Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte (right) speaks to the Senate on Tuesday next to Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini.
Gregorio Borgia/AP
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Gregorio Borgia/AP
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has announced that his resignation amid political chaos and jockeying for power within his own coalition.
In a scathing speech to the Senate, Conte railed against his right-wing coalition partner, Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini. Conte is an independent. His coalition includes the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and Salvini's party, the League, which is staunchly anti-migrant and euroskeptic. Conte's government has held power for some 14 months.
Salvini's party said earlier this month that it planned to hold a no-confidence vote against Conte. On Tuesday, Conte accused Salvini of showing "grave contempt" for parliament, and accused him of putting Italy into a possible "dizzying spiral of political and financial instability," as The Associated Press reported.
He said Salvini initiated the crisis "for his own political and personal gain," as NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reported from Rome.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella will be the one to determine what happens next in Italy's political crisis. Mattarella will talk with parliamentary groups and decide whether a new coalition government can be formed or if elections will have to be held. They weren't scheduled for another three and a half years.
Some reports have suggested that the Five Star Movement might try to find an unlikely alliance with the center-left opposition Democratic Party. Poggioli describes them as "dire rivals" and says they're "on opposite sides of many issues."
It's clear that Salvini is hoping that he emerges from the chaos as Prime Minister, Poggioli reports, though the possible alliance of rivals would sorely complicate that ambition.
Ultimately, Poggioli notes, "this is the end of Italy's most hard line nationalist and populist government since World War II."
LONDON — The British government said it was "extremely concerned" over reports that an employee of its Hong Kong consulate has been detained.
The U.K. Foreign Office said on Tuesday that the employee had visited Shenzhen, a city in Guangdong Province in southeastern China, and was detained returning to Hong Kong.
“We are extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen," the statement said, adding that the foreign ministry was seeking further information from authorities.
A Scottish government spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that the employee is Simon Cheng Man-Kit, who works for Scottish Development International, based at the British Consulate in Hong Kong. A Linkedin page attributed to Cheng Man Kit says he has worked at the agency for 18 months.
The Scottish government said in a statement: "We are aware of this incident and we are concerned for Mr Cheng’s welfare. We are liaising with the FCO, who are in contact with Mr Cheng’s family, the authorities in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and are seeking further information."
Aug. 18, 201901:13
This incident follow months of protests against an extradition bill that Hong Kongers feared would eventually place Hong Kong under China’s jurisdiction. Those protests then turned into a wider pro-democracy movement which is calling for Hong Kong's historic rights, a legacy of its status as a former British colony, to be protected.
Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 under the principle of "one country, two systems," which promises the region certain democratic rights not afforded to people on the mainland. In recent years, some Hong Kong residents have accused the Communist Party-ruled central government of steadily chipping away at their freedoms.
Kong Wing-Cheung, senior superintendent of the Hong Kong police public relations branch, said in a press conference Tuesday that police had received a missing person's report on Aug. 9 but could not give more details.
The police had not received any notification from China under the reciprocal notification mechanism, he added. China's foreign ministry spokesperson, Geng Shuang, declined to comment on the reports on Tuesday.
The reports come as Hong Kong's leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, said Tuesday that she was setting up a "platform for dialogue" to resolve differences in the city following the protests.
Lam also said a fact-finding study will look at the causes of the protests and the police response to them.
Lam and other officials have conditioned dialogue on the protest movement remaining peaceful. Earlier protests have been marked by violence.
Saphora Smith
Saphora Smith is a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital.
A 21-year-old woman acquitted of the aggravated murder of her baby in El Salvador has called on her supporters to fight for others like her.
A judge said there was no evidence that Evelyn Hernández had killed her child, which was found dead in the septic tank of the toilet where she gave birth.
His ruling contradicted that of a 2017 trial, during which Ms Hernández was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years.
Women's groups hope the ruling will set a precedent for other jailed women.
"I ask that justice and freedom be done for the other women," Ms Hernández said, referring to at least 17 women who are currently in jail over similar cases.
El Salvador has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world. Abortion is illegal in all circumstances and those found guilty face between two and eight years in jail.
But in many instances, including the case against Ms Hernández, the charge is changed to one of aggravated homicide, which carries a minimum sentence of 30 years.
What was Ms Hernández accused of?
Evelyn Hernández was charged with aggravated murder, with prosecutors arguing that she had killed her baby in 2016.
She has always maintained her innocence, saying that she had been raped by a gang member and had no idea that she was pregnant.
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Ms Hernández says that on 6 April 2016, when she was 18, she experienced severe stomach pains and bleeding while at her home in rural El Salvador.
When she went to the toilet, located in an outhouse, she fainted. Her mother took her to a hospital, where doctors found she had given birth.
She was arrested after the body of her baby was found in the toilet's septic tank.
She was originally charged with inducing an abortion, which is illegal in El Salvador. That charge was later changed to aggravated murder, and she was sentenced to 30 years in prison in July 2017.
Her lawyers appealed against the sentence, arguing that forensic evidence showed that the baby had died of meconium aspiration, inhaling his own early stool.
This can happen while the baby is still in the uterus, during delivery or immediately after birth – casting doubt on the prosecution's argument that the baby had died from inhaling faeces inside the septic tank.
