Hong Kong protesters threaten new airport disruptions after street clashes with police - CNN

Saturday marks the beginning of the 14th straight weekend of planned protests in the Asian financial hub, despite attempts by the Hong Kong government to ease tensions across the city.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced on Wednesday that the controversial China extradition bill would be withdrawn, a longtime demand of demonstrators and one of the main catalysts of the protest movement.

But many high-profile protest leaders said the concession was too little too late, and heated clashes in the residential and shopping hub of Mong Kok on Friday night indicate demonstrators aren't backing down.

On Saturday, protesters were being encouraged to gather at the airport from about midday to demonstrate, resulting in a heavy police presence at the terminal and its approaching roads.

Passengers have been forced to present a boarding pass to enter the international airport since mass demonstrations shut down the transport hub in mid-August. On messaging groups, protesters were urging each other to blend in with travelers to try to enter the terminal undetected.

"Don't wear black-colored clothing, don't yell slogans. Participants can wear masks and no need to bring other equipment," a message on one of the organizing Telegram groups said.

The Airport Express train, which links Hong Kong island to the terminals, was running at reduced intervals on Saturday. Some passengers reported police were searching buses headed to the airport to check whether any protesters were aboard.

Many of those waiting at the airport said they had arrived for their flights very early to avoid disruptions, some of them by as much as 12 hours.

"We just want to go home," 33-year-old Dutch project manager Elger Vermeer said. "I do have sympathy for the demonstrators, but the way it's being pursued ... I have my doubts. it's going a bit too far."

Fifth night of protests in Mong Kok

The planned demonstrations on Saturday follow another night of clashes between police and protesters in the crowded district of Mong Kok, with officers using tear gas to disperse crowds.

Mong Kok police station has become a focus for demonstrations in the past week after officers entered the nearby Prince Edward subway station on Sunday and forcefully arrested a number of people.

Videos from the scene, which were widely distributed online, appeared to show protesters crying and hugging each other while police officers chased them and threatened them with batons.

Every night since there has been a gathering outside the subway, beside Mong Kok police station, with demonstrators calling on police to apologize for excessive violence. One of the exits of the subway station has even been turned into a memorial wall with flowers and messages of support.

On Friday, peaceful protesters gathered inside the Prince Edward subway station for a sit in to call on the MTR transport corporation to release CCTV of Sunday's incident.

But after police moved to disperse them, the protesters rapidly became violent, building barricades and pulling bricks out of the sidewalk to throw at police. "Such acts seriously endanger public safety," Hong Kong police said on their official Twitter.

The ongoing demonstrations in Mong Kok come despite Chief Executive Lam announcing "four actions" to appease protesters on Wednesday, including the extradition bill's withdrawal and more communication by the government.

"We must find ways to address the discontent in society and look for solutions," Lam said in a a video statement Wednesday evening.

But with the protesters' four other demands unmet, including an investigation into police conduct and greater democracy in the city, the demonstrations look set to continue.

On the protesters' social media and communication groups, the rallying cry has been "Five demands, not one less." No further concessions are expected by the Hong Kong government in the near future.

Airport chaos

Hong Kong's international airport has increasingly become a focus for protesters. Disruptions at one of the world's busiest passenger and cargo hubs can have a major impact and attract global attention.

Regular peaceful protests in the airport's arrival hall escalated on August 12 when a surge of demonstrators into Terminal 1 led to the cancellation all flights.

The next day demonstrators actively blocked passengers from heading to their departure gates, leading to more cancellations.

Both nights left thousands of passengers stranded and drew international headlines, leading Hong Kong's Airport Authority to get a court injunction blocking protesters from the terminal.

Unable to demonstrate inside the terminal, protesters moved instead to block access to the airport on September 1, barricading roads and throwing objects on the tracks of the Airport Express train.

For hours, all transport links to and from the airport were shut down, leaving passengers and plane crews forced to walk along roads to reach the terminal.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/07/asia/hong-kong-protests-0709-intl-hnk/index.html

2019-09-07 06:24:00Z
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Strong-as-a-bull Boris Johnson goes farming in Scotland - The Sun

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2019-09-06 10:08:57Z
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Zimbabwe's longtime leader Robert Mugabe is dead: Live updates - CNN

Labour peer Peter Hain, a former Africa minister and anti-apartheid campaigner, called Mugabe “a tragic case study of a liberation hero who then betrayed every one of the values of the freedom struggle.”

Speaking to CNN this morning, Hain said:

"On the one hand he is revered -- and rightly so for his role in the liberation struggle...but then people also have to recognise ... most of Zimbabweans will not mourn his passing at all."

