Breakdowns in Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s internal communication system led to an outage of its external and internal phone lines.The outage on Friday morning impacted phone lines as well as the DHB’s computer network.A…
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The building of one of Australia's most recognised icons
Deep-dive into history with these photos showing what our capital city streetscapes used to look like.
Murderer's chilling actions before and after Sarah Everard's murder
After weeks of planning, a former London police officer was "hunting a lone young female to kidnap and rape".
By 9.30pm on March 3, all that was missing was his victim: Sarah Everard, 33, intelligent, compassionate and loved by so many, a "blameless victim" of an abuse of police power so grave it has shaken faith in the force and been equated with ideological, religious or racist killings.
The sickening details of a crime deemed so serious the 48-year-old murderer Wayne Couzens will never be released — one of only a few dozen currently consigned to such a fate in the UK — are laid out in Lord Justice Fulford's sentencing remarks delivered on Thursday.
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They describe the research trips to London starting a month out from the murder and the way he calmly "attended to the inconsequential details of family life whilst grimly covering" his tracks in the aftermath.
Ms Everard, walking home from visiting a friend during the pandemic, was a "blameless victim of a "devastating, tragic and wholly brutal" crime.
Using his privileged status, Couzens handcuffed the marketing executive and coerced her into a car hired for this exact purpose, most likely misusing the COVID-19 lockdown as false justification.
Prosecutor Tom Little Little said Couzens wore his police belt with handcuffs and used his police warrant card when he detained Ms Everard "by fraud."
CCTV footage — just seconds of 1800 hours collected in what the judge called the "most impressive police investigation" she had seen — shows the moment the killer stops his victim on the street.
But a passing passenger thought they were witnessing exactly what Couzens appeared to have designed the kidnapping to look like: an undercover police officer making an arrest.
By this point he'd made at least three unexplained visits to the capital to research his crime, dating back to January.
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Then there was the purchase of a police standard issue handcuff key from Amazon on February 10, self-adhesive carpet protector film ordered on February 28, and 14 hair bands bought just 90 minutes before Ms Everard was taken from Poynders Road in Clapham, south London.
What happens next is less clear but it's known the killer's phone pinged a cell tower some 100km away in England's south and he changed from the hire car to his own SEAT vehicle in Dover.
The victim's mother, Susan, said her daughter "spent the last hours on this earth with the very worst of humanity."
"She lost her life because Wayne Couzens wanted to satisfy his perverted desires. He treated my daughter as if she was nothing and disposed of her as if she was rubbish," she said.
"I am haunted by the horror of it."
It's believed Ms Everard was raped sometime after midnight and "highly likely" she was dead by 2.34am, when Couzens bought some soft drinks at a BP in Dover South.
At 8.14am, he bought hot chocolate and a Bakewell tart.
In the following days he acted normally at home, even making dental appointments for his children, while trying to cover his tracks.
A March 5 call to make a vet appointment for the family dog in which he sounded "controlled and normal" took place on the same day he bought a plastic container of petrol and burnt Ms Everard's body in Hoads Wood in Kent.
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"Within three days of the murder the defendant took his family on a trip to the woods, close by to where he had deposited, burnt, moved and hid the body of Sarah Everard, allowing his children to play in that area," the judge noted.
"In due course he cleaned the exterior of his Seat motorcar."
Lord Justice Fulford said the crime was of "equal seriousness as a murder carried out for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause."
Hence why it deserved the UK's harshest penalty, a whole-life order with no prospect of release.
"During the period before your arrest, there was never a moment when you gave the slightest indication of regret, following perhaps the realisation of the enormity of the dreadful crimes you had committed," the judge said.
"Instead, you simultaneously attended to the inconsequential details of family life whilst grimly covering your tracks, with all the appearance of a man acting with quiet and unconcerned determination.
"The substantial CCTV footage and similar material does not give the slightest hint of someone in trauma, who has started to have second thoughts in the cold light of day about what they have done."
Ms Everard's disappearance prompted an outpouring of grief and rage across social media from women sharing their own experiences of sexual assault, while also shining a light on the epidemic of violence against women and girls in the UK.
"You have very considerably added to the sense of insecurity that many have living in our cities, perhaps particularly women, when traveling by themselves and especially at night," Lord Justice Fulford told Couzens during the sentencing.
