A cargo ship struck a tanker carrying jet fuel on Monday in the North Sea, sparking a massive fire off England and leaving 32 people injured, the tanker’s operator and authorities said.A major rescue operation was being coordinated by the UK Coastguard as images showed a huge plume of thick, black smoke and flames rising from the scene about 10 miles (16 kilometres) off the coast.The Stena Immaculate was “anchored off the North Sea coast near Hull … (and) was struck by the container ship Solong,” the Stena’s US-based operators Crowley said in a statement.The impact of the collision “ruptured” the cargo tank “containing A1-jet fuel” triggering a fire, with fuel “reported released”.The 32 injured had been brought ashore for treatment in three vessels, the Grimsby port director Martyn Boyers told AFP, adding “ambulances were queueing on the quay” in the northeastern English fishing port.All of the crew on board the tanker owned by Swedish shipowner Stena Bulk were confirmed to be alive, Lena Alvling, a spokesperson for the firm told AFP.There were reports of “fires on both ships” that UK lifeboat services were responding to, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) confirmed to AFP.A spokesman said the Coastguard was carrying out an assessment of the likely counter pollution response required, while a government body probing marine accidents deployed a team to Grimsby.”Our team of inspectors and support staff are gathering evidence and undertaking a preliminary assessment of the accident to determine our next steps,” a Marine Accident Investigation Branch spokesperson said.According to environmental campaign group Greenpeace, it was “too early to assess the extent of any environmental damage”.”In the case of an oil spill or any loss of hazardous cargo from the container ship involved, the speed of the response will also be crucial in limiting any impact,” a Greenpeace spokesperson said.- Humber traffic suspended -All vessel movements were “suspended” in the Humber estuary which flows into the North Sea, according to the Associated British Ports (ABP).The ABP, which operates in the Ports of Hull and Immingham in the region, added it was “assisting” the Coastguard.  The International Maritime Organization told AFP “the current focus is on the firefighting and search and rescue operation”.UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “concerned to hear” about the collision and thanked all the emergency services which rushed to the scene.The alarm about the crash near the port city of Hull in East Yorkshire was raised at 0948 GMT.A Coastguard helicopter, a plane, lifeboats from four towns and other nearby vessels were part of the large rescue operation, the Coastguard said.The cargo ship was the Portuguese-flagged “Solong”, owned by the German company Reederei Koepping.The 140-metre-long (460 foot) cargo vessel, left Grangemouth in Scotland and was bound for Rotterdam, according to website Vessel Finder.- Collisions rare -Vessels with firefighting capabilities have been dispatched to the scene off the northeast coast.Collisions remain rare in the busy North Sea.In October 2023, two cargo ships, the Verity and the Polesie, collided near Germany’s Heligoland islands in the North Sea.Three people were killed and two others are still missing, considered dead.The Isle-of-Man-flagged Verity, which was carrying steel from the northern German  port of Bremen to Immingham, sank.In October 2015, the Flinterstar freighter — carrying 125 tonnes of diesel and 427 tonnes of fuel oil — sank after colliding with the Al Oraiq tanker eight kilometres (five miles) off the Belgian coast on October 6, 2015.A major North Sea oil spill took place in January 1993 when the Liberian tanker Braer suffered engine damage while en route from Norway to Canada. Water seeped into the holds of the ship, which ran aground off Scotland’s Shetland Islands and released 84,500 tonnes of crude oil.

The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge by a Christian therapist to a Colorado law that bans “conversion therapy” for minors who are questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation.The case was brought by Kaley Chiles, a licensed mental health counselor who argues that the prohibition from holding such conversations with minors is a violation of her First Amendment free speech rights.Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law, passed in 2019, prohibits licensed mental health professionals from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of their minor patients.Chiles is represented in the case before the conservative-dominated Supreme Court by Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group.In her petition, Chiles’s lawyers said she “believes that people flourish when they live consistently with God’s design, including their biological sex.””Amidst a nationwide mental-health crisis, many minors struggling with gender dysphoria are seeking the counseling that Kaley Chiles would like to provide,” they said.”They want help aligning their mind and body rather than chasing experimental medical interventions and risking permanent harm.”Yet it is this desperately needed counseling — encouraging words between a licensed counselor and a consenting minor client — that Colorado forbids,” they said.Conversion therapy is banned in more than 20 US states and much of Europe, with both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association opposed to its use.In its brief with the Supreme Court, Colorado said there is “mounting evidence that conversion therapy is associated with increased depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts.”Two lower courts ruled in favor of Colorado, and Chiles brought her case before the nation’s top court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority.In December, the Supreme Court heard arguments over a Tennessee law banning puberty blockers or hormone therapy for minors and is expected to issue a ruling by the end of June.US President Donald Trump, shortly after taking office, signed an executive order restricting gender transition medical procedures for people under the age of 19.