“He turned it (the country) into one that had to import in food … and he would not tolerate any opposition ... (and) unleashed a wave of terror to stop their candidate Morgan Tsvangirai standing in the second round."  

Hain added that Mugabe and his wife, Grace, were "notorious for their own self enrichment."

Opposition Labour Party MP and Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry said that she’s “not going to shed any tears” over Mugabe’s death.

Speaking on the BBC’s Radio 4 she said:

“I’m not going to shed any tears I’m afraid for the death of Mugabe. He took over the country when it had such promise and we were all so hopeful. In fact, we were hopeful about him, but he completely lost his way and I think ruined the chance of a country that did have a great future.”   

UK Labour MP Kate Hoey, formerly the chairwoman of the all-party Parliamentary group on Zimbabwe and a longtime Mugabe critic, said on Twitter:

"Mugabe brought independence to Zimbabwe and then killed in the Gukurahundi-up to 80,000 of his own citizens in Matabeleland and brought his country to its knees economically. A hero to a brutal dictator". 

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2019-09-06 11:11:00Z
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Tributes -- and also fierce criticism -- pour in after death of Robert Mugabe - CNN

The uncompromising ex-president, who was deposed in a coup in 2017, left a mixed legacy. He had been touted worldwide as the hope of his country, an icon of Zimbabwe's independence -- before he oversaw the nation's descent into economic ruin.

After news broke of his death, some world leaders and political groups reflected the early, hopeful image of Mugabe and focused on his fight to free his country from white minority rule.

The South African government tweeted its condolences, describing Mugabe as a "fearless pan-Africanist liberation fighter." The African National Congress, South Africa's ruling party, also released a statement calling him the epitome of "the 'new African' -- who having shrugged off the colonial yoke, would strive to ensure his country took its rightful place amongst the community of nations."

In a statement, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta called Mugabe "an elder statesman, a freedom fighter and a Pan-Africanist who played a major role in shaping the interests of the African continent ... a man of courage who was never afraid to fight for what he believed in even when it was not popular."

The US Embassy in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, also tweeted condolences to the Mugabe family. "We join the world in reflecting on his legacy in securing Zimbabwe's independence," the tweet said.

Former ministers under the Mugabe administration also shared messages of mourning. Jonathan Moyo, the former Minister of Higher Education, tweeted: "A dark cloud has enveloped Zimbabwe and beyond. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away." Former Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart called Mugabe "a colossus on the Zimbabwe stage," and praised his role in ending white rule.

Other politicians around the world pointed to the darker side of Mugabe's legacy. After coming to power, his administration brutally stamped out any dissent, and he presided over forces that massacred opposition strongholds.

Nelson Chamisa, the leader of opposition party Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe, expressed his condolences -- but acknowledged "many political differences with the former president during his time in office."

"During his leadership there were many positives and many negatives, there are gains and pains, what is important is to forget the pains and learn from them but also look at the gains and build upon them," Chamisa said. "Clearly there are omissions and commissions, a lot of omission that have resulted and we need to reflect on those and never make those mistakes."

Others took a harsher tone. British opposition Member of Parliament Emily Thornberry said on BBC Radio 4 that she was "not going to shed any tears" over Mugabe's death. "In fact, we were hopeful about him, but he completely lost his way and I think ruined the chance of a country that did have a great future," she said.

Peter Hain, another British politician and former Member of Parliament, told the UK's Press Association news agency that Mugabe was "a tragic case study of a liberation hero who then betrayed every one of the values of the freedom struggle."

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2019-09-06 09:44:00Z
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No one thought a UK Prime Minister could be worse than Theresa May. Until now. - CNN

By the end of her inglorious three-year stint in Downing Street, even her most loyal supporters admitted that the robotic May would never be regarded as one of the greatest British leaders.

By comparison, Boris Johnson's off-the-cuff, sunny disposition made him a darling of Conservative Party members who chose him for the top job when May finally resigned, defeated by her inability to get a Brexit deal through Parliament.

On his first day as Prime Minister, Johnson promised a bold new Brexit deal, bashing the "doubters, doomsters, gloomsters" and the political class who he said had forgotten about the British people they serve. It was as if an upbeat attitude alone could be enough to overcome any adversity on the United Kingdom's path to exiting the European Union.

For a moment, it seemed he would breathe new life and, in his words, "positive energy," into the Brexit process. Some thought, just maybe, he could manage to do what May did not.

How quickly it all went wrong.

Johnson has lost every one of his first votes in parliament, an unprecedented record in the modern era. Undeterred, the Prime Minister purged 21 members of his parliamentary party who voted against him, blowing apart his majority.

