Day: October 19, 2019

Lebanon braced for a third day of unrest on Saturday after anti-government protests fueled by rising fury over an economic crisis erupted across the country and descended into riots on the streets of Beirut.

Small groups of demonstrators gathered in central Beirut in an effort to keep the protests going, with storefronts of banks and upmarket retailers in the capital’s commercial district smashed in and fires still smoldering from the night before.

Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri gave his government partners a 72-hour deadline on Friday to agree on reforms that could ward off economic crisis, hinting he may otherwise resign.

The latest unrest erupted out of anger over the rising cost of living and new tax plans, including a fee on WhatsApp calls, which was quickly retracted after protests – the biggest in decades – broke out.

In a televised speech addressing the protests on Saturday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group opposed the government’s resignation, and that the country did not have enough time for such a move given the acute financial crisis.

“Everyone should take responsibility rather than being preoccupied with settling political scores while leaving the fate of the country unknown,” said Nasrallah, adding that Lebanon could face “financial collapse”.

“All of us have to shoulder the responsibility of the current situation that we arrived at in Lebanon. Everyone should take part in finding a solution,” added Nasrallah, whose Iranian-backed Shi’ite group is Lebanon’s most influential.

The protests that swept villages and towns across the country on Friday recalled the 2011 Arab revolts that toppled four presidents. Lebanese from all sects and walks of life waved banners and chanted for Hariri’s government to go.

“People will definitely go back out today because they’re in pain,” said Ramzi Ismail, a 60-year-old engineer. “But we are against clashes with the army or security forces and vandalism.”

‘Two big dangers’

In the speech, Nasarallah predicted that imposing more taxes would lead to an “explosion” of unrest.

He said Lebanon was facing two big dangers – financial and economic meltdown and popular unrest.

“If we don’t work towards a solution we’re heading towards a collapse of the country, it will be bankrupt and our currency will not have any value.”

“The second danger is a popular explosion as a result of wrong handling of the situation,” Nasrallah said.

The unusually wide geographic reach of protests has highlighted the deepening anger of the Lebanese. The government, which includes nearly all Lebanon’s main parties, has repeatedly failed to implement reforms needed to fix the national finances.

“The protests must continue because this is a matter of our dignity. We’ll be left humiliated otherwise,” said Miriam Keserwan, 28.

Riot police in vehicles and on foot rounded up protesters late on Friday, firing rubber bullets and tear gas canisters to disperse riots in Beirut that grew violent as the night wore on, leaving streets strewn with glass and burning debris.

Lebanon’s internal security apparatus said 52 police were injured on Friday and its forces arrested 70 people.

“I can’t blame the people who are doing this,” said 26-year-old Charbel Abyad, referring to the city’s damage. “Some have no jobs, no health care and no education. They are being mistreated and they can’t help but express it this way.”

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South Sudan opposition leader Riek Machar returned to the country on Saturday to meet with President Salva Kiir less than a month before their deadline to form a unity government after a five-year civil war.

Machar last met face-to-face with Kiir in September, when they discussed outstanding issues in a fragile peace deal. His two-day visit includes a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who arrives Sunday with a U.N. Security Council delegation.

The delegation is expected to encourage progress in the peace deal signed a year ago but fraught with delays.

The opposition has said Machar won’t return to form the government by the Nov. 12 deadline unless security arrangements are in place.

The U.S. has said it will reevaluate its relationship with South Sudan if that deadline is missed.

The civil war killed almost 400,000 people and displaced millions.

Before Machar’s return a unified army of 41,500 opposition and government soldiers needs to be ready along with a 3,000-person VIP protection force.

But so far there are only 1,000 unified soldiers and security arrangements won’t meet the deadline, deputy opposition spokesman Manawa Peter Gatkuoth said.

The previous Machar-Kiir meeting focused on speeding up the screening and reunification of forces, but parties left the talks with differing views.

Deputy chairman for the opposition Henry Odwar called the meeting “lukewarm,” while government spokesman Michael Makuei called it “highly successful” and said everything was on track for next month’s deadline.
 

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Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said Saturday the murder suspect whose case was the spark that started the fire of the Hong Kong protests — an extradition proposal to allow Hong Kong to transfer suspects to Taiwan, as well as  mainland China, among other places, that Lam has announced will be withdrawn — is ready to turn himself in to Taiwanese authorities.

Lam said Chan Tong-kai wrote to her, saying he would “surrender himself to Taiwan” in connection with his alleged involvement in a murder case.

Chang is accused of murdering his girlfriend in Taiwan.  When he fled back to Hong Kong, he was arrested on money laundering charges but is expected to be released soon.

Hong Kong is facing the 20th straight weekend of anti-government protests, after both sides revealed this week that they are digging in.

Protesters say they won’t back down from their “five demands” on Hong Kong’s government, and Lam said she would make no concessions to protesters.

Lam’s hardline position was echoed earlier this week by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who went a step further and warned that anyone advocating Hong Kong’s independence from China risked “crushed bodies and shattered bones.”

But protesters say they’re not giving up. On Friday, more than 1,000 people flooded the city’s financial center, marching past banks and luxury stores, drawing hordes of curious onlookers and bringing traffic to a halt.  

The protesters’ main demands include universal suffrage, an investigation of police violence, amnesty for protesters and the full, official withdrawal of the extradition bill, which would allow mainland China to try people arrested in Hong Kong.
 
Protests have been a near-constant presence in the city since June, even though police have outlawed unauthorized protests and the wearing of face coverings during public gatherings.  

Police have not granted permission for protests planned for this weekend.   

Protests are also planned for every weekend for the rest of the year — or until one side gives in.

Fern Robinson contributed to this report.

