Protesters in Hong Kong took part in a peaceful demonstration on Saturday after the government’s emergency measures and ban on wearing face masks during public rallies caused clashes on Friday
Analysts say Carrie Lam move could fuel protests and put city’s financial status at risk
The invocation of a draconian law to quell a four-month unrest in Hong Kong has signalled the start of an authoritarian era that will plunge the city in a worse crisis, analysts and Hong Kongers have said.
The Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam, announced on Friday that the government had invoked the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to pass a regulation forbidding the use of face masks. The decision bypassed the legislature, which resumes sessions in mid-October.
Continue reading...As we mark 250 years since the arrival of Captain Cook in New Zealand, we are still seeing crimes against indigenous peoples and their territories
If you look back at photographs of the 1969 bicentennial Cook commemorations in Gisborne, the appearance is one of a festive affair. A parade through town, led by a huge float of Captain Cook’s head made its way through local throngs, followed by a model of the Endeavour ship. Naval vessels from Australia, USA, Canada and the USA took part, the pageantry is both very British, and very provincial New Zealand.
Today, just 50 years later, the response to this anniversary is very different.
Continue reading...Thousands hit the streets, crowds set fire to stations and police fire live ammunition
Thousands of people swept into the streets of Hong Kong for a night of violent protests after the government activated sweeping colonial-era powers for the first time in over half a century, using them to ban face masks.
The chief executive, Carrie Lam, also said harsher measures could be on the table if the protest movement continued, amid calls from police groups and pro-Beijing politicians for a citywide curfew, and discussion of delays to local elections set for November.
Continue reading...Bombastic and unsubtle this paean to Fang Wuzhou may be, but its vertiginous set-pieces put many US blockbusters to shame
Produced by celebrated spectacle-peddler Tsui Hark for co-writer/director Daniel Lee, this is the latest in a run of preposterously patriotic yet enjoyable Chinese event movies. It pays stirring tribute to Fang Wuzhou, a humble, Mallory-worshipping mountaineer who led a successful ascent of Everest in May 1960, declaring “the whole world will remember this day”.
Nobody really does, unfortunately. No doubt this is down to the loss of the expedition’s camera equipment during an avalanche, with the consequent shortfall in photographic evidence prompting some in the climbing community to have their doubts. The film compounds his nightmare by having Fang (Wu Jing) return to base camp to learn his beloved Ying (Zhang Ziyi) is departing to study meteorology in the Soviet Union.
Continue reading...The Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam, has banned people from wearing face masks during protests and in all public assemblies by invoking rarely used emergency powers, prompting thousands of people to take to the streets against the measure. Pro-democracy demonstrators have used masks to hide their identities in the past four months of escalating tensions with the Chinese government, and officials are hoping a ban may dissuade many from participating
Days after Beijing unveils state-of-the-art missiles, Moscow reveals plan that would ‘radically enhance China’s defence capability’
Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow is helping China build a system to warn of ballistic missile launches.
Since the cold war, only the United States and Russia have had such systems, which involve an array of ground-based radars and space satellites. The systems allow for early spotting of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Continue reading...Journalists’ association files judicial review over treatment of media and ‘excessive force’
An Indonesian journalist hit in the face by a rubber bullet during protests in Hong Kong has been permanently blinded in one eye, her lawyer has said, in what is the most serious injury among members of the media since the movement began in June.
There are growing concerns about the threat to journalists from the escalating violence, and an increasingly hostile climate that saw one reporter arrested on Tuesday, after several others were injured by police and one by protesters in a day of chaotic violence. All were wearing high-visibility jackets and “press” markings.
Continue reading...Carrie Lam warned against ‘slip towards authoritarianism’ as leak reveals police relaxed guidelines on lethal force
Hong Kong’s leader plans to use harsh colonial-era emergency powers for the first time, banning face masks in a bid to curb the city’s protests.
Opposition politicians warned it represented a slide towards authoritarianism and risked further inflaming tensions.
Continue reading...For longtime residents of the Chinese city’s hutong neighbourhoods, a housing renovation project mean tough choices over whether to stay or leave
On sunny afternoons, Yang takes his wheelchair-bound 90-year-old mother out along the Yu River, a canal near their home in Beijing’s historic Gulou neighbourhood. In the autumn, willow trees sweep their branches in the water, and the place gives the impression of a lazy, golden city from the last imperial days.
