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The official People’s Daily newspaper, in a front-page commentary headlined `”Central Authority Cannot be Challenged,” called the protesters’ actions “intolerable.”
One group of protesters targeted China’s liaison office on Sunday night after more than 100,000 people marched through the city to demand democracy and an investigation into the use of force by police to disperse crowds at earlier protests.
Police launched tear gas to disperse the protesters. Later, protesters trying to return home were attacked inside a train station by assailants who appeared to target the pro-democracy demonstrators.
The attack on the liaison office touched a raw nerve in China. China’s national emblem, which hangs on the front of the building, was splattered with black ink. It was replaced by a new one within hours.
Police said on their official social media accounts that protesters threw bricks and petrol bombs at them and attacked the Central police station.
These acts openly challenged the authority of the central government and touched the bottom line of the “one country, two systems” principle,” the government’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said in a statement issued Sunday.
The “one-country, two systems” framework allows Hong Kong to maintain a fair amount of autonomy in governing local affairs, but demonstrators fear the city’s rights and freedoms are being eroded.
A group of pro-China lawmakers held a news conference Monday appealing for a halt to the violence, saying it was a blow to Hong Kong’s reputation and is scaring away tourists and investors.
They also urged police to tighten enforcement against the protesters, whom Ip labels as “rebels.”
“The violent attack on the Liaison Office … is a direct affront to the sovereignty of our country,” said Regina Ip, a former security secretary.
When asked why it took at least a half-hour for police to arrive at the suburban train station and intervene, Ip said the police were “overstretched.”
“The police have been under extreme pressure,” she said.
Video of the attacks in Yuen Long showed protesters in black shirts being beaten by men in white shirts wielding steel pipes and wooden poles. Those under attack retreated into the trains, intimidated by the gangs of men waiting for them outside the turnstiles. The attackers then entered the trains and beat the people inside as they tried to defend themselves with umbrellas. They eventually retreated.
One of the men in white held up a sign saying “Protect Yuen Long, protect our homes.”
Subway passengers filmed by Stand News and iCABLE angrily accused police officers of not intervening in the attack. Stand News reporter Gwyneth Ho said on Facebook that she suffered minor injuries to her hands and shoulder, and was dizzy from a head injury. The South China Morning Post reported several people were bleeding following the attacks, and that seven people were sent to the hospital.
Ireland’s Shane Lowry won golf’s British Open on Sunday, his first career major championship, in front of thousands of cheering fans at Northern Ireland’s Royal Portrush course alongside the Atlantic Ocean.
The bearded, 32-year-old Lowry led going in to the final round of professional golf’s last major championship of the year by four shots and was never seriously challenged.
He finished the 72-hole tournament at 15 under par, shooting a one-over par 72 in gusty winds and intermittent rain during the last day of the four-day event. His playing partner, Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood, started Sunday in second and finished second, but six shots behind Lowry, with a final round 74.
As the Irish throngs cheered Lowry’s final tap-in par on the last hole, Lowry raised his arms to the leaden skies and broke into a smile of satisfaction.
Lowry’s victory meant that four different golfers won the sport’s major championships in 2019, with Americans winning the other three — Tiger Woods at the Masters, Brooks Koepka at the Professional Golfers championship and Gary Woodland at the U.S. Open.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition secured a majority in Japan’s upper house of parliament in elections Sunday, according to vote counts by public television and other media. Exit polls indicated Abe could even close in on the super-majority needed to propose constitutional revisions.
NHK public television said Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito had won 64 seats in the upper house after two hours of vote counting. The two-thirds majority needed for constitutional revision could be within reach if the ruling bloc can gain support from members of another conservative party and independents.
Up for grabs were 124 seats in the less powerful of Japan’s two parliamentary chambers. There are 245 seats in the upper house — which does not choose the prime minister — about half of which are elected every three years.
