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  • ‘Like going to the moon’: The world’s most terrifying ocean crossing | CNN

    ‘Like going to the moon’: The world’s most terrifying ocean crossing | CNN


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    CNN
     — 

    It’s the body of water that instils fear and inspires sailors in equal measure. Six hundred miles of open sea, and some of the roughest conditions on the planet – with an equally inhospitable land of snow and ice awaiting you at the end of it.

    “The most dreaded bit of ocean on the globe – and rightly so,” Alfred Lansing wrote of explorer Ernest Shackleton’s 1916 voyage across it in a small lifeboat. It is, of course, the Drake Passage, connecting the southern tip of the South American continent with the northernmost point of the Antarctic Peninsula.

    Once the preserve of explorers and sea dogs, the Drake is today a daunting challenge for an ever-increasing number of travelers to Antarctica – and not just because it takes up to 48 hours to cross it. For many, being able to boast of surviving the “Drake shake” is part of the attraction of going to the “white continent.”

    But what causes those “shakes,” which can see waves topping nearly 50 feet battering the ships? And how do sailors navigate the planet’s wildest waters?

    For oceanographers, it turns out, the Drake is a fascinating place because of what’s going on under the surface of those thrashing waters. And for ship captains, it’s a challenge that needs to be approached with a healthy dose of fear.

    At around 600 miles wide and up to 6,000 meters (nearly four miles) deep, the Drake is objectively a vast body of water. To us, that is. To the planet as a whole, less so.

    The Antarctic Peninsula, where tourists visit, isn’t even Antarctica proper. It’s a thinning peninsula, rotating northwards from the vast continent of Antarctica, and reaching towards the southern tip of South America – the two pointing towards each other, a bit like a tectonic version of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” in the Sistine Chapel.

    That creates a pinch point effect, with the water being squeezed between the two land masses – the ocean is surging through the gap between the continents.

    “It’s the only place in the world where those winds can push all around the globe without hitting land – and land tends to dampen storms,” says oceanographer Alexander Brearley, head of open oceans at the British Antarctic Survey.

    Winds tend to blow west to east, he says – and the latitudes of 40 to 60 are notorious for strong winds. Hence their nicknames of the “roaring forties,” “furious fifties” and “screaming sixties” (Antarctica officially starts at 60 degrees).

    But winds are slowed by landmass – which is why Atlantic storms tend to smash into Ireland and the UK (as they did, causing havoc, with Storm Isha in January buffeting planes to entirely different countries) and then weaken as they continue east to the European continent.

    With no land to slow them down at the Drake’s latitude anywhere on the planet, winds can hurtle around the globe, gathering pace – and smashing into ships.

    “In the middle of the Drake Passage the winds may have blown over thousands of kilometers to where you are,” says Brearley. “Kinetic energy is converted from wind into waves, and builds up storm waves.” Those can reach up to 15 meters, or 49 feet, he says. Although before you get too alarmed, know that the mean wave height on the Drake is rather less – four to five meters, or 13-16 feet. That’s still double what you’ll find in the Atlantic, by way of comparison.

    And it’s not just the winds making the waters rough – the Drake is basically one big surge of water.

    “The Southern Ocean is very stormy in general [but] in the Drake you’re really squeezing [the water] between the Antarctic and the southern hemisphere,” he adds. “That intensifies the storms as they come through.” He calls it a “funneling effect.”

    Then there’s the speed at which the water is thrashing through. The Drake is part of the most voluminous ocean current in the world, with up to 5,300 million cubic feet flowing per second. Squeezed into the narrow passage, the current increases, traveling west to east. Brearley says that at surface level, that current is less perceptible – just a couple of knots – so you won’t really sense it onboard. “But it does mean you’ll travel a bit more slowly,” he says.

    For oceanographers, he says, the Drake is “a fascinating place.”

    It’s home to what he calls “underwater mountains” below the surface – and the enormous current squeezing through the (relatively) narrow passage causes waves to break against them underwater. These “internal waves,” as he calls them, create vortices which bring colder water from the depths of the ocean higher up – important for the planet’s climate.

    “It’s not just turbulent at the surface, though obviously that’s what you feel the most – but it’s actually turbulent all the way through the water column,” says Brearley, who regularly crosses the Drake on a research ship. Does he get scared? “I don’t think I’ve ever been really fearful, but it can be very unpleasant in terms of how rough it is,” he says candidly.

    In 2010, tourist ship Clelia II declared an emergency after suffering engine failure in the Drake.

    One other key thing that makes the Drake so scary: our fear of the Drake itself.

    Brearley points out that until the Panama Canal opened in 1914, ships going from Europe to the west coast of the Americas had to dip round Cape Horn – the southern tip of South America – and then trundle up the Pacific coast.

    “Let’s say you were shipping goods from western Europe to California. You either had to offload them in New York and do the journey across the US, or you had to go all the way around,” he says. It wasn’t just large cargo ships, either; passenger ships made the same route.

    There’s even a monument at the tip of Cape Horn, in memorial of the more than 10,000 sailors who are believed to have died traveling through.

    “The routes between the south of South Africa and Australia, or Australia or New Zealand to Antarctica, don’t really lie on any major shipping routes,” says Brearley. “The reason it’s been so feared over the centuries is because the Drake is where ships really have to go. Other parts [of the Southern Ocean] can be avoided.”

    Captain Stanislas Devorsine regularly crosses the Drake.

    Navigating the Drake is an extremely complex task that demands humility and a side of fear, says Captain Stanislas Devorsine, one of three captains of Le Commandant Charcot, a polar vessel of adventure cruise company Ponant.

    “You have to have a healthy fear,” he says of the Drake. “It’s something that keeps you focused, alert, sensitive to the ship and the weather. You need to be aware that it can be dangerous – that it’s never routine.”

    Devorsine made his Drake debut as a captain over 20 years ago, sailing an icebreaker full of scientists over to Antarctica for a research stint.

    “We had very, very rough seas – more than 20 meter [66 feet] swells,” he says. “It was very windy, very rough.” Not that Ponant’s clients face anything like that. Devorsine is quick to point out that the comfort levels for a research ship – and the conditions it will sail in – are very different from those for a cruise.

    “We are extremely cautious – the ocean is stronger than us,” he says. “We’re not able to go in terrible weather. We go in rough seas but always with a big safety margin. We’re not gambling.”

    Even with that extra safety margin, though, he admits that crossing the Drake can be a hairy experience. “It can be very rough and very dangerous, so we take special care,” he says.

    “We have to choose the best time to cross the Drake. We have to adapt our course – sometimes we don’t head in our final direction, we alter the course to have a better angle with the waves. We might slow down to leave a low pressure path ahead, or speed up to pass one before it arrives.”

    The ‘Drake shake’ and broken plates

    Captains check the weather up to six times a day before departure to ensure a safe crossing.

    Of course, every time you get on a ship – whether it’s a simple ferry ride or a fancy cruise – the crew will already have meticulously planned the journey, checking everything from the weather to the tides and currents. But planning for a crossing of the Drake is on a whole new level.

    Weather forecasting has improved in the two decades since Devorsine’s first ride, he says – and these days crew start planning the voyage while passengers are making their way to South America from all over the globe.

    Sometimes they leave late; sometimes they head back early, to beat bad weather. Devorsine – who makes the return journey about six to eight times per year – estimates that the unusually calm “Drake lake” effect happens once in every 10 crossings, with particularly rough conditions (that “Drake shake”) once or twice in every 10 journeys.

    Of course, he knows what’s in store long before the passengers reach the ship.

    “We look ahead to have the best option to cross. Normally I look at the weather 10 days or a week before, just to have an idea of what it could be,” he says.

    “Then I check the forecast once per day, then two or three days before departure I start looking at it twice per day. If it’s going to be a challenging passage you look every six hours. If you have to adjust your departure time, then you look at it very closely to be very accurate.”

    His safety margin means that he’s calculating a route that will get you across not just alive, but also as comfortably as possible. Hearing an anecdote about broken crockery and furniture on another operator, he sighs, “That’s a bit too far for me.”

    “Before you have any issue with a storm, you have to keep a comfortable ship,” he says. The safety margin is to be sure that the guests will enjoy being in Antarctica, and that we won’t turn around because we have a problem… like injured people.”

    In extreme conditions, he orders extra weather advice from Ponant HQ, but if you’re imagining the staff on the bridge desperately radioing for advice as waves batter the ship, think again.

    “It would never happen to be in the middle of the Drake with bad conditions, needing assistance from headquarters because it would mean we didn’t have any safety margin before departure. When we cross and it’s going to be challenging, we have a big safety margin and the ship is not at all in danger.”

    They are in contact with headquarters with high level satellite antennae throughout the crossing, with both satellite and radio backup if needed – Devorsine says he can’t imagine ever losing contact, whatever the weather.

    Aurora Expeditions' Greg Mortimer ship has a patented bow to make a Drake crossing more stable.

    Devorsine, who now spends 90% of his time sailing in polar waters, feels at home on the Drake. “When I was a little child, I read books about the maritime adventures of sailors and polar heroes,” he says. “I was attracted by tough things – I like challenges. This is why I followed the path to be able to sail in these areas.”

    His first experience of the area was doing a “race around the world” in a sailboat as a youngster, heading south from his native France and rounding Cape Horn.

    “It was my dream because it’s difficult, dangerous and challenging,” he says.

    He’s not the only one. Some guests are drawn to Antarctica trips because of the tough journey. “I guess [they] are attracted by these areas [of the Southern Ocean] because it’s wild, it can be rough, and it’s a unique experience to go there,” he says.

    Not everone’s a thrill-seeker though. As managing director of Mundy Adventures, an adventure travel agency, Edwina Lonsdale is dealing with a clientele already used to discomfort – yet she says crossing the Drake is a “conversation topic” during booking.

    “it’s something we would raise to make sure people are completely aware of what they’re buying,” she says. “[Going to Antarctica] is a huge investment – you need to talk through every aspect and make sure nothing’s an absolute no.”

    Lonsdale advises that passengers nervous of feeling sick should choose their ship carefully. In the past, vessels heading to Antarctica tended to be uncomfortable metal boxes built to take a heavy beating. But in recent years, companies have introduced more technically advanced vessels: like Le Commandant Charcot, which was the world’s first passenger vessel with a Polar Class 2 hull – meaning it can go deeper and further into the ice in polar regions – when it debuted in 2021.

    Two of Aurora Expeditions’ ships, the Greg Mortimer and Sylvia Earle, use a patented inverted bow, designed to slide gently through the waves, reducing impact and vibration and improving stability, rather than “punching” through the water as a regular bow shape does, which makes the bow rock up and down.

    Lonsdale says that the fancier the vessel and the offerings onboard, the more distractions you’ll have if bad weather hits. Newer boats often have more spacious rooms and bigger windows so that you can watch the horizon, which helps to lessen seasickness. If the budget allows, she says, book a suite – you won’t just get more space, you’ll (likely) have floor-to-ceiling windows, too.

    But a word of advice – she recommends a careful selection not just of the right operator for you, but of the ship itself.

    “Just because a company has a fleet with a very modern ship doesn’t mean the whole fleet will be like that,” she says.

    At Cape Horn there's a monument marking the 10,000 sailors thought to have died navigating the Drake.

    So you’ve conquered your fears, booked your ticket and you’re about to set sail. Bad news: the captain is predicting the Drake shake. What to do?

    Hopefully you’ve come prepared. Most ships have ginger candies on offer during bad weather, but bring your own, as well as any anti-seasickness medication you want to take. Some passengers swear by acupressure “seeds”: tiny spikes, attached to your ears with a sticking plaster, designed to stimulate acupuncture points. Some ships offer acupuncture onboard; alternatively you can get it done beforehand, since the seeds last for some time.

    Devorsine’s top tips are to keep your eyes on the horizon, hold onto the handrail when walking around, be careful around doors, and “don’t jump out of bed.”

    Jamie Lafferty, a photographer who leads excursions on Antarctic cruises, says that of his 30-odd crossings, “I’ve had one where it felt like I was going to fall out of bed and that was the second time, way back in 2010 when there was a lot more guesswork involved. Crossing the Drake Passage is much, much more benign than it used to be thanks to the accuracy of modern forecasting models and stabilizers on more modern cruise ships. This doesn’t mean it’ll be smooth, but it’s vastly less chaotic and unpredictable than it used to be.”

    His top tip? “Take seasickness medication before heading out into open sea – once you start spewing, tablets aren’t going to be any use.”

    Warren Cairns, senior researcher at the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy, has a bit of extra help.

