In the news

Worrying. Be safe!

tear gas and rubber bullets fired by police at peaceful demonstrators

BBC reporting bricks and projectiles thrown at Police

not seen that this afternoon but wouldn't be surprised if that is happening now it seemed to escalated quickly as they say. juat getting reports from friends in and arround

Hope you and your friends stay safe

I'm away from it but getting reports back from friends near by. the protesters are nearly all teenagers / students.

👍👍

I remember reading the HK police upped their riot-readyness
after 'losing' to the South Korean farmers protesting against the WTO in 2005.
https://www.scmp.com/article/507759/militant-korean-farmers-sign-hk-protests

if you see ramsaye shirt off and his work tie tied, bandana style, around his head, large steel pole in hand charging the riot police please try and calm him

i know these extradition laws are vexing him most unduly

Daesh officially stating that they now use crop fires as a new strategy. Areas equivalent to 7000 fotball fields burned down so far.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1504026/middle-east

" ... It was looking to be a good year for farmers across parts of Syria and Iraq. The wettest in generations, it brought rich, golden fields of wheat and barley
... Daesh militants claimed responsibility for burning crops in their weekly newsletter, Al-Nabaa, ... it burned the farms of “the apostates in Iraq and the Levant” and called for more. ..."

But googling this for more detail sent me all over the place, mostly English language Arab news sites claiming the sources of the fires could also be Syrian state army, various rivalling tribes, as well as natural causes and accidents. But still, IS are the only ones positively admitting to using starvation as a tactic.
Oh and they plant the fields with mines to injure farmers when they try to put out the fires.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48611704

Well there's a fucking surprise...

Stay safe, sounds horrible from the reports I've read. I've heard the police have been itching for a fight all day. Obviously nothing reported here in mainland China, cross border buses are disrupted due to "special conditions"...

That’s desperately sad. And stupid.

ta I'm away from it. getting reports that the protesters have been split in to 2 different areas but have made road blocks from surrounding stuff utilising a building site. an uneasy stand off going on atm.
where in mainland China are you? was wondering if anything had filtered through ?

"If it did not comply, the regulator said it could take enforcement action."

Door. Stable door. Horse. Bolted.

Meanwhile somewhere on t'internet "FARAGE NOT DONE ANYTHING REMOANER WITCHHUNT"

Definitely too little, too late.

regulator

...would imply it actually does some regulation and issue some kind of punishment. It could, but it won't, as usual.

There is the old adage that cheats never prosper, except that the majority of them seem to do so. In fact this system seems positively set up to encourage it.

It's horrible, those kids are so young and their future is grim. The evil law is just the beginning - no way will the clock run to 50 years. The legco won't give up and even if the protestors win this battle, they will lose the war. Makes me really sad.

I'm in Shanghai. On Sunday the news here said the crowds were people supporting the law (cos China is so benevolent and wants to make things better for the world). Nothing today - pictures on WeChat are being censored, the few official mentions on weibo talk about US-backed riots... I'm sure there are other posts on weibo but more oblique. Very strict political atmosphere at the moment anyway due to the big anniversary last week and our new police chief.

They may punish them, but the money is already gone in and has been spent.

See also Cambridge Analytica (the ICO is investigating wrongdoings, but the votes they won won't be retracted)

Only thing I can think of is offering all parties an open and cheap government audited funding system (rather than a commercial one which some small parties can't afford) and you must use that one.

No doubt that has side effects as well, but I don't see how they can check (for any party) that people who donate are on the UK electoral roll or companies based in the EU until well after the fact.

wow that's crazy. the students get that there future is on the line. nearly all of them are just kids its heartbreaking, they can see there freedoms slipping away. I've got the morning off tomorrow and hopefully they can hold out so going to go down take some water and food down.

Completely agree with you. But commensurate punishment (which is not in the scope of the powers of the commission, I'm sure), even after the horse has bolted is at least a start.

Also thoughts with you @Rich_G, @hats, etc. with all that going on in your neck of the woods (to differing extents)^

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/48612884

Obvs 5 hours late to the Pro-Cycling thread but for those that don't sub ^

That was retaliation, once the police realised that the crowd wasn’t dispersing after the debate was called off for the day they started to fear for another long occupy protest. BBC have form for reporting retaliation as aggression against police. There’s still a few out there and it will be interesting to see if it starts up again today.

Remember SpeedX that sold "smart" bikes through Kickstarter? Cyclingtips have written a good piece on how the company folded.
https://cyclingtips.com/2019/06/what-happened-to-speedx/

So Phillip Green saves Arcadia, negotiating huge rent reductions by arguing poverty...

...from his massive yacht.