Then, his efforts to secure a snap general election -- with the goal of replacing the sacked lawmakers with a new slate of candidates more aligned with his hard-Brexit views -- were scuppered when opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn refused to play along.

Now, he is effectively trapped in Downing Street, with Corbyn holding the keys. The government plans to propose new elections again on Monday, but the opposition leader says his party will only support the move when its efforts to prevent a no-deal Brexit are locked down.

"Certainly his biggest tactical mistake so far was not to realize that it was Corbyn, as leader of the opposition, who effectively had veto power over when a general election could be held," said Professor Tony Travers, director of the Institute of Public Affairs at the London School of Economics.

"It looks as if the Conservatives and their advisers thought that if they offered a general election to the Labour Party it would jump at the opportunity, but the way things have turned out -- the coming together of the no-deal bill and the possibility that the opposition can frustrate a general election -- creates the possibility of keeping the Prime Minister trapped in government, unable to fulfill his commitment to leave the EU come what may."

Now the newly minted PM finds himself in a position that May never was -- on his knees, begging the opposition for a general election.

How did it come to this?

The bad luck set in with Johnson's decision to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament from mid-September, effectively shortening the time available to lawmakers to block a no-deal Brexit. It will be the longest suspension of Parliament since World War II, and it jolted the fractured opposition parties. Divided on Brexit, they were united in their opposition to what they perceived as an all-out assault on British constitutional conventions.

Since then, the blows have kept on coming -- many of them self-inflicted. The conduct of Johnson's shadowy chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, has riled many senior Conservatives. First, there was a decision to fire an aide to the chancellor, Sajid Javid, who was reportedly marched out of Downing Street by an armed police officer after Cummings accused her of not being open about her contacts with more Remain-minded members of the party. All the more galling, for some, was the fact that the aide in question was an ardent Brexiteer.

Then, more explosively, was the decision to fire 21 rebellious MPs who voted with opposition lawmakers in favor of a bill to prevent a no-deal Brexit, widely seen as a plan hatched by Cummings. The list included eight former Cabinet ministers, two former finance secretaries, the longest-serving member of the House of Commons and the grandson of Winston Churchill.

Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major urged Johnson to ditch his aides. "Get rid of these advisers before they poison the political atmosphere beyond repair. And do it quickly," he said in a speech in Glasgow.

On Thursday, in the most potent of humiliations, Johnson's own brother quit his ministerial post and said he would stand down as an MP -- that rare breed of politician to leave his job in order to spend less time with his family.

"In recent weeks I've been torn between family loyalty and the national interest - it's an unresolvable tension & time for others to take on my roles as MP & Minister," Jo Johnson tweeted on Thursday.

That seemed to hang like a cloud over the Prime Minister when he made a speech that might have been the opening salvo of an election campaign, under other circumstances.

In front of a wall of police cadets in West Yorkshire, Johnson attempted to recite the caution that police deliver to suspects when they make an arrest, only to stumble over the words and abandon the joke halfway through. He then lurched into some lackluster remarks that had commentators cringing.

Finally, in the heat, one of the cadets behind him sat down, apparently to avoid fainting. Johnson turned to ask her if she was okay, promised to end the event, but carried on anyway.

Journalists' questions were brutal. "Aren't people entitled to ask, if your own brother can't back you, why should anyone else?" one asked.

It is indeed an open question. Certainly, an election is a gamble. But it is a risk that Johnson and his advisers have taken in the hopes that, by turning the broad church coalition of the Conservative Party into a group of Euroskeptics, that it will reconfigure the Brexit alliance and prove enough to win a general election.

If Johnson is able to pull it off, his decision to kick out moderate Conservative members will have effectively set him up to have a far more consolidated, hard-line pro-Brexit party -- saving his skin and redefining the Tories all at once.

But, if his bumbling and, at times, awkward speech Thursday was any indication, he may have lost some of the winning luster that had previously seemed so promising.

His predecessor was endlessly slammed for her poor performances in speeches -- from her robotic dancing to losing her voice -- but she never lined up dozens of bemused police officers as a backdrop to a political stunt.

Yet, unlike May, Johnson was able to ram home the core political message that he intends to take the UK out of the EU "no ifs or buts" by October 31 -- a stark contrast to her central failure to find consensus.

Asked if he could promise the British public that he would not go to Brussels and ask for another delay to Brexit, Johnson said: "Yes I can. I'd rather be dead in a ditch."

