Minggu, 09 Juni 2019

Maduro Reopens Venezuelan Border With Colombia - NPR

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People line up to cross the Simon Bolivar international bridge from San Antonio del Tachira in Venezuela to Cucuta, in Colombia, to buy goods due to supplies shortage in their country. Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro ordered the reopening of the country's border with Colombia on Friday. SCHNEYDER MENDOZA/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Crowds of Venezuelans lined up at two international bridges leading to Colombia on Saturday, as the border between the countries opened for the first time in four months.

Thousands of people crossed over, seeking food, medicine and basic supplies. For months, Venezuelans have been dealing with power outages, hyperinflation and increased violence due to the deepening political and economic crises in the country.

In a tweet announcing the move, Venezuela's authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro ordered the reopening of the border with Colombia on Friday and said in Spanish, "We are a people of peace who firmly defend our independence and self-determination."

The border with Colombia was closed earlier this year in an attempt by Maduro's government to block opposition and humanitarian groups from delivering foreign aid to Venezuelans in need. Venezuela's borders with Brazil and the island of Aruba were also closed.

Maduro is in a power struggle with opposition leader Juan Guaidó, the head of Venezuela's National Assembly who declared himself Venezuela's president in January. Guaidó has been recognized as Venezuela's rightful head of state by more than 50 countries, including the United States.

Maduro has been able to remain in power in part due to the loyalty of the military and support from powerful allies like China and Russia, the BBC reports.

In April, Guaidó led a failed attempt to oust Maduro. In a recent interview with NPR, he said most military officers do not support Maduro but fear reprisals should they be caught conspiring with the opposition.

"The main factor is fear, and we have to figure out a way to overcome the fear," Guaidó told NPR.

Recently, the two sides have entered into talks in Oslo, Norway, but they have not come away with significant results.

More than 4 million refugees and migrants have fled Venezuela since 2015, the U.N's refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration announced on Friday. In the seven months since November 2018, the number of refugees and migrants increased by 1 million.

Latin American countries are hosting the vast majority of Venezuelans, with Colombia accounting for around 1.3 million and Peru with some 768,000. Chile, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil all are hosting more than 100,000, the U.N report says.

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UNHCR's special envoy Angelina Jolie greets a group of Venezuelan migrants at an United Nations-run camp in Maicao, Colombia, on border with Venezuela. Jolie visited the camp to learn more about the conditions faced by migrants and refugees and raise awareness about their needs. Fernando Vergara/AP hide caption

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Actress and UNHCR's special envoy Angelina Jolie visited another part of the Colombia-Venezuela border to raise awareness about the needs of migrants and refugees on Saturday.

Jolie met with Colombian President Iván Duque and discussed the thousands of Venezuelan children living in Colombia who are at risk of being stateless.

Jolie appealed for more humanity and increased funding for the UNHCR in a statement about her visit:

"This is a life and death situation for millions of Venezuelans. But UNHCR has received only a fraction of the funds it needs, to do even the bare minimum to help them survive. The countries receiving them, like Colombia, are trying to manage an unmanageable situation with insufficient resources. But neither they nor humanitarian actors like UNHCR are getting the funds they need in order to keep the pace with the influx, and yet they still do everything they can."

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https://www.npr.org/2019/06/09/731070141/after-4-months-venezuelas-border-with-colombia-reopens

2019-06-09 16:48:00Z
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Hong Kong protest draws hundreds of thousands over extradition bill - Fox News

Several hundred thousand people took to the streets in Hong Kong on Sunday to protest a new extradition law that would allow China to extradite suspects from the autonomous territory to face charges in mainland China.

The organizers say more than 500,000 people showed up, with the protesters wearing all white and chanting "step down" and "shelve the evil law."

The massive protest Sunday is occurring three days before Hong Kong's government plans to win approval of the bill by the end of the month, according to Reuters.

HONG KONG LAWYERS PROTEST PROPOSED EXTRADITION LAW CHANGES

One protester had a sign that read “let’s make Hong Kong great again,” with a photo of President Trump firing Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who has the power to withdraw the bill.

Demonstrators hold signs during a protest to demand authorities scrap a proposed extradition bill with China, in Hong Kong, China June 9, 2019.

Demonstrators hold signs during a protest to demand authorities scrap a proposed extradition bill with China, in Hong Kong, China June 9, 2019. (REUTERS/Thomas Peter - RC12BF083720)

Those against the bill say the Chinese government could take anyone from Hong Kong for political reasons or for unintentional business offenses.

