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Follow our live coverage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore. But after the cargo ship Dali lost power early Tuesday, there were precious few minutes to act. In those minutes, many people — from the ship’s crew, who sent out a mayday signal, to the transportation authority police officers, who stopped traffic heading onto the Francis Scott Key Bridge — did what they could to avert catastrophe, most likely saving many lives. And the Key Bridge was particularly vulnerable. As long ago as 1980, engineers had warned that the bridge, because of its design, would never be able to survive a direct hit from a container ship.

Persons: Francis Scott Key, Dali Organizations: Eastern Seaboard Locations: Baltimore

☆ Engineers Are Raising Questions About Piers Supporting Baltimore Bridge
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( James Glanz | Annie Correal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Without the pier, they said, it was impossible for other components of the bridge to assume the load and keep the bridge standing. The piers on a bridge act as a kind of leg and are what is known as “nonredundant” parts of a bridge’s structure. Yet the collapse in Baltimore on Tuesday might have been avoided, some of the engineers said, if the piers were adequately equipped with blocking devices with a self-explanatory name: fenders. It was not clear whether any such protection built around the bridge’s piers was sufficient to guard against even a glancing hit from a 95,000-gross-ton container vessel. The Maryland Transportation Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the design of the piers, or whether any fenders were installed around them.

Organizations: Maryland Transportation Authority Locations: Baltimore

☆ The ‘Luxury Route’ to the U.S. for African Migrants
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Annie Correal | Federico Rios | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

As record numbers of people cross into the United States, the southern border is not the only place where the migration crisis is playing out. Nearly three thousand miles to the south, inside Colombia’s main international airport, hundreds of African migrants have been pouring in every day, paying traffickers roughly $10,000 for flight packages they hope will help them reach the United States. The surge of African migrants in the Bogotá airport, which began last year, is a vivid example of the impact of one of the largest global movements of people in decades and how it is shifting migration patterns. With some African countries confronting economic crisis and political upheaval, and Europe cracking down on immigration, many more Africans are making the far longer journey to the U.S.

Locations: United States, Bogotá, Europe

Ecuador’s military was sent in to seize control of the country’s prisons last month after two major gang leaders escaped and criminal groups quickly set off a nationwide revolt that paralyzed the country. In Brazil last week, two inmates with connections to a major gang became the first to escape from one of the nation’s five maximum-security federal prisons, officials said. Officials in Colombia have declared an emergency in its prisons after two guards were killed and several more targeted in what the government said was retaliation for its crackdown on major criminal groups. Inside prisons across Latin America, criminal groups exercise unchallenged authority over prisoners, extracting money from them to buy protection or basic necessities, like food.

Locations: Brazil, Colombia, Latin America

When deportation flights from the United States to Venezuela resumed last fall after four years, it was a move meant to show that President Biden was aggressively tackling the record numbers of crossings at the U.S. southern border. The expulsions were also meant to deter other Venezuelans who might be considering the journey. But on Wednesday, for the second week in a row, U.S.-run flights to Venezuela carrying migrants did not depart as planned — a move that seems to be initiated by Venezuela. The Venezuelan government did not respond to repeated requests for comment about whether it was permanently halting the deportation flights, but a social media post by Venezuela’s vice president last month threatened to stop them after the United States reimposed some economic sanctions. Officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed that a flight scheduled last week and another scheduled Wednesday had both been canceled.

Persons: Biden Organizations: United, U.S . Department of Homeland Security Locations: United States, Venezuela, U.S, Venezuelan

☆ Terrorized by Gangs, Ecuador Embraces the Hard-Line ‘Noboa Way’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Annie Correal | Federico Rios | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since Ecuador’s president declared war on gangs last month, soldiers with assault rifles have flooded the streets of Guayaquil, a sprawling Pacific Coast city that has been an epicenter of the nation’s yearslong descent into violence. They pull men from buses and cars looking for drugs, weapons and gang tattoos, and patrol roads enforcing a nighttime curfew. Yet when people see soldiers pass, many clap or give them a thumbs-up. “We applaud the iron fist, we celebrate it,” said Guayaquil’s mayor, Aquiles Álvarez. “It has helped bring peace.”In early January, Guayaquil was hit by a wave of violence that could prove to be a turning point in the country’s long-running security crisis: Gangs attacked the city after the authorities moved to take charge of Ecuador’s prisons, which gangs largely controlled.

