Miscellaneous News

[Blackstone]

Sage advice for Chinese citizens living in Hong Kong not to cause undue trouble and risk their relatively high degree of autonomy. Do they mean people like Joshua Wrong?

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China’s third-most senior leader has warned the people of Hong Kong not to challenge the “high degree of autonomy” the city has enjoyed since it was handed over to Beijing by Britain 20 years ago.

Outlining plans to consolidate Beijing’s power over Hong Kong, National People’s Congress Chairman Zhang Dejiang in a

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on Saturday also called on the city to enact controversial national security legislation that has been on hold since half a million people flooded the streets in opposition in 2003. The sweeping legislation would outlaw treason, sedition and other national threats.

“The relationship between the central government and Hong Kong is that of delegation of power, not power-sharing,” Zhang said at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the upcoming 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain. Calls for self-determination or independence for Hong Kong were attempts to shun the sovereignty enshrined in the Basic Law that China has over the city. “One cannot turn a blind eye to such acts,” he said.

Zhang mentioned areas in which the central government would go into further detail to consolidate its hold over Hong Kong, including the pace of political reform, Beijing’s power over the city’s chief executive and its ability to appoint and dismiss key officials.

The Hong Kong special administrative region should “steadfastly implement the constitutional obligation of national security under the Basic Law,” he said.

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China promised to give Hong Kong a “high degree of autonomy” before the U.K. relinquished control in 1997. On July 1, Xi Jinping is expected to visit the city for the first time as president to mark the anniversary of the exchange.

The commemoration comes against a backdrop of elevated political tension in Hong Kong. So-called Occupy protests paralyzed parts of the city in 2014 sparked by China’s insistence that it would vet candidates for the chief executive post. Many residents of the city are still angry over the lack of a direct election for their chief executive, who is selected by a 1,194-member committee dominated by China loyalists.

Zhang defined the role of the city’s chief executive as “core” in his speech. Hong Kong’s former No. 2 official, Carrie Lam, was elected chief executive in March. She won a resounding

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among the business and political elites who picked the city’s leader, and dispatched an opponent more popular with the general public. Lam’s inauguration ceremony will take place on July 1.

The NPC chairman said Hong Kong’s judges and government officials should take the lead to understand the Basic Law.

The timing of Zhang’s comments are interesting because they come as Lam is finalizing the list of people she wants in her cabinet, Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said by phone Saturday.

“The speech means Beijing has overall jurisdiction and whatever privileges Hong Kong people enjoy are granted by Beijing,” Lam said. “The hard-line language is laying the groundwork for July 1 when Xi Jinping is expected to visit the city.”

 

[Jura The idiot]

Monday at 8:31 AM

May 13, 2017

and I checked again:

it's a long series now ... I checked again:

after I had skimmed through
Mosul Siege Extends ISIS Fight in Iraq, Puts Civilians at Risk

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Iraqi forces are steadily closing in on the remaining pockets of territory held by the

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group in Mosul, inching toward a victory that U.S.-led coalition officials say is "only a matter of time."

But unlike past urban battles against IS in Iraq, the militants in Mosul are under siege by Iraqi forces.

The Iraqi government on Friday announced a call for all civilians in the Old City to flee, but human rights groups warned the orders could force tens of thousands into deadly front-line clashes.

The decision to surround the remaining IS holdouts is prolonging an already grueling fight, according to Iraqi commanders, and is punishing civilians being held by IS as human shields.

In the fight for Fallujah and Ramadi, cities that were also overrun by IS in 2014 as the group seized vast swaths of territory in Iraq, there was a tipping point in the battles -- the moment when the militants' hold on a city had shrunk to only a handful of neighborhoods. At that point, senior IS fighters began to flee in greater numbers, the extremists' command and control dissolved, defenses crumbled and Iraqi ground forces racked up a series of swift gains.

But in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city after Baghdad, Iraqi forces backed by the U.S.-led coalition have shrunk IS-held territory to less than 5 percent of the city and still resistance has remained stiff.

