north america uk australia · 2020-07-06 · advisers to george osborne, david cameron, theresa...

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JULY 6 (GMT) – JULY 7 (AEST), 2020

AUSTRALIAUKNORTH AMERICA

Search on after deadly crash

At least two people have died in a plane crash over Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho, and as many as six other people may be missing, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office says. Witnesses said they saw two planes colliding above the water, then crashing into the lake near Powderhorn Bay, according to a release from the sheriff’s office. Multiple local agencies, including the sheriff’s marine teams, local fire departments and the US Coast Guard responded to the crash.

US Navy drills in South China Sea

China has accused the US of flexing its military muscles in the South China Sea by conducting joint exercises with two US aircraft carrier groups in the strategic waterway. Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the exercises were performed “totally out of ulterior motives” and undermined stability in the area.

Record cases as border closed

Victoria has recorded 127 new cases of coronavirus – a record daily increase for the state – and another death, ahead of the closure of its New South Wales border. Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the border will close at 11:59pm on Tuesday (AEST) following crisis talks with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Call to focus on ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’

The British Government’s immediate focus must be “jobs, jobs, jobs” but debt must also be falling by 2024, former advisers to five Tory prime ministers and chancellors have warned. Economic advisers to George Osborne, David Cameron, Theresa May, Philip Hammond and Sajid Javid have set out a plan for the UK’s recovery from coronavirus which includes a national debt restructuring agency and an unprecedented skills and jobs package.

Frog’s 5000-mile banana journey

An exotic tree frog was discovered in a bunch of bananas by supermarket staff after making a 5000-mile trip from Colombia to south Wales. The frog was found at the Asda store in Murray Street, Llanelli, last week. It is believed the creature survived the long journey into a cooler climate without food or drink by slowing down its metabolism, as amphibians are able to do.

Nurse has cuppa with British PM

The New Zealand nurse among those credited with saving Boris Johnson’s life has met the UK Prime Minister for a cup of tea. Johnson hosted New Zealand nurse Jenny McGee at Downing Street, as well as other medical professionals for tea in the garden of Downing Street to mark the 72nd anniversary of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service.

NEW ZEALANDUKNORTH AMERICA

YOUR DAILY TOP 12 STORIES FROM FRANK NEWS

FULL STORIES START ON PAGE 3

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AUSTRALIAREST OF THE WORLDREST OF THE WORLD

Israel launches spy satellite

Israel’s Defense Ministry has announced the successful launch of a new spy satellite, giving the country what officials said was an additional tool in keeping tabs on its many threats across the region. The “Ofek 16” joins a fleet of Israeli spy satellites that have been launched over the past two decades. While officials did not identify specific threats, arch-enemy Iran, which Israel accuses of trying to develop nuclear weapons, is first among them.

Africa reopens airspace

As COVID-19 cases surged in many parts of the world, the island nation of the Seychelles was looking good: 70-plus straight days without a single infection. Then the planes arrived. Two chartered Air Seychelles flights carrying more than 200 passengers also brought the coronavirus. A few tested positive. Then, between June 24 and 30, the country’s confirmed cases shot from 11 to 81.

Locals help tower residents

An impromptu traffic officer wearing a flannel shirt instructs vehicles to quickly pull over across the road from where thousands of Melbourne residents are in strict lockdown. Groups of young people then rush to unload car trunks packed with groceries. Many others arrive with trolleys and wait in line wearing masks and gloves to check in before taking the goods into the AMSSA Centre in North Melbourne.

Taiwan bucks China pressure

Taiwan has scored a rare diplomatic victory in establishing relations with the independent region of Somaliland. Intense pressure from China has reduced self-governing, democratic Taiwan to having just 15 diplomatic allies and being excluded from the United Nations and most other international organizations where Beijing has leverage.

Dozens dead in Japan floods

The death toll from three days of heavy rain and flooding in southern Japan rose to 40, including 14 who drowned at a riverside nursing home, as rescuers searched for 10 missing people and rain threatened wider areas of the main island of Kyushu, officials said. Army troops and other rescuers worked their way through mud and debris along the flooded Kuma River, where many houses and buildings were submerged nearly to their roofs.

Virus hotels need ‘precision’

An epidemiologist wants those returning to New Zealand to be confined to their rooms during COVID-19 quarantine. Kiwi public health medicine specialist at the University of Melbourne, Tony Blakely, said New Zealand needs to learn from the situation in Melbourne, where 3000 residents are locked down in over-crowded tower blocks due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.

