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Senin, 25 November 2019

In Hong Kong elections, big defeat for elites pressures Beijing to rethink approach - The Washington Post

Kin Cheung AP Pro-democracy supporters celebrate Monday after pro-Beijing politician Junius Ho lost his seat. Hong Kong’s election result marked a stunning repudiation of the Beijing-backed establishment after months of unrest.

HONG KONG — Election posters promoting the candidate for Mongkok North left no doubt about his affiliations: wearing all black, a yellow-hard-hat, respirator and goggles, he was firmly aligned with protesters seeking full democracy.

“Five demands, not one less,” read the banner, the mantra of the grass-roots uprising countering China’s tightening grip on Hong Kong.

In defeating the incumbent establishment candidate, Lucifer Siu contributed to a landslide win for the democracy camp in Hong Kong’s district council elections. A similar story unfolded citywide: a 23-year-old graduate beat a three-time incumbent in an establishment stronghold; a 25-year-old who crowdfunded his campaign ousted the vice-chairman of the main pro-Beijing party.

A record turnout of over 2.9 million voters delivered the pro-democracy camp control of 17 of 18 districts and over 80 percent of contested seats, the biggest electoral victory for the movement since Hong Kong’s handover from British rule in 1997. But it was also a rare chance for people within China to send their leaders a clear electoral message — that they want democracy, not overbearing control by Beijing, and they were prepared to look past protesters’ violence.

With this rebuke of its affiliates in the city, Beijing faces a choice between opening up politics as promised in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, extending a crackdown on the pro-democracy protesters by the city’s police force and government, or trying to navigate a delicate middle path.

[Hong Kong’s pro-democracy parties sweep pro-Beijing establishment aside in local elections]

Beijing can continue to dig in, but would risk escalating and prolonging the conflict now that the electorate has spoken, said Ho-Fung Hung, an expert on the Chinese political economy and Hong Kong politics at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

“A wiser path is to replace Carrie Lam and reset the conversation,” he added, referring to Hong Kong’s chief executive.

Reacting to the outcome on Monday, Chinese state media blamed foreign forces, particularly the United States, for interfering. “China will respond tit-for-tat and resolutely counter any move by the U.S. that undermines China’s interests, and will never let them act willfully on Hong Kong affairs,” Xinhua News Agency said in an editorial.

Billy H.C. Kwok

AFP/Getty Images

Residents celebrate the defeat of Junius Ho, a pro-Beijing incumbent, outside a polling station early on Monday.

In a commentary, the nationalist Global Times tabloid called for “rational analysis,” noting that the unrest of recent months helped the democracy camp to mobilize support. “It is crucial to rationally interpret” the results, it said, “lest mobs should be emboldened by misreading them.”

The vote’s outcome surpassed even the most optimistic predictions among the pro-democracy camp, which had barely held 30 percent of district council seats previously.

[Day of rage plunges Hong Kong into turmoil after police shoot protester]

By midday Monday, pro-democracy parties had won 344 district council seats to the pro-Beijing camp’s 58, with independents winning 41 seats and nine constituencies still to declare, according to figures compiled by the South China Morning Post.

The district councils get to nominate 117 members to the 1,200-member election committee that chooses Hong Kong’s chief executive. That committee is typically dominated by pro-Beijing forces and sympathetic business interests, but pro-democracy forces will now have considerably more influence, to add to their existing support.

“It gives them probably not a majority but a meaningful chunk, and puts them in a position to be kingmakers,” said Antony Dapiran, a lawyer and author of books on Hong Kong’s protest movement.

Lam, Hong Kong’s embattled leader, said in a statement Monday that her government respects the election results and acknowledged “various analyses and interpretations.”

“Quite a few are of the view that the results reflect people’s dissatisfaction with the current situation and the deep-seated problems in society,” Lam added. “The Hong Kong government will listen to the opinions of members of the public humbly, and seriously reflect.”

Kin Cheung

Candidates from the DAB, the main pro-Beijing political party, bow to apologize for their defeat in the local district council election in Hong Kong on Monday.

