Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Tag: site
Cleanup efforts underway at Baltimore bridge collapse site
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
China built a mock-up of key area in Taiwan’s capital city at a desert training site, satellite images show
-
Satellite images show China’s mock-up of Taiwan’s presidential office at a desert training site.
-
It is not the first time China has built such mock ups, which indicate a readiness to use force.
-
China has also built mock ups of US warships in the desert for apparent target practice.
Out in the desert at a military training site, China has built a mock-up of a key area of Taiwan’s capital city where the presidential office and other government buildings are located, satellite images show.
The mock-up, like others before it, seems to indicate China’s intentions and focus, though its use is uncertain.
China often engages in aggressive and coercive behavior that alarms its neighbors, is pursuing a significant military build-up and modernization effort, and has never renounced the use of force as an option for achieving unification with Taiwan.
Images of the mock target, located in the desert in the Alxa League area of northern China’s Inner Mongolia, began circulating on social media earlier this week. Taiwanese defense analyst Joseph Wen posted the satellite image, as well as a map comparison of the real area in Taipei, on Monday.
Wen noted that while China had previously created a replica of Taiwan’s president’s office building at another area, specifically Zhurihe, this mock up covered much of the office’s surrounding area and was located at what appeared to be an aerial bombing and gunnery training range.
When compared to an actual map of the area, the mock-up looks relatively realistic, with the roads and the presidential office’s surroundings closely resembling the real place in Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei.
Satellite images provided by Planet Labs to Business Insider show the site, which is still there, has been there since at least December 2022.
It is unclear though when exactly the mock-up was built, but it’s not the first.
Making Taiwan’s presidential office and US warships in the desert
Back in 2014 and 2015, satellite images showed the other mock-up of Taiwan’s presidential office at Zhurihe, also in Inner Mongolia, and a video broadcast by CCTV in July 2015 captured Chinese troops practicing an assault on the fake building, The Diplomat reported at the time.
The office mock-up was a convincing replica. Imagery from China-based web portals showed troops entering the building conducting some sort of raid.
When asked by reporters on Wednesday about the images of the Bo’ai Special Zone mock-up that surfaced this week, Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said that any country could imitate another’s facilities and area, adding that Taiwan’s military could also conduct military exercises in simulated locations.
Indeed, this kind of training isn’t necessarily unusual, but it nonetheless signals intent.
China has also been documented building mock-ups of US aircraft carriers and other warships at training sites, likely to test and improve its missiles.
Experts have long warned about the increasing stockpiles and capabilities of its Rocket Force and what role those assets would play should the the US and China go to war, be it over Taiwan or for some other reason.
Fresh worries about a Chinese invasion of Taiwan
The images of the mock-up at Alxa League have surfaced at a time of renewed concern about possible Chinese aggression against Taiwan.
Amid China’s assertiveness at sea and in the air, demonstrated by unpredictable military drills, fiery run-ins with Philippine boats, and close calls with US aircraft, there continues to be concern about a potential invasion of Taiwan.
Just last week, US Navy Adm. John Aquilino, the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, told the US Armed Services House Committee that China was building its military up at a scale not seen since World War II and was on track to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.
China often employs economic, diplomatic, and militarily aggressive and coercive tactics toward Taiwan, such as pressuring countries that interact with the island or routinely flying fighters and bombers around it, forcing a response.
In response to Taiwan’s election earlier this year, China has turned up the pressure, and ongoing military drills in Taiwan have prompted warnings from China.
Taiwan elected a new president, the Democratic Progressive Party’s Lai Ching-te, the current Vice President, in January. It’s a historic win for the DPP, which has now been in power for three consecutive terms. It was also China’s worst case scenario.
The DPP has navigated a tricky situation since gaining power in 2016, trying to preserve status quo with Beijing while maintaining Taiwan’s autonomy. Though China is generally opposed to the elections, Beijing would have preferred the Kuomintang’s Hou You-ih, who is not pro-Beijing but has an outlook on relations with China that is softer than DPP’s.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Divers recover 2 bodies from Baltimore bridge collapse site
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
What we know about the search and rescue effort at the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse site in Baltimore
BALTIMORE — Multiple agencies mobilized a mass casualty response after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore early Tuesday morning, sending multiple vehicles into the Patapsco River below.
A bridge column was hit by a large container ship around 1:30 a.m., causing the bridge to collapse.
Search and rescue ongoing
The Baltimore Fire Department said the scene was an active search and rescue, and that the U.S. Coast Guard is assisting.
It was not immediately clear how many cars fell into the water, but at least one semi-truck was involved.
Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said there are a total of eight victims, one who was hospitalized in serious condition, a second who refused treatment, and six bridge workers who remain unaccounted for.
Officials said in a news conference that a mayday had been issued before the collision, which allowed officials to stop traffic onto the bridge. Officials did not clarify how many vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the collapse.
Sonar used to detect vehicles
Nighttime conditions hindered visibility, but Wallace said crews used sonar to detect vehicles in the river.
The water below the bridge is 50 feet deep, Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said, and according to NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center, the river water was 48 degrees overnight.