NEW ZEALANDREST OF THE WORLDREST OF THE WORLD

YOUR DAILY TOP 12 STORIES FROM FRANK NEWS

FULL STORIES START ON PAGE 6

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NORTH AMERICA

A file photo of the USS Ronald Reagan. - AP

US Navy carries out South China Sea drillsChina has accused the US of flexing its military muscles in the South China Sea by conducting joint exercises with two US aircraft carrier groups in the strategic waterway.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the exercises were performed “totally out of ulterior motives” and undermined stability in the area.

“Against such a backdrop, the US deliberately dispatched massive forces to conduct large-scale military exercises in the relevant waters of the South China Sea to flex its military muscle,” Zhao said.

The US Navy said over the weekend that the USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan along with their accompanying vessels and aircraft conducted exercises “designed to maximise air defence capabilities, and extend the reach of long-range precision maritime strikes from carrier-based aircraft in a rapidly evolving area of operations.”

China claims almost all of the South China Sea and routinely objects to any action by the US military in the region. Five other governments claim all or part of the sea, through which approximately $US5 trillion in goods are shipped every year.

China has sought to shore up its claim to the sea by building military bases on coral atolls, leading the US to sail warships through the region in what it calls freedom of operation missions. Washington does not officially take a stand on the rival territorial claims in the region, but is closely allied with several of the claimants and insists that the waters and the airspace above be free to all countries. ■

Boaters flag down authorities to a crashed seaplane near Powderhorn Bay on Lake Coeur

d’Alene in Idaho, USA. - AP

NORTH AMERICA

Search for survivors after deadly plane crashTwo people have died in a plane crash over Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho, and as many as six other people may be missing, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office says.

Witnesses said they saw two planes colliding above the water, then crashing into the lake near Powderhorn Bay, according to a release from the sheriff’s office.

Multiple local agencies, including the sheriff’s marine teams, local fire departments and the US Coast Guard responded to the crash, the Spokane Spokesman-Review reported.

Lt. Ryan Higgins with the sheriff’s office confirmed two bodies had been recovered from the planes. The victims have not been identified.

Investigators are checking initial reports that there were a total of eight passengers and crew on the two planes, the sheriff’s office said. Investigators do not believe there are other survivors in the crash.

John Cowles said he was on the lake with his family at the time of the crash. Cowles said he saw what appeared to be an “engine explosion” on a seaplane flying no more than 200 feet (61m) overhead. One of the plane’s wings then separated, and the plane fell into the water.

Patrick Pearce said he saw two single-engine planes coming towards each other, 800 to 900 feet (244 to 274m) above the water. Pearce, a pilot himself, said he recognised by the engine sounds that both planes were traveling at a fairly high rate of speed, the Spokane Spokesman-Review reported.

The planes collided before crashing into the lake, Pearce said.

The National Transportation Safety Board will likely take over the investigation in the coming days, Higgins said. ■

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UK

A frog, believed to be a Banana Tree Frog, that was found in a bunch of bananas at an

Asda store in Llanelli. - PA

Frog makes 5000-mile journey with bananasAn exotic tree frog was discovered in a bunch of bananas by supermarket staff after making a 5000-mile trip from Colombia to south Wales.

The frog was found at the Asda store in Murray Street, Llanelli, last week.

It is believed the creature survived the long journey into a cooler climate without food or drink by slowing down its metabolism, as amphibians are able to do.

Columbia is the UK’s biggest supplier of bananas, with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of the fruit making the journey each year.

The frog, now named Asda in honour of his rescuers, has now been transferred to specialist animal centre Silent World To You in Haverfordwest.

Staff at the centre, where he will live in a humid environment, believe he is a banana tree frog – although said it can be difficult to identify frog species.

RSPCA inspector Gemma Cooper praised the Asda store staff for keeping the frog safe.

“We’re so grateful to the members of the Asda team who contacted us,” she said.

“One team member spotted the frog, while another confined the frog and took him home.

“This quick thinking helped keep this frog safe.“Frogs and other amphibians are so good at shutting down

their bodies when they need to.“It seems highly likely that’s exactly what this frog did to

survive this long journey without food.“Thankfully, the frog’s remarkable journey has a happy

ending – with the little chap now safe and well at a specialist facility in Pembrokeshire.”

