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Jumat, 09 Agustus 2019

Hong Kong: China bans Cathay Pacific staff seen to support protests - BBC News

China has ordered the Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific to suspend any staff who support pro-democracy protests in the territory.

Beijing's demand coincided with a peaceful rally at Hong Kong's airport, where thousands occupied a terminal.

Cathay also faced pressure online after China's state-run press fuelled a #BoycottCathayPacific hashtag, which trended on Chinese social media.

Hong Kong has seen weeks of protests over China's control of the territory.

The protests began about nine weeks ago over a proposed extradition bill between Hong Kong and mainland China and evolved into demands for greater freedoms.

Hong Kong is part of China but its citizens have more autonomy than those on the mainland. It has a free press and judicial independence under the so-called "one country, two systems" approach - freedoms activists fear are being increasingly eroded.

China fuels boycott campaigns

Earlier this week China warned the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong not to "underestimate the firm resolve of the central government".

This week China appeared to turn its attention to companies it sees as connected to the protests. Cathay was targeted after one of its pilots was arrested among protesters, and the airline's flight attendants union signed a joint statement with other aviation industry employees backing the protesters.

"The four sins of Cathay Pacific Airlines," read a headline in Chinese state newspaper the People's Daily, which detailed actions by the carrier it said were supportive of the pro-democracy movement.

Cathay chairman John Slosar defended his staff. "We employ 27,000 staff in Hong Kong doing all sorts of different jobs... we certainly wouldn't dream of telling them what they have to think about something," he said.

A Taiwanese bubble tea franchise - Yifang - and a popular Japanese sports drink were also targeted by boycott campaigns. One of Yifang's branches in Hong Kong had reportedly hung a sign cheering on the protesters. The branch was later vandalised, Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS reported.

Japanese sports drink Pocari Sweat pulled advertising from Hong Kong television station TVB, which protesters accuse of pro-Beijing coverage.

Under pressure of a boycott, the firm's mainland China office issued a statement saying it operated separately from the Hong Kong division and upheld China's "one country, two systems" rule.

What happened at the airport?

The boycotts came as protesters gathered at Hong Kong airport for three days of peaceful demonstrations.

Activists waved banners written in different languages denouncing Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, and the police, and handed out leaflets with artwork explaining the recent protests.

Authorities are so far tolerating the rally, which have not overly disrupted passengers. There are as yet no police at the scene.

"It will be a peaceful protest as long as the police do not show up," one demonstrator told Reuters news agency.

Fake boarding passes saying "HK to freedom" appeared on social media to promote the rally. Hong Kong's Airport Authority said it would "operate normally" despite the planned demonstrations.

A protest at the airport on 26 July with thousands of Hong Kongers - including flight staff - took place without violence.

How have authorities reacted?

Ms Lam met business leaders on Friday to discuss the economic impact of the protests. "We've experienced Sars and financial crises," she told reporters after the meeting, referring to the respiratory disease epidemic in 2003. "This time is more serious."

Property developers in the territory had earlier warned that demonstrations were damaging Hong Kong's economy.

Ms Lam also announced the government would reconvene a week earlier than planned from recess on 13 August. But she refused to offer concessions to protesters, accusing a "small minority of people" of wanting to destroy the economy and of having "no stake in the society which so many people have helped to build".

"If you are unsatisfied with the Hong Kong government that does not mean you should condone the violence. We hope to do our work better," she said.

Earlier on Friday, authorities confirmed that former deputy police commissioner Alan Lau has been brought out of retirement to help handle protests in the territory. The commander previously oversaw Hong Kong's pro-democracy rallies in 2014.

Beijing has issued increasingly stern warnings about the continuing demonstrations, and the military recently released a video showing them conducting anti-riot drills.

The US on Friday called China a "thuggish regime" after a Chinese state newspaper published the name and photo of a US diplomat talking to Hong Kong activists.

China dismissed the remark as "gangster logic". The Chinese have repeatedly accused the US of interfering in the situation in Hong Kong.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49296387

2019-08-09 16:03:32Z
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US, China spar over Hong Kong after ‘thuggish regime’ remarks as activists launch latest airport protest - Fox News

China and the U.S. traded barbs with one another Friday as demonstrators in Hong Kong began a three-day protest at the city’s airport.

The State Department slammed the Chinese government Thursday, accusing it behaving like a “thuggish regime” after a state newspaper published personal information of an American diplomat in Hong Kong who reportedly spoke with supposed “Hong Kong independence” activists.

