Tuesday, December 10, 2019

General election 2019: Jonathan Ashworth apologises after Corbyn criticism leak


Labour's Jonathan Ashworth has apologised to his party after criticising Jeremy Corbyn in a secret recording by his Tory activist friend.
In a recording leaked to Tory-supporting website Guido Fawkes, Mr Ashworth is heard saying he did not believe Labour would win the election.
Mr Ashworth has insisted he was "joshing around" in the conversation.
Mr Corbyn said it was "not the sort of thing I would do", but claimed the story was "irrelevant".
The Labour leader added that Mr Ashworth had said it "was all about reverse psychology banter - as in football".
He suggested that shadow health secretary has "odd sense of humour" but added that he "makes jokes the whole time".

He also accused the Guido Fawkes website of "just trying to deflect away from the Tories' mess of the National Health Service" and insisted that the shadow health secretary had his "full support".
The conversation appears to have been recorded over a week ago and Mr Ashworth said: "The reason this has come out today is because the Tories know the crisis in the NHS is ruining their campaign and we've got babies - babies - on the front page of the Daily Mirror unable to get a bed."
Mr Ashworth named the friend he was speaking to as former local Conservative Association chairman, Greig Baker, and he did not deny that he made the remarks.
Meanwhile, in an interview with BBC Breakfast, Mr Corbyn dismissed claims that he was a "problem on the doorstep" for Labour activists, saying it was "not a presidential election".
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In the recording, Mr Ashworth appears to refer to an unsuccessful plot to oust Mr Corbyn, instigated by some of his MPs in the aftermath of the EU referendum.
"People like me were internally saying 'this isn't the right moment' but I got kind of ignored," Mr Ashworth is recorded as saying.
On Labour's election chances, Mr Ashworth is heard saying: "I've been going round these national places, it's dire for Labour… it's dire.

"I'm helping colleagues, banging on about the NHS for them but it's awful for them, and it's the combination of Corbyn and Brexit… outside of the city seats…it's abysmal out there…they can't stand Corbyn and they think Labour's blocked Brexit."
On the recording, Mr Ashworth is asked: If Mr Corbyn "got in would he be as bad as I suspect?"
"I don't know, on the security stuff, I worked in No 10, I think the machine will pretty quickly move to safeguard security, I mean the civil service machine. But it's not going to happen. I cannot see it happening."
A Twitter account appearing to belong to Mr Baker later defended leaking the recording.
He tweeted: "If someone tells you about a threat to national security - that they say could only be avoided by asking civil servants to act unconstitutionally - there's a duty to tell people about it."

'Joshing'

Speaking to the Victoria Derbyshire programme, Mr Ashworth said: "Of course it makes me look like a right plonker, but it's not what I mean when I'm winding up a friend, trying to sort of, pull his leg a bit."
He said he was "having a bit of banter" with his friend "because he was saying 'oh, the Tories are going to lose' and I was, like saying, 'no you're going to be fine', joshing as old friends do.
"And he's only gone and leaked it to a website - selectively leaked it - and I thought he was a friend, Greig Baker, but obviously he's not."
When asked if he believed, as the recording suggested, that Mr Corbyn was a threat to the UK's national security, Mr Ashworth replied: "Of course I don't."
Speaking to BBC Politics Live, he said: "I look like an idiot as a result of doing it... I apologise to Labour Party members."
Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson said Mr Ashworth was "saying what hundreds of Labour candidates and millions of voters are thinking", adding that Mr Corbyn was "unfit to be PM because he is blocking Brexit".
Mr Ashworth's remarks were "an honest and truly devastating assessment" of Mr Corbyn's leadership "by one of his most trusted election lieutenants", Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly said.

Earlier, in an interview with BBC Breakfast, Mr Corbyn was challenged on his leadership credentials amid reports that some candidates are finding voters do not want to support him personally.
"It's not a presidential election," he said.
"It is a Parliamentary election in which we elect members of Parliament. I'm the leader of the Labour Party and I'm very proud to have that position."
When asked about some candidates not including his name in their leaflets, he said he was "proud" of his party's manifesto and "my job is to deliver it".