Persons: “, ”, Aquiles Organizations: Guayaquil’s Locations: Guayaquil, Pacific Coast, Ecuador

☆ ‘We’re Broken’: Wildfires on Chile’s Coast Kill 64 and Leave Hundreds Missing
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( Annie Correal | John Bartlett | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Days after devastating wildfires swept through Chile’s Pacific Coast, officials said on Sunday that at least 64 people had been killed and hundreds remained missing and warned that the number of dead could rise sharply. “That number is going to go up, we know it’s going to go up significantly,” President Gabriel Boric said on Sunday, describing the fires in the Valparaíso region as the worst disaster in the country since a cataclysmic earthquake in 2010 left more than 400 people dead and displaced 1.5 million. Thousands of homes were destroyed in the fires, which swept through the coastal hills toward the resort of Viña del Mar starting Friday, propelled by high winds. The fires came as many were vacationing in Viña del Mar and roared through hillside settlements where many older residents were not able to escape.

Persons: Gabriel Boric Organizations: Chile’s, Viña del Mar Locations: Coast, Viña, Viña del Mar

The fires swept through central Chile’s coastal hills, destroying thousands of homes and killing scores, with many more missing, according to officials. Credit Credit... Cristóbal Olivares for The New York Times

Persons: Cristóbal Olivares Organizations: Credit, The New York

☆ ‘El país no está preparado’: Colombia combate oleada de incendios forestales
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Annie Correal | Genevieve Glatsky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

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Organizations: The

☆ Colombia, a Usually Wet Nation, Reels Amid Widespread Wildfires
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Annie Correal | Genevieve Glatsky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Helicopters hauling buckets of water fly toward the mountains where fires burn, a thick haze periodically covers the sky, and residents have been ordered to wear masks and limit driving because of the poor air quality. For a full week, firefighters have been battling fires in the mountains around Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, as dozens of other blazes have burned across the country, in what officials say is the hottest January in three decades. The president has declared a national disaster and asked for international help fighting the fires, which he says could reach beyond the Andes Mountains and erupt on the Pacific Coast and in the Amazon. Colombia’s fires this month are unusual in a country where people are more accustomed to torrential rain and mudslides than fire and ash. They have been attributed to high temperatures and drought exacerbated by the climate phenomenon known as El Niño.

Locations: Bogotá, Coast

☆ Ecuador’s Attorney General Took on Drug Gangs. Then Chaos Broke Out.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( Annie Correal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just weeks before Ecuador descended into chaos, with prison riots, two escaped criminal kingpins and the brief siege of a television station, the country’s top prosecutor launched a major operation aimed at rooting out narco-corruption at the highest levels of government. The investigation, called “Caso Metastasis,” led to raids across Ecuador and more than 30 arrests. They had been implicated by text chats and call logs retrieved from cellphones belonging to the drug trafficker, who was murdered while imprisoned. When the attorney general, Diana Salazar, announced the charges last month, she said the investigation had revealed the spread of criminal groups through Ecuador’s institutions. She also warned of a possible “escalation in violence” in the days to come, and said that the executive branch had been put on alert.

Persons: kingpins, Caso, ”, Diana Salazar Locations: Ecuador

☆ A Deal for Aid Into Gaza, and More
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( New York Times Audio | Patricia Sulbarán | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. The Headlines brings you the biggest stories of the day from the Times journalists who are covering them, all in about 10 minutes. Hosted by Annie Correal, the new morning show features three top stories from reporters across the newsroom and around the world, so you always have a sense of what’s happening, even if you only have a few minutes to spare.