    “The only thing that works for me is going to the ship’s medic for a scopolamine patch,” he says. “It’s so rough, normal seasickness pills are just to get me to the infirmary.” Although he has it worse than the average tourist – on trips to Antarctica, their research ships have to pause for house to take samples. “The waves come from all sorts of directions as the thrusters keep it in place,” he says. “When you’re underway it’s a much more regular motion.”

    Lonsdale says it’s important not to fight it if you feel ill: “Just go to bed.” But equally, she says, don’t expect it: “It may be calm. You may not feel ill.”

    People suffer differently from seasickness she says. “The Pacific has very long, slow swells, Channel crossings [between the UK and France] have quite a bouncy experience. Lots of people say crossing the Drake in very rough weather is uneven enough to not make them ill at all.” On that plate-smashing crossing, for example, this reporter – who was watching 40-foot waves from the observation deck – never got sick.

    Remember that however it feels, you’re safe. “There’s an extraordinary level of safety in the build of those ships doing this,” says Lonsdale. Add in the safety margins that the likes of Devorsine build in, and you’re in uncomfortable, but not dangerous, territory.

    And if all else fails, remember why you’re there.

    “The motivation and excitement to discover those latitudes is very important to fight the seasickness,” says Devorsine. Lonsdale agrees.

    “If you were going to the moon, you’d expect the journey to be uncomfortable but it’d be worth it,” she says. “You just have to think, ‘This is what I need to get from one world to another.’”



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  • China and Philippines accuse each other over collisions in disputed South China Sea | CNN

    China and Philippines accuse each other over collisions in disputed South China Sea | CNN


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    China and the Philippines on Sunday accused each other of causing collisions in a disputed area of the South China Sea, the latest in a string of maritime confrontations between the two countries that have heightened regional tensions.

    In a statement, Philippine authorities said a Chinese Coast Guard ship carried out “dangerous blocking maneuvers” that caused it to collide with a Philippine vessel carrying supplies to troops stationed in Ayungin Shoal, also known as Second Thomas Shoal, in the Spratly Islands chain.

    China’s move was “provocative, irresponsible and illegal” and “imperiled the safety of the crew” of the Philippine boats, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said.

    In a second incident Sunday, the Philippine task force said a Chinese maritime militia vessel collided with a Philippine coast guard ship, which was on the same mission to resupply the BRP Sierra Madre. Manila grounded the navy transport ship on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 and has manned it with Filipino marines to enforce its claims to the area.

    In a statement Sunday, the Chinese Coast Guard accused the Philippines of violating international marine law and threatening the navigation safety of Chinese ships.

    It accused the first Philippine ship of trespassing into the waters of what it calls the Nansha islands and Renai Reef, prompting the Chinese Coast Guard ship to intercept “in accordance with the law,” and resulting in a “minor collision.”

    In the second incident, the Chinese Coast Guard said the Philippine Coast Guard vessel “purposely provoked trouble and reversed course,” causing a collision with a Chinese fishing boat.

    Beijing claims “indisputable sovereignty” over almost all of the 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, as well as most of the islands and sandbars within it, including many features that are hundreds of miles away from China’s mainland.

    In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a landmark maritime dispute, which concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.

    Beijing has ignored the ruling.

    No injuries were reported in either collision Sunday, which marks the latest in a series of recent flashpoints between Beijing and Manila in the disputed waterway.

    In September, the Philippine Coast Guard released video of a Filipino diver cutting a Chinese-installed floating barrier in a disputed area of the waterway that had prevented Filipino boats from entering.

    It came just days after after the Philippine Coast Guard accused China’s maritime militia of turning vast patches of coral near the Palawan island chain into a bleached and broken wasteland.

    China’s foreign ministry dismissed those allegations as “false and groundless.”

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  • US sending second carrier strike group, fighter jets to region as Israel prepares to expand Gaza operations | CNN

    US sending second carrier strike group, fighter jets to region as Israel prepares to expand Gaza operations | CNN


    Washington/Seoul
    CNN
     — 

    The Pentagon has ordered a second carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, according to two US officials, and is sending Air Force fighter jets to the region as Israel prepares to expand its Gaza operations.

    The US warships are not intended to join the fighting in Gaza or take part in Israel’s operations, but the presence of two of the Navy’s most powerful vessels is designed to send a message of deterrence to Iran and Iranian proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

    The first carrier strike group, led by the USS Gerald R. Ford, arrived off the coast of Israel last week.

    Now the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group, which deployed from Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday, is headed to the eastern Mediterranean. The aircraft carrier was initially set to sail for the waters of US European Command, but the officials said it will now head for the waters near Israel.

    It is unclear at this point how long the Ford will stay in the region once the Eisenhower carrier strike group arrives, one official said.

    The Eisenhower is the flagship of the carrier strike group, which will be joined by a guided-missile cruiser and two guided-missile destroyers, according to the Navy.

    The Eisenhower can carry more than 60 aircraft, including F/A-18 fighter jets. The Ford can deploy more than 75 aircraft.

    ABC News first reported the carrier strike group’s orders.

    The Biden administration made clear that the carrier, and its accompanying force, are not there to engage in combat activities on behalf of Israel.

    “There is no intention or plan to put American troops on the ground in Israel,” said John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, on Thursday. Kirby underscored that the purpose of the increased military presence in the region is to deter others from entering the conflict if they perceive weakness on the part of Israel.

    “We take our national security interests very seriously in the region,” he said, noting that the purpose of the bolstered force posture was “to act as a deterrent for any other actor, including Hezbollah, that might think that widening this conflict is a good idea.”

    In addition, the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a rapid reaction force capable of conducting special operations, is making preparations in case it is ordered closer to Israel to bolster the US’ force posture there, multiple US officials tell CNN.

    The unit, which is on board the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, is comprised of more than 2,000 Marines and sailors and would be capable of supporting a large-scale evacuation. Among the mission essential tasks for a Marine Expeditionary Unit are evacuation operations and humanitarian assistance.

    No such order has been given yet to the unit, the officials said.

    Aircrew aboard a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle assigned to the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron celebrate their arrival in the U.S. Central Command area of operations, Oct. 13, 2023

    Meanwhile, US Air Forces Central on Saturday announced the deployment of F-15E fighter jets and A-10 ground-attack jets to the region.

    The movement of the warplanes from the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and 354th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, respectively, “bolster the U.S. posture and enhance air operations throughout the Middle East,” an Air Force statement said. It did not give specific numbers of warplanes involved.

    A US Central Command social media post said the A-10s will join another squadron of the aircraft already in the region.

    “By posturing advanced fighters and integrating with joint and coalition forces, we are strengthening our partnerships and reinforcing security in the region,” Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, 9th Air Force commander, said in a statement.

    Defense officials have said repeatedly in recent days that the Pentagon will be able to flow in additional forces and assets to the region quickly as needed, as Israel continues to fight a war against the terrorist group Hamas.

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  • ABC: Trump allegedly discussed sensitive nuclear submarine information with a Mar-a-Lago member | CNN Politics

    ABC: Trump allegedly discussed sensitive nuclear submarine information with a Mar-a-Lago member | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Former President Donald Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about US nuclear submarines with a member of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, following his presidency, ABC reported Thursday.

    The member is Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, sources told ABC. A source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Pratt, who had a close relationship with Trump when he occupied the Oval Office, was interviewed by the special counsel probing Trump’s retention of classified documents after leaving office. Another source told CNN’s Kristen Holmes that Pratt is on the list of potential witnesses for when the trial begins.

    Sources told ABC that Pratt allegedly went on to share the information he received from the former president during an April 2021 meeting with “more than a dozen foreign officials, several of his own employees, and a handful of journalists.”

    ABC also reported that according to sources, a former Mar-a-Lago employee told investigations that he was “bothered” by the former president disclosing such information to someone who is not a US citizen. He added that he heard Pratt sharing potentially sensitive information minutes after his meeting with the former president, sources told ABC.

    These allegations were not included in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over his handling of classified documents. But the incident was reported to and investigated by Smith’s team, according to ABC.

    A Trump spokesperson slammed ABC’s report, telling CNN that the claims “lack proper context and relevant information.”

    “The Department of Justice should investigate the criminal leaking, instead of perpetrating their baseless witch-hunts while knowing that President Trump did nothing wrong, has always insisted on truth and transparency, and acted in a proper manner, according to the law,” the spokesperson said.

    CNN has reached out to Pratt, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment.

    Pratt allegedly told investigators that after he told Trump that Australia should buy submarines from the US, the former president went on to share how many nuclear warheads US submarines carry and “how close they can get to a Russian submarine without being detected,” sources told ABC. But Pratt told investigators that he was not shown any government documents, the sources said.

    His company, Pratt Industries, opened a plant in Ohio while Trump was president. Trump attended the opening and praised the businessman in his remarks.

    Another source told CNN’s Collins that during that visit, Pratt planned to unveil two plaques, an official one celebrating the plant’s opening in the US and a second one that he had told Trump about beforehand. The second plaque, which Pratt kept a secret until the day of the visit, read, “Make America and Australia Great Again.” But officials attending the plant’s opening quickly pulled it down and advised Pratt against the move, that source said.

    CNN previously obtained an audio of a July 2021 meeting Trump had in his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, during which the former president acknowledged that he held on to a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran. The audio, exclusively reported by CNN, was a critical piece of evidence in the special counsel’s indictment.

    Trump is facing 40 counts in the classified documents case, including willful retention of national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice. It is one of four cases in which the former president has been indicted.

    Trump, who is seeking to return to the White House and remains the GOP front-runner, asked the judge presiding over the case late Wednesday to delay the trial until after the 2024 elections. A similar request was previously denied.

    This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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  • China unveils ‘blueprint’ for Taiwan integration while sending warships around the self-ruled island | CNN

    China unveils ‘blueprint’ for Taiwan integration while sending warships around the self-ruled island | CNN


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    China on Tuesday unveiled a plan to deepen integration between the coastal province of Fujian and self-governing Taiwan, touting the benefits of closer cross-strait cooperation while sending warships around the island in a show of military might.

    The directive, issued jointly by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, vows to make Fujian a “demonstration zone” for integrated development with Taiwan, and the “first home” for Taiwanese residents and businesses to settle in China.

    The document, hailed as a “blueprint” of Taiwan’s future development by Chinese experts cited in state media, comes at a delicate moment in cross-strait relations as Taiwan gears up for its presidential election in January.

    It also comes as China continues to ramp up military pressure on Taiwan, a vibrant democracy of 24 million people that Beijing’s ruling Communist Party claims as its territory — despite never having controlled it.

    Ahead of Beijing’s release of its integration plan, a Chinese aircraft carrier and around two dozen Chinese warships were spotted gathering in waters near Taiwan this week, according to Taiwanese authorities.

    China has long taken a carrot and stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military invasion while offering opportunities for business and cultural exchanges to those it believes are more amenable to Beijing’s point of view.

    Given the extent to which cross-strait ties have frayed in recent years, it remains unclear how receptive those in Taiwan will be to China’s sweeping proposal.

    On Wednesday, Wang Ting-yu, a Taiwanese lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said the integration plan was “ridiculous.”

    “China should think about how it can take care of its bad debts, but not how it can conduct united front work against Taiwan,” Wang said in a video message, referring to government-affiliated efforts to advance Beijing’s goals overseas.

    The concept of turning Fujian into a zone for integrated development with Taiwan first appeared in China’s official document in 2021, but it did not provide any details at the time.

    In June, when a senior Chinese leader raised the integration plan at a forum, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council called the proposal “meaningless” and “futile,” saying it was not in line with Taiwan’s public expectations and “belittles” Taiwan.

    CNN has reached out to Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council for comment.

    In the directive, Beijing vows to improve the environment for Taiwanese firms to do businesses in Fujian, deepen industrial and capital cooperation, and encourage Taiwanese companies to list on Chinese stock exchanges.

    In a first, Taiwanese companies will be allowed to invest in and set up radio and television production companies in Fujian in a pilot program.

    The directive also seeks to attract Taiwanese workers and families to settle in Fujian. It vows to enhance social welfare programs to make it easier for Taiwanese people to live and work in the province – including buying property, and promises equal treatment for Taiwan’s students to enroll in public schools.

    Chinese observers noted “the document is equivalent to outlining the future development blueprint of Taiwan island, which is expected to gain a broader driving force and development prospect by integrating with Fujian,” the state-run Global Times said.

    Fujian, a province of 40 million people on the western side of the Taiwan Strait, is the closest to Taiwan both geographically and culturally.

