Author: Chris Kodo

China has condemned the recent anti-government protests in Hong Kong as “horrendous incidents” that have caused “serious damage to the rule of law”.

“We hope that… people will stand firm in defence of the rule of law,” a spokesman for the government’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said.

Hong Kong has seen eight consecutive weekends of anti-government and pro-democracy protests.

There were violent clashes over the weekend between police and protesters.

In a rare statement the spokesman condemned “the evil and criminal acts committed by the radical elements” in Hong Kong.

“We call on the general public of Hong Kong to be aware of the grave nature of the current situation,” he said.

As a former British colony, Hong Kong has its own legal and judicial systems, and has been promised “a high degree of autonomy” from the Chinese government, except in foreign and defence affairs.

How did we get here?

Demonstrations began when the Hong Kong government introduced a controversial bill that would have enabled extraditions to mainland China.

It sparked huge protests as critics feared the bill would undermine Hong Kong’s freedoms, and be used to target political activists.

The row intensified as police were accused of using excessive force on anti-extradition bill protesters.

Tensions increased further last Sunday, when suspected triad members descended on a subway station in Yuen Long, beating protesters, passersby and journalists with sticks.

Demonstrators accused the police of colluding with the triads – claims denied by the police.

The authorities say they have arrested 12 people over the attack, including nine men with links to triads.

The anti-extradition protests have morphed into a broader movement.

While the government has paused work on the extradition bill, protesters now want it withdrawn completely, as well as an independent inquiry into police violence, and democratic reform.

They want the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam, who is not directly elected by voters and whose handling of the crisis has been widely criticised, to resign.

Some protesters have also expressed their anger at the mainland Chinese government, which they say has been eroding freedoms in Hong Kong.

Source: bbc.com

Three people have been killed and 15 injured after a gunman attacked a food festival in California.

The gunman was shot dead by police shortly after he began firing, although police are investigating reports that a second suspect may still be at large.

The Gilroy Garlic Festival was about to end for the weekend on Sunday evening, when shots were fired at the site.

There was “a white man in his early to mid-30s firing a rifle,” eyewitness Julissa Contreras told NBC.

It was the 246th mass shooting in the US this year, according to US tracking website Gun Violence Archive.

The suspect entered the festival after cutting through a perimeter fence, Gilroy Chief of Police Scot Smithee told reporters. He said witnesses reported that a second suspect may have been involved, possibly in a support role.

Officers were already at the site and responded to the shooting in less than a minute, Chief Smithee added.

Videos posted on social media showed people running away from the festival, which took place 30 miles (48km) south of San Jose.

“What’s going on?” a woman can be heard asking in one video, “who’d shoot up a garlic festival?”

“We couldn’t feel worse,” Brian Bowe, the festival’s executive director, said at a news conference on Sunday. “It’s just a horrible thing to experience.”

“This is nothing short of horrific,” tweeted California Governor Gavin Newsom.

US President Donald Trump also tweeted about the shooting, urging people to “be careful and safe”.

Some people are being treated for critical injuries, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Public Health System said.

The Santa Clara County Medical Center has so far admitted five victims, CBS reports. Two patients are being treated at a medical centre at Stanford University, according to CNN.

Michael Paz, 72, a hat vendor at the festival, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he saw a gunman armed with a rapid-fire assault rifle.

“He came ready to shoot because he was wearing a protective vest,” Paz said. “He was shooting left; he was shooting right without any particular aim.”

As police swooped on the gunman and shots were fired, festival attendees dropped to the ground, Mr Paz said.

“It was just rapid firing,” Ms Contreras told NBC Bay Area. “I could see him shooting in just every direction. He wasn’t aiming at anyone specifically.

“It was just left to right, right to left. He definitely was prepared for what he was doing.”

Evenny Reyes, 13, was among those who scattered in confusion when gunfire erupted at around 17:30 local time (00:30 GMT Monday).

“We were just leaving and we saw a guy with a bandana wrapped around his leg because he got shot,” she told the San Jose Mercury News.

The Gilroy Garlic Festival has been held annually since 1979. The city is a major garlic producer and the event features cooking competitions and live entertainment.

Christmas Hill Park, where the event was taking place, bans weapons of any kind, according to the festival’s website.

Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as a gun attack in which at least four people are either killed or wounded.

In total, it estimates that 8,434 people have died as a result of gun violence in the US in 2019 so far.

