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World’s tallest bridge officially opens in China

admin - Latest News - September 29, 2025
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The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge, the world’s tallest bridge, has officially opened to traffic in southern China after nearly four years of construction. The bridge soars to almost 2,050 feet above a river, making it almost nine times taller than San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.



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September 25, 2025
Sept. 25, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Abigail Brooks and Erik OrtizDerrick Dearman appeared to be high on drugs in his Alabama prison in the days leading up to his execution.The convicted killer raged in phone calls and emails, anguishing over how his willingness to die for his crimes wouldn’t change the perception of him as an irredeemable monster.And by the time he took his final breath, his longtime addiction to methamphetamine — the drug he blamed for fueling the murders of five people, including a pregnant woman, in 2016 — had consumed him to the end.Dearman, 36, had meth in his body when Alabama put him to death by lethal injection in October 2024, according to a toxicology report confirming what eyewitnesses believed at the time.He isn’t the only prisoner to be executed with narcotics in their system in Alabama recently.Since Alabama resumed executions in 2023, following a pause on capital punishment amid a series of failed lethal injection attempts, the state has executed 11 people, including Dearman. An NBC News review of available autopsies shows that at least three others had taken illegal drugs prior to their executions: Jamie Ray Mills, 50, was executed last year with meth in his body, while Carey Dale Grayson, 50, and Kenneth Smith, 58, died last year with a form of a synthetic cannabinoid in their system, according to their toxicology reports. Synthetic cannabinoids imitate the effects of substances like marijuana.Carey Dale Grayson; Kenneth Smith; Jamie Ray Mills.Alabama Department of CorrectionsAlabama has its fourth execution of the year scheduled for Thursday.Jon Ozmint, a former prosecutor who was the director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections from 2003 to 2011, said that the discovery during autopsy of drugs unrelated to an execution and not prescribed to an inmate would have been “a red flag for us.”“We definitely would have launched an after-action review, and then, if there was any indication of you know, staff wrongdoing, we would have launched the appropriate level of investigation,” Ozmint said.Mills was executed by lethal injection, and Grayson and Smith died by an execution method using nitrogen gas. (Smith was the first inmate in the nation to die in that manner.)The amount of the drugs found in Dearman, Mills, Grayson and Smith was relatively small, independent medical experts who reviewed the inmates’ records told NBC News, but their detection still indicates the drugs had been recently absorbed.D’Michelle DuPre, a forensic consultant in South Carolina and a former medical examiner, has analyzed about 125 death row inmates’ toxicology reports throughout her career, she said.“I have rarely seen an opioid in the inmates’ tox screen. I don’t recall seeing a narcotic,” DuPre noted.Alabama executes convicted murderer with new nitrogen method02:05Charlotte Morrison, a senior attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative, which represented Mills in his death row case, said drugs are generally less of a problem in Alabama’s William C. Holman Correctional Facility because of heightened security and inmates’ isolation.However, she said, she’s not surprised to learn that even death row inmates can score drugs, indicating the depths of the problem.“The entire system is poorly managed,” Morrison said. Drugs “are a pervasive crisis.”The Alabama Department of Corrections and the state attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to inquiries about the inmates’ toxicology results.According to the state’s execution protocol, on the afternoon of an execution, “a medical examination of the condemned inmate will be completed, with the results recorded on a Medical Treatment Record or Body Chart.” The Department of Corrections also did not immediately respond when asked if workers are checking for drug use in that final examination and what happens if it is detected.In a deposition last October involving Grayson’s case, Corrections Commissioner John Hamm acknowledged drugs are circulating in Alabama’s prisons. He agreed that, in some instances, corrections employees may be smuggling the contraband into the prisons and selling them to prisoners.In recent months, the Department of Corrections said a corrections officer was accused of the large-scale trafficking of