Tag: politics

Hong Kong airport protesters retreat, but city in turmoil

by Jerome TAYLOR / Catherine LAI Agence France-Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Pro-democracy protesters retreated from Hong Kong’s airport on Wednesday following two days of hugely disruptive rallies that turned violent and plunged the global financial hub further into turmoil. The protests ended early Wednesday morning following a series of clashes in which a policeman drew his gun after being beaten by demonstrators and other officers fired pepper spray. The rallies paralysed one of […]

Hong Kong’s leader warns city faces ‘path of no return’

by Catherine LAI / India BOURKE HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Violent protests are driving Hong Kong down a “path of no return”, the city’s leader warned Tuesday as its airport struggled to recover from an unprecedented shutdown triggered by a rally and authorities in Beijing sent more ominous signals that the unrest must end. The airport, one of the busiest in the world, re-opened on Tuesday morning but hundreds of flights remained canceled and […]

Outrage as Trump administration weakens endangered species law

by Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday finalized rollbacks to key provisions of the Endangered Species Act, a law supported by a large majority of Americans and credited with saving the gray wolf, bald eagle and grizzly bear. The move was met with anger by environmental groups and Democratic politicians, including presidential candidate Joe Biden, while two states announced they would take legal action. Amendments include removing […]

Operations resume at Hong Kong airport after protests: authorities

HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Operations resumed at Hong Kong airport on Tuesday morning, authorities said, with flights due to start departing and arriving a day after protests shut down the major travel hub. “We have resumed check-ins,” a spokesman for the airport told AFP, confirming flights would be resuming within the next hour at one of the world’s busiest aviation hubs. The flight status board at the departures hall showed several flights listed as “boarding […]

Hong Kong protests shut airport as China anger mounts

  by Elaine YU Agence France Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — One of the world’s busiest aviation hubs was in chaos early Tuesday after thousands of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters flooded the city’s airport to denounce police violence, forcing the cancellation of all flights. The abrupt shutdown came as the Chinese government signalled its rising anger at the protesters, denouncing some of the violent demonstrations as “terrorism”, and the United States urged “all sides” […]

Conservative Giammattei elected Guatemala president

  by Henry Morales / Edgar Calderon  GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (AFP) — Conservative Alejandro Giammattei was elected as Guatemala’s president on Sunday, defeating former first lady Sandra Torres in a run-off, the central American country’s electoral court said. With the results being updated in real time on the court’s website, the institution’s president Julio Solorzano declared the result “already irreversible.” Giammattei will succeed corruption-tainted outgoing President Jimmy Morales, who leaves office in January. “The aim […]

‘It’s humanitarian’: the medics helping Hong Kong’s protesters

by Yan ZHAO HONG KONG, China (AFP) — In the early days of Hong Kong’s protests, Jonathan put out a call on a messaging app seeking fellow medics to aid demonstrators — within a day, 4,000 people had volunteered. Nurses, doctors, medical students and ordinary people with first aid training all clamored to join what has become a small volunteer corps helping treat people on the frontlines of protests that have engulfed the city for […]

China tells US diplomats in Hong Kong to stop interfering

BEIJING, China (AFP) — China demanded Thursday that US diplomats based in Hong Kong “stop interfering” in the city’s affairs, after reports that they met with pro-democracy activists, prompting a furious response from Washington. China’s foreign ministry had expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with US authorities, citing local media reports that a US official from Hong Kong’s US consulate general had met with a local “independence group”. In a statement Thursday, the ministry urged the diplomatic office […]

US border crossings plunge but immigration raids draw fire

by Leila MACOR MIAMI, United States (AFP) — The Trump administration hailed a large drop in migrant border crossings Thursday but found itself under attack over a massive sweep of long-resident undocumented immigrants working in several Mississippi slaughterhouses. Detentions on the southern US border plunged for the second straight month in July after a deal with Mexico to block Central American migrants, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday. US Border Patrol agents detained or […]

Maduro supporters demonstrate against US sanctions

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Thousands of supporters of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro marched through the capital Caracas on Wednesday in protest against attempts by US President Donald Trump to asphyxiate the ruling regime. Dressed in red and carrying the tricolor Venezuelan flag, the protesters gathered at a stage in the center of the capital to listen to some of the ruling regime’s top officials. The demonstration followed 48 hours during which Washington threatened to “use […]

Armed soldiers patrol silent streets after Kashmir curfew

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) — Armed soldiers stand in front of barbed wire in Indian Kashmir’s near-silent summer capital of Srinagar during a massive security lockdown imposed on the restive region by the Hindu nationalist government. Kashmir was stripped of its seven-decade-long autonomous status through a controversial presidential decree on Monday, a day after a crippling curfew was imposed on its main city. Home to more than one million people, Srinagar now looks like a ghost-town: […]

China reiterates support for Hong Kong’s embattled leader

BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s ruling Communist Party once again underlined its wholesale support for Hong Kong’s embattled leader on Tuesday as she struggles to contain increasingly violent anti-government unrest. The two-month crisis has become the biggest threat to Beijing’s rule of the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city since its handover from the British in 1997. One of the protesters’ key demands is for Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam to stand down. But, a day […]