The deadliest shooting in the US this year saw 13 people killed at a municipal building in Virginia Beach.

Source: bbc.com

A former Boeing engineer has told the BBC’s Panorama programme that work on the production line of the 737 Max plane was not adequately funded.

The aircraft is currently grounded after two crashes which killed 346 people.

The 737 Max is the company’s fastest selling plane and has earned the company billions of dollars in sales.

Boeing denies the claims and says it’s committed to making the 737 Max one of the safest aircraft ever to fly.

‘Targets’

Adam Dickson worked at Boeing for 30 years and led a team of engineers who worked on the 737 Max. He said they were under constant pressure to keep costs down.

“Certainly what I saw was a lack of sufficient resources to do the job in its entirety,” he says.

“The culture was very cost centred, incredibly pressurised. Engineers were given targets to get certain amount of cost out of the aeroplane.”

Mr Dickson said engineers were under pressure to downplay new features on the 737 Max.

He said by classifying them as minor rather than major changes, Boeing would face less scrutiny from the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The goal was to show that those differences were so similar to the previous design that it would not require a major design classification in the certification process. There was a lot of interest and pressure on the certification and analysis engineers in particular, to look at any changes to the Max as minor changes.”

He said that downplaying the changes reduced scrutiny in a way that could impact safety. Now even his own family have fears about the plane’s safety.

“My family won’t fly on a 737 Max. It’s frightening to see such a major incident because of a system that didn’t function properly or accurately.”

Boeing said its former engineer’s comments were incorrect.

“We did not cut corners or push the 737 Max out before it was ready,” it said.

“We have always held true to our values of safety, quality and integrity and those values are complementary and mutually reinforcing with productivity and company performance.”

Passengers first flew on the 737 Max in 2017, but airlines have been making advance purchases since the plane was first marketed in 2011

Five thousand have been ordered – making it the fastest-selling plane in Boeing’s history.

Some of the money from those sales has been used to fund big pay-outs for company executives and shareholders.

‘Supercharge’

Since 2013, Boeing has paid $17bn (£13.74bn) in dividends to shareholders and has spent a further $43bn buying its own shares – a spending spree that has helped Boeing treble its share price in just five years.

Chief executive Dennis Muilenburg has also been paid more than $70m.

Critics have accused Boeing of paying more attention to the stock market than the safety of its passengers.

Economist William Lazonick said senior management were too focused on making money.

“If you supercharge the incentives of top executives and tell them that their job is to get the stock price up, they’re not going to pay the kind of attention they need to pay to ensuring they produce a safe plane,” he said.

Boeing said it “follows a balanced cash deployment strategy that ensures investment in our core businesses and workforce, returns value to shareholders and maintains our strong balance sheet and credit rating”.

The 737 Max has been grounded since March and there is currently no sign of regulators allowing the plane back in the skies.

Boeing has been trying to fix the software that forced the aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia down.

MCAS was designed to operate when the plane was flying at a steep, nose-up angle – and would automatically attempt to move the nose downwards.

It was meant to make the controls feel more predictable and familiar to pilots who were used to older versions of the 737.

But pilots didn’t know about MCAS because it wasn’t included in training materials or the 1,600-page manual for the Max.

Boeing’s system also had a fatal flaw – it used a single sensor to work out the angle the plane was flying at.

On both the Indonesian and Ethiopian flights, that sensor stopped working properly. This resulted in MCAS forcing the aircraft downwards even though they were already on the correct course.

The pilots struggled to regain control, because MCAS was designed to kick back in every few seconds. The Indonesian plane was forced down more than 20 times before it crashed.

‘Complicated’

Boeing said it wasn’t relying on the single sensor, because the pilots were there as back up. It said there was a way to override MCAS – a standard procedure that pilots should have known about from flying the old 737.

The company has said the pilots didn’t completely follow the correct operating procedures when things went wrong.

But 737 pilots like Chris Brady say it is wrong to blame the pilots.

“If you’re going to design and certify an airliner with such a complicated, obscure failure mode as happened to that crew, it’s no wonder that your average crew aren’t able to deal with it,” he said.

Boeing said it is focusing on implementing the software update, finalising pilot training and rebuilding trust with customers.

“Boeing truly regrets the loss of life and will continue to work with communities, customers and the aviation industry to help with the healing process,” it said.

“In any accident we must learn from what happened. It’s also important to avoid speculating ahead of the final investigative reports.”