HONG KONG FACES WORST CRISIS IN 20 YEARS, SENIOR CHINESE OFFICIAL SAYS

“I don’t think that leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children – I don’t think that is a formal protest, that is what a thuggish regime would do,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said at a news briefing in Washington on Thursday.

Protesters promote their cause at the airport In Hong Kong on Friday, Aug. 9, 2019. Pro-democracy protesters held a demonstration at Hong Kong's airport Friday even as the city sought to reassure visitors to the city after several countries issued travel safety warnings related to the increasing levels of violence surrounding the two-month-old protest movement. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

This prompted China on Friday to attack the U.S. for “gangster logic” and accused the U.S. of meddling in Hong Kong affairs.

“The spokesperson at the commissioner’s office denounced the claim as a blatant slander against China, which has confounded right with wrong and again exposed U.S. gangster logic and hegemonic thinking. China deplores and firmly opposes the remarks,” said the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong.

The insults came as demonstrations at the airport and across the city are kicking off. Signs held by protesters in the airport’s arrival hall included those saying “There are no rioters, only tyranny.”

Activists also left pamphlets stacked in piles that warned visitors of the heavy use of tear gas by police. Officers said 800 canisters were used during protests on Monday alone, and journalists and protesters say many suffered skin irritation and internal injuries as a result.

The airport appears to be operating normally, extra identification checks were put in place for both travelers and staff, and airlines were advising passengers to arrive earlier than usual for check-in.

A similar airport protest last month ended peacefully. Authorities didn’t indicate that there’s a plan to use force to end the unauthorized demonstration.

CHINA RELEASES DRAMATIC ARMY PROPAGANDA VIDEO IN WAKE OF HONG KONG PROTESTS WITH 'ANTI-RIOT' DRILLS

“The police will closely monitor the situation this weekend and make respective deployment as necessary. It will be dependent on what happens at the time,” said officer Vasco Williams, who is operations superintendent for the district of New Territories North.

Protesters demonstrate at the airport in Hong Kong on Friday, Aug. 9, 2019. Pro-democracy protesters held a demonstration at Hong Kong's airport Friday even as the city sought to reassure visitors to the city after several countries issued travel safety warnings related to the increasing levels of violence surrounding the two-month-old protest movement. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Hong Kong has been reeling from frequent protests ever since the city’s government, which is supposed to be separate from communist Chinese influence, introduced an extradition bill that critics say would threaten the liberties awarded to the city as people could be extradited to face the law in the mainland China.

The bill was temporarily suspended following protests, however, the demonstrations morphed into demands for greater freedoms and against the excessive use of force by the authorities.

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Hong Kong is a former British colony that is now part of China but enjoys autonomy thanks to the “one country, two systems” approach.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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https://www.foxnews.com/world/hong-kong-airport-protest-china-us-thuggish-regime

2019-08-09 13:05:59Z
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China leaks U.S. diplomat’s personal information in Hong Kong as protesters flood into airport - The Washington Post

BEIJING — After weeks of escalating warnings alleging a covert U.S. role behind the protests in Hong Kong, the tone in Communist Party-backed media outlets is turning darkly acrimonious, with publications attacking a U.S. diplomat in Hong Kong and releasing her personal information.

The pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao on Thursday published a photo of opposition activists meeting in a hotel with Julie Eadeh, a political section chief in the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, along with details about Eadeh’s State Department career and the names of her husband and teenage children.

The publication drew a furious response from the State Department, which accused China of “thuggish” behavior. U.S. envoys around the world often meet with opposition figures and groups, occasionally drawing rebukes from governments.

The unusual pinpoint attack on the Hong Kong diplomat underscores China’s growing frustration over the protests and their anti-Beijing message.

Airport demonstrations

On Friday, hundreds of protesters flooded into Hong Kong’s airport terminal to hold another sit-in and vowed to continue through the weekend. The territory’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, made a fresh appeal to the public by citing the economic toll of the disturbances.

Lam said she had met with a broad section of society — entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers — and believed that a “violent minority” of protesters “had no stake in society.”

China’s aviation overseer, meanwhile, ordered the flagship carrier Cathay Pacific Airways to suspend any personnel who take part or support the protests.

In Beijing, the propaganda attacks pillorying the United States were not aimed at Washington. But it represented a classic Communist Party influence effort to shore up public opinion in Hong Kong, said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London.

