NEW YORK (AP) — Many crew members on the Mexican navy tall ship that suffered a deadly collision with the Brooklyn Bridge have flown home from New York, officials said Monday.

Seven officers and 172 cadets who were aboard the Cuauhtemoc training vessel arrived early Monday at the port of Veracruz, where Mexico’s naval school is, the Mexican navy said in a post on X. Two cadets remained in New York getting medical treatment. They were in stable condition, the navy said.

Two members of the Cuauhtemoc’s crew suffered fatal injuries Saturday when the ship’s tall masts struck the Brooklyn Bridge’s main span after the ship departed a Manhattan dock where it had been open to visitors for several days.

Footage of the collision shot by horrified onlookers show the ship moving swiftly backwards and then grinding beneath the 142-year-old bridge as its topmasts snapped off. Multiple cadets in the ship’s crew were aloft, standing on the ship’s yards when the collision happened. Several were left dangling by safety harnesses as the masts partially collapsed.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the cause of the crash, which police said was possibly related to a mechanical problem. The ship was moving quickly under motor power in the opposite of its intended direction when the collision happened. A tugboat that had helped the ship get out of its berth could be seen on video trying to get ahead of the vessel as it headed toward the bridge but couldn’t overtake it in time.

The safety board planned to hold its first media briefing later Monday. The investigation is likely to take months. The crippled Cuauhtemoc remained at a dock in Manhattan.

The Brooklyn Bridge escaped major damage but at least 19 of the ship’s 277 sailors needed medical treatment, according to officials. Among those killed was América Yamilet Sánchez, a 20-year-old sailor who had been studying engineering at the Mexican naval academy. Her family has said she died after falling from one of the Cuauhtemoc’s masts.

The Cuauhtemoc arrived in New York on May 13 as part of a global goodwill tour. The vessel, which sailed for the first time in 1982, had been docked and welcoming visitors in recent days at the tourist-heavy South Street Seaport. It was next bound for Iceland.

The ship’s main mast has a height of 160 feet (50 meters), far too high for the span of the Brooklyn Bridge at any tide.

Associated Press reporter Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this story.

By DAVID RISING

BANGKOK (AP) — Three people were killed and several others injured when they were struck by lightning while visiting Cambodia’s famous Angkor Wat temple complex.

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They had been seeking shelter around the main temple of the UNESCO site when the lightning struck late Friday afternoon.

Video posted on social media showed two ambulances arriving in the aftermath and onlookers and site officials carrying out some injured people and helping others out on foot. Other images showed multiple people being treated in the hospital.

The day after the incident, Cambodia’s Minister of Tourism Hout Hak issued a statement telling people to take down online posts about it, saying the spreading of “negative information” could harm the country’s tourism sector.

Authorities have released no information about the incident, but an official on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed to The Associated Press that three people — all Cambodian — were killed in the lightning strike.

The Cambodian Red Cross also posted an update saying it had delivered care packages to the families of two of the victims, a 34-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman. The Red Cross refused to comment further by phone.

A spokesman for the Angkor Wat site did not respond to requests for comment, nor did a regional health official.

Cambodia’s government under Prime Minister Hun Manet keeps a tight grip on information, and has been accused by rights groups of using the court system to prosecute critics and political opponents.

Hun Manet in 2023 succeeded his father, Hun Sen, who was widely criticized for the suppression of freedom of speech during his nearly four decades of autocratic rule.

Angkor Wat is Cambodia’s best-known tourist attraction, attracting some 2.5 million visitors annually, and is even featured on the country’s flag.

UNESCO calls the site, which sprawls across some 155 square miles and contains the ruins of Khmer Empire capitals from the 9th to the 15th centuries, one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia.

Cambodia has been actively developing the area to attract more visitors, including opening a new $1.1 billion Chinese-funded airport in nearby Siem Reap.

Its move to relocate some 10,000 families squatting in the Angkor Wat area to a new settlement has drawn widespread criticism from human rights groups, however, and UNESCO itself has expressed concern.

Cambodian authorities have said the families were being voluntarily relocated, but Amnesty International and others have questioned how voluntary the relocations actually have been.