Foreign governments, including the U.S., have criticized the bill for fear it would impact Hong Kong's rule of law and financial markets, according to Reuters.

The city was a former British colony that was handed back to China in 1997 under the condition it would have a separate legal system. This bill could change that.

On Sunday, lawmakers and protesters put the pressure on Lam to withdraw the bill.

Protesters hold placards march in a rally against the proposed amendments to extradition law in Hong Kong, Sunday, June 9, 2019.  (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Protesters hold placards march in a rally against the proposed amendments to extradition law in Hong Kong, Sunday, June 9, 2019.  (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

“She has to withdraw the bill and resign,” Democratic Party lawmaker James To said to crowds on Sunday night. “The whole of Hong Kong is against her.”

Hong Kong officials have defended the plans, saying the laws have safeguards, including local judges, who will see cases before approval by Lam.

THOUSANDS MARCH IN HONG KONG AGAINST EXTRADITION LAW

“We continue to listen to a wide cross-section of views and opinions and remain open to suggestions on ways to improve the new regime,” a government official said on Sunday.

Reuters says temperatures reached 90 degrees on Sunday and the protesters included families, workers and business executives, some of whom had never been to a protest before.

“I come here to fight,” said a wheelchair-bound, 78-year-old man surnamed Lai, who was among the first to arrive, according to Reuters.

Debates on the amendment to the bill begin on Wednesday, which could be passed into law by the end of June.

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A similar protest on the extradition bill occurred earlier this year in April, where over 100,000 showed up.

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https://www.foxnews.com/world/hundreds-of-thousands-of-protesters-march-in-hong-kong-over-extradition-bill

2019-06-09 15:05:21Z
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Massive Crowds Take to Streets in ‘Last Fight’ for Hong Kong - The Wall Street Journal

 
 
Some of the thousands of protesters take part in Sunday’s march against the proposed law that would allow Beijing to take people from Hong Kong to stand trial in mainland China.
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HONG KONG—Huge crowds of demonstrators packed the city’s streets Sunday to protest a proposed law that would allow Beijing to take people from Hong Kong to stand trial in mainland China.

The mass turnout—which organizers estimated at more than one million, or almost one for every seven residents in the city—represented the biggest challenge to Beijing’s authority over Hong Kong in years, rejecting the government’s attempts to push through legislation that critics say could be abused to target dissidents.

Protesters crowd Hong Kong’s Victoria park, the starting point of a march that snaked for more than a mile and a half through the global financial hub, to the legislature. Photo: Joyu Wang/The Wall Street Journal

The organizers’ estimate was double that of a rally in 2003 when they said half a million people protested against national-security legislation that was later withdrawn by the government. Police estimated the number at Sunday’s protest at 240,000.

The mass turnout, with crowds filling public parks and thronging roads up to six lanes wide for more than a mile and a half, heaps pressure on the city’s leaders and their political masters in Beijing to shelve the law. Unlike 2003, however, China’s ruling Communist Party under President Xi Jinping has in recent years taken a much stronger line against dissent in the former British colony.

“This is the last fight for Hong Kong,” said Martin Lee, a veteran opposition leader who founded the city’s Democratic Party. “The proposal is the most dangerous threat to our freedoms and way of life since the handover” of sovereignty, he said.

The proposed law, which would allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial, has sparked anger in an unusually wide swath of the population, from teachers to lawyers and business leaders. The uniting fear is that the law, if passed, would expose citizens to the mainland’s more opaque legal system, where detainees could be subject to torture and other abuses of human rights.

Foreign business groups and diplomats have warned the proposal poses a threat to the rule of law that has helped Hong Kong prosper for decades as an international financial center, and which was guaranteed by China when it resumed sovereignty over the city from Britain in 1997. Opposition has grown even after the city’s leader, Carrie Lam watered down the bill slightly by removing offense categories liable to extradition from 46 to 37.

Police detain a demonstrator during the protest against Hong Kong’s controversial extradition bill. Photo: thomas peter/Reuters

Ms. Lam’s government has said fears about the law are unfounded and stressed that only those suspected of the most serious crimes would be subject to extradition. The government says there will be safeguards against abuse and that the law won’t damage the city’s business environment or relate to offenses of a political nature. China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the protests and their potential impact on the proposed extradition law. Phone and fax lines to China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, which oversees Beijing’s policies to those territories, rang unanswered Sunday.

