Cincunri Sakia

Jumat, 27 Januari 2023

Auckland floods: New Zealand city declares emergency after torrential rain - BBC

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By Kelly Ng

BBC News

New Zealand's largest city has declared a state of emergency after torrential rain prompted widespread flooding and evacuations.

The downpour in Auckland on Friday shifted houses, stalled traffic and cut power to homes and businesses.

The New Zealand Herald reported that a body had been found in Wairau Valley on Auckland's north shore.

An Elton John concert, expected to be attended by 40,000 fans, was cancelled minutes before it was due to start.

Footage online showed people trapped in waist-deep floodwater and rescuers carrying out evacuations on kayaks.

Other pictures showed grocery items floating down the aisles of several flooded supermarkets.

"Infrastructure and emergency services alike have been overwhelmed by the impacts of the storm," said Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown.

Floods at #Auckland airport #NewZealand #AKL pic.twitter.com/ud0OqofrLd
— Emily Handley (@Handles_1992) January 27, 2023

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

Local media reported that fire crews have fielded over 1,000 calls for assistance. The New Zealand Defence Force is also helping with evacuations.

Flights into Auckland, as well as rail and ferry services within the city, have been delayed or cancelled due to the weather.

Major roads were also blocked off by the floods, causing long traffic queues on highways, with several traffic accidents reported.

Auckland Emergency Management said on Twitter at 18:00 local time (06:00 GMT) that "severe weather" was affecting the region, with several areas affected by significant flooding.

Two hours later, the national weather authority estimated that 15cm of rain had fallen in the previous 11 hours. The record for a 24-hour period stands at 16.2cm.

The authority has forecast heavy rains in various parts of Auckland for at least the next five days.

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2023-01-27 10:39:43Z
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Tyre Nichols: Memphis braces for police video release - BBC

Candlelight vigil in memory of Tyre Nichols at the Tobey Skate Park in Memphis, Tennessee

By Max Matza

BBC News

The city of Memphis is bracing for the release on Friday of a video of an arrest that led to a motorist's death.

Tyre Nichols, 29, died days after the 7 January encounter with five ex-police officers who now face murder charges.

Bodycam video of the incident shows the officers "defied humanity" in their interactions with Nichols, the city's police chief said.

"You're going to see a disregard for human life," Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis told CNN.

The video of the incident is scheduled to be released in four separate clips on Friday evening local time.

Ms Davis and an attorney for the family both likened the video to 1991 footage of Los Angeles police officers beating black motorist Rodney King, an event that caused outrage around the world and forced reforms in the LAPD.

"I would say it's about the same, if not worse," said Ms Davis, who is the first black woman to serve as police chief in Memphis.

Mr Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, told CNN in a separate interview on Friday that she felt like she had been living "a nightmare" since her son's death.

She said he was beaten "to a pulp" by the officers.

The Tennessee city is said to be on edge since the incident and police there have increased patrols.

From left: Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills, Jr, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean

Mr Nichols, a black man, was stopped by five police officers, who are also black, on his way home after taking photos of a sunset at a local park , an attorney for the family said.

Officials say he was suspected of reckless driving, though Ms Davis said on Friday that has not been substantiated.

A first confrontation occurred as Mr Nichols attempted to flee on foot when officers approached his car, the local authorities said.

They said a second confrontation happened when officers tried to arrest him.

Mr Nichols later complained of shortness of breath and was taken to hospital, police said, where he was listed in a critical condition.

A lawyer for Mr Nichols' family said the bodycam footage showed Mr Nichols being pepper-sprayed, struck with a stun gun, restrained and kicked.

All five of the officers face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith were booked into jail on Thursday. They all joined the Memphis Police Department in the last six years, and were fired last week.

'Failing of basic humanity'

President Biden released a statement on Thursday appealing for calm as authorities prepare to release the footage on Friday evening, local time.

"I join Tyre's family in calling for peaceful protest," he said. "Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable."

Nichols's mother also called for peaceful demonstrations at a vigil for her son on Thursday.

Murder case casts pall on Memphis police Scorpion unit

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The Nichols family and their legal team privately reviewed the video footage of the arrest earlier this week.

"He was a human piñata," lawyer Antonio Romanucci said of its contents. "It was an unadulterated, unabashed, non-stop beating of this young boy for three minutes."

In a news conference on Thursday, lawyers for two of the ex-officers said their clients planned to fight the charges.

"No-one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die," said a lawyer for one of the men.

Officials said Mr Nichols "succumbed to his injuries" on 10 January, but provided no further details. An official cause of death has not yet been disclosed.

His family say he will be remembered as a "good kid" who enjoyed photography and skateboarding.

The father-of-one, who worked at the parcel delivery company FedEx, had Crohn's disease and suffered severe weight loss, relatives say.

Reverend Al Sharpton, a US civil rights leader, told the BBC the alleged crime was particularly painful because of the officers' race.

"We fought to put blacks on the police force," he said. "For them to act in such a brutal way is more egregious than I can tell you."

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"I do not believe these five black police officers would have done this had he been a young white man," he added.

California-based trial lawyer Adanté Pointer said instances of black men being killed by black officers rarely make the news.

"This case exemplifies that it is not simply a white versus black issue, but instead that this is a power dynamic that plays itself out no matter the race of the police officers," he told the BBC.

The FBI and the Department of Justice have opened a civil rights investigation into Mr Nichols' death.

The officers involved are members of a special team known as Scorpion - short for "Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods".

The unit, which was created to police high-crime areas, is now under review, along with all of the city's specialised units, according to the city's police chief.

