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Police audio reveals moments before Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse

The disbelieving voice of a police officer witnessing the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge near Baltimore in the early hours of Tuesday summed up the shock about to be felt across the country.

“The whole bridge just fell down!” the officer says on the dispatch radio, published by Broadcastify, which posts emergency service audio clips from major incidents.

The audio also captures the moment the quick-thinking officers stopped traffic and closed the bridge, saving countless lives — actions that saw them hailed as heroes by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott on Wednesday.

Two of the six construction workers who were missing, presumed dead, were recovered from the Patapsco River on Wednesday, in a red pick-up truck 25 feet under water.

Police named them as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, originally from Mexico, and 26-year-old Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, originally from Guatemala. Family and friends described them as devoted husbands, fathers and workers. A search operation continues for the missing four.

“I need one of you guys on the south side, one of you guys on the north side, hold all traffic on the Key Bridge — there is a ship approaching that has lost its steering. So until you get that under control, we got to stop all traffic,” one officer says on the dispatch.

The same officer then asks: “Is there a crew working on the bridge right now?”

The container ship Dali, rests against wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge as seen from Pasadena, Md., on March 27, 2024. Alex Brandon / AP

He continues: “I’m not sure where, there’s a crew up there you might want to notify, whoever the foreman is, see if we can get them off the bridge temporarily.”

Another officer replies to say that once another police unit arrives, “I’ll go grab the workers on the Key Bridge.”

Moments later a new officer says over the radio: “The whole bridge just fell down! Start, start … everybody. The whole thing just collapsed.”

The bridge came down in a matter of seconds, as dramatic video showed. But the Dali’s fateful voyage had begun 50 minutes earlier.

The enormous cargo ship, measuring almost 1,000 feet, left the port of Baltimore at 12:39 a.m. on Tuesday, according to a timeline from the NTSB.

The ship entered the channel at 1:07 and by 1:24 had reached a speed of 8 knots, or 9.2 mph.

At 1:24, multiple alarms can be heard on the ship’s audio.

Two minutes later, the ship’s pilot called for any nearby tug boats to assist and called the Maryland Transport Authority (MDTA) to report the loss of control.

At 1:27, the pilot ordered the boat to drop its port anchor and continued to make steering commands. At this point the pilot radioed to say he had lost all power and was approaching the bridge.

The MDTA was able to radio police units on both sides of the bridge to stop traffic, as the ship continued at less than 7 knots, or 8 mph.

The ship’s audio captured the moment of impact at 1:29 — the ship’s pilot reported the bridge coming down at the same time.

As Baltimore, Maryland and the country come to terms with the loss of six lives, a famous landmark and important economic infrastructure, attention turns to the investigation into how and why the enormous Dali cargo ship suddenly lost power, and how the bridge crumbled so quickly.

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said during a news conference Wednesday that the Dali had routine maintenance while it was in the port of Baltimore, but no issues were flagged.

“So as far as the engine goes, we were not informed of any problems with the vessel,” he said. “We were informed that they were going to conduct routine engine maintenance on it while it was in port. And that’s the only thing we were informed about that vessel in that regard.”

National Transport Safety Board Chair Jennifer L. Homendy and a team of investigators boarded the ship Wednesday to interview crew and gather evidence. The NTSB has recovered the data recorder, which will provide a huge range of data, including the ship’s exact position and its systems status at the time of the collision.

But Homendy has warned that the investigation will be a huge undertaking and could take between one to two years.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest ports on the eastern seaboard remains shut, depriving suppliers of a major route for consumer goods, including automobiles, that normally accounts for 4,900 trucks and billions of dollars of trade daily.

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New image reveals Milky Way’s black hole is surrounded by powerful “twisted” magnetic fields, astronomers say

Astronomers have discovered powerful “twisted” magnetic fields spiraling around the black hole that sits at the center of the Milky Way, the European Southern Observatory said Wednesday.

A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) for the first time showed in polarized light a ring of magnetic fields surrounding the Sagittarius A* black hole.