“ We need to defend our home for the next generation ”

—Kitty Wong, protester

Ms. Lam bypassed a lawmakers’ review committee to push the bill through for a second reading in the city’s legislature on June 12. The government has enough votes to pass the law within a few weeks, having used legal action to oust several democratically elected opposition legislators from office over the past two years.

Anger over the extradition has revived an opposition movement that had dwindled after street protests in 2014 paralyzed parts of the city for 79 days, but ended without achieving their goal of obtaining more democracy. Beijing’s influence over the city has grown since, while room for dissent has shrunk as the government has jailed protesters, declaring a pro-independence political party illegal and expelling a foreign journalist.

Families and church groups joined opposition activists, many dressed in white and holding red placards denouncing the law, as police were forced to close more roads and traffic lanes to enable the snaking mass of humanity to move.

Crowds were so massive that some train stations across the city were temporarily closed and protesters had to line up in sweltering heat to enter a local park, chanting slogans to oppose the law and cheering each other on taking to the streets to express their discontent.

The march stretched for more than a mile and a half through the heart of Hong Kong. Photo: tyrone siu/Reuters

“I needed to let my voice be heard,” said Kitty Wong, a 38-year-old teacher who joined a protest for the first time. Gesturing to her two children, ages 8 and 9, she said: “We need to defend our home for the next generation.”

Veteran activist Mr. Lee was on drafting committee of the Basic Law, the city’s mini constitution that enshrined people’s freedoms and rights until 2047. He said there was deliberately no extradition clause in the agreement because the two jurisdictions were too different. Beijing could extradite Hong Kong residents and foreigners on trumped-up charges, he said.

Write to Natasha Khan at natasha.khan@wsj.com

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/massive-crowds-take-to-streets-in-last-fight-for-hong-kong-11560075915

2019-06-09 14:46:00Z
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Trump says there’s more in Mexico deal - POLITICO

President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump attacked the news media in his defense of his deal with Mexico. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo

President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning that there is more to his agreement with Mexico than meets the eye.

“Importantly, some things..... .....not mentioned in yesterday press release, one in particular, were agreed upon. That will be announced at the appropriate time,“ the president wrote in a string of four tweets.

Story Continued Below

Trump was defending his newly announced agreement with Mexico in the face of reporting that much of what was in the deal was not new. In his tweets, he directly attacked the New York Times and CNN, calling them “the Enemy of the People.“

While defending the agreement and saying he expected Mexico to be “very cooperative,“ the president said that he could always return to the threat of tariffs: “We can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs - But I don’t believe that will be necessary.“

Trump had threatened Mexico with a succession of higher tariffs in order to push the country to do more to keep migrants from El Salvador and other Central American countries from reaching the U.S. border.

Some critics have suggested that the deal with Mexico ended a verbal battle that was partly or entirely of the president’s own making. On CNN on Sunday morning, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Trump’s “erratic” policy was “not the way to go.”

“You can’t have a trade policy based on tweets,” the Vermont senator told host Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/09/trump-mexico-deal-twitter-1358158

2019-06-09 13:03:00Z
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Boris Johnson to EU: I won't pay unless deal improved - Fox News

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 19, 2019 file photo, Boris Johnson, Britain's former Foreign Secretary and prominent leave the European Union Brexit campaigner walks away after leaving the Cabinet Office in London. Britain’s High Court has quashed a bid to prosecute Conservative lawmaker Boris Johnson for allegedly lying during the country’s 2016 European Union membership referendum. Two judges on Friday, June 7 threw out a lower court’s ruling that Johnson should be summoned to answer questions about Brexit campaigners’ claim that Britain pays 350 million pounds ($446 million) a week to the EU. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 19, 2019 file photo, Boris Johnson, Britain's former Foreign Secretary and prominent leave the European Union Brexit campaigner walks away after leaving the Cabinet Office in London. Britain’s High Court has quashed a bid to prosecute Conservative lawmaker Boris Johnson for allegedly lying during the country’s 2016 European Union membership referendum. Two judges on Friday, June 7 threw out a lower court’s ruling that Johnson should be summoned to answer questions about Brexit campaigners’ claim that Britain pays 350 million pounds ($446 million) a week to the EU. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

LONDON – Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is stepping up his campaign to be Britain's next prime minister by challenging the European Union over Brexit terms.

Johnson told the Sunday Times he would refuse to pay the agreed-upon 39 billion pound ($50 billion) divorce settlement unless the EU offers Britain a better withdrawal agreement than the one currently on the table.

