Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before it collided with Baltimore bridge, officials say
BALTIMORE (AP) — The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent “routine engine maintenance” in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday, as divers recovered the bodies of two of six workers who plunged into the water when it collapsed. The others were presumed dead, and officials said search efforts had been exhausted.
Investigators began collecting evidence from the vessel a day after it struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The bodies of the two men were located in the morning inside a red pickup submerged in about 25 feet (7.6 meters) of water near the bridge’s middle span, Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of Maryland State Police, announced at an evening news conference.
He identified the men as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, who was from Mexico and living in Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, who was from Guatemala and living in Dundalk, Maryland.
The victims, who were part of a construction crew fixing potholes on the bridge, were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, Butler said.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore addressed their families in Spanish during the news conference, saying, “Estamos contigo, ahora y siempre,” which means, “we are with you, now and always.”
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Debate emerges over whether modern protections could have saved Baltimore bridge
When a 900-foot container ship struck the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in 2007, the span stood firm and no one died, either on the ship or the highway above.
The bridge’s supports were protected by a fendering system of concrete and other materials that was installed to absorb such strikes. And it’s now prompting the question: Could such a system — or others like it — have saved Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge?
Some experts are saying yes.
Sherif El-Tawil, a University of Michigan engineering professor, said there are several safety measures that “would have made a huge difference” had they been in place Tuesday morning when a cargo ship plowed into the bridge and caused its collapse.
El-Tawil said a fendering system may have softened the 985-foot-long ship’s blow. Pilings anchored to the river bottom, known as dolphins, are another measure that could have helped to deflect the container ship Dali. And yet another potential protection would have been islands of rocks or concrete around the bridge’s supports.
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Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Democrats’ VP pick in 2000, dead at 82
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who nearly won the vice presidency on the Democratic ticket with Al Gore in the disputed 2000 election and who almost became Republican John McCain’s running mate eight years later, has died, according to a statement issued by his family.
Lieberman died in New York City on Wednesday due to complications from a fall, the statement said. He was 82.
The Democrat-turned-independent was never shy about veering from the party line.
Lieberman’s independent streak and especially his needling of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential contest rankled many Democrats, the party he aligned with in the Senate. Yet his support for gay rights, civil rights, abortion rights and environmental causes at times won him the praise of many liberals over the years.
“In an era of political carbon copies, Joe Lieberman was a singularity. One of one,” said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat. “He fought and won for what he believed was right and for the state he adored.”
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Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in New York hush-money criminal case
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money criminal trial, making a fallacious claim about his daughter and urging him to step aside from the case.
In a social media post, the former president suggested without evidence that Judge Juan M. Merchan was kowtowing to his daughter’s interests as a Democratic political consultant. He also made a claim — later repudiated by court officials — that she had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, complained on his Truth Social platform that the gag order issued Tuesday was “illegal, un-American, unConstitutional.” He said that Merchan, a veteran Manhattan jurist, was “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement” by Democratic rivals.
Trump claimed that Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, whose firm has worked on campaigns for President Joe Biden and other Democrats, had recently posted a photo on social media depicting her “obvious goal” of seeing him jailed.
In a statement, a spokesperson for New York’s state court system said that claim was false and that the social media account Trump was referencing no longer belongs to Loren Merchan. It appears to have been taken over by someone else after she deleted it about a year ago, court spokesperson Al Baker said.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson is committed to advancing Ukraine aid. But it will be a difficult task
WASHINGTON (AP) — For over a month, House Speaker Mike Johnson has sat on a funding package that would send desperately needed ammunition and weaponry to Ukraine, mulling how best to gain a grasp of what is expected to be a difficult lift in the House.
The Republican speaker has indicated he will attempt to push for approval of tens of billions in wartime funding for Ukraine, as well as Israel, once the House returns in April. Yet it will be perhaps his most difficult task since he took the speaker’s gavel late last year.
“We’ll turn our attention to it and we won’t delay on that,” the Louisiana representative said of the Ukraine package at a news conference last week.
Still, Johnson has waited to act at a time when Russia is renewing its missile attacks on Kyiv. In Ukraine’s eastern regions, soldiers are running low on ammunition as they attempt to hold off a surge of Russian soldiers to the frontlines. European leaders and analysts are warning that the conflict could grow into a much larger clash that involves NATO allies and direct American military involvement if Russia prevails in Ukraine.
Johnson is facing dilemmas himself in Congress. Should funding for Ukraine’s government be loans or a typical grant? Should the $95 billion package that the Senate approved for Ukraine, Israel and other allies be handled as one or broken into pieces? And how decisively should he push for the House to act when his own leadership position is being threatened?
