Why Russia and China are wading into a centuries’ old dispute over a tiny island cluster
Updated 0508 GMT (1308 HKT) July 27, 2019
While Japan and South Korea may not agree on who owns a cluster of tiny, rocky islands off their coastlines, they do agree that Russian bombers shouldn’t be flying above them.
Hong Kong protesters brace for clashes with triads in Yuen Long rally
Hong Kong residents braced for more clashes on Saturday as protesters vowed to defy police orders and hold a rally that could pit them against triad gangs.
Demonstrators were preparing to march on Saturday afternoon in Yuen Long, in Hong Kong’s rural New Territories in the north of the city, where suspected triads attacked commuters and protesters with poles and rods last week, leaving 45 hospitalised.
Lines of protesters, many head to toe in black, with helmets, pads and masks have filled Yuen Long station, sitting on the ground in groups. Some made their way to the rally’s starting point, a playground. Most shops along the main road, the march’s route were closed. Riot police have set up posts along the main road and in the Yuen Long station, where last week’s attack took place and where the march was scheduled to end on Saturday.
Young asylum seekers in US easy prey for gangs
Young Central American asylum seekers fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries are increasingly falling prey to the notorious MS13 gang in the United States, authorities say.
The youngsters, most of them from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, are proving to be easy targets for the gang which takes advantage of their vulnerability as immigrants.
“They are young victims who very likely left their countries in the hope that they would find security and prosperity in the United States,” Los Angeles County district attorney Jackie Lacey said last week as she announced a sweeping indictment against 22 members of the gang.
Italy blocks own coast guard vessel with migrants on board
Migrants on seven boats are crossing Mediterranean waters to escape Libya, according to airborne Sea-Watch activists. Italy’s interior minister is blocking entry to an Italian coast guard ship carrying rescued migrants.
Far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has ordered that coast guard ship Bruno Gregoretti should not enter an Italian port until other EU countries agree to take in the 140 migrants on board, news agency ANSA has reported.
Italy’s coast guard said those on board comprised two groups rescued on Wednesday by Tunisian and Italian fishing boats and then transferred to the Bruno Gregoretti.
This woman was jailed in China because she worked for Crown casino
By Nick McKenzie, Grace Tobin and Nick Toscano
Jenny Jiang will live forever with the fallout of the four weeks she spent in a Chinese prison with drug dealers, pickpockets and prostitutes thanks to the actions of her employer – Australia’s biggest casino company, Crown Resorts.
Ms Jiang, who lives in Shanghai, now has a criminal record which she says in China is “a big issue”.
Europe’s heat wave is about to bake the Arctic
Concerns grow regarding sea ice and Greenland’s ice sheet.
On Friday, more temperature records are falling in Europe as the historic heat wave that brought the hottest weather ever recorded in Paris, London, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany shifts northward. In a few days, the weather system responsible for the heat wave will stretch all the way across the top of the globe.
It’s what this system, characterized by a strong area of high pressure aloft — often referred to as a heat dome — will do to the Arctic that has some scientists increasingly concerned.