Big Time News Blog: 01/09/20

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Iran likely downed Ukraine airliner with missiles, Canada's Trudeau says, citing intelligence

A Ukrainian airliner that crashed in Iran, killing all 176 people aboard, was likely brought down by an Iranian missile, Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said on Thursday, citing intelligence from Canadian and other sources.

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Northern Ireland's DUP backs deal to restore devolved government

Northern Ireland's largest pro-British party, the Democratic Unionist Party, said it believed the draft deal published by the British and Irish governments on Thursday provided a basis upon which the regional assembly can be re-established.

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Syria cross-border aid to end Friday if U.N. Security Council fails to break deadlock

A six-year-long United Nations operation delivering aid across the Syrian border to millions of civilians will expire at midnight on Friday if a deadlocked U.N. Security Council cannot reach a last-minute deal to extend its authorization.

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Mexican man slits own throat at US border after being denied entry

A Mexican man has died after slitting his own throat when he was denied entry to the US, according to Mexican officials.The incident occurred on the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge across the Rio Grande on Wednesday, as the unidentified man in his 30s attempted to enter the US from the Mexican border city of Reynosa.

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Jimmy Kimmel Dunks on GOP Rep Who Tweeted Fake Obama-Iran Photo

The day after congressman Paul Gosar posted a fake photo of former President Barack Obama shaking hands with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Jimmy Kimmel had some harsh words for the Arizona Republican. “If you’re not familiar with this guy, he’s the congressman whose own siblings—his brothers and sisters—took out an attack ad against him during the midterms and endorsed his opponent,” Kimmel said in his monologue Tuesday night. After showing the fake photo, which was accompanied by the caption, “The world is a better place without these guys in power,” the host explained just how misleading it was. “Obama never met the guy,” he said. “And the guy is still the president of Iran.” Ronan Farrow Not ‘Optimistic’ About Harvey Weinstein Trial, Calls Out Manhattan DA Cyrus VanceStephen Colbert Blasts Trump’s ‘Tragically Ill-Conceived’ Move Toward War With IranIn response to the many reporters and others on Twitter who pointed out the error, Gosar tweeted, “No one said this wasn’t Photoshopped. No one said the president of Iran was dead. No one said Obama met with Rouhani in person.”“Well, OK then!” Kimmel shot back “‘No one said this wasn’t Photoshopped?’ Is that the standard now? You can post whatever you want and leave it to us to figure out if it’s Photoshopped? Because if that’s the case I have a photo of Paul Gosar being spanked by Jared from Subway that I would like a lot of people to see.” Then Kimmel shared another “real photo” of President Donald Trump “happily shaking tiny hands with the guy who ordered the murder of a reporter for the Washington Post.” He helpfully added, “That is not Photoshopped.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Japanese man pleads not guilty to killing 19 due to mental health

A Japanese man accused of stabbing 19 disabled people to death pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in a dramatic trial session interrupted when he seemed to put something in his mouth, struggled with court officials and lay on the floor writhing. Satoshi Uematsu, 29, a former care home worker accused of killing 19 disabled people and wounding 26 in a care center in 2016 - one of post-war Japan's worst mass killings - was removed from the court and did not return when the trial resumed. Before the interruption, Uematsu's lawyer said Uematsu acknowledged details of the indictment were true, but he has a psychiatric disorder that led to diminished capacity at the time of the incident.

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Chinese Vessels Withdraw From Disputed Waters, Indonesia Says

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese fishing vessels and coast guard ships accused of intruding into waters near the Natuna Islands withdrew on Thursday, a day after Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited the area and asserted the country’s rights over the disputed waters.An aerial reconnaissance by the Indonesian Air Force showed the Chinese ships left the Southeast Asian nation’s exclusive economic zone, military spokesman Sisriadi said in a text message. Widodo’s trip to the disputed area on Wednesday sent a strong message to China and prompted the withdrawal of the ships, he said.Jokowi, as Widodo is popularly known, visited the Natuna Islands on Wednesday, saying he was there to enforce Indonesia’s sovereign rights over the area after Chinese fishing vessels and coast guard ships were spotted in recent weeks. The country had also sent warships and 120 fishing vessels to patrol the area, besides deploying four F-16 fighter jets to the islands.Jokowi Visits Disputed Waters Amid Rising China Tensions While Indonesia claims the incursion of the fishing vessel was in violation of international laws, China said it’s operating legally. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said during a briefing on Wednesday both sides have been in communication using diplomatic channels.While the Indonesian navy, coastguard and the air force will continue to monitor the Natuna Islands area, warships and fighter jets will return to their pre-deployment positions, Sisriadi said.The latest conflict followed accusations by the U.S. and other coastal states in Southeast Asia that China was taking a more aggressive stance on its claims to more than 80% of the lucrative waters in the South China Sea. China has called on the U.S. to stop interfering in the region.To contact the reporter on this story: Arys Aditya in Jakarta at aaditya5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham at tabraham4@bloomberg.net, Rieka RahadianaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Mexican man kills himself on bridge after being refused entry to US

