HONG KONG — Antigovernment protesters in Hong Kong mounted their fiercest challenge to authorities Monday, disrupting more than 200 airline flights, occupying malls and blocking roadways and rail lines to snarl the commute for hundreds of thousands of workers.
The protesters called for a general strike in an effort to halt daily life across the semiautonomous Chinese territory, wielding a potentially powerful new tool in their weekslong campaign against the Hong Kong government.
Okay, several lines crossed there. First was the byline. When I saw New York Times, I groaned. I don't believe their version of anything. The sense I get from the above paragraphs are that the color change covert destabilization program is failing. It's a nuisance, but disrupting daily life is not the way to win people over. Surely wasn't when the school bus drivers went on strike a few years back.
Hong Kong’s values of efficiency, hard work, and, increasingly, a dedication to public protest are colliding as protesters from across society test the limits of the city’s police force. Officers Monday fired tear gas near shopping malls and residential areas and arrested at least 82 people, while the city’s leader warned that efforts to “topple Hong Kong” could destroy livelihoods and push the city “to the verge of a very dangerous situation.”
Like the Chinese National Guard being sent into to restore order.
Monday was the last of three consecutive days of large-scale civil disobedience intended to increase pressure on the government as it confronts Hong Kong’s worst political crisis since 1997, when it was returned to Chinese rule after more than 150 years as a British colony.
Many protesters said they felt they had no choice but to escalate their actions after the government was unswayed by peaceful marches in June that organizers said drew as many as 2 million people.
The protests began nearly two months ago in response to legislation, since suspended, that would allow criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China, where the courts are controlled by the governing Communist Party. The movement, which has been driven by longstanding fears of deteriorating freedoms under Beijing’s rule, has expanded to include a variety of grievances, including the stalled expansion of direct elections and accusations of excessive force by police.
It was unclear how many people heeded the call to strike, but protesters began the day by blocking roads and train doors using flash-mob-style tactics, while more than 200 flights at the city’s international airport were canceled as large numbers of air traffic controllers called in sick.
Okay, I'm going to take a moment to comment on that. Flash mobs, al$o known as fla$h mobs, are a rent-a-crowd operation that is glowingly called large scale disobedience. Thus has the CIA's hand been partly exposed by the pre$$. You also have to love the freedom buzzword dogma even as the NYT tosses in the qualifier that it is unclear how many heeded the call.
Mass rallies were held at more than half a dozen sites, including outside the government headquarters on Hong Kong’s main island. Officers fired tear gas at several locations across the city.
Later in the evening, protesters in the North Point neighborhood on eastern Hong Kong Island were briefly attacked by men wearing white shirts and wielding sticks in a scene reminiscent of July 21, when a pro-Beijing mob beat protesters and bystanders in the satellite town of Yuen Long.
Since the protests began in early June, police have arrested 420 people and fired 1,000 rounds of tear gas, a spokesman said Monday. That is significantly more than during Hong Kong’s last sustained protest movement in 2014, when the use of tear gas against pro-democracy demonstrators galvanized the public in support of a sit-in that lasted 79 days. Police fired a total of 87 tear gas canisters then and only on that first night.
In recent weeks, the protesters’ anger has largely shifted to focus on the scale and intensity of the police response, and Monday they surrounded and vandalized several police stations, setting fires outside at least two of them. Supporters say police have regularly shown restraint.
Can you imagine the reaction here had citizens done that to the local PD?
At some point, the hypocrisy and projection of the pre$$ in its mouthpiece mission of directing the public mind against the "enemy" becomes tiresome. It's now the daily drumbeat of distortion and propaganda to push an agenda, and that's all.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, warned Monday morning in her first public remarks in two weeks that the city “has become unsafe and unstable” and that “a series of extremely violent acts are pushing Hong Kong into very precarious circumstances.”
Lam accused protesters of challenging Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong, citing a slogan some of them chanted that is associated with an imprisoned activist who at one point advocated Hong Kong independence.
“They want to topple Hong Kong, to thoroughly destroy the livelihoods that 7 million people cherish,” she said.
Lam is under pressure from China’s central government to bring the protests under control, and the Chinese military hinted last month that it could be called in to restore order. The Hong Kong government has repeatedly denied plans to make any such request.
They is your need line, Chinese sovereignty, and what they plan to do about it.
The response by Hong Kong officials to the strike Monday “was a disaster,” said Antony Dapiran, a Hong Kong-based lawyer and author of a book about dissent in Hong Kong. “They came out with a fairly hard line, no concessions, nothing new.”
Lam even faced criticism from establishment lawmakers. She “raised many questions at the news conference, but where are the solutions?” Ann Chiang, a lawmaker from Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, wrote on Facebook. “Disappointing!!!”
Oddly enough, that is where the print version ended.
Mainland Chinese officials responsible for Hong Kong policy are scheduled to hold a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they will meet with Hong Kong delegates to the Chinese national congress in Shenzhen, just across the mainland border, Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK reported.
The Hong Kong government also warned Monday that the unrest was affecting the local economy, including sales of luxury goods as mainland visitors choose to avoid the city, a concern that will garner little sympathy from protesters. Hong Kong stocks declined by almost 3 percent Monday.
“The movement has had a lot of impact on Hong Kong, the operation of the whole economy, and the operation of many industries and businesses,” said Ivan Choy, a senior lecturer in government and public administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “But I think this is the right of Hong Kong people to demand more freedom and more justice in society.”
Gee, that's a far cry protesters mounting their fiercest challenge yet by disrupting, occupying, and wielding a potentially powerful new tool in calling for large-scale civil disobedience and a general strike in an effort to halt daily life.
(Blog editor then shakes head)
--more--"
Maybe I should cut them some slack:
"The New York Times is having a week from hell. After the publisher drew flak for a headline earlier this week on President Trump and suffered a legal setback against Sarah Palin on Tuesday, the company warned that advertising revenue would decline sharply this quarter. The outlook sent New York Times Co. shares down 20 percent Wednesday — their worst intraday plunge in almost seven years — and cast a shadow on what had been an upbeat year for the Gray Lady. The stock was up 60 percent in 2019 through Tuesday, fueled by signs that the 168-year-old publisher is successfully pivoting to the digital age. The Times expects ad revenue to decrease by a percentage in the high-single digits in the third quarter. The stock rout was another headache in a week full of them. On Monday, presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke slammed the newspaper for running the print headline “Trump Urges Unity Vs. Racism,” which he and other critics said mischaracterized the story in favor of the president. New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet acknowledged to the Daily Beast that it was a “bad headline” but noted that it was quickly changed. On Tuesday, the Times learned that it must face a defamation lawsuit by Palin, the former Alaska governor, over an editorial that linked her to the shooting of Arizona lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords."
Am I supposed to feel sorry for the lead war peddler and government mouthpiece?
"China warns Hong Kong protesters not to ‘take restraint for weakness’" by Austin Ramzy and Tiffany May New York Times, August 6, 2019
(Groan)
HONG KONG — An official in Beijing on Tuesday issued China’s sternest denunciation yet of the demonstrations in Hong Kong, saying they had “exceeded the scope of free assembly” and warning that the semiautonomous city would not be allowed to descend into chaos.
“I want to warn all the criminals to not wrongly judge the situation and take restraint for weakness,” said Yang Guang, a spokesman for the Chinese government’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office. He warned against underestimating China’s “firm resolve and strength to safeguard the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong,” but Yang offered little in the way of concrete measures to resolve the political crisis, calling for more patriotic education and encouraging residents to confront protesters. “We need to stand up to protect our wonderful homeland,” he said.
Yeah, the inference is the Chinese are brainwashed. This coming from the collaborative pre$$ in country where the populace is the most brainwashed, indoctrinated, inculcated, and propagandized on Earth.
Of course, you put the shoe on the other foot and it's off to overseas wars for the Jews in what is described as the most heroic act of bravery to which on can commit. USA! USA! USA!
The comments came a day after protesters in Hong Kong carried out their most widespread civil disobedience in weeks of demonstrations, blocking trains and roads, and urging workers to strike. Air travel was also snarled, with more than 200 flights canceled after 2,300 civil aviation workers stayed home, according to an estimate by union officials.
Yang denounced the tactics of protesters who have surrounded police stations, throwing bricks and lighting fires, as “extreme violence that is shocking to see.” He said, “The central government will never allow any violent attempt to push Hong Kong into a dangerous situation.”
Joshua Wong, a leader of the 2014 Umbrella movement and a prominent pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong, said Yang’s comments were an attempt to scare the people of the city into silence. The protests this summer began over a proposal that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but the protesters are also angry about other issues, including allegations of police brutality and the stalled expansion of direct elections in Hong Kong.
That's the cover under which this covert destabilization campaign was launched, and the catchy nickname and connections continue to expose it as such. That and the near-daily coverage of the story in my pre$$ (meaning agenda being pushed).
Protesters who have clashed with the police have argued that more confrontational methods became necessary after the government rejected demands made in earlier, peaceful marches, one of which was joined by as many as 2 million people.
Don't tell the American people that.
Yang also warned protesters to not challenge China’s sovereignty, denouncing those who defaced the Chinese government’s representative office in Hong Kong in July and threw Chinese flags into Victoria Harbor in recent days. He criticized protesters’ use of a slogan from an imprisoned activist who once advocated Hong Kong’s independence: “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times.”
It's not only provocative disrespect, it is an argument to return to colonial status!
Last week, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office expressed its support for Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong chief executive, and the police, but they offered little new to resolve the political crisis. It was rare for the office to hold a news conference, and even rarer for it to hold another just a week later, an indication of the Chinese leadership’s struggle to respond to the increasingly fraught conflict in Hong Kong.
Yang reiterated Tuesday that China backed Lam and the police, and he said there should be no leniency in prosecuting violent crimes. “These rioters are extremely rampant and deranged,” he said. “A blow from the sword of law is waiting for them in the future.” Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997, and it operates under a model called “one country, two systems,” which allows the city to maintain its own political and legal systems and gives residents a far greater degree of civil liberties than is seen in mainland China.