    Many Taiwanese are descendants of Fujian immigrants who arrived in waves over the centuries, bringing with them the dialect, customs and religion that formed the backbone of the traditional culture among Taiwan’s majority Han population.

    China’s ruling Communist Party has long attempted to use the geographic, historic and cultural proximity between Fujian and Taiwan as an argument for closer economic and social integration – and eventual unification – with the island.

    A particular focus of Beijing’s integration efforts falls on Taiwan’s outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu, which are located much closer to Fujian than Taiwan and have shared the strongest ties with the mainland historically.

    In Tuesday’s directive, Beijing pledges to further speed up integration between the city of Xiamen and Kinmen – which are only a few miles apart.

    It vows to explore cooperation on infrastructure projects between the two cities, which will allow electricity and gas to be transported from Xiamen to Kinmen, and to connect the two cities with a bridge. Kinmen residents will also be able to enjoy the same treatment as local residents in Xiamen, according to the plan.

    Similar integration measures are also laid out for the city of Fuzhou and Matsu.

    To some residents of Kinmen, the plans to promote greater connectivity may be appealing. This year, a cross-party alliance of eight local councilors in Kinmen proposed to build a bridge to Xiamen to boost economic ties, as part of a wider proposal to turn Kinmen into a demilitarized zone, or so-called “peace island.”

    Sitting on the front line between Taiwan and China, Kinmen had faced numerous amphibious assaults and shelling by the Chinese military in the years following the Chinese civil war.

    The councilors’ proposal envisages removing all of Taiwan’s troops and military installations from the islands and turning Kinmen into a setting for Beijing-Taipei talks aimed at “de-escalating tensions.”

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  • North Korea says it launched new ‘tactical nuclear attack’ submarine | CNN

    North Korea says it launched new ‘tactical nuclear attack’ submarine | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    North Korea launched a new “Korean-style tactical nuclear attack submarine” on Wednesday, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), during a ceremony attended the country’s leader Kim Jong Un.

    The new submarine “will perform its combat mission as one of core underwater offensive means of the naval force of the DPRK,” Kim said during the ceremony according to KCNA. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

    The submarine, named “Hero Kim Kun Ok,” would herald “the beginning of a new chapter for bolstering up the naval force of the DPRK,” KCNA reported.

    “There is no room to step back in the drive for the expansion of the naval vessel-building industry as it is the top priority task to be fulfilled without fail,” Kim said according to KCNA.

    The announcement comes after North Korea said it had simulated a nuclear missile attack over the weekend to warn the United States of “nuclear war danger.”

    The simulation was in response to joint military exercises conducted by the United States and South Korea, earlier in the week, KCNA reported at the time.

    The US-South Korea live fire exercises, based on a counterattack against invading forces, began on August 31.

    US and South Korean Presidents had pledged to step up military cooperation following a May summit meeting in Seoul, and after North Korea conducted more than a dozen missiles tests this year, compared to only four tests in 2020, and eight in 2021.

    North Korea is set to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the country’s founding on September 9.

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  • Australian surfers rescued in waters off remote Indonesian island after 38 hours missing at sea | CNN

    Australian surfers rescued in waters off remote Indonesian island after 38 hours missing at sea | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Four Australian surfers who went missing after their boat was struck by a storm in a remote part of Indonesia have been rescued after more than 38 hours at sea, according to parents of the missing tourists.

    Australians Steph Weisse, Will Teagle, Jordan Short and two unnamed Indonesian nationals were found “bobbing on surfboards” by a surf charter boat involved in the frantic rescue to locate the group.

    Dramatic video of that moment showed both the stranded castaways on their surfboards cheering and hollering alongside their rescuers as they realized they had successfully found each other in a vast expanse of ocean.

    A further search picked up Australian Elliot Foote, however one Indonesian crew member remains missing.

    Foote’s father, Peter Foote, said his son was separated from the rest of the group because he’d gone looking for assistance.

    “He left his mates bobbing in the water to go to search for help. The charter boat found them and then went and found Elliot,” Peter said.

    “I’m really happy it’s all turned out well and I hope he continues with his holiday,” Peter told CNN.

    “He’s in a great place to celebrate, with his girlfriend [Weisse] and 10 mates in paradise. He’s still got eight nights to enjoy then I’m looking forward to him coming straight home.”

    The group’s boat was last seen Sunday evening local time after they encountered bad weather and heavy rain on a journey to the remote Pinang island from Nias, a popular surfing destination some 150 kilometers from Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.

    A second boat with the rest of the party successfully reached Pinang Island Sunday evening, the families said, helping to raise the alarm.

    While Indonesian authorities conducted search and rescue efforts with support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the families of the four Australians said the surf charter boats made all the difference by using their local knowledge of the currents to locate where the group may have drifted.

    According to their families, the four Australians were on a surf trip in Indonesia to celebrate Foote’s 30th birthday.

    Wil Teagle was with fellow surfer friends who travelled from Nias island

    Friends in Australia have hailed what they described as a near miraculous rescue.

    “Now that all four have been found we can just be so so grateful,” Ellie Sedgwick, who described herself as Weisse’s best friend since they were 17, told CNN.

    “Her mum and I were speaking the whole way through, just saying if anyone can survive this, it’s Steph,” she added.

    “It’s funny because Steph actually had that conversation with us before she left. The last thing she said to us was, it’s amazing that you know we only get one life…we kept replaying that conversation over and over in our heads.”

    In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, DFAT said “the Australian Government expresses its deep gratitude” to those involved in the search and rescue efforts.

    Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said in a tweet that the government will “continue to provide support to the four Australians and their families.”

    “The search continues for a crew member who is still missing,” she wrote. “Our thoughts are with them and their loved ones.”

    The names of the Indonesian crew who were on board the boat have not been shared yet by authorities.

    Indonesia has long been a popular destination for Australian tourists thanks to its proximity and a wealth of budget flights to places like Bali.

    The western island of Sumatra is one of Indonesia’s less commonly traveled destinations but the coral-fringed islands around Nias are popular with intrepid surfers and boast multiple world class breaks, particularly around Lagundri Bay.

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  • 16 people were injured when a boat exploded at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks | CNN

    16 people were injured when a boat exploded at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Sixteen people were injured in a boat explosion at a marina in the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, authorities said.

    The explosion, which took place at the Millstone Marina, was set off by a spark and gas fumes that “built up in the engine area,” the Missouri State Highway Patrol said in an online post on Friday.

    Photos posted online by authorities showed shattered glass on the boat and other damage that appears to have been caused by the explosion.

    Most of those injured were on the boat, authorities said.

    In an incident information report, the highway patrol said the vessel was fueling at the marina’s gas docks, and when its operator started the boat, it caused “an explosion in the engine compartment.”

    At least three passengers were ejected from the boat, the report said.

    The injuries range from minor to moderate, the highway patrol said in its post.

    Eleven people, including a 6-year-old girl, were treated on the scene and released, according to the report, while five others were taken to a hospital.

    An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

    Lake of the Ozarks, a popular summer vacation spot in the Midwest, boasts more than 1,100 miles of shoreline.

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  • Incident involving US warship intercepting missiles near Yemen lasted 9 hours | CNN Politics

    Incident involving US warship intercepting missiles near Yemen lasted 9 hours | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    A US warship that intercepted drones and missiles near the coast of Yemen on Thursday encountered a larger and more sustained barrage than was previously known, shooting down 4 cruise missiles and 15 drones over a period of 9 hours, according to a US official familiar with the situation.

    The USS Carney, an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer that traversed the Suez Canal heading south on Wednesday, intercepted the missiles and drones as they were heading north along the Red Sea. Their trajectory left little doubt that the projectiles were headed for Israel, the official said, a clearer assessment than the Pentagon’s initial take.

    A sustained barrage of drones and missiles targeting Israel from far outside the Gaza conflict is one of a series of worrying signs that the war risks escalating beyond the borders of the coastal enclave.

    In addition to protests at US embassies across the Middle East, US and coalition forces in Syria and Iraq have come under repeated attack over the past several days.

    On Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the missiles were fired by Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen and were launched “potentially towards targets in Israel.” At the briefing, Ryder said three land-attack cruise missiles and “several” drones.

    Some of the projectiles were traveling at altitudes that made them a potential risk to commercial aviation when they were intercepted, the US official said. The drones and missiles were intercepted with SM-2 surface-to-air missiles launched from the USS Carney.

    US interceptions of Houthi launches are exceedingly rare, making the timing of this incident, as tensions rise in Israel, more significant. In October 2016, the USS Mason deployed countermeasures to stop an attempted attack in the Red Sea targeting the Navy destroyer and other ships nearby. In response, the US fired sea-launched cruise missiles at Houthi radar facilities in Yemen.

    On Wednesday, one-way attack drones targeted two different US positions in Iraq, according to US Central Command. One of the attacks resulted in minor injuries. One day later, the At-Tanf garrison in Syria, which houses US and coalition forces, was targeted by two drones, which also caused minor injuries.

    Early Friday morning in Iraq, two rockets targeted the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center near the airport, which houses US military, diplomatic and civilian personnel, according to another US defense official. One rocket was intercepted by a counter-rocket system, while the second hit an empty storage facility, the official said. No one was injured as a result of the rocket attack.

    The US has not assigned attribution for any of the recent attacks in Iraq and Syria, though Iranian proxies have carried out similar drone and rocket attacks against US forces in both countries in the past.

    The US military has carried out strikes on Iranian-backed militias as a response to previous such attacks against US forces, but the Pentagon would not say anything yet about its intentions.

    “While I’m not going to forecast any potential response to these attacks, I will say that we will take all necessary actions to defend US and coalition forces against any threat,” said Ryder. “Any response, should one occur, will come at a time and a manner of our choosing.”

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  • US military responded to Chinese and Russian vessels near Alaska | CNN Politics

    US military responded to Chinese and Russian vessels near Alaska | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    A Russian and Chinese naval patrol consisting of several vessels operated off the coast of Alaska last week, defense officials and lawmakers said over the weekend – a show of force that prompted a US military response but did not pose a threat to the US or Canada, a US Northern Command spokesperson told CNN.

    NORTHCOM and the North American Aerospace Defense Command deployed planes and ships to monitor the Russian and Chinese patrol, which stayed in international waters, the spokesperson said.

    Alaska’s Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski said in a statement Saturday that a total of 11 Russian and Chinese vessels had been operating near the Aleutian Islands, and were met in response by four US Navy destroyers. Murkowski said that she and Sullivan had been in “close contact with leadership from Alaska Command for several days now and received detailed classified briefings about the foreign vessels that are transiting U.S. waters in the Aleutians.”

    Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told CNN in a statement that “according to the annual cooperation plan between the Chinese and Russian militaries, naval vessels of the two countries have recently conducted joint maritime patrols in relevant waters in the western and northern Pacific Ocean. This action is not targeted at any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation.”

    Sullivan said that Chinese and Russian vessels came similarly close to Alaska last summer and were encountered by a US Coast Guard ship on a routine patrol at the time – a “tepid” response, the senator added, that led him to press senior military leaders to be ready with a more robust response in the future.

    “For that reason, I was heartened to see that this latest incursion was met with four U.S. Navy destroyers, which sends a strong message to (Chinese President) Xi Jinping and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin that the United States will not hesitate to protect and defend our vital national interests in Alaska,” Sullivan said.

    Blake Herzinger, a research fellow at the United States Studies Center in Australia, echoed the NORTHCOM repsonse that the Chinese and Russian warships were not a threat and acted according to international law just as US Navy vessels do when operating off the Chinese or Russian coasts.

    But he said the US statement affirming the navigation rights of the foreign warships was in contrast to reactions from Beijing to similar US Navy sailings.

    “Chinese responses to similar operations in the Indo-Pacific … hype up imagined threats and broadcast their military response as efforts to eject invaders from their waters,” Herzinger said.

    Russia and China have intensified their defense and economic partnership considerably since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to a July US intelligence report, and the countries have repeatedly pledged to strengthen their military ties.

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  • What judicial ethics rules say about Clarence Thomas’ lifestyle bankrolled by his friends | CNN Politics

    What judicial ethics rules say about Clarence Thomas’ lifestyle bankrolled by his friends | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    It’s undeniable that Justice Clarence Thomas’ friendships with billionaires willing to foot his bill on their vacations together have given the conservative jurist a lifestyle most Americans could only dream of.

    But determining whether Thomas violated ethics rules and laws by failing to disclose that hospitality is tricky.

    The law in question is the Ethics in Government Act, and how it should be applied to the extravagant travel that Thomas and other justices have been treated to has been a subject of debate.

