Azerbaijan plane crash, Indian Ocean tsunami remembered and LA homelessness
12:30 Share

Today, what we know so far about the Azerbaijan plane that crashed in Kazakhstan. Our mother is still waiting for answers, 20 years after the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami. And how Ale is tackling homelessness. It's Friday, December 27th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oakes in Liverpool.

When you hear LSEC data and analytics, what do you think of? Comprehensive data you can trust. Exclusive access to Reuters news. Industry-leading analytics and unique insights. Discover new possibilities with LSEC data and analytics. Russian air defenses downed an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. That's according to four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation into the disaster.

Our Europe editor, Rachel Armstrong, has the latest. An Azerbaijan Airlines flight was carrying 67 passengers on December the 25th from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to Grozny in Russia. As it neared the southwest Russian region of Chechnya, flight tracking data shows its navigation system was jammed and that it abruptly diverted, flew hundreds of miles

the wrong way, crossed the Caspian Sea and then crashed near the Kazakh city of Akhtar. Russian aviation watchdogs said in the immediate aftermath that it may have been caused by the plane striking a flock of birds, a theory which several aviation experts publicly said was highly unlikely. Since then, four sources in Azerbaijan have told Reuters that they believe Russian air defences hit the plane.

One of the sources said the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system and that its communications were also paralysed by electronic warfare systems on the approach into Grozny. Now, we know that the area where the plane was flying into is a place that has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drones in recent months. And to counter that, Russia has deployed a large number of

air defence systems in the region and has been using this hybrid warfare method where it tries to jam electronic communication systems to confuse the drones. What's been Russia's response? Russia has said that it needs to wait for the findings of the investigation and that it'd be wrong to build hypotheses before the conclusions of those inquiries are known.

The United States has called on Moscow for a very full and transparent investigation. That's normally a call that Russia would find fairly easy to ignore, but it can't ignore one of its closest neighbours. The Azerbaijan government has been yet to comment on it publicly, but you can be fairly safely betting that there will be a flurry of quiet communications between the two.

The political crisis in South Korea has deepened after its parliament voted to impeach the acting president. Han Deok-soo, whose prime minister had only been acting president since December 14th, his appointment followed the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol over his attempt to impose martial law in early December.

Estonia's Prime Minister Christian Michel at a press conference demanding answers over the outage of an undersea power cable connected to Finland. He says Finnish authorities seized a ship carrying Russian oil in the Baltic Sea on suspicion it caused the damage. Israel has struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was about to board a plane when the airport came under attack and won't be able to leave until the damage is repaired. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is only at the beginning of its campaign against the Houthis. Brazil's labor authorities have claimed that Chinese workers at a construction site for a factory owned by China's electric vehicle producer BYD are victims of human trafficking.

BYD and contractor Xinjiang Group have agreed to assist and house 163 workers in hotels until a deal to end their contracts is reached. Both organizations did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. But Xinjiang rejected the Brazilian authorities' assessment on Monday that the workers were operating under "slavery-like" conditions.

Core inflation in Tokyo accelerated in December, while services inflation held steady, according to the latest data.

That's keeping alive market expectations for a near-term interest rate rise in Japan. The BOJ's next policy meeting starts on January 23rd, when some analysts expect a raise of short-term rates. Separate data shows that factory output fell 2.3% in November from the previous month, casting doubt on the strength of Japan's fragile economic recovery.

Sauda's son, Sadiq, would have been 26 years old if he had survived the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed the lives of some 230,000 people along the coasts of more than a dozen countries 20 years ago in December 2004. Sauda also lost a daughter in the 9.1 magnitude earthquake which triggered the tsunami. Her body was recovered, but her son's was not.

Our reporter Zahra Maturani in Indonesia has Souda's story.

So Sauda is one of the many survivors of the Aceh tsunami in 2004. She currently lives in Banda Aceh, the same city in which she lost her son Siddiq, who was at that time six. Like many other survivors, Sauda first experienced the tsunami as a wave of thunderous noise outside of her house, which she thought was a storm. I didn't run because I heard thunder.

She then hugged her son tightly, praying that it was just a storm, but then when she stepped out of the house, it was actually a wave of water. She carried her son all the way to the mosque, but the wave crashed at her and brought her son away. And in front of the mosque was where she lost her son.

Sauda spoke to us in front of the mosque with her other son. She was hopeful, yet she was grieving her son. Her other son was crying. She was describing what she felt.

She's still here. I'm begging her to come home. Meet me before I die.

She lost her daughter in the same incident. However, they did found her body, which is now interred among many other victims in the mass grave in Banda Aceh. She prays there regularly with her surviving son every year during the exact moment the tsunami happened. While she prayed, she always hoped and prayed to God that Siddiq is out there somewhere still surviving.

While more and more cities urge police to crack down on homeless people sleeping in parks and streets, Los Angeles is taking a different approach. — So you're talking over 40,000 people. Where are you going to put them? — That's Mayor Karin Bass. Her signature program, Inside Safe, has moved 23,000 people off the streets this year and into hotel rooms or shelters while providing social services.

With soaring rents and an acute housing shortage, California has an estimated 180,000 unhoused people. Governor Gavin Newsom has been urging officials to clamp down on homeless encampments after the Supreme Court ruled in June that cities could enforce camping bans.

And while some 117 cities in the U.S. have passed some version of an anti-camping law, Bass says L.A. will stick with its approach and provide a roof over people's heads. One of the things that we've tried to demonstrate with Insight Safe is that you can get people off the streets immediately, which obviously helps the individuals, but it also helps the businesses, the schools, the neighborhoods, because it compromises everybody's quality of life.

In the past two years, nine sidewalk encampments have disappeared from Hollywood. Advocates praise LA's approach, but caution that permanent housing is what the city needs to focus on. Pete White with Los Angeles Community Action Network provides services to thousands of people camped out on Skid Row. Our stronger critique of an inside safe is that once the money is gone,

— And the units are folded back into the hotel owners' hands, homelessness will continue. — Progress is slow on that front. But the city has inaugurated an apartment building where 58 formerly homeless people, including tour guide Syed Shah, now have permanent housing.

But being in the InsideSafe program, me getting into the hotel, in and out permanent housing, I mean, I feel better. I look better. My teeth are finally clean. You know, I didn't look like this before, bro. Experience the difference with Elsec Workspace. Your personal ecosystem for unique insights, news, and analytics. With AI-augmented recommendations to gain the competitive edge and collaborate effortlessly with your community. Elsec Workspace. Supercharge your impact.

For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player and we'll be back on Monday with our daily headline show.