Hundreds continue protests in Baghdad as death toll tops 60 - Al Jazeera English

Hundreds of Iraqi protesters have remained in Baghdad's central Tahrir Square on Sunday, defying a bloody crackdown that killed at least 60 people over the weekend and an overnight raid by security forces seeking to disperse them. 

Demonstrators continued to gather in the capital despite a rapidly rising death toll, with 63 killed according to a tally by the semi-official Iraq High Commission for Human Rights. 

"We're here to bring down the whole government, to weed them all out!" one protester, with the Iraqi tricolour wrapped around his head, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

"We don't want a single one of them. Not [parliamentary speaker Mohammed] Halbousi, not [Prime Minister Adel] Abdul Mahdi. We want to bring down the regime," he added.

Students could also be seen joining demonstrations in Baghdad, with activists saying a dozen schools and universities had decided to shut their doors and take part in the protests en masse. 

Young girls in school uniform and rucksacks were seen trekking through streets littered with tear gas canisters. 

Iraq's elite counterterrorism service was deployed in Baghdad on Sunday to protect important state buildings.

The forces said in a statement the move was to "protect state buildings from undisciplined elements taking advances of security forces being busy with protecting protests and protesters".

On Saturday, security forces fired tear gas and opened live fire on thousands of protesters who tried to reach Baghdad's Green Zone, home to government offices and embassies.

Three protesters were killed when they were struck with tear gas canisters in Baghdad while another three were shot dead in the southern city of Nasiriyah after attacking a local official's home.

The protests are a continuation of the economically driven demonstrations that began in early October and turned deadly as security forces began cracking down and using live ammunition. At least 190 people have since been killed.

The ongoing turmoil has broken nearly two years of relative stability in Iraq, which in recent years has endured an invasion by the United States and protracted fighting, including against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group.

The demonstrations have posed the biggest challenge yet to the year-old government of Prime Minister Abdul Mahdi, who has pledged to address demonstrators' grievances by reshuffling his cabinet and delivering a package of reforms.

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The moves have done little to quell the demonstrators, however, whose ire is focused not just on Mahdi's administration but also Iraq's wider political establishment, which they say has failed to improve the lives of the country's citizens.

Many view the political elite as subservient to one or other of Iraq's two main allies, the US and Iran - powers they believe are more concerned with wielding regional influence than ordinary Iraqis' needs.

Nearly three-fifths of Iraq's 40 million people live on less than six dollars a day, World Bank figures show, despite the country housing the world's fifth-largest proven reserves of oil.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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2019-10-27 09:35:00Z
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Hong Kong Police Clash with Protesters in Shopping District - The New York Times

HONG KONG — Police officers in Hong Kong fired tear gas and fought in the streets on Sunday with antigovernment demonstrators who had rallied to express support for the city’s ethnic minorities, a fresh sign of tensions in a financial hub roiled by nearly five months of protests.

The protesters were gathered in the same shopping district where a week earlier the police used water cannons to clear a peaceful demonstration outside a mosque. Riot police officers fired tear gas on demonstrators less than an hour after the rally began on Sunday — within steps of a luxury hotel.

The rally was unauthorized and came a day after a local court issued a temporary order banning the public from harassing police officers. Here’s the latest on the Hong Kong protests.

Rally for Ethnic Minorities Descends Into Clashes

• The protest on Sunday unfolded in the Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood, a few blocks from The Peninsula, one of the city’s oldest and most expensive luxury hotels. Demonstrators carried signs saying “justice will prevail” and “oppose the Communist Party, fight against totalitarianism.”

• There was a heavy police presence from the start, and officers eventually began tussling with protesters and firing tear gas and pepper spray. Some people were seen choking on tear gas inside the hotel’s lobby.

• As of 4 p.m., groups of officers in full riot gear were patrolling the area. The police force said on Twitter that protesters had attacked some officers with umbrellas and “hard objects.”

• The rally last weekend outside a Tsim Sha Tsui mosque had also been billed as a show of solidarity with the city’s ethnic minorities. It came days after a local civil rights organizer was attacked with hammers by men that local news reports had described as South Asian.

• When the police dispersed the crowds outside the mosque last weekend, they used water cannons that fired a stinging blue dye, hitting protesters, journalists and the building’s entrance. The police later said that the spraying of the mosque had been an accident.

Government Wins Court Fight Against ‘Doxxing’

• The rally on Sunday came a day after a Hong Kong court issued a temporary order banning the public from harassing or posting personal details of police officers online.

• The Justice Department had requested the ban as a way of preventing protesters from releasing information about officers and their families — a tactic known as “doxxing.” The police force says it has received reports of hundreds of officers or their family members being harassed after they were doxxed.

• The temporary order, in effect until Nov. 8, has prompted criticism for its broad language and potential chilling effect on free speech. Legal experts note that it applies only to Hong Kong police officers and not to the broader public.

• The doxxing ban is only the latest restriction on the protest movement. In early October, Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, invoked emergency powers to ban face masks at protests, making it punishable by fines and up to a year in prison.