By ANNIKA HAMMERSCHLAG

SOCOTRA, Yemen (AP) — On a windswept plateau high above the Arabian Sea, Sena Keybani cradles a sapling that barely reaches her ankle. The young plant, protected by a makeshift fence of wood and wire, is a kind of dragon’s blood tree — a species found only on the Yemeni island of Socotra that is now struggling to survive intensifying threats from climate change.

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“Seeing the trees die, it’s like losing one of your babies,” said Keybani, whose family runs a nursery dedicated to preserving the species.

Known for their mushroom-shaped canopies and the blood-red sap that courses through their wood, the trees once stood in great numbers. But increasingly severe cyclones, grazing by invasive goats, and persistent turmoil in Yemen — which is one of the world’s poorest countries and beset by a decade-long civil war — have pushed the species, and the unique ecosystem it supports, toward collapse.

Often compared to the Galapagos Islands, Socotra floats in splendid isolation some 150 miles off the Horn of Africa. Its biological riches — including 825 plant species, of which more than a third exist nowhere else on Earth — have earned it UNESCO World Heritage status. Among them are bottle trees, whose swollen trunks jut from rock like sculptures, and frankincense, their gnarled limbs twisting skywards.

But it’s the dragon’s blood tree that has long captured imaginations, its otherworldly form seeming to belong more to the pages of Dr. Seuss than to any terrestrial forest. The island receives about 5,000 tourists annually, many drawn by the surreal sight of the dragon’s blood forests.

Visitors are required to hire local guides and stay in campsites run by Socotran families to ensure tourist dollars are distributed locally. If the trees were to disappear, the industry that sustains many islanders could vanish with them.

“With the income we receive from tourism, we live better than those on the mainland,” said Mubarak Kopi, Socotra’s head of tourism.

But the tree is more than a botanical curiosity: It’s a pillar of Socotra’s ecosystem. The umbrella-like canopies capture fog and rain, which they channel into the soil below, allowing neighboring plants to thrive in the arid climate.

“When you lose the trees, you lose everything — the soil, the water, the entire ecosystem,” said Kay Van Damme, a Belgian conservation biologist who has worked on Socotra since 1999.

Without intervention, scientists like Van Damme warn these trees could disappear within a few centuries — and with them many other species.

“We’ve succeeded, as humans, to destroy huge amounts of nature on most of the world’s islands,” he said. “Socotra is a place where we can actually really do something. But if we don’t, this one is on us.”

Increasingly intense cyclones uproot trees

Across the rugged expanse of Socotra’s Firmihin plateau, the largest remaining dragon’s blood forest unfolds against the backdrop of jagged mountains. Thousands of wide canopies balance atop slender trunks. Socotra starlings dart among the dense crowns while Egyptian vultures bank against the relentless gusts. Below, goats weave through the rocky undergrowth.

The frequency of severe cyclones has increased dramatically across the Arabian Sea in recent decades, according to a 2017 study in the journal Nature Climate Change, and Socotra’s dragon’s blood trees are paying the price.

Toppled dragon’s blood trees are strewn on the ground on the Yemeni island of Socotra on Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)

In 2015, a devastating one-two punch of cyclones — unprecedented in their intensity — tore across the island. Centuries-old specimens, some over 500 years old, which had weathered countless previous storms, were uprooted by the thousands. The destruction continued in 2018 with yet another cyclone.

As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, so too will the intensity of the storms, warned Hiroyuki Murakami, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the study’s lead author. “Climate models all over the world robustly project more favorable conditions for tropical cyclones.”

Invasive goats endanger young trees

But storms aren’t the only threat. Unlike pine or oak trees, which grow 25 to 35 inches per year, dragon’s blood trees creep along at just about 1 inch annually. By the time they reach maturity, many have already succumbed to an insidious danger: goats.

An invasive species on Socotra, free-roaming goats devour saplings before they have a chance to grow. Outside of hard-to-reach cliffs, the only place young dragon’s blood trees can survive is within protected nurseries.

“The majority of forests that have been surveyed are what we call over-mature — there are no young trees, there are no seedlings,” said Alan Forrest, a biodiversity scientist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s Centre for Middle Eastern Plants. “So you’ve got old trees coming down and dying, and there’s not a lot of regeneration going on.”

Keybani’s family’s nursery is one of several critical enclosures that keep out goats and allow saplings to grow undisturbed.

“Within those nurseries and enclosures, the reproduction and age structure of the vegetation is much better,” Forrest said. “And therefore, it will be more resilient to climate change.”

