WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, with the goal of preventing pandemics like the COVID-19 outbreak that suddenly halted normal life around the globe in 2020.

U.S. government officials will work with the countries to develop better testing, surveillance, communication and preparedness for such outbreaks in those countries, according to a senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters Monday about the program on the condition of anonymity. The official did not share a list of countries that will participate in the program.

The announcement comes as countries have struggled to meet a worldwide accord on responses to future pandemics. Four years after the coronavirus pandemic, the prospects of a pandemic treaty signed by all 194 of the World Health Organization’s members are flailing.

The U.S. program will rely on several government agencies — including the U.S. State Department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health and Human Services and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID — to help countries refine their infectious disease response.

Congo is one country where work has already begun, the official told reporters. The U.S. government is helping Congo with its response to an mpox virus outbreak, including with immunizations. Mpox, a virus that’s in the same family as the one that causes smallpox, creates painful skin lesions. Last year, the World Health Organization declared mpox a global emergency, with more than 91,000 cases spanning across 100 countries to date.

The White House on Tuesday is releasing a website with the names of the countries that are participating in the program. Biden officials are seeking to get 100 countries signed onto the program by the end of the year.

The U.S. has devoting billions of dollars to the effort. Biden, a Democrat, is asking for $1.2 billion for global health safety efforts in his yearly budget proposal to Congress.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A series of gun safety bills introduced after the deadliest shooting in Maine history appears to be headed toward final passage as the state Legislature races to wrap up its session this week.

The House followed the Senate on Monday in approving the governor’s omnibus gun safety bill that strengthens the state’s yellow flag law, boosts background checks for private sales of guns and makes it a crime to recklessly sell a gun to a prohibited person. The bill also funds violence prevention initiatives and opens a mental health crisis receiving center in Lewiston.

More votes are necessary in the Democratic-controlled Legislature before it adjourns Wednesday. The House also will be voting on two bills approved by the Senate: waiting periods for gun purchases and a ban on bump stocks.

One bill that failed was a proposal to let gun violence victims sue weapon manufacturers. And so far, neither chamber has voted on a proposal for a red flag law that allows family members to petition a judge to remove guns from someone who’s in a psychiatric crisis. That proposal differs from the state’s current yellow flag law that puts police in the lead of the process.

Meanwhile, another measure sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross to fund a range of mental health and violence prevention initiatives awaits money in the final budget.

The state has a strong hunting tradition and an active lobby aimed at protecting gun owner rights. Maine voters rejected universal background checks for firearm purchases in 2016.

The Oct. 25 shooting that killed 18 people and injured 13 others in Lewiston prompted lawmakers to act, saying constituents were demanding that they do something that could prevent future attacks.

Police were warned by family members of the shooter, an Army reservist who died by suicide, that he was becoming paranoid and losing his grip on reality before the attack. He was hospitalized last summer while training with his Army Reserve unit, and his best friend, a fellow reservist, warned that the man was going “to snap and do a mass shooting.”

(Reuters) -Trump Media & Technology Group is planning to roll out a live TV streaming platform in phases, the Truth Social-parent said on Tuesday after six months of testing.

The company would launch Truth Social’s content delivery network for streaming live TV on the app for Android, iOS and Web in the first phase.

It plans to release the streaming apps for TV in the final third phase, the company said, without disclosing a timeline.

Shares of former U.S. president Donald Trump’s social media company had slumped 18% on Monday, after the company said it could sell millions of shares in coming months, including the former president’s entire stake.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden returns to his childhood hometown of Scranton on Tuesday to open three straight days of campaigning in Pennsylvania, capitalizing on the opportunity to work the battleground state while Donald Trump spends the week in a New York City courtroom for his first criminal trial.

The Democratic president plans to use Scranton, a working class city of roughly 75,000 people, as the backdrop for his pitch for higher taxes on the rich. At the same, he will portray Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee and a billionaire himself, as a tool of wealthy interests.

It’s all aimed at reframing the conversation around the economy, which has left many Americans feeling sour about their financial situations at a time of stubborn inflation and elevated interest rates despite low unemployment.

Biden plans to spend Tuesday night in Scranton before continuing to Pittsburgh on Wednesday morning. He then goes back to the White House, only to return to Pennsylvania on Thursday, this time visiting Philadelphia.