Susan Shirk, a China expert and former official in the Clinton administration who is now at the University of California, San Diego, said it was possible that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had not been receiving accurate information from lower-level officials on the public dissatisfaction in Hong Kong, despite months of protests.

“No one has wanted to give him bad news,” she said, describing the vote as a plebiscite on Beijing’s management of the financial hub. “The more than 70 percent of the Hong Kong public who voted in this election sent him a message he can’t ignore.”

Frank Pieke, director of the Mercator Institute for China Studies think-tank in Berlin, said China’s leaders must have been factoring in the possibility of a fairly heavy loss.

“Nevertheless it was so unequivocal, they must be scratching their heads and wondering ‘what are we going to do now?’” he said. “What they will have to do in Beijing is finally think about some concessions they will have to make.”

Pieke said those concessions did not necessarily have to be large, but could include, for example, an independent inquiry into allegations of brutality by Hong Kong police and protesters during the demonstrations.

There is no sign, however, that Beijing is prepared to grant Hong Kong the freedom to elect a government truly accountable to its own people, and one that could potentially represent the interests of the territory against those of the Communist Party, experts said.

Fazry Ismail

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Prominent pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip is escorted by police while surrounded by pro-democracy activists during a lunch time anti-government rally in central Hong Kong on Monday.

Hong Kong’s democratic bloc was quick to celebrate the victory, and its new status as the largest party in the district council, ending the dominance of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, or DAB, which fielded 181 candidates but only won 21 seats.

“The district council election fully shows that Hong Kong people will not accept the authoritarianism of the central government,” said Wu Chi-Wai, chairman of the democratic party. “The Hong Kong government must now seriously consider public opinion.”

Wu added that his party will push for Lam’s resignation and the reform of Hong Kong’s government, accountability for the Hong Kong police force and an overhaul of the political system.

[Attackers wielding Chinese flags bash Hong Kong protesters]

The DAB, meanwhile, acknowledged in a news conference that its showing was a record low. The party, which has the support of Beijing’s liaison office in the city and maintains close links to the Chinese Communist Party, explicitly backed a now-scrapped extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial. That bill was the spark for the discontent that has since morphed into a broader pro-democracy uprising.

“We have faced many challenges,” said Starry Lee, the party’s leader, who narrowly won reelection against Leung Kwok-hung, a Marxist social activist known as Long Hair. “We do not want to find any excuses for our loss,” Lee said, vowing to listen to Hong Kong communities and open a dialogue.

In downtown Hong Kong, dozens of officer workers wearing masks emerged from skyscrapers to celebrate the result. A man had popped a bottle of champagne and was distributing it in plastic cups to the crowd.

The celebrations kicked off when results first started trickling in early Monday, particularly in the constituency where Junius Ho, a stridently pro-Beijing politician, lost his seat.

In July, Ho was seen shaking hands with members of a mob on the night they attacked pro-democracy protesters in a subway station. He has threatened to kill advocates of Hong Kong independence, and recently used vulgar language toward a pro-democracy lawmaker. He has denied culpability in the mob attacks and says his threats have been taken out of context. He was also attacked with a knife and lightly injured during campaigning.

Anna Kam in Hong Kong and Liu Yang in Beijing contributed to this report.

‘We are in a war’: Hong Kong accountant becomes street fighter by night

Hong Kong bars democracy activist Joshua Wong from elections

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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2019-11-25 08:48:00Z
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Hong Kongers show not only the depths of their discontent, but also their power - CNN

The landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates in Sunday's district council elections is a stinging rebuke to the city's government -- and an example of what protesters can achieve given the opportunity.

By avoiding unrest and trusting voters to support them, protesters scored a bigger victory than if they had disrupted the polls. They also demonstrated that far from devolving into anarchy, as some on the government side have claimed, the protest movement can -- unlike the police, Beijing or the city's leaders -- control when and where the unrest takes place.