The results appeared to match or even exceed pre-election polls that indicated Abe’s ruling bloc was to keep ground in the upper house, with most voters considering it a safer choice over an opposition with an uncertain track record. To reach the two-thirds majority, or 164 seats, Abe needs 85 more seats by his ruling bloc and supporters of a charter change.
Opposition parties have focused on concerns over household finances, such as the impact from an upcoming 10% sales tax increase and strains on the public pension system amid Japan’s aging population.
Abe has led his Liberal Democratic Party to five consecutive parliamentary election victories since 2012.
He has prioritized revitalizing Japan’s economy and has steadily bolstered the country’s defenses in the backdrop of North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats and China’s growing military presence. He also has showcased his diplomatic skills by cultivating warm ties with President Donald Trump.
Abe was hoping to gain enough upper house seats to boost his chances for constitutional revision, his long-cherished goal before his term ends in 2021. Abe needs approval by a two-thirds majority in both houses to propose a revision and seek a national referendum. His ruling bloc already has a two-thirds majority in the more powerful lower house.
But Abe and his conservative backers face challenges because voters seem more concerned about their jobs, the economy and social security.
The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and three other liberal-leaning parties teamed up in some districts. They stressed support for gender equality and LGBT issues _ areas Abe’s ultra-conservative lawmakers are reluctant to back.
At a polling station in Tokyo’s Chuo district on Sunday, voters were divided over Abe’s 6 1/2-year rule.
A voter who identified himself only as a company worker in his 40s said he chose a candidate and a party that have demonstrated an ability to get things done, suggesting he voted for Abe’s ruling party and its candidate, as “there is no point in casting my vote for a party or a politician who has no such abilities.”
Another voter, Katsunori Takeuchi, a 57-year-old fish market worker, said it was time to change the dominance of Abe and his ultra-conservative policies.
“I think the ruling party has been dominating politics for far too long and it is causing damage,” he said.
U.S. authorities say a Venezuelan fighter jet “aggressively shadowed” an American intelligence plane flying in international airspace over the Caribbean, underscoring rising tensions between the two nations.
The U.S. Southern Command said Sunday that Venezuela’s action demonstrates reckless behavior by President Nicolas Maduro, whose government accused the U.S. of breaking international rules.
U.S. authorities say their EP-3 plane was performing a multi-nationally approved mission and the Venezuelan SU-30 fighter jet closely trailed the plane, which the U.S. says endangered its crew.
Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez says the U.S. plane entered Venezuelan airspace without prior notification.
He says it also endangered commercial flights from Venezuela’s main airport.
The U.S. backs opposition leader Juan Guaido’s attempt to oust Maduro.
U.S. President Donald Trump contended Sunday that four minority Democratic congresswomen he has been feuding with are not “capable of loving our Country.”
“They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said,” Trump said on Twitter. “They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!”
I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said. They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!
For days now, Trump has assailed Congresswomen Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayana Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, first telling them they should “go back” to their countries and “fix things” in their homelands before telling the U.S. what it ought to do. All of them are U.S. citizens, three of them by birth and Somali refugee Omar by naturalization.
Democrats and some Republicans have sharply criticized Trump’s week-old remarks and the U.S. House of Representatives condemned them as “racist,” but the U.S. leader has continued to assail the four women, all newcomers to Congress in January.
In turn, the lawmakers have attacked him, with Omar saying, “I believe he is fascist.”
The ongoing verbal warfare reverberated on the Sunday news talk television shows.
Mercedes Schlapp, a Trump campaign aide, defended the president, telling ABC News, “I have worked with President Trump for two years and he is not a racist. He is a compassionate man whose policies have focused on the minority community.”
FILE – Senior White House Advisor Stephen Miller waits to go on the air in the White House Briefing Room in Washington, Feb. 12, 2017.
Trump immigration adviser Stephen Miller, told Fox News that Trump’s critical remarks of U.S. policies during his 2016 campaign were made out of love for America.
