Baltimore city accuses Dali owners of negligence in Key Bridge collapse

BALTIMORE — The owners of the Dali were negligent in sailing an unseaworthy ship out of the Port of Baltimore and should be held fully liable for the Key Bridge collapse that killed six people, the city said Monday in a court filing.

“None of this should have happened,” a claim filed by the mayor and City Council in Baltimore’s U.S. District Court said. “Even before leaving port, alarms showing an inconsistent power supply on the Dali had sounded. The Dali left port anyway, despite its clearly unseaworthy condition.”

In a claim seeking damages, the city responded to the Dali owner's request before a federal judge to clear them from liability or limit damages to the value of the ship plus the revenue it stood to make from its cargo.

Grace Ocean Private Ltd., the owner, and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., which manages the 984-foot cargo ship, both based in Singapore, filed the claim April 1, which estimated the damaged ship’s value and expected revenue at $43.7 million.

Darrell Wilson, a spokesperson for the ship’s owners, declined to respond Monday to the city’s allegations.

“Just out of respect for the legal process, it would be inappropriate to comment,” Wilson said.

The city is also blaming the Dali’s crew, accusing the company of manning the ship with “an incompetent crew that was inattentive to its duties,” “failed to comply with local navigation customs” and “improperly navigated the Vessel.”

—Baltimore Sun

Flurry of Colorado gun bills advance in Legislature, with one now headed to Gov. Polis’ desk

DENVER — Fresh off a historic vote to advance a ban on many high-powered, semi-automatic guns, the Colorado House approved three more gun-related bills over the weekend — sending them across the Capitol for another round of debate.

Those votes on Saturday were followed Monday by the state Senate’s final approval for two other gun reform bills dealing with concealed-carry permits and firearms storage in vehicles.

The House’s Saturday votes — on bills concerning gun dealer licensing, insurance requirements for gun owners, and taxes on sales of guns and ammunition — relied on support only from Democrats, though varying numbers of the majority caucus opposed each bill, joining Republicans.

The party splits were similar for Monday’s votes in the Senate.

The Legislature’s Democrats this year have embraced gun control and reform measures as they seek to reduce gun violence, advancing a slate of bills that would add new restrictions while also seeking to better enforce existing laws. Their Republican colleagues have blasted the legislative package as potentially violating the Second Amendment, and their allies have promised swift legal challenges should many of the bills ever become law.

—The Denver Post

In 12 years Texas will be hotter than any year to date, see deadlier wildfires, study says

FORT WORTH, Texas — A new report on the future of extreme weather in Texas says the state is in store for hotter temperatures, increased severity of droughts and growing wildfire risks.

The report from John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas State Climatologist at Texas A&M University, is an updated 2024 version from his original 2021 report titled, “Assessment of Historic and Future Trends of Extreme Weather in Texas, 1900-2036.”

Nielsen-Gammon crafted the report in collaboration with Texas 2036, a nonpartisan nonprofit focusing on the future of the state. In 2036, Texas will turn 200 and the group aims to provide long-term, data-driven strategies for the state to prosper for another few centuries.

“These trends represent climatological expectations,” Nielsen-Gammon said in the report. “The actual weather from year to year and decade to decade will be heavily influenced by natural variability which at this point is largely unpredictable.”

The extreme weather report takes aim at everything from hotter temperatures, to increased wildfire risks. These are climate factors that Texans dread — combining unbearable heat with sparking deadly fires. An earlier study even found that Texas is on track to see 125-degree days within 30 years. In 2022, MedStar reported a 115.6% increase in emergency calls because of the heat compared to the previous year.

Since Texas cities placed protections on workers during extremely hot days, instances of heat illnesses have dropped across the stare.

The average annual surface temperature in Texas by 2036 is expected to be several degrees warmer than in years past.

Temperatures in 2036 are expected to be 3 degrees warmer than the average from 1950-1999, and 1.6 degrees warmer than the average from 1991-2020.

“This would make a typical year around 2036 warmer than all but the absolute warmest year experienced in Texas during 1895-2020,” Nielsen-Gammon wrote.

—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

EU agrees to expand Iran sanctions for missile attacks on Israel

European Union foreign and defense ministers secured a political agreement on Monday to impose new sanctions on Iran over its attack on Israel.

The restrictive measures will further expand the sanctions that the E.U. already imposed on Tehran for supplying Russia with drones to also include missiles and drones that Iran has provided its proxies in the Middle East. The sanctions may not be formally adopted until later in the week to allow for the technical work to be completed.

“I support extending the drones sanctions against Iran factually and geographically, concerning deliveries not only to Russia but also proxies, and including ballistic missiles,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told reporters in Luxembourg ahead of the meeting.

Countries including Germany and Sweden are also pushing to add Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp to the E.U.’s terror list but an assessment on this of the bloc’s legal service has not been finished yet, which some member states view as precondition, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Germany is aware that such a step would be largely symbolic as there are already wide-ranging sanctions in place against the Revolutionary Guard in the context of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The sanctions push on Tehran comes as Iran and Israel launched limited attacks on each other’s soil, sparking concerns about an escalating conflict in the Middle East. The bloc has been struggling to wield influence over the conflict in the Middle East, while even the U.S. has been unable to enforce its calls for restraint by Israel, a close ally.

In addition to hitting Iran’s drone-makers, the measures on Iran are expected to target transfers of weapons to Iranian proxies in the Middle East, including Hezbollah.

Any impact of new measures is likely to be limited given the existing sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, its crackdowns on protesters and its weapons aid to Russia — and because Europe isn’t currently contemplating restrictions on Iran’s energy sector. Largely shut off from U.S. and European economies, Iran has also developed its missile program in cooperation with North Korea in recent years.

—Bloomberg News