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2019-09-06 09:20:00Z
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Hurricane Dorian lashes North Carolina with strong winds, rain and storm surges - CNN

Earlier in the week, Dorian flattened homes and wiped out neighborhoods in the Bahamas, leaving at least 30 people dead. It then closed in on the southeastern coast of the United States, where five deaths have been blamed on the storm so far.

Before it lost some of its strength early Friday, Dorian caused flooding in parts of the Carolinas and spawned a number of tornadoes, officials said. More than 343,000 people were left in the dark in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, according to poweroutage.us.

FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES

In eastern North Carolina, Dorian is producing wind gusts near hurricane-force. The state is seeing 4 to 8 inches of rain with some local totals of as much as 10 inches, CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said.

It's weaker in strength but not in impact

Though the storm has weakened from a Category 2 into a strong Category 1, Brink said there's not much difference for North Carolina in terms of the impact of strong winds and storm surge.

As of 5 a.m., Dorian was 25 miles east of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, with sustained winds of 90 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

TRACK THE STORM

"Dorian has North Carolina in its sights," Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday. "We need people to hunker down and stay safe. We don't need people leaving their homes."

More than 10 million people are under hurricane or tropical storm warnings Friday, which is forecast to be Dorian's last day on the US coast.

A series of watches and warnings

The storm surge began late Thursday night along the North Carolina and southeast Virginia coasts.

A hurricane warning is in effect from Little River Inlet to the North Carolina/Virginia border, the hurricane center said. A tornado watch was in effect until 7 a.m. Friday for the North Carolina coast from just above Wilmington to Virginia Beach, according to the National Weather Service.

Thursday, nearly two dozen tornadoes were reported from the outer bands of Dorian. They toppled mobile homes and left debris strewn for acres.

Tornadoes along the coast

Tornadoes are common in the thunderstorm bands of hurricanes and tropical storms.

North Carolina resident Byron Cox was in his mobile home in Emerald Isle when the tornado approached. His home was still standing, but his father's was destroyed, he said Thursday.

"I remember hearing a loud noise. The next thing I know, the trailer started shaking. ... It shook probably 10-15 seconds, real hard," Cox, 37, said.

"All of a sudden I didn't feel it (any) more. I looked outside, and the tornado ... (was) going through the back. ... Debris flying everywhere. Never saw anything like this in my entire life."

The tornadoes extended into South Carolina, where firefighters say one damaged an unspecified number of vehicles and buildings in North Myrtle Beach.

Wayne White captured video of the funnel cloud there. He said he was checking on some properties he manages when he saw it.

"I saw the circular clouds and was going to take a little video, and the funnel came out of nowhere," he tweeted.

South Carolina turns to recovery

Charleston's mayor says that efforts to recover begin Friday.

"Yes, today was Dorian Day in Charleston, and I am happy to bid him farewell," Mayor John Tecklenburg said Thursday. "To the hundreds of officials, and the outstanding citizens of Charleston, thank you. Tomorrow, we all unite as Team Charleston to recover."

Authorities in Charleston are working to address power outages, downed trees and flooded roadways.

CNN's Drew Griffin reported from Wilmington, North Carolina, and Madeline Holcombe and Steve Almasy reported from Atlanta.

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2019-09-06 08:22:00Z
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‘We Have Moved On Without Him’: Robert Mugabe’s Star Had Faded in Zimbabwe - The New York Times

HARARE, Zimbabwe — For years, the eventual death of Robert Mugabe, the leader who held Zimbabwe in his grip for decades after its independence in 1980, had obsessed his countrymen.

As he pushed into his 90s — growing visibly frailer by the week, stumbling ever more frequently at public events, his once eloquent speech becoming sluggish — people wondered, with a mixture of dread and hope, when “the old man” would be gone.

But on a warm summer morning in Harare on Friday, as Zimbabweans woke up to the news that their former leader had died at a hospital in Singapore, the reaction was muted. Many in the center of the capital saw his death through the prism of their difficult daily lives — not through the lens of history that Mr. Mugabe’s fellow African leaders emphasized.

“I’m sad that Mugabe has died with the economy,” said Agnes Humure, 37, a shopkeeper rushing to work in Harare’s central business district. “I personally don’t know who is going to wake it up.”

[Our obituary of Robert Mugabe, who as leader of independent Zimbabwe traded the mantle of liberator for the armor of a tyrant.]

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President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe was once Mr. Mugabe’s right-hand man.CreditZinyange Auntony for The New York Times

The reaction was subdued in part because the once supremely powerful Mr. Mugabe had become increasingly irrelevant in the two years since he was expelled from power. Outmaneuvered by his successor and onetime right-hand man, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and growing rapidly weaker, Mr. Mugabe had been reduced to a ghostly presence in the country that his personality had dominated for nearly four decades.