After the first month of protests — when mainland authorities censored all mention of record-breaking crowds surging into Hong Kong’s streets to oppose an extradition bill — Chinese state television began to flood the airwaves with scenes of Hong Kong protesters clashing violently with police and defacing China’s national emblem and flag.

[China’s influence on campus chills free speech in Australia, New Zealand]

“That is exactly what they would call the United Front approach. We would call it divide and rule,” Tsang said, referring to the Communist Party wing responsible for political influence campaigns in China and abroad. “They want to isolate the protesters from the bulk of the Hong Kong population and say: ‘This is all about foreign interference.’ ”

With few good options to swiftly restore order to Hong Kong’s streets, the Communist Party was urgently looking to cement its ties to political allies in the city and “win over the wavering middle,” Tsang said.

Chinese officials this week held a seminar in the border city of Shenzhen with “500 friends from Hong Kong,” including prominent business and political figures.

China’s warnings

In 2014, pro-government media sought to isolate Hong Kong protesters waging a civil disobedience campaign called Occupy Central. At the time, pro-Beijing social media accounts floated theories that protest leaders were receiving military training from the CIA, said Yuen Chan, a lecturer at City University of London.

But the tactic may encounter more resistance this time around, Chan said.

The 2014 Occupy movement, which sought broader voting rights, was “a much more polarizing issue compared to this year, when there is so much consensus within Hong Kong society,” Chan said.

Since early June, the protests have drawn millions of people onto the city’s streets, including first-time demonstrators, white-collar professionals, retirees and civil servants. What began as opposition against an extradition proposal has bloomed into anger against what many see as an out-of-touch Hong Kong government, a heavy-handed police force and the growing encroachment of the Communist leadership in Beijing.

The Chinese government has maintained its support for Lam, dismissed the protest as the work of an extreme minority and ratcheted up rhetoric toward Washington. A foreign ministry spokeswoman in Beijing this month called out U.S. officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and warned that “those who play with fire will be self-immolated.”

[Hong Kong protesters occupy airport amid fears of escalating violence]

After the Ta Kung Pao article, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus described China’s behavior as irresponsible.

“I don’t think leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children — I don’t think that is a formal protest. That is what a thuggish regime would do,” Ortagus told reporters in Washington late Thursday. “American diplomats meet with formal government officials; we meet with opposition protesters, not just in Hong Kong or China. This literally happens in every single country.”

Joshua Wong, one of the pro-democracy activists who was pictured meeting with Eadeh, said on Facebook that he met with the consulate to discuss a bill in the U.S. Congress and to seek an export ban on U.S.-made tear gas to Hong Kong police.

In a lengthy report, Ta Kung Pao dissected Eadeh’s experience in Middle East conflict zones and alleged that she was well-versed in “psychological warfare” and “infiltrating local society in her so-called diplomatic work.”

The People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, published five consecutive front-page editorials on Hong Kong this week — a rare occurrence that demonstrated Beijing’s concerns about the protracted unrest.

Shibani Mahtani in Hong Kong contributed to this report

China’s influence on campus chills free speech in Australia, New Zealand

Will China crush the Hong Kong protests? For Beijing, there are no good options

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-leaks-us-diplomats-information-in-message-aimed-at-hong-kong-not-washington/2019/08/09/3825347e-ba59-11e9-8e83-4e6687e99814_story.html

2019-08-09 12:31:23Z
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China leaks U.S. diplomat’s personal information in Hong Kong as protesters flood into airport - The Washington Post

The report, which was recirculated by Chinese state media, emerged as Beijing doubled down on a familiar strategy of framing the nine-week-long protests as a U.S. intelligence plot to spark a “color revolution” to destabilize China. The disclosures this week, which marked the first time China claimed to possess concrete evidence of covert U.S. activity, drew a furious response from the State Department, which accused China of “thuggish” behavior.

The propaganda attacks pillorying the United States were not aimed at Washington but represented a classic Communist Party influence effort to shore up public opinion in Hong Kong, said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London.

After the first month of protests — when mainland authorities censored all mention of record-breaking crowds surging into Hong Kong's streets to oppose an extradition bill — Chinese state television began to flood the airwaves with scenes of Hong Kong protesters clashing violently with police and defacing China’s national emblem and flag.