Man who has not been identified had attempted to cross from Reynosa into Pharr, Texas, on WednesdayA Mexican asylum seeker has taken his own life on a bridge across the Rio Grande after being refused entry to the US, in an incident highlighting the often desperate plights of those being turned away by Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.The man, who was reportedly in his 30s and has not been identified, had attempted to cross from the Mexican city of Reynosa into Pharr, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon. But he was turned back on the international bridge and shortly after 5pm cut his own throat.Footage published by the local El Mañana de Reynosa newspaper showed armed Mexican police sealing off the area where the man’s body had fallen as cars and lorries continued to advance over the bridge.There was no immediate suggestion why the man had decided to take his own life but local authorities said they were investigating.The incident was not the first of its kind. In 2017, a 45-year-old Mexican migrant named Guadalupe Olivas Valencia jumped to his death in Tijuana less than an hour after being “repatriated” from the US.Olivas Valencia had reportedly been working illegally as a gardener in California to support his three children back in Mexico when he was deported.This week’s suicide again cast a light on the bleak conditions facing the growing number of migrants being turned away from the US’s southern border and the dangers facing them back home, in crime-ridden communities in Central America and Mexico.In the past year, more than 57,000 asylum seekers have been pushed back into Mexico as part of a Trump administration scheme called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) project, or Remain in Mexico.Activists claim the initiative is endangering vulnerable asylum seekers by forcing them to wait months for court hearings in some of Mexico’s most dangerous border towns.Last month the advocacy group Human Rights First accused the White House of exposing asylum seekers to “life-threatening dangers” after documenting 636 cases of kidnapping, rape, torture, assault and other violent attacks against those returned to Mexico.Among the victims were a nine-year-old disabled girl and her mother, who were kidnapped and raped after being sent back to Tijuana.The Human Rights First researcher Kennji Kizuka said that with schemes such as Remain in Mexico the Trump administration was moving “to essentially shut down asylum and refugee access to the United States”.“All these polices are edging us closer and closer to zero refugees or asylum seekers [being] admitted to the US,” Kizuka said. “It all just grows out of the xenophobia of the administration – at base that is what it is.” * In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

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1 skier still missing after deadly avalanche at Idaho resort

One skier remains missing at an Idaho resort where an avalanche on Tuesday killed two skiers and injured four others. The resort said it received a telephone call Wednesday morning from a concerned family member of the missing skier who was confirmed to be skiing there at the time of the avalanche. Resort officials said Wednesday afternoon that an intense search with dogs did not find the missing person.

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Iranian commander vows ‘harsher revenge soon’ against U.S.

The remarks come from IRGC senior commander Abdollah Araghi.

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Australia’s Wildfire Crisis: Key Numbers Behind the Disaster

