Hong Kongers marched again on Sunday, chanting “five demands, not one less” as the city’s anti-government protests approached their six-month milestone.

Demonstrators have been locked in a stalemate with the local government since early June amid protests initially sparked by a bill that would have enabled extradition to mainland China. On June 9, a million people marched through the financial center to demonstrate their opposition. Approximately 2 million people marched in protest a week later.

While Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has since retracted the bill, fulfilling one of the five demands, critics regarded the move as too little, too late. Social unrest in the city has since taken on broader anti-government sentiment as protesters push for greater democracy in Hong Kong.

Government opposition was fueled by anger with police conduct as well as how Lam’s administration dealt with the protests, Ma Ngok, associate professor in the department of government and public administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told CNBC.

“The government hasn’t actually responded, so a lot of people think they just cannot give up on the protest” Ma said.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/08/hong-kong-protests-5-demands-see-little-response-from-city-government.html

Critics accused President Donald Trump of playing to anti-Semitic tropes during a speech Saturday in Florida at a conference sponsored by the Israeli-American Council, where he said many Jewish Americans do not “love Israel enough.” 

“We strongly denounce these vile and bigoted remarks in which the president – once again – used anti-Semitic stereotypes to characterize Jews as driven by money and insufficiently loyal to Israel,” said Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, in a statement.

Soifer’s group is currently running an ad that calls Trump the “biggest threat to American Jews,” and she said his comments Saturday “only reinforce” that belief. 

In his address, Trump said the “Jewish State has never had a better friend in the White House” than himself, and he listed his acts since taking office, which he thought demonstrated that friendship. 

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As he discussed his choice of David Friedman as the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Trump told the crowd in Hollywood, Florida, “We have to get the people of our country, of this country, to love Israel more.”

“We have to get them to love Israel more because you have people that are Jewish people, that are great people – they don’t love Israel enough. You know that.” 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/08/jewish-groups-condemn-trump-remarks/4375229002/

They were aspiring aviators, students from Georgia, Alabama and Florida who’d gone to Naval Air Station Pensacola to earn their wings.

On Friday morning, a 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force who was also training at the base gunned them down in a classroom building, an incident that federal authorities are investigating “with the presumption” that it was an act of terror, an FBI official said Sunday.

A sheriff’s deputy killed the gunman, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, 21, after the shooting.

Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, from Coffee, Alabama.U.S. Navy Photo / AP

The bodies of the victims — Kaleb Watson, 23, Mohammed Sameh Haitham, 19, and Cameron Scott Walters, 21 — were flown Sunday to Dover Air Force Base, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

Speaking to reporters, DeSantis said the Navy was considering a posthumous recognition for Watson, who — despite being struck by gunfire — scrambled outside to alert first responders to the shooter’s location, according to his brother.

“He died a hero and we are beyond proud, but there is a hole in our hearts that can never be filled,” his brother, Adam Watson, wrote on Facebook.

Watson, of Coffee, Alabama, was a recent Naval Academy graduate who had majored in mechanical engineering and dreamt of becoming a Navy pilot, his father Benjamin Watson, told the Pensacola News Journal.

He reported for flight training in Pensacola last month, the newspaper reported.

Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, of Richmond Hill, Georgia.Walters family

Cameron Walters, of Richmond Hill, Georgia, also hoped to become a pilot, said his father Shane Walters.

“When Cameron graduated bootcamp, the grin on his face said it all,” Walters said in a statement. “’Look at me, Dad, I’m going to be just like you…’ To have the opportunity to earn his wings as a Navy Airman made him proud. And we, too, were so incredibly proud.”

Cameron Walters had six siblings and was the “ultimate motivator,” his father said. Shane Walters recalled his son’s social media pages, which he described as a venue where he liked to “reinforce the fact that he was doing what he said he would do — protecting our great country.”

Airman Mohammed Sameh Haitham, from St. Petersburg, Florida.U.S. Navy Photo / AP

Haitham, who had finished basic military training in September, was charming, funny and athletic — a basketball player and star track runner at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, recalled his cousin, Ashley Williams.

Haitham, who went by “Mo,” followed his mother into the Navy, Williams said — a tough pursuit he’d likely enjoy.

“Mo was someone who never allowed something to defeat him,” she said. “He’d [get] back up try it again. That’s the type of individual Mo was.”

Haitham’s birthday was on the 16th, and he was supposed to graduate from a flight training program three days later, she said. His plan was to buy himself an “airman” jacket for Christmas.

“Unfortunately none of that is gonna’ happen,” she said.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pensacola-shooting-victims-were-aspiring-aviators-gunned-down-flight-school-n1097966

Law scholar Alan Dershowitz predicted the next Democrat elected president of the United States will be impeached as a result of the same “open-ended” criteria the party is currently using to impeach President Trump.

“They have created open-ended criteria which bear no relationship to the word of the Constitution itself,” Dershowitz said Sunday on Fox News. “If President Trump is impeached, it will set a terrible precedent, which will weaponize impeachment, and the next Democrat who gets elected will be impeached.”

Dershowitz, who has been critical of Trump in the past and says he voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, has spent recent months criticizing the impeachment push led by House Democrats.

“It’s hard to find any president — modern president, old president — who can’t be accused of abuse of power,” he said.

Since the start of the inquiry, leading Republicans have attacked the impeachment process, complaining about access to classified briefings before public testimony and accusing leading Democrats of inappropriate communications with key witnesses.

The investigation centers on a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump pressured the foreign leader to investigate a political rival.

Democrats say Trump abused the office of the presidency and have hung some of their impeachment effort on the charge of bribery.

“How many foreign policy decisions have been made by presidents over the years in order to help them get reelected?” Dershowitz asked. “If we start making that an impeachable offense, there will be no presidents left.”

The House is expected to vote on articles of impeachment before Christmas, triggering a jury trial in the Senate.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/open-ended-criteria-dershowitz-says-next-democratic-president-will-be-impeached

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., received $1.9 million from private legal work during her time as a law professor stretching back three decades, according to a release by her campaign.