    The debate centers on what counts as “personal hospitality” – i.e., accommodations and entertainment that judges are treated to personally by their friends – which does not have to be reported on annual financial disclosures under certain contexts.

    The Supreme Court’s critics note that, even if Thomas was not technically in violation of the rules, his pattern of accepting – and not reporting – lavish experiences such as skybox tickets to major sporting events and far-flung trips on mega-yachts shows that the high court cannot be trusted to police itself under the current standards. Some argue that more stringent ethical reforms – perhaps in the form of legislation – are needed.

    Further complicating the picture is that the regulations laying out when personal hospitality need not be reported have recently been tightened. Thomas’ defenders have pointed to those changes, announced earlier this year, to argue that the old regime did not require the justice to report the types of hospitality now under scrutiny. Thomas himself – in a rare statement released in April, when ProPublica published its first investigation into the extravagant travel perks he has received – noted that reworked ethical guidance and vowed to follow it going forward.

    But assessing whether the gifts and hospitality described in the latest ProPublica report – which puts the tally at 38 destination vacations, 26 private jet flights, eight helicopter trips and a dozen VIP tickets to sporting events – would require disclosure, either then or under the tightened rules, is a complicated question. It sometimes depends on details about how the high-end trips were financed that were not fully fleshed out by the report.

    “The question is: Who is absorbing the cost?” said Stephen Gillers, a New York University School of Law professor who has written extensively about legal ethics and rules.

    Thomas is not the only justice who has engaged in such jet-setting. When Justice Samuel Alito was the subject of a ProPublica report detailing a 2008 private flight he took to Alaska on a plane owned by a GOP megadonor, he argued in a preemptive essay published by Wall Street Journal’s opinion section that he was not required to disclose it under ethics rules in place at the time. Alito claimed that plane trip fit the definition of “facility” in the requirements’ exemptions for personal hospitality extended to judges “on property or facilities owned by (a) person”

    Ethics experts have pushed back on the idea that a private flight could be interpreted to fall under the term “facility.” The new guidance announced in March makes clear that going forward, private plane trips cannot be excluded from the reporting requirements because “substitutes for commercial transportation” are not part of the exemptions.

    ProPublica’s latest report, published Thursday, surfaces several helicopter trips that Thomas took apparently at the expense of his billionaire benefactors. Even under the new guidance, there could be some argument that certain helicopter trips may not require disclosure, according to Gillers, who gave the example of a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.

    Since such a ride would not be a replacement of a commercial flight, but instead a form of entertainment offered by a friend, disclosure could potentially be avoided. But another key question, under the new guidance, is whether the helicopter ride was being paid for personally by the friend of the judge.

    The new guidance states that accommodations offered to a judge that are not paid for out of the personal pocketbook of an individual – but through a third-party entity, which could include the friend’s company or another business – would require disclosure. If the person footing the cost is seeking a tax deduction for the expense of the accommodation or gift, that would also trigger a judge’s reporting requirement.

    Justice Roberts wrote ‘condescending’ letter to Senate when asked to testify about ethics

    That means if the helicopter rides described in the ProPublica report – which Thomas occasionally enjoyed in the mid-2000s because of his friendship with the late corporate titan Wayne Huizenga – were on a helicopter owned by Huizenga’s business, Thomas would have to disclose them under the new rules. Even if Huizenga owned the helicopter personally, if he put the cost of the rides toward a tax exemption, that would also mean Thomas’ helicopter jaunts would fall outside of the exemptions.

    Thomas’ friendships with oil baron Paul “Tony” Novelly and real estate mogul Harlan Crow have led to the billionaires hosting him on their mega-yachts. Those trips have included ventures with Novelly in the Bahamas and island-hopping with Crow in Indonesia. Since Thomas presumably was sleeping on the yachts, he can argue they’re covered by the disclosure exception for accommodations personally offered by friends.

    “Thomas could say that, just as a weekend at a country home at the invitation of a friend is personal hospitality, a week on my friend’s yacht is also personal hospitality. It’s just that one is on the land and one is on the water,” Gillers said.

    Another area of scrutiny in the new ProPublica report is tickets to major sporting events – often for skybox seats – that Thomas received from his wealthy friends. Government ethics experts quoted in the story raised the disclosure requirement for gifts valued at more than $415 as potentially problematic for Thomas.

    However, according to Gabe Roth, who heads the organization Fix the Court, the ethics questions over the tickets hinge more on the entertainment exemption for judges when they are receiving personal hospitality.

    “You could make the argument that sporting tickets count as entertainment,” said Roth, whose group advocates for ethics reform and more transparency in the judiciary.

    Thomas is not the only justice who has failed to report sporting event tickets on their disclosures. Justice Elena Kagan attended a University of Wisconsin football game – sitting in the Chancellor’s Box – in 2017 that went unreported on her disclosure for that year, according to a Fix the Court review.

    Still, ProPublica points to the example of 60 lower court judges who reported sporting event tickets on their annual forms between 2003 and 2019.

    It is a particularly complicated endeavor to decipher Thomas’ reporting obligations for the access he reportedly got, via his friendship with Huizenga, to an exclusive Florida golf course. The report describes a “standing invitation” Thomas had to the members-only course, the Floridian, but ProPublica said it was not clear whether Thomas was granted a full-fledged membership or whether he was just able to visit the course as a guest of Huizenga.

    However, there are signs pointing toward disclosure for judges who do receive gifted golf club memberships. In his filing for 2008, Chief Justice John Roberts reported honorary memberships to two golf courses – valued in the thousands of dollars – that he was gifted, while even noting in the disclosure forms that he didn’t use the memberships.

    “If that’s John Roberts’ interpretation of the federal disclosure law, I am going to side with him on this,” Roth said.

    The latest investigation into Thomas’ conduct also hit on an issue that has emerged around several of the justices: whether their activity with certain charities and other organizations violates ethical standards limiting judges’ participation in fundraising.

    ProPublica, piggybacking off recent reporting by The New York Times, dug into Thomas’ involvement with the Horatio Alger Association, which offers scholarships and mentorships to students, and which connected Thomas to some of the billionaire benefactors highlighted in the report.

    Thomas, according to The Times and ProPublica, facilitated events for the organization that were hosted at the Supreme Court, with the latest investigation reporting that access to one such event cost $1,500 or more in contributions per person.

    Under a set of ethics rules for the judiciary that are separate from the financial disclosure requirements, judges are barred from allowing the “prestige” of their office to be used for the purpose of fundraising.

    “You can attend an event of an organization, a non-profit that serves as a fundraiser,” Gillers said. “But the justice or judge cannot be identified as an attraction for people to come and donate money.”

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  • Inside efforts to avert environmental ‘catastrophe’ in the Red Sea | CNN

    Inside efforts to avert environmental ‘catastrophe’ in the Red Sea | CNN

    Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.



    CNN
     — 

    Moored five miles off the coast of Yemen for more than 30 years, a decaying supertanker carrying a million barrels of oil is finally being offloaded by a United Nations-led mission, hoping to avert what threatened to be one of the world’s worst ecological disasters in decades.

    Experts are now delicately handling the 47-year-old vessel – called the FSO Safer – working to remove the crude without the tanker falling apart, the oil exploding, or a massive spill taking place.

    Sitting atop The Endeavor, the salvage UN ship supervising the offloading, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen David Gressly said that the operation is estimated to cost $141 million, and is using the expertise of SMIT, the dredging and offshore contractor that helped dislodge the Ever Given ship that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week in 2021.

    How to remove one million barrels of oil from a tanker

    Twenty-three UN member states are funding the mission, with another $16 million coming from the private sector contributors. Donors include Yemen’s largest private company, HSA Group, which pledged $1.2 million in August 2022. The UN also engaged in a unique crowdfunding effort, contributing to the pool which took a year to raise, according to Gressly.

    The team is pumping between 4,000 and 5,000 barrels of oil every hour, and has so far transferred more than 120,000 barrels to the replacement vessel carrying the offloaded oil, Gressly said. The full transfer is expected to take 19 days.

    The tanker was carrying a million barrels of oil. That would be enough to power up to 83,333 cars or 50,000 US homes for an entire year. The crude on board is worth around $80 million, and who gets that remains a controversial matter.

    Here’s what we know so far:

    The ship has been abandoned in the Red Sea since 2015 and the UN has regularly warned that the “ticking time bomb” could break apart given its age and condition, or the oil it holds could explode due to the highly flammable compounds in it.

    The FSO Safer held four times the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez off Alaska in 1989 which resulted in a slick that covered 1,300 miles of coastline. A potential spill from this vessel would be enough to make it the fifth largest oil spill from a tanker in history, a UN website said. The cost of cleanup of such an incident is estimated at $20 billion.

    The Red Sea is a vital strategic waterway for global trade. At its southern end lies the Bab el-Mandeb strait, where nearly 9% of total seaborne-traded petroleum passes. And at its north is the Suez Canal that separates Africa from Asia. The majority of petroleum and natural gas exports from the Persian Gulf that transit the Suez Canal pass through the Bab el-Mandeb, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

    The sea is also a popular diving hotspot that boasts an impressive underwater eco-system. In places its banks are dotted with tourist resorts, and its eastern shore is the site of ambitious Saudi development projects worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

    The first step of the mission was to stabilize and secure the vessel to avoid it collapsing, Gressly said. That has already been achieved in the past few weeks.

    “There are a number of things that had to be done to secure the oil from exploding,” Gressly told CNN, including pumping out gases in each of the 13 compartments holding the oil. Systems for pumping were rebuilt, and some lighting was repaired.

    Booms, which are temporary floating barriers used to contain marine spills, were dispersed around the vessel to capture any potential leaks.

    The second step is to transfer the oil onto the replacement vessel, which is now underway.

    exp Yemen tanker United Nations cnni world 072611ASEG1_00001402.png

    Oil being removed from tanker near Yemen in Red Sea

    After The Safer is emptied, it must then be cleaned to ensure no oil residue is left, Gressly said. The team will then attach a giant buoy to the replacement vessel until a decision about what to do with the oil has been made.

    “The transfer of the oil to (the replacement vessel) will prevent the worst-case scenario of a catastrophic spill in the Red Sea, but it is not the end of the operation,” Gressly said.

    While the hardest part of the operation would then be over, a spill could still occur. And even after the transfer, the tanker will “continue to pose an environmental threat resulting from the sticky oil residue inside the tank, especially since the tanker remains vulnerable to collapse,” the UN said, stressing that to finish the job, an extra $22 million is urgently needed.

    A spill would shut the Yemeni ports that its impoverished people rely on for food aid and fuel, impacting 17 million people during an ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by the country’s civil war and a Saudi-led military assault on the country. Oil could bleed all the way to the African coast, damaging fish stocks for 25 years and affect up to 200,000 jobs, according to the UN.

    A potential spill would cause “catastrophic” public health ramifications in Yemen and surrounding countries, according to a study by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine. Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Eritrea would bear the brunt.

    Air pollution from a spill of this magnitude would increase the risk of hospitalization for cardiovascular or respiratory disease for those very directly exposed by 530%, according to the study, which said it could cause an array of other health problems, from psychiatric to neurological issues.

    “Given the scarcity of water and food in this region, it could be one of the most disastrous oil spills ever known in terms of impacts on human life,” David Rehkopf, a professor at Stanford University and senior author of the study, told CNN.

    Up to 10 million people would struggle to obtain clean water, and 8 million would have their access to food supplies threatened. The Red Sea fisheries in Yemen could be “almost completely wiped out,” Rehkopf added.

    The tanker has been an issue for many people in Yemen over the past few years, Gressly said. Sentiment on social media surrounding the removal of oil is very positive, as many in Yemen feel like the tanker is a “threat that’s been over their heads,” he said.

    The tanker issue remains a point of dispute between the Houthi rebels that control the north of Yemen and the internationally recognized government, the two main warring sides in the country’s civil conflict.

    While the war, which saw hundreds of thousands of people killed or injured, and Yemen left in ruins, has eased of late, it is far from resolved.

    Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst for Yemen at the International Crisis Group think tank in Brussels, sees the Safer tanker issue as “an embodiment of the conflict in Yemen as a whole.”

    “The government sees the Houthi militias as an illegitimate group controlling the tanker, and the Houthis do not recognize (the government),” Nagi told CNN.

    The vessel was abandoned after the outbreak of the Yemeni civil war in 2015. The majority of the oil is owned by Yemeni state firm SEPOC, experts say, and there are some reports that it may be sold.

