After the full moon on New Year’s Day, another is scheduled to light up the night sky on Wednesday, Jan. 31. This is considered a blue moon because it is the second full moon of a month. A super moon is when the full moon appears larger and brighter to the naked eye.
PHOTO: Seen from Downing Street, the moon rises behind the London Eye, Dec. 01, 2017 in London. (Paul Davey/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
These two events will also coincide with a total lunar eclipse, or blood moon, on Wednesday, Jan. 31.
PHOTO: A supermoon rises in front of a replica of the Statue of Liberty sitting atop the Liberty Building in downtown Buffalo, N.Y., Dec. 3, 2017. (Julio Cortez/AP)
Most days the moon is nearly 238,855 miles from Earth, but during the super moon it will be approximately 223,068 miles away, according to NASA. During a super moon, the moon can appear up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than usual.
A total lunar eclipse occurs when a full moon passes into Earth's shadow, making the moon appear red -- hence the nickname blood moon.
Altogether, the three events -- a blue moon, a super moon and a blood moon -- will make for a spectacular show the last night of January.
PHOTO: The moon rises behind the Uppatasanti Pagoda seen in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Dec. 3, 2017. (Aung Shine Oo/AP)
In this photo dated Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017, mourners gather in front of the coffin of Abdelkrim Hassane during a ceremony held at El Falah mosque in Staoueli, Algeria. Hassane was one of the six victims of the Quebec City mosque shooting. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)
The families of men who died in the Quebec City mosque shooting don't have the right to financial assistance despite the loss of their breadwinners, according to Quebec's compensation board for victims of crime.
They are entitled to psychological services, but not financial compensation — which is reserved for victims injured at the scene — under the eligibility rules of the Indemnisation des victimes d'actes criminels (IVAC).
The widow of Aboubaker Thabti, one of six men killed in the shooting, applied for financial assistance through IVAC, claiming she, too, is a victim of trauma and has been unable to work since her husband's death.
Her application was denied.
Lawyer Marc Bellemare, who represents Thabti and the loved ones of other victims, is contesting IVAC's ruling at the Quebec administrative tribunal, which can overturn its decisions.
He said offering widows therapy isn't sufficient, as they now struggle to support themselves and their children.
"They suffer a lot, and they suffer more because they don't have money to butter their bread," Bellemare told CBC News.
Appeal hearing 2 years away
Bellemare says he's is confident the families will receive compensation in the end, but notes there is such a backlog of cases that the wait for an appeal hearing is 25 to 27 months.
He says there's a precedent for compensating families of murder victims.
In 2013, the tribunal ruled that his client, Patrick Desautels, who found his three children slain in 2012, was entitled to financial support through IVAC.
That was the first time in four decades IVAC was forced to expand its definition of "victim."
The administrative tribunal is not bound by legal precedents, but Bellemare said he still believes the nine people he's representing will win their cases.
"These people will have permanent disability," he said.
Monday marks the first anniversary of the mosque shooting, and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said he plans to attend memorial events.
Bellemare said such a demonstration of support is not enough.
"Couillard will say he's helping the people, will do everything for them, but that's not the way it is on the ground. On the ground, they don't receive anything from the government," he said.
This story is part of CBC's in-depth look at the aftermath of the shooting at the mosque in Quebec City one year ago. CBC will also have special coverage of the commemorative events on Monday, Jan. 29, including live radio, TV and online broadcasts.
China's smartphone market is no longer growing after it witnessed its first annual decline in shipments, according to new figures released today.
The writing was on the wall with a market decline first noted in Q2 but this is the first time it has been sustained over a twelve-month period. That's according to data from analyst firm Canalys which reported that total smartphone shipments dipped four percent year-on-year to reach 459 million units in 2017. In particular, the numbers in Q4 were down 14 percent on one year previous with 113 million units shipped.
Despite evidence of buyer saturation, Huawei continued its impressive growth spurt with 24 million shipments in the final quarter of 2017, growing its numbers nine percent above the market.
Sister companies Oppo and Vivo have exploded on to the global stage with strong sales in emerging markets in Asia, but, in China, their numbers fell 16 percent and 7 percent, respectively, with 19 million and 17 million shipments, according to Canalys.
Finally, the launch of the iPhone X and iPhone 8 helped Apple pip Xiaomi to fourth place with 13 million shipments in Q4 2017.
The U.S. has proven a tougher market to crack. Xiaomi has sold accessories there for some time, but it is yet to make the leap of smartphones despite many public declarations of intent.
Those that have been more aggressive have met tough pushback. AT&T, the second-largest U.S. carrier, canceled plans to carry the Huawei Mate 10 Pro following reports of pressure from the government. There are also rumors that Verizon is facing pressure over its plan to stock the device, which has already seen its launch pushed back from an original summer timeline.
Huawei instead plans to sell the Mate 10 Pro unlocked and it recruited Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot to front its campaign as its "Chief Experience Officer." But carrier deals remain a key way to reach users without an upfront price that can near the quadruple digits. Huawei has distribution with key retailers like Best Buy and Amazon, but the company ultimately won’t penetrate the market the way it hopes without that extra push.
And it wasn’t just to cover what would become a national news story — her son was a student at Marshall County High. When she got there, however, she made a gruesome discovery: Her son was the alleged shooter.
According to law enforcement, 15-year-old Gabe Parker walked into the school earlier that morning and opened fire with a handgun on students in a common area, killing two and wounding 14 more before being apprehended by first responders. Five of those shot are in critical condition.
Three other students were injured as they rushed to escape the school, some running as far as a mile down an adjacent highway to get to safety.
Parker’s mother, Mary Garrison Minyard, has not made any public statements and has apparently deleted her Facebook account in the wake of the shooting.
The Marshall High incident was the first mass shooting of 2018. Parker’s motives are still unknown, but a local prosecutor, Mark Blankenship, toldReutersin an email that the gunman apparently chose his targets at random.
“The video clearly shows what happened,” Blankenship wrote, referring to security camera footage from the school. “We have no information to indicate that he had any particular target in mind.”
The governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin, said in a press conference that Parker will be charged with both murder and attempted murder. “This is a wound that is going to take a long time to heal, and some will never fully heal,” said Bevin.
Authorities believe Parker acted alone. “There doesn’t appear to be anyone else involved,” said Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rick Sanders at a press conference.
Bevin, a Republican and social conservative, has said he will not push for tougher gun legislation in the aftermath of the incident, calling school shootings a “cultural problem” at an event on Friday.
“We have become desensitized to death, we have become desensitized to killing, we have become desensitized to empathy for our fellow man, and it’s coming at an extraordinary price, and we have got to look at the root cause of this,” Bevin told the audience.
His colleague Steve West, a Republican state senator, introduced legislation this week that would allow schools to hire armed marshals to protect students. The proposal has some bipartisan support: Democratic state Sen. Ray Jones said, “We need armed officers in every school in Kentucky. That is a small price to pay if it saves one child’s life.”
Others are skeptical of the plan. Democratic state Rep. Attica Scott from Louisville said she is “definitely an advocate for gun safety, and to me more guns is not the answer to gun violence.”
Scott has introduced her own proposals that would ban those convicted of hate crimes from owning guns and impose stricter rules on gun sellers.