Conflict threatens conservation

But such conservation efforts are complicated by Yemen’s stalemated civil war. As the Saudi Arabia-backed, internationally recognized government battles Houthi rebels — a Shiite group backed by Iran — the conflict has spilled beyond the country’s borders. Houthi attacks on Israel and commercial shipping in the Red Sea have drawn retaliation from Israeli and Western forces, further destabilizing the region.

“The Yemeni government has 99 problems right now,” said Abdulrahman Al-Eryani, an advisor with Gulf State Analytics, a Washington-based risk consulting firm. “Policymakers are focused on stabilizing the country and ensuring essential services like electricity and water remain functional. Addressing climate issues would be a luxury.”

With little national support, conservation efforts are left largely up to Socotrans. But local resources are scarce, said Sami Mubarak, an ecotourism guide on the island.

Mubarak gestures toward the Keybani family nursery’s slanting fence posts, strung together with flimsy wire. The enclosures only last a few years before the wind and rain break them down. Funding for sturdier nurseries with cement fence posts would go a long way, he said.

“Right now, there are only a few small environmental projects — it’s not enough,” he said. “We need the local authority and national government of Yemen to make conservation a priority.”

Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram @ahammergram.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

The City Planning Commission will meet Monday regarding plans for the long vacant Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx, among other land use proposals. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Welcome to City Limits’ NYC Housing Calendar, a weekly feature where we round up the latest housing and land use-related events and hearings, as well as upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

Know of an event we should include in next week’s calendar? Email us.

Upcoming Housing and Land Use-Related Events:

Monday, May 19 at 1 p.m.: The City Planning Commission will hold a review session regarding a number of land use applications, including certification of a plan to redevelop the long-vacant Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx. More here.

Monday, May 19, 5 to 8 p.m.: The New York City Charter Revision Commission, which is considering changes to city rules around land use and housing, will hold a public input session in Brooklyn. More here.

Monday, May 19 at 6:30 p.m.: The City Club of New York will host an online panel discussion on the proposed redevelopment of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal. More here.

Tuesday, May 20 at 9:30 a.m.: The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission will meet regarding several landmarks applications, including proposed designation of the former. Whitney Museum of American Art at 945 Madison Ave. More here.

Tuesday, May 20 at 10 a.m.: The New York State Senate’s Social Services committee will meet regarding several bills related to homeless shelters and assistance. More here.

Tuesday, May 20 at 11 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet regarding the land use application for the One45 for Harlem project, which would build a 34-story mixed-use complex with about 968 units (291 permanently affordable) at 124 West 145th St. More here.

Wednesday, May 21 at 10 a.m.: The City Planning Commission will vote on land use applications including the North 7th Street Rezoning and 252 Benedict Road. The Commission will also hold public hearings for the following projects: 33-28 Northern Blvd HRA Office Acquisition, 42-11 30th Avenue Rezoning, 347 Flushing Avenue, 236 Gold Street Rezoning, and the Lenox Hill Hospital redevelopment. More here.

Tuesday, May 21 at 7 p.m.: Queens Community Board 12 will hold a public hearing and vote on the city’s rezoning proposal for Jamaica. More here.

Thursday, May 22 at 9:30 a.m.: The Rent Guidelines Board, which is weighing potential rent increases for the city’s stabilized tenants, will meet to discuss 2025 Housing Supply Report, 2025 Hotel Report, and Changes to the Rent Stabilized Housing Stock in NYC in 2024 report. More here.

Thursday, May 22 at 11 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet. More here.

Thursday, May 22 at 11:30 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Committee on Land Use will meet. More here.

NYC Affordable Housing Lotteries Ending Soon: The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is closing lotteries on the following subsidized buildings over the next week.

555 West 45th Street Apartments, Manhattan, for households earning between $73,749 – $140,000 (last day to apply is Monday, 5/19)

Baisley Pond Park Residences, Queens, for households earning between $26,880 – $105,000 (last day to apply is Monday, 5/19)

Atlantic Chestnut Phase 2, Brooklyn, for households earning between $19,372 – $180,810 (last day to apply is Monday, 5/19)

2104 Ryer Avenue Apartments, Bronx, for households earning between $90,103 – $227,500 (last day to apply is Thursday, 5/22)

The post NYC Housing Calendar, May 19-26 appeared first on City Limits.