On the case of a sick four-year-old boy who was photographed on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary, Mr Corbyn said it was an example of what was happening in the NHS.
"It is obviously awful for that little boy and the family, the way they were treated," he said.
"But it does say something about our NHS when this happened, and then all research shows there's a very large number of hospitals where patients are at risk because of staff shortages, because of a lack of equipment, because of poor maintenance of hospital buildings."
He insisted his spending plans "are completely credible" and will "give sufficient resources to the NHS".

'Honest broker'

In the interview, Mr Corbyn was also challenged on his party's Brexit policy and his own position.
Labour wants to negotiate a new deal with the EU and then put it to the public as a "credible Leave option" alongside the option of Remain in another referendum - which the Labour leader would remain neutral in.
"I will be the honest broker," Mr Corbyn said.
The Conservatives argue that Labour would bring further "dither and delay" to Brexit.


Myanmar Rohingya: Suu Kyi to defend genocide charge at UN court

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi is appearing at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) to defend her country against accusations of genocide.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has heard allegations Myanmar committed atrocities against Muslim Rohingya.
Thousands of Rohingya were killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during an army crackdown in the Buddhist-majority country in 2017.
Myanmar has always insisted it was tackling an extremist threat.
It marks a remarkable fall from grace for Ms Suu Kyi, who used to be seen as an icon for global human rights. Now she has chosen to stand up for the same army that kept her under house arrest for years.
Entering court in The Hague, Ms Suu Kyi made no comment when asked by the BBC if she was defending the indefensible. She will address the court on 11 December.
The case has been brought by The Gambia, a small Muslim-majority west African nation, on behalf of dozens of other Muslim countries.
At the initial three-day hearing, it is asking the ICJ in The Hague to approve temporary measures to protect the Rohingya. But a final ruling on genocide may be years away.
Mohammed Amin travelled from the UK to join a demonstration of about 50 people outside the court, shouting "justice for Rohingya".
"It's emotional but it's also very exciting that someone is taking the initiative - because we've been the voiceless people," he told the BBC.

What are the accusations?

At the start of 2017, there were one million Rohingya in Myanmar (formerly Burma), most living in Rakhine state.
But Myanmar, a mainly Buddhist country, considers them illegal immigrants and denies them citizenship.
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The Rohingya have long complained of persecution, and in 2017 the military - the Tatmadaw - launched a massive military operation in Rakhine.
According to The Gambia's submission to the ICJ, the military stands accused of "widespread and systematic clearance operations" against the Rohingya, beginning in October 2016 and expanding in August 2017.

The Gambia's petition alleges that the clearances were "intended to destroy the Rohingya as a group, in whole or in part", via mass murder, rape and setting fire to their buildings "often with inhabitants locked inside".
A UN fact-finding mission which investigated the allegations found such compelling evidence that it said the Burmese army must be investigated for genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.
In August, a report accused Myanmar soldiers of "routinely and systematically employing rape, gang rape, and other violent and forced sexual acts against women, girls, boys, men and transgender people".
In May, seven Myanmar soldiers jailed for killing 10 Rohingya men and boys were released early from prison. Myanmar says its military operations targeted Rohingya militants, and the military has previously cleared itself of wrongdoing.


The ICJ is the UN's top court, and cases must be submitted to it by countries. This one is being brought by The Gambia, with the support of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) and a team of international lawyers.
"All that The Gambia asks is that you tell Myanmar to stop these senseless killings, to stop these acts of barbarity that continue to shock our collective conscience, to stop this genocide of its own people," The Gambia's Attorney General and Justice Minister, Abubacarr M Tambadou, told the court.
His country acted after he visited a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh and heard of killings, rape and torture, he told the BBC in October.

What is Aung San Suu Kyi's role?