Coast Guard efforts at Baltimore bridge collapse site
The Coast Guard’s primary mission is looking for any survivors in the water.
“We currently have three small boats,” Lieutenant Commander Erin Palmer said. “We also have Coast Guard Cutter Mako, an 87-foot patrol boat. We have a helicopter from Air Station at Atlantic City. And we’re working with numerous federal, state and local partners on scene on these search and rescue efforts.”
Wallace said at least two people have been rescued from the water — one wasn’t hurt and one was in “very serious” condition. The injured person was being treated at the University of Maryland Medical Center and had been unable to speak to investigators so far, officials said.
Who is missing?
The contractors were on the bridge making concrete deck repairs at the time of the collapse, and six remain unaccounted for. Officials did not say which contracting company the workers were from.
One victim rescued refused medical treatment, and the second was hospitalized at R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center with serious injuries, officials said. The trauma center later confirmed the victim was discharged from the hospital.
The state has set up a facility for any family members of any victims, and mental health professionals are available there.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Parco Archeologico di Pompei/Handout via REUTERS
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.
Parco Archeologico di Pompei/Handout via REUTERS
“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.
Parco Archeologico di Pompei/Handout via REUTERS
Caitlin O’Kane
South Korea evacuating World Scout Jamboree site as Typhoon Khanun bears down
Seoul, South Korea — South Korea will evacuate tens of thousands of scouts by bus from a coastal jamboree site as Tropical Storm Khanun looms, officials said Monday. Beginning Tuesday morning, vehicles will move 36,000 scouts — mostly teenagers — from the World Scout Jamboree in the southwestern county of Buan, according to Kim Sung-ho, a vice minister at South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
He said most of the scouts, who come from 158 countries, will be accommodated at venues in the capital city, Seoul, and the nearby metropolitan area. Officials were trying to secure spaces at government training centers and education facilities as well as hotels. Kim said it would take six hours or more to evacuate the scouts from the campsite, which organizers said will no longer be used for any event after they leave.
Hot temperatures have already forced thousands of British and American scouts to leave the site, which is made on land reclaimed from sea. The British scouts were transferred to hotels in Seoul while the American scouts were moved to Camp Humphreys, a U.S. military base about 45 miles south of Seoul.
ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty
The announcement came after The World Organization of the Scout Movement said it had urgently called on South Korea to move the scouts from the storm’s path and “provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries.”
South Korea categorizes Khanun as a typhoon, defined as a tropical storm with winds stronger than 38 miles per hour. South Korea’s weather agency expects Khanun to weaken to a storm within the next five days.
South Korea’s government did not immediately specify any venues where the scouts will be staying. David Venn, global director of communications for the World Organization of the Scout Movement, said it was still waiting for government officials to provide detailed plans.
Typhoon Khanun forecast
Khanun has taken an unusual, meandering path around Japan’s southwestern islands for more than a week, dumping heavy rain, knocking out power to thousands of homes and disrupting flights and train services. On Monday afternoon, it had sustained winds of 67 miles per hour, with higher gusts, and was forecast to maintain that strength as it brushes Japan’s main island of Kyushu this week, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
South Korea’s weather agency reported that Khanun was expected to make landfall in South Korea on Thursday morning, potentially packing winds as strong as 95 miles per hour. Large swaths of the country’s south, including Buan, could be affected by the storm as early as Wednesday, the agency said.
The plans to evacuate the scouts were announced hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office said he had called for “contingency” plans, including relocating them to hotels and other facilities in the greater capital area.
ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty
The agency said the storm was at about 99 miles east of Amami city on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu and moving gradually toward the north as of Monday afternoon. It warned residents in affected regions to watch out for mudslides, high winds and rough seas.
The storm has caused one death and 70 injuries on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, according to the country’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Due to the forecast of harsh weather in the region, West Japan Railway Co. said there was a possibility of suspending “Shinkansen” bullet train services from Wednesday night to Thursday morning.
Scouts “not taking any chances”
Hundreds of participants had been treated for heat-related ailments since the jamboree started on Wednesday. Long before the event’s start, critics raised concerns about bringing such large numbers of young people to a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat.
Kirvil Kaasa of the Norwegian Guide and Scout Association told Norway’s news agency NTB that “the evacuation is taking place well before the (storm).”
“We are not taking any chances, and the health and safety of our Norwegian participants is the most important thing,” she told NTB. Some 700 scouts from the Scandinavian country took part in the event and they were to be relocated to a U.S. military base, NTB said.
Kim Hyun-sook, South Korea’s minister of gender equality and family, said officials are trying to arrange new cultural events and activities for the scouts before they leave, including a possible K-pop concert at a Seoul soccer stadium on Friday to go with the closing ceremony.
“We don’t see it that way,” Kim said when asked whether the scouts’ departure from Buan should be seen as an early end for the jamboree. “We are creating new programs with regional governments away from the campsite, so it could be said jamboree is widening.”