• It was unclear how the government planned to enforce the new doxxing ban.

Doctors and Nurses Criticize the Police

• Hundreds of medical professionals rallied in a central Hong Kong park Saturday night to express opposition to what they described as police violence against protesters. They also condemned recent arrests of medical professionals working on the protests’ front lines.

• Police officers in riot gear have suppressed demonstrations for months using tear gas, pepper spray, water cannons and occasionally live rounds. Early this month, an officer shot in the chest, but did not kill, a teenage protester who had been charging him.

• Saturday’s rally ended peacefully, but there were late-night standoffs between protesters and the police in Yuen Long, a district near the border with mainland China.

• Yuen Long has been a flash point in the protests since July 22, when a mob of men in white T-shirts with sticks and metal bars assaulted dozens of people, including journalists and a pro-democracy lawmaker, at the Yuen Long train station.

Protesters Patronize Sympathetic Shops

• Protesters have encouraged residents to shop and eat at businesses that support their pro-democracy movement, some of which now display “authentication” stickers. The calls come as a growing number of Hong Kong businesses and storefronts have been vandalized in recent weeks — mostly by protesters, but also by government supporters.

• On Thursday, Lung Mun Cafe, a traditional Hong Kong eatery that supports the protest movement, was vandalized by men wielding steel rods who appeared to be government supporters. Customers turned up to the cafe in droves this weekend, although its windows and cash register were still broken.

Ezra Cheung contributed reporting.

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2019-10-27 07:53:00Z
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Video appears to show al-Baghdadi raid underway - CNN

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1. Video appears to show al-Baghdadi raid underway  CNN
2. Trump Approves Special Ops Raid Targeting ISIS Leader Baghdadi, Military Says He's Dead  Newsweek
3. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi believed to have been killed in a US military raid, sources say  CNN
4. ISIS target believed to be Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is killed in Syria: sources  Fox News
5. ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dead: Reports  Al Jazeera English
6. View full coverage on Google News

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/10/27/us-military-strike-syria-isis-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-vpx.cnn

2019-10-27 07:26:35Z
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Brexit: 'Fears confirmed' over rights at work, says Labour - BBC News

Labour has said leaked government papers "confirm its worst fears" about plans to dilute workers' rights after Brexit.

The documents, revealed by the Financial Times, say that the drafting of commitments on workers' rights and the environment in the Brexit deal "leaves room for interpretation".

Labour said it is a "blueprint" for ending "vital rights and protections".

But Business Minister Kwesi Kwarteng said the claims are "way exaggerated".

The leaked paper suggests that the government believes there is considerable scope to diverge from the EU on employment rights and other regulations after Brexit, despite its pledge to maintain a "level playing field" in Boris Johnson's latest deal.

In Mr Johnson's Brexit deal, references to a level playing field - the idea that the UK and EU countries keep their rules and standards close to prevent one trying to gain a competitive advantage - were removed from the legally binding withdrawal agreement.

Instead, they were put into the non-binding "political declaration", which describes the potential future relationship between the UK and EU.

According to the FT, the leaked document says the UK's and EU's interpretation of the "level playing field" pledge will be "very different", and the text represents a "much more open starting point" for negotiations over a future trade deal.

Purportedly drafted by the Brexit department, the paper appears to contradict promises by the prime minister on Wednesday that the UK is committed to the "highest possible standards" for the environment and rights at work.

It comes as EU leaders consider their decision on a new deadline for Brexit, having agreed to an extension in principle after the UK government admitted it could not meet its 31 October deadline.

The document will fuel fears among some in the EU that Boris Johnson is planning to shape Britain into a Singapore-style economy, with low taxes and light regulation, which could compete against Europe by potentially downgrading rights.

'Better than our word'

Suggestions that workers' rights could be diluted will also raise concerns among Labour MPs, 19 of whom voted for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to progress in the House of Commons.

Labour shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman said the documents "confirm our worst fears".

She said: "Boris Johnson's Brexit is a blueprint for a deregulated economy, which will see vital rights and protections torn up."

The Brexit department said it did not recognise the document, however.

And Business Minister Kwesi Kwarteng told the BBC the claims were "completely mad" after the government had worked to win the support of Labour MPs.

"It wouldn't make any sense at all to dilute workers' rights in building that coalition to land the bill," he said.

"We have said we will be better than our word. We have said our ambition on securing workers' rights will be stronger than the provision of the bill."

A Brexit department spokesman said the government "has no intention of lowering the standards of workers' rights or environmental protection after we leave the EU".

He said the UK already exceeds the minimum standards in areas such as maternity leave, shared parental leave and greenhouse gas emissions targets.

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2019-10-26 14:02:49Z
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Rebel British Parliament members plot to force new Brexit referendum: report - New York Post

Rebellious members of the British Parliament are plotting to find a way to force a second Brexit referendum, to give citizens the chance to vote again on whether or not to leave the European Union.

Several MPs are working on a plan that could seize control of the Brexit agenda from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Guardian reported.