(Bloomberg) -- Australia is in the grip of deadly wildfires burning across the country, triggering an emotive debate about the impact of climate change in the world’s driest-inhabited continent. The unprecedented scale of the crisis, and images of terrified tourists sheltering on beaches from the infernos, has shocked many Australians.With summer only just beginning and the nation affected by a prolonged drought, authorities fear the death toll will continue to mount as more homes and land are destroyed. Here are some key details of the crisis:How many people have died?Since the fire season began months ago during the southern hemisphere winter, at least 25 people have died. Among the fatalities are volunteer firefighters, including a young man who died when his 10-ton truck was flipped over in what officials have described as a “fire tornado.” Australia’s worst wildfires came in 2009 when the Black Saturday blazes left 180 people dead.How big an area has burned?Massive tracts of land have burned. More than 10 million hectares (25 million acres) have been destroyed -- that’s an area larger than Scotland. In New South Wales state alone, more than 5 million hectares of forest and bush has been destroyed, while more than 1.2 million hectares has been burned in Victoria. The fires are so large they are generating their own weather systems and causing dry lightning strikes that in turn ignite more. One blaze northwest of Sydney, the Gospers Mountain fire, has destroyed about 512,000 hectares -- about seven times the size of Singapore.The scale of the blazes dwarfs the California wildfires in 2018, which destroyed about 1.7 million acres, and about 260,000 acres in 2019.How many homes have been destroyed?Some 1,800 homes have been destroyed in New South Wales alone this fire season and the tally is rising daily as the fires continue to burn and authorities assess damage. Scores of rural towns have been impacted, including the community of Balmoral about 150 kilometers southwest of Sydney, which was largely destroyed before Christmas.What’s the economic impact?The near-term cost is mounting. Toxic smoke shrouding Canberra has shuttered businesses and government departments and forced national carrier Qantas Airways Ltd. to cancel flights. The direct impact on the economy from the fires will be between A$2 billion and A$3.5 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, stemming from factors such as lower tourism spending and lost agricultural production, said Terry Rawnsley, an economist at consultancy SGS Economics and Planning. Additionally, he estimates smoke haze in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra will cost another A$200 million to A$800 million as people reduce outdoor activities and get sick. Combined, the impact equates to a drag on GDP growth of between 0.1 and 0.25 percentage point for the 2019/20 fiscal year, he said. The Insurance Council of Australia says almost 9,000 claims worth A$700 million ($481 million) have been lodged.How has wildlife been affected?The University of Sydney estimates that 800 million animals have been killed by the bushfires in New South Wales alone since September and one billion have died nationally. The “highly conservative figure” includes mammals, birds and reptiles killed either directly by the fires, or later due to loss of food and habitat. The fires have raised concerns in particular about koalas, with authorities saying as much as 30% of their habitat in some areas had been destroyed. Images of the marsupials drinking water from bottles after being rescued have gone viral on social media.(Updates with new figure on animal deaths in last paragraph)\--With assistance from Jason Scott.To contact the reporter on this story: Edward Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Edward Johnson at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net, Jason ScottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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2 Mississippi men tried to cash in a lottery ticket for $100,000 after supergluing the winning numbers onto it, police say

Police said two men signed the ticket and presented it to the Mississippi Lottery Corporation, but officials realized it was fake and called police.

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Fugitive ex-Nissan boss Ghosn hits out at carmaker and Japan

Carlos Ghosn, speaking publicly for the first time since his dramatic escape from Japanese justice, said on Wednesday he had been treated "brutally" by Tokyo prosecutors and was the victim of an inside job to oust him from the helm of automaker Nissan. The alternative was to spend the rest of his life languishing in Japan without a fair trial. Ghosn, 65, fled Japan last month as he was awaiting trial on charges of under-reporting earnings, breach of trust and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies.

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Christ's bodyguards: the men protecting the Philippines' revered Catholic icon

Frenzied crowds, exhaustion and blazing heat were dangers bearing down on the cadre of guards who shield one of the Philippines' most revered Catholic icons from the believers desperate to touch it. The protectors served as human shields on Thursday, as they do every year, during the procession through Manila of the historic statue of Jesus Christ that believers say grants miracles to those who touch it. Miracles attributed to the Black Nazarene have made it powerfully revered in Asia's bastion of Catholicism, and also engendered a class of admirers desperate to reach it.

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CIA Director Gina Haspel reportedly pushed for Soleimani's killing — and perfectly predicted Iran's response

The Trump administration reportedly knew exactly what would happen when it killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.Okay, so it may have just been the prediction of CIA Director Gina Haspel that Iran would retaliate with airstrikes on Iraqi military bases holding U.S. troops. But it was partly based on her analysis that the U.S. decided to assassinate Soleimani in the first place, administration officials tell The New York Times:> In the days before General Suleimani’s death, Ms. Haspel had advised Mr. Trump that the threat the Iranian general presented was greater than the threat of Iran's response if he was killed, according to current and former American officials. Indeed, Ms. Haspel had predicted the most likely response would be a missile strike from Iran to bases where American troops were deployed, the very situation that appeared to be playing out on Tuesday afternoon. [The New York Times]The Times is careful to point out that "Haspel took no formal position about whether to kill General Soleimani," but "officials who listened to her analysis came away with the clear view that the C.I.A. believed that killing him would improve — not weaken — security in the Middle East." Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com 37 TV shows to watch in 2020 The world is abandoning America 5 scathing cartoons about Trump's Iran mess

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Indonesia president visits islands also claimed by China

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday reaffirmed his country's sovereignty during a visit to a group of islands at the edge of the South China Sea that China claims as its traditional fishing area. Widodo, accompanied by top military officials, toured Natuna Islands on a naval ship in a move designed to send a message to Beijing. "Natuna is part of Indonesia's territory, there is no question, no doubt," Widodo said in a speech after the trip.