north america uk australia + new zealand€¦ · the white house was “now looking at cutting all...

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November 28 (GmT) – November 29 (AeST), 2018

AUSTRALIA + NEW ZEALANDUKNORTH AMERICA

Uncertainty amid Manafort claims

The breakdown of a plea deal with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an explosive British news report about alleged contacts he may have had with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have thrown a new element of uncertainty into the Trump-Russia investigation. A day after prosecutors accused Manafort of repeatedly lying to them he adamantly denied a report he had met secretly with Assange in March 2016.

Trump may cancel Putin meeting

President Donald Trump has cast into doubt a key component of his upcoming trip to an international summit in Argentina as he suggested he may cancel his planned sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships. Trump said he would be receiving a “full report” from his national security team on Russia’s recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea.

Conditions close schools

Queensland has closed 34 schools and warned parents to come and collect their kids and stay out of danger as firefighters battle 138 fires around the state in catastrophic and unpredictable conditions. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said 29 state schools and five non-state schools had been closed immediately in areas where dangerous blazes were threatening people and property.

May’s focus on economic impact

The government is to set out its analysis of the economic impact of Brexit as Prime Minister Theresa May battles to save her deal for leaving the European Union. Downing Street said the papers would cover a “range of scenarios” as May seeks to press her case that the agreement represents the only way to protect jobs and investment while avoiding the chaos of a no-deal break.

Sturgeon slams May’s tactics

Prime Minister Theresa May is “governing by threat” as she seeks to impose an “unacceptable” Brexit deal on Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has claimed. The First Minister hit out at May as a new report from the Scottish government warned the draft deal to leave the European Union could result in “loss equivalent to £1610 per person in Scotland compared to EU membership by 2030”.

MPs ‘need extensive training’

The Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, says many MPs arrive at Parliament with no idea how to manage staff. The Speaker has launched an external review of bullying and harassment of staff at Parliament dating to October 2014. The review will be carried out by an independent external reviewer, Debbie Francis, who has done similar work with organisations such as the Defence Force.

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AUSTRALIA + NEW ZEALANDREST OF THE WORLDNORTH AMERICA

Trump looks to cut GM subsidies

President Donald Trump says he is “very disappointed” general Motors is closing plants in the United States and warned the White House was “now looking at cutting all gM subsidies”, including for its electric cars program. Trump unleashed a day after gM announced it would shutter five plants and slash 14,000 jobs in North America, with many of the job cuts coming from the Midwest, where the president has promised a manufacturing rebirth.

Hyde-Smith wins divisive runoff

Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has won a divisive Mississippi runoff to remain in office. In the race, 59-year-old Hyde-Smith defeated Democrat Mike Espy, a former US agriculture secretary who hoped to become Mississippi’s first African-American senator since Reconstruction. The win allows Hyde-Smith to complete the final two years of Sen. Thad Cochran’s six-year term. Cochran retired in April.

Sydney smashed by rain

At least a dozen people have been rescued, a supermarket’s walls burst with water and almost 100 flights have been cancelled as heavy rain causes flash-flooding across Sydney. The harbour city copped more than a month’s worth of rain in less than two hours, as a series of severe thunderstorms hit the coast from Newcastle to Wollongong.

Deadly explosion near plant

An explosion outside a chemical plant in northeastern China has killed at least 22 people and destroyed scores of vehicles, in the latest challenge to efforts to boost industrial safety in the world’s second-largest economy. The blast occurred at a loading area next to the plant operated by the Hebei Shenghua Chemical industry Co. Ltd., according to a statement from the Zhangjiakou city government.

Concern over spike in migrants

A Border Force cutter could be recalled from the Mediterranean to patrol the British coast after a spike in attempts by migrants to cross the Channel, the Home Secretary has suggested. About 100 people have reached UK shores after travelling on small boats or dinghies this month. in most cases, those on board claimed to be Iranian. “This is a significant increase to what we’ve seen in the past,” Home Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs.

Tree crushes car at 100km/h

A Westport man is lucky to be alive after a tree fell and crushed his car while he was driving on State Highway 7 near Reefton. On Sunday evening, Ryan Walsh was driving his beloved 1987 Honda City just under 100km/h on a remote road when the tree crashed out of the Victoria Forest, bringing his tiny vehicle to a sudden stop and knocking him unconscious.

