INTERNACIONAL
Dredging of Puerto Rico’s biggest port begins as environmentalists warn of threat to turtles, corals
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A $62 million project to dredge Puerto Rico’s biggest and most important seaport began Wednesday amid fierce opposition from environmentalists and a pending lawsuit.
Crews with California-based Curtin Maritime will remove nearly 3 million cubic yards (76 million cubic feet) of marine floor to open the San Juan Bay to larger vessels including tankers that will serve a new liquid natural gas terminal on Puerto Rico’s north coast.
PUERTO RICO ABLE TO MAKE FULL TRANSITION TO CLEAN ENERGY BY 2050, FEDS SAY
The dredged material will be deposited into the Atlantic Ocean two nautical miles (four kilometers) north of the U.S. territory in a move approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, officials said.
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said the project overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to give a $400 million boost to the local economy, adding that the dredging will be completed by October.
He dismissed concerns by environmentalists who have said the project would endanger wildlife and humans. «This already was authorized at all federal levels, including any environmental impact it might have,» he said.
In August 2022, the Arizona-based nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government, saying the project threatens to destroy corals and seagrass beds and suck up turtles and other marine life.
The lawsuit is pending at a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., with a hearing last held in January.
«We are hoping for a decision soon,» Catherine Kilduff, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a phone interview.
«The dredging itself causes sediment that can kill corals,» she said. «Those corals have been impacted by diseases and warming waters, and so we’re worried that this dredging project…could be a death knell.»
Kilduff said the center also is concerned about manatees that swim in the San Juan Bay, where they depend on seagrass for food and are struck by ships.
She said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last dredged the bay in the early 2000s, promising they would plant an acre of seagrass.
«They still haven’t done that,» she said.
Kilduff noted that the federal government held a public comment period on the dredging project when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm in 2017, leaving the island without power or passable roads.
A USACE spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
As the governor shared details about the project on Wednesday, a dredging vessel began operations in the background.
Officials said it would dig up to 46 feet (14 meters), with some areas in the San Juan Bay currently at depths ranging from 36 feet (11 meters) to 42 feet (13 meters).
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«San Juan harbor is an economic engine and vital lifeline for Puerto Rico,» U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Charles Decker said in the announcement. «It’s a phenomenal investment in the future of Puerto Rico.»
The Corps is investing almost $45 million in the project, with the government of Puerto Rico providing the rest.
INTERNACIONAL
Wife of US hostage Keith Siegel pleads for holiday miracle: ‘we need to get them back’
FIRST ON FOX – Aviva Siegel, the wife of American hostage Kieth Siegel and a former hostage herself, is pleading with everyone and anyone involved in the hostage negotiations to get her husband, and the others, freed from Hamas captivity after they have spent more than 440 days in deplorable conditions.
«Hamas released a video of Keith, and I just saw the picture,» Aviva told Fox News Digital in an emotional interview in reference to a video Hamas released in April. «He looks terrible. His bones are out, and you can see that he’s lost a lot of weight.
«He doesn’t look like himself. And I’m just so worried about him, because so [many] days and minutes have passed since that video that we received,» she said. «I just don’t know what kind of Keith that we’re going to get back.»
7 US HOSTAGES STILL HELD BY HAMAS TERRORISTS AS FAMILIES PLEAD FOR THEIR RELEASE: ‘THIS IS URGENT’
«I’m worried about all the hostages, because the conditions that they are in are the worst conditions that any human being could go through,» Aviva said. «I was there. I touched death. I know what it feels being underneath the ground with no oxygen.
«Keith and I were just left there. We were left there to die,» she added.
Aviva and her husband of, at the time 42 years, were brutally abducted from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and held together for 51 days before she was released in the November 2023 hostage exchange after suffering from a stomach infection that left her incredibly ill.
She has since tirelessly fought for Kieth’s release, meeting with top officials in the U.S. and Israel, traveling to the United States nine times in the last year and becoming a prominent advocate for the hostages.
«I just hope that he’s with other people from Israel, and if he has them, he’s going to be okay,» Aviva said. «He’s just the person that will make them feel that they’re together. That’s what he did when I was there – he was 100% for me and the hostages that we were with.»
«If you get kidnapped, get kidnapped with Keith, because he was outstanding to everybody. He was strong for all of us. And I’m sure that he’s keeping strong and keeping his hope to come out,» she said.
Aviva recounted their last moments together before they were separated ahead of her release, telling Fox News Digital, «When I left him, I told him to be the strongest – that he needs to be strong for me, and I’ll be strong for him.»
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY UNDER PRESSURE AMID RISING RESISTANCE, POPULARITY OF IRAN-BACKED TERROR GROUPS
Top security officials from the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar have been pushing Israel and Hamas to agree to a cease-fire and the return of hostages.
Reports on Thursday suggested that negotiators are pushing for a 42-day cease-fire in which 34 of the at least 50 hostages still assessed to be alive, could be exchanged.
Hamas is also believed to continue to hold at least 38 who were taken hostage and then killed while in captivity, along with at least seven who are believed to have been killed on Oct. 7, 2023 and then taken into Gaza.
Though all the hostages are believed to have been held in deplorable conditions, the children, women – including the female IDF soldiers – the sick and the elderly have reportedly been front listed to be freed first in exchange for Hamas terrorists currently imprisoned.
«I’m keeping my hope and holding on and just waiting – waiting to hug Keith, and waiting for all the families, to get their families back,» Aviva said. «We need to get them back.»
Aviva said she dreams of the moment that she gets to hug her husband again and watch their grandchildren «jump into his arms.»
«We’ll be the happiest people on Earth,» she said. «All the hostages, I can’t imagine them coming home. It’ll be just the happiest moment for all of the families. We need it to happen.»
Reports in recent weeks suggest there is an increased sense of optimism in bringing home the hostages, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged some caution when speaking with MSNBC Morning Joe on Thursday when he said, «We are encouraged because this should happen, and it should happen because Hamas is at a point where the cavalry it thought might come to the rescue isn’t coming to the rescue, [Hezbollah’s] not coming to the rescue, [Iran’s] not coming to the rescue.»
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«In the absence of that, I think the pressure is on Hamas to finally get to yes,» he added. «But look, I think we also have to be very realistic. We’ve had these Lucy and the football moments several times over the last months where we thought we were there, and the football gets pulled away.
«The real question is: Is Hamas capable of making a decision and getting to yes? We’ve been fanning out with every possible partner on this to try to get the necessary pressure exerted on Hamas to say yes,» Blinken added.
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