By the time the week is over, Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris will have visited the state eight times this year, reflecting its importance to Biden’s hopes for a second term.

“It’s hard to draw paths to Biden winning the White House that don’t involve Pennsylvania,” said Daniel Hopkins, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania. No Democrat has become president without winning the state since Harry Truman in 1948.

Scranton, the president’s first destination, will blend the personal and the political for Biden. He grew up in a three-story colonial home in the Green Ridge neighborhood until his father struggled to find work and moved the family to Delaware when the future president was 10.

Although Delaware eventually became the launching pad for Biden’s political career, he often returned to Scranton and grounded his autobiography in the city. He visited so often, he was sometimes called “Pennsylvania’s third senator.”

In 2020, Biden described the presidential campaign as “Scranton versus Park Avenue,” and his reelection team is framing this year’s race in a similar way.

“You’ve got Joe Biden, who sees the world from the kitchen table where he grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Donald Trump, who sees the world from his country club down in Mar-a-Lago,” said Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director.

Christopher Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, described Scranton as a “mythical place in political culture,” and it will provide a test for Biden’s political appeal.

“It’s an area that, on paper, aligns perfectly with the populist gains of the Republican Party during the Trump era,” Borick said.

However, Biden won the city and the surrounding county in 2020. If he’s able to carry Scranton and similar places again this year, as well as limit Trump’s winning margins in rural areas, Biden may be able to secure another victory in Pennsylvania.

“Everything is on the margin. Everything that we talk about are small shifts,” Borick said.

Biden’s pitch on taxes is a key part of his effort to blunt Trump’s populist allure.

When Trump was president, he signed into law a series of tax breaks in 2017 that disproportionately benefit the rich. Many of the cuts expire at the end of 2025, and Biden wants to keep a majority of them to fulfill his promise that no one earning less than $400,000 will pay more taxes.

However, he also wants to raise $4.9 trillion in revenue over 10 years with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations. His platform includes a “billionaire’s tax,” which would set a minimum rate of 25% on the income of the richest Americans.

Biden’s travels in Pennsylvania overlap with the start of Trump’s first criminal trial, presenting an opportunity and a challenge for the president’s campaign.

Trump is defending himself against criminal charges for a scheme to suppress allegations of affairs with a porn actress and a Playboy model. Biden’s team has quietly embraced the contrast of the former president sequestered in a courtroom while the current president has free rein to focus on economic issues that are top of mind for voters.

However, the juxtaposition becomes less helpful if Trump soaks up the country’s attention during the first-ever criminal trial of a former president.

Biden campaign officials said they weren’t worried about the trial.

“No matter where Donald Trump is, whether it’s in Mar-a-Lago or a courtroom or anywhere else, he’ll be focused on himself, his toxic agenda, his campaign of revenge and retribution,” Tyler said. “That’s going to be a continuation of the contrast the American people have been able to see since this campaign began.”

Sam DeMarco, chair of the Republican Party in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, said Democrats’ message is that “the economy is good, we’re just not smart enough to realize it.”

However, DeMarco said, “across the board, it costs more to live today than it did when Joe Biden came to office.”

“These are the things that families feel,” he said. “And a scripted appearance by the president is not going to change that.”

Trump was last in Pennsylvania on Saturday night in Schnecksville, where he described Biden as a “demented tyrant” and blamed him for all of the country’s problems, in addition to his own legal woes.

“All of America knows that the real blame for this nightmare lies with one person, Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump said.

He attacked Biden’s tax plans, falsely claiming that “they’re going to raise your taxes by four times.”

Trump also went on an extended riff about the Civil War battle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, calling it “so vicious and horrible, and so beautiful in so many different ways,” and suggesting that the Confederate General Robert E. Lee is “no longer in favor.”

___

Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Will Weissert contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Every U.S. national election, a cottage industry of strategists, pollsters and organizers craft brand-new words and phrases to describe the mood of American voters and the politicking aimed at influencing them. 

From the 2000 election’s “Nader traders” (ask a Generation X voter) to 2004’s “Swift Boating,” to the 2008 “Obama coalition,” these terms provide a sort of snapshot of the U.S., illuminating unique, often temporary phenomena related to the battle to lead the world’s most powerful democracy. 

