Two dead, 19 injured as Mexican Navy ship crashes into Brooklyn Bridge
The Cuauhtémoc, a tall sailing ship carrying 277 people, struck the bridge's Brooklyn abutment, snapping its towering masts as it attempted to pass under the structure. Dramatic video footage showed crew members standing on the masts as they broke and fell onto the deck.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed the fatalities and said two of the injured remain in critical condition. No major structural damage was reported to the Brooklyn Bridge, which reopened after a safety inspection.
Authorities attributed the collision to a mechanical failure and a power outage. The ship lost all three of its masts, but no crew members fell into the water, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Witnesses described chaos and panic along the waterfront. "Lots of screaming, some sailors hanging from the masts," said Brooklyn resident Nick Corso. Another witness, Kelvin Flores, told the BBC the scene was filled with 'commotion' and emergency crews struggling to reach the crash site due to traffic congestion.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed condolences, calling the loss of the two sailors deeply saddening.
The Cuauhtémoc, launched in 1982, serves as a training vessel for naval cadets and had departed from Acapulco in April en route to Iceland. Its masts reportedly stood 158 feet tall—well above the 135-foot clearance of the Brooklyn Bridge at its center, raising questions about the navigation plan.
The ship was towed from the site after the collision. Investigations are underway. — BBC
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Saudi Gazette
14-08-2025
- Saudi Gazette
'Our children are dying': Rare footage shows plight of civilians in besieged Sudan city
NAIROBI — The women at the community kitchen in the besieged Sudanese city of el-Fasher are sitting in huddles of desperation. "Our children are dying before our eyes," one of them tells the BBC. "We don't know what to do. They are innocent. They have nothing to do with the army or [its paramilitary rival] the Rapid Support Forces. Our suffering is worse than what you can imagine." Food is so scarce in el-Fasher that prices have soared to the point where money that used to cover a week's worth of meals can now buy only one. International aid organisations have condemned the "calculated use of starvation as a weapon of war". The BBC has obtained rare footage of people still trapped in the city, sent to us by a local activist and filmed by a freelance cameraman. The Sudanese army has been battling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than two years after their commanders jointly staged a coup, and then fell in the western Darfur region, is one of the most brutal frontlines in the hunger crisis is compounded by a surge of cholera sweeping through the squalid camps of those displaced by the fighting, which escalated this week into one of the most intense RSF attacks on the city paramilitaries tightened their 14-month blockade after losing control of the capital Khartoum earlier this year, and stepped up their battle for el-Fasher, the last foothold of the armed forces in the north and centre of the country where the army has wrestled back territory from the RSF, food and medical aid have begun to make a dent in civilian the situation is desperate in the conflict zones of western and southern the Matbakh-al-Khair communal kitchen in el-Fasher late last month, volunteers turned ambaz into a porridge. This is the residue of peanuts after the oil has been extracted, normally fed to it is possible to find sorghum or millet but on the day of filming, the kitchen manager says: "There is no flour or bread.""Now we've reached the point of eating ambaz. May God relieve us of this calamity, there's nothing left in the market to buy," he UN has amplified its appeal for a humanitarian pause to allow food convoys into the city, with its Sudan envoy Sheldon Yett once more demanding this week that the warring sides observe their obligations under international army has given clearance for the trucks to proceed but the UN is still waiting for official word from the paramilitary advisers have said they believed the truce would be used to facilitate the delivery of food and ammunition to the army's "besieged militias" inside have also claimed the paramilitary group and its allies were setting up "safe routes" for civilians to leave the responders in el-Fasher can receive some emergency cash via a digital banking system, but it does not go very far."The prices in the markets have exploded," says Mathilde Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council."Today, $5,000 [£3,680] covers one meal for 1,500 people in a single day. Three months ago, the same amount could feed them for an entire week."Doctors say people are dying of malnutrition. It is impossible to know how many — one report quoting a regional health