One woman is killed by a man on average every three days in the UK, according to data from the Femicide Census, an organisation that tracks violence against women and girls. The group argues that the government's new strategy to curb such violence "shamefully ignores" victims of femicide.
The government promised to take action to tackle violence against women and girls, but activists and the opposition say the steps it proposed were not adequate.
London's Metropolitan Police force has also faced a barrage of criticism for their actions in the days after Everard's disappearance.
Women were reportedly warned by police officers not to venture out alone as they made door-to-door inquiries on the case, prompting some to comment that this approach only fuelled the culture of victim blaming.
https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk/status/1443134247221481476?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Meanwhile, the police regulator, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), is investigating whether the Met responded appropriately to a report that Couzens indecently exposed himself at a South London fast food restaurant in February.
The IOPC is also investigating alleged failures by Kent Police to investigate another indecent exposure incident linked to Couzens from 2015.
Speaking outside the court on Thursday, the Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said Couzens had brought shame on the police.
"There are no words that can fully express the fury… and sadness that we all feel about what happened to Sarah. I am so sorry," she said.
PM no longer Australia's most powerful person
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is no longer considered the most powerful person in the country, according to the Australian Financial Review Magazine.
The magazine today releases its annual Power Issue, in which a panel of experts select the Australians who wield the most power to shape our everyday lives.
Traditionally the Prime Minister sits at number one on the list — and in October 2020 Mr Morrison claimed top billing thanks in part to the successful JobKeeper program.
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But this year the AFR Magazine panel elected to combine four state premiers in Gladys Berejiklian (NSW), Daniel Andrews (Victoria), Annastacia Palaszczuk (Queensland) and Mark McGowan (Western Australia) for an equal first place.
It's the first time since the power list began in 2000 that the Prime Minister has not been perceived as the country's most powerful person.
A full list of the top 10 most overtly powerful Australians can be seen below.
Financial Review editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury said the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the true power structures as governed by Australia's constitution.
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"The pandemic has resulted in a real shift in how power is exercised within the federation," Stutchbury said.
"That's based on the extreme risk aversion within the population, which the premiers have responded to."
Despite losing top spot, Mr Morrison was named in second place with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg elected as the third most overtly powerful Australian.
In fourth place were the combined Chief Health Officers of the states and territories, followed by RBA Governor Philip Lowe in fifth and Brittany Higgins in sixth.
The list is created by panels of decision makers who debate at length the extent of a person's power and how public the exercising of their power is in the country.
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Australia's top 10 most overtly powerful people
1. (Combined) State Premiers Gladys Berejiklian, Daniel Andrews, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mark McGowan
2. Prime Minister Scott Morrison
3. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg
4. (Combined) State Chief Health Officers
5. RBA Governor Philip Lowe
6. Brittany Higgins
7. Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce
8. Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn
9. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese
10. Defence Minister Peter Dutton
Barbados Parliament Gives Okay to Republican Status
Prime Minister Mia Mottley says much thought has gone into the decision to transition Barbados to a parliamentary republic, even as Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley, raised concerns over the legality of the government’s intended move, despite declaring full support for the impending status.
Parliament voted by a 25-0 margin to amend the Constitution (Amendment) Bill to bring the Republic into force by November 30.
Prime Minister Mottley told legislators that her administration was not rushing into republicanism and that talks regarding the transition began more than two decades ago.
“There can be no rush, therefore, about this Act. This Act has taken long in coming and if we go back, we agreed that there are aspects that are certainly worthy of consultation and that is the majority of the work that relates to the Constitution, we get that and we are committed to that.”
She described it as a “simple but functional bill” the constitutional amendment would revoke the Barbados Order of 1966 as an Order in Council of Her Majesty while keeping complete the Barbados Constitution.
The amendment makes provision for a Barbadian to be a Head of State, change the oath of allegiance from that to Her Majesty to now the state of Barbados and to ensure continuity in all of the other aspects of the functioning of the state of Barbados through offices, appointments and commissions.
“This has been a conversation that has been taking place since December 1998. The fact that I was part of the cabinet that agreed to the establishment of this Commission explains why I have so much grey hair now because it has been a long journey. It has been a long journey.
“Indeed one of my greatest regrets is that while there are a few who are still with us the majority of persons who served on this Commission and, in fact the Cox Commission, before have gone to the Great Beyond.”