    “From a technical point of view, the owner of the tanker and the oil inside it is SEPOC,” Nagi said, adding that other energy companies working in Yemen may also share ownership of the oil.

    exp un yemen oil spill tanker achim steiner vause intv FST 071912ASEG2 cnni world_00003204.png

    U.N. begins high-risk operation to prevent catastrophic oil spill from Yemen tanker

    The main issue, Nagi added, is that the Safer’s headquarters are in the government-controlled Marib city, while the tanker is in an area controlled by the Houthis. The Safer is moored off the coast of the western Hodeidah province.

    Discussions to determine the ownership of the oil are underway, Gressly said. The rights to the oil are unclear and there are legal issues that need to be addressed.

    The UN coordinator hopes that the days needed to offload the oil will buy some time for “political and legal discussions that need to take place before the oil can be sold.”

    While the UN may manage to resolve half of the issue, Nagi said, there still needs to be an understanding of the oil’s status.

    “It still poses a danger if we keep it near a conflict zone,” he said.

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  • Taiwan reports record number of Chinese warships in waters around the island | CNN

    Taiwan reports record number of Chinese warships in waters around the island | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A record 16 Chinese warships were spotted in waters around Taiwan in a 24-hour period late last week, the island’s Defense Ministry reported, in what analysts said was the latest sign of an intimidation campaign against Taipei by China’s ruling Communist Party.

    The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) activity in the 24 hours ending at 6 a.m. local time Saturday followed exercises earlier last week that saw dozens of Chinese warplanes fly past the median line of the Taiwan Strait and into the key regions of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

    Over 72 hours in the middle of last week, 73 PLA aircraft either crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line – an informal demarcation point that Beijing does not recognize but until recently largely respected – or entered the southeastern or southwestern parts of the island’s ADIZ.

    During that same period, nine PLA vessels were reported in waters around Taiwan in three consecutive days.

    The 16 Chinese ships around Taiwan on Friday into Saturday was the most since the island’s Defense Ministry began providing daily updates of PLA activity around the island in August 2022.

    “It is a growing military effort,” Carl Schuster, a Hawaii-based analyst and former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, told CNN on Monday.

    The military operations indicate Beijing’s efforts are twofold, he said.

    One, constant PLA activities around the island present its defenders with a range of possible attack routes to design defenses for, and two, to “practice, rehearse and train for the ‘moment’ should it come,” Schuster said.

    That moment would be a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

    China’s ruling Communist Party claims the self-governing democracy as its territory despite never having controlled it, and has spent decades trying to isolate it diplomatically. Beijing has not ruled out using force to take control of the island.

    Chinese state media on Sunday touted the naval activity, noting the PLAN “breaking the record for the number of vessels deployed in its drills in the region,” in a story in Global Times.

    “Analysts said Sunday that the recent intensive exercises demonstrate the PLA’s capabilities in encircling the island,” the Global Times story said.

    Neither Taiwan’s Defense Ministry nor the Global Times article gave details on what PLA warships were in the waters around Taiwan.

    But Chinese state-run media said the PLA exercises “likely featured amphibious landing training” and the story was topped with a picture of a PLAN amphibious assault ship it said was taken “during a maritime real-combat training exercise recently.”

    Schuster said he expects the PLA to keep increasing the pressure on Taiwan.

    “We will see more such exercises and next year’s will more complex and larger in terms of units involved and extent of their activities,” he said.

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  • What we know about Stockton Rush, the Titan submersible’s pilot | CNN Business

    What we know about Stockton Rush, the Titan submersible’s pilot | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate and one of five people on the submersible missing in the North Atlantic, has cultivated a reputation as a kind of modern-day Jacques Cousteau — a nature lover, adventurer and visionary.

    Rush has approached his dream of deep-sea exploration with child-like verve and an antipathy toward regulations — a pattern that has come into sharp relief since Sunday night, when his vessel, the Titan, went missing.

    “I think it was General MacArthur who said you’re remembered for the rules you break,” Rush said in a video interview with Mexican YouTuber Alan Estrada last year. “And I’ve broken some rules to make this. I think I’ve broken them with logic and good engineering behind me.”

    Rush, who graduated from Princeton in 1984 with a degree in aerospace engineering, has said that he never really grew out of his childhood dream of wanting to be an astronaut, but his eyesight wasn’t good enough, according to an interview he gave Smithsonian Magazine in 2019.

    After college, he moved to Seattle to work for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation as a flight test engineer on the F-15 program. He obtained an MBA from UC Berkeley in 1989, according to his company bio.

    He nursed his space travel dream for years, imagining he would join a commercial flight as a tourist. But in 2004, he told Smithsonian, the dream shifted after Richard Branson launched the first commercial aircraft into space.

    “I had this epiphany that this was not at all what I wanted to do,” Rush told the magazine. “I didn’t want to go up into space as a tourist. I wanted to be Captain Kirk on the Enterprise. I wanted to explore.”

    Rush founded OceanGate in 2009, with a stated mission of “increasing access to the deep ocean through innovation.”

    As CEO, Rush oversees the Everett, Washington-based company’s “financial and engineering strategies” and provides a “vision for development” of crewed submersibles, according to his bio.

    OceanGate currently operates three submersibles for conducting research, film production, and “exploration travel,” including tours of the site of the Titanic more than 13,000 feet below the ocean’s surface. A seat on that eight-day mission costs $250,000 per person.

    Rush, who is 61, said he believes deeply that the sea, rather than the sky, offers humanity the best shot at survival when the Earth’s surface becomes uninhabitable.

    “The future of mankind is underwater, it’s not on Mars,” he told Estrada. “We will have a base underwater … If we trash this planet, the best life boat for mankind is underwater.”

    In his eagerness to explore, Rush has often appeared skeptical, if not dismissive, of regulations that might slow innovation.

    The commercial sub industry is “obscenely safe” he told Smithsonian, “because they have all these regulations. But it also hasn’t innovated or grown — because they have all these regulations.”

    Even within OceanGate, warnings from employees about safety appear to have been ignored or disregarded.

    David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former director of marine operations, said in a court filing that he was wrongfully terminated in 2018 for raising concerns about the safety and testing of the Titan. The case was settled out of court, and the terms weren’t disclosed.

    Another former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, echoed Lochridge’s concerns. That employee said that as contractors and employees raised red flags, Rush became defensive and dodged questions in staff meetings.

    OceanGate hasn’t responded to CNN’s request to comment.

    In recent days, as search teams have scoured the ocean for signs of the Titan and its crew, some aspects of the vessel’s design and on-board technology — such as the a videogame controller that the pilot uses to steer it — have raised eyebrows.

    When CBS correspondent David Pogue took a trip on the Titan last year, he reported that communications broke down and the sub was lost at sea for more than two hours. He also asked Rush about what the vessel’s “MacGyvery” components — like the plastic PlayStation controller and LED lights that Rush bought from an RV retailer.

    Rush pushed back against Pogue’s description in that interview, arguing that some elements could be less sophisticated as long as the key parts, like the pressure vessel, is sound. Rush said the pressure vessel had been built in coordination with Boeing, NASA and the University of Washington. Once you’re certain that the pressure vessel is not going to collapse on everybody, he said, “everything else can fail.”

    “It doesn’t matter. Your thrusters can go. Your lights can go. All these things can fail. You’re still going to be safe. And so, that allows you to do what you call MacGyver stuff,” he said.

    Pogue, in an interview with USA Today on Wednesday, recalled his impressions of the Titan. “Some of the ballasts are old, rusty construction pipes. There were certain things that looked like cut corners.”

    Extreme tourism is a lucrative, high-risk industry. And it’s only growing. With enough money, tourists can summit Everest, take a rocket to space, run multi-day ultramarthons catered by Michelin-rated chefs, or plumb the oceans depths that have largely been off-limits for humankind.

    “What I’ve seen with the ultra-rich — money is no object when it comes to experiences,” said Nick D’Annunzio, the owner of public relations firm TARA, Ink. “They want something they they’ll never forget.”

    In that respect, Rush shares something in common with his clients. In his interview with Smithsonian in 2019, he relayed his almost-spiritual attraction to the deep sea. He called it “the deep disease.”

    “I went to 75 feet. I saw cool stuff. I went 100 feet and saw more cool stuff. And I was like, ‘Wow, what’s it gonna be like at the end of this thing?’”

    — CNN’s Celina Tebor and Sam Delouya contributed to this article.

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  • Searchers detected banging while scouring the Atlantic for a manned submersible now running out of oxygen | CNN

    Searchers detected banging while scouring the Atlantic for a manned submersible now running out of oxygen | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Banging sounds have been picked up from the Atlantic Ocean in the hunt for the submersible that went missing while touring Titanic wreckage with five people onboard, signaling “continued hope of survivors,” according to a US government memo, even as the craft’s oxygen dwindles.

    As rescue efforts keep ramping up, the underwater sounds were detected Tuesday by sonar devices deployed to find the 21-foot vessel that lost contact Sunday. The banging first came every 30 minutes and was heard again four hours later, the internal government memo obtained by CNN states.

    FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES

    While the underwater noises, detected by a Canadian P-3 aircraft, prompted the relocation of resources to explore their origin, “searches have yielded negative results,” the US Coast Guard tweeted early Wednesday, as less than a day of breathable air may be left on the vessel, based on agency officials’ latest estimate.

    “Additional acoustic feedback was heard and will assist in vectoring surface assets and also indicating continued hope of survivors,” according to a Coast Guard update Tuesday night.

    It was unclear when exactly the banging was heard Tuesday or how long it lasted, based on the memo. Rolling Stone was first to report news of the banging.

    “We don’t know the source of that noise, but we’ve shared that information with Navy experts to classify it,” US Coast Guard First District Commander Rear Admiral John Mauger told “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday.

    He described there being a lot of metal and other debris in the water around the Titanic site, adding, “That’s why it’s so important that we’ve engaged experts from the Navy that understand the science behind noise and can classify or give us better information about what the source of that noise may be.”

    While that analysis is taking place, Mauger said, two remote operated vehicles and one surface vessel that has sonar capability have been sent to the area where the banging was detected.

    The submersible known as Titan was carrying a pilot and four “mission specialists” when it lost contact with its mother ship about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive, authorities said. The craft is operated by OceanGate Expeditions, which organizes journeys to Titanic’s wreckage on the ocean floor for $250,000, an archived version of its website shows.

    The trip was part of the growing business of wealthy adventure tourism, along with the space flights of Blue Origin and the rise of guided tours to Mount Everest, and reflects an ongoing fascination with the doomed steamship more than a century after it sank on its maiden voyage, killing more than 1,500 people.

    As the search for the Titan continues, CNN has learned of at least two former OceanGate employees who expressed safety concerns about the vessel’s hull years ago, including the thickness of the material used and testing procedures. The 23,000-pound craft is made of highly engineered carbon fiber and titanium.

    But the central focus now is the massive search: The US is moving in military and commercial assets as aircraft from the Canadian Armed Forces, the US Coast Guard and the New York Air National Guard continue to look above and below water, and France’s president has dispatched a research ship with an underwater robot to join the search Wednesday.

    If crews find the missing submersible deep in the ocean, authorities would face a highly complex mission to recover it and any survivors, said retired Navy Capt. Ray Scott “Chip” McCord, whose 30 years of experience includes overseeing several salvage operations.

    “There’s very few assets in the world that can go down that deep,” Scott said.

    The US Navy is sending subject matter experts and a “Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System” that can lift heavy undersea objects to assist in the search and rescue, a spokesperson said Tuesday.

    Still, the five people onboard face a dire situation, said David Gallo, senior adviser for Strategic Initiatives, RMS Titanic, which owns the exclusive salvage rights to the 1912 wreck site. If the submersible is intact, the passengers would be dealing with dwindling oxygen levels and fighting cold, he told CNN.

    Hypothermia would be an issue “if the sub is still at the bottom, because the deep ocean is just above freezing cold,” Gallo said. “It’s like a visit to another planet, it’s not what people think it is. It is a sunless forever, cold environment – high pressure.”

    Chilly conditions and lack of light means those onboard will need to conserve energy, said Joe MacInnis, a physician and renowned diver who’s made two trips to the Titanic wreck.

    “Resting, breathing as little as possible, and trying to keep calm – that is the most important thing,” he told CNN early Wednesday.

    US Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick didn’t know Tuesday if there was enough time to save the five people onboard, but “we will do everything in our power to affect a rescue,” he said.

    Already, more than 10,000 square miles has been searched, Mauger said Tuesday, across a zone that covers an area about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 13,000 feet deep. The Titanic lies at more than 2 miles below the surface.