The fields are similar to those observed around the M87* black hole at the heart of the M87 Galaxy, which the ESO says suggests that strong magnetic fields may be common to all black holes.

A new view of the massive object at the centre of our Galaxy — The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, who produced the first ever image of our Milky Way black hole released in 2022, has captured a new view of the massive object at the centre of our Galaxy: how it looks in polarized light.

European Southern Observatory via Reuters

“What we’re seeing now is that there are strong, twisted, and organized magnetic fields near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy,” said Sara Issaoun, from Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics, and co-lead of the project.

Polarized light images allow the astronomers to isolate the magnetic field lines.

Supermassive black holes, which sit at the center of galaxies, have masses millions and even billions greater than the sun. They are believed to have emerged very early in the universe but their creation remains a mystery.

Nothing can escape their gravitational pull, not even light, making them impossible to observe directly.

But with M87* in 2019 and Sagittarius A* in 2022, the EHT captured the halo of light that is produced by the flow of matter and gas that black holes suck in and eject.

“By imaging polarized light from hot glowing gas near black holes, we are directly inferring the structure and strength of the magnetic fields that thread the flow of gas and matter that the black hole feeds on,” said Angelo Ricarte, member of the Harvard Black Hole Initiative and a co-lead of the project.

The ESO also released a video of the new findings, which were published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

A polarised view of our black hole | ESO News by
European Southern Observatory (ESO) on
YouTube

Mariafelicia De Laurentis, deputy scientist at the EHT and professor at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, said that “since both (black holes) are pointing us toward strong magnetic fields, it suggests that this may be a universal and perhaps fundamental feature of these kinds of systems.”

News of the magnetic fields comes just weeks after researchers studying a galaxy through NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope announced multiple discoveries, including spotting the most distant active supermassive black hole ever found.

In November, scientists discovered the oldest black hole yet, estimated to have formed 470 million years after the Big Bang — and 10 times bigger than the black hole in our own Milky Way.

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New image reveals magnetic field around Milky Way’s black hole

A striking new image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy has revealed the strong magnetic field that surrounds it, twisting and turning like a spiral.

It’s a never-before-seen view of Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A*), the immense black hole at the Milky Way’s core that gobbles up nearby light and matter.

The image suggests there are structural similarities between this black hole and one at the heart of a galaxy called M87. That black hole — the first ever imaged — is more than 1,000 times larger than Sagittarius A*, but both appear to have powerful, organized magnetic fields.

It’s a clue that the pattern may be common to many or all black holes, according to the scientists behind the image, whose findings were published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“We’ve learned that strong and ordered magnetic fields are critical to how black holes interact with the gas and matter around them,” a co-leader of the research, Sara Issaoun, the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program’s Einstein fellow, said in a statement.

To conduct the research, Issaoun collaborated with an international team of astronomers known as the Event Horizon Telescope; the group is made up of more than 300 scientists from 80 institutions around the world.

The same research collaboration captured the first direct visual evidence of Sagittarius A* in 2022, and the team has also studied the M87 galaxy, which is around 53 million light-years from Earth.

The magnetic field surrounding the behemoth black hole at that galaxy’s center, known as M87*, is thought to play a key role in its dramatic behavior: The black hole launches a powerful jet of electrons and other subatomic particles into space at nearly the speed of light.

Such an outburst of activity has never been detected within Sagittarius A*, but the similarities between the two black holes may suggest that a hidden jet could yet be found coming from it, according to the researchers behind the new image.

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Excavation at French hotel reveals a medieval castle with a moat, coins and jewelry

An excavation project in northwestern France has uncovered the ruins of a medieval castle with its moat still intact as well as jewelry and other artifacts, officials said. The castle, believed to be around 600 years old, was not unknown to archaeologist when they began a “preventative” dig on a hotel property in the city of Vannes early last year, where plans were underway to build a fine arts museum.

But the extent and impressiveness of the ruins they actually found during excavation work that took place between February and April 2023 was unexpected, said Inrap, France’s national institute for archeological research, in an announcement Tuesday.

