Hong Kong police, protesters clash as illegal rally turns into chaos

Hong Kong police detain an anti-government demonstrator during a protest on Sunday, October 20, 2019. (Reuters)
Updated 20 October 2019
Follow

Hong Kong police, protesters clash as illegal rally turns into chaos

  • Hong Kong authorities are beefing up security ahead of unauthorized rally
  • Organizers say the march will go ahead despite police refusing to approve the procession

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police and protesters exchanged tear gas and petrol bombs as an illegal anti-government march that attracted tens of thousands descended into chaos, with hundreds of shops trashed and Chinese banks and metro stations targeted.

After two weeks of relative calm, the major rally showed that the pro-democracy campaign had not lost support and that hardcore protesters will continue to clash with police.

Protesters dressed in black erected fiery barriers on Nathan Road, a major retail strip in the Kowloon district, as scores of riot police, shields in front, marched toward them, while others fired tear gas.

Protesters earlier threw petrol bombs at the nearby Tsim Sha Tsui police station after police inside fired volleys of tear gas to disperse protesters on the street.

A police water canon truck sprayed jets of blue-dye into the crowd at the police station, sending hundreds fleeing. Police have used the blue dye to identify protesters.

Dozens of riot police vans then descended on Nathan Road, along with water canon trucks. It was the heaviest use of water cannons by police and many people hit with the water developed coughs, suggesting an irritant may be mixed with the water.

Police used trucks to smash through protest barriers.

Along the march route, protesters trashed metro stations and hundreds of shops, throwing goods onto the streets. Several Chinese banks were targeted.

Hong Kong has been battered by months of often massive and violent protests over concerns that Beijing is tightening its grip on the city, the worst political crisis since Britain handed the city back to China in 1997.

The protests in the Chinese-ruled city also pose the biggest popular challenge to China’s President Xi Jinping since he took power. Beijing has denied eroding Hong Kong’s freedoms and Xi has vowed to crush any attempt to split China.

The unrest was sparked by a bill that would have allowed extradition to mainland China for trial in Communist Party-controlled courts. It has since widened into a pro-democracy movement.

Protesters have targeted Chinese banks and shops with links to mainland China, leaving mainland Chinese living in Hong Kong worried about their safety.

Police had declared Sunday’s march illegal due to concerns over public safety. Protesters, ranging from young students to the elderly, many carrying umbrellas to shield their faces from street surveillance cameras, face arrest.

For the first few hours, the march was peaceful.

At the start of the march banners reading “Free Hong Kong” stretched across the ground. Other posters read “HongKongers Resist,” while graffiti on one wall said “Better Dead than Red.”

Hardcore protesters, who have staged months of running battles with police, set up road blocks and sprayed graffiti saying: “We chose to die on our feet rather than live on our knees!.” Some tore up pavement bricks for clashes with police.

Protesters believe the police refusal to issue a permit for Sunday’s march was an attempt to limit their numbers, as some would fear being arrested.

“The government pretends we just want to destroy the city. We’ll be out for as long as it takes to let the world know it is them who are destroying it,” said Ray, 24, who planned to go home after a few hours as he feared arrest. Like most protesters, he did not want to give his full name.

Hong Kong is governed under a “one country, two systems” formula, which permits the city freedoms not available on the mainland such as an independent judiciary.

Protesters are angry at Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam for what they see as her failure to protect those freedoms from an encroaching Beijing, imposing colonial-era emergency powers, and allowing what they say is excessive force by police.

“Carrie Lam is not listening to us at all. This may work in China but not in Hong Kong,” said Cheung, a 33-year-old woman wearing a face mask and black T-shirts, symbols of the democracy movement.

“You can’t ask a city that already has freedom to walk backward. You can’t do this in an international city,” she said, adding she was not afraid of being arrested.

Sunday’s violence comes after Lam’s annual policy address last Wednesday failed to address protesters’ demands.

Protesters have 5 core demands: universal suffrage, an independent inquiry into police action against protesters, amnesty for those charged, and an end to describing protesters as rioters, and the formal withdrawal of the extradition bill.

Lam has said the bill is dead, but it is yet to be formally withdrawn. She has rejected the other demands. On Sunday she said a police complaints inquiry will be completed before the end of the year.