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NORTH AMERICA

Russian President Vladimir Putin. – AP

Trump may cancel Putin meetingPresident Donald Trump has cast into doubt a key component of his upcoming trip to an international summit in Argentina as he suggested he may cancel his planned sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships.

Trump said he would be receiving a “full report” from his national security team on Russia’s recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. He said he would decide on a course afterward.

“Maybe i won’t have the meeting,” he said. “Maybe i won’t even have the meeting.”

Trump added: “i don’t like that aggression. i don’t want that aggression at all.”

The comments were Trump’s strongest to date in condemnation of Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are flaring. But White House aides were still planning for the Putin meeting after Trump’s comments.

The meeting between Trump and Putin is set to be just one of several high-profile foreign policy engagements for the US leader on the whirlwind two-day visit to Argentina.

Trump is also set meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in what may be a pivotal session to determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their two countries can be resolved.

The White House has warned Xi against trying to wait out Trump in the ongoing talks, suggesting the Chinese economy was not as resilient to a trade war as would be the US.

National Security adviser John Bolton said Trump would also be meeting with german Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Argentine President Mauricio Macri, South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the trip an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on “free, fair and reciprocal trade”. ■

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. – AP

NORTH AMERICA

Uncertainty amid Manafort claimsThe breakdown of a plea deal with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an explosive British news report about alleged contacts he may have had with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have thrown a new element of uncertainty into the Trump-Russia investigation.

A day after prosecutors accused Manafort of repeatedly lying to them, trashing his agreement to tell all in return for a lighter sentence, he adamantly denied a report he had met secretly with Assange in March 2016. That was the same month he joined the Trump campaign and that Russian hackers began an effort to penetrate the email accounts of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The developments thrust Manafort back into the investigation spotlight, raising new questions about what he knows and what prosecutors say he might be trying to conceal as they probe Russian election interference and any possible co-ordination with Trump associates in the campaign that sent the businessman to the White House.

At the same time, other figures entangled in the investigation, including Trump, have been scrambling to escalate attacks and allegations against prosecutors who have spent weeks working quietly behind the scenes.

Besides denying he’d ever met Assange, Manafort said he’d told special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors the truth in weeks of questioning. WikiLeaks said Manafort had never met with Assange.

Assange, whose organization published thousands of emails stolen from Clinton’s campaign in 2016, is in the Ecuadorean embassy in London under a claim of asylum.

it is unclear what prosecutors contend Manafort lied about, though they’re expected to make a public filing ahead of sentencing that could offer answers. ■

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UK

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. – AP

Sturgeon slams May’s tacticsPrime Minister Theresa May is “governing by threat” as she seeks to impose an “unacceptable” Brexit deal on Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has claimed.

The First Minister hit out at May as a new report from the Scottish government warned the draft deal to leave the European Union could result in “loss equivalent to £1610 per person in Scotland compared to EU membership by 2030”.

investment in Scotland could be 7.7 per cent lower by that date compared to if the UK stayed in the European Union, the report added.

Meanwhile, the “special deal” being put in place to prevent the return to a hard border in ireland could leave Scotland at a “serious competitive disadvantage” to Northern ireland.

“in short, it will make us poorer,” Sturgeon said.“The analysis shows why the deal agreed by the Prime

Minister is unacceptable to the Scottish government and damaging to the people of Scotland.

“No government of Scotland with the interests of this and future generations at heart could possibly accept it.”

Her comments came the day before Downing Street was to issue its own economic analysis of Brexit scenarios.

“The cost of Scotland not being independent have been laid bare over the last two years,” Sturgeon said.

Speaking about the Conservative leader, Sturgeon said: “The Prime Minister has made it clear at every turn that she is not interested in compromise. in fact, she seems to have given up any attempt at governing by consensus and is now governing by threat.”

MPs will vote on the draft Withdrawal Agreement on December 11.