This year is no exception. Here are some terms you need to know:

BANNON LINE: First coined during the 2020 election cycle, in response to a comment made by political strategist and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, the Bannon Line is being invoked heavily in 2024. It describes the path in which a Democratic candidate could defeat former President Donald Trump if a certain threshold of Republican voters did not support Trump. 

“It’s clear to me that the Bannon Line has grown. It’s no longer 6-7%; it can be as much as 20-25% so far of people who voted in the Republican primaries,” a Democratic strategist said in an interview.  

DOBBS DADS: Fathers of girls or young women who may have traditionally voted Republican, but who Democrats think will switch parties in November out of concern about their daughters’ reproductive rights after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. That ruling overturned the constitutional right to have an abortion and ushered in a string of restrictive state abortion measures.      

The Supreme Court decision is a big factor motivating not only women voters, but also fathers of girls – the “Dobbs dads” who worry about the decisions their daughters would face when they grow up – Rick Wilson, a former Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, told reporters in Iowa earlier this year.

FETTERMAN DEMOCRATS: Democrats who distance themselves from the party’s progressive and moderate flanks, offering unpredictable policy positions that are often rooted in populist politics. The term was inspired by first-term U.S. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

“A lot of local Democrats at the local level are embracing being a ‘Fetterman Democrat,” said one political adviser. “Fetterman has really given them political cover to speak their minds and not be beholden to any orthodoxy.”

LAWFARE: The strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate or hinder an opponent, not to be confused with Lawfare Media, a popular national security-focused website. 

Trump, his supporters and right-wing media, have increasingly claimed the Democrats are engaged in lawfare against the Republican presidential candidate, who faces multiple criminal cases. “All of this weaponization and lawfare that you’re watching … they’re being run by the DOJ, they put their people in there” Trump said in a video released in April.

NO-NO VOTERS: Voters who have a negative view of both Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden.

The “no-no” voter chunk of the electorate “is really broad and really diverse” this election, one strategist said.

No-no voters have also been referred to as “double haters.”   

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly, Andrea Shalal, Alexandra Ulmer, andJarrett Renshaw; Writing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By Jarrett Renshaw

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden kicks off a multi-city tour of the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday with a stop in his hometown of Scranton where he will renew calls to increase taxes on wealthy Americans and large corporations.

With 19 electoral votes, one of the highest counts among all 50 U.S. states, and voters who swing between backing Democrats and Republicans, Pennsylvania is a top prize in the 2024 presidential election that features a rematch between Biden and his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump.

Biden, who spent part of his childhood in Scranton before his family moved to Delaware, won Pennsylvania in 2020 by less than 1.5%, or roughly 80,000 votes. Trump beat Hillary Clinton there by fewer than 45,000 votes in 2016. Polls show another close race.

Biden will head to Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Thursday as part of an effort to draw contrasts with Trump on tax and economic policies. Trump was in Eastern Pennsylvania on Saturday for a campaign rally that drew thousands of supporters.

“You got Joe Biden, a candidate who sees the world in the kitchen table where he grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Donald Trump, who sees the world from his country club down at Mar-a-Lago,” said Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign’s communications director.

Biden is grappling with voter concerns about the U.S. economy despite job growth, healthy spending and better-than-expected GDP increases. Voters blame Biden for rising costs on an array of items from groceries to construction supplies, along with high interest rates.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found that voters trust Trump more than Biden to better manage the economy and jobs by a 39% to 33% margin.

Biden is betting his economic populist message, which includes a new billionaire’s tax and closing corporate loopholes, will animate voters in a blue-collar region of Pennsylvania that Democrats dominated before Trump emerged. Scranton sits in Lackawanna County, which is whiter, poorer and less-educated, on average, than the rest of the state, the latest U.S. Census figures show.

Biden must stem the defections of white, non-college educated voters in Pennsylvania and other rust-belt battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin if he hopes to stay in the White House, campaign aides have said.

Former President Barack Obama won Lackawanna county by roughly 62% in 2008 and 2012, while Hillary Clinton eked out a victory with 49.8% of the vote. Biden won the county by 53%.

The state’s Republican and Democratic primary contests take place on April 23.