Source: bbc.com

Mankind will have used up its allowance of natural resources such as water, soil and clean air for all of 2019 by Monday, a report said.

The so-called Earth Overshoot Day has moved up by two months over the past 20 years and this year’s date is the earliest ever, the study by the Global Footprint Network said.

The equivalent of 1.75 planets would be required to produce enough to meet humanity’s needs at current consumption rates.

“Earth Overshoot Day falling on July 29 means that humanity is currently using nature 1.75 times faster than our planet?s ecosystems can regenerate. This is akin to using 1.75 Earths,” the environmental group, which is headquartered in Oakland, California, said in a statement.

“The costs of this global ecological overspending are becoming increasingly evident in the form of deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, or the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The latter leads to climate change and more frequent extreme weather events,” it added.

Calculated since 1986, the grim milestone has arrived earlier each year.

In 1993, it fell on October 21, in 2003 on September 22, and in 2017 on August 2.

“We have only got one Earth — this is the ultimately defining context for human existence. We can’t use 1.75 (earths) without destructive consequences,” said Mathis Wackernagel, founder of Global Footprint Network.

Maria Carolina Schmidt Zaldivar, Chile’s environment minister and chair of the Climate COP25 scheduled this December in Santiago, said a major cause of the date falling earlier and earlier was growing amounts of CO2 emissions.

“The importance of decisive action is becoming ever more evident,” she said.

Individuals can get involved by calculating their own ecological footprint at http://www.footprintcalculator.org.

Source: France24

Talks to resolve remaining issues between Sudanese protesters and ruling generals are set to resume Tuesday, a mediator and protest leader said, as scores demonstrated in Khartoum to demand an impartial probe into a deadly June raid on a sit-in.

The two sides have already signed a power-sharing deal that aims to form a joint civilian-military ruling body which in turn would install civilian rule.

That is the main demand of a nationwide protest movement that led to the April ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir and has since demanded that the military council which took his place cede power to civilians.

The decision to resume talks came as police fired tear gas at protesters angered at the findings of a probe into the June 3 raid on a protest camp outside army headquarters.

African Union mediator Mohamed El Hacen Lebatt said in a statement Sunday that the protest leaders and generals had been invited for “final talks on the Constitutional Declaration”.

Prominent protest leader Babiker Faisal also confirmed Tuesday’s talks in Khartoum between the two sides, who on July 17 signed the initial power-sharing deal.

The second agreement will cover issues including the powers of the joint civilian-military ruling body, the deployment of security forces and immunity for generals over protest-related violence, Faisal said.

“I expect that we will reach an agreement on the Constitutional Declaration on Tuesday because the pending differences are not big,” Faisal told AFP.

Lebatt said a technical committee representing the two sides would meet first on Monday for preliminary talks.

The July 17 “Political Declaration” provides for the establishment of the joint civilian-military transitional ruling body that would install an overall civilian administration.

That governing body will include six civilians and five generals.

It will then oversee the formation of a transitional civilian government and parliament to govern for 39 months, after which elections will be held.

– Political uncertainty –

Talks were to resume soon after the July 17 deal, but three rebel groups who are part of the protest movement had objected to that agreement.

They argued that it did not address issues related to bringing peace to Sudan’s wartorn regions of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Their concerns were addressed in separate talks in Addis Ababa last week between representatives of rebel groups and protest leaders.

The “Constitutional Declaration” is hoped to bring an end to the political uncertainity that has roiled Sudan since Bashir’s ouster on April 11.

The crisis peaked following a deadly raid in June on crowds of protesters who had camped outside the military headquarters in Khartoum since April 6.

Shortly before dawn on June 3, gunmen in military fatigues raided the site of the weeks-long sit-in, shooting and beating protesters.

Doctors linked to the protest movement say the raid left 127 people dead and scores wounded.

But a joint investigation by prosecutors and the ruling military council that took power following Bashir’s ouster found that just 17 people were killed on June 3, with a total of 87 dying between that day and June 10.

The probe identified eight officers involved in the violent crackdown on the protes camp, including a general, a colonel and a captain from the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

– Impartial probe –

The eight officers face charges of crimes against humanity, chief investigator Fatah al-Rahman Saeed told reporters on Saturday.

But protest leaders have rejected the findings, saying the inquiry exonerated the military council and gave a far lower death toll than their own figures.