official put the number at more than 60 last cannot cope. Few are still operating. They have been damaged by shelling and are short of medical supplies to help both the starving, and those injured in the continual bombardment."We have many malnourished children admitted in hospital but unfortunately there is no single sachet of [therapeutic food]," says Dr Ibrahim Abdullah Khater, a paediatrician at the Al Saudi Hospital, noting that the five severely malnourished children currently in the ward also have medical complications."They are just waiting for their death," he hunger crises hit, those who usually die first are the most vulnerable, the least healthy or those suffering from pre-existing conditions."The situation, it is so miserable, it is so catastrophic," the doctor tells us in a voice message."The children of el-Fasher are dying on a daily basis due to lack of food, lack of medicine. Unfortunately, the international community is just watching."International non-governmental organisations working in Sudan issued an urgent statement this week declaring that "sustained attacks, obstruction of aid and targeting of critical infrastructure demonstrate a deliberate strategy to break the civilian population through hunger, fear, and exhaustion".They said that "anecdotal reports of recent food hoarding for military use add to the suffering of civilians"."There is no safe passage out of the city, with roads blocked and those attempting to flee facing attacks, taxation at checkpoints, community-based discrimination and death," the organisations of thousands of people did flee in recent months, many from the Zamzam displaced persons camp at the edge of el-Fasher, seized by the RSF in arrive in Tawila, a town 60km (37 miles) west of the city, weak and dehydrated, with accounts of violence and extortion along the road from RSF-allied is safer in the crowded camps, but they are stalked by disease — most deadly of all: is caused by polluted water and has killed hundreds in Sudan, triggered by the destruction of water infrastructure and lack of food and medical care, and made worse by flooding due to the rainy el-Fasher, in Tawila aid workers at least have access, but their supplies are limited, says John Joseph Ocheibi, the on-site project coordinator for a group called The Alliance for International Medical Action."We have shortages in terms of [washing facilities], in terms of medical supplies, to be able to deal with this situation," he tells the BBC. "We are mobilizing resources to see how best we can be able to respond."Sylvain Penicaud of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) estimates there are only three litres of water per person per day in the camps, which, he says, is "way below the basic need, and forces people to get water from contaminated sources".Zubaida Ismail Ishaq is lying in the tent clinic. She is seven months pregnant, gaunt and exhausted. Her story is a tale of trauma told by tells us she used to trade when she had a little money, before fleeing husband was captured by armed men on the road to Tawila. Her daughter has a head and her mother came down with cholera shortly after arriving in the camp."We drink water without boiling it," she says. "We have no-one to get us water. Since coming here, I have nothing left."Back in el-Fasher we hear appeals for help from the women clustered at the soup kitchen — any kind of help."We're exhausted. We want this siege lifted," says Faiza Abkar Mohammed. "Even if they airdrop food, airdrop anything — we're completely exhausted." — BBC
Saudi Gazette
05-08-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Danish zoo asks for unwanted pets to feed its predators
COPENHAGEN – A zoo in Denmark has appealed to the public to donate their healthy unwanted pets as part of a unique effort to provide food for its predators. Aalborg Zoo has asked for donations of live chickens, rabbits, and guinea pigs, which it says are "gently euthanised" by trained staff. The zoo also accepts donations of live horses – with owners able to benefit from a potential tax break. Posting on Instagram, the zoo explains it has a "responsibility to imitate the natural food chain of the animals" and smaller livestock "make up an important part of the diet of our predators". The zoo says the food provided in this way is "reminiscent of what it would naturally hunt in the wild" – and that this is especially true for the Eurasian lynx. Other predators being kept at the zoo include lions and small animals can be donated on weekdays, with no more than four at a time without an its website, underneath a picture of a tiger devouring a piece of meat, Aalborg Zoo lays out the conditions for donating be eligible they need to have a horse passport and cannot have been treated for an illness within the previous 30 they are successful in handing over their animals, horse donors can then receive a tax a statement, the zoo's deputy director, Pia Nielsen, said the zoo's carnivores had been fed smaller livestock "for many years"."When keeping carnivores, it is necessary to provide them with meat, preferably with fur, bones etc to give them as natural a diet as possible," she explained."Therefore, it makes sense to allow animals that need to be euthanised for various reasons to be of use in this way. In Denmark, this practice is common, and many of our guests and partners appreciate the opportunity to contribute. The livestock we receive as donations are chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, and horses." – BBC
