Daily News Roundup

 

THURSDAY OCT 29

Video purporting to show the rescue of the baby at the centre of the Qatari invasive search scandal has surfaced in Doha media.

It comes as the UK has confirmed two British women were removed from planes at Hamad International Airport during the incident, which also involved Australian and French citizens, reports the ABC.

Doha News, a media outlet based in Qatar, has published CCTV purporting to show the moments shortly after the newborn baby was found on October 2.

It shows men dressed in what appears to be airport crew or paramedic uniforms swaddling an infant and tending to its welfare.

The report also claims the mother is yet to be identified, and the baby is safe in the care of social workers in Qatar.

The ABC has sought to verify the footage with the Qatari government.

The scandal was initially focused on women searched on a single plane bound for Sydney.

Thirteen Australian women, among 18 in total, were removed from the plane and some were invasively searched.

It is believed the searches were to determine if any had given birth to the baby, that was abandoned in a bin.

But Australian Foreign Minister revealed on Wednesday that 10 aircraft in total were involved.

A statement provided to the ABC by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office states:

“The UK has confirmed that two British women were taken off the planes in Qatar and says it’s formally expressed concern.”

The ABC has also confirmed French citizens were subject to searches.

Senator Wong said on Thursday morning Senator Payne should have contacted her Qatari counterpart directly by now.

“I cannot fathom how it is that the Government didn’t pick up the phone and express in the strongest possible terms, as soon as we became aware of these events, to the Qatari Government that we expected this to be resolved.”

Senator Payne has said the Australian Government has formally registered its “serious concern” with Qatar and has described the incident as “grossly inappropriate”.

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A former Trump administration official who wrote a scathing anti-Trump op-ed and book under the pen name “Anonymous” has made his identity public.

Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security said in a tweet: “Donald Trump is a man without character.

“It’s why I wrote ‘A Warning’ … and it’s why me & my colleagues have spoken out against him (in our own names) for months.

“It’s time for everyone to step out of the shadows.”

Mr Taylor has been an outspoken critic of Mr Trump’s in recent months, and he has a contributor contract on CNN.

His anonymous essay was published in 2018 by The New York Times, infuriating the President and setting off a frantic White House leak investigation to try to unmask the author.

In the essay, the person, who identified themselves only as a senior administration official, said they were part of a secret “resistance” force out to counter Mr Trump’s “misguided impulses” and undermine parts of his agenda.

“Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office,” the essay read.

The allegations incensed the President, bolstering his allegations about a “deep state” operating within his government and conspiring against him.

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Indigenous ranger groups warn they will be unable to continue fire mitigation work because of insurance premium hikes following last summer’s bushfire catastrophe on the east coast, reports the ABC.

A document obtained by the ABC shows the overall cost of insurance has tripled for one northern Australian land council as “risk ratings increased in the wake of the east coast bushfires“.

The Kimberley Land Council (KLC) coordinates Indigenous ranger groups who perform fire mitigation across much of the north-west of Australia, in a region almost twice the size of the state of Victoria.

But this work will not continue “with the current cost of insurance”, the document states.

The irony of insurers’ fire risk ratings preventing Indigenous management of fire is not lost on the outgoing CEO of the Kimberley Land Council, Nolan Hunter.

“Our groups can’t do fire management without insurance,” Mr Hunter said.

“When you don’t keep that in check, the fuel load grows and grows … [and] as a result you’ll get higher wildfires that emit more heat, are more destructive, and create more damage.”

Indigenous ranger groups from the Kimberley have travelled to Paris and Botswana in recent years to share their fire management skill which can increase biodiversity, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce the risk to property.

“It would be great if people understood that Aboriginal people are leading the way on fire management across northern Australia,” Mr Hunter said.

“Aboriginal people in Australia could have assisted in helping with the bushfires in the east.”