The work, since 1986, included fees from large corporate clients, her campaign said in the release.

Some of her clients included the attorneys for Rabobank, a Dutch financial institution that became a creditor in the Enron bankruptcy; former directors of Getty Oil, who were involved in Texaco’s bankruptcy; and women whose allegations of harm from silicone breast implants produced by Dow Corning were imperiled when the company filed for bankruptcy.

In May, Warren released a list of 56 cases on which she worked as an attorney going back to the 1980s, as The Associated Press reported; 15 pages of newly released data showed she was paid over $1.9 million on nearly 40 of those cases in total.

WARREN IN POLLING SLIDE AMID MEDICARE-FOR-ALL PLAN CRITICISM

The release Sunday came against the backdrop of an escalating feud between Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg  of South Bend, Indiana. The senator has condemned the closed-door fundraisers that the mayor has attended, suggesting Buttigieg could be making secret promises to top donors.

Buttigieg and his campaign responded that Warren should release past tax returns that detail her work for corporate clients. Warren previously had released 11 years of tax returns.

“We must nominate a candidate who can create the most robust possible contrast against Republicans on conflicts of interest and corruption issues. … Elizabeth does not sell access to her time — no closed door big dollar fundraisers, no bundling program, no perks or promises to any wealthy donor,” said Warren Communications Director Kristen Orthman.

She added: “Any candidate who refuses to provide basic details about his or her own record and refuses to allow voters or the press to understand who is buying access to their time and what they are getting in return will be seen by voters as part of the same business-as-usual politics that voters have consistently rejected.”

Warren’s campaign said Sunday’s information provides more details on her business income that her returns did not provide because they didn’t fully itemize earnings.

Also Sunday, Warren said she believed Americans would be ready for a presidential ticket with two women at the top, rejecting concerns from some Democrats that a woman couldn’t beat Trump.

“Sure, why not?” she told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of a town hall campaign event in Charleston, South Carolina. “I think (voters) would support a lot of different combinations.”

Warren has said she’d consider picking California Sen. Kamala Harris as a running mate. She also told the AP she would be “open” to asking former Vice President Joe Biden to reprise his old job.

“Look, it would be presumptuous of me to be talking about individuals, but I’m open to getting this right because that’s what we want to do,” Warren said. “We want to build a Democratic ticket and a stronger Democratic Party that’s ready to get out there and compete at the national level, at the state level, at the local level.”

Last week, Harris abruptly dropped out of the race for the presidential nomination, prompting a debate about whether a party claiming it valued diversity and inclusion was shortchanging candidates of color and women.

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Other than Warren, the top tier of Democrats has been made up entirely of white men.

Warren argued that voters were worried less about identity politics than the messages that candidates were offering.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-private-legal-work-earnings

Joe Biden has hit out again at the elderly Iowa voter he labelled a ‘damn liar’ after losing his cool during an interview where he was compared to Donald Trump

The Democrat wagged his finger at NPR reporter Rachel Martin after she questioned his reaction to 83-year-old veteran Merle Gorman in New Hampton last Thursday. 

Presidential candidate Joe hit back: ‘Don’t compare me to Donald Trump.’ When Martin questioned the civility of his response to Gorman, Biden replied: ‘That’s not civil? To call someone who lied a liar?

‘He’s lying! He’s lying. You acknowledge what he said wasn’t even true. None of the mainstream media believes any of that was true.’  

Gorman, who previously served in the United States Marine Corp and is also a retired farmer, accused Biden of selling access to the Presidency by sending son Hunter to Ukraine to work for a gas company Burisma Holdings.

The comment caused Biden to blow up in rage, labeling the elderly Gorman as ‘a damn liar’.

Scroll down for video 

Joe Biden, right, wagged his finger at NPR reporter Rachel Martin, left, after she suggested his reaction to 83-year-old veteran Merle Gorman was not unlike President Donald Trump 

Presidential candidate Joe said: ‘Don’t compare me to Donald Trump.’ When Martin questioned the civility of his response Biden replied: ‘That’s not civil? To call someone who lied a liar?’

Biden told NPR he had been ‘joking’ with Gorman about doing push-ups and taking an IQ test. He said: ‘I was joking with him because he…came along. What was he saying? He said he’s entitled to do this. 

‘He said, “You’re too old.” He said, “You’re too old. I can’t vote for somebody as old as you.” I said OK. And he was challenging me what kind of shape, and so I kidded. I said, “Want to do a push-up contest?” I was joking. Look, I’m in pretty good shape.’  

When Martin tells Biden voters at the town hall were comparing him to Trump, Biden denies it before the reporter adds: ‘Yes, they did. They said to me, the woman you met at the end, 94-year-old Mary, said to me, “I was so disappointed in him.” This is a direct quote: “That is not the Joe I know. He sounded like Donald Trump in that clip”.’

Biden said he does not ‘belittle’ or ‘make fun of people’ like Trump, adding: ‘The fact of the matter is this guy stood up, and he was in fact lying. And I just pointed out, “You’re a liar.” It’s a fact: He lied. Period.

‘And so, you know, maybe I shouldn’t have kidded with him about that “No, let’s do push-ups”.’ 

Gorman told The New York Post on Thursday evening: ‘I’m positive 90% of the people there didn’t know about his son working on the board in Ukraine. I wanted it brought out there’.

He added that he felt compelled to question Biden about his son’s activities in the Ukraine as all ‘the others [questions] were softballs questions’.

‘They [other attendees at the campaign stop] might as well have been asking him what color the chandelier was in the vice president’s office,’ Gorman told The Post.

Retired farmer Gorman was involved in the heated exchange with Biden last Thursday

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, left, faces off with a local resident Merle Gorman, right, challenging him about his son Hunter Biden’s involvement with Ukraine

The confrontation was at a campaign stop at Chickasaw Event Center in New Hampton, Iowa

Footage of the confrontation has now gone viral, with Gorman seen stating: ‘Trump has been messing around in Ukraine, he’s [got] no backbone… but you, on the other hand, sent your son over there, gave him a job working with a gas company, he had no experience with gas or nothing, in order to get access for the president.