Saudi Gazette
05-08-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Disfigured, shamed and forgotten: Korean survivors of the Hiroshima bomb
HAPCHEON – At 08:15 on August 6, 1945, as a nuclear bomb was falling like a stone through the skies over Hiroshima, Lee Jung-soon was on her way to elementary school. The now-88-year-old waves her hands as if trying to push the memory away. "My father was about to leave for work, but he suddenly came running back and told us to evacuate immediately," she recalls. "They say the streets were filled with the dead – but I was so shocked all I remember is crying. I just cried and cried." Victims' bodies "melted away so only their eyes were visible", Ms Lee says, as a blast equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT enveloped a city of 420,000 people. What remained in the aftermath were corpses too mangled to be identified. "The atomic bomb... it's such a terrifying weapon." It's been 80 years since the United States detonated 'Little Boy', humanity's first-ever atomic bomb, over the centre of Hiroshima, instantly killing some 70,000 people. Tens of thousands more would die in the coming months from radiation sickness, burns and devastation wrought by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – which brought a decisive end to both World War Two and Japanese imperial rule across large swaths of Asia – has been well-documented over the past eight well-known is the fact that about 20% of the immediate victims were had been a Japanese colony for 35 years when the bomb was dropped. An estimated 140,000 Koreans were living in Hiroshima at the time – many having moved there due to forced labour mobilisation, or to survive under colonial who survived the atom bomb, along with their descendants, continue to live in the long shadow of that day – wrestling with disfigurement, pain, and a decades-long fight for justice that remains unresolved."No-one takes responsibility," says Shim Jin-tae, an 83-year-old survivor. "Not the country that dropped the bomb. Not the country that failed to protect us. America never apologised. Japan pretends not to know. Korea is no better. They just pass the blame – and we're left alone."Shim now lives in Hapcheon, South Korea: a small county which, having become the home of dozens of survivors like he and Ms Lee, has been dubbed "Korea's Hiroshima".For Ms Lee, the shock of that day has not faded – it etched itself into her body as illness. She now lives with skin cancer, Parkinson's disease, and angina, a condition stemming from poor blood flow to the heart, which typically manifests as chest what weighs more heavily is that the pain didn't stop with her. Her son Ho-chang, who supports her, was diagnosed with kidney failure and is undergoing dialysis while awaiting a transplant."I believe it's due to radiation exposure, but who can prove it?" Ho-chang Lee says. "It's hard to verify scientifically – you'd need genetic testing, which is exhausting and expensive."The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) told the BBC that it had gathered genetic data between 2020 and 2024 and would continue further studies until 2029. It would "consider expanding the definition of victims" to second- and- third-generation survivors only "if the results are statistically significant", it the 140,000 Koreans in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, many were from by mountains with little farmland, it was a difficult place to live. Crops were seized by the Japanese occupiers, droughts ravaged the land, and thousands of people left the rural country for Japan during the war. Some were forcibly conscripted; others were lured by the promise that "you could eat three meals a day and send your kids to school."But in Japan, Koreans were second-class citizens – often given the hardest, dirtiest and most dangerous jobs. Shim says his father worked in a munitions factory as a forced labourer, while his mother hammered nails into wooden ammunition the aftermath of the bomb, this distribution of labour translated into dangerous and often fatal work for Koreans in Hiroshima."Korean workers had to clean up the dead," Shim, who is the director of the Hapcheon branch of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association, tells BBC Korean. "At first they used stretchers, but there were too many bodies. Eventually, they