Basic Law

China’s state-run Global Times crowed on Thursday that “dozens of former local politicians and extreme separatist activists” in Hong Kong pled guilty to “conspiring to subvert state power.” In other words, pro-democracy activists were pressured into guilty pleas under the grotesque “national security law” Beijing illegally forced on Hong Kong to crush the last vestiges of the island’s autonomy.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said at a press conference on Tuesday that the city no longer has any meaningful separation of powers between the executive branch, legislature, and judiciary.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced Friday that next month’s scheduled legislative elections will be postponed for a year due to the surge in coronavirus cases.

Hong Kong banned a dozen pro-democracy candidates on Thursday from running in the 2020 legislative election, currently scheduled for September 9, pending a possible coronavirus safety delay.

A Hong Kong group called Netizens Organizing Police Abuse Investigation Data (NOPAID) this week published an extensive report on the excessive use of force by police against protesters.

Over a dozen Hong Kong lawmakers staged a protest in the legislature on Wednesday, chanting “Protect press freedom!” and holding up placards reading “Free Press, No Persecution,” until security guards escorted them from the chamber.

The Hong Kong National Party (HKNP) was formally outlawed on Monday, marking the first time a political organization has been banned outright since Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997. The British Foreign Ministry pronounced itself “concerned by the decision,” while stressing the U.K. does not support the Hong Kong independence movement.

Hong Kong’s democracy movement finds itself at a crossroads four years after the high-water mark of the Umbrella Revolution.

The Hong Kong Bar Association issued a statement on Wednesday criticizing a court ruling that effectively bans political candidates who favor greater independence from China. One prominent young pro-democracy activist immediately announced that she would file her election papers anyway.

The Hong Kong Bar Association declared itself “appalled” on Friday by the Chinese parliament’s order to enforce mainland Chinese law inside a Hong Kong rail station, warning that the move would “severely undermine” the rule of law and rattle public confidence in Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” state of pseudo-independence.

TEL AVIV – Jewish Home head Naftali Bennett and Likud minister Ze’ev Elkin finally agreed Sunday night to collaborate on a bill that would require a two-thirds Knesset majority to give up any part of Jerusalem in a future peace deal with the Palestinians.

Street demonstrations in Hong Kong on Sunday ended in a cloud of pepper spray, as Beijing conducted its most dramatic intervention in the semi-autonomous territory’s politics since 1997.

BERLIN, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Germany has translated the first 20 articles of the country’s constitution [the Grundgesetz pictured above], which outline basic rights like freedom of speech, into Arabic for refugees to help them integrate. Germany is struggling to