With few good options to swiftly restore order to Hong Kong's streets, the Communist Party was urgently looking to cement its ties to political allies in the city and “win over the wavering middle,” Tsang said.

Chinese officials this week held a seminar in the border city of Shenzhen with “500 friends from Hong Kong,” including prominent business and political figures.

On Friday, as hundreds of protesters flooded into Hong Kong's airport terminal to hold another sit-in, the city's embattled leader Carrie Lam made a fresh appeal to the public by citing the economic toll of the disturbances.

Lam said she had met with a broad section of society — entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers — and believed that a “violent minority” of protesters “had no stake in society.”

Officials made similar appeals in 2014, when pro-government media sought to isolate Hong Kong protesters waging a civil disobedience campaign called Occupy Central. At the time, pro-Beijing social media accounts floated theories that protest leaders were receiving military training from the CIA, said Yuen Chan, a lecturer at City University of London.

But the tactic may encounter more resistance this time around, Chan said. The 2014 Occupy movement, which sought broader voting rights, was “a much more polarizing issue compared to this year, when there is so much consensus within Hong Kong society,” Chan said.

Since early June, the protests have drawn millions of people onto the city's streets, including first-time demonstrators, white-collar professionals, retirees and civil servants. What began as opposition against an extradition proposal has bloomed into anger against what many see as an out-of-touch Hong Kong government, a heavy-handed police force and the growing encroachment of the Communist leadership in Beijing.

[China’s influence on campus chills free speech in Australia, New Zealand]

On Twitter this week, a prominent Chinese diplomat and state media reporter seized on the Ta Kung Pao article as evidence that the United States had finally been caught red-handed stirring up unrest. Chinese officials swiftly lodged a protest with the U.S. Consulate, according to state media.

State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said China had not lodged a complaint, and she described its behavior as irresponsible.

“I don't think leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children, I don't think that is a formal protest; that is what a thuggish regime would do,” Ortagus told reporters in Washington late Thursday. “American diplomats meet with formal government officials; we meet with opposition protesters, not just in Hong Kong or China. This literally happens in every single country.”

[Hong Kong protesters occupy airport amid fears of escalating violence]

The People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece, published five consecutive front-page editorials on Hong Kong this week — a rare occurrence that demonstrated Beijing's concerns about the protracted unrest.

But in Hong Kong, protesters show no sign of backing down as they took their message for the second time to international visitors.

On Friday, thousands of protesters again took over the airport —a symbol of Hong Kong's status an efficient and stable business hub. They handed out pamphlets to arriving passengers and occupied the terminal for a sit-in where they plan to stay for three days.

Shibani Mahtani in Hong Kong contributed to this report

China’s influence on campus chills free speech in Australia, New Zealand

Will China crush the Hong Kong protests? For Beijing, there are no good options

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

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Hong Kong Protesters Descend on Airport, With Plans to Stay for Days - The New York Times

HONG KONG — Thousands of black-clad antigovernment protesters demonstrated at Hong Kong’s international airport on 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, comes as Hong Kong reels 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.

In recent days, mainland Chinese officials have issued stern warnings to protesters about the risks of continuing their broad campaign for political reforms. The movement began in opposition to a bill that would have allowed extraditions to the mainland — where the courts are controlled by the ruling Communist Party — but has since expanded to include a number of other demands for greater democracy.

[What’s going on in Hong Kong? Here’s how the protests have evolved.]

The protest Friday began in the early afternoon, as demonstrators in black T-shirts and face masks nearly filled the airport’s cavernous arrivals hall, carrying pamphlets about their demands and chanting “Hong Kongers, keep going,” a rallying cry for the two-month-old protest movement.

The protesters also chanted “Revive Hong Kong; revolution of our times,” a slogan that the central Chinese government has said it views as a challenge to its sovereignty.

Protesters were careful to leave a path clear for travelers, some of whom recorded the demonstration on their phones or helped themselves to pamphlets.

“You’ve arrived in a broken, torn-apart city, not the one you have once pictured,” one of the pamphlets read. “Yet for this Hong Kong, we fight. We shall never surrender.”

Demonstrators handed out pamphlets about the protests. One arriving traveler said his first order of business would be to change out of the black T-shirt he happened to be wearing. — CreditLam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Sam Yang, 45, a Taiwanese businessman, waded through the crowd after arriving on a flight from the mainland Chinese city of Chengdu. He said that his first order of business would be changing out of the black T-shirt that he happened to be wearing.