‘You’re selling access to the president just like he [Trump] does,’ Gorman concluded.

Biden was clearly enraged by the accusation, seen pacing the floor furiously before walking up to Gorman as if to confront him physically.

Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm

Gorman told The Post that he believes: ‘The exchange speaks for itself.

‘He [Biden] didn’t have the guts to explain the situation, and that’s what I wanted.’

‘He got p**ed off and stomped around … I wish he had explained in a decent tone of voice why he got his son in that position over there and in my opinion he had no business whatsoever sticking his nose over there.’

Trump allies have gone after Hunter Biden for taking a lucrative job on a Ukrainian energy firm’s board at a time when Joe Biden was vice president with a portfolio that included Ukraine. Biden has said he never speaks to his son about his work.

Meanwhile, during the heated exchange, Gorman also told Biden, 77, that he was too old to be running for office.

‘I am 83 and I know damn well I don’t have the mental faculties I did when I was 30 years old,’ Gorman can be seen saying in the viral clip.

Biden snaps back: ‘You want to check my shape man, let’s do push-ups together here, man. Let’s run. Let’s do whatever you want to do. Let’s take an IQ test. Ok?’

But Gorman believes he was making a fair assessment of Biden’s age, telling the Post: ‘I know for a fact my mental faculties have slipped since I hit the 70s.

‘I got a friend in New Hampton who is 105 years old and he can do push-ups, so it doesn’t mean anything about how smart you are’ 

During the exchange, Biden furiously told Gorman ‘You’re too old to vote for me,’ despite the fact the pair are only six years apart in age.

Biden wagged his finger at NPR reporter Rachel Martin after she questioned his reaction to 83-year-old veteran Merle Gorman in New Hampton last Thursday. Presidential candidate Joe hit back: ‘Don’t compare me to Donald Trump.’ The president is pictured Saturday 

Meanwhile, Biden’s camp has aggressively denied the former vice president fat shamed Gorman, after it challenging him to the push-up contest.

Biden aide Symone Sanders has also pushed back on claims Biden called Gorman ‘fat’ during their exchange. 

Video of the incident suggests Biden said to Gorman at one point: ‘Look, fat, here’s the deal.’

Sanders vehemently denied that, claiming Biden said: ‘Look, fact, here’s the deal.’

Sanders wrote on Twitter: ‘To be clear: Any assertion VP Biden said a word about the gentleman’s appearance is making this something it is not. In the latter part of the exchange, the VP began to say ‘Look, facts’ then said ‘here’s the deal.’ If you’ve been to a Biden event, you’ve heard this before’.

The confrontation came on a day when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 79, unloaded on a reporter who asked if she ‘hated’ President Trump, 73.

She had just announced she had instructed committee chairs to begin drawing up articles of impeachment against Trump, in part based on the president’s actions pushing Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.

Pelosi said she ‘prayed’ for the president, who tweeted furiously in response that he did not believe her.    

Source Article from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7769985/Joe-Biden-defends-calling-elderly-voter-damn-liar-former-VP-loses-cool-reporter.html

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday urged stronger security “precautions” for foreign nationals training on U.S. military bases after a Saudi gunman shot and killed three people at the Pensacola naval base Friday, in an attack believed to be an act of terror.

DeSantis delivered the remarks during a Sunday news conference, calling for more substantial security vetting of foreign nationals before they head to the U.S. for training.

“My view is that for us to be bringing in these foreign nationals, you have to take precautions to protect the country,” the governor said.

He added: “To have them take out three of our sailors, to me that’s unacceptable and I think that could have been prevented.”

Investigators have named 2nd Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, of the Royal Saudi Air Force, as the gunman responsible for Friday’s massacre.

Investigators said they’re working under the presumption the incident was an act of terrorism involving a lone gunman.

Asked how Alshamrani, a foreign national, was able to purchase a firearm, DeSantis, a Second Amendment supporter, accused the suspect of taking advantage of a federal loophole.

“The Second Amendment applies to we the American people to keep and bear and arms. It does not apply to Saudi Arabians,” he said.

NAVY IDS 3 VICTIMS OF NAS PENSACOLA SHOOTING; MILITARY CALLS FOR INCREASED SECURITY CHECKS

DeSantis also praised first responders and law-enforcement officials who ran into danger to save others.

“I think that that’s what this community’s made of and I think that’s really emblematic of the type of grit, courage, and determination that you see here,” he said.

DeSantis pressed for more questioning into how the Saudi military and government vetted people who may have harbored radical worldviews.

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Though Saudi Arabia has pledged to cooperate with the investigation, De Santis said, “My view would be, trust but verify. If they say they’re going to cooperate, make sure they do cooperate and don’t just take lip service and think that that’s enough.”

The U.S. has long had a robust training program for Saudis, providing assistance in the U.S. and in the kingdom. More than 850 Saudis are in the United States for various training activities, among the thousands of foreign students from 153 countries in the U.S. going through military training, officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nas-pensacola-florida-ron-desantis-precautions-foreign-training-military

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold NadlerJerrold (Jerry) Lewis NadlerJudiciary panel releases report defining impeachable offenses READ: White House letter refusing to participate in impeachment hearings White House tells Democrats it won’t cooperate in impeachment hearings MORE (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that President TrumpDonald John TrumpPence: It’s not a “foregone conclusion” that lawmakers impeach Trump FBI identifies Pensacola shooter as Saudi Royal Saudi Air Force second lieutenant Trump calls Warren ‘Pocahontas,’ knocks wealth tax MORE would push to make the 2020 election unfair if he is acquitted of articles of impeachment in Congress.

“The president, based on his past performance, he will do everything he can to make it not a fair election,” Nadler said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“And that is part of what gives us the urgency to proceed with this impeachment,” he added. 