Before that Holyrood could get the chance to have its say on the proposals, with plans for a symbolic ballot to be held next week – when a majority of MSPs will most likely vote against it. ■

Prime Minister Theresa May. – PA

UK

May’s focus on economic impactThe government is to set out its analysis of the economic impact of Brexit as Prime Minister Theresa May battles to save her deal for leaving the European Union.

Downing Street said the papers would cover a “range of scenarios” as May seeks to press her case that the agreement represents the only way to protect jobs and investment while avoiding the chaos of a no-deal break.

May would then travel to Scotland for another day of campaigning as she appeals over the heads of MPs to ordinary voters to support her plan.

The Treasury analysis was expected to conclude the UK would be far better off under the terms of May’s controversial agreement with Brussels than if it faced a disorderly Brexit with a no-deal break.

Ministers have also agreed to publish their assessment of the impact on the economy if Britain were to stay in the EU, having been faced with the prospect of a damaging Commons defeat if they refused.

Having spent a day campaigning in Wales and Northern ireland, May will use her visit to Scotland to argue that agreement offers the prospect of an “unprecedented economic partnership” with the EU after Brexit.

At the same time, she’ll emphasise it would mean Britain leaves the Commons Fisheries Policy, enabling the country to decide who it allows to fish in UK waters.

“At long last, we will be ‘an independent coastal state’ again – taking back full sovereign control over our waters, and free to decide for ourselves who we allow to fish in our waters,” May was expected to say.

“The EU maintained throughout the negotiation process that it wanted to link overall access to markets to access to fisheries. It failed in the Withdrawal Agreement and it failed again in the Political Declaration.

“i have been robust in defending the interests of Scottish fisherman so far – and I will always be so.” ■

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AUSTRALIA + NEW ZEALAND

Reviewer Debbie Francis and Speaker Trevor Mallard. – RNZ

MPs ‘need extensive training’, says SpeakerThe Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, says many MPs arrive at Parliament with no idea how to manage staff.

The Speaker has launched an external review of bullying and harassment of staff at Parliament dating to October 2014.

The review will be carried out by an independent external reviewer, Debbie Francis, who has done similar work with organisations such as the Defence Force.

Many MPs weren’t trained to manage staff, Mallard said, stating Parliament could “bring out the best and bring out the worst” in people.

“They [MPs] need to be put through some quite extensive training,” he said. “i think we do have some very big gaps in our system at lots of levels.”

He cited those who chair select committees as “one of our big areas of problems”.

Ministers hadn’t receive good enough training, Mallard said, acknowledging there were ways to better the situation.

“One of the things i’m working on separate to this [review] is actually some better training – more organised, more structured training for MPs,” he said.

“We have a bubble in which people work. it is quite hierarchical, hours are very long and the stakes are high.

“But people are there because they deeply believe in things – both staff and members of Parliament – and tensions can get quite high.

“We sort of more publicly see the tensions between parties. But, when you’re working intensively it can actually be within your smaller office [and] if it’s not well managed there could be even bigger tensions.”

The review will examine any trends or patterns that emerge and make recommendations on how these could be addressed for the future.

Mallard said the review wouldn’t be a blame exercise and wouldn’t reopen past cases so as to avoid revictimisation. The findings will be published at its conclusion. ■

Queensland firefighters. – AAP


Catastrophic conditions close schoolsQueensland has closed 34 schools and warned parents to come and collect their kids and stay out of danger as firefighters battle 138 fires around the state in catastrophic and unpredictable conditions.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said 29 state schools and five non-state schools had been closed immediately in areas where dangerous blazes were threatening people and property.

She warned families not to go out in the catastrophic conditions, and to keep families together and prepare to leave if needed.

“This is the first time we have had this category in Queensland,” she said.

“Unprecedented, uncharted, but we have a plan and we are going to follow that plan. That is why we have taken the urgent action of closing schools.”

Earlier, Brian Smith, Regional Manager for the Rural Fire Services Central Region, said experts in fire behaviour had predicted catastrophic conditions would unfold in the area north of Bundaberg.

“This is something we don’t want to overstate, but they’re comparing this to the conditions in the Waroona fires in Western Australia, which completely wiped out a town a few years ago, and also to the recent California fires,” he said.

