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Hong Kong: Annual EU report illustrates further decline of fundamental freedoms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:28 GMT

The European Commission and the High Representative have today adopted the 25th annual report to the European Parliament and the Council on political and economic developments in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. This report covers developments in 2022.2022 marked the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China and the second anniversary of the imposition of the National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong. The annual report illustrates the continued erosion of Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy, democratic principles, and fundamental freedoms that were supposed to be protected until at least 2047. These developments cast further doubt on China's commitment to the ‘one country, two systems' principle.Over the course of the year, law enforcement agencies continued to make arrests on national security grounds. As of 31 December 2022, 236 people had been arrested under the NSL and other security legislation while 145 individuals and 5 companies had been charged. The ...

Search underway for 19-year-old woman abducted after shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:28 GMT

Friends and family of 19-year-old Andrea Vazquez, who may have been abducted after a shooting Sunday at a park in Whittier, gathered to pray for her safe return Monday.  “I’ve never experienced a heartbreak like this,” Edlyn Vazquez, the victim’s sister told KTLA’s Rick Chambers. “I’m just trying to stay strong for her because I know she’ll be back.”  According to the Whittier Police Department, officers responded to the parking stalls of Penn Park shortly after midnight on Sunday after a man reported that an armed suspect approached his vehicle — occupied by him and a female passenger — and fired gunshots in their direction.   Family members say that the 19-year-old was with her boyfriend in a car parked at the curb when another vehicle suddenly pulled up and fired a shot, striking Andrea. They claim that the boyfriend then ran to another couple in the park for help.  “He later returned and saw that his female companion that he was with there at the pa...

UK forces Microsoft to restructure Activision deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:28 GMT

LONDON — Microsoft has been forced to restructure its takeover of Activision and renotify it to the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) after the watchdog confirmed its earlier decision to block its $69 billion takeover of the video-gaming giant.In a press release on Tuesday, the CMA said it had rejected Microsoft’s plea to revisit its original decision to block the merger. Instead, Microsoft has submitted a new, restructured deal for the British watchdog to review, under which Microsoft will sell the rights to stream existing and new Activision PC and console games to rival French game maker Ubisoft. The rights Ubisoft will acquire outside of the European Economic Area will be exclusive.“Under the restructured transaction, Microsoft will not be in a position either to release Activision Blizzard games exclusively on its own cloud streaming service — Xbox Cloud Gaming – or to exclusively control the licensing terms of Activision Blizzard games for rival services...

‘Daddy is in the building’ — Prigozhin resurfaces in Africa video

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:28 GMT

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has resurfaced in a video allegedly shot in an unnamed country in Africa and posted to a social media account with links to his paramilitary group late Monday.In a post that begins with the phrase “Daddy is in the building,” Grey Zone, a Telegram channel sympathetic to the warlord, said the 41-second video had been filmed in “one of the countries of Africa.”Appearing against a sandy backdrop and claiming it is over 50 degrees celsius — “just the way we like it” — Prigozhin says the Wagner Group “is conducting reconnaissance and search activities. Making Russia even greater on every continent, and Africa even freer.”It is the first time the warlord has appeared in a video address since his ill-fated attempted mutiny in June, when his troops marched to within 200 kilometers of Moscow before standing down. Last month, Prigozhin was photographed at a Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg, appearing on the si...

Russia’s moon crash ‘raises the stakes’ for India’s successful landing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:28 GMT

India’s lunar lander is working “perfectly,” the head of India’s space agency said Monday, just days after Russia crashed its spacecraft into the moon.The Chandrayaan-3 lander is scheduled to land on the moon on Wednesday with no contingencies expected, Indian Space Research Organization Chair S. Somanath said in a statement.Now, experts say New Delhi has a huge opportunity to cement its space prowess.https://c714a081a0b19ce42296bb50029f06aa.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html“It raises the stakes of success. India has always been viewed by the world as a junior spacefaring state,” said Peter Garretson, a senior fellow in defense studies at the American Foreign Policy Council and a former Defense Department official. “If India can succeed where Russia has failed, it signals a new pecking order in space.”After a surprise launch by Russia’s space agency in early August to beat India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander to the lunar south pole — Moscow’s fi...