narcotics, including meth and marijuana, at the state prison in St. Clair County. Additionally, visitors have attempted to bring drugs into facilities, including at Holman, or used drones to drop backpacks containing drugs onto prison grounds.The William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., where death row inmates are executed.Sharon Steinmann / APThe drug trade has had lethal consequences, as well. Of the 277 deaths last year of inmates in state Department of Corrections custody, 46 were classified as “accidental/overdose,” according to an ACLU of Alabama report.In 2020, the Justice Department sued Alabama for alleged constitutional violations within its prison system, citing instances of excessive force, sexual abuse and poor sanitary conditions. The suit also mentioned the system’s “failure to prevent the introduction of illegal contraband leads to prisoner-on-prisoner violence.”“The use of illicit substances, including methamphetamines or fentanyl or synthetic cannabinoids, is prevalent in Alabama’s prison for men,” the complaint alleges. “Prisoners using illicit substances often harm others or become indebted to other prisoners.”The federal government’s lawsuit against Alabama remains ongoing, and the state has largely denied the allegations in court filings.Carla Crowder, the executive director of Alabama Appleseed, a nonprofit criminal justice reform organization that provides legal and re-entry services, said prison officials have the ability to root out drugs in prisons “from a public corruption perspective.”“Start tracking down the source — who’s in charge, who’s calling the shots,” Crowder said. “We are advocating for the state to begin to take this seriously.”During Commissioner Hamm’s deposition, one of Grayson’s lawyers pointed out the ability for some death row inmates to acquire drugs, including his own client — and questioned whether that affected Grayson’s ability to meaningfully participate in his own defense.“Mr. Grayson admitted that he was on drugs at the time of his deposition or had taken them in the immediate — in the preceding 12 hours,” lawyer Spencer Hahn told U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr.“I don’t understand how a person who is being held on single block at the most secure prison in the state of Alabama is allowed to alter his consciousness using drugs before a deposition that is central to his case,” Hahn said. “So a lot of what Mr. Grayson said and may not have said, he was not in his right mind in a lot of ways.”Hahn added that Grayson had been under the influence of flakka, a synthetic stimulant similar to the more commonly known bath salts.He said Grayson’s drug use was also consistent with a synthetic cannabinoid found in Smith’s autopsy. An attorney for the state responded that the synthetic cannabinoid Smith consumed was “smoked.”Certainly taking drugs is illegal, but so is providing drugs to a prisoner. ”Said Spencer hahn, a lawyer for a Death row inmate“Having access to these mind-altering substances can absolutely impact your conscious state and your decision-making,” said David Dadiomov, an assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California.Dadiomov also said the way these drugs are used among people who are incarcerated is different because of the setting. “Things are misused simply based on access,” he said. “At extremely high doses, because these substances are usually very potent, they also cause psychotic-like effects, or effects that are quite different from what people classically view as intoxication from marijuana.”During Hamm’s deposition, Hahn questioned how Smith could have drugs in his system when he “had been watched for four days straight before an execution.”“Somehow he was able to, from an isolation cell, obtain flakka or whatever that synthetic cannabinoid source was,” Hahn said of Smith.“Certainly taking drugs is illegal,” Hahn added, “but so is providing drugs to a prisoner. And somebody got those drugs into that prison.”During the deposition, the judge suggested drugs could be getting into Alabama prisons another way.“There has been an issue in the state prison system of lawyers bringing in papers that have been soaked in drugs and then giving them to their clients and DOC, you know, or whatever the facility maybe can’t stop that from happening because it’s legal papers,” Judge Huffaker said. “And then the particular inmate smokes or ingests it or does whatever with it.”Hahn denied his law office had ever done so.He declined to comment about Grayson’s case when reached by NBC News this week.A lawyer for Smith also couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.Read more death row coverageAn Idaho warden acquired hard-to-get lethal injection drugs from an undisclosed supplier on a rural roadAfter Biden commuted federal death row sentences, DAs are weighing state chargesSouth Carolina prepares for first firing