He said the unpredictable fires were being fanned by gusty westerly winds.

Eight thousand residents of gracemere in Central Queensland have been urged to leave as a sudden wildfire bears down on homes in catastrophic fire conditions.

A large fire has raced towards Gracemere, prompting authorities to issue a complete evacuation of the community just south of Rockhampton .

Queensland Police Commissioner ian Stewart told people to immediately make for the Rockhampton showgrounds around 14km away, where an evacuation centre has been set up. ■

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NORTH AMERICA

Republican US Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. – AP

Hyde-Smith wins divisive runoffRepublican US Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has won a divisive Mississippi runoff to remain in office.

In the race, 59-year-old Hyde-Smith defeated Democrat Mike Espy, a former US agriculture secretary who hoped to become Mississippi’s first African-American senator since Reconstruction.

The win allows Hyde-Smith to complete the final two years of Sen. Thad Cochran’s six-year term. Cochran retired in April. Hyde-Smith was appointed to temporarily succeed him.

The win makes her the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi.

The runoff was rocked by a video showing her praise a supporter by saying she’d attend a “public hanging” if he invited her. She called it an “exaggerated expression of regard.” The comment made Mississippi’s history of racist lynchings a runoff theme.

President Donald Trump endorsed Hyde-Smith and rallied for her after the comments became public.

Republicans will now hold 53 of 100 Senate seats. ■

President Donald Trump. – AP

NORTH AMERICA

Trump looks to cut GM subsidiesPresident Donald Trump says he is “very disappointed” General Motors is closing plants in the United States and warned the White House was “now looking at cutting all GM subsidies”, including for its electric cars program.

Trump unleashed a day after gM announced it would shutter five plants and slash 14,000 jobs in North America, with many of the job cuts coming from the Midwest, where the president has promised a manufacturing rebirth.

Trump tweeted that he was “very disappointed with general Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland”.

“Nothing being closed in Mexico and China,” he added.And, referring to the 2008 federal bailout of the auto

industry, Trump continued that the US “saved general Motors, and this is the thanks we get”.

“We are now looking at cutting all @gM subsidies, including for electric cars. general Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) – don’t think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America’s workers!”

Trump’s tweet came a short time after National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow said the White House’s reaction was “a tremendous amount of disappointment maybe even spilling over into anger”. Kudlow said Trump felt betrayed by gM, which the government had been trying to help.

“Look, we made this deal, we’ve worked with you along the way, we’ve done other things with mileage standards, for example, and other related regulations,” Kudlow said. “We’ve done this to help you and i think his disappointment is, it seems like that they kind of turned his back on him.”

A White House rebuke to GM would fly in the face of long-held Republican opposition to picking winners in the marketplace. it’s not clear precisely what, or when, action may be taken. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she did not have any additional information on the president’s threat. ■

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REST OF THE WORLD

Home Secretary Sajid Javid. – AP

Concern over spike in migrantsA Border Force cutter could be recalled from the Mediterranean to patrol the British coast after a spike in attempts by migrants to cross the Channel, the Home Secretary has suggested.

About 100 people have reached UK shores after travelling on small boats or dinghies this month.

in most cases, those on board claimed to be iranian.“This is a significant increase to what we’ve seen in the past,”

Home Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs.“i’m very concerned about what’s happened. These boats

must be coming from France.”He said the National Crime Agency was liaising with its

counterparts.Javid had also asked the immigration minister to speak with

her opposite number in France, while he would chair a cross-departmental meeting about the issue.

Asked about possible further measures, he told the Commons Home Affairs Committee: “I have thought – and I haven’t made a decision on this – do we bring back one of the Border Force cutters we have in the Mediterranean and put it to work in the Channel?”

However, he said taking this step “would have its own consequences” in the Mediterranean, and could encourage more people to cross the Channel.

Some of Border Force’s fleet of cutters have been deployed in the Mediterranean as part of the response to the European migration crisis. ■

Firefighters try to extinguish burning vehicles after a chemical plant explosion. – AP

REST OF THE WORLD

Deadly explosion near chemical plantAn explosion outside a chemical plant in northeastern China has killed at least 22 people and destroyed scores of vehicles, in the latest challenge to efforts to boost industrial safety in the world’s second-largest economy.