The case is being brought against Myanmar, not Aung San Suu Kyi.
The ICJ cannot punish individuals in the way that, for example, the International Criminal Court can (separately, the ICC is investigating the Rohingya case).
But the case is, to some extent, about the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner herself.
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Ms Suu Kyi has been de facto leader of Myanmar since April 2016, before the alleged genocide began. She does not have control over the army but has been accused by the UN investigator of "complicity" in the military clearances.
"I implore you to open your eyes... and please use your moral authority, before it is too late," Yanghee Lee said in September.
Ms Suu Kyi announced in November she would personally lead her country's defence at The Hague - in her role as foreign affairs minister - alongside "prominent international lawyers".

What is the likely outcome of this case?

For now, The Gambia is just asking the court to impose "provisional measures" to protect the Rohingya in Myanmar and elsewhere from further threats or violence. These will be legally binding.
To rule that Myanmar has committed genocide, the court will have to determine that the state acted "with intent to destroy in whole or in part" the Rohingya minority.



Even then the ICJ has no way of enforcing the outcome - and neither Aung San Suu Kyi nor the generals would automatically be arrested and put on trial.
But a guilty ruling could lead to sanctions, and would cause significant reputational and economic damage to Myanmar.

What is the current situation for the Rohingya?

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since the military operations began.
As of 30 September, there were 915,000 Rohingya refugees in camps in Bangladesh. Almost 80% arrived between August and December 2017, and in March this year, Bangladesh said it would accept no more.
In August, Bangladesh set up a voluntary return scheme - but not a single Rohingya chose to go.
Bangladesh plans to relocate 100,000 refugees to Bhasan Char, a small island in the Bay of Bengal, but some 39 aid agencies and human rights groups have opposed the idea.
In September, the BBC's Jonathan Head reported that police barracks, government buildings and refugee relocation camps had been built on the sites of former Rohingya villages in Myanmar.


USMCA: Agreement reached on Nafta trade deal replacement


Democrats in Congress have reached a deal with the White House to approve a new North American trade pact.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the new agreement would have tougher labour and environmental rules.
She declared it "infinitely better" than the deal the White House reached with Mexico and Canada last year.
US President Donald Trump, who had accused Democrats of holding up the treaty, also declared victory.
The pact will be "the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA. Good for everybody - Farmers, Manufacturers, Energy, Union - tremendous support," he tweeted.
The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is set to replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which Mr Trump and Democrats have blamed for speeding the decline of US manufacturing.
Mr Trump launched talks for "Nafta 2.0" in 2017. Negotiators from the US, Mexico and Canada reached a deal last year, but it needed to be approved by lawmakers in the three countries to move forward.
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Democrats in the US, who control the House of Representatives, were pushing for changes to strengthen enforcement of labour and environmental rules, and provide more flexibility governing drug pricing.
With the changes, they said they were now willing to support the agreement in a vote.
"There is no question, of course, that this trade agreement is much better than Nafta but... it is infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration," Ms Pelosi said.
Mexico's President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said representatives would sign an amended pact in Mexico on Tuesday.
The US business community said news that the deal with two of America's biggest trade partners would move forward was a relief and urged Congress to bring it to a vote quickly.
"Farmers have been struggling in the face of bad weather and unpredictable trade policy," said Angela Hofmann, co-executive director of the lobby group, Farmers for Free Trade.
"Passing USMCA will guarantee that our farmers' closest and most important markets, will remain free from tariffs and red tape."

Seafloor scar of Bikini A-bomb test still visible



The date was 25 July 1946. The location - Bikini Atoll. The event - only the fifth A-bomb explosion and the first-ever detonation under water.
The pictures we've all seen: A giant mushroom cloud climbing out of the Pacific, sweeping up ships that had been deliberately left in harm's way to see what nuclear war was capable of.
Now, 73 years later, scientists have been back to map the seafloor.
A crater is still present; so too the twisted remains of all those vessels.
"Bikini was chosen because of its idyllic remoteness and its large, easily accessible lagoon," explains survey team-leader Art Trembanis from the University of Delaware.
"At the time, [the famous American comedian] Bob Hope quipped, 'as soon as the war ended, we found the one spot on Earth that had been untouched by the war and blew it to hell'."
Two American tests, Able and Baker, were conducted at the atoll in what became known as Operation Crossroads. The Baker device, called Helen of Bikini, was a 21-kiloton bomb and was placed 27m below the surface of the Pacific.
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The explosion hurled two million tonnes of water, sand and pulverised coral high into the sky.
Despite the extraordinary energy release, Dr Trembanis thought much of the scarred seafloor would have been covered over with sediment by now.
Instead, his interdisciplinary team of oceanographers, geologists, marine archaeologists and engineers found a well-defined depression.
Using sonar, they mapped a structure that is 800m across with about 10m of relief.