After piercing through a thick embankment in the courtyard of a former private mansion now known as Château Lagorce, excavators discovered two stories of the ancient, fortress-like castle were relatively well-preserved. The ground floor, which was at times 13 feet beneath the surface of the embankment, splayed out across the property and came to measure 140 feet long and 55 feet wide overall.

The structure was built by the Duke of Brittany Jean IV around 1380, according to Inrap. The castle was his, and the desire to build it was apparently tied to the duke’s desire “to assert his power.” Its advanced architecture, structural complexities and sheer size indicate that the duke took construction on this dwelling space quite seriously. Archaeologists believe that constructing it was also a highly-organized ordeal, since they discovered markings on some of the ancient stones that seemed to be workers’ way of following a building plan.

Archaeologists found evidence within the bounds of the castle ruins that suggested the original structure had three, or even four, floors, like the remnants of several staircases. They described one staircase in particular as ornate and “remarkably preserved,” with three distinctive steps and space for a window seat. Remains of the castle’s functional elements were unveiled, too, including a set of latrines and drainage pipes on either end of the property that seemed to have been used for some of the upper floors.

Manual searches of the latrines and pipes revealed a wealth of other objects that can be traced back to the 15th or 16th centuries. Among them were coins, jewelry and cooking appliances like pots and pans, as well as wooden bowls and fragments of wooden barrels that humidity in the region helped preserve.

The excavation also uncovered a mill built into the residential parts of the castle “in a very original way,” Inrap said. That mill was kept in a room inside a portion of the building that archaeologists called a “square tower,” which stood at one end of the structure along the moat that encircled the entire thing. Most records of the mill have not survived the centuries but archaeologists did locate a space where a wheel was inserted into the device. That wheel was powered by water flowing through a canal that passed under the castle building, which was then released out into the moat through a grated opening in the mill room.

The team also found the remains of a bridge that would have stretched out over the moat and connected the castle to the outside world, an element that was crucial to allow castle residents to access the city, archaeologists said.

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Pompeii building site reveals ancient Roman construction methods

Archaeologists in Pompeii have unearthed an ancient building site that sheds light on construction techniques used by the Romans to make iconic structures such as the Colosseum and the Pantheon, Italy’s culture ministry said on Monday.

The site was probably active until the volcanic Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, destroying Pompeii in southern Italy, the ministry said in a statement.

The archaeologists found working tools, stacked roof tiles, tuff bricks, and heaps of lime and stones used to create walls.

The Romans had an original technique for making cement, the ministry said, citing findings by the archaeologists who worked with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Pompeii site, rediscovered only in the 16th century, has seen a burst of recent archaeological activity aimed at halting years of decay and neglect.

Concrete appeared to have been made through “hot mixing”, whereby quicklime was initially mixed with dry pozzolana, or pozzolanic ash, with water added only shortly before walls were erected.

Piles of tiles and material at the historic site that was destroyed by the eruption Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.Ministero Della Cultura

This meant that during wall construction, the mixture of lime, pozzolana and stones was still hot due to a thermal reaction. That helped it dry more quickly, shortening the construction time of the structure.

Normally, quicklime is slaked in water long before use in construction.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii site, said the latest finding “helps us understand many aspects of the great Roman Empire, not least the use of concrete.”

“Without concrete, we would have neither the Colosseum, nor the Pantheon, nor the Baths of Caracalla,” he said.

Archaeologists also found amphorae storage jars which were used to ‘quench’ the lime used for plastering as well as to store other tools, from lead weights used to erect a perfectly vertical wall, to iron hoes to prepare mortar and work lime.

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Construction site found at Pompeii reveals details of ancient building techniques – and politics

A construction site in Pompeii that was being worked on until the eruption of Vesuvius has been discovered, unlocking hidden details about the construction – and politics – in the ancient city. Archeologists excavating Pompeii, a city that was buried under lava in 79 AD, found a house that was under construction when the disaster happened, according to Italy’s Ministry of Culture.