“Obviously I’ve never run into any protests here before,” Mr. Yang said. “I don’t know how this conflict will end, either. Good luck to Hong Kong.”

Many of the street protests in recent weeks have ended with the Hong Kong police firing tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes with demonstrators. A hard-core contingent of young protesters has increasingly embraced violent tactics, arguing that the government has ignored more peaceful displays.

Protesters said they did not expect the police to use tear gas against them at the airport. Before the demonstration, several protesters, including employees of Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways, stressed that 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 recent civil disobedience has been led by foreign forces as a way of undermining Beijing’s authority.

“China has told us so many lies, and we lack a government that really works in our interests,” Ms. 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.”

As of late afternoon, the police presence in the hall was light, and it was unclear how many of the protesters planned to spend the night.

The 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.

Image

CreditLam Yik Fei for The New York Times

The government has already suspended the contentious extradition bill that set off the unrest in early June, but protesters are demanding a complete withdrawal of it, along with an independent inquiry into what they call police misconduct and the resignation of the territory’s embattled chief executive, Carrie Lam.

The stakes are high this weekend partly because the protesters have not applied for permission to hold the airport demonstration, as they have for other protests in recent weeks. That technically makes it an illegal assembly.

Hong Kong’s Airport Authority said on Thursday that it was aware of plans for a “public assembly” the next day. It also said, without elaborating, that it “understands that there is no application so far for these activities” and “has contingency measures to ensure smooth airport operations.”

Later on Thursday, the authority posted a notice on its website saying that the airport would operate normally on Friday, although it advised passengers to check their flight status before traveling there and to allow “sufficient time” for the journey.

The Hong Kong police said in a separate statement that while they could not comment on operational details in handling the protests, they planned to “monitor the latest developments, then make appropriate arrangement and deployment plans.”

Several other antigovernment demonstrations are 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.

On Wednesday, the United States joined several other countries — including Australia, Britain, Ireland, Japan and Singapore — in issuing a warning to its citizens about traveling to Hong Kong. It advised them to “exercise increased caution” because of recent “confrontational” protests.

The local government said on Thursday that while visitors might have been inconvenienced by the recent protests, Hong Kong remained “a welcoming city for tourists and travelers from around the world.”

Protesters held a more limited version of this weekend’s protest at the airport last month, in which hundreds of people chanted and held signs in the arrivals hall.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/world/asia/hong-kong-airport-protest.html

2019-08-09 08:03:45Z
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Hong Kong Protesters Descend on Airport, With Plans to Stay for Days - The New York Times

HONG KONG — Hundreds of black-clad antigovernment protesters on Friday began a demonstration at Hong Kong’s international airport, taking aim at both a global transit hub and the city’s closely guarded reputation for order and efficiency.

[What’s going on in Hong Kong? Here’s how the protests have evolved.]

The protest Friday began in the early afternoon, as demonstrators in black T-shirts and face masks swooped into the arrivals hall, carrying pamphlets about their demands and chanting “Hong Kongers, keep going,” a rallying cry for the two-month-old protest movement.

Some curious travelers recorded the spectacle on their phones, while others approached the protesters to take pamphlets and ask questions.

“Obviously I’ve never run into any protests here before,” Mr. Yang said. “I don’t know how this conflict will end, either. Good luck to Hong Kong.”

The protests in recent weeks have often ended with the Hong Kong police firing tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes with protesters. A hard-core contingent of young protesters has increasingly embraced violent street tactics, arguing that the government has ignored more peaceful displays.

Ahead of the airport demonstration, several protesters, including employees of Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways, stressed that it was meant to be an entirely nonviolent way of maintaining the movement’s momentum.

“The airport is a symbol of what Hong Kong means on the international stage, and where visitors come into our city,” said Laurie Wen, a writer and documentary filmmaker in Hong Kong. “Our international image is important to us, and we have to keep up the international attention.”

Image

CreditLam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Protesters held a more limited version of this weekend’s protest at the airport last month, in which hundreds of people chanted and held signs in the arrivals hall.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/world/asia/hong-kong-airport-protest.html

2019-08-09 06:22:33Z
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Malaysia Files Criminal Charges Against Goldman Execs in 1MDB Scandal - Bloomberg

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-09/malaysia-files-criminal-charges-against-goldman-sachs-directors

2019-08-09 05:15:00Z
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