House members and Senators will have to decide “in the face of an abundance of uncontested evidence” whether “the president poses a threat to our election,” Nadler said. 

“Are they going to be patriots, or are they going to be partisans?” he asked. 

“This is a matter of urgency to deal with because we have to make sure the next election is conducted with integrity and without foreign interference,” he added. 

The Judiciary Committee will hold an impeachment hearing Monday. 

Nadler did not give a definitive time frame for when the House will vote on articles of impeachment. 

Spokespeople for the White House and Trump campaign were not immediately available to respond to Nadler’s comments. 

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/473569-nadler-trump-will-do-everything-to-make-sure-2020-is-not-a-fair

Hong Kong, China – Braving an unseasonal chill, protesters returned to Hong Kong’s central park on Sunday in their hundreds of thousands as the anti-government movement hit the half-year mark.

A sea of demonstrators, mostly clad in signature black attire, plodded peacefully along the six-lane main road from Victoria Park to the downtown business district.

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Many chanted slogans and held posters denouncing the police. “Rotten cops are killers, rapists and gangsters!” they shouted.

Organisers estimated the turnout at 800,000, a sign that people power was still going strong after six months in the city of 7.4 million. However, police told local media that 183,000 people attended.

Two marches that each attracted about a million people in June forced Chief Executive Carrie Lam to shelve a controversial extradition bill that had initially sparked the protests, which have since evolved into a wide-scale movement for greater democracy in the semi-autonomous territory.

“We must remind Carrie Lam these still are a lot of people. We urge her to look squarely at this and seriously consider our demand for an independent commission,” said Jimmy Sham, one of the march organisers from the Civil Human Rights Front.


Although the extradition bill was formally withdrawn in October, public anger remains intense, driven by Lam’s refusal to address protesters’ demands – an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality; amnesty for the nearly 1,000 people charged with offences stemming from the protests; a retraction of the police assertion that protesters are guilty of rioting; and universal suffrage to elect the full legislature and chief executive.

Lately, Lam has promised to establish an independent review committee to examine the root causes of the unrest, but protesters have insisted police tactics in suppressing the unrest ought to be the main focus.


‘Running out of options’

Sunday’s march was the largest such event approved by the police in more than three months.

Even though freedom of assembly is enshrined Hong Kong’s own constitution, an ordinance inherited from the colonial era mandates a letter of no objection from the police for any march of more than 30 people.

In recent months, the police have repeatedly rejected protester requests for such letters citing clashes at previous gatherings.

The march remained mostly peaceful as it wound down by nightfall, but both the High Court and the Court of Final Appeal along the route were charred by petrol bombs.

Two weeks ago saw the last mass mobilisation – for district council elections in which nearly 1.7 million voters handed a sweeping victory to the pro-democratic camp with an all-time record turnout of 71 percent.

“If the protesters didn’t keep up the pressure, the government would likely think the movement has lost steam after the electoral landslide,” political commentator Ching Cheong told Al Jazeera.

Taking a break from the march near the High Court, Water Cheng said he would keep going in order to bring pressure to bear, not least because there was no other choice.

“We’re running out of options. We’ve got no hope for our government knowing it’s Beijing that’s propping it up,” said Cheng, 57, a computer engineer. “But I know this is a long-term struggle.”


‘Defend our city’

The march organisers pegged the event to Human Rights Day, proclaimed by the United Nations on 10 December every year to honour 1948’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This weekend also coincided with the 40th anniversary of the “Kaohsiung Incident” in Taiwan, among the first countries where activists harnessed the significance of the Human Rights Day to press for democracy.

The 1979 event ended in a crackdown by military police in what was then a one party state under martial law.

Four decades on, the fight is now across the strait. Organisers in Hong Kong want to build worldwide support for their cause, declaring in a statement that “our rally today is to gather everyone in Hong Kong to defend our city as well as advancing international human rights movement with global civil society.”

Buoyed by the passage last month in the United States of the Hong Kong Human Rights & Democracy Act, which threatens to sanction officials who trample on rights and freedoms in the territory, protesters have since ratcheted up their outreach to other countries.


“The protesters have been internally-focused, but now they’re getting on Twitter to help people understand what’s going on,” said Lokman Tsui, who specialises in new media at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Legislators and student activists have formed delegations to fan out across the globe lobbying in cities from Brussels to London and Canberra.

They felt encouraged by the news last week that Australia began a new parliamentary inquiry which will examine if Canberra should adopt legal measures comparable to the US’s Magnitsky Act to impose sanctions on those who commit gross human rights abuses.

Observers said the US legislation was an initial success, but was only the start.

“When facing off a monolithic regime, it’s important to ask for help from the international community in order to apply pressure on China,” said Ching. “This may well prove to be a workable strategy.”

Source Article from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/mass-hong-kong-pro-democracy-rally-marks-months-protests-191208163357209.html

An Arkansas patrol officer was “ambushed and executed” while sitting in his cruiser at a police department parking lot, authorities said Sunday.

Police in Fayetteville identified the officer in a statement as Stephen Carr.

Police say evidence shows that Fayetteville, Arkansas, police Officer Stephen Carr was ambushed and executed while sitting in his patrol vehicle.Fayetteville Police Dept.

The shooting occurred shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday, the statement said. Two officers who heard gunfire in the parking lot responded and killed the gunman during a confrontation, police said.

The suspect, London Phillips, 35, was armed, police said.

Carr and Phillips died at the scene, the statement said.

“Evidence shows that Officer Carr was ambushed and executed,” the statement said. It did not provide additional details.

Carr had worked with the department for 2½ years, the statement said. He was assigned to patrol an entertainment district in the city of 85,000 near the Oklahoma state line.

The officers who killed Phillips were placed on administrative leave, per department policy, while local and federal authorities conduct an independent investigation, police said.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/arkansas-officer-ambushed-executed-police-station-parking-lot-n1097846

Three sailors were killed and eight injured in a shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station on Friday in Florida. The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.