Parliament voted Tuesday to support the deal Johnson reached with the EU, but they declined to fast-track the plan in time to leave the 28-nation political and economic union by the old deadline of Oct. 31. The EU in turn agreed Friday to extend the deadline, but didn’t set a new date, Reuters reported.

Johnson, a Conservative, has called for a snap election, which Parliament is slated to vote on Monday. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party said he will support an election only if Johnson pledges the UK will not exit the EU with no deal, a possibility that could significantly damage the economy. The EU did not set new deadline in part because of the call for a new election.

Support for a second referendum “ebbs and flows,” Labour MP Peter Kyle told the Guardian, but that presently “the tide is coming back on it” among MPs.

Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands marched in the streets of London calling for a second referendum.

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2019-10-26 13:06:00Z
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Iraqi forces use tear gas in Baghdad as protests continue - Al Jazeera English

Security forces in Iraq have fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital, Baghdad, before a planned march on parliament where the government is set to hold an emergency session to discuss the resumption of deadly demonstrations. 

Despite the police's effort to clear them, hundreds of protesters dug in around Baghdad's Tahrir Square on Saturday, demanding Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi's government resign over corruption, mass unemployment and poor public services. 

Al Jazeera's Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from the protest site, said the mood in Baghdad was tense after security forces opened fire on demonstrators in the capital and several southern cities on the previous day, killing at least 42 people. 

"People here are furious. Some are trying to storm barricades leading to the Green Zone, where government offices and the parliament building are located," she said.

"They want the government to go. Security forces are using lots of tear gas and stun grenades."

There were calls for fresh protests in the south as well despite authorities announcing curfews across several provinces on Saturday. 

Legislators are scheduled to meet at the parliament at 1:00 pm (10:00 GMT) to "discuss protesters' demands, cabinet's decisions and the implementation of reforms". 

Iraqi protesters gather on the capital Baghdad's Al-Jumhuriyah Bridge on Saturday [AFP]

The Iraqi commission for human rights said the death toll from Friday's protests stood at 42. It said more than 2,300 people were wounded. 

The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, praised what it called the restraint shown by security forces on Friday.

"The security forces secured the protection of demonstrations and protesters responsibly and with high restraint, by refraining from using firearms or excessive force against demonstrators," the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

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The unrest came three weeks after an earlier bout of rallies, in which more than 150 people were killed in a crackdown by security forces.

People gathered at the Tahrir Square said they were struggling to make sense of what they called the security forces' excessive use of force, claiming all they carried on them were flags and water to fight off tear gas and rinse their eyes.

"Just yesterday, we lost more than 30 men ... We need a safe country," said Batoul, a 21-year-old protester.

"We want to have a life literally. It's not about jobs or money, it's about being in a good country that we deserve. We have a great country but not a great government," she told Al Jazeera.

Anti-government protesters gather for a demonstration in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday [Hadi Mizban/ AP]

Another protester decried perceived corruption and cronyism in the country.

"It's enough - theft, looting, gangs, mafias, deep state, whatever. Get out! Let us see a (functioning) state," he told AFP news agency, as puffs of smoke from tear gas rose behind him.

The ongoing turmoil has broken nearly two years of relative stability in Iraq, which in recent years has endured an invasion by the United States and protracted fighting, including against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) armed group.

The demonstrations have posed the biggest challenge yet to the year-old government of Abdul Mahdi, who has pledged to address demonstrators' grievances by reshuffling his cabinet and delivering a package of reforms.

The moves have done little to quell the demonstrators, however, whose ire is focused not just on Abdul Mahdi's administration but also Iraq's wider political establishment, which they say has failed to improve the lives of the country's citizens.

Dozens killed as anti-government protests grip Iraq (2:29)

Many view the political elite as subservient to one or other of Iraq's two main allies, the US and Iran - powers they believe are more concerned with wielding regional influence than ordinary Iraqis' needs.

Nearly three-fifths of Iraq's 40 million people live on less than six dollars a day, World Bank figures show, despite the country housing the world's fifth-largest proven reserves of oil.

Sami Hamdi, editor-in-chief of the UK-based International Interest magazine, said Iraq had seen similar mass protests in the past, but they had dissipated because of a lack of leadership. 

"And the other dynamic that many or not talking about, which painful to say, is that Iraqi society is itself very divided. Many Iraqi voted in elections across sectarian lines, and therefore it produced a sectarian government. These parties rewarded their loyalists with public sector jobs," he said. 

"While the protesters are united over their basic rights, they are not united over who should give it to them."

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2019-10-26 11:26:00Z
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Japan floods: Death toll reaches 10 after heavy rain and landslides - BBC News

Heavy rain in eastern and northeastern Japan has led to the deaths of 10 people.

Chiba and Fukushima prefectures have been affected by torrential rain and landslides, with a months worth of rain falling in half a day in some areas.

It comes just weeks after Typhoon Hagbis left almost 80 dead and caused widespread damage.

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2019-10-26 10:42:25Z
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