “freedom of navigation patrols” was a provocation to China. 

Li told some of the world’s top defense officials at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that Beijing does not have any problems with “innocent passage” through the waters separating Taiwan from mainland China but that “we must prevent attempts that try to use those freedom of navigation (patrols), that innocent passage, to exercise hegemony of navigation.”

The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement that guided-missile destroyer Chung-Hoon and Royal Canadian Navy Halifax-class frigate HMCS Montreal conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit “through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law.” 

The bilateral transit, the statement said, “demonstrates the commitment of the United States and our allies and partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific.” 

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and while the U.S. recognizes a “one-China” policy and that Beijing claims Taiwan as its own, Washington continues to sell arms to Taipei. 

Li suggested the U.S. and its allies had created the danger and should instead focus on taking “good care of your own territorial airspace and waters.” 

“The best way is for the countries, especially the naval vessels and fighter jets of countries, not to do closing actions around other countries’ territories,” he said through an interpreter. “What’s the point of going there? In China we always say, ‘Mind your own business.'” 

Austin told the same security forum Saturday that Washington would not “flinch in the face of bullying or coercion” from China and would continue regularly sailing through and flying over the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea to emphasize they are international waters, countering Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims.

In addition to Saturday’s maneuvering in the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. has said a Chinese J-16 fighter jet late last month “performed an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver” while intercepting a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, flying directly in front of the plane’s nose.  

Li refused Austin’s invitation to talk on the sidelines of the conference, though the two did shake hands before sitting down at opposite sides of the same table together as the forum opened Friday. 

Austin said that was not enough. 

“A cordial handshake over dinner is no substitute for a substantive engagement,” Austin said.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press.
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Looking at the vastness of Utah Beach, its sand blowing in strong wind and bright sunshine, made Robert Gibson’s memory of D-Day even more vivid.

“It was tough,” the 99-year-old veteran said of the moment when he landed there on June 6, 1944 alongside more than 150,000 other Allied troops.

Gibson was among dozens of World War II veterans, mostly Americans and British, who traveled to Normandy this week to mark the 79th anniversary of D-Day, commemorating the decisive assault that led to the liberation of France and Western Europe from Nazi control.

He remembered “lots of casualties. We had almost run over bodies to get in the beach. Never forget we were only 18, 19 years old. I’m glad I made it.”

Gibson landed on Utah Beach on D-Day in the second wave, after the assault troops. He survived to continue fighting in Normandy and eventually into Germany.

The first job of his battalion, he said, was “to guard an ammunition dump and the first night it got struck. You didn’t know where you were to go. Bullets were going all over the place. But we ducked it.”

Andrew Negra also landed on Utah Beach. That was on July 18, 1944. He returned for the first time this year and was “amazed” by the warm welcome from local French people.

“Every place we went, people are cheering, clapping, and they’ve been doing this for I don’t know how many years,” he said.

At age 99, Negra is the only member of his battalion who is still alive. Braving the wind to walk on the beach for a few minutes, he said, “So many we lost. And here I am.”

Negra participated in combat operations until his division reached eastern Germany in April 1945.

On Sunday, over 40 American veterans of World War II formed a parade, using wheelchairs, along the streets of the small town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, where thousands of paratroopers jumped not long after midnight on June 6, 1944.

Cheerful crowds applauded, calling out “Merci” and “Thank you.” Children waved, and many families asked for a photo with the men.

Donnie Edwards, president of the Best Defense Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps World War II veterans visit former battlefields, said, “For us, every year is a big one.”

Given the ages of the soldiers who fought more than seven decades ago, Edwards observed, “Nothing is guaranteed. So we want to make sure that we do everything we can to get them an incredible and enjoyable experience.”

The veterans then headed to Sainte-Marie-du-Mont for a brief ceremony at a monument honoring the U.S. Navy that overlooks Utah Beach.

“The fallen will never be forgotten. The veteran will ever be honored,” an inscription in the stone reads.

Some of the almost-centenarians asked volunteers to accompany them on the wide stretch of sand.

Matthew Yacovino, 98, became emotional as he remembered what happened there to his older brother, who almost died after his jeep blown up during the landings.

“The driver got killed and my brother fell on the beach unconscious,” Yacovino said with tears in the eyes.

His brother eventually recovered. Yacovino himself served as a combat air crewman during the war.

Like others who come to Normandy for historical reenactments of what transpired there, Valérie and Lionel Draucourt, visitors from the Paris region, dressed in khaki uniforms. They wanted to pay their respects to the veterans.

“Frankly, I don’t think we can quite fathom what they lived through. We can’t understand it, it’s so big, it’s crazy,” Lionel Draucourt said.

Veterans were due to take part in official ceremonies of the 79th anniversary on Tuesday, including at the Normandy American Cemetery.

On D-Day, Allied troops landed on the beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword and Gold, carried by 7,000 boats. On that single day, 4,414 Allied soldiers lost their lives, 2,501 of them Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded.