The central government is responsible for Hong Kong’s national defense and foreign relations, but many in Hong Kong fear Beijing is wielding greater influence over the city, slowly eroding its freedoms.
Well, it is theirs.
A spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense hinted in July that the People’s Liberation Army could be called on to maintain order in Hong Kong. The military has a garrison of 6,000 to 10,000 soldiers in Hong Kong, but local officials have repeatedly denied rumors that they have been preparing to help quell demonstrations.
Last week, the Hong Kong garrison released a video showing its troops training to confront protesters, and images have been released of large groups of mainland police officers holding drills in preparation for the Oct. 1 celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.....
They were going to be doing that anyway in preparation for the anniversary, but the NYT makes it sound like it is something nefarious.
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"Chinese official calls turmoil in Hong Kong worst since 1997 handover" by Austin Ramzy and Tiffany May New York Times, August 7, 2019
(Groan)
HONG KONG — A top Chinese official overseeing Hong Kong affairs said Wednesday that the city was experiencing its worst crisis since the former British colony returned to China in 1997, as weeks of near-daily antigovernment protests continued with little sign of easing.
The “turmoil” in Hong Kong “has been going on for 60 days straight, getting bigger and bigger,” said the official, Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office. “The violence is getting more and more intense, impacting an increasingly wide part of the society. It can be said that Hong Kong is facing the most serious situation since its return.”
Zhang spoke at the opening of a forum in Shenzhen, a mainland city next to Hong Kong, to an audience of about 500 members of the Hong Kong establishment, including representatives to China’s congress and a national consultative body.
Weeks of demonstrations reached a high point with a general strike Monday, when protesters blocked trains and roadways. Union officials estimate 350,000 people stayed home from work, including many aviation workers, leading to more than 200 canceled flights at the Hong Kong airport.
The day ended with mass protests across the city. Police fired 800 canisters of tear gas, approaching the total of 1,000 canisters fired over the previous eight weeks.
I don't recall them counting them when our police use them to dispel civil unrest, 'er, disobedience, and who even knows what we are using in all the foreign wars.
On Tuesday, a spokesman from Zhang’s office issued the central government’s sternest condemnation to date on Hong Kong, saying that the protesters “are extremely rampant and deranged,” and that a “blow from the sword of law is waiting for them in the future.”
Zhang struck a more measured tone in his comments Wednesday, describing the meetings as an opportunity to hear from the people of the city so “the central government can make decisions that are closer to Hong Kong society.” After his introduction, reporters were asked to leave and the meetings continued behind closed doors.
Well, that's Beacon Hill!
The event was the first such joint meeting of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, a mainland agency, and the Chinese government’s representative office in Hong Kong since the 2014 Umbrella Movement, when prodemocracy protesters occupied parts of the city for nearly three months.
Michael Tien, an establishment lawmaker, said he used the session to propose an independent investigation into the crisis and a full withdrawal of the extradition bill that set off the protests earlier this year, two key demands from protesters.
“We need to be concerned about the future generations if we do not handle this particular incident carefully,” he said. “By that I mean a high-level committee of inquiry to look at all the background of this, not just the police but also the protesters, the allegations about foreign government involvement, and where the money comes from. There are many aspects to it.”
Oooooh, they know!
The only people who wouldn't are those that read the NYT!!!
The legislation, which the government suspended in June, would allow the extradition of suspects to mainland China. Many people feared it would expose Hong Kong residents to a judicial system controlled by the Communist Party, and was another step in the erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong.
Tien was the first pro-Beijing politician to suggest a suspension of the bill.
That was when my pre$$ pulled it.
Zhang told the forum Wednesday that a full withdrawal of the bill would imply that the stated intentions of preventing Hong Kong from becoming a haven for fugitives was wrong. He added that an inquiry should wait until the unrest had eased.
This week Hong Kong officials have increased their public appearances after criticism that they had largely disappeared from view, leaving riot police officers on the streets as the most prominent representatives of the government.
When Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong chief executive, spoke to reporters Monday, it was her first news conference in two weeks. She announced that police would begin giving daily briefings, and Lam made an unannounced appearance Wednesday at a public market.
Then they are regaining control, aren't they?
The Civil Human Rights Front, the group that organized several protest marches, said the increasing volume of official statements “are fueling huge resentment by constantly condemning demonstrators rather than to help facilitate effective communication within the society.”
As pro-Beijing representatives met in Shenzhen on Wednesday, protests continued in Hong Kong. Thousands of lawyers marched to the offices of the Hong Kong Department of Justice to demand a meeting with the secretary of justice and the director of public prosecutions.
Dennis Kwok, a lawmaker who organized the march, said that the legal profession, which he represents in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, was concerned that hundreds of protesters were arrested over political grounds. “They are trying to arrest as many people as possible to scare them away from protests,” Kwok said, adding that the rioting charges protesters faced were “totally disproportionate” with the protests that took place.
--more--"
"Hong Kong protesters descend on airport, with plans to stay for days" by Katherine Li and Mike Ives New York Times, August 9, 2019
(Groan)
HONG KONG — Thousands of black-clad antigovernment protesters demonstrated at Hong Kong’s international airport Friday, taking aim at both a global transit hub and the city’s closely guarded reputation for order and efficiency.
The protest in the airport’s arrivals hall, which is planned to last through Sunday, came as Hong Kong reeled from its worst political crisis since Britain handed the former colony back to China in 1997, and less than a week after protests and a general strike caused chaos in the city and led to 148 arrests.
I thought they were dead, but they have risen from the grave instead.
The airport protest began in the early afternoon, as demonstrators in black T-shirts and face masks nearly filled the cavernous arrivals hall, chanting “Hong Kongers, keep going,” a rallying cry for the two-month-old protest movement.
“You’ve arrived in a broken, torn-apart city, not the one you have once pictured,” read a pamphlet that protesters offered to arriving travelers. “Yet for this Hong Kong, we fight. We shall never surrender.”
We will fight them on the beaches, and on the landing grounds. We will fight them in the hills, and in the streets, blah, blah.
As of Friday night, the demonstration remained peaceful, and there had been no reports of arrests or disruptions of flights. Protesters were careful to leave a path clear for travelers, some of whom recorded the demonstration on their phones or helped themselves to pamphlets.
Such a nice protest, not like stinky antiwar or BDS.
In recent days, mainland Chinese officials have issued stern warnings to protesters about the risks of continuing their campaign. On Friday night, the Chinese government struck at Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific, some of whose employees were reported to have supported the protests.
More than 1,500 of its employees called in sick as part of the general strike Monday, according to a union representative.
China’s civil aviation authority demanded that the airline bar staffers who have supported illegal assemblies or acts of violence from working on flights to mainland China. Before the demonstration, several protesters, including employees of Cathay Pacific, stressed it was meant to be an entirely nonviolent way of maintaining the movement’s momentum.
Miki Ip, a real estate agent who attended the demonstration, said she came partly to refute unproven claims by the Chinese government that the civil disobedience had been led by foreign forces who wanted to undermine Beijing’s authority.
“China has told us so many lies, and we lack a government that really works in our interests,” Ip, 38, said in the arrivals hall. “The living conditions facing youngsters nowadays are harsh, and they feel a lack of ownership over their hometown, both economically and politically.”
(Blog editor shakes head as he reads that)
There they go projecting again, because that is exactly what we have in the U.S.A. We have a government that serves oligarchs and their interests, and one that constantly lies to its people, while the youth of this nation find themselves in the same situation (can always enlist in the Army!).
This week, news media controlled by the Chinese Communist Party accused Julie Eadeh, a diplomat at the US consulate in Hong Kong, of being behind the protests. A State Department spokeswoman, Morgan Ortagus, suggested that China had leaked personal information about Eadeh, calling that the act of a “thuggish regime.”
Morgan Ortagus used to spew on Fox so I dismiss here comments, as well as the Zionist Jew War Pre$$ complaint regarding control. The important takeaway there is the CIA station chief has been outed.
On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s office in Hong Kong responded by accusing the United States of “venomous and unfounded allegations” and “gangster logic.”
The stakes are high for the airport protesters, in part because they have not applied for permission to hold the demonstration. That technically makes it an illegal assembly.
The Hong Kong airport handled nearly 75 million passengers last year, making it the world’s eighth busiest for passengers, according to Airports Council International. It was also the world’s busiest aviation terminal for cargo.
What the Chinese will do is start rerouting some of the shipments to other places. The country will stay wealthy, but Hong Kong will not. That's the price you pay for being a U.S. stooge.
Several other antigovernment demonstrations were planned for this weekend around Hong Kong. They include a family-friendly rally in the central business district that the police approved in advance, and three planned marches elsewhere for which permit applications were rejected.
Well, they already dragged their mothers and grandparents out, why not the whole family?
They can wave kids in front of you.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, appeared at a news briefing Friday evening, flanked by her finance secretary and leaders of the local business community. They appeared to be responding to an earlier call from the Chinese government to stand behind her and oppose violence in the semiautonomous territory.
In her remarks, Lam called for all sectors of Hong Kong society to overcome their differences, emphasizing the economic harm she said the protests had inflicted on the economy, but she declined to offer new concessions to the protest movement.
“I don’t think we should just make concessions in order to silence the violent protesters,” she said.
It just emboldens them as it would terrorists.
Alison Lee, 29, one of the protesters at the airport, said Lam’s remarks had left her cold.
“I think that Carrie Lam is just repeating what she said before,” Lee said. “She has provided no solutions and no plans to solve the current problems. This is not going to just go away because she wants it to.”
When are you going to go away?
--more--"
"Hong Kong residents increasingly caught in the fray of protests" by Yanan Wang Associated Press, August 10, 2019
HONG KONG — After the protesters evacuated, the residents took their place.
In one Hong Kong neighborhood on Saturday, riot police fired multiple rounds of tear gas, prompting demonstrators to flee after they started a fire outside a police station and threw eggs at its exterior, but while the pro-democracy protesters left to occupy yet another district, the residents who were watching from the sidelines descended by the hundreds.