Johnson told the newspaper he is the only Conservative Party leadership contender who can triumph over the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage's Brexit Party.

He is threatening to leave the EU on the Oct 31 deadline even if there is no deal in place.

The contest for leadership of the Conservative Party officially begins Monday. The post was vacated Friday by Prime Minister Theresa May.

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https://www.foxnews.com/world/boris-johnson-to-eu-i-wont-pay-unless-deal-improved

2019-06-09 12:07:24Z
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Massive Crowds Take to Streets in ‘Last Fight’ for Hong Kong - The Wall Street Journal

Protesters crowd Hong Kong’s Victoria park, the starting point of a march that snaked for more than a mile and a half through the global financial hub, to the legislature. Photo: Joyu Wang/The Wall Street Journal
By

HONG KONG—Huge crowds of demonstrators took to the streets Sunday to protest a proposed law that would allow Beijing to take people from Hong Kong to stand trial in mainland China.

Organizers said more than half a million people joined the march, the biggest turnout since 2003, when 500,000 people demonstrated against national security legislation that was later withdrawn by the government. Police said protesters leaving the march’s starting point numbered 153,000.

Protest signs in multiple languages decried the proposed law that would allow Beijing to take people into mainland China to stand trial. Photo: charly triballeau/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The mass turnout, with crowds filling public parks and thronging roads up to six lanes wide for more than a mile and a half, heaps pressure on the city’s leaders and their political masters in Beijing to shelve the law. Unlike 2003, however, China’s ruling Communist Party under President Xi Jinping has in recent years taken a much stronger line against dissent in the former British colony.

“This is the last fight for Hong Kong,” said Martin Lee, a veteran opposition leader who founded the city’s Democratic Party. “The proposal is the most dangerous threat to our freedoms and way of life since the handover” of sovereignty, he said.

The proposed law, which would allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial, has sparked anger in an unusually wide swath of the population, from teachers to lawyers and business leaders. The uniting fear is that the law, if passed, would expose citizens to the mainland’s more opaque legal system, where detainees could be subject to torture and other abuses of human rights.

Foreign business groups and diplomats have warned the proposal poses a threat to the rule of law that has helped Hong Kong prosper for decades as an international financial center, and which was guaranteed by China when it resumed sovereignty over the city from Britain in 1997. Opposition has grown even after the city’s leader, Carrie Lam watered down the bill slightly by removing offense categories liable to extradition from 46 to 37.

Police detain a demonstrator during the protest against Hong Kong’s controversial extradition bill. Photo: thomas peter/Reuters

Ms. Lam’s government has said fears about the law are unfounded and stressed that only those suspected of the most serious crimes would be subject to extradition. The government says there will be safeguards against abuse and that the law won’t damage the city’s business environment or relate to offenses of a political nature. China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the protests and their potential impact on the proposed extradition law. Phone and fax lines to China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, which oversees Beijing’s policies to those territories, rang unanswered Sunday.

“ We need to defend our home for the next generation ”

—Kitty Wong, protester

Ms. Lam bypassed a lawmakers’ review committee to push the bill through for a second reading in the city’s legislature on June 12. The government has enough votes to pass the law within a few weeks, having used legal action to oust several democratically elected opposition legislators from office over the past two years.

Anger over the extradition has revived an opposition movement that had dwindled after street protests in 2014 paralyzed parts of the city for 79 days, but ended without achieving their goal of obtaining more democracy. Beijing’s influence over the city has grown since, while room for dissent has shrunk as the government has jailed protesters, declaring a pro-independence political party illegal and expelling a foreign journalist.

Families and church groups joined opposition activists, many dressed in white and holding red placards denouncing the law, as police were forced to close more roads and traffic lanes to enable the snaking mass of humanity to move.

Crowds were so massive that some train stations across the city were temporarily closed and protesters had to line up in sweltering heat to enter a local park, chanting slogans to oppose the law and cheering each other on taking to the streets to express their discontent.

The march stretched for more than a mile and a half through the heart of Hong Kong. Photo: tyrone siu/Reuters

“I needed to let my voice be heard,” said Kitty Wong, a 38-year-old teacher who joined a protest for the first time. Gesturing to her two children, ages 8 and 9, she said: “We need to defend our home for the next generation.”

Veteran activist Mr. Lee was on drafting committee of the Basic Law, the city’s mini constitution that enshrined people’s freedoms and rights until 2047. He said there was deliberately no extradition clause in the agreement because the two jurisdictions were too different. Beijing could extradite Hong Kong residents and foreigners on trumped-up charges, he said.