“Mugabe’s death has come at a time we have moved on without him,” said Richmond Dhamara, a 42-year-old street fruit vendor. “I don’t think he will be missed that much, because he is the same guy with the people who succeeded him — cruel.”

Mr. Mugabe’s reputation was sturdier elsewhere in Africa. Even after the worst excesses of his long rule, Mr. Mugabe drew standing ovations at African gatherings, where fellow leaders praised him as the last of the great liberation leaders.

“Words cannot convey the magnitude of the loss as former President Mugabe was an elder statesman, a freedom fighter and a Pan-Africanist who played a major role in shaping the interests of the African continent,” President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya said on Friday.

In central Harare, where the presidency and other branches of government are located, Friday felt like a regular morning. People scrambled to work in dilapidated taxi minivans from the suburbs. Street hawkers were setting up their wares on sidewalks as part of the thriving informal economy that has replaced the collapsing formal sector.

No soldiers could be seen in the area, only the usual police officers — a clear sign that the Zimbabwean government did not regard Mr. Mugabe’s death as a political or security risk.

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Zimbabweans celebrating outside Parliament in November 2017 after Mr. Mugabe’s resignation.CreditBen Curtis/Associated Press

For most Zimbabweans, their emotions had reached a peak with Mr. Mugabe’s political death nearly two years ago. Countless people celebrated in Harare and across the country at the time, in a short-lived euphoria that faded with the ever worsening economy and disappointment over Mr. Mnangagwa’s tightfisted rule.

In many ways, Mr. Mugabe’s actual death was anticlimactic.

“I wish Mugabe should just have died in power, because things as they are now are much worse than before he was removed,” Jeremiah Gumbi, a 26-year-old money changer, said at his usual workplace in central Harare.

Even a supporter of ZANU-PF, Mr. Mugabe’s political party, on his way to party headquarters — where the national flag was flying at half-staff — was far from effusive in his comments.

“Old Bob is our hero,” said the party supporter, Tinago Mhanga, 38. “Although he messed up the economy, he is the father of the nation, even in death.”

Mr. Mugabe had spent the last two years mostly in quiet isolation after being deposed in a coup in November 2017. For a time, he was effectively put under house arrest with his family in his mansion in a leafy Harare neighborhood. He was regularly allowed to fly to Singapore, where he had sought medical treatment for years.

But an uneasy and unspoken tension persisted between Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Mnangagwa, the eternal right-hand man who had ultimately turned on his patron. For Mr. Mnangagwa, dealing with his predecessor was a delicate issue because of their long ties and shared political party. Mr. Mnangagwa generally treated the elder politician generously, hoping that Mr. Mugabe would support him, or at least stay quiet.

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A portrait of Mr. Mugabe at the ZANU-PF party headquarters in Harare.CreditZinyange Auntony/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Mugabe — as wily in retirement as he had been during his nearly four decades in power — remained strategically quiet. But whenever he felt that Mr. Mnangagwa was not treating him with the respect that he was due, Mr. Mugabe made it known.

At least once, his allies summoned foreign journalists based in nearby Johannesburg for a meeting inside his Harare home. His wife, Grace, helped the journalists slip into the house, past soldiers under orders to prevent Mr. Mugabe from talking to the news media.

Most significantly, during elections in July last year, Mr. Mugabe publicly expressed his admiration for the opposition candidate, Nelson Chamisa, the leader of ZANU-PF’s fiercest and historic rival, the Movement for Democratic Change.

But despite the hopes and prodding of his wife, Grace, and other allies now fallen out of favor, including the former information minister, Jonathan Moyo, Mr. Mugabe had become a political nonentity.

Little was heard from him in the past year as he grew frailer and frailer. Instead, his sons — famous partygoers whose public misbehavior forced their parents to move them from Dubai to Johannesburg in recent years — continued to make headlines.

What will become of his wife, Grace, is unclear. Mr. Mugabe’s second wife, she is reviled inside Zimbabwe and, more important, inside the ruling party. Many of Mr. Mugabe’s longtime allies blamed her for her husband’s political excesses in recent years and for associating a once famously parsimonious man with the kind of luxury shopping and traveling that she enjoys.

In the year or so before her husband fell from power, Ms. Mugabe had sought to position herself as his successor and sideline Mr. Mnangagwa. That ultimately triggered the coup. Now, with her husband gone, Ms. Mugabe has little or no protection left in Zimbabwe.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/world/africa/mugabe-death-zimbabwe.html

2019-09-06 08:41:00Z
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