The government said that the change would bring to an end a British head of state of Barbados ever since English settlers landed here in 1625 and claimed the island for King James I and Prime Minister Mottley maintained that the time had come for the transition as Barbados needed to be in complete control of all of its affairs.
She dismissed any notion that Barbados would change its name.
“This bill does nothing else but seek to make a Bajan the head of state of Barbados and is as simple as that because that is the lacuna that will take us from one point to another. By also revoking the Order in Council we make the clear statement that we want to be in control of our affairs as a Republic,” she explained.
She told legislators that together with Atherley they will make a joint nomination for the election of a president of Barbados and a date will then be set for that election and that she expects the process to take place this month.
Barbadians will also be notified as to when the new head of state would be sworn in.
But in his contribution, Atherley raised concerns over the legality of government’s intended move to republican status, despite declaring full support for the move
The Opposition Leader citing unnamed members of the legal profession, said the manner in which government was proceeding to move Barbados from a realm to a republic with a Barbadian Head of State could be unlawful.
Atherley said he was not attacking the government but merely wanted the transition to republican status to be done the right way.
Atherley also opposed the timing to become a republic describing it as “the wrong moment” as Barbados continued to battle the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, questioning whether government had an alternative agenda in ensuring the transition was done speedily.
“Beyond the constitutional and legal arguments, it is a bad moment with COVID. It is not the right moment. We do not know what next year will bring, we may still be faced down with COVID. I would prefer to believe that by the middle of next year this thing would be gone.”
He also said the November 30 date for the transition was inappropriate as it could diminish the work of Errol Barrow, the Father of Independence.
He suggested that July 26, 2022, coinciding with the Day of National Significance that memorialises the 1937 Disturbances, would be most appropriate.
CMC
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Storm Watch: TS Victor, Hurricane Sam –No Immediate Threats
There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect for Tropical Storm Victor which has formed over the eastern tropical Atlantic.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) says at 8 pm CVT (2100 UTC), the centre of Tropical Storm Victor was located near latitude 8.3 North, longitude 25.5 West.
Victor is moving toward the west-northwest near 13 miles per hour (20 km/h) and this motion is expected to continue during the next couple of days, followed by a turn to the northwest. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 40 miles per hour (65 km/h) with higher gusts. Steady strengthening is forecast, and Victor is expected to become a hurricane in a day or two.
Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 60 miles (95 km) north of the centre.
Meanwhile, at 5 pm AST, the centre of Hurricane Sam was located over the Atlantic Ocean about 385 miles (620 km) east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands.
Hurricane Sam ( Source: NHC)
Sam is moving toward the northwest near 9 miles per hour (15 km/h), and this general motion with an increase in forward speed is expected during the next couple of days.
A turn toward the north is forecast by Friday. On the forecast track, Sam will continue to pass well to the east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands through tonight.
Maximum sustained winds are near 130 miles per hour (215 km/h) with higher gusts – a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 40 miles (65 km) from the centre and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles (220 km).
Some fluctuations in intensity are expected during the next couple of days, but Sam is forecast to remain a major hurricane through late this week.
Swells generated by Sam will impact the Lesser Antilles during the next several days. Swells are expected to reach Bermuda and the Bahamas in a day or so, and then spread to the United States east coast by this weekend.
These swells could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
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Trinidad: Stranded Crew of Cargo Vessel Get Court OK to Sell Ship
by Derek Achong
The crew members of a Bolivian cargo vessel who were left stranded in Trinidad since March after being abandoned by their employer, have successfully petitioned a High Court Judge to sell the vessel to cover their outstanding salaries, living expenses, and repatriations.
High Court Judge Frank Seepersad ordered the sale yesterday as he upheld the lawsuit brought by the nine crew members of the “BTMAX 1” vessel, which still remains anchored off the Port-of-Spain harbour outside of Queen’s Wharf.
In an affidavit, attached to the lawsuit, deckhand Trevor Bishop, from the British Virgin Islands, claimed that in 2019 he entered into an agreement with two financiers for them to purchase and operate the vessel, which is registered in the Port of La Paz in Bolivia.
Bishop claimed that he was given a minority shareholding in the company, Inter Caribbean Shipping Limited, and agreed to work on-board the vessel for a salary until the venture became profitable and he could receive a share of the profits.
