Top News Stories for Today – Mar 15, 2019
Top News Stories for Today – Mar 15, 2019
Worldwide students strike for climate
Students worldwide are planning to skip class Friday and take to the streets to protest their governments’ failure to take sufficient action against global warming. The coordinated ‘school strike’ was inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who began holding solitary demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament last year. Since then, the weekly protests have snowballed from a handful of cities to hundreds, driven by social media-savvy students and dramatic headlines about the impact of climate change.
Thunberg, who was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was cheered for her blunt message to leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this year, when she told them: “I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.” Friday’s rallies are expected to be one of the biggest international actions yet. A website coordinating the protests lists events in more than 100 countries, from New Zealand to the United States. The Voice of America
US Senate votes to terminate emergency declaration
The Senate on Thursday voted to terminate President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the southern border, approving the resolution 59-41. The House voted in favor of the move last month. The vote is widely seen as an embarrassing rebuke on Trump, but the president has said he intends to veto the resolution — the first veto of his presidency.
Trump reportedly worked behind the scenes to earn Republican support on the vote and avoid a high number of defections. Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), and Roger Wicker (Miss.) joined Democrats and nine other Republicans at the last minute to support the termination. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) voted against it, despite previously planning to vote for the resolution. The Washington Post, Politico via The Week
49 dead in New Zealand mosque attacks
Forty-nine people have been killed and at least 20 wounded in shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the incident as a terrorist attack and one of New Zealand’s “darkest days”. A man in his late twenties was charged with murder and will appear in court on Saturday morning, police confirmed. Two other men and one woman were detained nearby and firearms and explosive devices recovered, Police Commissioner Mike Bush said.
He said one of those detained was later released, while officers were working to determine if the other two were involved. The attack, which came around the time people were attending the mosques for Friday prayers, was the deadliest in the nation’s history. BBC
Ethiopian Airlines pilot hit trouble right after taking off
Just one minute after taking off from Addis Ababa on Sunday, the pilot of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 reported a “flight control” problem, a person who reviewed air traffic communications told The New York Times Thursday. The brand new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed while en route to Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.
The person said that three minutes into the flight, the pilot sounded panicked, and requested permission to return to the airport. By that point, air traffic controllers had already noticed that the plane had accelerated to an unusually high speed, and was erratically moving up and down. Within five minutes, contact with the jet was lost. The voice and data recorders are now in France, where they will be analyzed. The New York Times via The Week
UK’s Parliament votes to delay Brexit
British lawmakers are trying to put the brakes on Brexit — at least for now. The U.K. Parliament voted Thursday 413 to 202 to ask the European Union to delay the U.K.’s exit from the bloc beyond the scheduled date of March 29.
The vote comes a day after U.K. lawmakers committed Britain to staying in the EU unless a divorce deal is ratified. With the approaching deadline intensifying fears that Britain could leave the bloc without a deal — a move that economists say could spark economic turmoil — the U.K. Parliament voted Wednesday to rule out the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. However, the final say on whether to grant Britain a delay rests with leaders of the 27 remaining EU nations. The Associated Press
Possible negotiation tactics of N Korea
North Korea says Pyongyang has no intention of giving in to Washington’s demands and Kim Jong Un would be making a statement soon on the possibility of further talks. Reports also indicate Kim may reconsider ending the more than yearlong ban on missile tests that have been in place.
In a report from the Associated Press, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, who briefed reporters and diplomats in Pyongyang Friday, said Washington threw away a golden opportunity when Kim and US President Donald Trump failed to reach a deal during their second summit, held in Hanoi in late February. The Voice of America