Ginny Spenceley, from Silent World To You, said it was not uncommon for frogs or spiders to “hitch a ride” in fruit deliveries as this are no longer sprayed or treated. ■

Prime Minister Boris Johnson. - PA

UK

Call to focus on ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’The British Government’s immediate focus must be “jobs, jobs, jobs” but debt must also be falling by 2024, former advisers to five Tory prime ministers and chancellors have warned.

Economic advisers to George Osborne, David Cameron, Theresa May, Philip Hammond and Sajid Javid have set out a plan for the UK’s recovery from coronavirus which includes a national debt restructuring agency and an unprecedented skills and jobs package.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak must be prepared to focus his full efforts on jobs as the extraordinary nature of the pandemic demands an urgent response, the former No 10 and Treasury advisers write in a report for think tank Onward.

They also call for £30 billion to be invested in struggling firms across the country and for new fiscal rules to be brought in to create short-term flexibility, but which taper as the recovery continues.

The report, entitled Bounce Back and written by Mats Persson, Adam Memon, Raoul Ruparel, Tim Pitt, Will Tanner and Neil O’Brien, comes as Sunak prepares to make a statement announcing his plans for the next stage of the UK’s economic recovery in the Commons on Wednesday.

The recommendations proposed in the report include introducing new fiscal rules that delay the Conservative’s manifesto pledge to have debt falling as a share of GDP to 2024, but which maintain the Government’s commitment to keep debt interest below 6 per cent of GDP.

Also highlighted is a potential sweeping tax reform to ensure borrowing is brought under control without harming growth – including reviewing the 1100 existing tax reliefs.

The former advisers suggest that £30 billion should be invested directly into high-growth companies such as the British Business Bank, British Growth Fund and British Patient Capital to ensure firms can access capital to invest, and that a new restructuring agency should be established to ensure that loans which go bad do not become a drag on the economy. ■

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NEW ZEALAND

Nurses Jenny McGee, third right, and Luis Pitarma, second right, who looked after Prime

Minister Boris Johnson arriving at 10 Downing Street, London. - PA

Kiwi nurse has cup of tea with British PMThe New Zealand nurse among those credited with saving Boris Johnson’s life has met the UK Prime Minister for a cup of tea.

Johnson hosted New Zealand nurse Jenny McGee at Downing Street, as well as other medical professionals for tea in the garden of Downing Street to mark the 72nd anniversary of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service.

After being released from hospital Johnson said two nurses – Jenny from Invercargill, New Zealand and Luis from Portugal – stood by his bedside for 48 hours at the most critical time.

He tweeted several photos of himself with staff from St Thomas’ Hospital, who observed physical distancing.

The prime minister publicly thanked Invercargill-born McGee for being by his bedside while he battled the coronavirus earlier this year.

Johnson was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital and spent three nights receiving treatment in intensive care before being moved into a ward.

He was the first world leader to be hospitalised with COVID-19. ■

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. - AAP

AUSTRALIA

Record virus cases as Victorian border closedVictoria has recorded 127 new cases of coronavirus – a record daily increase for the state – and another death, ahead of the closure of its New South Wales border.

Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the border will close at 11:59pm on Tuesday (AEST) following crisis talks with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

“We have, all of us, agreed that the best thing to do is to close the border,” Andrews said.

“That closure will be enforced on the NSW side so as not to be a drain on resources that are very much focused on fighting the virus right now across our state.”

There will be specific arrangements put in place for people in border towns such as Albury-Wodonga to carry out daily activities or receive healthcare.

Andrews said the border closure means staff at airports and train stations can be redeployed into “much more important roles”.

He said stood-down Qantas staff have been called up to work in the hotel quarantine program in Victoria, reporting directly to the Department of Justice.

More than 100 additional personnel from the Australian Defence Force will also be called in to help.

Thirty-four of the new Victorian cases are linked to confirmed and contained outbreaks, 40 were discovered through routine testing and 53 cases are being investigated.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the number of known cases in the nine locked-down public housing towers at Flemington and North Melbourne has almost doubled since Sunday, from 27 to 53.

Sixteen of Monday’s cases were residents in the towers, while a further 10 cases from previous days have now been linked to the buildings.

“So it’s an increase of 26, essentially doubling of the numbers from yesterday and really not unexpected,” he said. ■

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REST OF THE WORLD

Passengers queue to check in for a flight at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport

in Lagos, Nigeria. - AP

Africa opens airspace even as virus cases riseAs COVID-19 cases surged in many parts of the world, the island nation of the Seychelles was looking good: 70-plus straight days without a single infection. Then the planes arrived.