They watched as officers grabbed a woman who was wearing neither a black shirt nor a mask — the telltale attire of a protester. The crowd surrounded the police and yelled: ‘‘Let her go! Let her go!’’
As opposed to "Lock her/him up!"
More than two months of mass demonstrations in Hong Kong have given way to routine clashes between protesters and police. As protesters lead police from neighborhood to neighborhood, leaving hastily constructed road blocks in their wake, residents across the districts have increasingly been caught in the fray. Not all are supportive of the movement.
Huh?
Not all are supportive?
I have not gotten that impression at all having read all the New York Times garbage these last two months!
WTF?
‘‘I miss the British colony,’’ said a protester at Tai Po, Alexandra Wong, who carried two British flags and wore a T-shirt that said ‘‘Establish a Democratic China.’’
(Blog editor shakes his head in incredulity)
Wong, 73, was among protesters carrying British, Taiwanese, or US flags. Some chide them for playing into Beijing’s claim that hostile foreign forces are behind the demonstrations.
Of those accusations, Wong said: ‘‘I don’t care what the government says. They will say anything.’’
How do you say deja vu in Chinese?
I'm surprised my pre$$ hasn't blamed Russia.
Demonstrators say they no longer trust authorities after 44 civilians were injured in a mob attack at a commuter rail station last month. The assailants were all dressed in white in an apparent rebuttal to the protesters’ trademark black.
Yeah, that is looking like a false flag attack to gain sympathy for the movement and make the authorities look bad. Cue bono?
--more--"
"Hong Kong convulsed by protest as police fire tear gas into subway" by Mike Ives, Ezra Cheung and Katherine Li New York Times, August 11, 2019
(Groan, not again)
HONG KONG — Hong Kong was convulsed by mass demonstrations and chaos for a second-straight day Sunday, as police fired tear gas into a subway station and authorities accused protesters of attacking officers with gasoline bombs.
The unrest in several downtown districts came in the 10th weekend of protests in the semiautonomous Chinese territory and capped a week in which the protest movement mounted its fiercest resistance yet to Beijing’s rule of the former British colony.
Yeah, they are just getting stronger.
The chaos and uncertainty, in which the police said some protesters threw gasoline bombs at them, came six days after a general strike and street clashes brought much of the financial hub to a rare standstill.
Molotov cocktails.
Those demonstrations prompted Beijing to sternly warn the protesters not to test its resolve and to warn of retribution from the “sword of law.”
Top Chinese officials have said the demonstrations “have the clear characteristics of a color revolution,” a reference to uprisings in the former Soviet bloc that Beijing believes drew inspiration from the United States, and they accused a US diplomat — without evidence — of being a “black hand” bent on stirring chaos in the territory.
First, look how quickly the New York Times qualifies the accusations against the "diplomat" by saying no evidence. This despite all the rank rot crap they have printed over the years without evidence.
The other thing that is more noteworthy is THE CHINESE KNOW!
For now at least, protesters seem determined to keep pressing their broad demands for greater democracy, in part by using flash-mob-style tactics on the streets that keep the authorities guessing their next move.
The Hong Kong police, meanwhile, appear increasingly eager to clear away the crowds and spray tear gas in residential neighborhoods and popular shopping and night-life districts — even as those tactics outrage residents and help the protesters’ argument that the police force has gone rogue.
The use of gasoline bombs by protesters — which has been fairly rare all summer — in Sunday’s unrest suggested a possible escalation in the movement’s tactics.
Yeah, excuse that last bit of terrorism that wouldn't be tolerated here. Beyond that is the NYT inference that police are gear to shoot the tear gas, etc. I mean this stuff is such slop it's embarrassing.
The civil disobedience began in the afternoon with a peaceful rally in Victoria Park on Hong Kong Island that had been authorized by the police. The protesters had been expected to march east from the park to nearby North Point, a traditionally pro-Beijing neighborhood and the site of a mob attack on protesters last week.
Instead, the protesters headed in the opposite direction along a major thoroughfare, bringing traffic to a halt and leaving their next moves unclear.
“We no longer demonstrate based on a schedule, which I think works well,” said Dominic Chan, 26, a protester who works in retail. “We spread to different places, because every arrest means one less protester in the field.”
Some protesters tried to approach the headquarters of the Hong Kong police, west of Victoria Park, but retreated as officers charged at them and fired tear gas in Wan Chai, a downtown neighborhood whose bars and restaurants are popular with expatriates. Police said protesters had also thrown gasoline bombs at officers in the area.
Once again everything has been turned on its head. The protesters hurling gas bombs is minimized, the provocations are obvious, and the main takeaways is bad Chinese cops like to fire tear gas.
Related: Muslims clash with Israeli police at Jerusalem holy site
At least the Israeli's aren't eager with the tear gas. With depleted uranium munitions, white phosphorous, and a sniper's rifle, yeah, but not tear gas, all a one day blip and only surfaces because some Jew was allegedly stabbed.
Officers fired tear gas at other protesters in Sham Shui Po and Tsim Sha Tsui, two neighborhoods on the Kowloon peninsula, across a glittering harbor from Hong Kong Island. Police later said that an officer from Tsim Sha Tsui had suffered burns on his legs from a gasoline bomb.
Television footage from Kowloon showed police officers in riot gear charging at protesters and tackling some of them to ground or hitting them with batons. The police said in a statement that some protesters had been hurling bricks at officers, “posing a threat to the safety of everyone at scene.”
A few districts north, television footage showed police officers firing tear gas into the Kwai Fong subway station, near a police station where protesters had gathered. It appeared to be the first time that the police had resorted to that tactic in an effort to clear demonstrators.
Sunday was also the third day of a peaceful demonstration at Hong Kong International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, for which protesters did not seek police permission.
That's when the web version took off:
There had been panic and widespread disruption in the city Saturday, too, as protesters hopscotched around Kowloon and police fired tear gas in several locations. Smaller groups of demonstrators blocked a vital cross-harbor tunnel, barricaded a traffic intersection, and set fires outside a police station in the Tsim Sha Tsui district.
The whole city must have been covered in a cloud of tear gas if this is to be believed.
The protests began two months ago in opposition to legislation that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, where the courts are controlled by the governing Communist Party. They have since spiraled into Hong Kong’s worst political crisis since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, with protesters demanding the resignation of Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam.
One of the movement’s biggest events this summer was last Monday, when a general strike and set of protest rallies disrupted businesses and transportation in a city known for its order and efficiency. That evening, men wearing white shirts and wielding sticks briefly attacked a group of black-clad protesters in North Point. Those men were widely believed to be members of local gangs, although no conclusive proof of that has emerged.
Police made 148 arrests during the general strike, though they did not specify how many were linked to the North Point violence. Ng Wun-yim, chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Fujian Associations, later told reporters that the associations had played no part in the street brawl. “We don’t want to see violence,” he said Saturday. “Hong Kong is a civilized society.”
Still, one of his colleagues, Lo Man-tuen, said that local Fujianese would not hesitate to defend themselves if provoked, and before Sunday’s unrest, there were widespread fears that groups of Fujianese gangsters might again assault protesters in North Point.
Last week’s mob attack was reminiscent of another clash on July 21, in which a pro-Beijing mob beat protesters and bystanders in Yuen Long, a satellite town in northwestern Hong Kong that is not far from the Chinese mainland. North Point residents have been on edge all week, and many stores there were closed Sunday.
Red banners plastered around North Point on Sunday, apparently by residents, urged Fujianese to “protect” their home. Scuffles later broke out there between some Fujianese men and journalists who were trying to film them, video footage showed, and a young man in a black shirt was assaulted by a group of middle-aged men with sticks. He was later carried into an ambulance on a stretcher with a bloody mouth. It was not immediately clear why the men had attacked him.
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And now they have to deal with the aftereffects of a typhoon.
Related:
"China said Wednesday that it is banning Chinese movies and actors from participating in Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, one of the Asian film industry’s most prestigious honors, as Beijing ramps up economic and political pressure on the island it claims as its own territory. The announcement on the microblog of China Film News, a newspaper affiliated with the government film regulator, gave no reason for the suspension, but it comes amid rising tensions over Taiwan’s refusal to recognize being part of Chinese territory to eventually be brought under Beijing’s rule. Even without the ban, Chinese artists might have found it difficult to make it to the Nov. 23 ceremony. Beijing recently issued a ban on solo travel to the island beginning Sept. 1 as part of measures to inflict an economic cost. Chinese participation was already in doubt following last year’s ceremony, which was marked by Chinese displeasure over remarks in an acceptance speech by documentary director Fu Yue calling on the world to recognize Taiwan as an independent country."
Taiwan is another red line for China, as well it should be.
Can you imagine the reaction here were Cuba to become a Chinese (or Russian) base?
"China warns US against sending missiles to Asia amid fears of an arms race" by Alan Yuhas New York Times, August 6, 2019
(Groan)
China warned it would “not stand idly by” if the United States deployed ground-based missiles to Asia, as a bruising trade war and strained relations fueled fears of an arms race among Beijing, Washington, and Moscow.
A Chinese arms control official, Fu Cong, delivered the warning three days after Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he favored deploying such missiles to the region “sooner rather than later.” Esper did not give an exact timeline or a possible base for the missiles but suggested it would take months, potentially 18 or more, to field the weapons.
“We call on the US to exercise restraint,” Fu said in a Foreign Ministry statement Tuesday. “China will not stand idly by and will be forced to take countermeasures if the US deploys intermediate-range ground-based missiles in this part of the world.”
Fu did not specify what countermeasures China would take in response to a deployment. He did say, though, that China had “no interest” in arms control talks with the United States and Russia — a step toward President Trump’s ambition of a three-way nuclear accord.
The Trump administration has argued that Russian-American arms agreements are outdated in the context of a rising China, and Friday the United States formally pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, or INF, on the grounds of Russian violations.
Fu said the US withdrawal from the treaty would have “a direct negative impact” on global stability and security and called it a “pretext” for a US weapons buildup.