squad execution, ushering in return of rare methodIndiana carries out first execution in 15 years in process scrutinized for its secrecyDearman, who initially pleaded not guilty to the crimes, later fired his two court-appointed attorneys and changed his plea to guilty.In a phone interview with NBC News in April 2024, Dearman said he had dropped the appeals in his case and was ready for the state to execute him on capital murder and kidnapping charges.Dearman said he was high on meth in 2016 when he burst into a bungalow armed with an ax and firearms in a rural area near Mobile. His estranged ex-girlfriend, Laneta Lester, was staying at the home, which belonged to her brother.Dearman was convicted of killing five people while they slept: Lester’s brother, Joseph Adam Turner, 26, and his wife, Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Randall’s brother, Robert Lee Brown, 26; and two others who lived at the home, Justin Kaleb Reed, 23, and his wife, Chelsea Marie Reed, 22, who was five months pregnant. Dearman was also convicted in the death of the Reed’s unborn child.He told NBC News last year that he was addicted to drugs since he was a teenager and that his dependency on them ignited the rampage.“Drugs turned me into a very unpredictable, unstable and violent person,” he said. “That’s not who I am. The person that committed these crimes and the person who I truly am is two different people.”Dadiomov said there is a strong correlation between long-term meth use and severe mental illness, likening meth-induced psychosis to schizophrenia.“They present similarly,” he said. “They can have the similar features of hallucinations, so seeing things that aren’t there or hearing things that aren’t there.”Morrison, who represented Mills on Alabama’s death row, said the need for inmates to turn to drugs in prison, and then potentially gain access to narcotics from corrections officers and other employees, only shows the absence of rehabilitation and programming to help prisoners — even those relegated to death row.“It impacts any sense of hope,” Morrison said. “It’s a system that reflects to an entire group of people that they do not have worth.”Abigail BrooksAbigail Brooks is a producer for NBC News.Erik OrtizErik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.
September 28, 2025
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October 10, 2025
Oct. 10, 2025, 1:45 AM EDTBy Kayla SteinbergThousands of U.S.-bound packages shipped by UPS are trapped at hubs across the country, unable to clear the maze of new customs requirements imposed by the Trump administration.As packages flagged for customs issues pile up in UPS warehouses, the company told NBC News it has begun “disposing of” some shipments.Frustrated UPS customers describe waiting for weeks and trying to make sense of scores of conflicting tracking updates from the world’s largest courier.“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Matthew Wasserbach, brokerage manager of Express Customs Clearance, said of the UPS backlog. “It’s totally unprecedented.”Wasserbach’s New York City-based shipping services firm helps clients move shipments through customs. He said the company has seen a spike in inquiries for help with UPS customs clearance.A Boeing 747 operated by UPS on the tarmac at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky during a winter storm on Feb. 3, 2022.Luke Sharrett / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileMore than two dozen people who are waiting for their UPS packages explained the circumstances of their shipments to NBC News.They described shipments of tea, telescopes, luxury glassware, musical instruments and more — some worth tens of thousands of dollars — all in limbo or perhaps gone. Others have deep sentimental value: notebooks, diplomas and even engagement rings.The frustration has exploded online, with customers sharing horror stories on Reddit of missing skin care products, art and collectibles.They are confused and angry, and they want answers.Packages destroyed? “It’s almost impossible to get through to anybody to figure out what is happening,” said Ashley Freberg, who said she is missing several boxes she shipped via UPS from England in September. “Are my packages actually being destroyed or not?”Freberg’s boxes of journals, records and books were shipped on Sept. 18, according to tracking documents she shared with NBC News. Over the next two weeks, she received two separate notifications from UPS that her personal mementos had not cleared customs and as a result had been “disposed of” by UPS.Then, on Oct. 1, a UPS tracking update appeared for her packages, saying they were on the way. The tracking updates Freberg showed NBC News for that shipment revealed it was the most recent update she had received. UPS transport jets wait to be loaded with packages at UPS Worldport in Louisville, Ky., on April 27, 2021.Timothy