Dutch safety board calls for urgent improvements after deadly North Sea cargo ship blaze
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Protocols for responding to emergencies on busy North Sea shipping routes off the Dutch coast must be urgently improved, an independent Dutch safety watchdog said Thursday in a report into a deadly blaze on a cargo ship.
The warning by the Dutch Safety Board came in its report about emergency services' response to a fierce fire that broke out on the night of July 25, 2023, on the Fremantle Highway freighter that was carrying nearly 3,000 automobiles, including nearly 500 electric vehicles, from Germany to Singapore.
One of the 23 people on board was killed and six others were injured after jumping overboard to escape smoke churning out of the ship's cargo hold about 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of the Dutch island of Ameland. The remaining 16 people were rescued using helicopters.
During the mission by Dutch maritime rescuers, 'the focus for too long was on firefighting instead of saving the crew,' the report said.
It added that poor information sharing between different rescuers and emergency services on land meant authorities were not fully prepared when 16 survivors who also required medical help were flown to shore, causing delays in transferring them to hospitals.
'In order to be well prepared for future incidents at sea, the emergency assistance system must be put in order as soon as possible. Various improvements are needed for this, both at the Coastguard and at the relevant safety regions,' the report said in recommendations to the government.
The Dutch report did not look into or comment on the cause of the fire. Maritime authorities in Panama were investigating the cause because the ship was flying under a Panamanian flag.
The fire burned out of control for a week as the stricken freighter floated near shipping lanes and the shallow Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed migratory bird habitat. It was eventually towed to a port in the northern Netherlands for salvage.
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SHAPIRO: Team Trump restoring a warrior mentality in the military once again
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Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account And predictably, the radical left went insane. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose district encompasses San Francisco — the home of Harvey Milk — called it 'a surrender of a fundamental American value to honour the legacy of those who worked to build a better country … a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream.' Part of this supposed legacy was the creation in 2018 of the John Lewis-class replenishment oilers, designated to be named after various civil rights leaders, including Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But this idea is rather stupid in the first place. First off, these figures are not exactly anonymous. There are currently two public schools named after Milk (one in San Francisco and one in New York), even though he was a scurrilous figure who had sex with a 16-year-old runaway while he was in his 30s and rather prominently supported murderous cult leader Jim Jones. A film was made about his life, starring Sean Penn, who won an Oscar for his performance. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Traditionally, U.S. Navy ships have been named after places (USS Ohio) or presidents (USS Ronald Reagan) or military heroes (USS John Paul Jones) or ideas (USS Enterprise or USS Hope) or even Native American tribes (USS Seminole). The reason for these naming conventions is obvious— they are not polarizing. If you name a ship after John F. Kennedy or Doris Miller, you're not offending anyone; we can all acknowledge JFK's presidency and Doris Miller's Second World War heroism. But that's not what happened with the USS Harvey Milk. When the name was announced, radical state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-Calif., explained, 'When Harvey Milk served in the military, he couldn't tell anyone who he truly was. Now our country is telling the men and women who serve, and the entire world, that we honour and support people for who they are.' 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If the purpose of branding is to establish a vision of the thing being branded, we are far better off with a USNS Daniel Daly — a ship named after one of the most decorated Marines in American history — than with a USNS Harvey Milk. What's more, the Trump administration's refreshing willingness to say the obvious is a credit to the White House and the Secretary of Defence. No, our military ought not be a canvas for the latest social revolutionary fad. We don't need a USNS RuPaul. We need an America united by our reverence for our citizen warriors, which means honouring the universal icons who remind us of their bravery and sacrifice. Ben Shapiro is host of The Ben Shapiro Show and co-founder of Daily Wire+ Sports World Canada Sunshine Girls Columnists
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18 hours ago
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Winnipeg Free Press
18 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
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Daniel Birungi, an electrical engineer in Kampala whose son enrolled this year at St. Mary's College Kisubi, a leading school for boys in Uganda, said the emerging risk for traditional Catholic schools is to cater only to the rich. There is hot water in the bathrooms, he said, describing what he felt was a trend toward levels of luxury he never imagined as a student there in the 1990s. Now, students are prohibited from packing snacks and instead encouraged to buy what they need from school-owned canteens, he said. That has 'put us under a lot of pressure,' he said. Tuition at St. Mary's College Kisubi is roughly $800 per term, and Birungi doubts he will be able to regularly pay school fees on time. 'You can go there and see the brother and negotiate,' he said, referring to the headmaster. 'I am planning to go there and see him and ask for that consideration.' The effects of a private education system The World Bank reported in 2023 that 54% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa rank the issue of paying school fees higher than medical bills and other expenses. That's partly because education is largely in private hands, with the most desirable schools controlled by profit-seeking owners. Schools run by the Catholic Church are not usually registered as profit-making entities, but those who run those schools say they wouldn't be competitive if they were run merely as charities. They say they face the same maintenance costs as others in the field and offer scholarships to exceptional students. Regulating tuition is not easy, said Ronald Reagan Okello, a priest who oversees education at the Catholic Secretariat in Kampala. He urges parents to send their children to schools they can afford. 'As the Catholic Church, also we are competing with those who are in the private sector,' said Okello, the national executive secretary for education with the Ugandan bishops conference. 'Now, as you are competing, the other ones are setting the bar high. They are giving you good services. But now putting the standard to that level, we are forced to raise the school fees to match the demands of the people who can afford.' Across the region, the Catholic Church has built a reputation as a key provider of formal education in areas often underserved by the state. Its schools are cherished by families of all means for their values, discipline and academic success. In Zimbabwe, the Catholic Church operates about 100 schools, ranging from dozens in impoverished areas where annual tuition is as low as $150 to elite boarding schools that can charge thousands of dollars. But a legacy of inclusion is under pressure in the southern African nation due to fee increases at boarding schools and efforts by Catholic leaders to fully privatize some schools. Many boarding schools already charge tuition fees between $600 and $800, prohibitive for the working class in a country where most civil servants make less than a $300 per month. Privatization will raise tuition fees even higher, warned Peter Muzawazi, a prominent educator in Zimbabwe. Muzawazi, who attended Catholic schools, once was the headmaster of Marist Brothers, a top Catholic school for boys in Zimbabwe. That school in Nyanga is among those earmarked for privatization. 'I know in the Catholic Church there is a lot of space for reasonable fees for day scholars, but for boarders there is need to be watching because the possibility that they would be out of reach for the vulnerable is there,' he said. The church needs to be actively engaged, he said. 'How do we continue to guarantee education for the poor?' Efforts to privatize church-founded schools have sparked debate in Zimbabwe, which for years has been in economic decline stemming in part from sanctions imposed by the U.S. and others. Authorities say privatizing these schools is necessary to maintain standards, even as critics warn Catholic leaders not to turn their backs on poor people. 'Schools have now turned into businesses,' Martin Chaburumunda, president of the Zimbabwe Rural Teachers' Union, told The Manica Post, a state-run weekly. 'Churches now appear only hungry for money as opposed to educating the communities they operate in.' Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Rather than privatizing old mission schools, the church should invest in building new ones if it's useful to experiment with different funding models, said Muzawazi, a lay Catholic who serves on the governing council of the Catholic University of Zimbabwe. 'The bright people who advance the cause of countries are not the rich ones,' he said. 'We want every church and every nation to tap the potential of every person, regardless of economic status.' ___ Mutsaka reported from Harare, Zimbabwe. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
