Daily News Roundup

November 16, 2021

 

TUESDAY, November 16

Police have revealed they have narrowed their focus into the disappearance of William Tyrrell dramatically, with investigators now “looking closely” at one person in particular, reports news.com.

On Monday, police revealed “many hundreds of officers” would search three locations around the area where the three-year-old disappeared more than seven years ago.

William was playing with his five-year-old sister in the yard at his foster grandmother’s house on Benaroon Drive, Kendall, on the NSW mid-north coast on September 12, 2014, when she suddenly couldn’t find him.

He was three years old at the time and wearing a Spider-Man costume.

Speaking to 2GB on Tuesday morning, Police Commissioner Mick Fuller there is “certainly one person, in particular, we are looking closely at” in relation to the investigation.

“I’m confident that the team who has the investigation at the moment can solve it,” he said.

His comments come after it was revealed police would be taking two key suspects in William Tyrrell’s disappearance to court later this month.

Investigators are seeking an apprehended violence order against the two suspects, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The AVO application was filed in Hornsby Local Court by Detective Sean Ogilvy and will be heard on November 23.

Mr Fuller was tight-lipped when asked about the AVOs being sought against the suspects.

He told 2GB he wouldn’t want to “compromise any aspect of the investigation” by speaking about the situation.

“The team is working diligently and they are searching today and will continue to search bushland and other areas in the coming days,” Mr Fuller said.

“We are hopefully that we will find some forensic evidence that will assist us i

On Tuesday, 10 News journalist Lia Harris revealed the move by police she believes hinted they may have changed their tactics in the search for William.

Harris hosted the ‘Where’s William Tyrrell?’ podcast, which included multiple interviews with the boy’s foster family and many others.

Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Tuesday, Harris said police issued a subpoena from the Coroner’s Court about two weeks ago that covered “everything that we had” in relation to the investigation.

In creating the podcast, Harris said she had uncovered audio, files, documents along with multiple interviews with William’s foster family.

“It wasn’t surprising that they wanted all of that because we already knew that we had uncovered things that perhaps police hadn’t found,” she said.

Harris said this signified to her that police had taken a new direction with the search.

A Network 10 spokeswoman told news.com.au on Monday that audio files from the podcast were subpoenaed by the NSW Coroner’s Court.

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Russia has been slammed for conducting a “dangerous and irresponsible” missile test that blew up one if its own satellites and created a cloud of debris that forced the International Space Station’s crew to take evasive action.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price described the test as “destructive” at a briefing, according to the ABC and wire services.

“Earlier today, the Russian Federation recklessly conducted a destructive satellite test of a direct ascent anti-satellite missile against one of its own satellites,” Mr Price said.

“The test has so far generated over 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris and hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller orbital debris that now threaten the interests of all nations.”

Anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon tests are rare, but have been criticised because of the risk they create for crews in low-Earth orbit.

NASA said US astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, had to take shelter in their docked capsules as the space station passed through the debris field.

Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, as well as NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, sheltered in a Soyuz spacecraft on the Russian segment.

Both spacecraft can be used as lifeboats to bring crew back to Earth in an emergency.

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Victoria has recorded 797 new local COVID-19 cases and eight deaths.

There are now 14,131 active cases of the virus in Victoria, and 424 people have died in the state during the current Delta outbreak. 

There are 394 people in hospital with COVID-19, of whom 72 are in intensive care and 44 are on a ventilator.

The health department said a further 61 people are in intensive care but their COVID-19 infections are no longer considered active.

The new cases were identified from 53,527 test results received yesterday.

There were 7,191 doses of vaccine administered at state-run sites yesterday, as well as more vaccinations at GP clinics and other venues.

*Tough new COVID restrictions for unvaccinated Queenslanders coming into effect next month have given the state’s slowing vaccination rate a much needed boost this past week, says an infectious diseases expert.

Federal government data showed a total of 285,000 vaccines were administered across Queensland in the seven days to Sunday.

That is an increase of 15.85 per cent on the previous week, where 246,000 doses were administered for the week to November 7.

However, in the five preceding weeks the total number of vaccines rolled out under the state and federal vaccination program were between 291,000 and 322,000 — spurred on by a regional vaccination drive in October.

*NSW has reported 212 new Covid-19 cases and two deaths on Tuesday.

There are now 210 people in hospital with the virus – 32 in intensive care.

Of the NSW over 16 population, 94.2 per cent have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 91.9 per cent are double-dose vaccinated.

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US journalist Danny Fenster has been freed from prison in Myanmar just three days after he was sentenced to 11 years in jail for incitement and breaches of immigration and terrorism laws.

His release was confirmed on social media by his employer, Sonny Swe, the publisher of Frontier Myanmar.

“Great news. I heard @DannyFenster is out,” Mr Swe wrote on Twitter.

Bill Richardson, former US ambassador to the UN, also announced the news in a statement, saying he had been handed over to him in Myanmar and would soon be on his way home via Qatar.

“This is the day that you hope will come when you do this work,” Mr Richardson said.

“We are so grateful that Danny will finally be able to reconnect with his loved ones, who have been advocating for him all this time, against immense odds.”

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The NSW Police Commissioner has warned coal activists disrupting train movements in the NSW Hunter Valley could face 25 years behind bars, reports the ABC..

Protesters have disrupted coal train movements for a ninth consecutive day

Police have arrested 17 people in the past ten days

The group Blockade Australia returned to the Port of Newcastle this morning, halting operations for a ninth consecutive day.

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce estimated the ongoing protests have disrupted $60-million in coal exports.

Protester Adrian took to social media from inside the coal loading facility where he said he pushed an emergency stop button before crossing his fingers.

“My plan is to go and hide somewhere in those big aisles, there’s four of those aisles and they run for 2 kilometres each so I’m just going to go and get lost down there,” Adrian said.

“Hopefully what will happen is that the hundreds and hundreds of people that work here will come out and do a little search and … when they find me, they’ll call the policeman and the policeman will take me into custody and the law will take over from there.”

Seventeen people have been arrested over similar actions since November 5.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said protests would not be tolerated.

“The ongoing protests are placing public safety at risk and endangering the lives of all those who use the rail network.”

“I have sought further legal advice today and am warning anyone who intends on behaving in the manner we’ve seen over the past week that they could be charged with offences under Section 211 of the Crimes Act 1900, which carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

“This is in addition to the various trespass and rail disruption offences numerous protesters have been charged with since Friday 5 November.

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