On the German side, several thousand were killed or wounded.

U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Mark Milley, stressed the significance of the commemorations “for memorializing the efforts that they did and what they did.”

“They were fighting to make sure that fascism and Nazism didn’t stay in control of Europe. Ultimately, we all know that they were successful,” Milley said.

 
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California’s attorney general is investigating whether the government of the state of Florida played any role in sending more than a dozen migrants to the California capital of Sacramento without advance notice.

Representatives of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did not immediately respond on Sunday to a request for comment.

DeSantis last year arranged to transport dozens of migrants to the Massachusetts vacation island of Martha’s Vineyard as part of a campaign by Republican governors in Texas and Florida to shift some of the immigration burden to Democratic-run cities further north.

The buses and planes of migrants have increased partisan tension on immigration, as DeSantis pursues the 2024 Republican nomination for president.

Sixteen asylum-seekers from Venezuela and Colombia were dropped off at the doorstep of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento on Friday, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing officials.

They had initially been taken by bus from Texas to New Mexico and then flown by private jet to Sacramento, California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement issued on Saturday.

Attorney General Rob Bonta, also a Democrat, said in a separate statement that California was investigating whether there was criminal or civil liability for those who arranged the flight.

Initial findings revealed the migrants possessed documentation “purporting to be from the government of the State of Florida,” Bonta said.

“While we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting,” Bonta said, adding that California would welcome the migrants “with open arms.”

Responding to the Martha’s Vineyard incident, DeSantis told supporters last year that, “There may be more flights, there may be buses.”

Florida paid $615,000 to an aviation company as part of a “relocation program of unauthorized aliens,” Florida state data showed.
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A pill has been shown to halve the risk of death from a certain type of lung cancer when taken daily after surgery to remove the tumor, according to clinical trial results presented on Sunday.

The results were unveiled in Chicago at the largest annual conference of cancer specialists, hosted by the American Society for Clinical Oncology.

Lung cancer is the form of the disease that causes the most deaths, with approximately 1.8 million fatalities every year worldwide.

The treatment developed by the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca is called osimertinib and is marketed under the name Tagrisso. It targets a particular type of lung cancer in patients suffering from so-called non-small cell cancer, the most common type, and showing a particular type of mutation.

These mutations, on what is called the epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, affect 10% to 25% of lung cancer patients in the United States and Europe, and 30 to 40% in Asia.

The clinical trial included some 680 participants at an early stage of the disease (stages 1b to 3a), in more than 20 countries. They had to have been operated on first to remove the tumor, then half of the patients took the treatment daily, and the other a placebo.

The result showed that taking the tablet resulted in a 51% reduction in the risk of death for treated patients, compared to placebo.

After five years, 88% of patients who took the treatment were still alive, compared to 78% of patients who took the placebo.

These data are “impressive,” said Roy Herbst of Yale University, who presented them in Chicago. The drug helps “prevent the cancer from spreading to the brain, to the liver, to the bones,” he added at a press conference.

About a third of cases of non-small cell cancers can be operated on when detected, he said.

“It is hard for me to convey, I think, how important this finding is,” said Nathan Pennell of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation at the press conference.

“We started entering the personalized therapy era for early-stage patients,” said Pennell, who did not take part in the trials, and noted that “we should firmly close the door on one-size-fits-all treatment for people with non-small cell lung cancer.”

Osimertinib is already authorized in dozens of countries for various indications, and has already been given to some 700,000 people, according to a press release from AstraZeneca.

Its approval in the United States for early stages in 2020 was based on previous data that showed an improvement in patient disease-free survival, that is, the time a patient lives without a recurrence of cancer.

But not all doctors have adopted the treatment, and many were waiting for the data on overall survival that was presented on Sunday, said Herbst.

He stressed the need to screen patients to find out if they have the EGFR mutation. Otherwise, he said, “we cannot use this new treatment.”

Osimertinib, which targets the receptor, causes side effects that include severe fatigue, skin rashes or diarrhea.
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U.S. federal investigators will try to determine the circumstances surrounding a private plane with an unresponsive pilot that crashed Sunday in the state of Virginia after flying over the nation’s capital and prompting the military to scramble two jet fighters.

Virginia State Police said rescuers arrived at the crash site by foot late Sunday and found no survivors.

The plane had taken off from an airport in Tennessee and was nearly at its planned destination in New York when it turned around and headed back to the southwest. The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane crashed in a mountainous area near Montebello, Virginia, about 200 kilometers southwest of Washington.

Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.

The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) said the fighter jets were “authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region.” The jets also fired flares to try to get the attention of the pilot of the Cessna 560 Citation V aircraft, NORAD said in a statement.

The White House said President Joe Biden, who was playing golf at Joint Base Andrews around that time, “was briefed on the incident” and that the sound of the sonic boom could be faintly heard at the base.

The plane was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc., and The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that the company’s owner, John Rumpel, said four people were on board the plane, including his daughter, granddaughter, and the child’s nanny.

​Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters
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