Biden faces a loosely organized effort by critics who say he has not done enough to stop the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Israel’s air and ground campaign has led to widespread disease and famine in the Palestinian enclave.

Amber Viola, a 38-year-old Scranton resident who runs a popular local political podcast, said she was invited by the Biden campaign to attend the Scranton event but turned it down.

“I don’t feel comfortable posing for campaign photos when there are people dying,” Viola said.

Voters mounted opposition efforts in Democratic primaries in other battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina to register their protest. Biden has faced protests at many public events in recent months.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; editing by Jeff Mason and Richard Chang)

HONOLULU (AP) — The Maui Fire Department is expected to release a report Tuesday detailing how the agency responded to a series of wildfires that burned on the island during a windstorm last August — including one that killed 101 people in the historic town of Lahaina and became the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

The release comes one day before the Hawaii Attorney General is expected to release the first phase of a separate comprehensive investigation about the events before, during and after the Aug. 8 fires.

The reports could help officials understand exactly what happened when the wind-whipped fire overtook the historic Maui town of Lahaina, destroying roughly 3,000 properties and causing more than $5.5 billion in estimated damage, according to state officials.

The Western Fire Chiefs Association produced the after-action report for the Maui Fire Department. After-action reports are frequently used by military organizations, emergency response agencies, government entities and even companies to help identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s response to an emergency.

A similar after-action report was released by the Maui Police Department in February. It included 32 recommendations to improve the law enforcement agency’s response to future tragedies, including that the department obtain better equipment and that it station a high-ranking officer in the island’s communications center during emergencies.

Hawaiian Electric has acknowledged that one of its power lines fell and caused a fire in Lahaina the morning of Aug. 8, but the utility company denies that the morning fire caused the flames that burned through the town later that day. But dozens of lawsuits filed by survivors and victims’ families claim otherwise, saying entities like Hawaiian Electric, Maui County, large property owners or others should be held responsible for the damage caused by the inferno.

Many of the factors that contributed to the disaster are already known: Strong winds from a hurricane passing far offshore had downed power lines and blown off parts of rooftops, and debris blocked roads throughout Lahaina. Later those same winds rained embers and whipped flames through the heart of the town.

The vast majority of the county’s fire crews were already tied up fighting other wildfires on a different part of the island, their efforts sometimes hindered by a critical loss of water pressure after the winds knocked out electricity for the water pumps normally used to load firefighting tanks and reservoirs. County officials have acknowledged that a lack of backup power for critical pumps made it significantly harder for crews to battle the Upcountry fires.

A small firefighting team was tasked with handling any outbreaks in Lahaina. That crew brought the morning fire under control and even declared it extinguished, then broke for lunch. By the time they returned, flames had erupted in the same area and were quickly moving into a major subdivision. The fire in Lahaina burned so hot that thousands of water pipes melted, making it unlikely that backup power for pumps would have made a significant impact.

Cellphone and internet service was also down in the area, so it was difficult for some to call for help or to get information about the spreading fire — including any evacuation announcements. And emergency officials did not use Hawaii’s extensive network of emergency sirens to warn Lahaina residents.

The high winds made it hard at times for first responders to communicate on their radios, and 911 operators and emergency dispatchers were overwhelmed with hundreds of calls.

Police and electricity crews tried to direct people away from roads that were partially or completely blocked by downed power lines. Meanwhile, people trying to flee burning neighborhoods packed the few thoroughfares leading in and out of town.

The traffic jam left some trapped in their cars when the fire overtook them. Others who were close to the ocean jumped into the choppy waters to escape the flames.

___

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama voters are set to cast their ballots Tuesday to decide party nominees for the state’s 2nd Congressional District, which was redrawn by a federal court to boost the voting power of Black residents.

The outcome of the hotly contested runoffs will set the match for the closely watched November race. Democrats are aiming to flip the Deep South seat, and Republicans, with control of the U.S. House of Representatives on the line, will try to keep it under the GOP column.

A federal court redrew the district in October after ruling that the state’s previous congressional map — which had only one majority-Black district out of seven in a state that is about 27% Black — illegally diluted the voting power of Black residents. The new district stretches the width of the state, including Mobile, the capital of Montgomery and the state’s Black Belt.