 "It seems as if Captain Marvel herself has punched the planet and put a dent into it," Dr Trembanis told reporters here at the American Geophysical Union meeting where he is presenting the team's investigations.
"We wanted to draw back the curtain and be able to really reveal this scene," he told BBC News.
"It really wasn't until the late '80s, early '90s, when divers could get into the area. And at that time, they could only take a limited look at a few different wrecks.
"We were using advanced sonar technology; we could paint the entire scene. It's a bit like visiting the Grand Canyon with a flashlight versus going in the middle of the day and illuminating the whole area.
"We could start to see the arrangement of the ships; we could see how they were aligned relative to each other; and we could see that this crater still remains - nature is still showing us this wound that it received from the bomb."


Remarkably, the crater has a rippled structure that looks a bit like rose petals. It's evidence of all that material initially thrown into the sky then falling back down through the water column and spreading out across the seafloor.
Part of the motivation for the survey was to understand the continuing environmental impacts better. Although radiation levels are much reduced, there is an ongoing pollution problem coming from the sacrificial ships.
These vessels - old units from the US, Japanese and German navies - were not prepared with the expectation that they would become artificial reefs. If that was the intention, they would have been stripped down.


Instead, the war-game scenario demanded that they should be left in position as if operational. That meant they were fuelled and even had munitions aboard.
"As we were mapping, I could know without looking up when we were near the [US aircraft carrier] Saratoga, because we could smell the bunker fuel; it was so heavy and is still streaking out.
"The Nagato - which was the Japanese flagship that [Admiral Isoroku] Yamamoto used to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor - had a streak of fuel coming out from it for many miles."
As the ships continue to disintegrate in the water, this pollution could become a much bigger problem, Dr Trembanis said. 



Trump impeachment: House unveils formal charges



The US House Judiciary Committee has unveiled formal charges against President Donald Trump, a key move in the impeachment process against him.
The first article revealed by committee chief Jerry Nadler accuses Mr Trump of abuse of power and the second accuses him of obstructing Congress.
The president is accused of withholding aid to Ukraine for domestic political reasons.
He insists he has done "nothing wrong" and dismissed the process as "madness".
If the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes to approve the articles later this week, they will then be submitted to the lower chamber for a full vote.
If the articles are approved by the House - which is controlled by the Democrats - an impeachment trial in the Republican-held Senate will take place, possibly early in January.

The impeachment process was launched after an anonymous whistleblower complained to Congress in September about a July phone call by Mr Trump to the president of Ukraine.
Defending the move towards impeachment, Mr Nadler told reporters the integrity of the 2020 presidential election was at stake.
Mr Trump "sees himself as above the law", he said. "We must be clear, no one, not even the president, is above the law."

What is Mr Trump accused of?

In the phone call to Ukraine's leader, Mr Trump appeared to tie US military assistance to Ukraine launching investigations which could help him politically.
In return for those investigations, Democrats say Mr Trump offered two bargaining chips - $400m (£304m) of military aid that had already been allocated by Congress, and a White House meeting for President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Democrats say this pressure on a vulnerable US ally constitutes an abuse of power.
The first investigation Mr Trump wanted from Ukraine was into former Vice-President Joe Biden, his main Democratic challenger, and his son Hunter. Hunter Biden joined the board of a Ukrainian energy company when his father was President Obama's deputy.


The second Trump demand was that Ukraine should try to corroborate a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the last US presidential election. This theory has been widely debunked, and US intelligence agencies are unanimous in saying Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic Party emails in 2016.