In what was meant to be a simple clearing operation last week, Iraqi Maj. Ihab Jalil al-Aboudi and his unit were pinned down for hours at a residential intersection in western Mosul just a few hundred meters from the Old City.

By afternoon, at least three coalition airstrikes were called in to clear IS fighters armed with medium machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

"Because the enemy cannot flee, the area is completely sealed off," said Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil of Iraqi special forces. He said it's impossible to predict how the next few weeks of the Mosul operation will play out, but so far the siege of the Old City is slowing progress on the ground.

"We are noticing that the closer we get to the Old City, the greater the resistance," he added, looking over the roughly 8 square kilometers (3 square miles) of Mosul territory still in IS hands on a satellite mapping app.

The Old City -- a warren of tightly packed homes and roads that shrink to the width of footpaths -- holds special significance for Mosul's residents and IS. The district is home to much of Mosul's ancient heritage, including the Iconic leaning minaret of the al-Nuri Mosque where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamic caliphate stretching across IS-held lands in Syria and Iraq in June 2014.

U.S. defense officials say "taking the time" to surround Islamic State strongholds is part of a new approach in the war against IS under the Trump administration, aimed at preventing militants from regrouping after territorial losses and foreign fighters from fleeing.

"The foreign fighters are the strategic threat, should they return home," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said at a Pentagon briefing on May 19. "So by taking the time to de-conflict, to surround and then attack, we carry out the annihilation campaign so we don't simply transplant this problem from one location to another."

Iraq's fight to retake Mosul began last October. By November, Iraqi forces had punched into the city limits along Mosul's eastern edge. In January, after 100 days of fighting, eastern Mosul was declared "fully liberated."

All the bridges spanning the Tigris River, which roughly divides Mosul into its eastern and western half, has been destroyed by coalition airstrikes, but residents reported IS fighters still managed to flee west, ahead of the Iraqi advances.

In February, Iraqi forces closely backed by the U.S.-led coalition launched the operation for western Mosul, initially planning to clear it of IS fighters south-to-north. But after the federal police stalled on the southern edge of the Old City just weeks into the push, the joint command center adjusted the plans, ordering Iraqi forces to first sweep up and around the congested Old City.

The slow military approach may be helping Iraqi and coalition forces kill and capture more IS fighters but it has put trapped civilians at greater risk, according to residents who recently fled neighborhoods still in IS hands.

A woman from al-Rifai neighborhood, who fled with her daughter after their house collapsed in an explosion, said her two sisters and their families were still inside the Old City.

It had been weeks since she heard from them, she said, speaking to The Associated Press from a civilian screening center south of Mosul on condition of anonymity, fearing for her relatives' safety.

Smugglers who deliver food into the district told her that months of Iraqi artillery and airstrikes have killed hundreds, she said. "In a single day they buried 30 bodies," she said.

Iraq's military dropped leaflets over the Old City Friday asking civilians to flee "immediately" to "safe passages" where they will be greeted by "guides, protectors and (transportation) to reach safe places," according to a government statement.

But human rights group Save the Children warned the order would likely lead to "deadly chaos" as the Iraqi government has not negotiated safe passage for civilians with IS.

Over the past two weeks IS has begun barricading families inside their homes, said Khaled Ahmed Aziz, also from al-Rifai. He said IS recently welded the doors to his sister's home shut.

"Now, even if she wanted to flee, she cannot," he said.

Ayad Sayyid, a doctor working at a clinic treating civilians fleeing Mosul said as the battle has ground on he is seeing more children and elderly patients suffering from malnutrition.

Last month there were about five cases a week, now he says he sees 20. Mosul residents have been suffering from food shortages for months, a hardship expected to be exacerbated during the holy month of Ramadan that began Friday night, when Muslims fast during daylight hours.

"It's a disaster," he said, adding that even before the battle, the residents of the Old City were among Mosul's poorest.

Since the push on western Mosul began, the United Nations says more than 580,000 people have been forced to flee.

"Please save the Old City as soon as possible," the woman from al-Rifai pleaded. "But, please stop the airstrikes, there are already enough bodies under the rubble."