    Aboard the Titan is OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush, a source with knowledge of the mission plan said, along with British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood, and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, according to relatives and social media posts. Officials have not publicly named those aboard.

    Learning of the underwater banging “raised my hopes through the roof,” Gallo said, adding, “PH Nargeolet, my very good dear friend, is the kind of person that if he were in that submarine that he would think this thoroughly through and would do something like that every 30 minutes.”

    If the sounds came from the submersible, it could be an indication the hull of the vessel is intact, Gallo said.

    But, he warned, “time is of the essence.”

    Amid the race to find the Titan, court filings reveal OceanGate years ago was confronted with safety concerns about the vessel. Two former OceanGate employees separately raised similar safety concerns about the thickness of submersible’s hull when they were employed by the company.

    David Lochridge, who worked as an independent contractor for OceanGate in 2015 and as its employee between 2016 and 2018, said he brought up concerns about the Titan’s hull, according to court documents.

    Lochridge said no non-destructive testing had been performed on the Titan’s hull to check for “delaminations, porosity and voids of sufficient adhesion of the glue being used due to the thickness of the hull,” according to a countersuit filed after Lochridge was sued by OceanGate in 2018 for allegedly sharing confidential information.

    When Lochridge raised the issue, he was told no equipment existed to perform such a test, the suit states. The lawsuit was settled and dismissed in November 2018; its terms were not disclosed, and Lochridge could not be reached for comment.

    There was much additional testing after Lochridge’s time at OceanGate, and it’s unclear whether any of his concerns were addressed as the vessel was developed, court filings from the company indicate.

    Another former employee of OceanGate who worked briefly for the company during the same period as Lochridge became concerned when the carbon fiber hull of the Titan arrived, he told CNN on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly.

    The hull had only been built to 5 inches thick, while he said company engineers told him they had expected it to be 7 inches thick, he told CNN, echoing Lochridge’s concerns about its thickness and adhesion.

    When more concerns were raised by contractors and employees during his time at OceanGate, CEO Rush got defensive and shied away from answering questions during all-staff meetings, the other former employee said.

    When he raised directly to Rush concerns OceanGate could potentially be violating a US law relating to Coast Guard inspections, the CEO outright dismissed them, the former employee said, and that’s when he resigned.

    CNN has reached out to OceanGate for comment on the former employee’s claims.

    One of the individuals on the missing sub to the Titanic posted photos of it on Sunday before its launch. The photos were posted on a dive participant's business Instagram page. They show the sub sitting in a cradle-like flotation device in the Atlantic Ocean.

    See last images of submersible crew before descent to Titanic wreckage

    Safety concerns were also raised by The Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society, which penned a litter to OceanGate in 2018 expressing concern over what it referred to as the company’s “experimental approach” of the Titan vessel and its planned expedition to the site of the Titanic wreckage, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

    “Our apprehension is that the current experimental approach adopted by Oceangate could result in negative outcomes, (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry,” the letter, obtained by the Times, reads in part.

    Specifically, the letter expressed concern over the company’s compliance with a maritime risk assessment certification known as DNV-GL.

    “Your marketing material advertises that the TITAN design will meet or exceed the DNV-GL safety standards, yet it does not appear that Oceangate has the intention of following DNV- GL class rules,” the letter says. “Your representation is, at minimum, misleading to the public and breaches an industry- wide professional code of conduct we all endeavor to uphold.”

    OceanGate has not responded to a request for comment on the letter.

    From left, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, Suleman Dawood, Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Stockton Rush

    The last communication between the vessel and its mother ship, the Polar Prince, came in at 11:47 a.m. Sunday. The vessel was expected to resurface at 6:10 p.m. but did not do so, and authorities were notified at 6:35 p.m., according to Polar Prince co-owner Miawpukek Maritime Horizon Services.

    The mother ship communicates with the vessel by text messages, and it’s required to communicate every 15 minutes, according to OceanGate Expeditions’ archived website. “All those things we’re used to now – GPS, Wi-Fi, radio links – do not work under the ocean,” former Navy submarine officer Capt. J. Van Gurley said.

    Some parts of Titan are decidedly low-tech. Unlike a submarine, a submersible needs a mother ship to launch it, has fewer power reserves and can’t stay underwater as long.

    What we know about the timeline:

    Friday, June 16:

  • The Polar Prince departs St. John’s, NewfoundlandSaturday, June 17:
  • The Polar Prince arrives at the dive siteSunday, June 18:
  • 9 a.m.: The dive operations started
  • 11:47 a.m.: Last communication between vessel and OceanGate surface staff
  • 6:10 p.m.: Originally scheduled resurface time
  • 6:35 pm.: Authorities notified and response operation initiated
  • All times in Atlantic Daylight Time, which is 1.5 hours ahead of Eastern Time
  • Source: Miawpukek Maritime Horizon Services, which co-owns the Polar Prince

“It is operated … by a gaming controller, what essentially looks like a PlayStation controller,” said CNN correspondent Gabe Cohen, who sat in Titan in 2018 while reporting on OceanGate Expeditions for CNN affiliate KOMO.

It’s a “tiny vessel, quite cramped and small,” Cohen said. “You have to sit inside of it, shoes off. It can only fit five people.”

The Titan is held underwater by ballast built to be automatically released after 24 hours to send the sub to the surface, said Aaron Newman, an investor in OceanGate who went down to Titanic on the Titan in 2021.

“It is designed to come back up,” he told CNN.

“It’s a very stressful situation,” John “Danny” Olivas, a retired astronaut who has completed two stays on NASA’s underwater habitat and trained on underwater space walks, told CNN.

“At those depths, they’re not getting a lot of ambient light,” he said, and if there’s been a loss of power, the vessel would get very dark and cold.

“There probably wouldn’t be any cabin air circulation, which could also pose a lot of potential hazards with just breathing the air. The oxygen is important, but also CO2 generation by five people in a small, confined vessel is going to be very challenging and potentially creating a poisonous environment for the crew members,” Olivas told CNN’s Victor Blackwell.

In case of an emergency, the submersible is equipped with basic emergency medical supplies and pilots have basic first aid training, according to OceanGate Expeditions’ website.

The company calls its clients “mission specialists,” who are trained as crew members in a variety of different roles, including communicating with the topside tracking team, taking sonar scans and opening and closing the vessel’s dome, the archived site says.

Clients do not need previous maritime experience to join as mission specialists, it adds.

“Every step possible is being taken to bring the five crew members back safely,” OceanGate in a statement on Monday said. “We are deeply grateful for the urgent and extensive assistance we are receiving from multiple government agencies and deep-sea companies as we seek to reestablish contact with the submersible.”

Deep sea-mapping company Magellan, known for its deep-sea imagery of the Titanic, got notice from the company running the Titanic expedition to mobilize early Monday “by all means necessary– time is of the essence,” Magellan Chairman David Thompson told CNN.

But Magellan needs aircraft that can take its deep-sea diving equipment to the search area – something they don’t have, and they had yet to hear back Tuesday from the US Air Force or UK Royal Airforce about whether they can offer Magellan the use of a plane, Thompson said.

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  • Search efforts grow as mission to rescue 5 aboard missing submersible races clock | CNN

    Search efforts grow as mission to rescue 5 aboard missing submersible races clock | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The multinational search efforts for a submersible with five people onboard that disappeared Sunday while diving to view the Titanic’s resting place grew Tuesday as more ships and aircraft joined the mission to find the mariners before their oxygen runs out.

    A spokesperson for the US Navy said the military branch is sending subject matter experts and a “Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System” to help in the rescue mission for the commercial submersible, which disappeared Sunday morning and as of Tuesday night, had just over 30 hours of oxygen left.

    The system has the capacity to lift and recover large, bulky and heavy undersea objects, like the small submersible.

    The equipment and personnel were expected to arrive at St. John’s, Newfoundland, by Tuesday night, the spokesperson said.

    The US Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Air Force are also deploying more aircraft and vessels to aid in the search for the 21-foot submersible. The fleet of assets joining the operation include a Canadian pipe-laying vessel with underwater capabilities, along with other vessels and aircraft.

    Follow live updates

    OceanGate Expeditions says the submersible, known as “Titan,” begins each trip with 96 hours of life support on the vessel. That is “a short amount of time,” said retired Capt. Bobbie Scholley, a former US Navy diver.

    “The hard part is finding the submersible. And once they find the submersible, there are all sorts of situations of how to get that submersible to the surface, and rescue the crew,” Scholley said.

    The international search and rescue operation is “doing everything possible” as part of a “complex search effort” but has so far “not yielded any results,” US Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick told reporters Tuesday at a 1 p.m. ET news conference. The “unique” and “challenging” search effort has brought together “our nations’ best experts,” he said.

    At the time, Frederick estimated the vessel was down to 40 hours of oxygen – and officials do not know whether that’s enough time to rescue those onboard.

    “What I will tell you is, we will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” he said in response to a question about the oxygen time limit from CNN.

    If searchers locate the submersible deep in the ocean, the mission to recover the craft and any onboard survivors will be complex.

    “There’s very few assets in the world that can go down that deep,” said retired Capt. Chip McCord, whose 30 years of US Navy experience includes overseeing several salvage operations.

    Because of the depth of the ocean floor, a search craft would have to “go up and down like an elevator” rather than cruise the bottom of the sea, he added.

    Searchers have taken the mission below sea level after scouring an area of the ocean’s surface about the size of Connecticut, US Coast Guard District 1 Rear Admiral John Mauger said Tuesday morning. “We now have underwater search capability on scene, and so we’re going to be using that to see if we can locate the submersible in the water,” he told CNN.

    The search zone covers an area about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 13,000 feet deep, Mauger said Monday afternoon. “We are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people onboard,” he told reporters.

    The submersible known as “Titan” – roughly the size of a minivan – was carrying one pilot and four “mission specialists” when it lost contact with its mother ship about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent, authorities said.

    The submersible is operated by OceanGate Expeditions, a company that organizes a journey to the ocean floor for a price of $250,000, according to an archived version of its website.

    The 23,000-pound Titan is made of highly engineered carbon fiber and titanium and is equipped with repurposed everyday items, including a video game controller used to steer.

    The expedition reflects the ongoing fascination with the Titanic’s wreckage more than a century after it hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage, killing more than 1,500 people. The journey is also part of the growing business of wealthy adventure tourism, along with the space flights of Blue Origin or the rise of guided tours to Mount Everest.

    OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush is among the five onboard, according to a source with knowledge of the mission plan.

    The others are British businessman Hamish Harding; Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son, Sulaiman Dawood; and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, according to CNN reporting.

    OceanGate did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment about Rush being aboard.

    OceanGate in a statement on Monday said “every step possible is being taken to bring the five crew members back safely. We are deeply grateful for the urgent and extensive assistance we are receiving from multiple government agencies and deep-sea companies as we seek to reestablish contact with the submersible.”

    In 2018, the Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society penned a letter to Rush, expressing concern over what they referred to as OceanGate’s “experimental approach” of the Titan and its planned expedition to the site of the Titanic wreckage, the New York Times reports.

    “Our apprehension is that the current experimental approach adopted by Oceangate could result in negative outcomes, (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry,” the letter – which was obtained by the Times – reads, in part.

    Specifically, the letter expressed concern over the company’s compliance with a maritime risk assessment certification known as DNV-GL.

    “Your marketing material advertises that the TITAN design will meet or exceed the DNV-GL safety standards, yet it does not appear that Oceangate has the intention of following DNV-GL classrules,” the letter says. “Your representation is, at minimum, misleading to the public and breaches an industry-wide professional code of conduct we all endeavor to uphold.”

    OceanGate has not responded to a request for comment on the letter.

    The effort to locate those on board, meanwhile, has grown by the day. The Coast Guard is searching with aerial and water surface craft, and the Canadian Armed Forces is also deploying aircraft to assist in the search, a spokesperson told CNN.

    The Canadian research vessel Polar Prince, which took the submersible to the wreckage site, is assisting search and rescue efforts, a spokesperson for its co-owner Horizon Maritime told CNN.

    Officials involved in the search have not publicly named those aboard the submersible, but social media posts and friends and family have identified them.

    Action Aviation, an aircraft brokerage based in the United Arab Emirates, in a statement on Tuesday confirmed Harding, its chairman, is on board.

    “Both the Harding Family and the team at Action Aviation are very grateful for all the kind messages of concern and support from our friends and colleagues,” the statement said. “We are thankful for the continued efforts of the authorities and companies that have stepped in to aid in the rescue efforts. We put great faith and trust in their expertise.”