Two chartered Air Seychelles flights carrying more than 200 passengers also brought the coronavirus. A few tested positive. Then, between June 24 and 30, the country’s confirmed cases shot from 11 to 81.

Now the Indian Ocean nation has delayed reopening for commercial flights for its lucrative tourism industry until August 1, if all goes well.

African nations face a difficult choice as infections are rapidly rising: Welcome the international flights that originally brought COVID-19 to the ill-prepared continent, or further hurt their economies and restrict a lifeline for badly needed humanitarian aid.

“This is a very important moment,” the World Health Organization’s Africa chief Matshidiso Moeti said, a day after Egypt reopened its airports for the first time in more than three months.

Other countries are preparing to follow. That’s even as Africa had more than 463,000 confirmed virus cases as of Sunday and South Africa, its most developed economy, already struggles to care for COVID-19 patients.

But Africa’s economies are sick, too, its officials say. The continent faces its first recession in a quarter-century and has lost nearly $US55 billion in the travel and tourism sectors in the past three months, the African Union said. Airlines alone have lost about $U8 billion and some might not survive.

Most of Africa’s 54 countries closed their airspace to ward off the pandemic. That bought time to prepare, but it also hurt efforts to deliver life-saving medical supplies such as vaccines against other diseases. Shipments of personal protective gear and coronavirus testing materials, both in short supply, have been delayed. ■

The “Ofek 16” reconnaissance satellite blasts off at the Palmachim air base in central

Israel. - AP

REST OF THE WORLD

Israel confirms launch of new spy satelliteIsrael’s Defense Ministry has announced the successful launch of a new spy satellite, giving the country what officials said was an additional tool in keeping tabs on its many threats across the region.

The “Ofek 16” joins a fleet of Israeli spy satellites that have been launched over the past two decades. While officials did not identify specific threats, arch-enemy Iran, which Israel accuses of trying to develop nuclear weapons, is first among them.

“All the group of satellites are being used to monitor any threats on the state of Israel, which as you know are sometimes far away and immediate so they require constant monitoring,” said Amnon Harari, the head of the ministry’s Space and Satellite Administration.

Israel does not confirm how many satellites are operational, but Harari mentioned at least two others, the Ofek 5, launched in 2002, and the Ofek 11, launched in 2016.

“You can assume that once you have more than one satellite in parallel in the sky, you achieve better visit times over the targets of interest,” he said.

The satellite was developed by the ministry along with the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries. The ministry said Ofek 16 was launched from the Palmachim air base in central Israel into space. It described the Ofek as an “electro-optical reconnaissance satellite with advanced capabilities.”

Shlomi Sudri, the general manager of IAI’s space division, said the Ofek was in orbit and sending “healthy signals” to a ground station. He said he expected it to begin transmitting photos in about a week.

Israel considers Iran to be its greatest threat, citing its development of long-range missiles, its military presence in neighbouring Syria and its suspect nuclear program, and it keeps a close eye on Iran. Last week, a fire damaged a a centrifuge assembly centre at Iran’s Natanz nuclear site, Iran confirmed, raising speculation that Israel may have been involved. ■

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REST OF THE WORLD

A woman is helped to get into a police vehicle to move from a shelter to another shelter in

Kumamura, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan. - AP

Dozens killed in Japan floods amid heavy rainThe death toll from three days of heavy rain and flooding in southern Japan rose to 40, including 14 who drowned at a riverside nursing home, as rescuers searched for 10 missing people and rain threatened wider areas of the main island of Kyushu, officials said.

Army troops and other rescuers worked their way through mud and debris along the flooded Kuma River, where many houses and buildings were submerged nearly to their roofs.

The Meteorological Agency issued the highest weather warning for three prefectures in northern Kyushu after heavy rain hit the island’s southern region over the weekend.

More than half a million people were advised to evacuate across Kyushu, including riverside towns in Kumamoto city where 40 bodies were recovered. The evacuation was not mandatory and many people are believed to have opted to stay at home because of concerns over catching the coronavirus, even though officials said shelters were adequately equipped with partitions and other safety measures.

The dead included 14 of the 65 elderly residents of the nursing home next to the Kuma River, which is known as the “raging river” because it is joined by another river just upstream and is prone to flooding.

The river rose abruptly and its embankment gave in, causing floodwaters to gush into the nursing home, where most of the residents were bedridden or wheelchair users.

A caregiver on night duty told the Asahi newspaper that he saw the river rising and he and three colleagues woke everyone up and to prepare them for evacuation. But then he heard a window break and saw water pouring in and quickly rising to his knees, he said.