He claimed that while he and the other crew members from Honduras, St Vincent, Guyana, Grenada, and T&T, performed their duties, they were not paid for several months and were not provided with provisions or subsistence as required under their contracts.
In October, last year, the vessel’s former captain Dalton Young, of Honduras, fell ill and had to seek medical attention at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
Young was eventually repatriated to his country, where he died.
Last month, Bishop and the remaining crew members filed a lawsuit for a warrant of arrest for the vessel, which was granted by High Court Judge Ricky Rahim.
The crew members then sought to have the vessel sold to clear the company’s US$190,507.16 debt to them. The lawsuit was not defended by the owners of the vessel and Justice Seepersad eventually granted a default judgement, yesterday.
Under the terms of the judgement, the vessel is to be sold at auction based on a reserve price set by a local marine engineer.
The proceeds of the sale would be used to pay the nine workers including Young and to cover the ongoing costs associated with maintaining and preserving the arrest of the vessel.
In issuing the judgement, Seepersad commended the crew members’ legal team, who assisted with their plight, and criticised their former employer.
“A no-tolerance approach to wrongdoing and dishonesty in its many manifestations has to be adopted. These crew members were placed in an untenable and unfortunate situation and the callous and inhumane way they were treated must be condemned,” Seepersad said.
The crew members were represented by Nyree Alfonso and Asif Hosein-Shah.
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Study: Large Majority of Venezuelans Live in Extreme Poverty
CARACAS, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Around three-fourths of Venezuelans now live in extreme poverty as the once-prosperous OPEC nation’s hyperinflationary economic collapse continued for a seventh straight year, according to a study published on Wednesday.
The 2020-2021 National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI), conducted by researchers at Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB), found that of the country’s 28 million residents, 76.6% live in extreme poverty, up from 67.7% last year.
The report attributed the rise to both the COVID-19 pandemic and chronic fuel shortages, which at least 20% of respondents said meant they could not put gasoline in their cars, a major obstacle to employment.
The ENCOVI study was created in 2014 to make up for the absence of official data, according to Pedro Luis Espana, a UCAB sociologist who contributed to the study.
Espana said that beyond the loss of purchasing power, the lack of employment has led to boredom, adding that Venezuela’s public sector pays poorly, as the country’s minimum wage hovers around $3 a month, and the country’s private sector is small.
“It is the absence of opportunities,” Espana said. “It is sitting in front of the door of the house, doing nothing, not because you do not want to do anything, but because there is nowhere to do it.”
Venezuela’s information ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings. President Nicolas Maduro’s government frequently blames U.S. sanctions for the country’s woes, but critics attribute the country’s crisis to his government’s economic mismanagement.
When measured solely by income levels, 94.5% of the population lives in poverty, a figure unmatched elsewhere in the region, the ENCOVI survey found.
The survey was conducted through questionnaires distributed to 14,000 households in 21 of the 23 states of the country between February and April.
Reporting by Vivian Sequera; Writing by Sarah Kinosian
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Haitians Learn from Experience to Reach Mexico’s Tijuana
TIJUANA, Mexico, Sept 30 (Reuters) – While thousands of Haitians were detained, deported or expelled from a camp on Mexico’s frontier with Texas last week, many others traveled west to the border city of Tijuana, hoping to avoid a crackdown aimed at stemming the rising tide of migrants.
Evading detection, paying thousands of dollars, and shunning popular routes, those coming to Tijuana have drawn on the help of fellow Haitians who reached the doorstep of the United States five years ago during another spike in migration.
Contact with established Haitians in the city, including those in local business, has smoothed the pathway north, according to more than two dozen travelers who spoke to Reuters.
Since July, that network has also helped some Haitians to cross into the United States, they said.
“Thank God, we made it,” said Alexandre Guerby, a 26-year-old recently arrived in Tijuana with his wife after a month-long journey from Chile, where the couple had been living for the past four years with their Chilean-born daughter.
“I feel much safer now,” added Guerby, who acknowledged the help of other Haitians in reaching Tijuana.
Mexico last week worked with the United States to clear an impromptu camp of several thousand Haitians that sprang up between Ciudad Acuna, Mexico and Del Rio, Texas. Many had come from Chile or Brazil to reach the United States.
Guerby’s family is among hundreds who have been trickling into the city opposite San Diego this month, according to new arrivals and operators of migrant shelters.
