Iran to send jet recorders to Ukraine
Iran will send the black box flight recorders from the Ukrainian jetliner that it accidentally shot down last week to Ukraine for further analysis, an Iranian official said Saturday.
Hassan Rezaeifer, the head of accident investigations for the civil aviation department, said it was not possible to read the black boxes in Iran, without elaborating. He said French, American and Canadian experts would help analyze them in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard accidentally shot the plane down shortly after it took off from Tehran on Jan. 8, killing all 176 people on board. Hours earlier, the Guard had launched ballistic missiles at U.S. troops in Iraq in response to the airstrike that killed Iran’s top commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Officials say lower-level officers mistook the plane for a U.S. cruise missile.
Iranian officials initially said the crash was caused by a technical problem. Three days later, Iran admitted responsibility after Western leaders said there was strong evidence the plane was hit by a surfaceto-air missile.
The victims included 57 Canadian citizens, as well as 11 Ukrainians, 17 people from Sweden, four Afghans and four British citizens. Most of those killed were Iranians.
Brexit to hurt business
The British government has announced plans for special events on the night of Jan. 31, when the country officially leaves the
European Union, but the country’s treasury chief has admitted that some U.K. business sectors will suffer as a result.
Sajid Javid told the Financial Times in an interview Saturday that Britain’s regulations will not be aligned with the EU in the future and that those changes may hurt some businesses. The EU is Britain’s largest trading partner.
“There will not be alignment, we will not be a ruletaker, we will not be in the single market and we will not be in the customs union — and we will do this by the end of the year,” he said, referring to a deadline at the end of 2020 for conclusion of what are expected to be contentious trade talks with the then-27 member EU.
Britain will officially leave the bloc on the night of Jan. 31, even though it will keep following EU rules for an 11-month transition period. It will be the first nation ever to leave the bloc.
Legal turf war goes on
Venezuelan opposition lawmakers are expected in the coming days to make their third attempt to get inside the legislative chamber in downtown Caracas, after twice this month being blocked by forces loyal to President Nicolas Maduro.
The losing turf battle recently drove the lawmakers to a covered amphitheater in El Hatillo, a normally quiet community in the hilly outskirts of the capital that’s popular for its souvenir shops, restaurants and visitors strolling around the colonial square.
It’s unclear whether the National Assembly, led by U.S.-backed Juan Guaido, will be forced Tuesday to retreat again to El Hatillo, or perhaps the office of The Nation newspaper — where they also met in early January — or scramble for yet another safe meeting place.