Josh Brasted/Getty Images


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Three sailors were killed and eight injured in a shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station on Friday in Florida. The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.

Josh Brasted/Getty Images

The FBI is investigating the shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola on Friday as an act of terror.

Rachel Rojas, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Jacksonville Field Office, said in a news briefing Sunday that investigators are working with “the presumption that this was an act of terrorism.”

Doing so, she said, “allows us to take advantage of investigative techniques that can help us more quickly identify and then eliminate any additional threats to the rest of our community.”

There is currently no evidence of such a threat, she added.

On Saturday, the FBI identified the shooter as Mohammed Alshamrani, a 21-year-old second lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force. He was a student naval flight officer of Naval Aviation Schools Command.

The air station in Pensacola is a training ground for students from various branches of the U.S. military, along with personnel from U.S. allies abroad.

Rojas said that a number of Saudi students at the Florida air station had been close to the shooter and were cooperating with the investigation.

“Their Saudi commanding offer has restricted them to base, and the Saudi government has pledged to fully cooperate with our investigation,” she said. “I thank the Kingdom for their pledge of full and complete cooperation.”

Rojas would not confirm reports that the shooter showed videos of mass shootings at a dinner party the night before the attack, and had posted tweets shortly before the shooting in which he called the U.S. “evil” and quoted Osama bin Laden.

The FBI identified the weapon used in the shooting as a Glock 45 9mm pistol that had been purchased legally.

Three sailors were killed on Friday in the shooting, and eight others were injured. The deceased were identified on Saturday as Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, 23, from Coffee Ala.; Airman Mohammed Sameh Haitham, 19, from St. Petersburg, Fla.; and Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, from Richmond Hill, Ga.

The shooter was killed by Escambia County Sheriff’s deputies who responded to the report of an attack.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/12/08/786089099/fbi-is-investigating-pensacola-shooting-as-terrorism

While Democrats who control the House are focused on a swift impeachment vote by year’s end, the White House is almost entirely consumed by the trial that would follow in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Mr. Trump’s team believes he would have the chance to defend himself and where Democrats would almost certainly fall short of the two-thirds vote they would need to remove him from office.

That proceeding, however, is also full of unknowns. At a meeting with senior White House officials and senators in the Roosevelt Room of the White House almost three weeks ago, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, made clear that there are not enough Senate votes to approve some of the edgier witnesses that Democrats and Republicans want to call. While he mentioned no names, it was interpreted by those in the room to refer to people like Hunter Biden, the son of the former vice president, whom Mr. Trump pushed Ukraine to investigate.

In the House, though, the president is eager to see Republicans and his lawyers mount a robust assault on what he calls a “hoax” and a “scam” led by “crazy” and “dishonest” Democrats.

“What they are doing here is discrediting a system,” Mr. Bobbitt said of the White House impeachment strategy. “If the system is discredited, it cannot discredit me. It is brilliant in its way, but totally cynical and completely destructive of our values.”

Politics have always been a powerful factor in presidential impeachment inquiries, which have roiled the nation twice in the last 50 years.

But impeachment has occupied a special place in the American consciousness. Veterans of the process said there had been an understanding, even amid bouts of intense political combat, that both sides had an obligation to the Constitution that should be honored, regardless of partisan affiliation.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/08/us/politics/impeachment-partisan-democrats-republicans.html

HONG KONG — Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators crammed into Hong Kong’s streets on Sunday, their chants echoing off high-rises, in a mass show of support for a protest movement that shows no signs of flagging as it enters a seventh month.

Chanting “Fight for freedom” and “Stand with Hong Kong,” a sea of protesters formed a huge human snake winding for blocks on Hong Kong Island, from the Causeway Bay shopping district to the Central business zone, a distance of more than 1 1/4 miles. It was one of the biggest rallies in months.

Crowds were so large and dense that the march ground to a standstill at times. Protesters spilled into narrow side streets, crying “Revolution in our times.”

Organizers said 800,000 people participated, while officials put the figure at 18,000.

Protesters march into the night in Hong Kong on Sunday.Dake Kang / AP

One protester crawled part of the route prostrated on her hands and knees, dragging bricks and empty soda cans behind her. It was an apt metaphor for the pro-democracy movement, which has become a long-haul push to preserve Hong Kong’s freedoms that make it unique among China’s cities.

“This is just the beginning. We have a long way to run,” said another demonstrator, Louisa Yiu, an engineer.

Many marchers held up five fingers to press the movement’s five demands. They include democratic elections for Hong Kong’s leader and legislature and a demand for a probe of police behavior during the six months of continuous protests.

Marchers said they hoped the huge turnout might help win concessions from the government of Chief Executive Carrie Lam. Protesters spanned generations. One man’s young son marched in his Spiderman suit.

“We need to encourage our Hong Kongers. Our government is a failure and the members inside refuse this truth,” 40-year-old clerk Cindy Siu told NBC News.

“The government ignores our public opinion and keeps on surprising the young kids. They’re our city’s future, our future.”

Anti-government protesters march Sunday in Hong Kong.Anthony Kwan / Getty Images

Marchers said protesting has become part of the fabric of their lives since demonstrations erupted in June against a now-withdrawn government measure that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent for trial in Communist Party-controlled courts in mainland China.

The protests have since snowballed into a broad, sustained anti-government movement, presenting the communist leadership in Beijing with a major headache and battering Hong Kong’s economy.

Police in riot gear deployed in numbers on the edges of the march. Earlier in the day, they arrested 11 people and seized a cache of weapons, including a firearm with more than 100 bullets. Police said the suspects apparently planned to use the weapons during the protest to frame police, who have been accused of using excessive force against the protesters.

Violence was limited, with a bank vandalized and police reporting that gasoline bombs were thrown outside the High Court.

Rally organizer Eric Lai had called for police restraint and for no use of tear gas.

“We hope this will be a signature for our movement after six months to show to Carrie Lam as well as to the world that people are not giving up. People will still fight for our freedom and democracy,” Lai said.