    Harding has an extensive record of adventures: In 2019 he took part in a flight crew that broke the world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe via both poles, and in 2020 he became one of the first people to dive to Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, widely believed to be the deepest point in the world’s oceans.

    And last year, he paid an undisclosed sum of money for one of the seats on Blue Origin’s space flight.

    The day before the vessel went missing, Harding wrote of the Titanic mission: “I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic.”

    A friend told CNN on Tuesday that Harding is “larger than life.”

    “He lives exploration. He is an explorer to the core of his soul,” fellow explorer Jannicke Mikkelsen said. “He has been to the bottom of planet earth in the Mariana Trench … he’s even been in space. We circumnavigated the planet together … the north and south pole, and set the world speed record.”

    Nargeolet was scheduled to be on Sunday’s dive with him, Harding said Saturday in a Facebook post:

    “The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet,” Harding wrote, according to CNN news partner CTV News.

    A friend of Nargeolet, Mathieu Johann, told CNN Tuesday the missing submariner is a “hero” and said, “I hope that, right to the end, like in the movies, he’ll reappear very quickly to reassure us all.”

    “What we’re going through right now is this interminable wait,” Johann said.

    Nargeolet is a Titanic expert who has taken the trip every year, completing more than 37 dives to the wreck, according to an archived version of OceanGate Expeditions’ website accessible via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

    “Something we always think about as explorers and scientists … we’ve always known something like this could happen and now it’s happened,” said David Gallo, a colleague of Nargeolet and the senior adviser for Strategic Initiatives at RMS Titanic Inc. “But we’re still pretty much in shock, the community is. I hope it has a good ending.”

    Further, Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood, of Pakistan, “embarked on a journey to visit the remnants of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean,” their family said Tuesday in a statement. “As of now, contact has been lost with their submersible craft and there is limited information available,” the family said, adding they’re praying for their loved ones’ safe return.

    The incident has left the community of undersea explorers in shock, said David Gallo, who called Nargeolet his “closest colleague. “We’ve always known something like this could happen and now it’s happened … I hope it is a good ending,” Gallo, senior adviser for strategic initiatives at RMS Titanic Inc., told CNN.

    An undated photo shows the OceanGate Titan vessel.

    The OceanGate Expeditions trip began with a 400-nautical-mile journey from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to the Titanic wreck site. There, the submersible started its descent Sunday morning before losing contact with the Polar Prince, a converted ice breaker that was its mother ship.

    The last communication between the vessel and OceanGate staff at the surface came in at 11:47 a.m. The vessel was expected to resurface at 6:10 p.m. but did not do so, and authorities were notified at 6:35 p.m., according to Polar Prince co-owner Miawpukek Maritime Horizon Services.

    Chief Mi’sel Joe of Miawpukek First Nation, which co-owns the Polar Prince, got a call Sunday alerting him that the submersible was two hours overdue and still hadn’t surfaced and communication with it was lost, he said. At that point, requests for search and rescue had gone out, he said.

    “There’s a tremendous amount of concern,” Joe said. “I have anguish that people are going through this. I wish there was more I can do.”

    Unlike a submarine, a submersible needs a mother ship to launch it, has fewer power reserves and can’t stay underwater as long.

    A mother ship can communicate with a submersible “via text messages which are exchanged via a USBL (ultra-short baseline) acoustic system,” according to OceanGate Expeditions’ archived website. The submersible is required to communicate with the ship every 15 minutes or more frequently, if needed, the site says. That USBL system is the only communications link between the submersible and the surface, it adds.

    What we know about the timeline:

    Friday, June 16:

  • The Polar Prince departs St. John’s, NewfoundlandSaturday, June 17:
  • The Polar Prince arrives at the dive siteSunday, June 18:
  • 9 a.m.: The dive operations started
  • 11:47 a.m.: Last communication between vessel and OceanGate surface staff
  • 6:10 p.m.: Originally scheduled resurface time
  • 6:35 pm.: Authorities notified and response operation initiated
  • All times in Atlantic Daylight Time, which is 1.5 hours ahead of Eastern Time
  • Source: Miawpukek Maritime Horizon Services, which co-owns the Polar Prince

    • While Titan is made of carbon fiber and titanium, some parts are decidedly low-tech.

    “It is operated … by a gaming controller, what essentially looks like a PlayStation controller,” said CNN correspondent Gabe Cohen, who sat in Titan in 2018 while reporting on OceanGate Expeditions for CNN affiliate KOMO.

    Cohen was surprised by how simple some of the craft’s technology seemed, he said Tuesday on “CNN This Morning.”

    It’s a “tiny vessel, quite cramped and small,” Cohen said. “You have to sit inside of it, shoes off. It can only fit five people.”

    A Titanic dive takes about 10 hours from start to finish, including the two and a half hours it takes to reach the bottom, the website says. The company calls its clients “mission specialists,” who are trained as crew members in a variety of different roles, including communicating with the topside tracking team, taking sonar scans and opening and closing the vessel’s dome, the archived site says.

    Clients do not need previous maritime experience to join as mission specialists, it adds.

    In case of an emergency, the submersible is equipped with basic emergency medical supplies and pilots have basic first aid training, according to OceanGate Expeditions’ website.

    Everybody is “focused onboard here for our friends,” an expedition participant on the Polar Prince said Monday.

    “We have a situation that is now the part of a major Search and Rescue effort, being undertaken by major agencies,” Rory Golden said on Facebook after CNN contacted him. “That is where our focus is right now.”

    Hamish Harding posted an image of the submersible to his social media accounts on Saturday.

    Deep sea-mapping company Magellan, known for their one-of-a-kind deep sea imagery of the Titanic, is trying to get involved in the search and rescue efforts but a key transport issue is holding them back. Magellan Chairman David Thompson told CNN that his team is familiar with the site of the wreck and received written notice from OceanGate Expeditions to mobilize early Monday and help.

    However, they need an aircraft with the ability to transport their deep-sea diving equipment from the UK to Canada to launch their operation. Specifically, he said, they would require the use of a C-17 Globemaster III military jet.

    “We know the wreck site, we know the location, and the equipment we are trying to get picked up is the equipment we used to do that scanning of the Titanic,” Thompson said.

    Thompson said the US Air Force or UK Royal Airforce have not gotten back to Magellan letting them know if or when a plane can be procured for them to use to transport the equipment they need to Canada to embark on rescue efforts.

    Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Mathieu Johann’s relationship to Nargeolet. He is a friend.

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  • A search and rescue operation is underway for a submersible touring the wreckage of the Titanic | CNN

    A search and rescue operation is underway for a submersible touring the wreckage of the Titanic | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The US Coast Guard launched a search and rescue operation for a submersible with five people on board that went missing during an expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean.

    The military branch received a phone call Sunday informing them the Canadian research ship Polar Prince had lost contact with the underwater vessel and were overdue on checking with their communications, according to Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. Samantha Corcoran.

    “Right now, we are just trying to use all efforts and work with international partners to try to get any resources out there to safely locate all five individuals,” she said.

    The missing submersible lost contact 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent, the Coast Guard said.

    See our live coverage here.

    The group conducting the expedition, OceanGate Expeditions, said it is “exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely.”

    “Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible,” the group said. “We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”

    Chief Mi’sel Joe of Miawpukek First Nation, which co-owns the Polar Prince, the support vessel on the expedition, said he received a call Sunday afternoon alerting him the sub was two hours overdue and still hadn’t surfaced, and they had lost communication with the sub. At that point, requests for search and rescue had gone out, he said.

    OceanGate Expeditions operates a trip taking passengers to the Titanic’s wreckage at the bottom of the ocean for prices starting at $250,000, according to an archived version of its website, accessible via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

    “Follow in Jacques Cousteau’s footsteps and become an underwater explorer — beginning with a dive to the wreck of the RMS Titanic. This is your chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary,” the website said. “Become one of the few to see the Titanic with your own eyes.”

    The eight-day expedition is based out of St. John’s, Newfoundland and begins with a 400-nautical-mile journey to the wreck site. There, up to five people, including a pilot, a “content expert” and three paying passengers, board a submersible named “Titan” and descend over two hours to the bottom of the ocean to see the Titanic up close.

    According to OceanGate, Titan is a 23,000-pound submersible made of carbon fiber and titanium. As a safety feature, the sub uses a “proprietary real-time hull health monitoring (RTM) system” that analyzes the pressure on the vessel and the integrity of the structure, the company states. It also has life support for a crew of five for up to 96 hours, the website states.

    The Titanic infamously hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in April 1912, killing over 1,500 people. The wreckage of the Titanic, discovered in 1985, sits in two parts at the bottom of the ocean nearly 13,000 feet below the surface, southeast of Newfoundland.

    Unlike a submarine, a submersible has limited power reserves so it needs a mother ship that can launch and recover it, according to NOAA.

    CNN has reached out to authorities in Newfoundland, Canada.

    A Coast Guard C-130 aircraft and a P-8 Poseidon aircraft with underwater detection capabilities from RCC Halifax are on scene, and a Canadian Coast Guard ship is also heading to the area, Corcoran said.

    In an interview with Fox News, First District Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said the Coast Guard is “bringing all assets to bear” in search of the missing submersible.

    “So this is a comprehensive approach to try and locate this submersible, but it is a large area of water and it’s complicated by local weather conditions as well,” he said.

    One of the individuals on the missing sub posted photos of it on Sunday before its launch.

    One of the individuals on the missing submersible posted photos of it on Sunday before its launch.

    The photos, posted on a dive participant’s business Instagram page, show the sub sitting in a cradle-like flotation device in the ocean. A caption accompanying the photos said it “had a successful launch” and was “currently diving.”

    Another post from the account, posted on Saturday, noted the weather had been bad but a “window” had opened up for Sunday.

    CNN is not naming the individual at this time but has reached out to their company for comment.

    An expedition participant on board the Polar Prince, the ship that launched the now-missing sub, said they are all “focused on board here for our friends.”

    “We have a situation that is now the part of a major Search and Rescue effort, being undertaken by major agencies,” Rory Golden wrote on Facebook after being contacted by CNN. “That is where our focus is right now.”

    He asked people not to ask for or speculate on the names of those on the missing sub.

    “I have seen some comments already on social media that are highly inappropriate and insensitive,” he said. He added their online and internet options were being restricted “to keep bandwidth available for the coordinated effort that is taking place.”

    “The reaction and offers of help globally is truly astonishing, and only goes to show the real goodness in people at a time like this,” he said. He ended the post thanking everyone and saying, “… think positive. We are.”

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

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  • Body pulled from wreckage of collapsed section of I-95 in Philadelphia identified as truck driver, official says | CNN

    Body pulled from wreckage of collapsed section of I-95 in Philadelphia identified as truck driver, official says | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The body recovered from the wreckage of the Interstate 95 collapse in Philadelphia was identified by officials Tuesday as the driver of the truck that crashed underneath the freeway and ignited a fire.

    The truck driver, Nathan Moody, died of blunt trauma of head, inhalation and thermal injuries, Philadelphia Department of Health spokesperson James Garrow told CNN.

    Moody was a 53-year-old father of three and a career truck driver, according to his cousin Isaac Moody.

    “Truck driving meant everything to him, that was his livelihood,” Isaac Moody told CNN in an interview Monday afternoon.

    The tanker truck was carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline when it crashed Sunday and went up in flames underneath the I-95, authorities said. A section of the overhead northbound lanes of the freeway then collapsed on top it.

    The truck had gone through an off-ramp, fell onto its side while trying to go around a curve, slammed into a wall and ignited a fire around 6:30 a.m., Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said Monday.

    Moody’s family had heard of the crash and immediately started calling him, but grew worried as their calls went unanswered, Isaac Moody said.

    A state trooper then came by Monday, saying that a badly burned body was pulled from the wreckage, and requested dental records to help identify the person, Isaac Moody said.

    The mangled and charred wreckage of the truck was hauled away Monday while crews with heavy equipment worked in the rubble of the collapse. Demolition is expected to take four to five days, according to Carroll.

    As crews work around-the-clock to demolish the crumbled section of the I-95, officials warn it could take months to repair the damage to the critical East Coast artery.

    Carroll said he and Gov. Josh Shapiro will lay out plans to repair the highway. “The governor and I are prepared tomorrow to provide that kind of detail,” Carroll said at a news conference Tuesday at the collapse site.

    US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also visited the site of the collapse Tuesday. He told reporters that his agency will help provide “every resource that is needed” to help local officials address the damage.