For the Democratic nomination, Shomari Figures, former deputy chief of staff and counselor to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, faces off against state Rep. Anthony Daniels, the minority leader of the state House. On the Republican side, former state Sen. Dick Brewbaker faces real estate attorney and political newcomer Caroleene Dobson to decide the party’s nomination.

The non-partisan Cook Political Report rated the district as “likely Democrat,” meaning that it favors the Democratic candidate in November but isn’t considered a sure thing. The November race could lead to Alabama having two Black congressional representatives in its delegation for the first time in history.

Figures and Daniels, who are both Black, were the top two vote-getters in the crowded field of 11 Democrats who sought the nomination. Both men have stressed their experience — Figures in Washington and Daniels in Montgomery.

Figures, an attorney, also served as an aide to former President Barrack Obama, serving as domestic director of the Presidential Personnel Office, and as a congressional staffer for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. He is the son of two prominent Alabama legislators, long-time state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures and the late Senate President Pro Tem Michael Figures. Figures moved back to Mobile from Washington D.C. to run for the congressional seat.

Daniels, a former teacher and business owner, was elected to the Alabama Legislature in 2014. He was elected minority leader in 2017, becoming the first Black man to hold the post. He lives in Huntsville, which is outside the 2nd District, but his campaign has emphasized that he grew up in the district and has worked on legislative issues for the entire state.

Figures led in the initial round of voting, capturing about 43% of the vote. Daniels finished second at about 22%.

Runoffs are required in both races because no candidate captured more than 50% of the vote in the March 5 primary.

Brewbaker led in the March primary, capturing 37% of the vote to Dobson’s 24.76%.

Dobson, who was raised in Monroe County, lived and practiced law in Texas before returning to Alabama and joining the Maynard Nexsen law firm in 2019. She is a member of the Alabama Forestry Commission.

Brewbaker, a businessman and owner of a Montgomery car dealership, served a term in the Alabama House and two terms in the Alabama Senate. He did not seek reelection in 2018.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A movie weapons armorer received the maximum sentence of 18 months in jail for involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on a Western movie set, as authorities now turn their focus on prosecution of Baldwin himself.

A New Mexico judge on Monday found that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s recklessness amounted to a serious violent offense, while noting few indications of genuine remorse from the defendant since her conviction in March. Prosecutors blame Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust,” where it was expressly prohibited, and for failing to follow basic gun-safety protocols .

Attention now turns to Baldwin’s upcoming trial on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the October 2021 death of Halyna Hutchins at a movie ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of the film, was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty and says he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the gun fired.

Here are some things to know as the “Rust” case against Baldwin nears:

Prosecutors on Monday described a “cascade of safety violations” on the movie set that only start with Gutierrez-Reed.

At sentencing, Gutierrez-Reed said she had tried to do her best on the set despite not having “proper time, resources and staffing,” and that she was not the monster that people have made her out to be.

But Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said the maximum sentence was appropriate given Gutierrez-Reed’s recklessness. She said remorse was lacking and rejected a request by defense attorneys for leniency and a conditional discharge that would have avoided further jail time.

The judge ticked through a checklist of safety failures by Gutierrez-Reed, pointedly answering her own questions.

“Did she have enough time to load the weapon safely? Plenty,” the judge said. “Did you load the weapon? Yes — with dummies and a live round. Did she check what she was loading? No.”

Hutchins, who was 42 when she died, grew up on a remote Soviet military base and worked on documentary films in Eastern Europe before studying film in Los Angeles and embarking on a promising movie-making career.

At the sentencing hearing, friends and family members described Hutchins as courageous, tenacious and compassionate.

Courtroom testimonials also included calls for justice and a punishment that would instill greater accountability for safety on film sets.

Ukrainian relatives of Hutchins are seeking damages in her death from Baldwin in connection with the shooting. Attorney Gloria Allred is representing Hutchins’ parents and sister and says that the family supports the criminal prosecution of Baldwin.

“No one has ever come to me to apologize,” Hutchins’ mother Olga Solovey said in a tearful video testimonial shown at the sentencing of Gutierrez-Reed.

The filming of “Rust” moved to Montana after Hutchins’ death under an agreement with her husband, Matthew Hutchins, that made him an executive producer.