That certainly seems to be direction in which we are heading.
Russia has denied violating the INF and objected to the US withdrawal but expressed interest in new negotiations. Explaining China’s resistance to those talks, Fu cited the disparity in weapons stockpiles, saying, “I do not think it is reasonable or even fair to expect China to participate in any nuclear reduction negotiations at this stage.”
Together, the United States and Russia hold more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists, a nonprofit based in Washington. The group estimates that the United States has about 1,750 deployed warheads, Russia has about 1,600, and China about 290.
Fu said that China took part in multilateral discussions on arms and that it would “not participate in any nuclear arms race.” Chinese protests have done little to quell fears of a new global arms race. On Tuesday, Ernest J. Moniz, an energy secretary in the Obama administration, and former Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia published an article in Foreign Affairs warning that a “toxic mix of decaying arms control and new advanced weaponry” have made a nuclear exchange between Russia and the United States “disturbingly plausible.” “Its essential elements are already present today; all that is needed is a spark to light the tinder,” they wrote.
US officials have repeatedly warned about Chinese and Russian buildups. Lieutenant General Robert P. Ashley Jr., director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in May that China was likely to diversify and “at least double the size of its nuclear stockpile” over the next decade. Russia’s nuclear stockpile was “likely to grow significantly,” he said.
I'm tired of the lead war-monger on this planet crying wolf.
The Trump administration has also made efforts to modernize its stockpile, releasing a plan last year about how it could improve the US arsenal, including tactical nuclear weapons.
And yet all I get is talk of how much U.S. leaders want peace.
Experts say the most likely locations for a US deployment would be South Korea or Japan, although Tokyo has recently been improving its relations with China.
Oh, yeah?
Is that why they are feeding with South Korea?
Whatever did happen with that Russian violation of South Korean airspace anyway?
Down the memory hole? If it ever happened at all.
Now we find out Japan has been improving relations with China. Hmmmm.
Btw, the U.S. already has the THAAD in South Korea so WTF?
The missiles are needed for an attack on China, huh?
Fu said that the deployment of missiles to a US ally in the Pacific would be like “deploying missiles at the doorsteps of China.” Even on the US territory of Guam, he said, a deployment would be “a very provocative action” and could be “very dangerous.”
That certainly the way I would take it if I were them.
He added a warning to US allies in the region, naming Japan, South Korea, and Australia. China called on “our neighboring countries to exercise prudence and not to allow US deployment on its territory,” he said, “because that will not serve the national security interests of these countries.”
It will just get you embroiled in a war you don't want.
China has flexed its economic muscles in the past to punish US allies. After South Korea let the United States install an anti-missile system there, China called for a wide boycott of South Korean products and railed against its neighbor for more than a year. Since then, Chinese-American relations have only deteriorated in the wake of a two-year trade war that has battered both countries and sown mutual distrust.
Yeah, good thing the U.S. Empire never does that.
--more--"
Looks like the Australians got the message in the fortune cookie:
"Australian officials confirmed Monday that their country will not be used as a base for any planned US mid-range missiles following talks with American officials in Sydney. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said at last weekend’s meetings that he wanted to deploy intermediate range conventional missiles at various Asia-Pacific sites within months. The move follows the Trump administration’s withdrawal from a Cold War-era arms control treaty with Russia. It also comes in the wake of Chinese military expansion in the Asia-Pacific, and is likely to anger Beijing. Australian Defense Minister Linda Reynolds said Monday that while the locations for the missile bases were not yet known, Australia would not be one of them. She said Esper made no such request, and no such request was expected from the US. Prime Minister Scott Morrison later echoed Reynolds’ comments. ‘‘It’s not been considered,’’ Morrison told reporters on Monday. The step comes after the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty — signed between the US and Russia in 1987 — expired last Friday. The US says it plans to begin testing new missiles that would have been prohibited under the accord. ‘‘We now are free to develop that range of weapons, 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers, that had not been available to us from a ground-based deterrent posture,’’ Esper told reporters before the weekend meetings. US missile ambitions in the region raise the possibility of an arms race with China, which would leave Australia in a difficult position between its most important security ally and its largest trading partner. During the weekend meetings, Esper accused China of a ‘‘disturbing pattern of aggressive behavior’’ and ‘‘destabilizing behavior’’ in the region. China hit back at what it called ‘‘groundless attacks and slanders’’ in a statement from its embassy in Canberra. Meanwhile, Morrison also indicated Australia could join a United States-led international effort to protect shipping in the Persian Gulf, stressing the importance of making the important trade route safer. ‘‘It’s important that we make the Straits of Hormuz safer than they currently are,’’ he told reporters. ‘‘The purpose here is to de-escalate tensions, not to escalate them, and that has very much been the focus of the conversations we’ve had with our American partners.”
What that ending shows you is how captive Australia is to Zionist interests; otherwise, it's Esper projecting again and the REAL REASON the U.S. pulled out of the INF -- not because Russia violated (if they even did). They wanted to build these new missiles.
Also see: Putin says Russia will only deploy new missiles if US does
Good thing Australia has a free press that can tell us these things:
"The Australian government on Friday told police to consider the importance of a free and open press when investigating leaked documents after raids on journalists’ offices and a home in June sparked outrage about suppression of free speech. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said he sent a formal direction to Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin, who answers to Dutton, outlining the government’s expectations of police investigating journalists and media organizations over unauthorized documents leaked by government employees. The direction seems to reduce the likelihood of the government authorizing charges against News Corp. journalist Annika Smethurst as well as Australian Broadcasting Corp. reporters Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, who were targeted in police raids on ABC’s Sydney headquarters and the newspaper political editor’s Canberra home. ‘‘I expect the AFP to take into account the importance of a free and open press in Australia’s democratic society and to consider broader public interest implications before undertaking investigative action involving a professional journalist or news media organization in relation to an unauthorized disclosure of material,’’ Dutton said in a statement. Dutton also told Colvin to ‘‘exhaust alternative investigative actions’’ before considering involving journalists or media organizations and to seek the media’s voluntary assistance. Police are also directed to ask government agencies for a ‘‘harm statement’’ detailing how a leak was ‘‘expected to significantly compromise Australia’s national security.’’ Dutton did not say why he had issued the direction or respond when asked by the Associated Press what impact his direction might have on the police investigations behind the June raids. The raids were widely condemned as an attempt to intimidate journalists for reporting classified information in the public interest that embarrassed governments but posed no threat to national security."
Are they getting the Assange treatment?
Related:
"Chelsea Manning will not get a hearing to challenge steep daily penalties imposed for her refusal to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks. In an order issued Monday, Judge Anthony Trenga in suburban Alexandria, Va., federal court said there were no ‘‘reasonable grounds’’ to reconsider his decision to impose the fines, which started at $500 daily and have now risen to $1,000 a day. She could be incarcerated for a total of 18 months; her attorneys estimate that the total cost will be close to half a million dollars. Manning had argued that she did not have the financial ability to pay the fines and asked for a hearing to make that clear. Trenga found that she ‘‘has the ability to comply. . . or will have the ability after her release from confinement.’’ In a statement Wednesday, she said: ‘‘I am disappointed but not at all surprised. The government and the judge must know by now that this doesn’t change my position one bit.’’ Prosecutors wanted Manning to testify about her interactions with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, to whom she leaked thousands of classified government cables in 2010. Manning spent seven years in a military prison for her disclosures before being released by President Barack Obama. Since Manning first went to jail in March, Assange has been arrested and charged with violating the Espionage Act. She argues that her testimony is no longer necessary."
Why is my pre$$ not speaking out and protesting for him, 'er, her?
You would think she was in a North Korean jail.
"North Korea accuses US and South Korea of ‘inciting military tension’" by Nick Cumming-Bruce New York Times, August 6, 2019
(Groan)
GENEVA — A North Korean diplomat said Tuesday that the United States and South Korea were “inciting military tension” by proceeding with joint military exercises this week, saying they would jeopardize the diplomatic efforts to reach a deal on the North’s nuclear weapons.
The statement from the diplomat, Ju Yong Chol, at the United Nations-backed Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, came hours after North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles, the latest in a series of tests it has carried out since late July.
Ju said the deployment of F-35A stealth fighters and high-altitude reconnaissance drones for the military exercises, along with a port call by the US nuclear submarine Oklahoma City, were “hostile acts.” He said they showed that Washington and Seoul still regarded North Korea as an enemy, despite the commitment made last year by President Trump and Kim Jong Un, the North’s leader, to forge a new relationship between their countries.
As a result, “we are also compelled to develop, test, and deploy the powerful physical means essential for our national defense,” Ju told the conference, a multilateral forum for negotiating arms control and nonproliferation agreements. Ju’s statement made no reference to the missile launch carried out earlier Tuesday by North Korea, nor to three similar missile tests it has conducted in recent weeks. The tests appear to violate UN resolutions that bar the country from developing or testing ballistic missiles.
South Korean military officials said the North fired two missiles Tuesday morning that flew 280 miles before landing in the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. From their trajectory and flight characteristics, they looked similar to two missiles fired by North Korea on July 25, the officials said.
They are getting squeezed.
North Korea has long objected to the joint exercises regularly carried out by South Korea and the United States, calling them rehearsals for invasion. The drills are expected to formally begin later this week, but some preparatory exercises have already been held, according to South Korean officials.
You know, who can object to them thinking that way when you look around at the rest of the world?
Not only that, Iraq didn't have nuclear weapons and Libya gave their program up. The North Koreans no doubt noted what happened to them, and has surely noticed the haranguing Iran has gotten lately.
Ju said Tuesday that the joint exercises were “dramatically reducing our desire” for implementing agreements with the United States and would affect prospects for further talks. He said they were an “open denial and flagrant violation” of the agreements made by Trump and Kim.
He also said they would lead the North to “reconsider the major steps we have taken,” presumably a reference to its nuclear program. North Korea has not carried out nuclear or long-range missile tests since late 2017, around the same time it began a diplomatic outreach to South Korea and the United States.
