Police in riot gear beat protesters as demonstration continued into late evening
Conflict has broken out between hundreds of protesters and police in riot gear in Hong Kong after tens of thousands of protesters marched peacefully earlier in the day to keep up the pressure on the government to withdraw its controversial extradition bill.
Related: Hong Kong youth vow to fight on as China gets tough on protest
Continue reading...Pyongyang’s news agency said Alek Sigley had spread propaganda against the regime
North Korea has said an Australian student who it detained for a week had spread anti-Pyongyang propaganda and engaged in spying by providing photos and other materials to news outlets with critical views about the country.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said on Saturday that North Korea had deported Alek Sigley on Thursday after he pleaded for forgiveness for his activities, which the agency said infringed on the country’s sovereignty.
Continue reading...Jeremy Hunt’s support for the Hong Kong protests has released old resentments long suppressed
Last week’s sudden outbreak of verbal hostilities with China, triggered by violent clashes in Hong Kong, provided a disturbing glimpse of post-Brexit Britain’s isolated and impotent future in a world of more muscular adversaries. It also underlined a dilemma facing all the western democracies in their dealings with Beijing: what matters most – liberal values or money-making?
Like bullies sensing weakness, Chinese officials let rip after Britain dared defend the demonstrators’ right to protest against the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms. The row released tensions largely suppressed since the former colony was handed back in 1997. The depth of China’s pent-up fury was cautionary.
Continue reading...Judgement follows failure to transfer seriously ill refugee under medevac laws
A federal court judge has excoriated the Australian government, accusing it of putting its relationship with Nauru ahead of complying with court orders and federal law.
The judgement by Justice Debra Mortimer was published on Friday, after the government failed to comply with a 14 June order to transfer a refugee with “serious medical and psychiatric issues” to Australia under the medevac laws.
Continue reading...An estimated 5,000 tonnes of bauxite has spilled into Kangava Bay, where a tanker ran aground in February
A second major spill has hit the pristine Solomon Islands bay where a bulk carrier ran aground on a coral reef and leaked oil earlier this year.
On Monday, an estimated 5,000 tonnes of bauxite, the ore used in aluminium smelting, slipped into the water at Kangava Bay, Rennell Island, while it was being loaded on to a barge.
Continue reading...It remains unclear why the student, who says he will not be doing media interviews, was detained in North Korea
Alek Sigley, the 29-year-old Australian who was freed from detention in North Korea on Thursday after going missing for more than a week, has released a statement pleading for privacy and saying he wants to return to “normal life”.
Sigley has reunited with his wife Yuka Morinaga in Tokyo following his departure yesterday, he said in the statement, adding that he would not be holding a news conference or doing any media interviews.
Continue reading...Riza Aziz, stepson of former Malaysian PM Najib Razak, accused of receiving $248m into Swiss bank accounts
The Wolf of Wall Street producer Riza Aziz, who is the stepson of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, has been charged with embezzling millions of dollars from the Malaysian government.
Riza, who ran a Hollywood production company Red Granite Pictures, appeared in a Kuala Lumpur court on Friday morning charged with five counts of money laundering, accused of receiving $248 million into Swiss bank accounts from the Malaysian state fund 1MDB, which was controlled by Najib. Each charge carries a five-year jail sentence.
Continue reading...Public acceptance is improving, but in some cases Chinese authorities are moving in the other direction
It was a landmark moment for LGBT rights. When Taiwan passed a law allowing same-sex couples to marry, crowds in Taipei erupted into cheers, chanting: “First in Asia”.
For those watching from across the Taiwan strait in China, where gay couples do not have that right, the moment was heartening but also profoundly sad. Matthew, 27, an LGBT activist in Chengdu, spent the day following the proceedings online on his own. A few days later he flew to Taiwan to watch two male friends register their marriage after 14 years together.
Continue reading...In Malaysia, Riza Aziz – ex-PM Najib Razak’s stepson – was detained then released on bail
Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency has arrested former prime minister Najib Razak’s stepson, a Hollywood producer who counts Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street among his credits.
Riza Aziz was detained on Thursday but released on bail, according to Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Latheefa Koya, who said the film producer would face money-laundering charges on Friday.
Continue reading...Japan’s culture of cute has embraced poo, which gets a pop twist at the Unko Museum in Yokohama, near Tokyo. Visitors can play a poo-themed video game and pose on a variety of WCs. All the twisty ice-cream and cupcake shapes on display are artificial, and come in a variety of colours and sizes
Continue reading...China’s ambassador to the UK has warned that Britain’s approach to the Hong Kong protests has damaged the relationship between the two countries. Liu Xiaoming has been summoned for a dressing down from the head of the UK’s diplomatic service, Sir Simon McDonald, over the spat. ‘The fundamental principles guiding our two countries is mutual respect, non-interference into internal affairs,’ Liu said.
