Fort Campbell (US), Mar 30: Nine people were killed in a crash involving two Army Black Hawk helicopters in Kentucky, a military spokesperson said.
Nondice Thurman, a spokesperson for Fort Campbell, said Thursday morning that the deaths happened the previous night in southwestern Kentucky during a routine training mission.
A statement from Fort Campbell says the two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, part of the 101st Airborne Division, crashed around 10 p.m. Wednesday in Trigg County, Kentucky. The 101st Airborne confirmed the crash about 30 mile (48 kilometres) northwest of Fort Campbell. The crash is under investigation.
"Right now our focus is on the Soldiers and their families who were involved," the statement added.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear had said earlier that fatalities were expected, adding that police and emergency officials were responding.
"The crash occurred in a field, some wooded area," Kentucky State Police Trooper Sarah Burgess said at a news briefing. "At this time, there are no reports of residence damage."
Fort Campbell is located near the Tennessee border, about 60 miles (97 kilometres) northwest of Nashville, and the crash occurred in the Trigg County, Kentucky, community of Cadiz.
Nick Tomaszewski, who lives about a mile from where the crash occurred, said he saw two helicopters flying over his house moments before the crash.
"For whatever reason last night my wife and I were sitting there looking out on the back deck and I said "Wow, those two helicopters look low and they look kind of close to one another tonight," he said.
The helicopters flew over and looped back around and moments later "we saw what looked like a firework went off in the sky."
"All of the lights in their helicopter went out. It was like they just poofed ... and then we saw a huge glow like a fireball," Tomaszewski said.
Flyovers for training exercises happen almost daily and the helicopters typically fly low but not so close together, he said.
"There were two back to back. We typically see one and then see another one a few minutes later, and we just saw two of them flying together last night," he said.
Members of the Kentucky Senate stood for a moment of silence Thursday morning in honour of the crash victims.
"We do not know the extent of what has gone on, but I understand it is bad and there has been a substantial loss of life of our military," Senate President Robert Stivers told the sombre chamber.
Last month, two Tennessee National Guard pilots were killed when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed along an Alabama highway during a training exercise.
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Washington, Feb 28 (AP): President Donald Trump plans to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Tuesday, in addition to doubling the 10 per cent universal tariff charged on imports from China.
In a Truth Social post Thursday, Trump said illicit drugs such as fentanyl are being smuggled into the United States at “unacceptable levels" and that import taxes would force other countries to crack down on the trafficking.
“We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled,” the Republican president wrote. “China will likewise be charged an additional 10 per cent Tariff on that date.”
The prospect of escalating tariffs has already thrown the global economy into turmoil, with consumers expressing fears about inflation worsening and the auto sector possibly suffering if America's two largest trading partners in Canada and Mexico are hit with taxes.
But Trump has also at times engaged in aggressive posturing only to give last-minute reprieves, previously agreeing to a 30-day suspension of the Canada and Mexico tariffs that were initially supposed to start in February.
Trump intends to put 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, with a lower 10 per cent tax on Canadian energy products such as oil and electricity. The move, ostensibly about drug trafficking and immigration, led Mexico and Canada to respond by emphasizing their existing efforts to address these issues. Canada created a fentanyl czar, and Mexico sent 10,000 members of its National Guard to its border with the United States.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that she hoped to speak with Trump after the Cabinet-level meetings occurring in Washington this week. Mexico's Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente was scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday afternoon.
Trump, “as you know, has his way of communicating,” Sheinbaum said. But she said that her government would stay “cool-headed” and optimistic about an agreement coming together to avoid the tariffs.
“I hope we are able to reach an agreement and on March 4 we can announce something else,” she said.
She said Mexico's security chiefs were discussing intelligence sharing with their American counterparts that would allow for important arrests in the US.
On the economic front, she said Mexico's goal is to protect the free trade pact that was negotiated during the first Trump administration between Mexico and the United States. That 2020 deal, which included Canada, was an update of the North American Free Trade Agreement from 1994.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country has invested more than 1 billion Canadian dollars to improve border security, adding that his government's ministers and officials are also in Washington this week.
“There is no emergency for the United States at the border with Canada when it comes to fentanyl, and that is exactly what we are demonstrating at this time,” Trudeau said in Montreal.
“If the United States goes ahead and imposes tariffs, we already shared the details of our plan. We have USD 30 billion worth of US products that will be subject to tariffs. And USD 125 billion of tariffs that will be applied three weeks later. But we don't want to be in that position.”
Trump did impose a 10 per cent tariff on China for its role in the manufacturing of chemicals used to make fentanyl, and that tax would now be doubled, according to his social media post.
On Thursday, China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao wrote to Jamieson Greer, the newly confirmed US trade representative, that differences on trade should be resolved through dialogues and negotiations.
The 25 per cent tariffs on Mexico and Canada would amount to a total tax increase on the US public of somewhere between USD 120 billion to USD 225 billion annually, according to Jacob Jensen, a trade policy analyst at the American Action Forum, a centre-right think tank. The additional China tariffs could cost consumers up to USD 25 billion.
The potential for higher prices and slower growth could create political blowback for Trump, who promised voters in last year's presidential election that he could quickly lower the inflation rate, which jumped during Democratic President Joe Biden's term.
But Trump also campaigned on imposing broad tariffs, which he plans to launch on April 2 by resetting them to match the taxes that he determines are charged by other countries on American goods.
“The April Second Reciprocal Tariff date will remain in full force and effect,” Trump said as part of his new social media post.
In an interview with News Nation, Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, said progress by Mexico and Canada on fentanyl “was not as impressive as the president had hoped.”
There are significant differences between Canada and Mexico on the scale of drug smuggling. US customs agents seized 43 pounds (19.5 kilograms) of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last budget year, compared with 21,100 pounds (9,570 kilograms) at the Mexican border.
Hassett stressed that the reciprocal tariffs would be in addition to the ones being placed on Canada and Mexico.
Trump indicated Wednesday that European countries would also face a 25 per cent tariff as part of his reciprocal tariffs. He also wants separate tariffs on autos, computer chips and pharmaceutical drugs that would be levied in addition to the reciprocal tariffs.
The president already announced that he's removing the exemptions on his 2018 steel and aluminum tariffs, in addition to planning taxes on copper imports.
The prospect of a broader trade conflict should other nations follow through with their own retaliatory tariffs is already spooking US consumers, potentially undermining Trump's promise to unleash stronger economic growth.
The Conference Board reported on Tuesday that its consumer confidence index had dropped 7 points to a reading of 98.3. It was the largest monthly decline since August 2021, when inflationary pressures began to reverberate across the United States as the economy recovered from the coronavirus pandemic. Average 12-month inflation expectations jumped from 5.2 per cent to 6 per cent in February, the Conference Board noted.
“There was a sharp increase in the mentions of trade and tariffs, back to a level unseen since 2019,” said Stephanie Guichard, a senior economist at the Conference Board. "Most notably, comments on the current administration and its policies dominated the responses.”
The S&P 500 stock index has also fallen over the past month, reversing some of the gains that followed Trump's November presidential victory, which prompted investors to assume income tax cuts and less regulation would help increase growth.