What I think you are seeing here is the North Koreans recognizing that it does no good to negotiate with the United States. It goes nowhere and isn't even a negotiation. It's either our way or sanctions. I personally think the North Koreans have given up on any agreement with the United States and are instead seeking regional relationships under the umbrella of Chinese and Russian defense assurances. The United States has become the playground bully, someone you pay lip service to when he is in your face but he can't be everywhere at once.
Responding to Ju, the US ambassador to the Geneva conference, Robert Wood, said the United States was not seeking to exert military pressure on North Korea. He said Washington remained committed to the North’s denuclearization and looked forward to resuming talks.
Trump ordered a scaling-down of last year’s joint exercises with South Korea after his first meeting with Kim, but the statement they signed makes no mention of the joint drills. A senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that North Korea had not reciprocated with similar adjustments to its own military training, which the official said had raised the ire of officials in Washington.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday that the Pentagon had no plans to scale back future exercises with South Korea. “We need to maintain our readiness,” Esper told reporters on a flight to Japan.
That is not only ominous, but Japan is currently embroiled in a trade spat with South Korea!
--more--"
People at a railway station in Seoul watched a television news program on Tuesday showing file footage of North Korea's missile launch. North Korea threatened to carry out more weapons tests after it fired its fourth set of projectiles in less than two weeks following the start of joint exercises between the United States and South Korea. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP/Getty Images)
"North Korea says it tested new type of missile, further enhancing its arsenal" by Choe Sang-Hun New York Times, August 11, 2019
(Groan)
SEOUL — North Korea said Sunday that the two projectiles it fired a day earlier were a new type of missile, making this the third new short-range ballistic missile or rocket system the North has successfully tested in less than a month as Washington struggles to resume talks on denuclearization.
The two missiles were launched off North Korea’s east coast Saturday in its second weapons test in the past week. On Sunday, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency released photographs of Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, watching what it called the launching of “another new weapon system.”
After scrutinizing the photos, outside analysts said the missiles, fired from a tracked mobile launcher with two missile tubes, were of a type unveiled for the first time.
North Korea has conducted five weapons tests since July 25, all of them in violation of United Nations resolutions, according to South Korea. They include a new short-range ballistic missile, known as KN-23 among outside analysts, which they said resembled Russia’s Iskander missile in its flight pattern and other traits. The North also tested a new multiple-tube rocket launcher.
The test Saturday “looks like a new short-range ballistic missile,” likely with a purpose similar to that of the KN-23, said Michael Duitsman, a research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif. “I am not sure why North Korea would need two different missiles for the same role,” but the unveiling and testing of a new missile leaves little doubt that despite President Trump’s insistence that his on-again, off-again diplomacy with Kim is making progress toward denuclearization, North Korea has continued to modernize and expand its missile capabilities.
“North Korea had not one but two short range ballistic missile under development this year,” Melissa Hanham, a missile specialist at One Earth Future Foundation, said on Twitter. “This is not denuclearizing, this is not even close.”
Well, after what Esper said, who can blame them for reacting this way?
I don't know what the One Earth Future Foundation is about, nor do I know who is the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey.
Trump has shrugged off North Korea’s recent weapons tests, calling them “smaller ones” that involved neither nuclear explosions nor intercontinental ballistic missiles, but the North’s short-range missiles present a potent threat to South Korea and Japan, both key allies of the United States, as well as to the US troops and civilians in both countries.
The president’s attitude has essentially given North Korea a free hand in developing and testing its short-range weapons, analysts said. On Saturday, Trump said Kim had sent him a letter with a “small apology” explaining that North Korea was conducting tests to counter a US military exercise with South Korea that Trump has criticized as too expensive.
Is the NYT sort of inferring that military action should be taken?
North Korea has a free hand, oooooh!
On Sunday, North Korea invoked Trump’s comments to argue that the South had no business complaining about its recent weapons tests.
“With regard to our test for developing the conventional weapons, even the US president made a remark which in effect recognizes the self-defensive rights of a sovereign state, saying that it is a small missile test which a lot of countries do,” Kwon Jong Gun, a North Korean Foreign Ministry official, said in a statement carried Sunday by the North Korean news agency.
All three of the new missile and rocket systems tested by the North in recent weeks are significant advances for the North Korean military, analysts said.
The web version tracked the missile farther:
They all used solid fuel and were fired from mobile launchers. Such missiles and rockets are easier to transport and hide, especially in a mountainous country like North Korea, and take less time to prepare for launching than the North’s old missiles that used liquid fuel, they said.
That may be true, but it conjures up images of mobile biological weapons labs that never were.
The weapons also appeared to be maneuvered during flight, making it more difficult for South Korean and US missile defense systems to intercept them, the analysts said.
“North Korea is modernizing its weapons to replace old ones,” said Kim Dong-yub, a military specialist at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, the South Korean capital. “They flew a bit longer, at lower altitudes and faster.”
Same as Trump after pulling out of the INF treaty.
The North’s recent weapons tests also highlight how quickly inter-Korean relations have deteriorated despite the three summits last year between Kim and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea. By contrast, North Korea has seldom attacked Trump in the hopes of maintaining the good will of the American president, who has said that he and Kim fell “in love.”
Trump said that, in his letter, Kim wrote that he wanted to resume dialogue with Washington as soon as the joint military drill between the United States and South Korea ended this month. North Korea has been less amenable to negotiating with South Korea, which it accused of failing to implement the ambitious inter-Korean economic projects that Kim and Moon agreed to pursue in meetings last year.
On Sunday, North Korea said it would not start inter-Korean talks unless South Korea halted joint military exercises with the United States or made “a plausible excuse or an explanation in a sincere manner for conducting” them. Until then, any dialogue will be “strictly between” the North and the United States, “not between the North and the South,” Kwon said.
--more--"
Kim did apologize for it all:
Trump says Kim wants to meet again, apologized for missile tests" by Jill Colvin Associated Press, August 10, 2019
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. — President Trump said Saturday that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un wants to meet once again to ‘‘start negotiations’’ after joint US-South Korea military exercises end. He also said Kim apologized for the recent short-range missile tests that have rattled US allies in the region.
Trump tweeted more details from the ‘‘beautiful’’ three-page letter he told reporters Friday that he’d received from Kim. Trump, who is on vacation at his golf club in New Jersey, said Kim spent much of his letter complaining about ‘‘the ridiculous and expensive exercises,’’ which North Korea sees as a threat.
He said Kim offered him ‘‘a small apology’’ for the recent tests and assured him ‘‘that this testing would stop when the exercises end.’’
North Korea on Saturday fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, according to South Korea’s military — the fifth round of launches in less than three weeks.....
--more--"
I wouldn't worry about the new missiles:
"Fatal explosion in Russia released radiation, giving United States pause" by David E. Sanger and Andrew E. Kramer New York Times, August 12, 2019
(Groan)
US intelligence officials are racing to understand a mysterious explosion that released radiation off the coast of northern Russia last week, apparently during the test of a new type of nuclear-propelled cruise missile hailed by President Vladimir Putin as the centerpiece of Moscow’s arms race with the United States.
American officials have said nothing publicly about the blast on Thursday, possibly one of the worst nuclear accidents in Russia since Chernobyl, although apparently on a far smaller scale, with at least seven people, including scientists, confirmed dead, but the Russian government’s slow and secretive response has set off anxiety in nearby cities and towns — and attracted the attention of analysts in Washington and Europe who believe the explosion may offer a glimpse of technological weaknesses in Russia’s new arms program.
Thursday’s accident happened offshore of the Nenoksa Missile Test Site and was followed by what nearby local officials initially reported was a spike in radiation in the atmosphere. Late Sunday night, officials at a research institute that had employed five of the scientists who died confirmed for the first time that a small nuclear reactor had exploded during an experiment in the White Sea, and that the authorities were investigating the cause.
Vyacheslav Solovyov, the scientific director of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center, said in a video interview with a local newspaper that the institute had been studying “small-scale sources of energy with the use of fissile materials,” but US intelligence officials have said they suspect it involved a prototype of what NATO calls the SSC-X-9 Skyfall. That is a cruise missile that Putin has boasted can reach any corner of the earth because it is partly powered by a small nuclear reactor, eliminating the usual distance limitations of conventionally fueled missiles.
As envisioned by Putin, who played animated video of the missile at a state-of-the-union speech in 2018, the Skyfall is part of a new class of weapons designed to evade US missile defenses.
Well, they do have the S-400 that seems to neutralize the F-35s, or at least make it much riskier to conduct air raids.
In several recent Pentagon and other government reports, the prospect of Russian nuclear-powered cruise missiles has been frequently cited as a potential new kind of threat. They are launched into the air and able to weave an unpredictable path at relatively low altitudes.
That makes them virtually unstoppable for the existing US anti-missile systems in Alaska and California, which are designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missile warheads in space, traveling a largely predictable path, yet for all the hype, Russia’s early tests of the cruise missile appeared to fail, even before last week’s disaster, and Russia’s story about what happened Thursday in the sea off one of its major missile test sites has changed over the past four days as the body count has risen.
Kind of like the Patriot missiles and their intercept rate.
Beyond the human toll, US intelligence officials are questioning whether Putin’s grand dream of a revived arsenal evaporated in that mysterious explosion, or whether it was just an embarrassing setback in Moscow’s effort to build a new class of long-range and undersea weapons that the United States cannot intercept.
Many outside arms experts have long regarded his effort as part fantasy, using a technology the United States tried and failed to make work in the 1950s and 1960s. If so, it may call into question one of the Trump administration’s justifications for major new spending on US nuclear weapons to counter the Russian buildup, though the United States also cites a parallel program underway in China.
The accident came at a critical moment in the revived US-Russia nuclear competition. This month, the United States withdrew from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces agreement, citing long-running Russian violations, and there are doubts that New START, the one remaining major treaty limiting nuclear forces, will be renewed before it runs out in less than two years.
