The Daily Moth 11-21-19
Impeachment hearing: testimony from Fiona Hill and David Holmes | 10-year-old boy dies after being shot during high school football game | Keystone oil pipeline spills 383,000 gallons in North Dakota | World News: Deadly protests over petrol prices in Iran; Israel’s PM Netanyahu indicted with corruption charges | Deaf drone pilot films “Burning Man” festival
[Transcript] Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Thursday, November 21. Ready for news?
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Impeachment hearing: testimony from Fiona Hill and David Holmes
Here are updates of today’s impeachment hearing. Two people testified — Fiona Hill, who is President Trump’s former adviser on Russia, and David Holmes, who is a U.S. official who works in the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.
Hill said that the idea that Ukraine, not Russia, tried to interfere with U.S. elections is false. She emphasized that Russia is the one who attacked our “democratic institutions in 2016.” She said that Russia is succeeding in tearing apart our nation and in distracting President Trump. Hill said that Ukraine still needs our support to counter Russian aggression.
She said that she and the former National Security Adviser John Bolton was out of the loop on discussions of an agreement that there would be an investigation on the company Burisma in exchange for a White House meeting. She said when she eventually found out and informed Bolton of the deal, Bolton called it a “drug deal.”
Holmes testified that his work in the embassy was “overshadowed” by a political agenda that came from Rudy Giuliani and others who had a “direct channel to the White House.”
Holmes said that the day after the July 25 phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president Zelensky, the day after, he met with a few Zelensky aides and Gordon Sondland at a restaurant in Kiev, Ukraine. He said he overheard a phone call between President Trump and Sondland in which Sondland said Zelensky would open the investigations and do anything that Trump asks him to do. He said he remembered that Trump’s voice on the phone was very loud and that Sondland had to hold the phone away from his ear.
President Trump tweeted that it was impossible to watch a person make a phone call and hear or understand a conversation.
The White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said today’s witnesses relied heavily on their own assumptions and opinions and that they have no personal or direct knowledge on why U.S. aid to Ukraine was temporarily withheld. Grisham said Democrats are motivated by a sick hatred for President Trump and a rabid desire to overturn the 2016 election.
https://www.axios.com/trump-impeachment-hearing-fiona-hill-david-holmes-a2dc4650-dd26-4a20-9c20-4b103fb42b2a.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/21/impeachment-live-updates-david-holmes-and-fiona-hill-testify/4255507002/
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10-year-old boy dies after being shot during high school football game
On November 15, there was a shooting at a high school football playoff game in Pleasantville, New Jersey.
A 31-year-old man, who was with four other men, is accused by police of trying to gun down another man in the stands. Witnesses said they heard at least six gunshots.
A 10-year-old boy, Micah “Dew” Tennant, was hit in the neck by a bullet and died yesterday after being in a hospital in critical condition.
A 15-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet but will recover.
A 27-year-old man, who was the intended target, was injured and is still in a hospital in stable condition. Police said he will be charged with unlawful possession of a handgun.
The game on Friday night was suspended in the third quarter because of the shooting. The NFL team Philadelphia Eagles welcomed the teams to finish out the game at Lincoln Financial Field on Wednesday (yesterday).
Before the game and the national anthem, it was announced that Micah died of his injuries. There was a moment of silence. Players on both teams were joined arm in arm and some displayed the number 10 on their uniforms or wrote “Micah” on their helmets to honor him.
The Philadelphia Eagles tweeted pictures and videos of the game with the words, “Some things are bigger than football.”
The suspected gunman, Alvin Wyatt, will be charged with murder and already has two counts of attempted murder. The four other men will get various weapons charges.
The high schools were the Camden and Pleasantville high schools.
There is a GoFundMe for Micah that has raised over $28,000.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/20/us/micah-tennant-shooting-new-jersey-football-game/index.html
https://heavy.com/news/2019/11/pleasantville-high-school-shooting/
https://www.gofundme.com/f/do-over-for-dew-micah
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Keystone oil pipeline spills 383,000 gallons in North Dakota
The Keystone oil pipeline in North Dakota had a leak a few weeks ago that spilled 383,000 gallons in the northeastern part of the state. This is the third spill in three years.
Now three top Democratic House Representatives have officially asked for a federal review of the pipeline’s owner, TC Energy, which is based in Calgary, Alberta.
TC Energy said the pipeline is back in service as of November 10 after their repair and restart plan was approved by federal authorities.
It is not known what caused the leak. Media reports say cleanup work continues.
The pipeline became operational in 2011 and can carry 23 million gallons of crude oil daily from Canada down to Illinois and Oklahoma.
The U.S. representatives said the spills threaten the public’s health and security and are concerned about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which is a $8 billion project that would create a pipeline from western Canada to Nebraska.