D. Easley / AP fileWhile sentimental value is impossible to measure, other customers fear they will not be able to recover financially if their goods were destroyed.Tea importer Lauren Purvis of Portland, Oregon, said five shipments from Japan, mostly containing matcha green tea and collectively worth more than $127,000, were all sent via UPS over the last few weeks and arrived at UPS’ international package processing hub in Louisville, Kentucky. Purvis has yet to receive any of the shipments, only a flurry of conflicting tracking updates from UPS.A series of notifications for one shipment, which she shared with NBC News, said that the shipment had not cleared customs and that UPS had disposed of it. But a subsequent tracking update said the shipment had cleared customs and was on the way.“We know how to properly document and pay for our packages,” Purvis said. “There should be zero reason that a properly documented and paid-for package would be set to be disposed of.”At least a half-dozen people described an emotional seesaw they were put through by weeks of contradictory UPS tracking updates about their shipments. The updates, they said, compounded the stress of not knowing what had really happened to their possessions.A UPS Boeing 767 aircraft taxis at San Diego International Airport, in San Diego, Calif., August 15, 2025.Kevin Carter / Getty Images fileAJ, a Boston man who asked that NBC News use only his initials to protect his privacy, said he shipped a package from Japan via UPS on Sept. 12 including Japanese language books, a pillow and a backpack. After it sat in Louisville for nearly two weeks, AJ got a tracking update on Sept. 26, one of several that he shared with NBC News. “We’re sorry, your package did not clear customs and has been removed from the UPS network. Per customs guidelines, it has been destroyed. Please contact the sender for more information,” it read.UPS tracking updates for a package shipped from Japan to the United States.Obtained by NBC NewsThree days later, on Sept. 29, he received another, and this one read: “On the Way. Import Scan, Louisville, KY, United States.” For a moment, it appeared as though AJ’s shipment might have been found. But less than 24 hours after his hopes were raised, another tracking update arrived: “We’re sorry,” it began. It was the same notice that his package had “been destroyed” that he had received on the 26th. Two minutes later, he got his final update: “Unable to Deliver. Package cannot clear due to customs delay or missing info. Attempt to contact sender made. Package has been disposed of.” A mess for customs International shipping was thrown into chaos after the long-standing “de minimis” tariff exemption for low-value packages ended on Aug. 29. Packages with values of $800 or less, which were previously allowed to enter the United States duty-free, are now subject to a range of tariffs and fees.They include hundreds of country-specific rates, or President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, as well as new levies on certain products and materials. President Donald Trump holds a chart as he speaks about reciprocal tariffs at a “Make America Wealthy Again” event at the White House on April 2.Brendan Smialowski / AFP – Getty Images fileThe result is that international shipping to the United States today is far more complex and costly than it was even two months ago. The sweeping changes have caught private individuals and veteran exporters alike in a customs conundrum.It is difficult to know the exact number of the packages that are stuck in UPS customs purgatory. Shipping companies guard their delivery data closely. UPS reported to investors that in 2023, its international service delivered around 3.2 million packages per day.This week, the company told NBC News that it is clearing more than 90% of the packages it handles through customs on the first day. The rest of the packages, or less than 10%, require more time to clear customs and need to be held until they do. That could easily mean that thousands of UPS packages every day are not clearing customs on their first try.No easy fixIn a statement to NBC News, UPS said it is doing its best to get all packages to their destinations while abiding by the new customs requirements.“Because of changes to U.S. import regulations, we are seeing many packages that are unable to clear customs due to missing or incomplete information about the shipment required for customs clearance,” it said. UPS said it makes several attempts to get any missing information and clear delayed shipments, contacting shippers three times.