used dustpans to gather corpses and burned them in schoolyards."It was mostly Koreans who did this. Most of the post-war clean-up and munitions work was done by us."According to a study by the Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation, some survivors were forced to clear rubble and recover bodies. While Japanese evacuees fled to relatives, Koreans without local ties remained in the city, exposed to the radioactive fallout – and with limited access to medical care.A combination of these conditions – poor treatment, hazardous work and structural discrimination – all contributed to a disproportionately high death toll among to the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association, the Korean fatality rate was 57.1%, compared to the overall rate of about 33.7%.About 70,000 Koreans were exposed to the bomb. By year's end, some 40,000 had the bombings, which led to Japan's surrender and Korea's subsequent liberation, about 23,000 Korean survivors returned home. But they were not welcomed. Branded as disfigured or cursed, they faced prejudice even in their homeland."Hapcheon already had a leper colony," Shim explains. "And because of that image, people thought the bomb survivors had skin diseases too."Such stigma made survivors stay silent about their plight, he adds, suggesting that "survival came before pride".Ms Lee says she saw this "with her own eyes"."People who were badly burned or extremely poor were treated terribly," she recalls. "In our village, some people had their backs and faces so badly scarred that only their eyes were visible. They were rejected from marriage and shunned."With stigma came poverty, and hardship. Then came illnesses with no clear cause: skin diseases, heart conditions, kidney failure, cancer. The symptoms were everywhere – but no-one could explain time, the focus shifted to the second and third Jeong-sun, a second-generation survivor, suffers from avascular necrosis in her hips, and can't walk without dragging herself. Her first son was born with cerebral palsy."My son has never walked a single step in his life," she says. "And my in-laws treated me horribly. They said, 'You gave birth to a crippled child and you're crippled too—are you here to ruin our family?'"That time was absolute hell."For decades, not even the Korean government took active interest in its own victims, as a war with the North and economic struggles were treated as higher wasn't until 2019 – more than 70 years after the bombing – that MOHW released its first fact-finding report. That survey was mostly based on response to BBC inquiries, the ministry explained that prior to 2019, "There was no legal basis for funding or official investigations".But two separate studies had found that second-generation victims were more vulnerable to illness. One, from 2005, showed that second-generation victims were far more likely than the general population to suffer depression, heart disease and anaemia, while another from 2013 found their disability registration rate was nearly double the national this backdrop, Ms Han is incredulous that authorities keep asking for proof to recognise her and her son as victims of Hiroshima."My illness is the proof. My son's disability is the proof. This pain passes down generations, and it's visible," she says. "But they won't recognise it. So what are we supposed to do – just die without ever being acknowledged?"It was only last month, on July 12, that Hiroshima officials visited Hapcheon for the first time to lay flowers at a memorial. While former PM Yukio Hatoyama and other private figures had come before, this was the first official visit by current Japanese officials."Now in 2025 Japan talks about peace. But peace without apology is meaningless," says Junko Ichiba, a long-time Japanese peace activist who has spent most of her life advocating for Korean Hiroshima points out, the visiting officials gave no mention or apology for how Japan treated Korean people before and during World War multiple former Japanese leaders have offered their apologies and remorse, many South Koreans regard these sentiments as insincere or insufficient without formal Ichiba notes that Japanese textbooks still omit the history of Korea's colonial past – as well as its atomic bomb victims – saying that "this invisibility only deepens the injustice".This adds to what many view as a broader lack of accountability for Japan's colonial Jeong-gu, director of the Red Cross's support division, said, "These issues... must be addressed while survivors are still alive. For the second and third generations, we must gather evidence and testimonies before it's too late."For survivors like Shim it's not just about being compensated – it's about being acknowledged."Memory matters more than compensation," he says. "Our bodies remember what we went through... If we forget, it'll happen again. And someday, there'll be no one left to tell the story." – BBC