Materials like work bricks and tools were piled up in the reception area of the house and lime and plaster used to make walls was found. Construction tools were discovered in several rooms, including tools to prepare mortar and pull up a vertical wall.

Evidences of a construction site has resurfaced in the rooms of an ancient domus during archaeological excavation in Pompeii — A view of the room of an ancient domus during archaeological excavations in the ancient archeological site of Pompeii, Italy, in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on March 25, 2024.

Parco Archeologico di Pompei/Handout via REUTERS

The home also included a bakery, which was discovered last year. Archeologists found words etched on stone that urged voters to elect a man named Aulus Rustius Verus, according to Pompeii Archaeological Park, which published the findings in its journal, Pompeii Scavi, in 2023.

This may have been a sign of “vote buying” – the candidate giving the business money in exchange for votes. They also found a painting in the building.

A nearby house, which is still being investigated, also shows evidence of construction including “enormous piles of stones” for the walls and ceramics and tiles collected to be transformed into cocciopesto, a type of concrete.

The construction site was active until Vesuvius, which is just south of Napels, erupted. The lava flow began around lunchtime and lasted until the following day. Over the past 250 years, more than 1,300 victims have been found. In November 2020, archaeologists found two bodies, believed to be an enslaved person and his possible owner.

According to the researchers, the discovery of the construction site shows workers used quicklime to create buildings. The construction material forms a putty with water and produces heat. It appears in this case, the quicklime was mixed with sand.

During construction, the mixture of the lime, sand and stones was still hot and therefore dried more quickly, which shortened construction time. This method is still used today, the researchers say.

“It is a further example of how the small city of Pompeii makes us understand many things about the great Roman Empire, not least the use of cement works,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the park. Without this type of cement, other Italian historical sites like the Colosseum, Pantheon or Baths of Caracalla would not have been built, Zuchtriegel said.

Zuchtriegel said work was underway almost everywhere in Pompeii before the volcanic eruption, and this type of cement helped speed construction.

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Blake Lively apologizes for mocking Kate Middleton ‘Photoshop fails’ after princess reveals cancer diagnosis

Actor and entrepreneur Blake Lively said she’s “mortified” about her joke about Kate Middleton‘s “Photoshop fails” — with the apology coming after the Princess of Wales confirmed Friday that she has undergone treatment for cancer.

“I’m sure no one cares today but I feel like I have to acknowledge this,” Lively said in a message shared Friday on her Instagram account. “I made a silly post around the ‘photoshop fails’ frenzy, and oh man, that post has me mortified today. I’m sorry. Sending love and well wishes to all, always.”

On March 15, Lively had posted a comically edited photo promoting her Betty Buzz beverage line, showing her sitting poolside with a can of Betty Booze with an enlarged thumb and a lemon floating above her head. In the since-deleted Instagram post, Lively had written, “I’m so excited to share this new photo I just took today to announce our 4 new @bettybuzz & @bettybooze products! Now you know why I’ve been MIA.”

That was a reference to visual anomalies in a photo released March 10 by the Royal Family depicting Middleton and her three children, which prompted AP and other news agencies to pull the image from their services. Middleton subsequently acknowledged, “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.” The controversy led to fevered speculation about Middleton’s prolonged absence from the public eye. Amid conspiracy theories about the princess’ whereabouts, celebs including Jimmy Kimmel and Jamie Lee Curtis called on people to respect Middleton’s privacy.

In a video statement released Friday, Middleton said her cancer diagnosis was discovered following abdominal surgery and she is now in the “early stages” of preventative chemotherapy. “It has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family, but I’ve had a fantastic medical team who have taken great care of me, for which I am so grateful,” Middleton said in the video.

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Megan Rapinoe reveals why she laughed after missed penalty kick in final game with USWNT

U.S. bounced from Women’s World Cup

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After Megan Rapinoe missed a crucial penalty during the USWNT’s loss to Sweden in the Women’s World Cup on Sunday, she explained why she appeared to be laughing.

“I mean this is like a sick joke. For me personally, this is dark comedy, that I missed a penalty,” Rapinoe told FOX Sports.