Sunday saw beautiful blue skies, long queues and one of the calmest days in Hong Kong since the protests began in June. Far from the visions of destruction and anger that have dominated coverage recently, this was a city that worked. And judging by the results, it worked in spite of, not because of, its government.

According to public broadcaster RTHK, opposition candidates took nearly 90% of the seats up for grabs. Going into Sunday's elections, all 18 district councils were controlled by pro-Beijing parties. As counting wrapped up Monday, all but one had flipped to overall pro-democratic control. The only outlier, the Islands council, includes a number of appointed members -- even then, pro-democracy candidates took a majority of the elected seats.

In this, the elections were a demonstration of people power in more ways than one. Protesters showed they had the discipline to let people speak, and they were rewarded with a resounding vote of confidence. The question now is whether the government will listen.

Stunning results

District council elections should be boring. Only in a system like Hong Kong's, where other avenues for democracy have been increasingly stifled, could they gain such outsized importance.

Sunday's vote was framed as a de facto referendum on the protests by all sides. With turnout high from the moment polls opened -- and overtaking the 2015 total by midday -- many were predicting a win for pro-democracy candidates, but few expected the utter drubbing they delivered.

From the heart of the city's financial district, to outlying islands and working-class estates in Kowloon, pro-democracy and anti-government candidates turfed out established pro-Beijing councilors.

Even the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), the city's largest pro-Beijing party and possessor of one of the most effective get-out-the-vote operations, could not withstand the tide of anti-government feeling. Less than 20% of the party's candidates were victorious — 21 out of 181 -- and many leading figures, including vice-chairman Holden Chow, were turfed out of their seats.

Speaking to CNN ahead of the vote, Chow said he expected a defeat but that pro-establishment parties would bounce back. Asked why Hong Kongers should be allowed to vote for local representatives but not the city's leader, he said "we want democracy which is pragmatic and fits Hong Kong's situation, and would not ruin our relationship with the central government."

Beyond just the symbolism of Sunday's vote, control over a majority of district councils gives pro-democracy members the right to select 117 of the 1,200-member "broadly representative" committee that chooses the city's leader. This means the opposition will have more of a say in who succeeds embattled current leader, Carrie Lam, in 2022.

Will the government listen?

With the elections wrapped up and the district councils transformed, the fight to frame the narrative will now begin.

On the government side, the scale of the losses for pro-Beijing candidates and the fact that many prominent establishment figures cast this as a referendum on the protests will make avoiding the blame difficult.

From an extradition bill to a political crisis: A guide to the Hong Kong protests

For months now, the government has refused to brook any political settlement, framing the protests as a law and order issue and putting the onus on the city's beleaguered police force to bring them under control. The theory was that as protests became more disruptive and violent, they would alienate many moderates to the government's benefit.

The supposed "silent majority" of anti-protest voters failed to show up on Sunday however. If anything, what was previously understated was the degree of anti-government feeling, not anti-protest sentiment. The pressure will now be on leader Lam to come up with some kind of new tactic or solution to the protesters' "five demands," or risk even larger protests from a reinvigorated movement.

Those five demands are: withdraw the extradition bill that kicked off the entire crisis (since achieved); launch an independent inquiry into allegations of police brutality; retract any categorization of a protest on June 12 as a "riot"; amnesty for arrested protesters; and introducing universal suffrage for how the Chief Executive and Legislative Council are elected.

Joseph Cheng, a professor of political science at the City University of Hong Kong, said the government needs to seriously consider the risk of failing to effectively respond to the elections -- even if it remains unwilling to brook any compromise.

"There must be a process of reconciliation, a dialogue with the pro-democracy movement," Cheng added. "But if no such responses are made in the near future, then the protesters will return to protests and clashes with police and so on."

In a terse statement Monday, Lam said her government "respects the election results."

"There are various analyses and interpretations in the community in relation to the results, and quite a few are of the view that the results reflect people's dissatisfaction with the current situation and the deep-seated problems in society," she added. "(The government) will listen to the opinions of members of the public humbly and seriously reflect."