Continue reading...By refusing to expel a Taiwanese diplomat, the Prague mayor has joined the ranks of local politicians confronting contentious national policies
Zdeněk Hřib had been Prague’s mayor for little more than a month when he came face-to-face with the Czech capital’s complex entanglement with China.
Hosting a meeting with foreign diplomats in the city, Hřib was asked by the Chinese ambassador to expel their Taiwanese counterpart from the gathering in deference to Beijing’s ‘one China’ policy, under which it claims sovereignty over the officially independent state of Taiwan.
Continue reading...Justice minister Andrew Little says tech giant’s contempt for murdered backpacker’s family is unacceptable
Tech giant Google is “flipping the bird” at New Zealand laws by refusing to change any company policy after it broke suppression orders related to the murder case of British backpacker Grace Millane.
Last December, a 27-year-old Auckland man appeared in the city’s high court charged with murdering Millane. His name was suppressed but it appeared in Google’s “what’s trending in New Zealand” email that went out to thousands of subscribers.
Continue reading...Marium, who is five months’ old, was rescued off Thailand’s southern Krabi province after she was separated from her mother
She eats sea grass, drinks milk from a rubber glove, snuggles up to passing canoes and frequently beaches herself. But these idiosyncrasies have not stopped an entire nation from falling in love with her.
Thailand has a new national sweetheart – an orphaned baby dugong called Marium.
Continue reading...Politics at home and spreading anti-China sentiment in US mean Britain has limited options in how it responds
The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, will be cursing his timing about Hong Kong. Faced with growing criticism from human rights groups over the UK’s muted response to the treatment of protesters in its former colony, he decided last Tuesday to take two decisive steps: to call for an independent inquiry into the police handling of demonstrations on 12 June and to suspend export licences for crowd control equipment that could be used in future against protesters.
A statement promising unwavering commitment was also issued by the Foreign Office on the eve of demonstrations held on Monday to coincide with the 22nd anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China.
Continue reading...City appears divided on whether protesters went too far with Tuesday night’s occupation of the legislature
As Hong Kong woke up after a night of unprecedented drama, the city was divided on whether protesters who stormed and vandalised the city’s legislature had gone too far in their quest to make their voices heard. Anti-government and anti-police graffiti still adorned pillars and walls as police stood guard while legislators attempted to go about their day.
Two main narratives were emerging after the ransacking of the legislature: one that spoke of hopelessness in the face of semi-authoritarian rule, and another that condemned the destruction of property.
Pro-democracy figures placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of leader Carrie Lam, saying a government that only listens to a pro-Beijing party had driven young people to desperation.
“The protesters who broke into the Legislative Council complex were not rioters. They were not violent,” said activist Joshua Wong, jailed for two months after the 2014 umbrella protests. “They wanted to make the regime hear Hong Kongers’ voice, and they had no other option.
“Perhaps not all of you will agree with every single action they took yesterday. But what are a few pieces of glass worth in comparison to the deaths of three young men and women? What are a few portraits worth in comparison to the very survival of Hong Kong as a place?”
Software extracts emails, texts and contacts and could be used to track movements
Chinese border police are secretly installing surveillance apps on the phones of visitors and downloading personal information as part of the government’s intensive scrutiny of the remote Xinjiang region, the Guardian can reveal.
The Chinese government has curbed freedoms in the province for the local Muslim population, installing facial recognition cameras on streets and in mosques and reportedly forcing residents to download software that searches their phones.
Continue reading...China regards the violent actions of some protesters in Hong Kong as an 'undisguised challenge' to the 'one country, two systems' formula under which the city is ruled, state television reported on Tuesday. A representative of China's Hong Kong affairs office condemned the violence of some protesters, who are angered by a proposed extradition bill, and said Beijing supported the Hong Kong government in holding violent criminals responsible, the report said
Beijing’s liaison office says storming of parliament is ‘an extreme challenge’ to the rule of law
The Chinese government has issued a strong condemnation of protesters who stormed and vandalised the Hong Kong’s legislature late on Monday, calling the act “totally intolerable”.
In a statement carried by the state-run Xinhua news agency, the Chinese government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, its top representative organisation in the city, said it was “shocked, indignant and strongly condemned” the siege of the parliament building, which followed a day of protests against a controversial extradition bill late on Monday.
Continue reading...Police rush at protesters after Legislative Council building was stormed on anniversary of 1997 transition
We’re going to end our live coverage now, thanks for reading. Here’s the Guardian’s main news story on today’s events, from Christy Choi and Verna Yu in Hong Kong.
Related: Hong Kong police fire teargas and charge at protesters
Police stopped a public bus following the demonstration outside the Legco building, Verna Yu says, reportedly searching for protesters.
They stopped the bus around 1.15am and checked all the passengers. Police scrutinized their ID cards, ordered passengers to remove their masks, and at 1.45am were still searching people. Passengers were made to stand on one side of the bus while the police searched others.
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