The Round of 16 matchup between Sweden and the U.S. remained scoreless for 120 minutes before the match went on to a penalty shootout. Rapinoe stepped up to the penalty spot with the U.S. in control, up 3-2 in the shootout.

But her right-footed shot sailed over the crossbar. She smiled in disbelief as she ran back to her teammates, who greeted her at midfield.

Sweden v USA: Round of 16 - FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 — Rapinoe appeared to be smiling after missing a penalty kick during the USWNT’s loss to Sweden on Sunday.

Robin Alam/USSF

Sweden pulled ahead and won the shootout, ending the U.S. tournament run and Rapinoe’s illustrious 17-year career with the USWNT. The legendary forward had announced she was planning to retire from international soccer following this year’s Women’s World Cup.

Rapinoe, one of the most decorated soccer stars in U.S. history, explained her reaction in a post-game interview.

“That’s why I had that smile on my face. I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be f—ing kidding me.’ I’m going to miss a penalty? I mean, honestly, I can’t remember the last time I missed.”

The miss was uncharacteristic for Rapinoe, who hadn’t missed a penalty kick in almost five years.

Despite the heartbreaking loss, she retires as an Olympic Gold medalist and two-time World Cup champion. In 2019, Rapinoe won best FIFA Women’s Player of the Year, France Football Ballon d’Or and the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year.

The loss ended the USWNT’s hopes of winning the Women’s World Cup for the third time in a row — a feat that has never been done in either the men’s or women’s competition.

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Idaho student murders suspect Bryan Kohberger reveals alibi claim in new court filing

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in November, claims he was going for a routine drive when the killings took place, according to new court filings.

Kohberger, 28, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. He’s accused of killing Ethan Chapin, a 20-year-old from Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, a 21-year-old from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, from Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, from Rathdrum, Idaho.

On Wednesday, Kohberger’s attorneys objected to the state’s request for an alibi of his whereabouts on the night of the murder.

In the court documents, his attorneys claim “Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone,” and that he did so on the night and morning of the brutal killings.

“Mr. Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time; at this time there is not a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment of the hours between late night November 12, 2022, and early morning November 13, 2022,” the filing said.

His attorney said that corroborating evidence that Kohberger was not at the scene of the crime will come from the cross-examination of state’s witnesses.

“Mr. Kohberger cannot be more specific about the possible witnesses and exactly what they will say,” the filing said.

A judge entered a not guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf at his May 22 arraignment after he did not respond in court when the judge asked him how he pleaded.

At the time of the killings, Kohberger was a Ph.D. criminology student and teaching assistant at Washington State University’s Pullman campus, which is only about a 15 minute drive from the home in Moscow, Idaho, where the four students were killed.

Authorities believe the victims were likely asleep when they came under attack, suffering multiple stab wounds from a large, military-style knife.

Court documents filed in the case allege Kohberger’s DNA is near-exact match to the DNA found on a knife sheath at the scene of the murders.

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Bud Light sales plunged after boycott over campaign with transgender influencer, company reveals

Anheuser-Busch Inbev reported a drop in U.S. revenue in the second quarter as Bud Light sales plunged amid a conservative backlash over a campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

The world’s largest brewer said Thursday that revenue in the United States declined by 10.5% in the April-to-June period from a year earlier, “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light.”

It has lost its place as America’s best-selling beer after more than two decades, slipping into second place in June behind Mexican lager Modelo Especial, which is also owned by the Belgium-based ABInBev.

The company faced blowback after sending a commemorative Bud Light can to Mulvaney, who posted it to her millions of social media followers.

Conservative figures and others called for a boycott of Bud Light, while Mulvaney’s supporters criticized the beer brand for not doing enough to support her. Mulvaney has said she faced bullying and transphobia, criticizing the brand for not reaching out to her amid the furor over their partnership.

The beer giant said overall revenue rose 7.2% in the second quarter, to $15.1 billion, from the same period a year ago as global brands such as Stella Artois and Corona made up for the loss in Bud Light sales.

It said normalized earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 5%, to $4.9 billion.

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