Authorities, who have liberally used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets at previous demonstrations, say force has been necessary to disperse hard-core protesters who have battled riot officers, vandalized shops and thrown gasoline bombs.

Police banned mass marches as protests turned increasingly violent, but relented and allowed Sunday’s march after a few weeks of relative peace.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hundreds-thousands-march-hong-kong-protests-near-half-year-mark-n1097741

President Trump on Sunday said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has “everything” to lose by acting aggressively after Pyongyang conducted a “very important test” at a missile site that supposedly had been shuttered.

“Kim Jong Un is too smart and has far too much to lose, everything actually, if he acts in a hostile way. He signed a strong Denuclearization Agreement with me in Singapore,” the president wrote on Twitter.

“He does not want to void his special relationship with the President of the United States or interfere with the U.S. Presidential Election in November. North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, has tremendous economic potential, but it must denuclearize as promised. NATO, China, Russia, Japan, and the entire world is unified on this issue! ,” the president said.

Trump’s posting comes as North Korean state media reported on Sunday that Kim’s regime carried out a test at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground on Saturday.

Kim had pledged to close the facility after the Singapore summit with Trump in June 2018 but reports said in March that it was being rebuilt.

“The results of the recent important test will have an important effect on changing the strategic position of the DPRK once again in the near future,” state media reported, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2019/12/08/trump-warns-kim-jong-un-he-has-everything-to-lose-after-test-at-north-korea-missile-site/

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon weighs in on impeachment inquiry hearings.

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Source Article from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVMe5uceElI

In the Netherlands, Ms. Abdulaheb discovered that several of her social media accounts and a Hotmail account were hacked after she posted the tweet in June with the excerpt from the documents.

She said she also got a message written in Uighur on Facebook Messenger that said, “If you don’t stop, you’ll end up cut into pieces in the black trash can in front of your doorway.”

“That made me scared,” she said.

Then in early September, an old friend of her ex-husband, someone who worked in a court in Xinjiang, contacted him after a long period of silence, Ms. Abdulaheb said. The friend invited Mr. Abibula to Dubai and offered to pay his expenses. He flew to Dubai on Sept. 9 and was met by his friend and several Chinese security officers who were ethnic Han, she said.

After days of questioning Mr. Abibula, the officers handed him a USB stick and told him to put it into his ex-wife’s laptop, which would give them access to the computer’s contents, she said.

Ms. Abdulaheb’s description of harassment and threats could not be independently verified. Still, her account fit a pattern that other Uighurs abroad have described. They have also recounted threats and pressure coming from China to remain silent or provide information to agents.

Despite such threats, growing numbers of Uighurs and Kazakhs have spoken out, often using Twitter and Facebook to publicize family members in Xinjiang who have disappeared, possibly into re-education camps or prisons. A Uighur-American woman in the Washington area, Rushan Abbas, told The Times about family members who had gone missing after she had spoken publicly about the camps.

In an interview Saturday, Mr. Zenz, the researcher, said that for Ms. Abdulaheb, “going public makes her safer” from potential retaliation.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/world/europe/uighur-whistleblower.html

On Monday, the partisans in the swamp of Washington (and beyond) will get something they have been pining for. At last, the much-hyped, long-delayed Department of Justice Inspector General’s report on possible FISA abuse–the process by which the FBI got permission to surveil an American citizen, Carter Page, once affiliated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign–will finally be released.

To Republicans, the so-called Horowitz report (the IG is Michael Horowitz, a well-regarded Obama appointee) is the first step in the counteroffensive against what they believe was a sinister plot, hatched by Obama-era intelligence and FBI officials, to frame Trump as a Russian dupe who “colluded” with Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election.

They hope there will be sufficient damning detail in the report to lead to multiple criminal referrals. At the top of their wish list, fanned nightly on Fox News: the sight of former FBI director James Comey frog marched out of his lovely McLean, Va., home.

For Democrats, there is more fear than hope attached to the report’s release and Horowitz’s expected December 11 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The report could disrupt the impeachment narrative they are composing in the House of Representatives.

It may contain a few inconvenient facts about the origins of “Operation Crossfire Hurricane,” as the FBI probe into Trump was named. Indeed, those who have seen parts of the report–anyone Horowitz interviewed gets to review for factual accuracy the parts of it dealing with them–have tried to get out in front of the story with strategic leaks.

The Washington Post and the New York Times have reported that a “low level” Justice Department attorney is said to have “altered” a document submitted to the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court. It’s also been reported that, according to the report, the FBI did not alert the FISA judge that some of the information supplied by former MI6 official Christopher Steele (author of the notorious “dossier” on Trump’s alleged Russia transgressions) didn’t independently verify some of Steele’s claims.

But overall, the leakers say, the report will find no “bias” against Trump, and further will claim that “the investigation was opened on a solid legal and factual footing,” according to the Washington Post.

Horowitz’s remit was to review the process by which the FBI decided and then proceeded to seek permission to surveil an American citizen affiliated with a political campaign. Barr, in an interview last spring, called that step “a big deal.” To undertake surveillance of a U.S. citizen, to tap his phone and rifle through his past e-mails, is an extraordinary measure; as Francey Hakes, a former attorney in the Justice Department’s Office of Intelligence, responsible for vetting FISA applications, says, “it is an onerous process, not nearly as easy as getting a search warrant from a judge.”

In pursuing this investigation, Justice Department guidelines say only DOJ employees must sit for interviews with Horowitz and his staff. Anyone else, including former DOJ officials or officials from other intelligence agencies, can be asked to cooperate. But they don’t have to do so. In this case, Comey met with Horowitz, as did CIA Director GIna Haspel, and former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.

Horowitz can make criminal referrals to the DOJ based on his investigation. And It is likely that the attorney who allegedly altered a document will be referred for possible prosecution. Might there be others? Two senior Justice Department officials declined to comment on the possibility.