His journey mirrors that of predecessors who first fled a major 2010 earthquake in Haiti and chronic poverty for South America. Many then moved north en masse for the United States in 2016 as the Brazilian economy deteriorated.
A number of Haitians came with children born in Chile, voicing the belief that would make it easier for them to get into the United States. Chilean citizens can enter the United States for up to 90 days with a visa waiver.
Settling in various parts of Tijuana, some Haitians work in restaurants and factories, while others have businesses ranging from cell phone shops to car washes, gardening, plumbing and interior decoration, local advertising and residents say.
Most are wary of going public about their achievements lest it cause them problems with migration authorities or attract the attention of organized crime.
Diverson Pierre, an industrial painter, said he had arrived in Tijuana in 2017 intending to go to the United States.
“But once I saw that people treated us well here, I decided to stay,” he said. “My aim was to find work, and I found it.”
Reuters spoke to more than 20 Haitians and Mexicans in Tijuana who said they were advising new Haitian arrivals where to stay, or had offered them rooms to rent themselves.
“They have extraordinary communication with each other. They all pull in the same direction,” said Jose Garcia, director of the city’s Juventud 2000 shelter. “They have phones in their hand all the time and always know how things are on the border.”
Wilner Metelus, a Haitian who heads advocacy group the Citizens Committee in Defense of Naturalized Persons and Afro-Mexicans, said previous arrivals had shown the latest influx of Haitians how to avoid official raids and make progress.
New arrival Guerby also wants to reach the United States, but plans first to work in Mexico to replenish his exhausted savings, having spent thousands of dollars getting north.
‘EXPENSIVE’
Fearful of being deported home, or sent back to southern Mexico, or even to Guatemala, Haitian migrants said they traveled in small groups to avoid detection.
Sometimes that even meant getting into private cars or taxis so they could dodge authorities by avoiding the main roads.
“Everything on the way was much more expensive because we did not have papers,” said Astride Petit, a 25-year-old Haitian.
Migrants sometimes had to pay up to 500 pesos ($25) for stretches that would usually cost 80-100 pesos, Petit noted. Still, the additional cost made for safer travel, he said.
Other Haitians were able to travel through Mexico like regular tourists, despite lacking the requisite papers. A number showed Reuters early morning bus tickets they had bought to get north from the eastern town of Poza Rica.
In contrast to the arrival of Haitians to Tijuana in 2016, many arrived with the aid of “coyotes” or guides, who took them straight to boarding houses and apartments, making them less conspicuous, the heads of five migrant shelters told Reuters.
That has also made it harder to estimate how many Haitians are in Tijuana, local officials say.
The biggest Mexican city on the U.S. border, Tijuana has long been a major thoroughfare for migrant traffic, and there is strong sympathy for the Haitian migrants in some quarters.
“In Tijuana, our experience has been they’re very hard working. They should be given a chance,” said Ruben Iturriaga, a local hairdresser who said he had many Haitian clients.
“We Mexicans are also immigrants: we go to the United States and that’s why we shouldn’t close the door on them.”
Footage broadcast on television and social media showed Mexican officials at times using heavy-handed methods to beat back migrants, prompting sharp protests from rights groups and even criticism from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Baja California, the state where Tijuana lies, has traditionally been one of the fastest-growing in Mexico, and local labor minister Luis Algorri said the Haitians are welcome.
“We’re open to the migrants getting jobs quickly,” he said. “We have 25,000 posts to be filled on the coastal region.”
Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz Editing by Dave Graham and Alistair Bell
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World View: US Govt. May Shut, 116 Killed in Prison War, Migrants in Greece, More
Sep 30, 2021
The Associated Press
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The Rundown
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is moving to avert one crisis while putting off another with the Senate poised to approve legislation that would fund the federal government into early…Read More
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Determined to keep track of their guns, some U.S. military units have turned to a technology that could let enemies detect troops on the battlefield, The Associated Press has fou…Read More
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QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s president has declared a state of emergency in the prison system following a battle among gang members in a coastal lockup that killed at least 11…Read More
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IEROPIGI, Greece (AP) — In the early 1990s, tens of thousands of impoverished Albanian migrants slogged through the oak woods near the village of Ieropigi, dodging Greek border p…Read More
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WASHINGTON (AP) — In their fight over trillions of dollars, their paramount policy goals and perhaps their political fate, this isn’t helping: Democratic progressives and centris…Read More
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