BitGou: Monday Morning Briefing: Iran protests rage on over plane disaster

2020年1月13日星期一

Monday Morning Briefing: Iran protests rage on over plane disaster

Top Stories

Protesters took to the streets of Iran for a third day, expressing outrage over the authorities’ admission that they had shot down a passenger plane by accident during a confrontation with the United States.

Schools and businesses shut across the Philippine capital as a volcano belched clouds of ash across the city and seismologists warned an eruption could happen at any time, potentially triggering a tsunami. Thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes around Taal, one of the world’s smallest active volcanoes, which spewed ash for a second day from its crater in the middle of a lake about 45 miles south of Manila.

The global head of Human Rights Watch said he was denied entry on Sunday to Hong Kong, where he was scheduled to launch the organization’s latest world report this week. Kenneth Roth, the group’s executive director, said he was blocked at Hong Kong airport from entering for the first time, having entered freely in the past. Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam and top finance officials praised the Chinese-ruled city’s resilience as a global financial hub amid more than six months of often violent pro-democracy unrest.

Australia

Public support for Prime Minister Scott Morrison has slumped to its lowest levels amid widespread anger over his government’s handling of Australia’s bushfire crisis, according to a survey released by Newspoll. At least 28 people have been killed in the fires that have destroyed 2,000 homes, and razed 11.2 million hectares (27.7 million acres), nearly half the area of the United Kingdom.

The Australian government committed $34.58 million to an emergency wildlife recovery program, calling the bushfires crisis engulfing the country “an ecological disaster” that threatens several species, including koalas and rock wallabies.

U.S.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to relinquish the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump this week by turning the process over to Mitch McConnell, the powerful Senate leader who has vowed to help acquit his fellow Republican.

Twenty-one years ago former White House intern Monica Lewinsky was at the center of a tug-of-war over whether she would testify in the U.S. Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Now it is John Bolton, fired last September from his job as White House national security adviser, who is the potential prize witness in Trump’s impeachment trial.

Jury selection in the high-profile rape trial of Harvey Weinstein is expected to enter its second week, as the judge and lawyers in the case choose a panel of 12 impartial New Yorkers to decide the former movie producer’s fate.

Democratic presidential contender Amy Klobuchar is banking on a strong showing in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation nominating contest on Feb. 3 to jump-start her path to the party’s nomination.

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