Write to Natasha Khan at natasha.khan@wsj.com

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/massive-crowds-take-to-streets-in-last-fight-for-hong-kong-11560075915

2019-06-09 11:54:00Z
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Massive Crowds Take To Streets in ‘Last Fight’ For Hong Kong - The Wall Street Journal

Protesters crowd Hong Kong’s Victoria park, the starting point of a march that snaked for more than a mile and a half through the global financial hub, to the legislature. Photo: Joyu Wang/The Wall Street Journal
By

HONG KONG—Huge crowds of demonstrators took to the streets Sunday to protest a proposed law that would allow Beijing to take people from Hong Kong to stand trial in mainland China.

Organizers expect hundreds of thousands of people to join the march in what would be the biggest turnout since 2003, when half a million people demonstrated against national security legislation that was later withdrawn by the government.

Protest signs in multiple languages decried the proposed law that would allow Beijing to take people into mainland China to stand trial. Photo: charly triballeau/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The mass turnout, with crowds filling public parks and thronging roads up to six lanes wide for more than a mile and a half, heaps pressure on the city’s leaders and their political masters in Beijing to shelve the law. Unlike 2003, however, China’s ruling Communist Party under President Xi Jinping has in recent years taken a much stronger line against dissent in the former British colony.

“This is the last fight for Hong Kong,” said Martin Lee, a veteran opposition leader who founded the city’s Democratic Party. “The proposal is the most dangerous threat to our freedoms and way of life since the handover” of sovereignty, he said.

The proposed law, which would allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial, has sparked anger in an unusually wide swath of the population, from teachers to lawyers and business leaders. The uniting fear is that the law, if passed, would expose citizens to the mainland’s more opaque legal system, where detainees could be subject to torture and other abuses of human rights.

Foreign business groups and diplomats have warned the proposal poses a threat to the rule of law that has helped Hong Kong prosper for decades as an international financial center, and which was guaranteed by China when it resumed sovereignty over the city from Britain in 1997. Opposition has grown even after the city’s leader, Carrie Lam watered down the bill slightly by removing offense categories liable to extradition from 46 to 37.

Police detain a demonstrator during the protest against Hong Kong’s controversial extradition bill. Photo: thomas peter/Reuters

Ms. Lam’s government has said fears about the law are unfounded and stressed that only those suspected of the most serious crimes would be subject to extradition. The government says there will be safeguards against abuse and that the law won’t damage the city’s business environment or relate to offenses of a political nature. China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the protests and their potential impact on the proposed extradition law. Phone and fax lines to China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, which oversees Beijing’s policies to those territories, rang unanswered Sunday.

“ We need to defend our home for the next generation ”

—Kitty Wong, protester

Ms. Lam bypassed a lawmakers’ review committee to push the bill through for a second reading in the city’s legislature on June 12. The government has enough votes to pass the law within a few weeks, having used legal action to oust several democratically elected opposition legislators from office over the past two years.

Anger over the extradition has revived an opposition movement that had dwindled after street protests in 2014 paralyzed parts of the city for 79 days, but ended without achieving their goal of obtaining more democracy. Beijing’s influence over the city has grown since, while room for dissent has shrunk as the government has jailed protesters, declaring a pro-independence political party illegal and expelling a foreign journalist.

Families and church groups joined opposition activists, many dressed in white and holding red placards denouncing the law, as police were forced to close more roads and traffic lanes to enable the snaking mass of humanity to move.

Crowds were so massive that some train stations across the city were temporarily closed and protesters had to line up in sweltering heat to enter a local park, chanting slogans to oppose the law and cheering each other on taking to the streets to express their discontent.

The march stretched for more than a mile and a half through the heart of Hong Kong. Photo: tyrone siu/Reuters

“I needed to let my voice be heard,” said Kitty Wong, a 38-year-old teacher who joined a protest for the first time. Gesturing to her two children, ages 8 and 9, she said: “We need to defend our home for the next generation.”

Veteran activist Mr. Lee was on drafting committee of the Basic Law, the city’s mini constitution that enshrined people’s freedoms and rights until 2047. He said there was deliberately no extradition clause in the agreement because the two jurisdictions were too different. Beijing could extradite Hong Kong residents and foreigners on trumped-up charges, he said.

Write to Natasha Khan at natasha.khan@wsj.com

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/massive-crowds-take-to-streets-in-last-fight-for-hong-kong-11560075915

2019-06-09 10:25:00Z
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