    Buttigieg described the “outsized impact” on commuters and goods movement in the area. The highway typically carries about 160,000 vehicles through Philadelphia daily.

    About 8% of those vehicles are trucks that will now need to take longer, more costly routes, Buttigieg said. “That is a lot of America’s GDP moving along that road every day,” he said.

    Buttigieg said his department is making contact with Google and Waze to optimize traffic information reaching commuters.

    The fire caused a northbound stretch of the interstate to fall on the truck, authorities said. Southbound lanes were also compromised, officials have said, and need to be repaired. The primary detour is about 23 miles using state or interstate roads, local transportation officials said.

    The National Transportation Safety Board said it’s begun its investigation and the tanker truck will be an initial focus.

    The company that owns the truck has been in contact with officials and is complying with state police, officials said. State police would not identify the company.

    Buttigieg has said his agency is prepared to help local officials swiftly address the extensive disruption caused by the collapse. “To be clear, swiftly is not going to be overnight,” Buttigieg told reporters Monday at an event hosted by the American Council of Engineering Companies. “We’re talking about major structural work.”

    I-95 collapse detours

  • 1-95 is closed between the Woodhaven Road and Aramingo Avenue exits
  • Southbound detour: Route 63 West (Woodhaven Road), US 1 South, I-76 East, I-676 East
  • Northbound detour: I-676 West, I-76 West, US 1 North, Route 63 East (Woodhaven Road)
  • People are urged to use public transportation as an alternative and SEPTA is adding capacity and service

    • The governor issued a disaster declaration Monday, saying it will allow the state to dip into federal funds and cut red tape to expedite repairs. The proclamation makes $7 million in state funds immediately available for the reconstruction – though the total cost of the mammoth project remains unclear.

    Shapiro also spoke with President Joe Biden on Monday, “who reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to provide whatever resources are needed to repair I-95 safely and efficiently,” the governor’s office said.

    The state’s transportation department said a timeline for the rebuilding work would be released after engineers complete a review.

    “Crews will work around the clock to ensure that demolition and reconstruction occurs quickly and efficiently, and that the roadway will reopen as soon as possible,” the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said.

    As machinery towed pieces of the crumbled highway away, a team of federal investigators was beginning to examine the tanker truck fire and how it led to the highway collapse, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told CNN on Monday.

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks with members of the media at the scene of a collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

    The tanker was carrying gasoline bound for delivery at a local Wawa gas station.

    “We have to get in and see what we think happened with the tanker truck,” Homendy said. “There are lots of different scenarios.”

    Investigators might also need to examine the structural makeup of the bridge, said Homendy.

    Pennsylvania State Police said Monday that officials will not launch a criminal investigation into the collapse.

    Shortly before the collapse, Mark Fusetti was driving south on I-95 in Philadelphia and began filming when he saw plumes of dark smoke.

    Fusetti’s cell phone footage appears to show his car and other vehicles driving over a “dip” along I-95 as smoke billows from under both sides of the highway.

    “I realized what happened when I looked in my rearview mirror. I see 95 – all of the cars stopping and then I learned, shortly after that the road had just collapsed and what was really going on,” Fusetti told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Sunday.

    Along with the smoke and fire under the highway, there were also explosions caused by “runoff of maybe some fuel or gas lines that could have been compromised by the accident,” said Philadelphia Fire Department Battalion Chief Derek Bowmer.

    The collapsed roadway is one of the busiest interstates in the city – a critical East Coast thoroughfare that officials say supports Pennsylvania’s economy.

    Restoring the highway will likely take months, Shapiro said, adding that his office was looking into “alternatives to connect the roadway beyond detours.”

    The collapsed section of Interstate 95 is seen in this still image obtained from a social media video.

    The impacts could ripple across the state and the larger northeast. Buttigieg said the incident was “causing what we know will be extensive disruption for the movement of people and goods through that region.”

    He called it “a cruel reminder of the importance of our infrastructure,” while at the gathering of the American Council of Engineering Companies on Monday.

    Residents were warned to expect delays to trash collection and bus routes in the area. All lanes of I-95 are closed between the Woodhaven and Aramingo exits, the city of Philadelphia said.

    Monday morning commuters were forced to find new routes to work, with traffic impacts stretching beyond just I-95.

    “You don’t realize how much that cripples the city,” resident Ruth Acker told CNN affiliate WPVI.

    “I was supposed to go to work. Stopped at Wawa – made a mistake – 45-minute detour just to get to Wawa,” commuter Danny Rodriguez told WPVI.

    Officials from New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland have helped manage I-95 traffic in the wake of the collapse, Carroll said Monday.

    The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority said it added extra capacity and service to other transportation routes and was evaluating all options to assist travelers as they work around the highway collapse.

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  • Officials scramble to provide alternate routes after tanker truck fire causes major I-95 highway collapse in Philadelphia that could take months to fix | CNN

    Officials scramble to provide alternate routes after tanker truck fire causes major I-95 highway collapse in Philadelphia that could take months to fix | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Officials are scrambling to set up alternate transportation options for Monday morning commuters after a section of Interstate 95 collapsed in Philadelphia due to a tanker truck fire Sunday – leaving the East Coast’s primary highway with major damage that could take months to repair.

    No injuries or fatalities from the highway collapse have been reported. But it remained unclear whether anyone was caught in the burning commercial tanker truck, which was carrying a flammable substance/oil?. The truck was still trapped under the collapsed highway Sunday afternoon, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference.

    Roughly 160,000 vehicles typically commute on the now-collapsed road each day, making it “likely the busiest interstate in our commonwealth,” said Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll.

    “I found myself thanking the Lord that no motorists who were on I-95 were injured or died,” Shapiro said, describing witnessing “remarkable devastation” during a flyover of the scene.

    Northbound lanes collapsed and southbound lanes were damaged due to the intensity of the blaze and were “not structurally sound to carry any traffic,” Shapiro said. Restoring the highway will likely take months, he said, adding that his office was looking into “alternatives to connect the roadway beyond detours.”

    Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat whose district includes the section of the highway, told CNN that “you are literally going to have millions of people in what is one of the largest population centers in the country impacted in a significant way.”

    The governor said he plans to issue a disaster declaration Monday, allowing the state to immediately dip into federal funds, cut through the red tape and move quickly to repair and reconstruct this roadway. He said he got assurances from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

    “Secretary Buttigieg has assured me that there will be absolutely no delay in getting federal funds deployed to quickly help us rebuild this critical artery. I-95, of course, is a critical roadway that supports our economy and plays an important role in folks everyday lives,” Shapiro said.

    The commercial tanker truck, which was carrying a petroleum-based product, caught fire around 6:20 am ET, causing a section of the overhead northbound I-95 highway to collapse atop the truck, authorities said. The cause of the fire is also under investigation.

    By Sunday afternoon, the fire was contained but firefighters remained at the scene as a precaution “because of the large volume of product that was involved,” Philadelphia Fire Department Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson said.

    Crews will be working through the night to clear the collapsed section of the road, Carroll said.

    Officials warned residents to avoid the area and to expect delays of trash collection and bus routes in the area.

    “The challenges will be real when it comes to traffic movements in the city as a result of this incident,” Carroll said.

    Leslie Richards, general manager of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), said the agency is adding extra capacity and service to other transportation routes and evaluating all options in assisting travelers work around the highway collapse including.

    “In order to accommodate travel through the city and region following the I-95 collapse, SEPTA will provide added capacity and Service. on the Trenton, West Trenton and Fox Chase Lines,” SEPTA, the sixth largest public transportation agency in the US, said in a statement.

    Mark Fusetti was driving south on I-95 in Philadelphia to pick up his son from the airport on Sunday before the collapse when he saw large plumes of dark smoke and began filming, initially thinking there was a brush fire.

    Video he filmed on his cellphone appears to show his car and other vehicles driving over a “dip” along I-95 as smoke billowed from under both sides of the highway. He said he was startled by the dip, saying, “it felt like you drove off a curb.”

    “I realized what happened when I looked in my rear-view mirror. I see 95 – all of the cars stopping and then I learned, shortly after that the road had just collapsed and what was really going on,” Fusetti told CNN’s Jim Acosta Sunday.

    The cause of and circumstances surrounding the fire and collapse remain under investigation, officials say.

    Philadelphia Fire Department Battalion Chief Derek Bowmer said “it looked like we had a lot of heat and heavy fire underneath the underpass.”

    With thousands of tons of steel and concrete on top of where the fire was burning, firefighters initially faced a challenge getting to the seat of the fire, Bowmer said during a news conference Sunday morning.

    There were also explosions around the highway collapse caused by “runoff of maybe some fuel or gas lines that could have been compromised by the accident,” Bowmer noted.

    “We have fire coming out of those manholes,” Bowmer said Sunday morning.

    While the exact cost of repairing the crucial roadway remains unclear, the governor told reporters Sunday afternoon that the state is working with federal officials on a “speedy rebuild of I-95.”

    President Joe Biden has been briefed on the collapse, according to a tweet from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

    A spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration said administrator Shailen Bhatt would be in Philadelphia on Monday to “offer federal support and assistance.”

    Officials work at the scene after a section of I-95 collapsed on Sunday.

    The US Coast Guard, which was looking out for possible water pollution after the fire and road collapse, reported “a sheen on the water” that was confined to one area, according to a spokesperson.

    The tanker that caught fire has the potential to spill 8,500 gallons of gasoline, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

    A 29-foot boat was sent to monitor the area “to observe any pollution to the waterways. They reported that there is a sheen on the water but it seems to be confined to the cove,” the Coast Guard’s statement reads. “The substance is gasoline and the tanker has a potential to spill 8500 gallons. However, it has been reported to us that clean up efforts are mainly shore side, meaning on land.”

    The governor later Sunday sought to assure residents, saying “there is no threat to anyone’s drinking water.”

    Brendan Riley, director of water operations for the Philadelphia Water Department, echoed that water in the city was safe.

    “At this point in time, we have no concerns of any environmental impact to our water intake at the Baxter Water treatment plant,” Riley said. “There was a lot of coordination with the Department of Environmental Protection, the US Coast Guard as well as to make sure that we responded appropriately and deploy some booms, not only at our intakes but also at the outfall location where there was any potential discharge.”

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  • Section of northbound I-95 collapses in Philadelphia after tanker truck catches fire underneath highway | CNN

    Section of northbound I-95 collapses in Philadelphia after tanker truck catches fire underneath highway | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A section of northbound I-95 in Philadelphia has collapsed after a tanker truck caught fire underneath the highway, Philadelphia officials said Sunday morning.

    “We did have a collapse of 95 on the northbound side, and the southbound side is compromised by heavy fire,” Derek Bowmer, battalion chief for the Philadelphia Fire Department, said during a news conference Sunday morning. “It looked like we had a lot of heat and heavy fire underneath the underpass.”

    Firefighters are still battling the blaze, Bowmer said.

    Explosions around the highway collapse were caused by “runoff of maybe some fuel or gas lines that could have been compromised by the accident,” said Bowmer.

    “We have fire coming out of those manholes,” Bowmer said.

    Photos and videos from the scene show huge plumes of smoke billowing from the interstate.

    The mayor’s office told CNN a large tanker truck fire caused the collapse. The highway is closed in both directions around the area and the fire is under control, according to Sarah Peterson, the office’s communications director.

    Dominick Mireles, director of Philadelphia’s Office of Emergency Management, said officials would be dealing with the collapse and the fire for a long time.

    “Today’s going to be a long day. And obviously with 95 northbound gone, and southbound questionable, it’s going to be even longer than that,” Mireles said. “The roadway’s gone.”

    Tumar Alexander, managing director for the City of Philadelphia, said the incident will “be a significant impact to this community for a while.”

    “95 will be impacted for a long time,” Alexander said during the news conference.

    The fire is under investigation by the fire marshal and other partners, Bowmer added during the news conference.

    The Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management urged travelers to avoid the area and seek alternate routes in a Sunday morning tweet.

    Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has been briefed on the collapse, according to a Twitter thread Sunday.

    “I was just briefed by @PEMAHQ, @PennDOTNews, and @PAStatePolice on the I-95 fire and collapse in Philadelphia. State Police and PEMA are on the scene assisting local first responders and @PennDOTSec and his team are en route to assess the situation and address traffic needs,” said the governor on his verified Twitter account.

    “@LTGDavis and I are closely coordinating with partners in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and the federal government and we will share more information as we have it. For now, please avoid the area and follow the direction of the first responders on the scene.”

    Officials have not reported on any injuries.

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