Gulou, often called the heart of old Beijing, is one of the only areas left that still have the city’s ancient winding alleyways, or hutongs. Yang and his mother live in Yu’er hutong, which lies just off the well-known and tourist-packed Nanluogu Xiang pedestrian street and is a short stroll from the ancient Drum and Bell Towers once used to tell the time across the city.
Continue reading...British and Australian regret over Cook’s treatment of Indigenous people would go a long way to enhancing understanding of the continent’s shared history
The British government has issued an oh-so-carefully worded expression of “regret” for the killing of Māori in Aotearoa, today’s New Zealand, at the point of first contact during Lieutenant James Cook’s “voyage of discovery” 250 years ago.
Regrets! The old empire certainly has had cause for a few when it comes to the violence it has meted out to the indigenes of the places it took during Britain’s colonial expansion.
Continue reading...State media says test-firing ushers in ‘new phase’ in country’s defence systems, ahead of nuclear talks with US
North Korea says it successfully test-fired a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the sea off its east coast.
“The new-type ballistic missile was fired in vertical mode” in the waters off Wonsan Bay on Wednesday, the North’s KCNA state news agency reported.
Continue reading...Trial of man accused of killing 51 people at two mosques set to begin in June next year
The man accused of killing 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in March has withdrawn an application to have the trial moved away from Christchurch, the city where the attacks occurred.
The decision was announced at the high court in Christchurch, where the accused man, Australian Brenton Tarrant, appeared via a video link from a high-security prison in Auckland.
Continue reading...Anger and grief fuel fresh demonstrations after injury of 18-year-old Tsang Chi-kin
Driven by anger and grief, thousands of people came out across Hong Kong to denounce the shooting of a teenage student by police, an escalation of force that appears to have deepened the gulf between protesters and authorities.
They marched through the city centre, organised sit-ins at schools and gathered at a courtroom where other protesters faced rioting charges.
Continue reading...Hundreds of college students have staged a sit-in in Hong Kong to condemn the police officer who shot a teenager in the chest during protests on China's National Day. At a news conference outside Tsuen Wan Public Ho Chuen Yiu Memorial college, where the teenager is a student, a masked protester called for a new government and said 'this means war'
Continue reading...Tokyo says there’s no damage from what appear to be ballistic missiles ahead of US-North Korea talks resuming this weekend
North Korea has launched two projectiles, one of which landed in waters inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, the Japanese government said on Wednesday, after what appears to have been a show of strength by Pyongyang before it resumes nuclear talks with the US at the weekend.
Japan’s government said the projectiles appeared to be ballistic missiles, adding that there were no immediate reports of damage to shipping or aircraft.
Continue reading...Hong Kong police shot an 18-year-old protester in the chest with live ammunition as demonstrations in the city intensified.
The incident came as many Hongkongers defied a ban on demonstrations on the day marking the 70th anniversary of communist rule in China.
Protests called to mark a 'national day of grief' saw tens of thousands of people demonstrate across the city in what was the most widespread show of public anger towards Beijing yet.
Beijing’s carefully planned celebrations turned into a PR disaster for Xi Jinping
October 1 was meant to be a carefully choreographed showcase of China’s military and economic might on the 70th anniversary of communist rule, and a celebration of the strongman president, Xi Jinping.
But after a picture-perfect parade was beamed around the world from Beijing, the one part of the country that is not under his full control ripped up the playbook, with the people of Hong Kong pouring on to the streets to challenge Xi’s vision for China.
Continue reading...Violence erupts as thousands protest on 70th anniversary of communist rule in China
Hong Kong police have shot a protester with live ammunition for the first time in four months of demonstrations, marking a major escalation in the use of force on a day when China celebrated 70 years of Communist party rule with a triumphalist military parade.
Protests called to mark a “national day of grief” drew tens of thousands of people on to the city’s streets, across six areas, in the most widespread show yet of public anger towards Beijing.
Continue reading...Violent clashes have rocked Hong Kong as riot police forcefully broke up protesters on the day China celebrated the 70th anniversary of Communist party rule.
The event is the country's most important of the year as it looks to project its assurance in the face of mounting challenges, including nearly four months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong and an economy-sapping trade war with the US