“In cases where we cannot obtain the necessary information to clear the package, there are two options,” it said. “First, the package can be returned to the original shipper at their expense. Second, if the customer does not respond and the package cannot be cleared for delivery, disposing of the shipment is in compliance with U.S. customs regulations. We continue to work to bridge the gap of understanding tied to the new requirements and, as always, remain committed to serving our customers.”A conveyor belt carries envelopes and small packages past UPS workers to their destinations at Worldport on Nov. 20, 2015.Patrick Semansky / AP, fileNBC News asked UPS precisely what it does with packages when it tells customers their shipments have been unable to clear customs and have been “disposed of.” It would not say. On Sept. 27, a shipper in Stockholm received a formal notification from UPS that two packages her glassware company sent to the United States — which failed to clear customs — would be destroyed.“We are sorry, but due to these circumstances and the perishable nature of the contents, we are now required to proceed with destruction of the shipment in accordance with regulatory guidelines,” UPS told Anni Cernea in an email she shared with NBC News.The email continued, “There is no need to contact our call center for further information or to attempt to clear this shipment.”Cernea said, “It’s just outrageous that they can dispose of products like this without approval from either the sender or recipient.”From now on, Cernea said, she plans to ship her products via UPS rival FedEx.Trouble aheadCernea’s decision to switch carriers hints at the worst-case scenario for UPS, which is that people could abandon the company. It is a potential crisis for the roughly $70 billion company. The company’s stock price is already down more than 30% this year, which analysts attribute to a mix of tariffs, competition and shifting shopping habits.As she awaits her missing journals and diplomas from England, Freberg is looking ahead to the biggest shipping months of the year.“I can’t even imagine how bad the holidays are going to be, because that’s a time where loads of people are shipping stuff overseas,” she said.“If it doesn’t get solved soon, I can only see it becoming an even bigger issue.”Kayla SteinbergKayla Steinberg is a producer at NBC News covering business and the economy.
September 29, 2025
Sept. 28, 2025, 8:08 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 28, 2025, 8:09 PM EDTBy Andrew GreifThe notion that the New York Giants would switch quarterbacks this season had appeared to be a matter of when, not if, since April. Trading up in the NFL draft to select a quarterback in the first round has a way of starting a clock on such decisions.That change, officially, came in Week 4, and the timing was inauspicious. The Giants, winless and struggling, were hosting the 3-0 Los Angeles Chargers, who had staked their claim to be discussed as a potential Super Bowl contender. In a game in which each team suffered a significant loss, it was Dart who gave the Giants two things they had been lacking most the season. A win, plus some hope.Starting with an opening-drive touchdown capped by a designed run by Dart — the Giants’ first first-quarter touchdown this season — New York beat the Chargers 21-18 in Dart’s first career start. Dart threw for 111 yards and a touchdown but was sacked five times. He also ran for 54 yards. At one point he was evaluated for a concussion but returned to the game. One week after home fans booed starter Russell Wilson as the Giants mustered one touchdown in a loss to Kansas City, Dart drew massive applause for bouncing off tacklers after his quarterback sneak appeared to have been stuffed in the fourth quarter, only for him to stay upright and scramble for a first down.Giants coach Brian Daboll, whose firing some fans had called for after the 0-3 start, pulled Dart in for an embrace at the final whistle. “Happy we got him,” Daboll said.New York may have solved its quarterback issue, but it now has a wide receiver problem after star wideout Malik Nabers left the game with what was reportedly a feared ACL tear in his knee, after it buckled while he was leaping for a second-quarter target. Nabers caught two passes for 20 yards before he left.The Chargers (3-1) could also face a longer-term absence. Offensive lineman Joe Alt, a first-round pick in 2024, was carted off with an ankle injury in the first quarter. The team’s Super Bowl ambitions hinge on the production of quarterback Justin Herbert, but playing behind a patchwork offensive line that already lost one starter, Rashawn Slater, to injury in the preseason — an injury that shifted Alt to left tackle — Herbert had been blitzed 39 times, second-most in the league, through Week 3 and faced the sixth-most pressures. The hits Herbert took Sunday were “very concerning,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said.Alt’s injury also comes on the heels of other injuries that have depleted the team’s depth cart, including running back Najee Harris.Andrew GreifAndrew Greif is a sports reporter for NBC News Digital. 
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