Ms Hernández served 33 months in jail before her appeal was successful and a retrial was ordered. She was released from prison in February pending her retrial.
What happened at the retrial?
Prosecutors argued that she was guilty of murdering her baby "by omission" and asked for an even harsher sentence - 40 years in prison - than that imposed in the original trial.
Evelyn Hernández again maintained that she did not induce an abortion as she had not even been aware that she was pregnant.
She said she had confused the symptoms of pregnancy with stomach ache because she had experienced intermittent bleeding, which she thought was her menstrual period.
"If I'd known I was pregnant I would have awaited [the birth] with pride and joy," she has said in the past. Her lawyers argued she should be cleared.
On Monday, Judge José Virgilio Jurado Martínez said that there was no evidence that a crime had been committed and acquitted Ms Hernández.
The prosecution has 10 days to appeal against the verdict.
What has the reaction been?
Ms Hernández was visibly relieved and emotional after the verdict was read out, embracing her lawyer, Bertha María Deleón, and other activists.
"Thank God, justice was done," she said before thanking everyone who had supported her.
"I also thank my mother for always being with me in everything, I know it's been tough all this time, being there [in the courtroom] and seeing how I was being accused of something I was innocent of," she said in a brief speech outside the courtroom.
"My future is to keep studying and achieve my goals," she said to cheers from those gathered. "There are many women who are still locked up and I call for them to be freed soon, too," she added.
Ms Deleón also called on those gathered outside the courtroom to continue fighting for the release of women convicted under similar circumstances.
"We can't lose sight [of that fact that] there are more women who are being held due to injustice, we are advancing and we want - as we managed to obtain Evelyn's freedom - to continue fighting to free the others," she said.
Human rights lawyer Paula Avila-Guillén, who acted as an advisor to Ms Hernández's legal team, said that the ruling would not only help create a judicial precedent but also "help create a more favourable public opinion, a public opinion that understands the total abortion ban and its wrongful application".
Amnesty International described the verdict as a "resounding victory for the rights of women in El Salvador" and called on El Salvador's government to "end the shameful and discriminatory practice of criminalising women".
HONG KONG—A member of the British consular staff in Hong Kong has been detained in mainland China after a trip to the neighboring city of Shenzhen.
“We are extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen,” a spokesman for the U.K.’s Foreign Office said in a statement. “We are providing support to his family and seeking further information from authorities in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong.”
On Tuesday, local media outlet HK01 reported that Simon Cheng, a trade and investment officer at the consulate, attended an Aug. 8 business event in Shenzhen. Mr. Cheng had planned to return to Hong Kong the same day but couldn’t be reached after expressing concern to his girlfriend at the border, HK01 reported.
It isn’t known what travel document Mr. Cheng was using for the trip to Shenzhen.
Hong Kong, a former British colony that was handed back to China in 1997, has been rocked by 11 weeks of unrest against Beijing’s increasing encroachment on the city. In a 1984 accord with the U.K., China agreed to guarantee the city’s rule of law and safeguard rights and freedoms until 2047.
Officials from Beijing and the U.K. have exchanged barbs over the protests, with Chinese officials warning their British counterparts to stay out of Hong Kong politics.
U.K. Foreign Secretary
Dominic Raab
called Hong Kong’s leader,
Carrie Lam,
on Aug. 9 to raise his concerns about the situation in Hong Kong and express support for the right to peaceful protest, according to a British summary of the call. The following day a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said it was wrong for Mr. Raab to directly call Mrs. Lam to exert pressure. China “seriously urges the U.K. to stop its interference in China’s internal affairs,” the spokeswoman said.
According to HK01’s report, Mr. Cheng texted his Taiwanese girlfriend on the night of Aug. 8 to say that he was on a high-speed train ready to cross the border back into Hong Kong. He hasn’t been in contact since.
Border checks for the high-speed train service are conducted by mainland officials at a joint checkpoint in the terminus in Hong Kong, the mainland side of which is legally considered mainland Chinese territory.
SAN FRANCISCO — China has aggressively stirred up anti-Western and nationalist sentiment using state and social media as part of an information war in the Hong Kong protests.
On Monday, Facebook and Twitter said they had found evidence of just how active China has been in trying to sow discord.
The social media companies said they had discovered and taken down networks of accounts that had originated in mainland China, where both Facebook and Twitter are blocked. The accounts had posted that the Hong Kong protesters were acting violently and accused them of ulterior motives. One Facebook post likened the protesters to ISIS fighters.
Facebook and Twitter said they had taken down the accounts. Facebook said it removed seven pages, three Facebook Groups and five accounts involved in the disinformation, while Twitter, which has served as a gathering place for protesters, took down 936 accounts. Twitter said it would also ban state-backed media from promoting tweets after China Daily, and other state-backed publications, placed ads on the service that suggested the Hong Kong protesters were sponsored by Western interests and were becoming violent.
“Covert, manipulative behaviors have no place on our service,” Twitter said in a statement.
Facebook said it had been tipped off to the activity by Twitter. “We’re constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people,” Facebook said.
The actions follow another march in Hong Kong on Sunday, which organizers said had brought out 1.7 million people, or nearly one in four of the island’s total population of more than seven million. It was the second-largest march of the movement, after a protest by nearly two million people on June 16.
