Baltimore bridge collapse: First missing worker named – as rescue mission becomes a recovery operation
President Biden has promised that he will visit Baltimore “as soon as possible” after a major bridge collapsed – as officials say the rescue mission for the six missing people has now become a recovery operation.
Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, was one of the six people on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed after being hit by a 289m-long cargo ship.
Those missing were reported to be construction workers who were on the bridge fixing potholes. All six worked for Brawner Builders, and are presumed dead by authorities.
Miguel Luna is missing presumed dead. Pic: Family photo via NBC
Baltimore bridge latest: Follow live updates
A relative of Mr Luna told Sky News they were distraught as they waited for news about him, and said that some members of his family were taken by police to a location in Baltimore where they could be with the other families of the missing.
Jose Campos, a colleage of Mr Luna, also told Sky: “My supervisor called me in the morning and told me they had rescued one of my colleagues but he was in a coma.
“I never imagined something this awful could happen. The path where the boat goes was supposed to be a safe zone.”
The 1.6-mile long bridge crashed into the Patapsco River at 1.30am local time (5.30am UK time) on Tuesday. Joe Biden was quick to say to the “People of Baltimore, we’re with you,” and added the search and rescue operation was a “top priority”.
The search has now been suspended for the night and will resume at first light, but US Coast Guard and Maryland State Police officials have said that based on the frigid temperature of the water and the length of time that had elapsed since the bridge came down there was little if any chance that the six could be found alive.
Eight people were initially unaccounted for, with two of them having been rescued from the water.
One of them is described as being in a “very serious condition” in hospital while the other was not injured.
Meanwhile, the US president said the federal government will cover the “full cost” of rebuilding the bridge. He said it may emerge a private company was responsible for the disaster, but his government is “not going to wait” to begin the rebuilding process.
Mr Biden told reporters at the White House: “It’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge and I expect Congress to support my effort.”
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Everything we know about the Baltimore bridge collapse.
The US president continued: “Everything so far indicates that this was a terrible accident. At this time we have no other indication, no other reason to believe there’s any intentional act here.
“Personnel on board the ship were able to alert the Maryland Department of Transportation that they had lost control of their vessel.”
Mr Biden added that this meant local authorities were able to close the bridge before it was struck which “undoubtedly saved lives”.
He continued: “Our prayers are with everyone involved in this terrible accident and all the families [affected], especially those waiting for news of their loved one right now. I know every minute in that circumstance feels like a lifetime.”
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The US president also said authorities will be working to get the port open again as soon as possible.
The Port of Baltimore, which is accessed or departed by going underneath the bridge, is one of the US’ largest shipping hubs.
Mr Biden said 15,000 jobs depend on the port.
“We’re going to do everything we can to protect those jobs,” he added.
He continued: “I’ve directed my team to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible.”
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‘They thought it was an earthquake’
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Timeline of Baltimore bridge collapse
Baltimore fire department’s communications chief Kevin Cartwright has said there were multiple vehicles on the bridge when it was struck by the ship, one of which was the size of a tractor trailer.
CCTV and marine tracking data shows the ship, known as the Dali, lost power, adjusted its course and started smoking about 60 seconds before it hit the bridge.
According to the timings on the CCTV, the vessel hit the structure at 1.28:44am – with the bridge collapsing four seconds later.
All 22 crew members on board the ship, including the two pilots, have been accounted for and there were no reports of injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a news conference that its investigators will not board the Dali on Tuesday.
The authority’s chair Jennifer Homendy said the decision has been made to give “some time to the search and recovery effort”.
“We did not want to interfere,” she added.
Ms Homendy explained the NTSB will be able to provide more information in the “coming days”, and voyager data recorder information will be “critical”.
She said the NTSB will be leading the investigation and the Coast Guard will support it.
The same ship was previously involved in a minor incident when it hit a quay at the Port of Antwerp in Belgium in 2016, according to Vessel Finder and maritime accident site Shipwrecklog.
The vessel was reportedly damaged in the incident, but there were no injuries or pollution issues reported.
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Aerial view of Baltimore bridge crash
Meanwhile, Mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott has declared a local state of emergency which will be in place for the next 30 days as the search for the missing continues.
The NTSB is also conducting an investigation into the incident.
The Singapore-flagged ship was headed to Colombo in Sri Lanka at the time of the collision.
It was chartered by Danish shipping company Maersk, which said it was “horrified by what has happened”. It said its thoughts were with everyone affected.
The Port of Baltimore is the 11th largest in the US, meaning its closure will cause knock-on effects for the industry.
Built in 1977, the Francis Scott Key Bridge is one of the longest continuous truss bridges in the world, according to the National Steel Bridge Alliance.
It was named after the writer of The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the US, which was penned after a War of 1812 US-UK battle in Baltimore harbour.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has said CCTV footage showing him attacking singer Cassie in a hotel hallway in 2016 is “inexcusable” and that he is “disgusted”.