Fukushima nuclear plant will start releasing treated radioactive water to sea as early as Thursday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:28 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan will start releasing treated and diluted radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean as early as Thursday — a controversial but essential early step in the decades of work to shut down the facility 12 years after its meltdown disaster.Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave the final go-ahead Tuesday at a meeting of Cabinet ministers involved in the plan and instructed the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, to be ready to start the coastal release Thursday if weather and sea conditions permit.Kishida said at the meeting that the release of the water is essential for the progress of the plant decommissioning and Fukushima prefecture’s recovery from the March 11, 2011, disaster.He said the government has done everything for now to ensure the plan’s safety, protect the reputation of Japan’s fishing industry and clearly explain the scientific basis to gain understanding in and outside the country. He pledg...

Ex-Prime Minister Thaksin enters prison in Thailand, facing 8-year sentence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:28 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra entered prison to begin serving an 8-year sentence Tuesday, hours after returning to the country after years of self-imposed exile.The divisive former leader returned the same day that a party affiliated with him faces a key vote on its path to form a new government. Thaksin has said his decision to return has nothing to do with the Pheu Thai party’s bid for power, but many believe the party made deals with pro-military parties to facilitate the 74-year-old billionaire’s return.Pheu Thai is the latest in a string of parties formed by Thaksin or his allies, two of which were removed from power by military coups, resulting in years of upheaval and division that pitted a mostly poor, rural pro-Thaksin majority in the north against royalists, the military and their urban backers.Thaksin’s private jet landed around 9 a.m. local time in Bangkok, where he was welcomed by family and supporters. After walking out of t...

2023 World Humanitarian Day: Statement High Representative/Vice President Josep Borrell and Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:28 GMT

Around the world, more and more people are being pushed deeper into humanitarian crises due to new and ongoing conflicts and the consequences of the climate and ecological emergency. If those in need of humanitarian assistance formed a country, it would be the third largest globally. And this suffering non-country is growing at an exponential rate – up 30% since early 2022. Now more than ever before, people in crises are in need of humanitarian support.That is why, on World Humanitarian Day, we pay tribute to aid workers on the frontlines risking their lives to save others and reduce human suffering – and honour the memory of those who perished in the service of others.This summer marks 20 years since the devastating bomb attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people, mostly humanitarian aid workers. Sadly, the risk landscape has only worsened since then. Today, aid workers around the world are in greater danger than ever before. This year so far, attacks against aid ...

Macao: EU report highlights growing emphasis on national security that risks undermining fundamental freedoms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:28 GMT

The European Commission and the High Representative have adopted their 23rd annual report to the European Parliament and the Council on political and economic developments in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR). This report covers developments in 2022.The report shows a growing focus on national security that bears the risk of undermining fundamental freedoms in Macao and eroding the ‘one country, two systems' principle and Macao's high degree of autonomy.On 15 December, the Legislative Assembly passed a bill to amend the 2009 national security law. The expressed aim of the bill is to enable the law to safeguard national security to the same extent as the laws of mainland China and of Hong Kong. The amended law expands the scope of the existing offences to include non-violent actions under subversion, and further widens the definition of sedition. The scope of the charge of collusion has been broadened to include any organisation, association, and individual outside of Mac...

A’s slugger hits walk-off homer, making sure he could attend Zach Bryan’s concert. Then he went on stage.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:28 GMT

OAKLAND — Brent Rooker hit a two-run home run off Dylan Coleman in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Oakland Athletics a 6-4 win over the Kansas City Royals at the Coliseum.And it might have only been the second coolest thing Rooker did Monday night.After the A’s victory, Rooker made the short walk over to the Oakland Arena to see Zach Bryan perform in concert. But not only did the Rooker see the show, he joined Bryan on stage — wearing his Kelly green A’s jersey — and began to sing alongside the 2022 Grammy Award nominee.“I don’t even know what happened,” Bryan wrote in an Instagram story late Monday night. “@zachlanebryan is the absolute man. Burned the house down as always.”Bryan also acknowledged Rooker’s dual talents on Instagram, saying, “Man belted a homer then came and BELTED WITH US.”Great night for Brent Rooker. Slugs his second walk-off homer of the season and gets to go on stage for Za...