Hong Kong airport protests: flight chaos as Carrie Lam warns of ‘path of no return’
Hundreds of flights cancelled ahead of further protests as territory’s leader says violence is pushing city into danger
Hundreds of flights out of Hong Kong have been cancelled on Tuesday in the wake of Monday’s demonstrations as the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam, warned that violence will push Hong Kong “down a path of no return”.
Thousands of passengers remained stranded after one of the world’s busiest airports shut down in a dramatic response to mass demonstrations. Further protests are expected on Tuesday and passengers have been urged to check with their airline before they travel.
At a media conference on Tuesday, Lam said: “Violence, no matter if it’s using violence or condoning violence, will push Hong Kong down a path of no return, will plunge Hong Kong society into a very worrying and dangerous situation.
Children of British Isis members will not be allowed to return to UK, government rules
‘If these children are not returned to their country, rehabilitated and reintegrated into their communities, they will all become future terrorists,’ warn the Kurdish authorities
Richard HallMiddle East Correspondent
Children of British Isis members stranded in Syria will not be allowed to return to the UK, the government has reportedly decided.
At least 30 British children are currently being held with their mothers in camps in northern Syria, after being detained as they fled the crumbling Isis caliphate.
The government has been under pressure to bring them home from the dangerous and overcrowded camps, both from local Syrian authorities and from the Trump administration. Earlier this year the infant son of Shamima Begum, the teenager who fled her home in Bethnal Green to join Isis, died weeks after arriving at one of the facilities.
Two new drugs offer hope against Ebola in DR Congo
Two experimental Ebola drugs being tested in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a yearlong outbreak has killed more than 1,800 people, have succeeded in raising the survival rate to around 90%, health authorities said Monday.
Scientists are a step closer to finding the first effective treatments for the deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever after two potential drugs showed survival rate of as much as 90% in a clinical trial in Congo.
Two experimental drugs – Regeneron’s REGN-EB3 and a monoclonal antibody called mAb114 – were both developed using antibodies harvested from survivors of Ebola infection.
‘Don’t touch me’: How a culture of sex abuse devastated a Catholic community
By David Goldman
Long after clergy sex abuse erupted into scandal in the United States, it remained a secret on the American island of Guam in Micronesia. Here it spans generations and reaches to the very top of the Catholic hierarchy.
For decades, abusers held the power in a culture of impunity led by an archbishop who was among those accused. Anthony Sablan Apuron was convicted in a secret Vatican trial and suspended in 2016, after which restrictions he supported on the reporting of abuse were eased.
Putin’s Private Army
There’s nothing secret about Russia’s presencein the Central African Republic. The streets are plastered with propaganda posters proclaiming “Russia: hand in hand with your army!” A local radio station churns out Russian ballads and language lessons. New recruits to the army are being trained in Russian, using Russian weapons.
But the Russian campaign in this war-torn country is anything but straightforward, drawing on a mix of guns-for-hire and clever PR to increase Moscow’s influence, outmaneuver its rivals and re-assert itself as a major player in the region.
A months-long CNN investigation has established that this ambitious drive into the heart of Africa is being sponsored by Yevgeny Prigozhin — an oligarch so close to the Kremlin that he is known as President Vladimir Putin’s “chef.” He was sanctioned by the US for funding the Internet Research Agency that meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
Iraq says Israeli role in Gulf flotilla unacceptable
Baghdad’s top diplomat says presence of Western forces raises tensions in the region adding Gulf states can secure it.
Iraq has rejected any Israeli participation in a naval force to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, at the heart of tensions with Iran.
Iraq “rejects any participation of forces of the Zionist entity in any military force to secure passage of ships in the Arabian Gulf”, Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali al-Hakim wrote on social media on Monday.
“Together, the Gulf states can secure the passage of ships,” he said.
Tokushima’s famous Awa Odori festival kicks off
Tokushima Prefecture’s famous Awa Odori dance festival kicked off in the streets of Tokushima City on Monday night. More than 1 million people are expected to visit during the four-day event which is one of Japan’s most famous summer dance festivals.
Awa Odori, which originates from a Japanese Buddhist custom of honoring the spirits of ancestors, features groups of dancers and musicians, parading through the streets to the sound of traditional music instruments such as lutes, drums, flutes and bells. Sporting kimono-like costumes with hair bands or straw hats, they chant in chorus and dance in synchronized routines.