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At least 15 gold miners were killed on Saturday when a dam collapsed, flooding an artisanal mining encampment in a remote part of Siberia, officials said.

Heavy rains had weakened the dam and water broke through, sweeping away several cabins where the artisan miners lived, about 160 km (100 miles) south of the city of Krasnoyarsk.

President Vladimir Putin ordered all necessary measures to be taken to help those affected, to identify the cause of the disaster and prevent any impact on a nearby residential area, Interfax quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Russia is one of the world’s top gold producers with most of its output coming from large professional industrial mines.

However, alluvial production, which is usually operated by small firms, still contributes some of the country’s gold.

Alluvial or artisanal gold mining in Russia is usually small-scale, but is still conducted by officially registered firms which are supposed to abide by health and safety rules.

Krasnoyarsk officials said in a statement that water released by the dam partially flooded two dormitories of the rotational camp in which 74 people lived, adding that 13 people were still missing.

A Russian investigative committee said it had launched a criminal probe into violation of safety rules at the gold mining spot, while local authorities said the collapsed dam was not registered by official bodies.

Interfax said the miners were part of Siberian privately-held Sibzoloto, which unites several artisanal mining teams.

Sibzoloto was not immediately available for comment.

Sibzoloto produced about 3 tons of gold in 2018, Sergei Kashuba, the head of Russia’s Gold Industrialists’ Union, a non-government producers’ lobby group, told Reuters. Sibzoloto is not a member of the union, he added.

Russia produced 314 tons of gold in 2018.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson appealed to lawmakers to back his last-minute Brexit deal in an extraordinary session of the British parliament on Saturday after his plans were plunged into chaos by his opponents’ moves to derail the legislation.

More than three years since the United Kingdom voted 52-48% to leave the European project, Johnson sought parliament’s approval for the divorce treaty he struck in Brussels on Thursday.

He said he was confident he had secured the best possible deal and there was little appetite for further delay.

“If there is one feeling that unites the British public with a growing number of officials in the EU it is a burning desire to get Brexit done,” Johnson said. “Further delay is pointless, expensive and deeply corrosive of public trust.”

On a day of high drama, lawmakers held the first Saturday sitting since the 1982 Argentine invasion of the Falklands, while thousands of people gathered to march on parliament demanding another referendum on EU membership.

Protesters waving EU flags and carrying signs calling for Brexit to be halted were making their way towards parliament.

In the chamber, meanwhile, Johnson’s opponents have laid a booby trap that could frustrate his plans, forcing him to send members of parliament home without voting on his deal on Saturday, and imposing a further delay in achieving Brexit.

Former Conservative lawmaker Oliver Letwin, expelled from the party by Johnson, has proposed that the decision on whether to back a deal be deferred until all the legislation needed to implement it has been passed through parliament.

Even though Johnson believes this can be achieved by Oct. 31, others think it would need a short ‘technical’ delay.

A law passed by Johnson’s opponents obliges him to ask the EU for a Brexit delay until Jan. 31, 2020, unless he has secured approval for his deal by the end of Saturday.

Brexit Breakthrough, but British MPs Could Torpedo EU Deal video player.

Cross-party support

Letwin’s proposal, which has cross-party support, will be put to a vote on Saturday. If the amendment is approved by parliament, Johnson’s deal would not then be put to a vote on Saturday. The government would then seek to hold a vote on the deal on Tuesday, officials said.

“My aim is to ensure that Boris’ deal succeeds,” said Letwin, kicked out of the Conservative Party for refusing to back Johnson’s plans to leave the EU with or without a deal.

But Letwin wanted “an insurance policy which prevents the UK from crashing out on 31 October by mistake if something goes wrong during the passage of the implementing legislation”.

Outside parliament, many Britons say they are bored with the whole Brexit argument and just want the process to end. But others demonstrating on Saturday remain angry that Britain is leaving the EU and want that reversed.

Hannah Barton, 56, a cider maker from Derbyshire in central England, was draped in the EU flag. “I am incensed that we are not being listened to,” she said.

“We feel that we are voiceless. This is a national disaster waiting to happen and it is going to destroy the economy.”

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, backed a second referendum.

“Voting for a deal today won’t end Brexit. It won’t deliver certainty and the people should have the final say,” Corbyn told parliament.

Brexit “Super Saturday” tops a frenetic week which saw Johnson confound his opponents by clinching a new Brexit deal.

In a divided parliament where he has no majority, Johnson must win the support of 320 lawmakers to pass his deal.

If he wins, Johnson will go down in history as the leader who delivered a Brexit – for good or bad – that pulls the United Kingdom far out of the EU’s orbit.

‘Do or die’

Should he fail, Johnson will face the humiliation of Brexit unraveling after repeatedly promising that he would get it done – “do or die” – by Oct. 31.

Johnson won the top job by staking his career on getting Brexit done by the latest deadline of Oct. 31 after his predecessor, Theresa May, was forced to delay the departure date. Parliament rejected her deal three times, by margins of between 58 and 230 votes earlier this year.

He said lawmakers faced the option of either approving the deal or propelling the United Kingdom to a disorderly no-deal exit that could divide the West, hurt global growth and bring renewed violence to Northern Ireland.

To win, Johnson must persuade enough Brexit-supporting rebels in both his Conservative Party and the opposition Labour Party to back his deal. His Northern Irish allies and the three main opposition parties oppose it.

In a boost for Johnson, some influential hardline Brexit supporters such as Mark Francois and Iain Duncan Smith said they would support the deal.

Steve Baker, the head of a hardline Brexit faction in the Conservative Party, has told his European Research Group allies they should vote for Johnson’s deal.

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