Moving forward

Protesters cannot afford to be too complacent about Sunday's results. While they may seem a full-throated approval of the movement, it will likely be impossible to know whether people voted in favor of pro-democracy candidates or for the protests themselves, or simply to send a message to the government.

Sunday's results also indicate some desire for reorienting the protests' demands. While some victorious candidates did mention an inquiry into alleged police brutality -- by far the chief demand since the extradition bill was officially withdrawn in September -- the majority ran on a broader democracy plank, and it is this that connects all opposition voters, and even some in the pro-establishment camp.

Movement towards full universal suffrage has been stalled since 2014, when Beijing's refusal to allow truly free elections for the city's leader sparked the Umbrella Movement.

Of the five demands, the call to restart the political reform process has been the least emphasized -- but it is also the only one which looks forward and seeks to achieve fundamental change. Even calls for investigating the police only look at past alleged crimes, not a way to change the makeup or behavior of the force in future.

The lack of trust in the city's leader and legislature due to their undemocratic selection is at the root of the protests -- Lam was not trusted to oversee extraditions, and elected lawmakers cannot exercise effective oversight of police -- but convincing Beijing to allow any changes to this system is perhaps the most difficult of all the demands.

It has been pointed out many times that had Lam responded to the initial mass protests against the extradition bill, she might have avoided the entire crisis. Equally, had an independent inquiry been announced months ago when the bill was finally withdrawn, it might have ended there.

Now voters have shown not only the depths of the discontent, but also their power. And it may be the only thing that can truly satisfy them is overhauling the entire system.

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2019-11-25 07:53:00Z
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Minggu, 24 November 2019

The latest on the Trump impeachment inquiry: Live updates - CNN International

Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images

The House Intelligence Committee wrapped its testimonies in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump this week.

Here's a breakdown of who spoke on what days and what each person had to say:

Tuesday, Nov. 19: Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, Kurt Volker, former US special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, former National Security Council aide

Vindman and Williams described the July 25 call: They said the July 25 call between President Trump and the Ukrainian leader was not “perfect.” The President was acting on his own in the July call in asking for the investigations and was provided with no talking points to back that up.
What Volker admitted: He told lawmakers that he drew a “sharp distinction” between Burisma and Biden, but admits that he was wrong to view them separately. “In hindsight, I now understand that others saw the idea of investigating possible corruption involving the Ukrainian company, “Burisma,” as equivalent to investigating former Vice President Biden. I saw them as very different. The former being appropriate and unremarkable, the latter being unacceptable,” Volker said in his opening statement. “In retrospect, I should have seen that connection differently, and had I done so, I would have raised my own objections.”

Wednesday, Nov. 20: US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, and David Hale, the under secretary of State for political affairs

Sondland pressed Ukraine at Trump's direction: In his opening statement and throughout his testimony, Sondland said he was working with Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine matters at the "express direction of the President of the United States." Sondland recounted several conversations between himself and Trump about Ukraine opening two investigations: one into Burisma, a company where former Vice President Joe Biden's son was on the board, and another into conspiracies about Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 US election.
Sondland implicated Pence, Pompeo and Mulvaney: Republicans have argued that Giuliani could have been running a shadow foreign policy without the involvement or knowledge of other senior White House and State Department officials, but Sondland contradicted that several times in his testimony. He said "everyone" in the State Department was aware. He also implicated key White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who also directs the Office of Management and Budget.
Cooper showed Ukraine knew about aide issues in July: She testified that Ukrainian officials knew as early as July 25 that there was an issue with US aid to the country. This undercuts a key Republican rebuttal to accusations of a "quid pro quo" linking the aid to investigations into President Trump's political rivals. In their defense of Trump, Republicans have alleged that no bribery could exist if the Ukrainians weren't aware the aid was being held.