Oil pipelines became a very hot issue two years ago when thousands of indigenous peoples from Standing Rock reservation and their supporters mobilized to protect, protest, and disrupt crews installing the Dakota Access pipeline in the Dakotas.
More recently, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to advance the construction of the Dakota and Keystone XL pipelines four days after he was inaugurated in 2017.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is currently in operation and carries oil from North Dakota to central Illinois. The Keystone XL pipeline has been delayed due to battles in federal court, but is expected to start construction in 2020.
https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Congress-wants-review-of-Keystone-pipeline-after-14848404.php
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/congress-wants-review-of-keystone-pipeline-in-wake-of-spill
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/court-lifts-injunction-that-blocked-keystone-xl-pipeline-construction
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World News: Deadly protests over petrol prices in Iran; Israel’s PM Netanyahu indicted with corruption charges
Here are two world news briefs.
The first — there were massive protests in Iran by people who were angry with the government after they announced on November 15 that gasoline prices would go up at least 50%. A human rights organization, Amnesty International, said over 100 protesters were killed by security forces who fired live rounds from rooftops and helicopters. Many businesses, banks, and government buildings were burned. The Iranian government shut down access to the internet for several days. Iranian officials said there is now calm and internet is being restored. They also denied that 100 people died.
The second news — Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted with bribery, breach of trust, and fraud charges. This is the first time a sitting Israeli PM has been indicted. Netanyahu said he did nothing wrong. He does not have to resign. He was indicted by Israel’s attorney general after police recommended the charges that after doing three investigations. Israel is currently in a “post-election deadlock” after recent elections failed to give either the parties of Netanyahu or his rival, Benny Gantz, a large enough majority to form a government. There may be a third election in a year.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-gasoline-protests-internet/iran-begins-reconnecting-internet-after-shutdown-over-protests-idUSKBN1XV19R
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/iran-blasts-amnesty-protest-toll-calling-disinformation-191120195212119.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-netanyahu-indictment/israels-attorney-general-indicts-pm-netanyahu-on-corruption-charges-idUSKBN1XV1T3
https://www.axios.com/netanyahu-indicted-for-bribery-fraud-breach-of-trust-7d1453b4-69ad-446d-921f-878870d0b755.html
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Deaf drone pilot films “Burning Man” festival
A deaf FAA licensed drone pilot from Austin, Julian Moiwai, was one of the few people who was approved to film the latest Burning Man festival in Nevada with a drone. I will show you a reel and a brief interview.
[Description of reel video: The video opens with the words, “Burning Man: Metamorphoses.” It shows a vast desert setting with thousands of attendees walking around, riding on bicycles or strange vehicles illuminated with colorful lights, walking around large sculpture and pieces of art, stunning fireworks displays that pierce the evening sky, and thousands of RVs parked in a vast semicircle “parking lot.”]
JULIAN MOIWAI:
This is my second Burning Man festival. It’s my first one using my drone though and compared to my first year, where I was seeing everything from the ground and all these people packed in front of me. Now having just seeing it through my iPad being fed footage from the drone, it was stunning to me. I was shocked by the sheer size of the Burning Man crowd. All these people looked like ants to me in the video. There was so many people, so the drone had to get really high to actually capture the size of the Burning Man festival. It was really big and really amazing to get to experience that. The challenge for me was the weather. I typically fly my drone early in the morning, around the time before or after the sunrise and the sunset also. That way I’ll be able to keep my drone cool preventing it from overheating. Noon is typically the hottest time of the day so I have to be really careful with the batteries and especially with dust. It gets on everything!
ALEX:
I wonder how long you’ve been flying your drone professionally?
JULIAN MOIWAI:
I’ve been flying these drones since 2017. My very drone that I got was a DJI Phantom 4 Pro. I was pretty clumsy with trying to fly the drone and I remember being unsteady with it, flying it all over the place and not getting ideal footage and framing. About 2 or 3 months after I got the drone, I decided to pursue licensure with FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot license. Before long, I got my first gig with other deaf drone pilots, who were also licensed, at The Villages. What we did was fly our drones at all, actually some, of the golf courses in the area. There were a lot of those and that was to provide virtual tours of these golf courses for interested visitors. It was a great experience for me and that group I started out, Aerial Productions, with Anthony Mowl. That was a great experience and it got me started before I started to do other things like art and wedding gigs. I also do corporate work in filmmaking. Now I really want to expand my portfolio to include, perhaps, real estate. We’ll see!
ALEX:
Thank you for your time, Julian! He explained that the footage he filmed will be a part of the Burning Man media team’s list of references for others who might request drone footage. You can follow him on Instagram @whatjujusaid or check out his website at https://julianmoiwai.com.
*Photo of Julian Moiwai holding drone by Toby Fitch
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
Supported by:
Convo [https://convo.click/2mVhM8h]
Gallaudet University: [gallaudet.edu]