Organizers earlier on Monday were scurrying to come up with plans to evacuate the scouts ahead of the storm’s arrival. Choi Chang-haeng, secretary-general of the jamboree’s organizing committee, said organizers have secured more than 340 evacuation venues, including community centers and gyms, in regions near Buan.
About 40,000 scouts came to the jamboree, built on land reclaimed from the sea. About 4,500 were from the U.K., representing the largest national contingent, while about 1,000 were from the United States.
Shots again fired at site of Parkland school massacre in reenactment after lawmakers visit
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Gunfire erupted again at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday as part of a reenactment by ballistics experts of the 2018 massacre that left 14 students and three staff members dead.
Two shots were heard by reporters sitting about 200 yards (180 meters) from the building about noon and then two more about an hour later. A few hours later, the fire alarm went off, just like it did during the Valentine’s Day 2018 attack, but no shots were heard underneath it. During the massacre, 139 shots were fired.
The reenactment is part of a lawsuit by the victims’ families and the wounded that accuses the Broward County deputy assigned to the school of failing in his duty to protect them and their loved ones.
David Brill, the attorney overseeing the reenactment on behalf of the families, did not return a call seeking comment Friday, so it was unknown if only four shots were needed for the test or if a problem developed and it had to be aborted.
The reenactment began shortly after nine members of Congress toured the blood-stained and bullet-pocked halls of the three-story classroom building where Nikolas Cruz carried out his six-minute attack. The building has been kept standing behind a locked chain-link fence to serve as evidence during Cruz’s trial last year.
The shooting sparked a nationwide movement for gun control and traumatized the South Florida community. Cruz, a 24-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student, pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison.
The experts were firing with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle identical to the one Cruz used, and the bullets were to be caught by a safety device.
Brill said in earlier court hearings that the reenactment’s goal was to capture what deputy Scot Peterson heard during the attack.
Peterson, who worked for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and is named in the lawsuit, said he didn’t hear all the shots and could not pinpoint their origin because of echoes. He got within feet of the building’s door and drew his gun, but backed away and stood next to an adjoining building for 40 minutes, making radio calls. He has said he would have charged into the building if he had known the shooter’s location.
Families of the victims who filed the lawsuit contend Peterson knew Cruz’s location, but retreated out of cowardice and in violation of his duty to protect their loved ones.
Peterson, 60, was acquitted in June of felony child neglect and other criminal charges for failing to act, the first U.S. trial of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.
The burden of proof is lower in the civil lawsuit. Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips allowed the reenactment, but made clear she was not ruling on whether the recording will be played at trial. That will have to be argued later, she said. It is likely Peterson’s attorneys will oppose the attempt.
No trial date has been set. The families and wounded are seeking unspecified damages.
Earlier in the day, six Democrats and three Republicans from the House School Safety and Security Caucus toured the building for almost two hours — an experience few have had since the shooting. They called it a “time-capsule” of the attack’s devastation.
Broken glass still litters the floor, along with wilted roses, deflated balloons and discarded gifts. Opened textbooks and laptop computers remain on students’ desks — at least those that weren’t toppled during the chaos.
In one classroom, there is an unfinished chess game one of the slain students had been playing, the pieces unmoved. Reporters were barred from Friday’s tour, but The Associated Press was one of five media outlets allowed inside after Cruz’s jury went through last year.
“We just had a shared experience that will transform our lives for the rest of our lives. To see the blood of children on the floor in a school together, is going to change the way we interact and collaborate,” New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman said.
After the tour, the members traveled to a nearby hotel to discuss school safety issues with parents and wives who lost loved ones in the attack. The roundtable meeting was being held in the same ballroom where the families learned of their loved ones’ deaths.
The members said that while there is wide disagreement on issues such as gun control, there should be bipartisan support for providing federal funds for installing bullet-proof glass and panic buttons in classrooms, mental health assistance for students and better training for on-campus police officers.
Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Stoneman Douglas graduate whose district includes Parkland, said Congress owes it to the families who have lost children, parents and spouses in school shootings to pass such measures and make campuses safer. He said seeing the scene allowed the members to fully grasp what happened.
“You can read about it all day long, and debate it all day long, but it is not the same as walking through the school,” said Moskowitz, who organized the tour with Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Miami. Moskowitz pointed out that Parkland, an upscale suburb of Fort Lauderdale, is considered Florida’s safest city.
“It is now the home of the largest (high) school shooting in our history,” he said.
Diaz-Balart said that while touring the building, he was struck by how fast the lives were lost — all the fatalities happened within the attack’s first four minutes.
“The key is not just to come and see, the key is that we can put aside our differences, put aside the perfect and try to get some good things done. I am optimistic,” Diaz-Balart said.
The building is scheduled to be demolished soon, but the House members and families are hoping it can be kept up a bit longer so more state and federal legislators and White House advisors can also tour it.
Parent Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son Alex died in the shooting, suggested the tour and school safety roundtable to Moskowitz.
“We can come together and enact common-sense school safety solutions so this will never happen again,” said Schachter, a former insurance broker who is now a full-time campus safety advocate. “Safety has to come before education — you cannot teach dead kids.”
The school is closed for the summer and no students or teachers were on campus Friday.