Thursday, Nov. 21: Fiona Hill, the former White House Russia expert, and David Holmes, the counselor for political affairs at the US Embassy in Ukraine

Pressure on Ukraine: Holmes undercut the GOP's defense that there was no pressure on Ukraine. He testified that the Ukrainians felt pressure to move ahead with probes. He said the Ukrainians want to keep White House happy because “they still need us now.”
"Not credible": Hill said she found Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s testimony “not credible” when he claimed that it took him many months to connect the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to former Vice President Joe Biden. Both Holmes and Hill make clear it was obvious Burisma was about the Bidens. Sondland and Kurt Volker, the former US special envoy to Ukraine, claimed to be clueless and uncurious about why this was the one company the President wanted investigated.

CNN's Phil Mattingly, Lauren Fox, Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.

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2019-11-24 13:32:00Z
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The latest on the Trump impeachment inquiry: Live updates - CNN International

The House Intelligence Committee wrapped its testimonies in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump this week.

Here's a breakdown of who spoke on what days and what each person had to say:

Vindman and Williams described the July 25 call: They said the July 25 call between President Trump and the Ukrainian leader was not “perfect.” The President was acting on his own in the July call in asking for the investigations and was provided with no talking points to back that up.
What Volker admitted: He told lawmakers that he drew a “sharp distinction” between Burisma and Biden, but admits that he was wrong to view them separately. “In hindsight, I now understand that others saw the idea of investigating possible corruption involving the Ukrainian company, “Burisma,” as equivalent to investigating former Vice President Biden. I saw them as very different. The former being appropriate and unremarkable, the latter being unacceptable,” Volker said in his opening statement. “In retrospect, I should have seen that connection differently, and had I done so, I would have raised my own objections.”

Wednesday, Nov. 20: US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, and David Hale, the under secretary of State for political affairs

Sondland pressed Ukraine at Trump's direction: In his opening statement and throughout his testimony, Sondland said he was working with Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine matters at the "express direction of the President of the United States." Sondland recounted several conversations between himself and Trump about Ukraine opening two investigations: one into Burisma, a company where former Vice President Joe Biden's son was on the board, and another into conspiracies about Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 US election.
Sondland implicated Pence, Pompeo and Mulvaney: Republicans have argued that Giuliani could have been running a shadow foreign policy without the involvement or knowledge of other senior White House and State Department officials, but Sondland contradicted that several times in his testimony. He said "everyone" in the State Department was aware. He also implicated key White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who also directs the Office of Management and Budget.
Cooper showed Ukraine knew about aide issues in July: She testified that Ukrainian officials knew as early as July 25 that there was an issue with US aid to the country. This undercuts a key Republican rebuttal to accusations of a "quid pro quo" linking the aid to investigations into President Trump's political rivals. In their defense of Trump, Republicans have alleged that no bribery could exist if the Ukrainians weren't aware the aid was being held.

Thursday, Nov. 21: Fiona Hill, the former White House Russia expert, and David Holmes, the counselor for political affairs at the US Embassy in Ukraine

Pressure on Ukraine: Holmes undercut the GOP's defense that there was no pressure on Ukraine. He testified that the Ukrainians felt pressure to move ahead with probes. He said the Ukrainians want to keep White House happy because “they still need us now.”
"Not credible": Hill said she found Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s testimony “not credible” when he claimed that it took him many months to connect the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to former Vice President Joe Biden. Both Holmes and Hill make clear it was obvious Burisma was about the Bidens. Sondland and Kurt Volker, the former US special envoy to Ukraine, claimed to be clueless and uncurious about why this was the one company the President wanted investigated.

CNN's Phil Mattingly, Lauren Fox, Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.

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Hong Kong Voters Turn Out For Biggest Election In City's History - NPR

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Long lines of voters waited to vote in Hong Kong's district council elections Sunday. Emily Feng/NPR hide caption

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Emily Feng/NPR

Millions of people turned out to vote in Hong Kong's district elections Sunday — a peaceful action nonetheless seen by many as an act of protest.

Normally low-key affairs, this year's elections for district councilors — akin to community representatives — have been widely seen as a referendum on popular support for ongoing anti-government protests that are now in their sixth month.

Long lines of voters snaked around voting booths in each of Hong Kong's 18 districts Sunday morning as voters rushed to cast their ballots in case booths were closed later on.