But he said “there’s a huge difference” between Trump’s credo of promoting “America first” and the lawmakers’ ideology “that runs down America.”
Congressman Elijah Cummings, one of several House committee chairmen investigating Trump and his administration’s policies, told ABC he believes Trump is a racist.
“Yes, no doubt about it,” Cummings contended. “I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Cummings says the four congresswomen targeted by Trump “love their country” and want to move closer to the “more perfect union that our founding fathers talked about. When you disagree with the president, suddenly you’re a bad person.”
He concluded, “Our allegiance is not to the president. Our allegiance is to the Constitution of the United States of America and the American people.”
British officials are drawing up plans to target Iran with sanctions for its seizing of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait off Hormuz, and it may urge European Union countries to reimpose sanctions that were lifted in 2016 as part of Tehran’s agreement to curb its nuclear program.
The British government is under strong pressure from lawmakers to act decisively in the sharply escalating diplomatic quarrel between the two countries, but there’s growing domestic criticism in the House of Commons about the lack of naval protection for British tankers in the Strait.
The outgoing British Prime Minister, Theresa May, is being blamed by some parliamentarians and military officials for failing to agree to a system of joint naval patrols the U.S. was urging Britain and other European navies to establish with American forces. Downing Street took the view that if Britain joined an American-proposed “coalition off navies” it would be seen as endorsing President Donald Trump’s hard-line, sanctions-led approach to Iran, say British and U.S. officials.
British defense minister Tobias Ellwood told British broadcasters Sunday that Downing Street is is looking at imposing sanctions against Iran over the seizing of the British-flagged and Swedish-owned Stena Impero and its 23-strong crew. Sanctions could include the freezing of Iranian asset. Asked about sanctions, Ellwood said: “We are going to be looking at a series of options.”
On Sunday, too, new audio recordings were released of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the Royal Navy both giving instructions to to the Britain-flagged tanker, with the Iranians ordering the vessel’s captain to change course. One Iranian officer can be heard saying, “If you obey, you will be safe.”
A British officer from the frigate HMS Montrose can be heard saying, “This is British warship F236. I reiterate, that as you are conducting transit passage in a recognized international strait, under international law your passage must not be impaired, impeded, obstructed or hampered.”
FILE – In this image from file video provided by UK Ministry of Defence, British navy vessel HMS Montrose escorts another ship during a mission to remove chemical weapons from Syria at sea off coast of Cyprus in February 2014.
HMS Montrose was an hour away from the tanker as it was being swarmed by agile, high-speed Iranian small boats and a helicopter.
Later the British officer can be heard demanding from the Iranians in a dueling conversation to “please confirm that you are not intending to violate international law by unlawfully attempting to board the MV Stena.”
The British-registered ship’s crew is made up of Indian, Latvian, Filipino and Russian members.
As reports emerged in London of likely British retaliation, the Iranian ambassador to Britain, Hamid Baeidinejad, took to Twitter to warn the British not to escalate the quarrel.
UK government should contain those domestic political forces who want to escalate existing tension between Iran and the UK well beyond the issue of ships. This is quite dangerous and unwise at a sensitive time in the region. Iran however is firm and ready for different scenarios.
The European Union has warned the seizing of the British-flagged tanker “brings risks of further escalation.” But some European officials are critical of the British for the impounding of an Iranian tanker loaded with oil destined for Syria in the waters off Gibraltar earlier this month, saying while it was a legal seizure, it wasn’t “politically smart.”
Iran suggested the seizing of the Stena Impero was in retaliation for Britain’s detaining of the Iranian-owned Grace 1 tanker — despite initially claiming the British-flagged vessel was diverted and seized because it collided with an Iranian fishing boat. A spokesperson for Iran’s Guardian Council said “the rule of reciprocal action is well-known in international law.”
FILE – A Royal Marine patrol vessel is seen beside the intercepted Grace 1 super tanker in the British territory of Gibraltar, July 4, 2019.