To Russian military officials, one of the appeals of the new class of hypersonic and undersea nuclear weapons is that they are not prohibited by any existing treaties, giving them free run to test and deploy them.
Russia’s military, in statements carried by state news agencies, first said that a fire broke out when a liquid-fueled rocket engine exploded at a testing site, but that radiation remained at normal background levels.
That contradicted a report from local authorities in the city of Severodvinsk, about 25 miles away. An official in charge of civil defense said two radiation meters registered a spike. Russian news media later reported radiation briefly rose to 200 times normal background levels.
The reports were quickly taken off the city’s websites, but not in time to stop a run by city residents for iodine, a way of protecting the thyroid gland against absorbing radiation.
“This information should be open” to inform those who might be exposed or wish to take precautions, said Alexander K. Nikitin, a former Russian naval officer and researcher with the Norwegian environmental group Bellona. “But in Russia it is done differently.”
They are no different than any other government. Look at Japan and Fukushima, or Massachusetts and the RMV. More projection by the NYT.
The Russian nuclear energy company Rosatom on Saturday said the failure occurred in an “isotope power source for a liquid-fueled rocket engine.” Although the wording was confusing, it was the first official acknowledgment that the accident was nuclear in nature.
The change in Russia’s account, along with separate US intelligence reporting and satellite imagery, got the attention of US intelligence officials. They are now exploring whether the small nuclear reactor that Putin talked about when promoting the weapon failed, or exploded.
While the scale of the accident appeared vastly smaller than the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in 1986, which killed thousands, the slow release of muddied information, the public confusion and distrust of official accounts, and the race for some limited form of protection seemed to have echoes of the reaction to that disaster.
Then why did the NYT make it seem comparable up until this point?
Besides, there are no long term effects.
It has never been clear just how far along Putin’s grand plans for the cruise missile — called the 9M730 Burevestnick by the Russians — had gotten.
A missile-defense review published by the Pentagon — after careful scrubbing to avoid signaling to Moscow what US intelligence officials think they know — notes that “Russian leaders also claim that Russia possesses a new class of missile” that travels five times faster than the speed of sound and moves “just above the atmosphere,” in an evasive pattern that would defeat US anti-missile technology, but the report made no assessment of whether they would work.
Putin advertised that the nuclear-propelled cruise missile would be able to fly an unlimited range, an answer to US “global strike” weapons that are designed to reach any corner of the earth, with a non-nuclear warhead.
A little more than a year ago, Russia’s Ministry of Defense produced a carefully-edited YouTube video that showed the missile heading aloft, and left the impression, wrongly, that it was already working.
Animated and carefully-edited videos, huh?
Like the stuff Bibi presented to the U.N. regarding Iran's bomb?
The Russian admission that the accident centered on an “isotope power source” followed a series of anonymous statements, run on Tass and other Russian news sites, that seemed to mix fact, rumor, and some disinformation, but satellite images offer some clues.
What do you think I'm reading every morning?
An Aug. 8 image released by Planet Labs, a firm that launches small satellites, appears to show the Serebryanka, a ship that carries nuclear fuel and waste, offshore from the Nenoksa Missile Test Site. Its presence, Jeffrey Lewis, a scholar at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute, wrote on Twitter, “may be related to the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile.”
That vessel, which can safely collect nuclear waste, was also seen at another test of the 9M730 Burevestnick. Other facilities examined by Lewis’s experts seemed to show testing facilities consistent with those previously shown in Russian reports on past tests.
--more--"
Related:
"What can be done with the deserted land in Ukraine after Chernobyl’s catastrophic nuclear disaster? Three decades on, researchers have an idea. Introducing ‘‘Atomik’’ vodka, a new spirit produced from crops grown in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone. A team of British scientists worked alongside colleagues in Ukraine to produce the vodka, made with grain and water from the abandoned region, on a farm near the site of the 1986 accident, but for those interested in consuming the product, one key question lingers: Is it safe? According to Jim Smith of the University of Portsmouth, the product has been put through aggressive testing and is free of radioactivity: ‘‘This is no more radioactive than any other vodka. We’ve checked it,’’ reassured Smith. Currently, only one bottle of the vodka exists, but that is likely to change. The team behind the new beverage hopes to use profits from future sales to help wildlife conservation and communities still affected by the disaster. Smith says there are plans to create ‘‘the Chernobyl Spirit Company,’’ which will produce and begin selling the spirit once all outstanding legal inquiries are completed."
You may need a drink after that, Pilgrim, but it will burn a whole through your stomach.
That's not Putin's only problem:
"Tens of thousands of people rallied Saturday against the exclusion of some city council candidates from Moscow’s upcoming election, turning out for one of the Russian capital’s biggest political protests in years. After the rally, which was officially sanctioned, hundreds of participants streamed to an area near the presidential administration building to continue with an unauthorized demonstration. They were confronted by phalanxes of riot police and the arrest-monitoring group OVD-Info said 136 people were detained. The rally was the fourth consecutive weekend demonstration in Moscow over the local election (AP)."
Not getting the same attention as is Hong Kong, but failing just as badly.
"The city’s ombudsman for children’s rights and members of a presidential council have expressed outrage over Russian prosecutors trying to take a 1-year-old boy from his parents because they allegedly brought him to an unauthorized protest. The ombudsman, Yevgeny Bunimovich, denounced the custody removal request prosecutors filed Tuesday as ‘‘political blackmail involving children’’ and said he wrote Moscow’s chief prosecutor to urge dropping a criminal case against the parents. Prosecutors alleged in a court petition seeking the withdrawal of parental rights that Olga and Dmitri Prokazov endangered their son by taking him to a July 27 protest rally and handing the child to a man who is now being sought on charges of organizing mass riots. Speaking Tuesday on independent Dozhd TV, Dmitri Prokazov said his family was on a walk in central Moscow at the time of the rally but did not participate in the protest. Members of the presidential human rights council also criticized the custody petition, which is part of a slew of criminal cases launched in the wake of protests challenging the Kremlin. Police aggressively cracked down on the July 27 rally protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates from Moscow’s city council election and on another demonstration a week later."
Do Russians get them waved in their faces in order to pull on heartstrings to advance an agenda like us?
"Unlike virtually every Western country and most of the rest of the world, Kazakhstan is welcoming home women like Sarina — albeit warily and despite the lack of proof that deradicalization programs work. Governments have tried it on neo-Nazis, members of the Red Brigades, and IRA militants, among others, with mixed results. “Does it really matter if you go through a rehab program?” said Liesbeth van der Heide, an expert on Islamic radicalization at the International Center for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague. “We don’t know.” For Sarina, it is a far cry from her previous life in a fetid refugee camp in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria, a human refuse heap of thousands of former Islamic State residents despised by most of the world. Having somebody now ask how she felt was amazing, she said......"
I'll bet the airstrikes didn't help.
"Kyrgyzstan’s former president urged his supporters Thursday to push for the ouster of the Central Asian nation’s government, following a failed police attempt to arrest him that left one policeman dead and nearly 80 people injured. Almazbek Atambayev, who was in office from 2011 to 2017, accused his successor and one-time protégé Sooronbai Jeenbekov of fabricating false criminal charges against him to stifle criticism. He urged his supporters to rally Thursday in the capital, Bishkek, to demand Jeenbekov’s resignation. Police attempts to arrest Atambayev at his residence outside the capital failed Wednesday after his supporters rushed to his defense and clashed with police. A police officer later died of injuries at a hospital, and 79 people were injured, according to official statements. Atambayev’s supporters took six policemen as hostages but released them Thursday. The violence has raised the threat of a new round of turmoil in the ex-Soviet nation, which borders China and hosts a Russian military base. Kyrgyzstan’s first two presidents after independence were both driven from office by riots."
Time to move down the Malaysian Peninsula:
"A landslide buried more than a dozen village houses in southeastern Myanmar, killing at least 34 people, an official said Saturday. Rescuers were using backhoes and bulldozers to clear the mud and debris from the village in Paung township. The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that some residents were still missing. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that monsoon flooding had displaced more than 7,000 people this week in Mon state (AP)."
Just a brief rain shower here.
"Thailand’s prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, said Friday he is not quitting despite facing mounting criticism for failing to properly take his oath of office. Prayuth led the inauguration of his Cabinet in a ceremony presided over by the king on July 16; however, he omitted a phrase in the oath of office in which he was supposed to pledge to uphold every aspect of the constitution. The omission has raised questions over whether the inauguration was legally valid. Prayuth told reporters Friday that he was continuing to conduct his duties ‘‘to the best of my abilities because I am the prime minister.’’ The oath of office is required under Article 161 of Thailand’s Constitution, which includes the complete oath and states it must be said to the king before Cabinet ministers take office. Prayuth’s failure to recite the oath in full, which also led to other ministers making the same error because they repeated what he said, was pointed out by opposition politician Piyabutr Saengkanokkul during a Parliament session on July 25. Legal activist Srisuwan Janya filed a complaint over the issue to the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday, which has been accepted for consideration. Prayuth led a military junta that seized power in 2014 and was dissolved with the inauguration of the new Cabinet."
That's how you know Thailand has cozied up to China because the regime in Ukraine is never described as a junta.
Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha omitted a phrase in the oath of office in which he was supposed to pledge to uphold every aspect of the constitution. The omission has raised questions over whether the inauguration was legally valid.(Sakchai Lalit/Associated Press/File)
The look says it all.
"The search for a 15-year-old London girl who vanished from a forest resort entered a second week Sunday amid rising concerns for her safety. Nora Anne Quoirin’s family discovered her missing Aug. 4 from the Dusun eco-resort, in a case that has baffled police. Negeri Sembilan Police Chief Mohamad Mat Yusop said Sunday that police are investigating all angles, including reports that villagers heard early in the morning the day the girl was reported missing. Some 300 people searched despite heavy rain Sunday morning, during a Muslim religious festival, he said. Police have set up a hot line, he added. Police believe the teen is still in the vicinity of the resort. They are treating her as a missing person but do not rule out a crime. Her family arrived Aug. 3 for a two-week stay. Her parents, who believe she was abducted, said she was born with holoprosencephaly, a malformation that caused a smaller brain and led to learning and physical disabilities. They said she isn’t independent, has difficulty walking, and has never wandered off on her own. Investigators have questioned 20 people and said a forensic team was analyzing fingerprints found in the cottage."
