HONG KONG
Beijing expands control
China’s Cabinet-level office overseeing Hong Kong has expanded by creating two departments to oversee propaganda and security affairs, local media reported, signaling Beijing’s growing footprint in the territory. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office’s (HKMAO) new propaganda department is to focus on communicating news, while managing journalists from the two special administrative regions based in the mainland, the agency’s Web site says. The second department is to coordinate matters related to national security. The changes were added to an organization summary on the Beijing-based office’s Web site on Thursday, the South China Morning Post and Sing Tao reported. Zeng Jian (曾健), 52, and Wang Zhenmin (王振民), 55, are to head the propaganda and security departments respectively, the two reports said, citing people familiar with the matter. Both men have significant experience at the HKMAO and the Liaison Office, the central government’s top body in the former British colony, the Post reported.
UNITED STATES
Floyd killer to appeal
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filed an intent to appeal with the Minnesota state appellate court in his murder conviction for the death of George Floyd. A jury found Chauvin, who is white, guilty in April of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd, a black man. The video of Chauvin kneeling on the neck of the handcuffed Floyd for more than eight minutes during the arrest caused outrage around the world and the largest protest movement seen in the nation in decade. Chauvin was jailed for 22-and-a-half years in June. In documents filed on Thursday, Chauvin raised 14 issues about his prosecution, including the court’s denial of a request for a change of venue, that he believed supported his request for an appeal. The Minnesota District Court could not immediately be reached for comment.
RUSSIA
Five climbers die on Elbrus
Five climbers died after a blizzard on Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest peak, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said yesterday. Thursday’s incident struck when a group of 19 climbers were at an altitude of more than 5,000m. Elbrus, in North Caucasus, is the highest mountain in Europe at 5,642m. “Unfortunately, five people died,” the ministry said. The remaining 14 were taken down to the Azau Valley below and the rescue was carried out in “the most difficult conditions,” with strong winds, low visibility and sub-zero temperatures, it said. The company which organized the climb said there were four professional guides accompanying the climbers. The guides and some of the participants have been hospitalized with frostbite.
CAMBODIA
‘Festival of the Dead’ halted
The government has canceled the “Festival of the Dead” after a COVID-19 outbreak among monks in the capital. Worshipers around the country visit pagodas during the two-week Pchum Ben festival to offer prayers and food to the spirits of their ancestors. This year’s observance began on Wednesday, but was halted after nearly 50 Buddhist monks tested positive for COVID-19 and authorities locked down their temple in Phnom Penh. The festival cancelation was “necessary to control the spread of COVID-19 ... at the time that Cambodia is reopening schools and is planning to reopen the country,” Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a Thursday night statement.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not