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Talks resume on bringing Israeli officials to the US to discuss Gaza operation, the White House says
WASHINGTON (AP) — Talks have restarted aimed at bringing top Israeli officials to Washington to discuss potential military operations in Gaza, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned visit this week because he was angry about the U.S. vote on a U.N. cease-fire resolution, the White House said Wednesday.
“So we’re now working with them to find a convenient date that’s obviously going to work for both sides,” said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
No date has been finalized yet. One U.S. official said strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer and national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi would be among the delegation to come to Washington. The official were not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive discussions and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
An Israeli official said the White House had reached out with the goal of setting a new meeting. The official was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “did not authorize the departure of the delegation to Washington.”
The prime minister canceled the trip this week after the U.N. vote to demand a cease-fire in Hamas-run Gaza; the U.S. abstained from the vote but did not veto it. Netanyahu accused the United States of “retreating” from a “principled position” by allowing the resolution to pass without conditioning the cease-fire on the release of hostages held by Hamas.
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4 people killed and 7 wounded in stabbings in northern Illinois, with a suspect in custody
ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — Four people were killed and seven were hurt when a man went on a stabbing rampage Wednesday across multiple locations in a northern Illinois community, authorities said.
A 22-year-old man is in police custody and was being questioned, according to Rockford Police Chief Carla Redd. She said one of the people who was wounded remained in critical condition.
“My heart goes out to the families right now that are suffering a loss,” Redd told reporters.
She said the Rockford Police received a medical call at 1:14 p.m. followed by additional calls for police and paramedics.
“We don’t believe there’s any other suspects that are on the run or at large at this particular time,” Redd said. “Right now, we don’t have a clear motive as to what caused this individual to commit such a heinous crime.”
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Security in Congo’s mineral-rich east is deteriorating with rebel group expanding territory, UN says
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Security in Congo’s mineral-rich east has deteriorated since recent elections, with a rebel group allegedly linked to neighboring Rwanda making “significant advances and expanding its territory,” the U.N. special envoy for the conflict-wracked African nation said Wednesday.
Bintou Keita told the U.N. Security Council this has created “an even more disastrous humanitarian situation, with internal displacement reaching unparalleled numbers.”
Last month, the United States told Rwanda and Congo that they “must walk back from the brink of war,” the sharpest warning yet of a looming conflict.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood again condemned “the aggressive military incursion” into eastern Congo by the M23 rebel group and the Rwandan Defense Force and attacks including on U.N. peacekeepers.
He called on the leaders of Rwanda and Congo “to make the decision to pursue peace — for the sake of their people, the region and the world.”
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Ex-Trump lawyer Eastman should lose state law license for efforts to overturn election, judge says
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has recommended that conservative attorney John Eastman lose his California law license over his efforts to keep former President Donald Trump in power after the 2020 election.
Eastman, a former law school dean, faced 11 disciplinary charges in the state bar court stemming from his development of a legal strategy to have then-Vice President Mike Pence interfere with the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
State Bar Court of California Judge Yvette Roland’s recommendation, issued Wednesday, now goes to the California Supreme Court for a final ruling on whether he should be disbarred. Eastman can appeal the top court’s decision.
“Dr. Eastman maintains that his handling of the legal issues he was asked to assess after the November 2020 election was based on reliable legal precedent, prior presidential elections, research of constitutional text, and extensive scholarly material,” Eastman’s attorney, Randall Miller, said in a statement after the ruling. “The process undertaken by Dr. Eastman in 2020 is the same process taken by lawyers every day and everywhere – indeed, that is the essence of what lawyers do.”
The judge found Eastman liable for 10 of the 11 charges, including misleading courts, moral turpitude, making false statements and plotting with Trump to hinder the transfer of power.
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France’s Macron tells Brazilian execs that prospective Mercosur-EU deal is ‘terrible’ and outdated
SAO PAULO (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron told Brazilian executives on Wednesday that a proposed deal between the European Union and the South American trade bloc Mercosur is bad for both parties.
Speaking at a forum in Sao Paulo, Macron said the Mercosur-EU deal is outdated and needs reworking to take climate change into account. His comments reinforced his opposition, which has been the most outspoken among European leaders.
“The trade deal with Mercosur as it is being negotiated now is a terrible deal. For you and for us,” Macron said, according to the translation into Portuguese by Sao Paulo’s Industry Federation, whose headquarters held the event. “It was negotiated 20 years ago. We need to rebuild it.”
Macron opposes any agreement so long as South American producers fail to adhere to the same environmental and health standards as Europeans. Farmers raised concerns about pesticides during protests across Europe earlier this year.
Mercosur is formed by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The Associated Press