Another sex ring kidnapping or murder?
The concern is that China could make a move into the Indian Ocean in support of Iran:
"UK joins US Strait of Hormuz mission; Iran slams sanctions" by Amir Vahdat and Jill Lawless Associated Press, August 5, 2019
TEHRAN — Britain said Monday that it would join a US-led naval security mission in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran’s seizure of merchant vessels has raised tensions with the West. Earlier, Iran’s foreign minister lambasted recent US financial sanctions against him, calling the move a ‘‘failure’’ for diplomacy.
The US administration last week announced sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a month after President Donald Trump had imposed similar sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The moves are seen as part of Washington’s escalating campaign in what Trump calls ‘‘maximum pressure’’ on the Islamic Republic.
The US has increasingly deployed military reinforcements to the region amid unspecified threats from Iran. Britain has been giving UK-flagged vessels in the region a naval escort since Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a British-flagged oil tanker last month. Some Iranian officials suggested the seizure of the Stena Impero was retaliation for the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker off the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.
European nations have been reluctant to take part in the US naval mission, and Germany has said it will not be involved. Last month, then-UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that the UK would join with European allies to form a ‘‘maritime protection mission’’ in the strait. Hunt has since lost his job, and that effort appears to have foundered. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said the US and the UK hoped other countries will join the new mission. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, said Britain was still seeking an international coalition, though he did not say who would be in it.
Zarif had stressed Monday that Washington’s policy of ‘‘talking about war as an option that remains on the table cannot stand.’’
This aggression will not stand!
Zarif’s press conference came a day after Iran announced its forces had seized a foreign ship in the Persian Gulf suspected of carrying smuggled fuel, but provided no details on the vessel or the nationality of the crew. It was the Revolutionary Guard’s third seizure of a vessel in recent weeks and the latest show of strength by the paramilitary force amid the spike in tensions.
Six oil tankers have also been targeted in the Gulf of Oman in unclaimed acts of sabotage that the US blames on Iran. Iran has denied any involvement in those attacks.
In June, Iran shot down an American surveillance drone in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump came close to retaliating, but called off an airstrike at the last moment.
Maritime security in the region was further jolted in mid-July, when the Revolutionary Guard’s naval forces confirmed they had seized a United Arab Emirates-based oil tanker, the Panamanian-flagged MT Riah, for allegedly trafficking fuel from Iranian smugglers to foreign customers.
Britain and other European nations have distanced themselves from the American ‘‘maximum pressure’’ strategy. Unlike the US, European countries still adhere to the international nuclear deal.
Iran recently began surpassing uranium enrichment limits set in the 2015 deal, but says these moves can be reversed if given enough economic incentives to offset US sanctions.
Turns out China is their only friend.
Referring to the seizure of the British tanker, Zarif said Monday that it was not a reciprocal action for Gibraltar. He also told reporters he had received an invitation from Washington for a meeting during his New York trip in July, along with a warning about the sanctions.
US officials have not confirmed either of Zarif’s claims — neither the one about him being warned about the sanctions nor the one about the alleged invitation for talks.....
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I must say, it's a relief not seeing Iran in the paper every day.
Related:
"The European Union said its door remained open should British Prime Minister Boris Johnson want to discuss his country’s departure from the bloc but it insisted that the Brexit divorce agreement cannot be renegotiated. EU Commission spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt said Tuesday the Brexit agreement ‘‘is the best possible deal’’ that Britain is going to get. Johnson said he will take Britain out of the trade bloc on Oct. 31 with or without a deal, raising fears of a damaging no-deal exit. He said the backstop arrangement to keep goods flowing smoothly between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland in the UK would bind his country to European trade rules and must be dropped from the Brexit agreement. Breidthardt said Brussels is available should Britain ‘‘wish to hold talks and clarify its position in more detail.’’
Then the door is really closed, isn't it?
Planned strike at Heathrow averted, for now
Finally, good news for Boris.
"The Belfast shipyard best known for constructing the doomed White Star liner Titanic, which sank on its maiden trans-Atlantic voyage in 1912 after striking an iceberg, but the firm was one of the UK’s key industrial producers during World War II. It once boasted a workforce of 30,000, but now employs only about 125, though it supported hundreds of other jobs in its supply chain. Workers vowed to occupy the shipyard until heavy industry and shipbuilding could be secured, but the government so far has declined to intervene....."
Turns out they did step in because of the climate of fear.
"A youth court in London ordered a teenager held on an attempted murder charge Tuesday for allegedly throwing a 6-year-old boy from a viewing area at the top of the British capital’s Tate Modern museum. The French boy was only a short distance from his parents Sunday when he was picked up and thrown over the railing of the museum’s 10th-floor observation deck, an action ‘‘carried out extremely swiftly and in one movement,’’ prosecutor Sian Morgan said. Witnesses have described hearing the boy’s mother screaming, and London’s Metropolitan Police service said other museum visitors stopped a 17-year-old British citizen from leaving until officers arrived. Detective Chief Superintendent John Massey said investigators were treating the ‘‘truly shocking incident’’ as an isolated event ‘‘with no distinct or apparent motive.’’ The 6-year-old remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition with a sustained brain bleed and fractures to his spine, legs, and arms, prosecutors said. During a Tuesday hearing at Bromley Youth Court in south London, the suspect spoke only to confirm his name, address, date of birth, and nationality. He cannot be identified publicly because of his age. The teen is scheduled to appear at London’s Central Criminal Court on Thursday. Tate Modern, Britain’s leading gallery of modern art, is on the south bank of the River Thames. It was visited by almost 6 million people last year....."
You would think he was responsible for the Holoco$t™.
"A power cut that affected a million people and caused travel chaos was not the result of a cyberattack, operators of Britain’s electricity network said Saturday. National Grid operations director Duncan Burt said Friday’s blackout was caused when two power stations failed almost simultaneously, leading the system to cut off power to some parts of the country in order to preserve the rest. He said the company was ‘‘very confident that there was no malicious intent or cyberattack involved.’’ The cut hit a large swath of England and Wales, knocking out traffic lights and railway signals and bringing electric-powered trains to a standstill. Electricity was restored within 90 minutes but many travelers were stuck for hours on trains (AP)."
Look what was stolen when the lights were off:
"HSBC’s chief executive, John Flint, is stepping down after 18 months in the role, a surprise announcement that the bank said Monday was “by mutual agreement with the board.” Noel Quinn, the bank’s chief executive for commercial banking, will fill the top job on an interim basis while the bank begins a global job search. Flint resigned on the same day that HSBC, Europe’s largest bank by assets, reported what several analysts described as solid results. Profit after tax for the first half of 2019 rose 18.1 percent to $9.9 billion, while revenue was up 7.6 percent to $29.4 billion, but the bank also announced job cuts amounting to nearly 2 percent of its global workforce of close to 238,000. One analyst, Benjamin Toms at RBC Capital Markets, an investment bank, cited “geopolitical uncertainty” as affecting the bank’s global business. HSBC, with headquarters in London, appears to be preparing for a more challenging environment as the trade wars between the United States and China cast shadows over its critical Asia businesses, and Brexit remains unresolved."
Also see:
"The Saudi-led coalition’s closure of the airport in Yemen’s capital, Sana, has prevented thousands of sick civilians from traveling abroad for urgent medical treatment, two international aid groups said in a joint statement. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE, the Sana airport’s three-year closure has amounted to a ‘‘death sentence’’ for many sick Yemenis. The two groups appealed late Monday to Yemen’s warring parties to come to an agreement to reopen the airport for commercial flights to ‘‘alleviate humanitarian suffering caused by the closure.’’ The Saudi-led coalition, backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government, has been at war with the rebels, known as Houthis, since 2015 and has imposed a blockade on ports that supply Houthi-controlled areas. ‘‘As if bullets, bombs, and cholera did not kill enough people, the airport closure is condemning thousands more to a premature death,’’ said Mohammed Abdi, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s director in Yemen. ‘‘There is no justification for preventing very sick civilians from leaving the country to get life-saving medical treatment,’’ he added. The Iran-backed Houthis overran Sana in 2014, prompting the coalition to intervene the following year to try to restore the government to power."
The Saudis are acting more like Israelis with each passing day, while another tanker was hit:
"A damaged tanker truck exploded in eastern Tanzania as people were trying to siphon fuel out of it Saturday, killing at least 62 in one of the worst incidents of its kind in the East African country (AP)."
Related:
"A Kenyan lawmaker was kicked out of the parliamentary chamber on Wednesday for bringing her infant daughter in with her, in a move that drew outrage from some fellow politicians and the public. The lawmaker, Zuleikha Hassan, said she took her baby with her to work at the National Assembly in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, after an emergency had left her without child care. “I said, ‘Why should I stay at home and not go to work, just because of the baby?’ ” she said. “Why should they criminalize having a baby? So, I said, ‘I’m going to Parliament with a baby.’ ” She also lamented the lack of child care facilities at the government buildings, and said that with more young women getting into the workforce, “the spaces have to be more sensitive, especially for younger women who are in childbearing age.” In video from inside the chamber, a baby’s soft babbling can be heard in the background as the speaker of Parliament demands that Hassan leave. Those who demanded Hassan’s removal cited a rule that bans “strangers” — people other than elected members — inside the chamber, saying the regulation applies to children."
Just don't get on a plane or go to the US embassy in Kenya or Tanzania.
NEXT DAY UPDATES
My World lead:
"More than 150 flights canceled as Hong Kong airport is flooded by protesters" by Austin Ramzy and Gerry Mullany New York Times, August 12, 2019
(Groan)
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s airport came to a near halt Monday, with more than 150 flights canceled after thousands of demonstrators flooded one of the world’s busiest transportation hubs in a show of anger over the police’s response to protests the night before.
