Tuesday morning news: September 10, 2019

The ‘clock is ticking’ for hurricane survivors in Bahamas » “The clock is ticking” for survivors of Hurricane Dorian in the shattered northern Bahamas. That’s the warning from Youssouf Abdel-Jelil with United Nations Children’s Fund. He said the most urgent need right now is clean drinking water.

Boats, planes, and helicopters are delivering large shipments of food, water, and medicine. But Rein Paulsen with the UN’s Humanitarian Affairs office says it can’t get there fast enough.  

PAULSEN: The physical destruction is massive. It’s encouraging, however, to see the way some people, residents, are finding quick solutions to response of the situation themselves. But they need support. There is an urgent need for critical life-saving supplies. 

One of the biggest challenges is simply moving around on the islands. Many roads are completely buried under mounds of sand, ceiling tiles, furniture, and palm trees snapped like twigs.   

Carl Smith is a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency. On Monday he described the government’s relief and recovery efforts. 

SMITH: The island has been put into a grid system and the recovery team will check each section for persons who are still alive, any bodies that need to be recovered, and to check for hazardous material. 

He said after that process is complete, they’ll move to the next phase, removing debris. 

Dorian’s death toll in the Bahamas now stands at 45. And the storm demolished the homes of about 70,000 people. 

Report: Border arrests plummeting » A new report reveals that arrests at the U.S. southern border have plummeted. WORLD Radio’s Kristen Flavin has details. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Border arrests fell to 51,000 last month. That according to a report from Politico, citing new government figures. That’s a drop of more than 60 percent since arrests hit a peak of 133,000 in May. 

Many analysts say that’s largely due to a deal President Trump struck with Mexico back in June. Since then, the country has cracked down on migrants from Central America trekking north through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. 

The Trump administration has also forced many thousands of asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while U.S. courts consider their applications. 

Mexican Ambassador to the United States Martha Barcena told Politico that the new measures are working. She said migrants know they must respect Mexican law. And she said migrants planning to seek asylum in the United States now understand it’s “not as easy as they were told it was going to be.”

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Kristen Flavin. 

Judge reinstates halt on Trump asylum policy » Meantime, another measure the Trump administration had hoped to put in place at the border is now shelved. 

On Monday, a federal judge in California reinstated a nationwide injunction against a policy preventing many migrants from seeking asylum at the border. The policy states that migrants who pass through other countries to reach the U.S. border must first apply for asylum in those countries.  

District Judge Jon Tigar blocked the policy in July. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals scaled back his injunction, saying it would only apply within areas overseen by the appeals court. That meant the policy was blocked in California and Arizona but not in New Mexico or Texas.

But Tigar ruled Monday that the injunction should apply nationwide. He stressed a need to—quote—“maintain uniform immigration policy.”

Israeli prime minister: Photos show secret Iranian nuclear site » Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed what he claims is a secret nuclear weapons site in Iran.

Netanyahu told reporters on Monday that the facility is located in central Iran. And he said Israel found it using information from a trove of documents Israeli agents stole from an Iranian warehouse last year. 

NETANYAHU: This is what I have to say to the tyrants of Tehran: Israel knows what you’re doing. Israel knows when you’re doing it, and Israel knows where you’re doing it.

Netanyahu’s announcement came as the UN nuclear watchdog held a meeting in Vienna. 

The prime minister showed off two satellite photos of the site. He said “Iran conducted experiments to develop nuclear weapons,” but did not provide details. The first photo, taken in June, showed the facility intact. The second, taken in July, showed parts of the building had been destroyed.

Netanyahu said that was an Iranian cover-up after Israel discovered the facility. He urged other nations to join the United States in applying maximum pressure on Iran to end its nuclear program. 

British Parliament suspended as Brexit fight continues » British lawmakers will have a little more time on their hands over the next five weeks or so. Parliament is suspended until October 14th. WORLD Radio’s Paul Butler has more. 

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month got the queen’s permission to temporarily shut down Parliament.

The political maneuver sent rebellious lawmakers home until two weeks before the country is set to exit the European Union. The prime minister vowed that Britain would leave with or without a divorce deal. 

But many lawmakers strongly oppose a so-called no-deal Brexit. And they used the hours before the suspension to deliver new blows to Johnson’s fragile authority. 

The queen on Monday signed off on a measure compelling the government to seek a three-month delay from the EU—if there’s no deal in place by Oct 19th. That measure is now law. 

That leaves the prime minister little time to strike a deal with the EU and deliver Brexit on schedule at the end of next month. 

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Paul Butler.

(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) A child plays with a roll of paper towels where people formed a line to receive aid donations, including paper towels and bottled water, for victims of Hurricane Dorian, in Freeport, Bahamas, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019. 

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