 

[Jura The idiot]

May 21, 2017

May 14, 2017

now again North Korea fires ballistic missile

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and
North Korea stages 3rd missile test in 3 weeks

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North Korea launched a ballistic missile test Monday, its third in a little over three weeks.
The short-range ballistic missile traveled an estimated 248 miles, splashing down within Japan's exclusive economic zone, an area of sea where commercial ships are known to operate, according to statements from both the Japanese government and the South Korean military.
South Korea and Japan immediately issued strong protests, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promising "concrete action" in response to the test, and South Korean defense chiefs saying the North would face "strong punishment from our military."
North Korea has fired 12 missiles during nine tests so far in 2017 --

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.
Analysts say all of North Korea's tests, successful or not, provide information that help bring it closer to its goal of building a missile that could reach the US.

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That the missile landed within 200 nautical miles of the Japanese coast was an "extremely problematic act for the safety of airplanes and ships" Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a statement. The launch, read the statement, "is clearly violating the UN resolution. The repeated provocative acts by North Korea is absolutely not acceptable."
The Japanese Prime Minister said a "firm protest" was lodged with North Korea and that Tokyo would take action "together with the United States." Analysts say Japan's options for dealing with North Korea unilaterally are limited.
Tokyo couldn't carry out a military response alone, said Carl Schuster, a Hawaii Pacific University professor and former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center.
"Japan lacks the ballistic missiles, intelligence, targeting and reconnaissance assets, or electronic warfare and air defense suppression capability required to carry out any effective military response," Schuster said.
However, Japan could do some things that might hurt North Korea economically, he said, such as stopping and searching North Korean merchant and fishing vessels in Japanese waters.
No red lines
The government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office in early May and who has advocated dialogue with the North, condemned Monday's launch.
"It is a severe threat to the peace and stability of not only the Korean Peninsula, but also the international community," said a statement from South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Since our new government took office, North Korea has been frequently and repeatedly conducting provocation in such manner. This is in direct opposition to our demands in regards to the denuclearization and peace of the Korean Peninsula."
"North Korea's continuous provocative actions will cause its own isolation and it will be facing strong punishment from our military, South Korea and US alliance and the international community," a statement from South Korea's Joint Chiefs said.
Despite that rhetoric, the allies have not given North Korea any "red lines" which it cannot cross or face a military strike, said Adam Mount, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
"If they're not clear on what they are attempting to deter, they're not going to have the effect they desire," Mount said.
Even if a military response was considered, the repercussions could be catastrophic.
"If this goes to a military solution, it is going to be tragic on an unbelievable scale," US Defense Secretary James Mattis said earlier this month.
Any pre-emptive military strike on North Korea would put South Korean and Japanese civilian populations, as well as US military installations within those countries, at risk for a North Korean counterstrike. Some estimates put 25 million civilians at risk in the Seoul metropolitan area alone.
Testing continues
Current economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations and others seem to have done nothing to slow North Korea's missile program.
On May 14, North Korea fired what analysts called its most successful test ever in its quest to develop ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.
That test reached an altitude of more than 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles), according to North Korea. Analysts said that test gave North Korea critical information on developing a re-entry vehicle for nuclear warheads and showed Pyongyang had a missile capable of striking the US territory of Guam.
On May 21, Pyongyang sent a medium-range ballistic missile into the waters off its east coast. North Korea said that projectile was a ground-to-ground strategic ballistic missile Pukguksong-2, state news agency KCNA reported.
Key timing
As with a number of previous North Korean tests, the timing of Monday's launch came close to a key international event.
Less than two days earlier, Japan's Prime Minister met with US President Donald Trump and five other leaders from some of the world's most powerful countries at the G7 summit in Italy.
In their final communiqué, Abe and Trump -- along with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom -- said North Korea "increasingly poses new levels of threat of a grave nature to international peace and stability ... through its repeated and ongoing breaches of international law."
North Korea's May 14 test came as China was hosting a major economic summit in Beijing. In early April, Pyongyang tested a missile as Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepared to meet at a summit in Florida.
In a statement, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Beijing urged North Korea to "refrain from any action contrary to UN Security Council resolutions."
Echoing language used in the past, the statement added the situation on the Korean peninsula "is complex and sensitive."
"We hope all parties remain calm and exercise restraint ... and put the peninsula back on the track of peaceful talks," it said.
North Korea has said its missile testing is in reaction to threats against it by the South, the United States and Japan.

