World News Briefs For Thursday, 16 June 2016
Good Morning Australia!! - Investigators find much of the missing EgyptAir flight that crashed into the sea - Is ASEAN knuckling under to China's territorial claims in the South China Sea? - Trump flip-flops and irks his most loyal supporters - Jamaica needs to get on the program - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
Egypt says it has identified "several main locations of the wreckage" of EgyptAir Flight MS804, which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea last month. All 66 passengers and crew on board were killed. What caused the Airbus A320 to plunge into the sea remains a mystery.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has yet to replace a communique on China's military build-up in the disputed South China Sea, after issuing and quickly withdrawing a critical statement. The original document released in tandem with this week's ASEAN meeting said China's base-building campaign had "eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and which may have the potential to undermine peace, security and stability". China - ASEAN's largest trading partner - objected, and the statement was withdrawn less than three hours later for "urgent amendments". That was Tuesday, and it's looking like the ASEAN alliance is wimping out.
Meanwhile, a Chinese naval vessel shadowed the US aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis in the Western Pacific as it joined warships from Japan and India for drills close to waters Beijing is claiming as its new backyard. China is claiming The Senkaku Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean that have been considered Japanese for hundreds of years, and now has claims in the South China Sea that are hundreds of kilometers past its internationally-recognized maritime border. The Pentagon is sending more ships from the US Navy's Third Fleet to East Asia to work alongside the Japan-based Seventh Fleet in response to China.
Beijing is also expressing butthurt over a closed-door meeting between US President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama. China considers the exiled Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader to be a separatist, and frequently attempts to use pressure to isolate the Dalai Lama from governments and international entities, often succeeding. President Obama has previously described the Tibetan Buddhist leader as a "good friend".
Russia called the French Ambassador to Moscow in to object to France's crackdown on waves of violence committed by Russian hooligans at the Euro 2016 Football tournament in France. Moscow is concerned with 43 Russians detained on a bus - four more troublemakers were also deported. The European Football body has warned Russia that it will be disqualified if its fans don't stop the violence.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accuses Russian security services of interfering with attempts to test Russian athletes and making threats against the testers. This comes just days before officials are to announce if Russia will be allowed to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro after being caught in a widespread doping controversy late last year. In its new report, WADA says hundreds of athletes either refused or avoided drug tests, and 52 came up with adverse findings.
Former Olympian Oscar Pistorius took off his artificial legs and demonstrated how he walks on his stumps, as the defense attempts to convince a South African court that he would be at risk if he were sentenced to prison for the Valentine's Day 2013 shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He hobbled around the courtroom. But the amputation of his legs when he was a small child didn't appear to have curbed his ability to shoot Ms. Steenkamp through the bathroom door of his en suite. Just saying. Pistorius faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on 23 July.
Jamaica's attorney general is getting a ton of criticism on social media after expressing her "personal view" that flying the Rainbow Pride flag over the US Embassy in Kingston - a sign of solidarity with the victims of the Orlando Nightclub Massacre - was "disrespectful of Jamaica's laws". The US embassy replied: "We're listening. Explain the legal reasoning?" Jamaica has a homophobia problem, and LGBT people are frequently targeted for violence and murder; several up and coming Jamaican music artists have had their international careers cut short for expressing vile opinions on LGBT rights. Prime Minister sought to control the row by offering his condolences to the families of Orlando victims: "The bullet of terrorism does not discriminate, it does not know gender, class or sexual orientation. We all grieve the 49 lives lost," he tweeted.
Fascist demagogue and US Republican Party presidential candidate threw another YUUUUGE spanner into his campaign works: He said people on the government's terrorist watch list shouldn't be allowed to buy guns. That actually sounds reasonable, but it bucks the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), which opposes any restriction on gun sales and has endorsed his campaign. The lobby is calling Trump in to find out exactly what he is thinking (and what they're paying for), and hardcore gun owners are accusing Trump of flip-flopping. But normal people who are in favor of gun control weren't going to vote for him anyway because he's a racist. Anyway, the orange clown tried to butter his bread on both sides by suggesting that the LGBT club goers should have had their own weapons.
Meanwhile, the Democratic minority in the US senate is holding a filibuster to demand new gun control legislation to deal with the spread of assault weapons, which were used in many of the roughly 1,000 mass shootings that have occurred in the US since the Sandy Hook Massacre in 2012 when a moron killed 20 kids in a second grade elementary school class and six adult teachers. The GOP majority is held on a firm leash by the NRA, and refuses to even consider gun control legislation - no matter how many Americans have been killed.
Searchers have found the remains of the two year old boy who was snatched by an alligator before his horrified parents at a Disney resort in Orlando, Florida. The waters were posted for no swimming, but the attack occurred at water's edge. Alligators do not normally attack humans - not even small children.
Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe has stood down rather than lose his gig in a no-confidence vote. Masuzoe tried to hold on to office after being caught using public funds to pay for holidays, art, and comic books for his children, but this kind of embezzlement is egregious even for Japan. Officials are now working out an election schedule to figure out which man-child from the same conservative political party will be the next leader of the world's biggest city.