Two people have been shot and wounded by police and thousands injured since the protests escalated in June. Police have arrested more than 2,300 people.

The Asian financial hub is facing its first recession in a decade because of the unrest, with retail and tourism badly hurt. On Sunday shops, both luxury and small, were closed along the march route.

The city’s metro, which carries some 5 million people daily, will again shut early.


UK aims to boost home-schooling safety after British-Pakistani girl’s murder

Updated 56 min 4 sec ago
Follow

UK aims to boost home-schooling safety after British-Pakistani girl’s murder

  • Ten-year-old Sara Sharif’s father, step-mother were convicted of murdering her this week
  • Months before death, her father had taken Sharif out of school to be taught at home

LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday called for better safeguards for home-schooled children and said there were “questions that need to be answered” after the brutal murder of a 10-year-old girl.

Sara Sharif’s father and step-mother were convicted of murder on Wednesday in a trial that revealed gruesome details of the abuse inflicted on her, and the failure of child protection services to intervene despite warning signs.

Months before her death, her father Urfan Sharif had taken her out of school to be taught at home, after Sara’s teacher reported her bruises to child services.

At the time, child services had probed the incident but did not take any action.

Starmer said the “awful” case was “about making sure that (there are) protecting safeguards for children, particularly those being home-schooled.”

The Department for Education said it was “already taking action to make sure no child falls through the cracks” and “bringing in greater safeguards for children in home education.”

The government plans to “make sure that schools and teachers are involved in safeguarding decisions,” a Downing Street spokesperson said, adding that details would be included in upcoming legislation.

Parents will also need local authority consent for home-schooling at-risk children under the proposed changes, and a register of children who are not in school will be drawn up.

Sara was found dead in her home in August 2023, with extensive injuries including broken bones, burns and even bite marks after being subjected to years of abuse.

She had also been in and out of foster care after Sharif separated from her mother, Olga Sharif, to marry the step-mother Beinash Batool.

Despite previous allegations of abusive behavior against the father made by Olga, Sharif won custody of Sara in 2019, just four years before she was killed.

Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza said Sara’s death highlighted “profound weaknesses in our child protection system.”

De Souza said it was “madness” that an at-risk child could be taken out of school, calling for a ban on home-schooling of suspected abuse victims.

According to a child safeguarding report published on Thursday, 485 children in England died or were seriously harmed by abuse or neglect in the year to April 2024.

Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, who was cleared of murder but convicted of causing or allowing her death, are due to be sentenced on Tuesday.


Finland to host EU leaders for defense, immigration talks

Updated 12 December 2024
Follow

Finland to host EU leaders for defense, immigration talks

  • Discussions will focus on “key issues facing Europe in a tense geopolitical climate,” the government said
  • Finland has accused Russia of orchestrating a surge of migrants

HELSINKI: Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo will host four high-ranking EU counterparts in late December for talks on security and immigration, the Finnish government said on Thursday.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will join the summit, which will take place in Saariselka in Finland’s far north on December 21 and 22.
Discussions will focus on “key issues facing Europe in a tense geopolitical climate,” the government said in a statement.
Topics like “European security, defense and preparedness, as well as migration, instrumentalization of migration and border security” will be on the agenda.
“The summit will provide an opportunity to discuss issues confidentially and come up with ideas for new initiatives,” the statement said.
Finland has accused Russia of orchestrating a surge of migrants after nearly 1,000 migrants without visas arrived at its 1,340-kilometer-long (830-mile) eastern border with Russia in the autumn of 2023.
Helsinki dubbed it a “hybrid attack,” but the Kremlin has denied the accusation.
“Europe has to take greater responsibility for its own security,” Orpo was quoted saying in the statement.
“This means that European countries have to be strong leaders, both in the EU and in NATO. Our greatest threat is Russia, which is trying to consolidate power and sow discord in Europe.”


Tusk says no plans to send Polish troops to Ukraine in event of ceasefire

Updated 12 December 2024
Follow

Tusk says no plans to send Polish troops to Ukraine in event of ceasefire

  • Tusk was speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron who was visiting Warsaw
  • Diplomats said the idea of sending European troops to Ukraine if there is a ceasefire and peace accord between Ukraine and Russia would be on their agenda.