By early evening, the city reported more than 2.4 million people had voted — exceeding the 2.2 million total votes cast in the 2016 legislative elections.

"Since the civil unrest and protest movement began in June, today is the only institution and method to express our discontent to Beijing," pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong told NPR.

Wong was disqualified from running for a district seat himself after election regulators declared his candidacy in violation of the city's Basic Law, or constitution, because Wong has previously advocated for Hong Kong's "self-determination," a stance Beijing has sought to cast as separatism.

Ongoing anti-government protests have roiled the city since June, after furor over an extradition bill that could have sent suspected criminals to mainland China drew millions into the streets in peaceful protest.

Hong Kong's chief executive, Carrie Lam, later permanently withdrew the bill after three months of steadily more violent protest, an action demonstrators said was too little, too late. They are now demanding direct elections for the city's next chief executive and an independent inquiry into police tactics used to suppress demonstrations.

Against this backdrop, the district elections have taken on an outsize significance, and voters have mobilized in unprecedented fashion. Government voter registration statistics show that more than 4.1 million people are registered to vote Sunday in a city of around 7.4 million, the highest level ever recorded. For the first time ever, all 452 elected district councilor seats are being contested as many first-time, pan-democratic candidates run for office.

Hong Kong's 452 elected councilors normally concern themselves with more mundane tasks, such as overseeing garbage disposal policies and street lighting. They have advisory functions and control over how some of the city's finances are disbursed locally, but possess no lawmaking abilities.

"They do not listen to our opinions actually. They can do whatever they want, and we cannot monitor them," said Philip Wong, 40, who was preparing to cast his ballot Sunday morning for first-time candidate Isaac Ho, a founding member of the pan-democratic group Community March.

But this year, Wong says his vote mattered more: "Whether or not [this election] makes a change, it is a reflection of the Hong Kong people's voice. We can use the vote to express our discontent and dissatisfaction with the current government and the police brutality."

And district councilors are not entirely powerless. About a quarter of them, 117, also sit on the 1,200-member council that elects the city's chief executive. District councilors also are allocated six seats on the city's 70-person Legislative Council, which sets policy. Pan-democrats are hoping that by electing a majority in the district councils, they may be able to tip Hong Kong's historically pro-Beijing lawmaking bodies in their favor.

Enlarge this image

Kelvin Lam, a pan-democratic candidate, is running in lieu of activist Joshua Wong, who was disqualified in October. "We want a more transparent structure for all the meetings," he says. Emily Feng/NPR hide caption

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Emily Feng/NPR

But Kelvin Lam, a district candidate running in lieu of Joshua Wong, cautioned that the councilors' first tasks would start with fairly modest goals, such as livestreaming council meetings to the public: "We will start the reform at the fairly low level first ... we want a more transparent structure for all the meetings."

Only steps away from Lam, supporters of incumbent Judy Chan waved flyers and shook hands with voters. Chan, a protégé of prominent pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip, promised to restore order to a city she said had been shaken by protests.

"For the past six months, a lot of violence has happened in Hong Kong and many people are not happy," said Chan, referring to the current anti-government protests. "We feel we even lost our freedom of saying how we think, and I am hoping this election the result will come out good and hopefully it will send a message to everyone as saying that the Hong Kong people will really want a peaceful community all around."

Enlarge this image

Judy Chan, the pro-Beijing incumbent from the New People's Party, is running against Kelvin Lam. She promised to restore order to a city she said had been shaken by protests. Emily Feng/NPR hide caption

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Emily Feng/NPR

The Hong Kong government had repeatedly warned it might delay the district elections, held every four years, over concerns of violence. But the two days leading up to Sunday's elections were quiet as protesters dialed back activities so as not to justify a delay.

However, acts of intimidation have overshadowed the elections. Three political parties who lean more pro-Beijing say more than 100 of their district councilors' offices and facilities have been graffitied or broken-into in the run-up to Sunday. At least four pan-democratic candidates have been physically attacked while campaigning.