The reverberations of the Horowitz report will be deeply felt at “main Justice,” as DOJ headquarters is called, as well as at the FBI. The widespread expectation is that the report will be scathing, sources said. The use of the unverified Steele dossier as part of the FISA application process, says Hakes, “is terrifying.” Comey has said publicly that standard practice was simply to vouch before the court as to a source’s prior credibility. Since Christopher Steele had provided useful information in the past, the argument goes, the dossier was therefore A-OK, the FBI’s defenders have said.

The problem with that assertion, according to five current and former DOJ officials, is that it’s false. First, in this case, Steele was merely a messenger, delivering information provided by sources in Russia. They are the ones whose credibility needs to be assessed. Did the FBI do that? To what extent? And what did they find? Horowitz will tell us, and hints from current and former DOJ officials suggest the news will not be good for Comey & Co, who ran the Russia investigation. “It was a complete breakdown of the processes designed to protect American citizens,” says Hakes.

How or why that happened will be central to Horowitz’s findings. The GOP suspects malevolent intent. But if the report concludes as the Post reported, that there was a sufficient “legal basis” for the surveillance warrant to be sought, then the most interesting and important aspect will be this: will it say what the legal basis was, beyond the dossier? Because that remains a mystery–arguably the central mystery of the entire Russia-gate saga.

And there is another key question that presumably Horowitz will address: how did his investigation lead to that conclusion? Attorney General William Barr is said to be skeptical that Horowitz had enough information on which to assert that there was a legal predicate for the Russia investigation. He has tasked U.S. attorney John Durham to investigate the origins of the Russia probe beyond the FISA process, including the role the CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies may have played in providing information that found its way to the FBI.

Durham’s is now a criminal investigation, meaning he can convene grand juries and seek indictments (something an inspector general cannot). This is why several current and former CIA officials have already “lawyered up,” as the phrase goes. Barr suspects the CIA and foreign intelligence services played a key role in developing information that led to the FISA requests. That’s something that Durham is looking into.

In drawing his reported conclusion, is Horowitz replying on summaries of the intelligence the Bureau received from other sources? Was he shown the raw intelligence? Is Barr right to be skeptical of his reported conclusion? The release of the Horowitz report will answer at least some of those questions. And then it will be Durham’s turn to probe.

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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/inspector-general-horowitz-report-damage-comey-frustrate-trump-pressure-barr-successor-1476074

Source Article from https://www.tmz.com/2019/12/08/juice-wrld-dead-dies-seizure-chicago-midway-airport-hospital/

Authorities investigating a deadly attack at a U.S. naval base in Florida are reportedly focused on finding several unaccounted for Saudi nationals linked to the shooting, as additional details have emerged about the shooter’s movements in the weeks leading up to the rampage.

The FBI’s Jacksonville office identified the shooter in a statement Saturday night as Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, and released a photo of him. Investigators said he was a 2nd Lt. in the Royal Saudi Air Force and was a student naval flight officer of Naval Aviation Schools Command when he opened fire Friday at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida before being shot dead.

In the days since the attack, a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity after being briefed by federal authorities told the Associated Press that a total of 10 Saudi students were being held on the base as of Saturday while several others were unaccounted for.

While officials have not publicly disclosed how many missing servicemen are out there, U.S. Northern Command (Northcom) has called for increased random security checks at all sites as authorities investigating the attack are still working to determine whether the shooting was an act of terrorism.

This undated photo provided by the FBI shows Mohammed Alshamrani. The Saudi student opened fire inside a classroom at Naval Air Station Pensacola on Friday before one of the deputies killed him.
(FBI via AP)

“There’s no question what it is, it’s terrorism.” Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R) said Sunday on “Fox & Friends.” “It’s radical Islam.”

NAS PENSACOLA GUNMAN ‘JUST SHOT THROUGH THE DOOR’ DURING RAMPAGE, SURVIVOR SAYS

Lt. Cmdr. Michael Hatfield told Fox News on Saturday that after the shootings last week at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii and in Florida, Northcom has directed all Defense Department installations, facilities and units within the U.S. to immediately assess force protection measures and “implement increased random security measures appropriate for their facilities.”

“The advisory also told leaders to remind their workforce to remain alert and if they see something, to say something by immediately reporting to appropriate authorities any suspicious activity they may observe,” Hatfield continued.

On Saturday, a U.S. official told the Associated Press that Alshamrani hosted a dinner party earlier in the week where he and three others watched videos of mass shootings.

The official who spoke Saturday said one of the three students who attended the dinner party hosted by the attacker recorded video outside the classroom building while the shooting was taking place on Friday. Two other Saudi students watched from a car, the official said.

Scott said Sunday that while Saudi Arabia has been an ally, “they have to step up here,” calling reports of the dinner party and viewing of mass shooting videos “disgusting.”

“The fact that the FBI has not been able to, the reports say, the FBI has not been able to talk to every airman. I mean, I can’t imagine that.” he said on “Fox & Friends.” “If the Saudi government is our ally our partner, they will make sure that there is full cooperation, not one airman needs to leave this country until the complete investigation.”

Authorities are reportedly searching for missing Saudi servicemen linked to the shooting on Friday at the Naval Air Base Station in Pensacola, Fla.
(AP Photo/Melissa Nelson)

In the weeks leading up to the shooting, Alshamrani and the same three other Saudi military trainees made a visit to New York City where they went to several museums and Rockefeller Center, a person briefed on the investigation told the New York Times.

Federal investigators are now focused on whether the trip was an extended tourist trip during the Thanksgiving holiday week or if the group of Saudi trainees had other motives or were meeting with anyone else in New York, according to The Times. Of the 10 Saudi trainees reportedly detained, three of them are the ones from the dinner party who claimed they were only filming the shooting because they happened to be there at the time and wanted to capture the moment, the U.S. official told the New York Times.

In an exclusive interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said it’s unclear if they were filming it before it began or if it was something where they picked up their phones filmed it when they saw it unfolding.

“You know, today, people pull out their phones and film everything and anything that happens,” Esper told Fox News’ Chris Wallace.