Warning: This story includes images readers may find distressing
“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” the rapper said in a video on Instagram.
“I was f***** up – I mean I hit rock bottom – but l make no excuses. My behaviour on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.
“I went and I sought out professional help. I got into going to therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry. But I’m committed to be a better man each and every day. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m truly sorry.”
Pic: CNN via AP
Pic: CNN via AP
The 54-year-old, whose homes in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by Homeland Security Investigations agents in March, has faced a series of public allegations of physical and sexual violence.
Footage obtained by CNN this week shows Combs – also known as P Diddy and Puff Daddy – wearing only a white towel as he punches and kicks Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway on 5 March 2016.
The footage also shows Combs shoving and dragging the singer and throwing a vase in her direction.
Pic: CNN via AP
Cassie, an R&B singer whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura, was his protege and girlfriend at the time.
The 37-year-old sued Combs in November with the lawsuit accusing him of rape and violent behaviour during their decade-long relationship.
The suit was settled the next day, but it led to intense scrutiny of Combs, who has since been named as a defendant in several sexual abuse lawsuits, along with a federal criminal sex-trafficking investigation that led authorities to the raid in March.
Sean Combs and Cassie in 2017. Pic: PA
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Diddy’s homes raided
He denied the allegations in the lawsuits, but neither he nor his representatives had responded to the newly-emerged video until Sunday.
After the footage emerged, Douglas H Wigdor, lawyer for Ms Ventura, said in a statement in response: “The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behaviour of Mr Combs.
“Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”
Combs’ Instagram apology is the hip hop mogul’s most direct response after six months of allegations that have threatened his reputation and career.
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. Pic: AP
Previous statements have been released through his lawyers.
The security camera video, dated 5 March 2016, closely resembles the description of an incident at an InterContinental Hotel in the Century City area of Los Angeles described in Ms Ventura’s November lawsuit.
The suit alleges that Combs paid the hotel $50,000 (around £39,000) for the security video immediately after the incident.
Neither he nor his representatives have addressed that specific allegation.
CNN did not say how it obtained the footage.
Combs is not in danger of being criminally prosecuted for the beating.
The statutes of limitations for the assault and battery charges he would have been likely to face expired years ago.
US
Adam Boulton: ‘Like those old guys on The Muppets’ – bad sign for democracy as Trump and Biden call shots on how they will debate
That was easy. Donald Trump and Joe Biden duelled briefly over the airwaves about debating.
“Any time, any place, anywhere,” the Republican candidate had challenged. “Make my day, pal” the president retorted movie-style.
In just a matter of hours the two men agreed to Joe Biden‘s proposal for two televised presidential debates before the election on 5 November – at CNN HQ in Atlanta on 27 June and on ABC forum on 10 September.
There will be more role-playing between now and the agreed showdowns. Biden has already rejected Trump’s counter-offer of two further debates including one on Fox News.
But once again the US does seem on course to hold debates between the frontrunners for the White House, as it has in most of the presidential cycles since JFK took on Richard Nixon in 1960. The UK has only managed to hold proper equivalent prime ministerial leaders debates in 2010.
The two candidates will confront each other in different circumstances than previously. They will meet earlier in the cycle of the election year and without the usual rules.
Both sides have agreed to cold shoulder the widely respected Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), which had proposed three debates before mass audiences closer to polling day.
The Republicans and the Democrats have decided that the CPD model is outdated because of the changing nature of campaigning and voting, the evolving demands of the media and above all because of the unique nature of this campaign in which the two main candidates have become clear so early in the year and in which they are the oldest in America’s political history.
“It’ll be entertaining, informative. Like those two old guys on The Muppets,” former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney quipped to Huffpost.
Pic: Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock
The traditional CPD debates are one of the many norms of US politics which have been subverted by Donald Trump.
According to opinion polls held afterwards as to “who won the debate?”, he is a poor debater.
He “lost” all three of his encounters with Hillary Clinton in 2016 and both of his debates against Biden in 2020.
Biden also “won” both his vice presidential debates against Sarah Palin in 2008 and Paul Ryan in 2012.
Yet what is remembered is Trump’s behaviour. He roamed about the stage and loomed threatening behind Hillary Clinton.
He invited her husband’s alleged ex-girlfriends to sit in the front row of the audience.
He called Biden “demented” before their first debate and abused him to his face, saying: “There’s nothing smart about you Joe.”
Trump refused to abide by the rules and talked over the moderator and Biden.
A senior White House correspondent summed up their first presidential debate as “a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck”.
Trump refused to take the required COVID test to take part and then developed it, resulting in the cancellation of their next scheduled debate.
At their final debate, a technician was employed to switch off the participants’ microphones except during their allotted speaking time.
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Trump: ‘Biden can’t walk off a plane’
It is usually the underdog who issues the challenge to debate. Biden has been trailing narrowly in key opinion polls and needs the debates to demonstrate that he is still up to the job at the age of 81.