He heard voices calling for help and grabbed two people to lift them above the water, which continued to rise until his arms grew numb and he was no longer able to hold them and they died, he said. ■

Taiwanese soldiers get on their military vehicles during a military exercises in Taichung,

central Taiwan. - AP

REST OF THE WORLD

Taiwan, Somaliland buck pressure from ChinaTaiwan has scored a rare diplomatic victory in establishing relations with the independent region of Somaliland.

Intense pressure from China has reduced self-governing, democratic Taiwan to having just 15 diplomatic allies and being excluded from the United Nations and most other international organizations where Beijing has leverage.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by military force if it deems necessary. In elections and public opinion surveys, Taiwanese have overwhelmingly rejected political union with China.

Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 as the country collapsed into warlord-led conflict and has seen little of the violence and extremist attacks that plague its neighbor to the south. Despite lacking international recognition, the region has maintained its own independent government, currency and security system.

In a statement posted July 1 on the Taiwanese foreign ministry’s website, minister Joseph Wu said the governments had agreed to establish ties based on “friendship and a shared commitment to common values of freedom, democracy, justice and the rule of law.”

“In the spirit of mutual assistance for mutual benefit, Taiwan and Somaliland will engage in cooperation in areas such as fisheries, agriculture, energy, mining, public health, education” and technology, Wu said.

Wu and Somaliland’s foreign minister Yasin Hagi Mohamoud signed a bilateral agreement in Taipei on February 26. Taiwan has been providing scholarships to students from the region of 3.9 million people. ■

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Virus hotels need ‘military-precision’An epidemiologist wants those returning to New Zealand to be confined to their rooms during COVID-19 quarantine.

Kiwi public health medicine specialist at the University of Melbourne, Tony Blakely, said New Zealand needs to learn from the situation in Melbourne, where 3000 residents are locked down in over-crowded tower blocks due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The residents are unable to leave their homes for five days and at least 500 police officers are on patrol to enforce the strict rules.

The outbreak was fanned by the virus leaking out of quarantine hotels.

Blakely says Australia was doing pretty well, with most states having eliminated COVID-19.

“Victoria was always going to have outbreaks because we haven’t got rid of the virus we were living in what I call suppression land, where we had to learn to live with it, but then the quarantine, one hotel starts to leak cases and then another hotel started to leak cases from doing quarantine and we’ve got an outbreak at the moment that is fanned by this leakage out of quarantine.”

Private contracting firms at the hotels weren’t trained very well and there was cross-contamination, he said.

“There’s a systematic failure here.”Blakely says there’s a high risk of cross-contamination

in hotels.“If we continue to use modern CBD hotels, we need military-

like precision.”New Zealand doesn’t want to risk COVID-19 leaking into the

community, Blakely said.He said there needs to be enough security that people can’t

leave easily, people need to be confined to their rooms and there needs to be very good infection control among staff delivering food and medical care. ■

NEW ZEALAND

- AAP

Community helps tower residentsAn impromptu traffic officer wearing a flannel shirt instructs vehicles to quickly pull over across the road from where thousands of Melbourne residents are in strict lockdown.

Groups of young people then rush to unload car trunks packed with groceries.

Many others arrive with trolleys and wait in line wearing masks and gloves to check in before taking the goods into the AMSSA Centre in North Melbourne.

The mosque has become a temporary warehouse where volunteers scramble to separate fresh products, cans and other food.

A feeling of urgency resonates as organisers try to figure out what products are still missing.

Nur Shanino is one of the community leaders trying to co-ordinate the volunteers.

He said the decision to self-organise to provide residents with groceries came after they heard some families didn’t have access to everything they needed.

“People contacted family saying they were still hungry, we don’t have milk, we don’t have oil,” he said.

“So basically people connected on social media and decided to drop products here while we try to sort it out.”

The mosque where they’ve set up camp was closed due to coronavirus restrictions.

The problem is the lack of communication with the health department to deliver the goods to the people in need, Shanino said.

The volunteers are talking to the Department of Health and Human Services and local government to work out the best way to distribute the food inside the quarantined buildings.

Police Association President Wayne Gatt walked into the improvised distribution centre and said taking the food to residents can’t be the job of officers.

“That needs to be a job of DHHS,” he said. ■

There has been a groundswell of support from the Victorian community for people stuck

in lockdown. - AAP

AUSTRALIA

north america uk australia · 2020-07-06 · advisers to george osborne, david cameron, theresa...

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