The airport said in an afternoon statement that all flights had been canceled for the rest of the day other than those already en route to Hong Kong. Almost 150 departures and more than two dozen arrivals were affected, according to the airport’s website.
The move was a stark display of the power of the antigovernment protests, which are now in their third month, to disrupt the basic functioning of Hong Kong, an Asian financial hub known for order and efficiency. Its airport is a crucial connection point for regional air travel.
Members of the largely leaderless movement had called for the demonstration after a night of clashes Sunday during which the police fired tear gas inside one subway station and chased protesters down an escalator in another. Many airport demonstrators Monday were angry that a woman at one of the Sunday protest sites had been hit by a projectile in one eye.
They are like Obama's stinky Occupy opposition (just in time for the run against Romney)?
What I am seeing here is desperation. They are shutting down the airport?
The airport said in its statement that operations had been “seriously disrupted as a result of the public assembly at the airport today.” A Hong Kong official called it an “illegal assembly.”
The cancellations affected thousands of passengers at Hong Kong International Airport, which handled nearly 75 million passengers last year.
Some said they agreed with the protesters’ prodemocracy agenda.
“If they have to stand for something, as long as it’s peaceful, I can understand that,” said Africa Alvarez, 48, who was flying home to Barcelona. “I can’t take my flight against something which is more important.”
Others expressed frustration.
“I am sympathetic for people who want changes, but I’m not sure it’s the best way to go about it,” said Pauline Price, a 52-year-old movie theater manager from New Zealand.
She said protesters risked losing support if their “ad hoc” moves became too disruptive: “Hong Kong was stable. It was one of the safest places in the world. This damages the image of Hong Kong.”
I think that was the point, cut bono?
As passengers and protesters streamed out of the airport, they formed long lines for taxis and the Airport Express train. Many protesters walked to the nearby town of Tung Chung to take the subway.
How quintessentially AmeriKan! The protesters went home!
They were not worried about tear gas?
Antigovernment protesters had staged a three-day sit-in at the airport over the weekend, during which they handed out pamphlets to travelers explaining their grievances. That protest started Friday and did not noticeably disrupt services.
The Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have escalated their criticism of the protest movement in recent days, and the Hong Kong police — who have fired more than 1,800 rounds of tear gas over the past nine weeks — unveiled even more confrontational approaches to protesters Sunday, like firing tear gas inside the subway station.
The mainland authorities have also continued to make shows of force. Over the weekend, several armored personnel carriers and trucks were seen in Shenzhen, a mainland city near Hong Kong, according to a report in The Global Times, a nationalist mainland tabloid. The vehicles were from the People’s Armed Police, which handles civil disturbances. The newspaper said they were assembling “in advance of apparent large-scale exercises.”
Hong Kong tycoons and prominent businesses have followed China’s central government in condemning violent protests, but the aggressive approach by the police could increase public support for the movement, as images of bloodied protesters circulate on social media and in local news outlets. Five years ago, the use of tear gas by the police against student activists helped set off a protest movement that occupied roadways for nearly three months.
Am I ever tired of this skewed, agenda-pushing slop filled with hopes, dreams, and distortions. Such is advocacy journali$m.... known as propaganda to the rest of the world.
In Tsim Sha Tsui, a popular shopping district on the Kowloon peninsula across the harbor from Hong Kong Island, a woman needed emergency surgery after being hit in the right eye, apparently by a projectile, according to local news reports. Her status was not immediately known.
Terence Mak, an assistant police commissioner, said it was unclear how the woman had been injured.
“We don’t have enough information right now,” he said. “There were many weapons on scene, such as bean bag rounds as well as steel balls,” a reference to slingshots that he said were used by protesters.
The injury to the woman in particular angered protesters at the airport, many of whom covered their right eyes with bandages in an expression of solidarity.
Noel Tse, a 29-year-old nurse, said she had joined the airport protest because she thought the police had acted with excessive force against demonstrators Sunday night.
“This incident is no longer a political issue,” she said. “It is a battle between right and wrong.”
Yup.
So when do we invade?
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Look, no air defense:
Hong Kong airport cancels all departing flights for second day
Related:
"The luxury brands Coach and Givenchy joined Versace on Monday in apologizing to China for producing T-shirts that were regarded to have undermined the country’s sovereignty. The apparel, which identified the semiautonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau as countries, set off an angry online backlash from Chinese consumers who perceived the designs as violations of the “One China” policy. Millions of social media users across China called for boycotts of the Western luxury companies’ products Monday, after images of the three garments, which are no longer for sale, circulated over the weekend by users on social media platforms such as Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging site. The furor comes as pro-democracy demonstrations continued to grip Hong Kong. The protests have heightened political sensitivities, particularly around China’s territorial claims and Hong Kong’s status."
Also see:
"South Korea retaliated against Japan on Monday in a diplomatic and trade dispute between the two key US allies, deciding to remove its neighbor from its list of countries entitled to preferential treatment in trade. South Korea’s action had been expected since Japan took a similar action against South Korea on Aug. 2. It was not immediately clear how the tightened export controls South Korea and Japan have introduced against each other would affect bilateral trade because the measures do not ban certain kinds of trade outright. Still, the move provided Washington with fresh evidence that neither country would back down any time soon, even though President Trump has urged them both to “sit down and get along with each other.”
We can't even keep our allies from fighting each other, how the fuck we gonna fight a war?
"As funerals were held Monday for five nuclear workers who were killed while testing a new missile, Russian officials said they will try to determine what went wrong....."
Sabotage?
The real Asian invasion:
"Asian carp are likely to find enough food to spread farther if they establish breeding populations in Lake Michigan, reinforcing the importance of preventing the invasive fish from gaining a foothold, scientists said Monday. A study led by University of Michigan researchers found that despite a drop-off in plankton, the lake has enough dietary options to sustain individual fish that venture away from nutrient-rich shoreline areas. That improves the carp’s prospects for colonizing large sections of Lake Michigan and eventually spreading to the other Great Lakes. Asian carp were imported to gobble up algae in Deep South sewage lagoons and fish farms. They escaped into the Mississippi River."
They were brought over here as some sort of geoengineering project, and look at the results.
Btw, I've been reading the same type of story for the last 12 years now.
Time to go fishing.
"Saudi Aramco says it’s ‘ready’ for IPO as it reports half-year earnings" by Stanley Reed New York Times, August 12, 2019
The oil giant Saudi Aramco is prepared for an initial public offering, its chief financial officer said Monday, reviving the prospects for a long-awaited listing that could be a major step toward diversifying Saudi Arabia’s economy.
The state-owned company has been moving toward greater financial transparency as it courts international investors, and the suggestion that it was ready for a public offering came during its first-ever earnings call. The company, the world’s largest oil producer, said earlier in the day that it had generated net income of $46.9 billion in the first half of the year.
Yeah, that's with a B.
Khalid al-Dabbagh, Saudi Aramco’s senior vice president for finance, strategy and development, said the timing of a public offering would be up to the “shareholder” — the Saudi government — and offered scant insight into when such a listing would happen.
Al-Dabbagh’s comments about the public offering appeared to confirm that Saudi leaders are eager to move ahead with it, although key decisions remain. Earlier preparations for a share sale were set aside last year as the price of oil fell and the Saudis struggled with questions of valuation and which exchange the company would be listed on, but after a bond issue this year attracted significant interest from investors, Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and the kingdom’s key policymaker, appears to have decided that officials should resume their preparations for a public offering. The Saudis also seem to be calculating that international outrage is fading after the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last year by Saudi operatives associated with the crown prince.
Who?
In the financial disclosure it released Monday, Aramco was much more profitable than its oil-producing peers. Exxon Mobil, the largest US oil company, brought in $5.5 billion in the first half of 2019; Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, reported net income of $9 billion for the first six months of the year.
“Despite lower oil prices during the first half of 2019, we continued to deliver solid earnings,” Aramco’s chief executive, Amin H. Nasser, said. Disclosing the financial results, he said, was “a significant milestone in Saudi Aramco’s history.”
That is when my print copy stopped pumping.
The company had long declined to disclose key metrics, including how much oil it produces and how much money it brings in. In April, though, it broke precedent and accompanied its well-received bond offering with a detailed prospectus that provided investors a wealth of financial and oil statistics. Because the bonds are publicly traded, Aramco is now required to publish financial results.
The company also said Monday that it had paid dividends of $46.4 billion, an amount almost equal to its net income figure, to the Saudi government in the first half of the year. Analysts had told investors that the state-owned company did not have a clear policy on dividends. “So far, there is little clarity on how dividends are determined,” analysts at the market research firm Energy Intelligence, wrote in a note to clients last week.
On Monday, analysts at Bernstein, another market research firm, questioned whether Aramco could continue to pay such large dividends. Noting that the company had reported a measure called “free cash flow” of $38 billion for the first half of the year, the Bernstein analysts wrote, “This implies that Aramco is borrowing to pay the dividend, which is unlikely to be sustainable over the long run.”
They are pa$$ing out some goodies before the IPO and subsequent stock dump.
Aramco said the dividends included an “ordinary” payment of $26.4 billion and a “special” dividend of $20 billion that “reflected the exceptionally strong” performance by the company last year, when it took in $111 billion. Aramco’s move toward disclosing more information coincides with the company’s becoming increasingly acquisitive, especially outside Saudi Arabia, in ways that could add to its need for more financing. The bonds issued in April were meant to help finance Aramco’s $69 billion acquisition of a government-held stake in Sabic, a Saudi petrochemical company.
The Saudi Hou$e of Cards is collapsing!
The IPO is meant to prop it up!
The stake in Reliance’s refining, petrochemical, and fuel business would help meet Aramco’s goal of locking up markets for its crude oil. With the United States having sharply reduced its imports from the Persian Gulf region thanks to increases in domestic production, suppliers like Kuwait, Iraq and the Saudis are battling over fast-growing Asian markets like India.....
India is going to need feed that war machine.
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They better hope things don't go in rever$e like with Uber.