WARSAW/PARIS: Poland has no plans to send troops to Ukraine, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday, amid speculation that Western powers could put boots on the ground if a ceasefire is reached.
Tusk was speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron who was visiting Warsaw. Diplomats said the idea of sending European troops to Ukraine if there is a ceasefire and peace accord between Ukraine and Russia would be on their agenda.
“To cut off speculation about the potential presence of this or that country in Ukraine after reaching a ceasefire... decisions concerning Poland will be made in Warsaw and only in Warsaw,” Tusk said. “For now, we do not plan such actions.”
Macron said it was up to Ukraine to decide what concessions it wanted to make for peace, but for Europe to be secure the people of the continent as a whole must take responsibility.
“(We have) the same desire to say to the Ukrainians that... nobody can discuss for the Ukrainians in their name the concessions to be made, the points to be raised, it is up to the Ukrainians to do it, but there is no security in Europe without the Europeans,” Macron told a news conference.
European powers are keen to demonstrate to Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as US president on Jan. 20, that they are willing to assume their share of the burden to end the almost three-year war in Ukraine.
Finance and foreign ministers from France, Germany and Poland are also meeting on Thursday in Warsaw and in Berlin, just weeks before Poland takes over the rotating EU presidency from Hungary.
The talks in Poland and Berlin will look at how to strengthen financial and military support for Ukraine in the immediate term and how Europe can boost defense financing, including through common debt.


Zelensky visits south Ukraine front line

Updated 12 December 2024
Follow

Zelensky visits south Ukraine front line

  • “Let the HIMARS not fail, let them hit enemy targets,” Zelensky said
  • In a video published on his Telegram channel, he was filmed addressing soldiers in a bunker

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops fighting on the southern front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, he said Thursday in a post on Telegram.
Zelensky said he had visited soldiers from the 27th Rocket Artillery Brigade, dubbed Ukraine’s “HIMARS division” for its use of the US-supplied rockets.
“Thank you for your service and defense of our country and people. Let the HIMARS not fail, let them hit enemy targets,” Zelensky said.
In a video published on his Telegram channel, he was filmed addressing soldiers in a bunker and awarding some state awards.
Russia has occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region since the first days of its 2022 invasion, and claims to have annexed the full region.
The regional capital, also called Zaporizhzhia, has been pounded with Russian aerial strikes in recent weeks.
Ukraine’s interior ministry said earlier on Thursday that 11 people had been killed in a missile strike on Tuesday, after rescue workers spent more than 46 hours sifting through rubble for bodies.
Another 22 were wounded in the strike, including a girl aged five.


Russia backs Orban’s efforts for Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine

Updated 12 December 2024
Follow

Russia backs Orban’s efforts for Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine

  • Orban made the proposals in a call to Putin on Wednesday, the Kremlin and Hungary said
  • “The Russian side fully supports Orban’s efforts aimed at finding a peaceful settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said

MOSCOW/BUDAPEST: Russian President Vladimir Putin backs Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s efforts to achieve a Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine and a major exchange of prisoners of war, the Kremlin said on Thursday, even though Kyiv has scoffed at the idea.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Orban made the proposals in a call to Putin on Wednesday, the Kremlin and Hungary said, without giving more details.
“The Russian side fully supports Orban’s efforts aimed at finding a peaceful settlement and resolving humanitarian issues related to the prisoner exchange,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) fleshed out details on a potential prisoner exchange to the Hungarian embassy, Peskov said.
Shortly after the Orban-Putin call, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the Turkish leader for undermining Western unity and appeared to mock Hungary’s peace efforts.
Orban said it was sad that Zelensky clearly rejected the proposals.

UKRAINE CEASEFIRE?
US President-elect Donald Trump, a self-styled master of brokering agreements and author of the 1987 book “Trump: the Art of the Deal,” has vowed to swiftly end the conflict but has given no details on how he might achieve that.
On June 14, Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop ambition to join military alliance NATO and withdraw troops from four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
“Russia has never refused peace talks and has repeatedly stated its readiness to resume them on the basis of the Istanbul Agreements of 2022,” Peskov said.
Kyiv has insisted that it also needs security guarantees, namely membership in the NATO military alliance that would prevent Russia using a ceasefire to prepare another invasion.
Russia has said it would never accept Ukraine joining NATO — or the deployment of NATO troops on Ukrainian territory.