The Daily Moth 1-9-2020
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Thursday, January 9. Ready for news?
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Canadian and US officials say Iran shot down Ukrainian plane
This morning, several news outlets reported that US officials were increasingly suspicious that Iran shot down the Ukrainian plane that crashed yesterday by mistake.
This afternoon, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said they have intelligence that shows the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile and that it could have been unintentional, and they are investigating.
63 Canadians died in the plane crash. There were 176 passengers in total.
President Trump said this morning he had his suspicions that “someone could have made a mistake on the other side.” He said the plane was flying in a “rough neighborhood.”
PBS reported that a preliminary Iranian investigative report said the pilots never made a radio call for help. The plane took off at 6:12 a.m. from the Khomeini Airport in Tehran and went up to 8,000 feet and turned back before radio contact was lost. It crashed four minutes later and eyewitnesses said it was engulfed in flames.
CBS News reported this afternoon that US officials are “confident” that Iran shot the plane down a few hours after the Iranian missile attack against Iraqi bases. US intelligence detected a radar being activated and two surface-to-air missile launches that happened shortly before the plane exploded.
The New York Times said Ukrainian officials are investigating unconfirmed reports that there are fragments of a missile found near the plane. This afternoon, the Times released a video that showed a missile hitting the Ukrainian plane near Tehran’s airport.
The crash brought comparisons with a July 2014 Malaysian Airlines flight crash in Ukraine that was blamed on a Russian missile strike. 298 people died. There was also a war going on at the time between Ukraine and Russia.
Iran is still holding the plane’s black boxes and had refused to hand them over to Boeing or US officials, but may give access to Ukraine investigators.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/highly-likely-iran-downed-ukrainian-jetliner-u-s-officials-say?fbclid=IwAR1Wz8t8bpskxNVuWY8zbh5utOQbd-9EwpkXM1Vvd4vJ4TEeNY2bjQ93nzg
https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/iran-plane-crash-investigation/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/world/middleeast/iran-plane-crash-ukraine.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/plane-crash-us-officials-confident-iran-shot-down-passenger-jet-bound-for-ukraine-today-2020-01-09-live-stream-updates/
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93-year-old man caught on video shooting employee
Last week in Las Vegas, a 93-year-old man, Robert Thomas, was caught on surveillance cameras casually shooting a male maintenance worker at his apartment building twice in his lower body.
Thomas was quickly arrested by two responding officers.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police released the video in a press conference and I will show it to you. The video is graphic.
First, you will see Thomas entering the apartment office to make a complaint about water damage in his apartment.
There is a female employee behind a desk and a maintenance worker.
[Video clip]
They talk for a bit and then Thomas pulls out his gun and fires across the room at a computer, barely missing a person in the back.
[Video clip]
The female employee walked around Thomas and left.
[Video clip]
Thomas then fires a round, point-blank, at the maintenance worker’s lower body, and then shoots him a second time.
[Video clip]
Police officers were already on the way to the apartment at this time because of a 911 call from the female employee.
I will show you two clips of the arrest. You will see that an officer fires a bullet at the office’s glass door before arresting him.
[Video clip]
NBC News said one of the officers said, “Shots still being fired. We got to make entry.”
The maintenance worker will survive. Thomas was cut from the shattered glass and his coat lapel was hit by the officer’s bullet. He was charged with attempted murder.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-shows-las-vegas-man-93-open-fire-apartment-maintenance-n1111736
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7lkqqCXGeg
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News Briefs: Taco Bell $100k salary; Justin Bieber Lyme disease; Brexit vote passes
Here are three news briefs.
The first — Taco Bell announced they would do a test by offering a $100,000 salary for general managers of several company-owned restaurants later this year and would offer paid sick time for all workers. Business Insider reported that fast-food chains are struggling to hire talent because of low unemployment rates.
The second news — Justin Bieber announced that he was recently diagnosed with Lyme disease, which is often caused by bacteria from tick bites. Bieber said he would explain this and his other health issues in a docu series he is putting on YouTube shortly.