Iranian officials appeared to be trying Sunday to exploit divisions between the EU and Britain over the Gibraltar incident. Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, again reiterated Tehran’s contention that the U.S. had pushed Britain into a confrontation with Iran, blaming mainly U.S. national security adviser John Bolton.
Make no mistake:
Having failed to lure @realDonaldTrump into War of the Century, and fearing collapse of his #B_Team, @AmbJohnBolton is turning his venom against the UK in hopes of dragging it into a quagmire.
Only prudence and foresight can thwart such ploys.
As British officials consider their next moves, a former head of the Royal Navy, Lord West, blasted Theresa May’s government, for failing to protect British tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
Writing in Britain’s Observer newspaper, he said the government should have done much more to protect British ships, arguing that those responsible were distracted by the race between Boris Johnson and the current British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt to succeed May as prime minister. That race concludes Tuesday, with Johnson seen as the probable victor.
Lord West urged the new prime minister to ignore Brexit and focus fully on the crisis or risk a descent into war.
On Saturday, Hunt, the foreign secretary, said he’d spoken to his Iranian counterpart, to express “extreme disappointment” over Iran’s actions. Hunt said the tanker had been seized in Omani waters in “clear contravention of international law”, and denounced the tanker’s detention as “totally and utterly unacceptable.”
There is growing concern in London, too, about whether Johnson is up to the task of handling the rapidly escalating crisis. A former British foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said it was a dangerous moment: “This is a critical test for the new prime minister which will put him and his team on their mettle.”
Alistair Burt, another former foreign office minister, says Johnson would already have had enough major problems to contend with, including Brexit, without the confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz. But now he will have “a fully formed international crisis sitting in the in-tray marked Iran.”
FILE – Campaigners hold posters of jailed British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at the Iranian Embassy in London on February 21, 2018.
Johnson was strongly criticized for his handling when foreign secretary of the Iranian imprisonment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman and media worker for Reuters, who Iran detained, accusing her of spying. Her family say Johnson worsened her plight by misspeaking by saying she was in Iran working as a journalist, when in fact she was in the country to visit family.
MIAMI — American crocodiles, once headed toward extinction, are thriving at an unusual spot — the canals surrounding a South Florida nuclear plant.
Last week, 73 crocodile hatchlings were rescued by a team of specialists at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point nuclear plant and dozens more are expected to emerge soon.
Turkey Point’s 168-mile (270-kilometer) man-made canals serve as the home to several hundred crocodiles, where a team of specialists working for FPL monitors and protects them from hunting and climate change.
From January to April, Michael Lloret, an FPL wildlife biologist and crocodile specialist, helps create nests for the creatures. Once the hatchlings are reared and left by the mother, the team captures them. They are measured and tagged with microchips to observe their development. Lloret then relocates them to increase survival rates.
“We entice crocodiles to come in to the habitats FPL created,” Lloret said. “We clear greenery on the berms so that the crocodiles can nest. Because of rising sea levels wasting nests along the coasts, Turkey Point is important for crocodiles to continue.”
Wildlife biologist/crocodile specialist Michael Lloret points out a crocodile nest on one of the berms along the cooling canals next to the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station, July 19, 2019, in Homestead, Fla.
Now ‘threatened,’ not ‘endangered’
The canals are one of three major U.S. habitats for crocodiles, where 25% of the 2,000 American crocodiles live. The FPL team has been credited for moving the classification of crocodiles on the Endangered Species Act to “threatened” from “endangered” in 2007. The team has tagged 7,000 babies since it was established in 1978.
Temperature determines the crocodiles’ sex: the hotter it is, the more likely males are hatched. Lloret said this year’s hatchlings are male-heavy because of last month’s weather — it was the hottest June on record globally.