Prosecutors dismissed an earlier involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin after being told the gun he was holding might have been modified before the shooting and malfunctioned.

A new analysis of the gun opened the way for prosecutors to reboot the case. A grand jury indicted Baldwin on the same charge in January. The indictment alleges Baldwin caused Hutchins’ death — either by negligence or “total disregard or indifference” for safety.

If he’s convicted, the charge carries a potential prison sentence of up to 18 months.

Defense attorneys for Baldwin are urging the judge to dismiss the grand jury indictment, accusing prosecutors of “unfairly stacking the deck” in grand jury proceedings that diverted attention away from exculpatory evidence and witnesses.

Special prosecutors deny those accusations and accuse Baldwin of “shameless” attempts to escape culpability, highlighting contradictions in Baldwin’s statements to law enforcement, workplace safety regulators and the public in a televised interview.

An FBI expert testified at Gutierrez-Reed’s trial that the revolver used by Baldwin was fully functional with safety features when it arrived at an FBI laboratory. The expert said he had to strike the fully cocked gun with a mallet and break it in order for it to fire without depressing the trigger.

Defense attorney Jason Bowles said Gutierrez-Reed will appeal the judge’s judgment and sentence against her.

Bowles said at sentencing that “there were multiple system failures by multiple people. Some of those people have come before the court. … Some have yet to come before the court. At least one individual is going to be tried in July.”

Gutierrez-Reed was acquitted of an evidence tampering charge at trial, but still confronts another felony charge in separate proceedings on allegations she brought a gun into a bar in downtown Santa Fe.

At her sentencing, Gutierrez-Reed teared up as Hutchins’ agent, Craig Mizrahi, spoke about the cinematographer’s creativity and described her as a rising star in Hollywood.

But special prosecutor Kari Morrissey says she reviewed nearly 200 phone calls that Gutierrez-Reed had made from jail over the last month. She said she was hoping there would be a moment when the defendant would take responsibility for Hutchins’ death or express genuine remorse but “that moment has never come.”

SPARROWS POINT, Md. (AP) — Nearly three weeks since Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed under the impact of a wayward cargo ship, crews are using the largest crane on the Eastern Seaboard to haul the wreckage to a nearby salvage yard.

The heaviest section so far weighed about 450 tons (408 metric tons). In the salvage yard Monday morning, workers disassembled the metal trusses by attacking them with propane torches and a pair of giant shears that sliced them into more manageable pieces. Rising from the water nearby was the Chesapeake 1000, a floating crane with a storied history that includes helping the CIA retrieve part of a sunken Soviet submarine.

The Key Bridge took five years to construct in the 1970s. Now, it’s a race against the clock to dismantle the remnants of a fallen Baltimore landmark.

On March 26, six construction workers plunged to their deaths in the collapse. Four bodies have since been recovered.

Salvage crews are hoping to recover the two remaining bodies once more of the debris has been removed. They’re also working toward their goal of opening a temporary channel later this month that would allow more commercial traffic to resume through the Port of Baltimore, which has remained largely closed since the March 26 collapse. Officials plan to reopen the port’s main channel by the end of May.

So far, over 1,000 tons (907 metric tons) of steel have been removed from the waterway. But the work is tedious, dangerous and incredibly complex, leaders of the operation said Monday during a visit to the salvage yard at Tradepoint Atlantic, the only maritime shipping terminal currently operating in the Port of Baltimore.

The facility, which occupies the site of a former Bethlehem Steel plant northeast of Baltimore, has ramped up operations to accommodate some of the ships originally scheduled to dock at the port’s other terminals.

Before removing any pieces of the bridge, divers are tasked with surveying the murky underwater wreckage and assessing how to safely extract the various parts. Coming up with a roadmap is among the biggest challenges, said Robyn Bianchi, an assistant salvage master on the project.

“There’s a lot of debris, there’s rebar, there’s concrete,” she said. “We don’t know what dangers are down there, so we have to be very methodical and slow with that.”

At the same time, crews are working to remove some containers from the cargo ship Dali before lifting steel spans off its bow and refloating the vessel.

“It presents a dynamic hazard,” said Joseph Farrell, CEO of Resolve Marine, which is working on refloating the ship. He said once that happens, the Dali will return to the Port of Baltimore. “Getting it out of there is a priority.”