Fears over potential meddling from Beijing were also running high Sunday. Residents shared photos on social media of men allegedly from outside of Hong Kong who were clustered outside various voting stations, filming voters with mobile phones throughout the day. One such group of men, when approached by this NPR reporter, refused to answer questions, walking in circles before disappearing into a metro station.

But the alleged intimidation did not keep voters away. Voting booths close at 10:30 p.m. Sunday and election results are expected to be announced Monday morning.

"This is the first time that many people have been woke up to their responsibility to vote," said Isabel Long, 23, a first-time voter herself. She vowed to vote in the next elections, regardless of how protests ended.

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2019-11-24 11:26:00Z
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Pope urges abolition of nuclear weapons during Japan visit - BBC News

Pope Francis has made an impassioned appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons during a visit to Nagasaki, one of the two Japanese cities targeted by atomic bombs during World War Two.

He decried the "unspeakable horror" of nuclear weapons and insisted they were "not the answer" for global peace.

At least 74,000 were killed in Nagasaki by the attack by US forces in 1945.

Two survivors of the bombing, now both in their 80s, presented the pontiff a wreath during the Sunday service.

Pope France arrived from Thailand on Saturday for a four-day visit, which is only the second papal visit to Japan.

The Japanese Christians forced to trample on Christ

Hundreds of people gathered in the pouring rain to hear him in Nagasaki. The Pope then attended a meeting at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, the site of the other atomic attack.

What did the Pope say?

In a sombre ceremony, the Pope unequivocally condemned the use of nuclear weapons.

"This place makes us deeply aware of the pain and horror that we human beings are capable of inflicting upon one another," he said at the event in Nagasaki.

During his speech, Pope Francis also took aim at their use as a deterrent and insisted peace is incompatible with the "fear of mutual destruction or the threat of total annihilation."

He also criticised the money "squandered" on the weapons around the world and mentioned a "climate of distrust" hindering contemporary non-proliferation and arms control efforts.

Sakue Shimohira, 85, and Shigemi Fukahori, 89, were two survivors who met with the Pope during the visit.

"My mother and older sister were killed, charred," Ms Shimohira was quoted by AFP news agency as saying. "Even if you survived, you couldn't live like a human or die like a human... It's the horror of nuclear weapons."

There are about 536,000 Catholics in Japan, according to Vatican News. The number makes up less than only 0.5% of the population - where Buddhism and Shintoism are the most popular religions.

Nagasaki is known for being home to so-called "hidden Christians" who practiced their faith underground when it was banned during the 17th Century.

What happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

The first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima by a US warplane on 6 August 1945.

The US hoped the bombing, which came after Japan rejected an earlier ultimatum for peace, would force a quick surrender without risking US causalities on the ground.

What happened in Hiroshima?

The first bomb killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima - about half of which are thought to have died on its initial impact.

The attack was the first use of nuclear weapons, which had just been developed, during a war. US President Harry Truman only announced their existence after the first bomb was dropped.

When no immediate surrender came from the Japanese, US forces dropped a second bomb three days later.

Nagasaki was actually not the initial target of the attack, but was only chosen after bad weather obscured the main target city of Kokura.

Japan surrendered six days later and officially brought about the end of World War Two.

The necessity of the bombs, and their devastating and lasting impact on civilians, has been contested since.

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2019-11-24 10:33:14Z
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Hong Kong vote hits record amid calls for democracy - CNBC

A candidate campaigns outside a shopping mall ahead of the Hong Kong District Council elections on November 23, 2019 in Hong Kong, China.

Chris McGrath | Getty Images News | Getty Images

A record number of Hong Kong people voted on Sunday in district elections viewed as a barometer of support for city leader Carrie Lam, who has been besieged by nearly six months of often violent anti-government protests.

Government data showed 1,524,675 people had cast their vote by 1.30 p.m., with nine hours still left until polling stations closed. That surpassed the 1,467,229 voters in the last district elections four years ago.

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2019-11-24 09:42:00Z
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