-
Hong Kong must ban bananas
By John Glenis Following a ban on yellow masks during a court hearing, certain people were quick to criticise the move. However, it may just be a fantastic opportunity to build on it, and take the argument a step further. The government is here to safeguard national security and as such, protect us from anything yellow. It would be reasonable then to assume that bananas pose a direct threat to Chinese sovereignty, especially the ones that have been shamelessly yellow since time immemorial and continue to do so without remorse. Our patriotic government should step in and make arrangements so th...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Hong Kong gov’t pledge of allegiance also to cover contractors for civil service, minister says
Temporary and short-term staff will have to join civil servants in declaring allegiance to the Hong Kong government and vowing to uphold the Basic Law, says the Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip. The head of the Civil Service Bureau told lawmakers on Monday that the compulsory allegiance pledge – applicable to over 177,000 public servants in the city – would also cover temporary contractors. Nip said the requirement would apply to these workers – hired on a temporary or short-term basis with contracts up to three years – because they are also employees of the government. “Later we wi...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Hong Kong security law: Arrested teen pro-independence activist first to be released unconditionally
Teenage activist Yanni Ho was released unconditionally by Hong Kong police on Monday six months after her initial arrest for “inciting secession” under the security law in July. Ho’s release marks the first time an individual arrested under the security law has been released unconditionally since the law’s promulgation last summer. Ho, a former member of the pro-independence group Studentlocalism, was informed by the force that it will return her bail money and let her travel freely. “I! got! my! passport! back!” Ho wrote on her Facebook page. “[Officers] just told me that they will release me...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Commentary: Treaty seeks end to nuclear madness
On Jan. 22, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will enter into force. The treaty bans the development, production, possession, deployment, testing, use and just about anything else you can imagine related to nuclear weapons. Approved at the United Nations by 122 countries in 2017, and subsequently signed by 86 and ratified by 51 nations, the nuclear weapons ban will join the venerated status of international prohibitions already established against lesser weapons of mass destruction. These earlier agreements include the Geneva Gas Protocol, the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Bi...
Tribune News Service
-
Ex-Hong Kong Democratic Party chair Wu Chi-wai suspected to have violated bail after allegedly keeping BN(O) passport
Ex-chairman for the Democratic Party Wu Chi-wai has been accused of breaching bail conditions linked to his unauthorised assembly case, after the democrat’s British National (Overseas) passport was allegedly found when police arrested him under the national security law on Wednesday. The ex-lawmaker – detained since Wednesday morning for committing “subversion” under the Beijing-enacted security legislation – was transferred to the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court directly from the Wong Tai Sin Police Station on Thursday. The prosecution accused Wu of having failed to surrender all of his trave...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Trudy Rubin: A warning to Trump from ex-defense secretaries: Don’t use the military to overturn the election
This week’s warning by all 10 living former U.S. defense secretaries that the military must not be used to determine an election is a stunning pushback against President Donald Trump’s drive to retain power. The fact that this disparate group of Democrats and Republicans, including Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and ex-Trump Pentagon chiefs James Mattis and Mark Esper, felt the need to speak out together illustrates the danger of this moment. As the 10 made clear in an op-ed for The Washington Post, the threats to the constitution by Trump and his GOP allies in Congress are so grave that no one ...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
-
Hong Kong police raid office of primary election co-organisers PORI, but voter data ‘physically crushed’, says deputy
Deputy executive director of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) Chung Kim-Wah has said that police raided the PORI office in Wong Chuk Hang on Wednesday. The search was conducted in the presence of PORI executive director Robert Chung – neither of the men were arrested. Chung Kim-Wah told HKFP that officers called him on Wednesday to request that he visit a police station on Thursday morning to assist an unspecified investigation. He said he was told the visit was not for an arrest. At least 52 Hong Kong democrats were arrested on Wednesday morning for alleged violations of...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Over 50 Hong Kong democrats arrested under security law over 2020 legislative primaries
At least 52 Hong Kong democrats were arrested on Wednesday morning for alleged violations of the national security law. According to media reports and social media posts, the opposition figures were arrested over their organisation and participation in the primaries for the postponed 2020 Legislative Council Election last year. NowTV cited sources as saying that the arrests for alleged subversion came after candidates made an election pledge to veto government budgets. Former lawmakers Alvin Yeung, Andrew Wan, Au Nok-hin, Claudia Mo, Eddie Chu, Gary Fan, Helena Wong, James To, Jeremy Tam, Kwok...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
In their own words: Families talk about their endless search for Mexico's missing
BAJA CALIFORNIA, Mexico — They are called los desaparecidos — the disappeared. The term gained popularity among extralegal military and police forces in Argentina in the mid-1970s, describing people taken by government-backed armed forces. They vanished without a trace into a world void of human and legal rights. Today there is a different war being waged in Mexico, and a new class of los desaparecidos. More than 79,000 people have disappeared in the country, the vast majority since 2006 when former President Felipe Calderón launched Mexico's war on drugs. Tijuana, a sprawling metropolis of 2....
The San Diego Union-Tribune
-
When friends fall out: The messages that fuel mutual mistrust in Hong Kong
Last year, as the height of the Hong Kong protests, I received a message from an old friend in Hong Kong. For 20 years we had played tennis together and our families had always got on well. He forwarded to me a message alleging the Americans were behind the “riots’ and that key people in the protest movement, many of whom I happen to know personally, are on the payroll of the CIA. The message also included a flippant note to kill rioters. Having followed developments closely, I had seen this message before. I am also aware of the origin and the political thinking behind this narrative. It isn’...
Hong Kong Free Press
- More