WASHINGTON — The US Justice department on Wednesday filed a civil claim seeking $103 million from the two Singaporean companies that owned and operated the container ship that in March toppled the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, killing six people and paralyzing a major transportation artery for the US Northeast.

The department is seeking to recover from Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited the money the U.S. government spent in responding to the disaster and for clearing the wreck of the Dali ship and bridge debris from the Port of Baltimore so the waterway could reopen in June.

“This was an entirely avoidable catastrophe, resulting from a series of eminently foreseeable errors made by the owner and operator of the Dali,” Brian Boynton, who heads the Justice department’s Civil Division, said in a statement.

The department also is seeking an unspecified sum in punitive damages, accusing the two companies of negligence.

The US National Transportation Safety Board said in May that the Dali lost electrical power several times before it crashed into the bridge in the Patapsco River in the early morning of March 26. The FBI in April opened a criminal investigation probe into the disaster.

“By court order, all persons alleging claims against the owner and manager of the Dali must file their claim on or before September 24^th. Accordingly, the filing of (Wednesday’s) claim was anticipated. The owner and manager will have no further comment on the merits of any claim at this time, but we do look forward to our day in court to set the record straight,” according to a statement provided on behalf of the companies.

The Justice department’s lawsuit was brought as part of a legal action initiated by Grace Ocean and Synergy to limit their liability for the crash to $44 million, a sum department officials called “woefully inadequate.”

Brawner Builders, the construction company that employed all six workers who died in the collapse while working on the bridge and one who was injured, also filed a civil claim against Grace Ocean and Synergy on Wednesday.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified sum in damages for the deaths of its workers and loss of construction vehicles and equipment on the bridge.

The ship slammed into a support pylon, sending the bridge plunging into the river.

Justice department official Benjamin Mizer told reporters that the ship’s owner and operator were aware of longstanding issues with the Dali’s electrical and mechanical systems and failed to correct them “out of negligence, mismanagement, and, at times, a desire to cut costs.”

“As a result, when the Dali lost power, a cascading set of failures led to disaster,” Mr. Mizer said.

The reopening required the removal of 50,000 tons of debris. More than 1,500 individual responders, along with 500 specialists from around the world, operated a fleet of boats during the operation, which involved 56 federal, state, and local agencies.

The state of Maryland estimates that it will cost $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion to rebuild the bridge and anticipates completion by fall 2028. — Reuters

UNITED NATIONS — More than 130 world leaders will meet at the United Nations (UN) next week, faced with wars in the Middle East and Europe threatening to spread, frustration at the slow pace of efforts to end those conflicts, and worsening climate and humanitarian crises.

While the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Russia’s war in Ukraine are set to dominate the annual high-level UN General Assembly, diplomats and analysts say they don’t expect progress toward peace.

“The wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan are going to be the three main crisis-points in focus at the General Assembly. I don’t think we are likely to see breakthroughs on any of them,” said Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week told Reuters that the wars in Gaza and Ukraine were “stuck with no peaceful solutions in sight.”

Concerns about a spillover of the Gaza conflict to the broader Middle East have again escalated after Lebanese militant group Hezbollah accused Israel of detonating pagers and hand-held radios in two days of deadly attacks. Israel has not commented on the accusation.

“There is a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon, and everything must be done to avoid that escalation,” Mr. Guterres told reporters on Wednesday.

The war in besieged Gaza was triggered by a Hamas attack on civilians in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, two weeks after world leaders finished their annual gathering last year.

Mediation efforts by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have yet to broker a ceasefire and global patience has waned nine months after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly demanded a humanitarian truce and as the Gaza death toll reaches 41,000.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who has long accused the UN of being anti-Israel — and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are both scheduled to address the General Assembly on Sept. 26.

DIPLOMATIC SPEED-DATING
The annual gathering of world leaders to mark the beginning of each new session of the General Assembly is often referred to as diplomatic speed-dating.

While the event is anchored by six days of leaders’ speeches to the assembly, much of the action happens on the sidelines with hundreds of bilateral meetings and dozens of side events seeking to focus the global spotlight on the main issues.

Also looming this year is the prospect of a new US administration. Republican Donald Trump — who cut UN funding and called the global body weak and incompetent while in office from 2017 to 2021 — faces Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris in a Nov. 5 election.

“Clearly in the back of everyone’s mind is going to be a guy called Donald Trump,” Gowan said. “I think in a lot of the private conversations around the General Assembly… the number one question will be what will Trump do to the organization.”

This year side events will be held on the war and humanitarian crisis in Sudan, where famine has taken hold, international efforts to help Haiti fight gang violence and the Taliban crackdown on women’s rights in Afghanistan.

Mr. Guterres on Wednesday poked fun at himself, saying he has “no power and no money.”

“There are two things the secretary-general of the United Nations has, and I have to say that I’ve been using them,” he told reporters. “One is my voice, and nobody will be able to shut it up. And second is the capacity to convene people of goodwill to address and solve problems.”

IRAN, UKRAINE
Western accusations about Iran’s role in the Middle East — Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis are aligned with Tehran — and support for Russia’s war in Ukraine also shadow this year’s UN General Assembly.

European powers seek to revive efforts to rein in Iran’s nuclear program and Iranian and European officials are due to meet in New York next week to test their mutual willingness to engage.

Iran’s comparatively moderate new president Masoud Pezeshkian will address the United Nations on Tuesday.

Mr. Pezeshkian “will focus on detente, building confidence with the world, and de-escalation,” a senior Iranian official said, but he will also “stress Iran’s right to retaliate” against Israel if needed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the high-level General Assembly gathering for the third time since Russia invaded his country. He is due to address a meeting on Ukraine of the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday and the General Assembly on Wednesday.

Mr. Zelensky has a plan to push Russia to diplomatically end the war that he wants to present to US President Joseph R. Biden this month. He also wants to share it with both of Biden’s potential successors, Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump.

Some US officials have already been briefed on elements of the plan.

“We think it lays out a strategy and a plan that can work. And we need to see how we can promote that as we engage with all of the countries’ heads of state who will be here in New York… we do have hope to make some progress,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Tuesday.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin virtually addressed the General Assembly in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, he has not physically traveled to New York for the event since 2015. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is instead due to speak to the General Assembly on Sept. 28. — Reuters