Saeed’s investigation “was commissioned by the military council, this is challenging its integrity as the military council itself is accused in this case,” said the Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded the initial protests against Bashir.

Angry demonstrators have staged rallies against the probe, calling for an independent investigation into the raid.

On Sunday, scores of protesters chanting the months-long protest movement’s catchcry of “Freedom, peace, justice!” rallied in Khartoum’s eastern Burri district, witnesses said, adding that riot police swiftly dispersed the crowd with tear gas.

The country’s ruling generals have insisted they did not order the dispersal of the sit-in.

Source: France24

Jay-Z will no longer be performing at the upcoming Woodstock 50 festival, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told CNN.

The source did not cite a reason for the rapper’s decision to pull out of the performing lineup, but the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock festival has faced a series of setbacks.

It remains unclear whether the festival, scheduled for August 16 to 18, will go on as planned as tickets have not been made available for sale.

Jay-Z’s departure from the festival, first reported by The Associated Press, came amid reports that festival organizers were changing venues.

According to a report by Variety, organizers are planning to hold the festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland instead of a previously scheduled site in New York. Musician John Fogerty said Friday that he has also decided not to perform at Woodstock 50.

A statement posted to a Facebook page for Fogerty — who performed at the original Woodstock festival as the front man of Creedence Clearwater Revival — said the artist “knows where he will be for the Anniversary weekend of Woodstock.” “At only one site … at the original one — the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.”

CNN has reached out to festival organizers for comment. The festival has been plagued by one issue after another. In April, a marketing firm that was financing the festival opted to pull out, with executives telling festival organizers that they were canceling the event. But organizers, including promoter Michael Lang, one of the creators of the original festival in 1969, said it wasn’t up to the firm to cancel the festival, and they trudged on.

Last month, festival officials announced that the scheduled venue for Woodstock 50, Watkins Glen International, had pulled out. “We are in discussions with another venue to host Woodstock 50 on August 16th-18th and look forward to sharing the new location when tickets go on sale in the coming weeks,” Gregory Peck, a managing organizer of the festival, told CNN in a statement at the time.

In March, some of the music industry’s biggest names were announced as headliners, including Miley Cyrus and Chance the Rapper. CNN’s Chloe Melas, Kendall Trammell and Harmeet Kaur contributed to this report.

Source: edition.cnn.com

At least 65 people have lost their lives after suspected Boko Haram militants opened fire on a funeral in Nigeria’s north-eastern state of Borno.

Gunmen arrived on motorcycles and in vans at the village near the state capital, Maiduguri, on Saturday, eyewitnesses say.

A number of mourners were reportedly killed straight away, while others died trying to chase off the attackers.

Local government official Muhammed Bulama said he thought the latest attack was in revenge for the killing of 11 Boko Haram fighters by the villagers two weeks ago.

Agence France Presse journalists at the scene said they saw burnt-out homes, and relatives collecting the bodies of those who were killed.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack, and ordered the air force and army to hunt down those who carried it out, Reuters reports.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and more than two million displaced over the past decade of conflict.

Boko Haram, loosely translated, means “Western education is banned” and promotes a version of Islam that forbids Muslims to take part in any political or social activity associated with the West. The group is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state.

It has been active not only in Nigeria, but also in the neighbouring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Boko Haram has been notorious for kidnapping schoolchildren and attracted global media attention in 2014 following the abduction of almost 300 girls from a school in the town of Chibok, in Borno, the state where the militant group has been most active.

In 2015, it was ranked the world’s deadliest terror group by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Territory controlled by the group has declined in recent years and it has splintered into competing factions.

However, the Islamist militants remain active in the region, defying attempts by the army to bring the insurgency to an end.

Source: bbc.com

The US director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, has become the latest high-profile figure to leave the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump tweeted Mr Coats would step down in mid-August and that he would nominate the Texan congressman John Ratcliffe to replace him.

He said Mr Ratcliffe would lead and “inspire greatness for the country” he loved.

In January the president called his intelligence chiefs passive and naive in their assessment of the threat posed by Iran.

A year ago, Mr Coats laughed in surprise when he heard that the US president was going to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for a summit in Finland.

“That’s going to be special,” said an amused Mr Coats, when he was told the news at a public event.

He later apologised for his reaction, saying “my admittedly awkward response was in no way meant to be disrespectful or criticise the actions of the president”.

Source: bbc.com