 

[PanAsian]

Actually they lost their lives standing up for what's right against a violent bigot. Real American heroes and real shame two of them lost their lives.

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Teen on Portland train: 'They lost their lives because of me and my friend'

By Madison Park, CNN
Updated 4:18 PM ET, Mon May 29, 2017

(CNN)As tears streamed down her cheeks, Destinee Mangum, 16, thanked the three strangers who intervened on a Portland light-rail train after a man hurled anti-Muslim slurs at her and her friend who was wearing a hijab.

Two of the men were killed. One is in the hospital after the suspect, identified as Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, stabbed the three victims, according to police.
"I just want to say thank you to the people who put their life on the line for me," Mangum told CNN affiliate KPTV, her voice cracking. "Because they didn't even know me and they lost their lives because of me and my friend and the way we look."
The incident on Friday struck a nerve across the United States. Outrage over the deadly assault, messages of support for the victims and expressions of antipathy for the attacker have dominated social media and news coverage.
Online funding pages have emerged for the families of the two slain men, the injured man and the girls who survived the attack.
On Monday, President Trump weighed in, lauding the victims and deploring the act of violence.
"The violent attacks in Portland on Friday are unacceptable. The victims were standing up to hate and intolerance. Our prayers are w/ them," the President tweeted from his @POTUS account.

The attack
Mangum and her friend were riding the MAX light rail Friday afternoon when the suspect allegedly targeted them. He yelled at Mangum, who is not Muslim, and her friend, using what police described as "hate speech toward a variety of ethnicities and religions."
What should you do if you witness a racist or Islamophobic tirade?
What should you do if you witness a racist or Islamophobic tirade?
"He told us to go back to Saudi Arabia and he told us we shouldn't be here, to get out of his country," Mangum told KPTV. "He was just telling us that we basically weren't anything and that we should just kill ourselves."
Frightened by his outburst, the pair moved away to the back of the train.
Then a stranger intervened, telling the man that he "can't disrespect these young ladies like that."
"Then they just all started arguing," Mangum said.
By the time the light rail pulled into the next station, Mangum and her friends were ready to leave.
"Me and my friend were going to get off the MAX and then we turned around while they were fighting and he just started stabbing people," she said.
"It was just blood everywhere and we just started running for our lives."
Several passengers chased after the suspect and called 911, directing officers to his whereabouts, according to local media.
Mangum, wearing pigtails, held tightly to her mother's hand as she spoke to a KPTV reporter.
"It's haunting me," she said.

Good Samaritans
The men who had intervened were viciously attacked, police said.
These three men stood up to hate in Portland
These three men stood up to hate in Portland
Ricky John Best, 53, of Happy Valley, died at the scene. The military veteran worked as a technician for the city of Portland and had gravitated towards public service.
Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, of Portland, died at the hospital. He had graduated from Portland's Reed College with a degree in economics last year and had just begun his career working at an environmental consulting agency.
The third victim, Micah Fletcher, 21, is being treated at a hospital with serious injuries. A GoFundMe account to pay for his medical bills showed a picture of him on a hospital bed with a visible neck wound.
Mangum's mother, Dyjuana Hudson, said she owes everything to the three men and their grieving families.
"I want to say thank you so much," she said. "I couldn't imagine what you're going through right now as far as losing someone."

'Their actions were brave; they were selfless'
Portland mayor Ted Wheeler praised the men for standing up to hatred and bigotry.
"It's very obvious that their actions were brave; they were selfless, and it should serve as an example and inspiration to all of us," he said in an interview Monday with CNN.
"There's no question in my mind that these men were heroes," he added.
Wheeler encouraged people to "stand alongside the memories" of the men and to denounce xenophobia and hate.
"They laid it on all on the line and they paid the ultimate price for standing up to those values which are bedrock to this country," Wheeler said.
The suspect
Christian was charged with two counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder, all felonies. The aggravated murder charge has the death penalty as a possible sentence.
He also was charged with misdemeanors: two counts of second-degree intimidation and a count of being a felon in possession of a restricted weapon, police said.