Because hatchlings released are at the bottom of the food chain, only a small fraction of them survive to be adults. Lloret said they at least have a fighting chance at Turkey Point, away from humans who hunted them to near-extinction out of greed and fear, even though attacks are rare. Only one crocodile attack has ever been recorded in the U.S. — a couple were both bitten while swimming in a South Florida canal in 2014, but both survived.
“American crocodiles have a bad reputation, when they are just trying to survive,” Lloret said. “They are shy and want nothing to do with us. Humans are too big to be on their menu.”
TOKYO — Japanese voters cast ballots Sunday in an upper house election, with Shinzo Abe’s ruling bloc looking to protect its majority and keep on track plans to amend the country’s pacifist constitution.
Abe, 64, who is on course to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, is also hoping to shore up his mandate ahead of a crucial consumption tax hike later this year, along with trade negotiations with Washington.
Opinion polls suggest his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner Komeito are likely to win a majority, mostly because of a lackluster opposition.
Sunday’s vote is for half the seats in the House of Councilors — the less powerful house of parliament — and polling stations across the country open at 7 a.m. (2200 GMT Saturday).
The vote outcome is expected to become clear shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m., with pollsters suggesting turnout could be lower than 50 percent, significantly less than usual.
‘Disarray’ in opposition camp
Abe’s ruling coalition is forecast to win a solid majority of the 124 seats contested in the election, according to pre-election surveys.
The two parties control 70 seats in the half of the chamber that is not being contested, meaning the projections put them on track to maintain their overall majority in the body.
“Abe’s strength is largely based on passive support resulting from disarray in the opposition camp and a lack of rivals,” Shinichi Nishikawa, professor of political science at Meiji University in Tokyo, told AFP.
FILE – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a press conference at Abe’s official residence in Tokyo, June 26, 2019.
A win means Abe should be able to stay in power until November, when he will break the service record of Taro Katsura, a revered politician who served three times as premier between 1901 and 1913.
During campaigns, Abe’s ruling coalition has sought to win voter support for a rise in the nation’s consumption tax to 10 percent later this year as part of efforts to ease swelling social security costs in the “ultra-aged” country.
Abe is also hoping that his coalition and a loose group of conservatives from smaller opposition parties can grab a two-thirds majority in the upper house, giving him the support to move ahead with plans to amend the constitution’s provisions on the military.
“This is an election to decide whether to pick parties who take responsibility for firm discussions on the constitution,” Abe told voters in a campaign speech earlier this month.
Self-defense provisions
Abe vowed to “clearly stipulate the role of the Self-Defense Forces in the constitution,” which prohibits Japan from waging war and maintaining a military.
The provisions, imposed by the U.S. forces after World War II, are popular in the public at large, but reviled by nationalists like Abe, who see them as outdated and punitive.
Local media predict that forces in favor of revising the constitution, led by Abe’s LDP, are likely to win close to 85 of the seats being contested, giving them a “supermajority” in the chamber.
“Since the ruling coalition is widely expected to win the election, attention is now focused on whether the pro-revision forces can win a two-thirds majority,” Nishikawa said.
But even if Abe secures it, any constitutional revision also requires approval in a national referendum, a result that is far from guaranteed.
ABUJA — Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari condemns the killing of 37 people by bandits in the northwestern state of Sokoto, his spokesman said Saturday in a statement.
Armed gangs have killed hundreds of people in northwest Nigeria this year and forced at least 20,000 to flee to neighboring Niger, adding to security problems in a country also struggling with an Islamist insurgency in the northeast and clashes between farmers and herders in central states.
“President Muhammadu Buhari strongly condemns the killing of 37 innocent people by bandits in the Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State,” the presidency said in the statement.
Local media said the attacks took place late Friday.
Troops have been deployed to the areas hit in the latest flashpoint, the presidency statement said. Military and police have been dispatched to tackle criminal gangs blamed for a spate of killings and kidnappings over the last year.
Buhari, a former military ruler, began his second four-year term in May after winning a presidential election in February.