The blast occurred at a loading area next to the plant operated by the Hebei Shenghua Chemical industry Co. Ltd., according to a statement from the Zhangjiakou city government. The plant is located in Zhangjiakou, which is to play host to the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Another 22 people were injured and 38 trucks and 12 passenger cars were destroyed by fire, the statement said.

“We request that citizens do not go to the site to watch in order to avoid disrupting recovery efforts,” it said.

An official at the city government, who gave only his surname, gao, said the accident’s cause was still under investigation and no other information could be provided.

Footage from state broadcaster China Central Television showed row after row of charred tanker trucks with smoke still rising from some of them, hours after the explosion occurred.

On its website, Hebei Shenghua described itself as a “backbone enterprise of the city, and for the domestic chlor-alkali industry and one of the Top 500 chemical enterprises in the country.”

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the chlor-alkali electrolysis process is used mainly to manufacture chlorine, along with hydrogen and sodium hydroxide solution.

Chlorine is one of the most commonly produced chemicals, widely used in the textile and paper industries, as well as for general cleaning and disinfecting and as a raw material for synthetic organic chemistry. it is also an essential component of construction materials, solvents and insecticides.

Other products made at the plant include PVC resins, caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, oxygen, chlorine, dissolved acetylene, coated kettle agent, water treatment chemicals and new building materials, according to the company website. ■

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Tree crushes car at 100km/hA Westport man is lucky to be alive after a tree fell and crushed his car while he was driving on State Highway 7 near Reefton.

On Sunday evening, Ryan Walsh was driving his beloved 1987 Honda City just under 100km/h on a remote road when the tree crashed out of the Victoria Forest, bringing his tiny vehicle to a sudden stop and knocking him unconscious.

“i was just hooning along,” he said.“i must have got knocked out because when i came around i

was trapped in the floor of my car and my car is tiny.”The red Honda City was crushed from the top and Walsh

says he can’t remember how he got out, but said he must have climbed through a window.

He said a friend happened to come by and notice, and used his ute to pull the heavy tree off the car.

Walsh didn’t realise he had a broken neck and six broken ribs when he started the engine up again and steered the car off the road.

“I drove it off the road and parked it on the side of the road,” he said.

Walsh was eventually taken to hospital where he learnt of his injuries – the broken ribs and a C2 fracture to his neck.

“i’ve got to stay very very still,” he said.“Twenty odd years ago i crashed my motorbike quite

wickedly and broke six ribs, collapsed my lungs and stuff like that.” ■


Ryan Walsh survived after a tree fell on his car. - RNZ

Sydney smashed by flash-floodingAt least a dozen people have been rescued, a supermarket’s walls burst with water and almost 100 flights have been cancelled as heavy rain causes flash-flooding across Sydney.

The harbour city copped more than a month’s worth of rain in less than two hours, as a series of severe thunderstorms hit the coast from Newcastle to Wollongong.

More than 105mm fell at Observatory Hill in Sydney’s CBD – eclipsing the November average of 83.8mm.

Mosman recorded 118mm while Chatswood had 105mm, including 66mm within an hour.

Shoalhaven’s Porters Creek Dam recorded the state’s highest total, copping 152mm.

Sydney Airport was reduced to a single runway, as it was hit by strong winds and 39mm of rain.

About 90 domestic flights and four international flights had been cancelled, with passengers urged to contact their airline for more details.

The NSW SES has had more than 500 calls for help and rescued 12 people from floodwaters, mainly in the city’s north.

“In most cases, people have just driven into flood waters, followed other people into flood waters, their cars have stopped and we’ve had to go and help them out,” greg Murphy said.

Police were urging people take care in the “horrendous weather conditions”.

“We can’t stress enough that motorists should never attempt to drive through floodwaters or cross flooded causeways,” Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy said.

Flooding forced the cancellation of trains between Sydenham and Campsie and light rail services, while ferries between Parramatta and Sydney Olympic Park were also cancelled.

Dozens of roads across the city were shut due to flooding. ■

Wild weather hit Sydney. – AAP


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