Christian was being held at the county jail without bail, he will be arraigned on Tuesday in Multnomah County Court.
Police said detectives are looking at Christian's background, "including the information publicly available about the suspect's extremist ideology."
Videos have surfaced showing Christian at various events shouting at people, at one point saying the N-word, as police officers separated him from others.

The FBI has joined the Portland police-led investigation to gather evidence.
Authorities are trying to determine whether Christian will be charged with federal hate crimes.
Teen's family asks for privacy
After granting interviews to a few local media outlets, Hudson and her daughter posted a video on Facebook saying they were thankful to the victims and the community support. They also asked for privacy.
"The best thing you guys can help us out with is just giving me and my family time to process everything and for me to cope with what happened and to actually heal from this and get over this somehow," Mangum said.
"When the time comes, we will come forward," her mother said. "But right now it's all just too much to keep rehashing it over and over again."
The other woman on the train hasn't spoken out publicly.

CNN's Rashard Rose, Tony Marco, Jason Hanna, Steve Almasy, Nicole Chavez, Joe Sterling and Catherine Treyz contributed to this report.

 

[Equation]

Actually they lost their lives standing up for what's right against a violent bigot. Real American heroes and real shame two of them lost their lives.

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Sadly we can expect more xenophobic and Islamophobic hate crimes to increase with Trump in the White House. I'm not saying all Trump voters are racist thugs and murderers, BUT there seems to be a lot of low lives encouraged and acting upon this excuse to what they think of preserving their values of "Making America Great Again".

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

Actually He was a Sanders supporter at least for a Time. His Facebook had Pro sanders and Some Pro Trump
Also Pro standing Rock.

 

[Equation]

Actually He was a Sanders supporter at least for a Time. His Facebook had Pro sanders and Some Pro Trump
Also Pro standing Rock.

Either way the perpetrator was anti-Islam so much that he would killed two innocent lives for getting in his way of taunting two innocent Muslim bystanders.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

I'll give you that, but Calling this dumb ____. A Trump supporter is thin at best. He does make a number of Antisemitic statements against Judaism and Islam. Looking over what I have seen of his FB account
If anything I suspect him to be more of a Militant Atheist with deep Left politics.

Truth is This is the case of the angry wack job. Left or Right doesn't matter all they have is hate and a willingness to do violence, and because this fits a bias and preconceived notion Others are Spinning a narrative.

 

[Equation]

I'll give you that, but Calling this dumb ____. A Trump supporter is thin at best. He does make a number of Antisemitic statements against Judaism and Islam. Looking over what I have seen of his FB account
If anything I suspect him to be more of a Militant Atheist with deep Left politics.

Truth is This is the case of the angry wack job. Left or Right doesn't matter all they have is hate and a willingness to do violence, and because this fits a bias and preconceived notion Others are Spinning a narrative.

True, but is there more racial violence and hatred going on these days because of Trump (not him personally) in the White House triggers more of these incidents? I don't remember Obama supporters or voters going out and start acting wacko during his presidency against the Bush supporters or other ethnic group.

 

[PanAsian]

Instead of focusing on the hater who did wrong and using it as political ammo to fuel more hate, I would rather focus on those who stood up for what's right who appear to hail from both stereotypically "Left" and "Right" leanings based on their occupations. This is a big reason why I thought this was worth posting about in the first place, excerpt from the earlier article:

...
Ricky John Best, 53, of Happy Valley, died at the scene. The military veteran worked as a technician for the city of Portland and had gravitated towards public service.
Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, of Portland, died at the hospital. He had graduated from Portland's Reed College with a degree in economics last year and had just begun his career working at an environmental consulting agency.
The third victim, Micah Fletcher, 21, is being treated at a hospital with serious injuries. A GoFundMe account to pay for his medical bills showed a picture of him on a hospital bed with a visible neck wound.
...

The third guy Micah Fletcher is a student and poet.