Protests have also broken out this week in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia, where some are demonstrating against the establishment of a police training facility in the city and the killing by law enforcement of an environmental protester who is alleged to have shot a state trooper.

The demonstrations led Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp to declare a state of emergency, which mobilises up to 1,000 National Guard troops to respond to the protests.

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2023-01-27 16:36:07Z
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Israel hits militant sites in Gaza after rockets fired following deadly raid - BBC

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By Raffi Berg

BBC News

Israel has carried out air strikes on Gaza in response to rocket fire as tensions soar in the wake of a deadly army raid in the occupied West Bank.

Six rockets were fired, reports from Israel say, with Israel attacking what it said were militant sites.

There were no reports of injuries on either side.

Militants warned of a response after nine Palestinians were killed in the Jenin raid, which Israel said was to thwart "imminent terrorist attacks".

Two rockets were fired around midnight (22:00 GMT Thursday) but were intercepted by Israel's anti-rocket Iron Dome system, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. Air strikes swiftly followed, targeting what the IDF said was an "underground rocket manufacturing site" in the central Gaza Strip belonging to the Islamist militant group Hamas, which governs the territory.

A second salvo of rockets was fired hours later, landing in open ground, shot down or falling back down in Gaza, the military said. Israel subsequently hit a site which it said was "a significant centre of Hamas terrorist activities" in the northern Gaza Strip.

A leader of the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Gaza said the group had fired the rockets, Reuters news agency reported. Israel's policy is to hold Hamas responsible for all attacks from there.

The overnight exchange followed the deadliest incident of its kind in years after Israeli forces entered the West Bank city of Jenin to arrest a PIJ "terror squad". The IDF said it was acting on "precise intelligence" about plans by the cell to attack Israelis.

Forces surrounded a building in the city's urban refugee camp where an intense gun battle erupted. Israel said three armed suspects were "neutralised" after they opened fire, while a fourth suspect surrendered. The IDF said troops were shot at by other Palestinian gunmen and returned fire, hitting targets.

PIJ and Hamas said their fighters had targeted the troops with gunfire and improvised explosive devices.

The Palestinian health ministry said two civilians, including a 61-year-old woman, were among those killed. Twenty people were also wounded, four of them seriously, it said.

The Palestinian presidency accused Israel of a "massacre" and later announced it had ended co-ordination with Israel on security matters.

A 10th Palestinian was meanwhile shot and killed during a confrontation with Israeli troops in the town of al-Ram, near Jerusalem, as residents protested against the Jenin raid, Palestinian officials said.

Fear of flare-up after deadly Israeli raid in Jenin

At least 30 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank so far this year, including militants and civilians, as the military continues operations there.

Last year in the West Bank more than 150 Palestinians were killed, nearly all by Israeli forces. The dead included unarmed civilians, militant gunmen and armed attackers.

A series of attacks by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs targeting Israelis, as well as militant gunfire at troops during arrest raids, meanwhile killed more than 30 people including civilians, police and soldiers. 

Map of Israel and the occupied West Bank, showing the location of Jenin

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2023-01-27 15:06:37Z
1753941782

Hidden heels help President Putin stand taller | News - The Times

President Putin has become the subject of jibes on social media after he was pictured apparently wearing a pair of heels to increase his height.

Putin, who is thought to be about 5ft 7in, posed for photographs with students of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

In the images, which show Putin among mostly taller young people, his shoes appear to have extra-thick heels.

Putin’s shoes had noticeably chunky heels

REUTERS

Putin and his predecessor for one term, Dmitry Medvedev, have long been the subject of reports about attempts to conceal their stature.

When Medvedev was being groomed for the presidency in 2008, a journalist in Yekaterinburg said that officials granting accreditation for a visit had urged press photographers to shoot the politician from a low angle. Spin doctors also advised Medvedev to take

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2023-01-27 00:01:00Z
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Tyre Nichols: Biden urges calm over Memphis police murder case - BBC

By Max Matza

BBC News

President Joe Biden is urging protests in Tennessee to remain peaceful as officials plan to release video of an arrest that led to a motorist's death.

Bodycam video of the encounter with Tyre Nichols, 29, will be published on Friday and lawyers for his family said it will show him being severely beaten.

Five now-fired police officers face murder charges after Mr Nichols died days after a traffic stop 7 January.

The city is said to be on edge and police there have increased patrols.

"I'm sickened by what I saw," Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director David Rausch said on Thursday after reviewing the footage, describing the officers' actions as "absolutely appalling".

Mr Nichols, a black man, was stopped by five police officers, who are also black, on his way home after taking photos of a sunset at a local park, an attorney for the family said.

Officials say he was suspected of reckless driving.

A first confrontation occurred as Mr Nichols attempted to flee on foot when officers approached his car, the local authorities said.

They said a second confrontation happened when officers tried to arrest him.

Mr Nichols later complained of shortness of breath and was taken to hospital, police said, where he was listed in a critical condition.

A lawyer for Mr Nichols' family said the bodycam footage showed Mr Nichols being pepper-sprayed, struck with a stun gun, restrained and kicked.

He likened the incident to the notorious footage of Los Angeles police officers beating black motorist Rodney King more than 30 years ago.

All five of the officers face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.

'Failing of basic humanity'

President Biden released a statement on Thursday appealing for calm as authorities prepare to release the footage on Friday evening, local time.

"I join Tyre's family in calling for peaceful protest," he said. "Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable."

The city's police chief Cerelyn Davis, the first black woman in that role in Memphis, also called for calm amid what she said was a "failing of basic humanity toward another individual".

Murder case casts pall on Memphis police Scorpion unit