Families of victims of the deadliest U.S. air disaster since 2001 visited the crash site on Sunday and divers scoured the submerged wreckage for more remains after authorities said they’ve recovered and identified 55 of the 67 people killed.

Washington, D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said officials are confident all will be found. Divers are working diligently to locate remains as crews prepare to lift wreckage from the chilly Potomac River as early as Monday morning, Donnelly said at a news conference.

Col. Francis B. Pera of the Army Corps of Engineers said divers and salvage workers are adhering to strict protocols and will stop moving debris if a body is found. The “dignified recovery” of remains takes precedence over all else, he said.

Divers have high-definition cameras with feeds monitored on support boats, Pera said, putting “four or five sets of eyes” inside of the wreckage. Owing to the frigid conditions, one diver was treated at a hospital for hypothermia, Donnelly said.

Portions of the two aircraft that collided over the river Wednesday night near Reagan Washington National Airport — an American Airlines jet with 64 people aboard and an Army Black Hawk helicopter with 3 aboard — will be loaded onto flatbed trucks and taken to a hangar for investigation.

USAID leaders on leave for refusing Musk’s DOGE

The Trump administration has placed two top security chiefs at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Elon Musk’s government-inspection teams, a current and a former U.S. official told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Members of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, eventually did gain access Saturday to the aid agency’s classified information, which includes intelligence reports, the former official said.

Musk’s DOGE crew lacked high enough security clearance to access that information, so the two USAID security officials — John Voorhees and deputy Brian McGill — believed themselves legally obligated to deny access.

Musk on Sunday responded to an X post about the news by saying, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” He followed with multiple additional posts on X about the aid agency.

Kate Miller, who serves on an advisory board for DOGE, said in a separate post that no classified material was accessed “without proper security clearances.”

Plane crash leaves 5 hospitalized, 3 critical

Three people injured on the ground when a jet crashed in a busy Philadelphia neighborhood, killing seven people, remain in critical condition, Mayor Cherelle Parker said Sunday.

Parker said 22 people were injured and five of them remain hospitalized. At least 11 homes were significantly damaged, along with some businesses.

A Mexico-bound air ambulance plunged to the ground Friday evening, less than a minute after takeoff from Northeast Philadelphia Airport with six people on board, including a girl who had spent months being treated at a city hospital.

One of the dead was killed inside a car as debris from the Learjet 55 crash exploded into the neighborhood, damaging nearby homes.

The investigation into the crash remained ongoing, Parker said, adding that officials were going door to door to seek information from neighborhood residents.

North Korea slams Rubio in 1st rebuke of new govt.

In its first direct criticism of the Trump administration, North Korea lashed out at U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for calling it a “rogue” state and warned Monday that such “coarse and nonsensical remarks” will never contribute to U.S. interests.

The statement is the latest in a series of North Korean signals that it will maintain its tough stance on the U.S. for now, though Trump has said he’s intent on reaching out to its leader Kim Jong Un to revive diplomacy.

“The hostile words and deeds of the person who is in charge of the U.S. foreign policy served as an occasion of confirming once again the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK which remains unchanged,” the Foreign Ministry said, using the acronym of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Rubio’s coarse and nonsensical remarks only show directly the incorrect view of the new U.S. administration on the DPRK and will never help promote the U.S. interests as he wishes,” it said.

The statement took issue with what the ministry called Rubio’s branding of North Korea as a “rogue” state in a media interview. It likely referred to Rubio’s appearance on “The Megyn Kelly Show” on Jan. 30, in which he called North Korea and Iran “rogue states” in addressing policy challenges.

Netanyahu heads to U.S. to discuss ‘victory’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he will discuss “victory over Hamas,” countering Iran and expanding diplomatic relations with Arab countries in his meeting with President Donald Trump.

Tuesday’s meeting at the White House will be Trump’s first with a foreign leader since returning to office. It comes as U.S. and Arab mediators begin the daunting work of brokering the next phase of a ceasefire agreement to wind down the 15-month war in Gaza.

Hamas, which has reasserted control over Gaza since the ceasefire began last month, has said it will not release hostages in the second phase without an end to the war and Israeli forces’ full withdrawal.

Netanyahu is under mounting pressure from far-right governing partners to resume the war after the first phase ends in early March. He has said Israel is committed to victory over Hamas and the return of all hostages captured in the militants’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.

An Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in central Gaza wounded five people Sunday, including a child who was in critical condition, according to Al-Awda Hospital. Israel’s military said it fired on the vehicle because it was bypassing a checkpoint while heading north in violation of the ceasefire agreement.

Ugandan officials set to begin Ebola vaccine trial

Ugandan officials are preparing to deploy a trial vaccine as part of efforts to stem an outbreak of Ebola in the capital, Kampala, a top health official said Sunday.

A range of scientists are developing research protocols relating to the planned deployment of more than 2,000 doses of a candidate vaccine against the Sudan strain of Ebola, said Pontiano Kaleebu, executive director of Uganda Virus Research Institute.

— From news services