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  • CONTEXT: Why Ukraine matters to the US
  • FACT-CHECK: Did Ukraine interfere in the 2016 election to help Clinton?
  • CASE FOR & AGAINST: What legal scholars say about Trump conduct

How does impeachment work?

Impeachment is the first part - the charges - of a two-stage political process by which Congress can remove a president from office.
If, following the hearings, the House of Representatives votes to pass articles of impeachment, the Senate is forced to hold a trial.
A Senate vote requires a two-thirds majority to convict and remove the president - unlikely in this case, given that Mr Trump's party controls the chamber.
Only two US presidents in history - Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson - have been impeached, but neither was convicted.
President Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.




Czech shooting: Gunman kills six at hospital in Ostrava


A gunman has killed six people in a hospital waiting room in the Czech city of Ostrava before shooting himself in the head, police say.
Armed police found the suspect dead from a self-inflicted gunshot in a vehicle three hours later.
The gunman was believed to be a patient at the hospital, one unconfirmed report said. His motive remains unclear.
Officers said they were called to the hospital in the north-eastern city at 07:19 (06:19 GMT).
The shooting took place in a matter of moments at Ostrava university hospital's trauma clinic. Hospital director Jiri Havrlant told Czech TV the gunman opened fire without warning, hitting nine patients.
Four men and two women were killed and three other people were wounded, two seriously. All of the victims were patients at the hospital.
The hospital was initially locked down.
A doctor inside the hospital told the Aktualne website that staff had been locked in a hallway waiting for the emergency to end.
Police earlier asked for help in their search for the gunman, but warned people not to approach him, adding that the site in the Moravian-Silesian region had been "secured".
The suspect had used a handgun and had driven off in a silver Renault Laguna car, according to police. They said they had established the 42-year-old man's name, had photographs of him and had obtained his vehicle licence plate number.
Police said that once they had obtained pictures of the suspect from security cameras they launched two helicopters to search for him. When one of the helicopters was flying over the car some 5km (3 miles) north of the hospital, the man shot himself in the head and later died of his injuries.
The gun used in the attack was described as a 9mm Czech-made handgun, which the suspect did not have a licence for.



Police initially posted an image of a man they said they needed to trace and said later he was the man behind the shooting, but they later removed the picture from their social media feed after he was found.
Patrols were stepped up at what police described as soft targets, such as schools, shopping centres and other hospitals.
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Colleagues of the suspected gunman told Czech media that he had recently gone on sick leave, declaring he was seriously ill. He was said to be a construction engineer who had been treated at the hospital's haemato-oncology department.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis confirmed that six people had been killed and that the shootings occurred at close range. He cancelled a foreign trip and was preparing to travel to Ostrava, reports said.


The governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region, Ivo Vondrak, said the shooting was "a great tragedy".
Police said that officers responding to reports of a shooting had arrived at the scene within five minutes. Ostrava is about 300km (190 miles) east of Prague.

Gun attacks in the Czech Republic are rare, although gun ownership is relatively high for Europe because of the popularity of hunting.
In 2015, a man opened fire in a restaurant in the eastern town of Uhersky Brod, killing eight people before turning the gun on himself.
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Last week, the Czech government lost a legal challenge to an EU law restricting private use of semi-automatic rifles. It was introduced by the European Union in 2017 after a spate of militant Islamist attacks in 2015.
The government in Prague said the law would do nothing to increase security.


White Island volcano: Rescuer tells of 'Chernobyl'-like scene


A paramedic who flew to New Zealand's White Island to rescue tourists after Monday's volcanic eruption has said the scene was like something out of "the Chernobyl mini-series".
"Everything was blanketed in ash," Russell Clark told TVNZ.
Dozens of tourists were on the island at the time. Six have been confirmed dead. Eight others are feared to have died and about 30 have serious burns.
New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern praised the crews of four rescue helicopters.
"Those pilots made an incredibly brave decision under extraordinarily dangerous circumstances in an attempt to get people out," she told reporters on Tuesday.
"To those who have lost or are missing family and friends, we share in your unfathomable grief and in your sorrow."
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In his interview, Mr Clark said he and his fellow rescuers had found a "devastating scene" when they landed.
"There was a helicopter on the island that had obviously been there at the time and its rotor blades were off it."