During his campaign he vowed to improve security but — against the backdrop of the northwest’s wave of banditry, high-profile kidnappings nationwide and attacks by Islamist insurgents — he has reiterated that it remains a priority.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan meets with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday in the White House. VOA’s Aman Azhar spoke to experts and Pakistani residents in United States about their expectations for the visit and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
PANAMA CITY — Panama on Saturday became the first Central American nation to ban single-use plastic bags to try to curb pollution on its beaches and help tackle what the United Nations has identified as one of the world’s biggest environmental challenges.
The isthmus nation of roughly 4 million people joined more than 60 other countries that have totally or partially banned single-use plastic bags, or have introduced taxes to dissuade their use, including Chile and Colombia in the region.
Supermarkets, pharmacies and retailers in Panama must stop using traditional polyethylene plastic bags immediately, while wholesale stores will have until 2020 to conform to the policy approved in 2018. Fines can be applied for non-compliance but there are exceptions for the use of plastic bags for sanitary reasons, such as with raw food.
On the streets of Panama City, signs with the phrase “less bags, more life” reminded passers-by that the measure had gone into effect.
“This seems like a good measure because you avoid continuing to pollute the streets and the community,” said Victoria Gomez, 42, a secretary in downtown Panama City.
Birds, turtles, seals, whales and fish often become entangled in or ingest the remnants of plastic bags in Latin America, one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Along Panama’s coast, it is common to see plastic waste littering
beaches, especially near populated areas.
Given projected growth in consumption, without new anti-pollution policies, oceans are expected by 2050 to contain more plastics than fish by weight, according to the New Plastics Economy report published by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2016.
The report also found that the entire plastics industry would consume 20% of total oil production by then.
Many victims of an arson attack on an animation studio in the western Japanese city of Kyoto were young with bright futures, some joining only in April, the company president said Saturday, as the death told climbed to 34.
Thursday’s attack on Kyoto Animation, famous in Japan and overseas for its series and movies, was the worst mass killing in two decades in a country with some of the world’s lowest crime rates.
Company president Hideaki Hatta said many of the victims were young women.
“Some of them joined us just in April. And on the eighth of July, I gave them a small, but their first, bonus,” he said. “People who had a promising future lost their lives. I don’t know what to say. Rather than feeling anger, I just don’t have words,” Hatta said.
Policemen stand behind a police line at the torched Kyoto Animation building in Kyoto
Fifteen of the victims were in their 20s and 11 were in their 30s, public broadcaster NHK said. Six were in their 40s and one was at least 60. The age of the latest victim, a man who died in hospital, was not known. The names of the victims have not been disclosed.
The studio had about 160 employees with an average age of 33, according to its website.
Police have confirmed the identity of the suspect as Shinji Aoba, but have declined to comment further.
Aoba had been convicted of robbery and carried out the attack because he believed his novel had been plagiarized, NHK and other media have said.
But Hatta said he had no idea about any plagiarism claim, adding he had not seen any correspondence from the suspect.
Police have not arrested Aoba, as he is being treated for heavy burns, NHK said, although police have taken the unusual step of releasing his name.
Two days after the fire, animation fans gathered near the burned studio to add to a growing pile of flowers, drinks and other offerings.
A man prays for victims in front of the torched Kyoto Animation building in Kyoto
Bing Xie, 25, a Chinese student at Kyoto University, said she could not forgive the arsonist.
“The criminal who does this seems to have been mentally disturbed, but I can’t forgive him. The young people at Kyoto Animation were beautiful and warm and it is hard to accept they are gone.”
Police guarded the site as investigators, some on the roof near where many died in a connecting stairwell, examined the blackened building. The smell of smoke lingered over the quiet suburban neighborhood.
Hatta said the building needed to be torn down because it was so badly damaged.
Tributes to the victims lit up social media, with world leaders and Apple Inc.’s chief executive offering condolences. The hashtag #PrayforKyoAni, as the studio is known among fans, has become popular.
