By LOLITA C. BALDOR and TARA COPP – Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military-built pier designed to carry badly needed aid into Gaza by boat has been reconnected to the beach in the besieged territory after a section broke apart in storms and rough seas, and food and other supplies will begin to flow soon, U.S. Central Command announced Friday.

The section that connects to the beach in Gaza, the causeway, was rebuilt nearly two weeks after heavy storms damaged it and abruptly halted what had already been a troubled delivery route.

Earlier this morning in Gaza, U.S. forces successfully attached the temporary pier to the Gaza beach, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters by phone Friday. We expect to resume delivery of humanitarian assistance from the sea in the coming days.

Cooper said operations at the reconnected pier will be ramped up soon with a goal to get 1 million pounds (450,000 kilograms) of food and other supplies moving through the pier into Gaza every two days.

The pier was only operational for a week before a storm broke it apart, and had initially struggled to reach delivery goals. Weather was a factor, and early efforts to get aid from the pier into Gaza were disrupted as civilians desperate for food stormed the trucks that aid agencies were using to transport the food to the warehouses for distribution.

However before it broke apart the pier had been gradually increasing aid movement each day. Cooper said Friday that the lessons learned from that initial week of operations made him confident higher levels of aid throughout could be attained now.

A large section of the causeway broke apart May 25 as heavy winds and high seas hit the area, and four Army vessels operating there went aground, injuring three service members, including one who remains in critical condition. The damage was the latest stumbling block in what has been a persistent struggle to get food to starving Palestinians during the nearly 8-month-old Israel-Hamas war.

The maritime route for a limited time had been an additional way to help get more aid into Gaza because the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah has made it difficult, if not impossible at times, to get anything through land routes that are far more productive. Israel’s Rafah military operations and military strikes in northern Gaza had also temporarily halted U.S. airdrops of food.

Cooper said Friday the U.S. also expects to resume those airdrops in the coming days.

President Joe Biden’s administration has said from the start that the pier wasn’t meant to be a total solution and that any amount of aid helps.

After the May 25 storm damage to the causeway, large sections were disconnected and moved to the Israeli port for repairs. In addition, two of the U.S. Army boats that went aground during the same bad weather near Ashkelon in Israel have been freed.

Two other Army boats two beached onto the Gaza shoreline took on a lot of water and sand and the Israeli Navy has been helping with the repairs, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.

Biden, a Democrat, announced his plan for the U.S. military to build a pier during his State of the Union address in early March, and the military said it would take about 60 days to get it installed and operational. The initial cost was estimated at $320 million, but Singh said earlier this week that the price had dropped to $230 million, due to contributions from Britain and because the cost of contracting trucks and other equipment was less than expected.

It took a bit longer than the planned two months for installation, with the first trucks carrying aid for the Gaza Strip rolling down the pier on May 17. Just a day later, crowds overran a convoy of trucks as they headed into Gaza, stripping the cargo from 11 of the 16 vehicles before they reached a U.N. warehouse.

The next day, as officials altered the travel routes of the convoys, aid finally began reaching people in need. More than 1,100 tons (1,000 metric tons) of aid were delivered before the causeway broke apart in the storm, Pentagon officials said.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

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A greater onus will be placed on drivers’ skill when Formula One launches a new era of smaller, more nimble and greener cars in 2026. The FIA yesterday presented a set of new regulations aimed at creating closer racing, more excitement and greater sustainability.

The cars will be smaller and lighter by 30 kilos, leading to greater efficiency and improved handling and the simpler hybrid engines — with a 50-50 split between internal combustion and electric engines will have nearly 300 percent more battery power.

So-called active aerodynamics will be used to maximise the benefit of the new engines the front and rear wings of cars will open on the straights to reduce drag and increase speed, but then close to increase downforce on corners. A manual over-ride system will generate more electrical power and assist overtaking.

The regulations have been designed to provide closer racing among drivers, increase the competition between teams and improve the spectacle, said the FIA’s single-seater technical delegate Nikolas Tombazis.

We have opted for a higher electrical component of the power unit, a more efficient car overall and fully sustainable fuels as part of our drive towards a more sustainable future for our sport. Formula One chief Stefano Domenicali said F1 was entering this new regulatory cycle with the sport in the strongest position it has ever been.

The new sustainably-fuelled hybrid power unit presents a huge opportunity for the global automotive industry, the drop in fuel has the potential to be used by cars around the world and dramatically cut emissions.

Aussie pension fund backs gas for energy shift

MELBOURNE: One of Australia’s largest pension funds has backed arguments by the government and the nation’s big energy companies that natural gas will be needed as a bridging fuel in the transition to cleaner power.

HESTA has assets of A$83bil and holds stakes of at least 0.5% in the country’s two biggest natural-gas producers, Woodside Energy Ltd and Santos Ltd.

While the fund recognises the need for the fuel, it is continuing to push big polluters to move away from fossil fuels and reach net-zero goals, chief executive officer Debby Blakey said at the Australian Financial Review Environmental, Social and Governance Summit.

Blakey said there was enormous urgency in the transition and capital would flow to the right companies tackling the issue.

This need for a timely and orderly transition is absolutely critical, so gas will play a role, she said in Sydney on Wednesday.

Australia’s massive pension fund industry is seen playing a key role in urging producers to tackle the emissions that have helped make the nation one of the world’s biggest per-capita polluters.

That comes after the A$72bil liquefied natural gas export industry last month welcomed a government plan supporting the fuel’s use beyond 2050, despite commitments to zero out emissions by that date.

In March, HESTA said it had urged Woodside to consider adding new directors with skills suited to climate-related challenges.

The company’s recent appointment Anthony O’Neill – a former Anglo American Plc executive – was not one of the directors the fund had put forward, Blakey said. — Bloomberg

Good Morning America has been down one meteorologist since the firing of on-air personality Rob Marciano, in April. According to the New York Post, the veteran weatherman was let go by ABC one year after he was temporarily taken off the air for anger management issues, according to sources.

Marciano joined ABC in 2014 and appeared on both Good Morning America and World News Tonight over the past decade. The NY Post reports that there have been multiple complaints of his behavior. One previous report indicates that at one point Marciano was banned from GMA’s Time Square Studios after allegedly making a colleague feel uncomfortable. He was found to have done something … that was improper, but he was punished for it, and they still haven’t let him return, one source said at the time.

Currently, it is unclear what specifically led to Marciano’s firing — which Puck also confirmed — though one source stated he had been dealing with anger management issues while going through a divorce from his wife. He made people feel uncomfortable. There was a period where there were some issues, a number of alarming events, a second source added.

There were times when [Marciano] was very cranky and angry … unsavory behavior on his part, the second source continued. He was pulled off to deal with it, and he’s been back.

According to a previous report from Page Six, ABC’s employee relations department took Marciano off the air for a month, following an alleged incident with a female co-worker. However, several months later GMA executive producer Simone Swink would not let him back into the studio when his ban was lifted. She’s no-nonsense and is very serious, the second source said. She’s focused on the work and wants to keep [her staff] focused and happy. She’s very protective of her team.