At least 47 people from around the world were on the island at the time of the eruption.

Why were tourists allowed near the volcano?

Questions are being asked about why tourists were allowed to approach New Zealand's most active volcano three weeks after seismologists raised its alert level, describing the situation as "moderate to heightened volcanic unrest".
"These questions must be asked and they must be answered," Ms Ardern said in parliament on Tuesday. A police investigation is under way.
Geological hazard monitoring group GeoNet warned last week that White Island "may be entering a period where eruptive activity is more likely than normal" - but it also said "the current level of activity does not pose a direct hazard to visitors".

Currently, the alert level is at three, indicating the risk of a "minor volcanic eruption".

How serious are the injuries?

Thirty-four people were rescued, and most of them are still receiving treatment in hospital.
Officials say they have burns to more than 30% of their bodies. Several others are also suffering from inhalation burns. Doctors say some may not survive.
Police said they were "unsure" what state the bodies that remained on the island were in, saying they were probably "covered in ash".
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White Island remains too dangerous to access, but reconnaissance flights conducted earlier on Tuesday saw no survivors.
Ms Ardern said there were no signs of life and that the focus was now "on recovery".

Who was on the island?

There were 24 visitors from Australia, nine from the US, five from New Zealand, four from Germany, two from China, two from the UK, and one person from Malaysia.
The first victim to be identified was tour guide Hayden Marshall-Inman, a local of nearby town Whakatane, who according to New Zealand media has been named by his brother on Facebook.
The second person confirmed to have died is from Malaysia, the country's High Commission said.
Another tour guide from New Zealand, 23-year old Tipene Maangi, is among the missing. His family told media he had been called in on his day off.
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Two British women were among those receiving treatment, said the UK High Commissioner to New Zealand, Laura Clarke.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he "feared" three of the five confirmed dead were Australian.
Mr Morrison said that 24 Australians were on board a cruise ship exploring the island in the Bay of Plenty when the volcano erupted. Of those, 13 were in hospital and 11 were unaccounted for, he said.
"This is a terrible tragedy, a time of great innocence and joy interrupted by the horror of that eruption," Mr Morrison told reporters in Sydney.


A web page has been set up by the New Zealand Red Cross for families to register missing loved ones.

What happened at the volcano?

White Island, also called Whakaari, is privately owned and a tourist destination with frequent day tours and scenic flights available.
The volcano erupted in two explosions in quick succession at around 14:11 (01:11 GMT) on Monday, sending up a thick plume of ash and vapour.
A live feed from the volcano showed several visitors inside the crater before the stream went dark.

Some survivors were rescued by boat in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, but police said it was too dangerous to mount a rescue operation.
But later private helicopter rescue missions picked up several people from the island.
Since then, emergency services have been unable to search the area because of dangerous conditions, with plumes of ash continuing to rise above the volcano.
Authorities on Tuesday said there was a 50% chance of a second eruption of the same size or smaller in the next 24 hours, but that it was unlikely there'd be a bigger eruption that would affect the mainland. 



Chilean plane en route to Antarctica disappears with 38 on board


A military plane with 38 people on board has disappeared en route to Antarctica, Chile's air force says.
The C-130 Hercules transport aircraft took off from Punta Arenas at 16:55 local time (19:55 GMT), and operators lost contact at 18:13 (21:13).
Those missing include 17 crew and 21 passengers.
They were travelling to provide logistical support to a military base on Antarctica's King George Island. A search-and-rescue mission is under way.

What happened?

Air Force Gen Eduardo Mosqueira told local media that the plane did not activate any distress signal. He said the plane, whose pilot had extensive experience, may have been forced to touch down on water.
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An air force statement said that the plane was about 450 miles (725km) into its 770-mile journey when contact was lost, placing it within the Drake Passage. The air force published a map of the plane's last known location on Twitter:

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