A U.S. official on Friday told the AP the FBI was examining social media posts and investigating whether he acted alone or was connected to any broader group. The SITE Intelligence Group, a group that monitors jihadist media, said that Alshamrani posted to Twitter echoing sentiments from former Al Qaeda leader Usama Bin Laden.

A spokesperson for Twitter told Fox News in an email statement Saturday that the account was suspended but they declined to comment further as to when the manifesto was tweeted out. The FBI told Fox News it was aware of the anti-American Twitter post, but would not comment on whether they’re looking at it as part of the investigation.

In remarks at a gathering of top U.S. defense and military officials on Saturday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper was asked whether he could say definitively that the shooting was an act of terrorism.

“No, I can’t say it’s terrorism at this time,” he said, adding that the investigation needs to proceed. He declined to discuss details of the investigation so far.

SAUDI ARABIA ‘WILL BE INVOLVED IN TAKING CARE’ OF PENSACOLA SHOOTING VICTIMS’ FAMILIES, TRUMP SAYS

In the wake of the deadly shooting, President Trump said Saturday that he would review policies governing foreign military training in the U.S but declined to say whether the shooting was terrorism-related.

The U.S. has long had a robust training program for Saudis, providing assistance in the U.S. and in the kingdom. Currently, more than 850 Saudis are in the United States for various training activities. They are among more than 5,000 foreign students from 153 countries in the U.S. going through military training.

“This has been done for many decades,” Trump said. “I guess we’re going to have to look into the whole procedure. We’ll start that immediately.”

Scott on Sunday called for suspending the training program pending a thorough review.

“We have got to make sure that American sailors, American soldiers are safe. We have to have a full review of what happened here,” he said on “Fox & Friends.” “We cannot be taking risks for our sailors.”

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The Navy on Saturday identified the three victims of the NAS Pensacola shooting as Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, 23, of Coffee, Ala.; Airman Mohammed Sameh Haitham, 19, of St. Petersburg, Fla.; and Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, of Richmond Hill, Ga.

“The Sailors that lost their lives in the line of duty and showed exceptional heroism and bravery in the face of evil,” Capt. Tim Kinsella, the commanding officer of Naval Air Station Pensacola, said in a statement. “When confronted, they didn’t run from danger; they ran towards it and saved lives.”

Kinsella said Naval Air Station Pensacola, one of the Navy’s most historic and storied bases, would remain closed until further notice. The base sprawls along the waterfront southwest of the city’s downtown and dominates the economy of the surrounding area.

Part of the base resembles a college campus, with buildings where, in addition to foreign students, 60,000 members of the U.S. Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard train each year in multiple fields of aviation.

The FBI’s Jacksonville office has said it’s not aware of any credible threat toward the Pensacola community at this time, but anyone with information regarding Alshamrani and his activities before the shooting is encouraged to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj, Morgan Phillips, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/missing-saudi-servicemen-nas-pensacola-shooting-fbi-new-york-city-trip

Media captionHong Kong pro-democracy rally: ‘The streets are full once again’

Tens of thousands of protesters have marched through the streets of Hong Kong in the largest anti-government rally in months.

For the first time since August, police allowed a rally by the Civil Human Rights Front, a pro-democracy group.

Organisers said an estimated 800,000 took part while police put the number at 183,000.

Police said 11 people were arrested in raids ahead of the rally and that a handgun was seized.

The protests started in June over a controversial extradition bill, and have now evolved into broader anti-government demonstrations.

“I will fight for freedom until I die,” said June, a 40-year-old mother in Victoria Park, where protesters gathered.

In a statement on Saturday, the government called for calm and said it had “learned its lesson and will humbly listen to and accept criticism”.

At the end of the march, the government said it was looking forward to finding “a way out for Hong Kong’s deep problems through dialogue”.

Monday will mark six months since a mass rally on 9 June that triggered the political crisis that has gripped the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

Image copyright
Reuters

Image caption

Organisers said an estimated 800,000 people took part in the anti-government protest

Organisers of the rally, the Civil Human Rights Front, said this is the government’s last chance to meet their demands, which include an independent inquiry into the police’s handling of the protests, an amnesty for those arrested, and free elections.

Clashes have become increasingly violent in recent months, raising the question of how the unrest can be stopped.

Around 6,000 people have been arrested and hundreds injured, including police, since June.

Image copyright
Reuters

Image caption

The protest was organised by Civil Human Rights Front, a pro-democracy group

Yet, Sunday’s march was largely peaceful, with few reports of violence despite tensions running high at times.

As the march neared its end, protesters held their mobile phone torches aloft, illuminating the streets as they chanted anti-government songs.

Meanwhile, the High Court and the Court of Final Appeal were vandalised and attacked with suspected petrol bombs, police said.

The attacks on the courts were widely condemned by march organisers, police and the government, which it said “undermined Hong Kong’s reputation as a city governed by the rule of law”.

Earlier, police said a Glock semi-automatic pistol and 105 bullets were discovered during raids along with a haul of knives and firecrackers. It was said to be the first time that a handgun was found since the protests began.

The city has been relatively calm since pro-democracy candidates won a landslide victory in local council elections two weeks ago.

Image copyright
AFP

Image caption

Police say it uncovered a pistol during raids

But discontent with Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, has not disappeared, with many protesters demanding more concessions from her government.

“No matter how we express our views, through peacefully marching, through civilised elections, the government won’t listen,” one 50-year-old protester, named only as Wong, told AFP news agency.

What are the protests about?

Hong Kong’s protests started in June against plans to allow extradition to mainland China.

Critics feared this could undermine judicial independence and endanger dissidents.

Image copyright
Getty Images

Image caption

Protesters form a frontline during a stand-off with police at the demonstration

The bill was withdrawn in September but protests continued.

Until 1997, Hong Kong was ruled by Britain as a colony but then returned to China. Under the “one country, two systems” arrangement, it has some autonomy, and its people have more rights.

Media captionThe identity crisis behind Hong Kong’s protests

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50704137