The third news — the UK House of Commons voted in favor for a Brexit deal from the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson. 330 voted for it with 231 voting against. The deal will go to the House of Lords for a vote, where it is also expected to pass. This means that Brexit — where the UK is to “divorce” from the European Union — will probably happen on January 31. The UK will remain under EU rules of trade until the end of this year while there are negotiations for a new trade deal between the UK and EU.
https://www.businessinsider.com/taco-bell-testing-100000-manager-salary-paid-sick-leave-2020-1
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/08/entertainment/justin-bieber-lyme-disease-trnd/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/09/uk/brexit-deal-uk-votes-gbr-intl/index.html--------
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Deaf Australian family shares story of evacuating from Mallacoota vacation due to bushfires
Here are more stories of how the Australian bushfires have impacted deaf individuals and the deaf community.
I will show you a video from a deaf couple from Melbourne, Trisha and Gavin Balharrie, who had to evacuate from a beach vacation in Mallacoota before New Year’s Eve. This is the same area where thousands of people had to evacuate from boats when fires approached the area.
The couple already evacuated the area by road before it was “too late,” but they will describe the anxiety and stress of being in that situation.
GAVIN:
We left Melbourne driving about 500 km to Mallacoota.
[Image of a map showing the locations of Melbourne and Mallacoota and an image of the beach]
TEXT:
The couple went camping with their 10-year-old daughter and a dog. They arrived on Saturday. The next day there was a new fire 50 km away from lightning strike.
GAVIN:
We knew it was very hot and windy.
TRISHA:
Emergency Victoria app shows where the fires are in any area, same as the Facebook page, with information from the fire brigade, police, and others, usually with Auslan interpreters on screen.
TEXT:
There was a Country Fire Association (CFA) meeting that provided updates on the bushfires. Gavin recorded the audio with his phone and sent it to an interpreter friend to translate.
[Image of CFA meeting]
Text:
They decided to pair up with a buddy at the next campsite to keep them updated through the night as they did not want to depend on their CODA daughter.
The morning after, they saw an increase in fire trucks coming and going. There was another CFA meeting with over 500 people. They again sent the audio to an interpreter.
TRISHA:
We could smell plenty of smoke coming from a distance.
At the same time, the buddy lady we had from the next site, was saying the advice was ‘should evacuate’ and we were only given a 2 hour window to evacuate by 2 p.m. So we didn’t have a lot of time.
GAVIN:
The message was ‘should’ not ‘must’ evacuate. During this time we were considering our decision.
TRISHA:
The lady also said if the fire was coming, that would need to stay at the relief centre, which would be safe, but dark with no power or phone communications. Obviously this would be difficult for us being deaf with too many barriers. We made the decision to pack up and evacuate.
[Image of a road with smoke in the distance]
TEXT:
The couple said they couldn’t drive back to Melbourne because the highway was closed due to fires. They drove to Canberra and saw bushfires in the distance that caused smoke and hazy weather.
[Image of a road with very hazy air]
GAVIN:
We saw many bushfires on our way to Canberra, not close by, they were around.
TRISHA:
There was smoke and hazy weather.
TEXT:
The couple eventually went back home to Melbourne. They drove 1500 km in 5 days. The roads they used to leave Mallacoota were closed shortly after they drove through.
GAVIN:
Unfortunately a lot of the roads and regions were closed for access due to the bushfires, and sadly lots of people lost their homes and had to evacuate by plane, helicopter and sea. We feel for all of those people as they suffered more than us.
Our advantage was that we got information, updates on the app, had interpreters on screen and a buddy lady next door, all this information and a strong community feeling helped us to make a decision to evacuate.
TRISHA:
It is also important to note our holiday place didn’t have a TV but there may be holiday homes in Vic and NSW which have a TV so it's important to have an interpreter on screen. Many news shows cut off the interpreter so deaf people don’t know this critical information to evacuate.
Remember captions are good, but don’t show the emotion of the situation so it's really important, and we rely on the interpreter more.
Thank you Trisha and Gavin for sharing your story.
[Video of Trisha and Gavin waving]
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
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