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Many observers think that the president is actually showing fewer signs of cognitive impairment than Trump, who is only four years younger and whose rally speeches are becoming increasingly incoherent rants.
When the two men debate this summer, Biden may well “beat” Trump again. But Trump’s antics could well dominate – and they certainly impress some voters.
The problems with the debates four years ago explain why neither side wants to put the commission in charge this time.
The Republicans have accused the CPD of bias and the Democrats blame it for not keeping order.
Significantly the first debate this year, on CNN, will be in a studio without a live audience for the first time in the US presidential history.
Both sides also wanted to have their encounters earlier in the summer because there is an increasing trend to vote earlier, with some states opening their polls as early as September.
Biden and Trump during a presidential debate in Nashville in 2020. Pic: Reuters
The agreed debates will be head-to-heads between Biden and Trump, which suits them both because Robert F Kennedy Jnr is working flat out to get on enough state ballots to qualify for a CPD debate.
Polling suggests he would take votes from each of them and could have a decisive impact on who wins.
President Biden gift wrapped his debate invitation with the cheeky tag “I hear you are free on Wednesdays” because the criminal court where Trump is currently on trial does not sit on Wednesdays.
The dates they’ve agreed are actually a Tuesday and a Thursday but the dig still stands.
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The first Biden-Trump debate in 2020 drew 71 million viewers in the US making it the third most-watched presidential debate behind only Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Ronald Reagan versus Jimmy Carter in 1980.
But average audiences for the debates are diminishing.
Nate Silver, a leading political statistician, points out they are one of the few fixed points in a campaign which can have some direct impact today when “almost nothing moves the polls these days because the candidates are so well known and everybody is so partisan”.
America’s news networks have found out that Trump drives up ratings, even when the station’s editorial policy opposes him.
CNN gave his rallies saturation coverage in 2016 and apologised more recently when Trump was allowed to monopolise a “town hall” on the channel.
Now the networks and their guest debaters have parted company with the protections provided by the CPD and its heavily regulated debates before live audiences on university campuses.
They will be under pressure to show they can provide fair and informative programmes for their viewers and not just entertainment.
The precedents for success are not good from the UK, where broadcasters abandoned working together following a rigid formula after 2010.
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By competing against each other they effectively gave the whip hand to the politicians, who were free to withdraw or bestow their favours.
Since then the subsequent debate-style election programmes have not made a significant informative or influential impact on the campaigns. The viewers, a.k.a the electorate, have lost out.
This year the two people vying to be the leader of the free world are calling the shots on how they will debate.
It is hardly encouraging for democracy that a senior senator like Mitt Romney’s first comparison is with The Muppet Show.
Lily Tomlin, Morgan Fairchild and Ben Stiller have led tributes to “one-of-a-kind” actor Dabney Coleman following his death aged 92.
Coleman made his career playing comedic villains, mean-spirited bosses and villains in films including 9 to 5 and Tootsie, as well as playing Commodore Louis Kaestner in Boardwalk Empire.
Lily Tomlin, who starred alongside him in 9 To 5 with Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton, said: “We just loved him.”
In her post to X, the actress shared a photo of her character Violet Newstead dressed in a Snow White costume beside a tense-looking Coleman as her egotistical boss Franklin Hart Jr.
Morgan Fairchild, who starred in Falcon Crest and Friends, described Coleman as a “great one”.
“So very sorry to hear of the death of the wonderful #DabneyColeman”, she wrote on X alongside a black and white photo of them together.
“We went out for a bit in the ’80s and I adored him. This town has lost one of a kind!”
Coleman “took his last earthly breath peacefully and exquisitely” in his Santa Monica home on Thursday, his daughter said in a statement on Friday on behalf of the family.
“My father crafted his time here on Earth with a curious mind, a generous heart and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humour that tickled the funny bone of humanity”, she said.
“As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery.”
Coleman in 1989. Pic: AP
Ben Stiller, Zoolander and Meet The Parents actor, praised Coleman for paving the way for character actors.
“The great Dabney Coleman literally created, or defined, really – in a uniquely singular way – an archetype as a character actor.
“He was so good at what he did it’s hard to imagine movies and television of the last 40 years without him.”
Coleman with Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda in 1980 Credit: Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch/IPX
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Coleman starred in a number of films and TV series in the 1960s, then made his breakthrough as a corrupt mayor in the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, in 1976.
His film credits include a computer scientist in WarGames, Tom Hanks’ father in You’ve Got Mail and a chief firefighter in The Towering Inferno.
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He won a best actor Golden Globe for The Slap Maxwell Story and an Emmy for best supporting actor in Peter Levin’s 1987 legal drama Sworn To Silence.
Coleman also won two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the cast of crime drama Boardwalk Empire and received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his starring role in the NBC sitcom Buffalo Bill.
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