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Hong Kong hotel operators have called on the government to waive rents and even allow properties to offer empty rooms on long-term leases, or for sale, as a way of survival amid a steep decline in occupancy and rates brought on by 16 weeks of protests in the city. At a new low of HK$71 (US$9.06) a night, some hotels are now cheaper than subdivided flats in the city. Winland 800 Hotel in protest-hit Tsing Yi, is offering that rate on weekdays through the Wing On Travel website. It represents a decline of 65.7 per cent from its lowest rate...

(CNN) — It was Friday, sunny, and at the end of summer -- all the perfect components for a day at Disneyland. The theme park should have been packed. Instead, a recent visit to Hong Kong's very own "Magic Kingdom" saw empty lines and sparsely populated streets, a far cry from its usual crammed crowds. Lines for the rides, which usually take upward of half an hour's wait, were short and quick -- if there were any lines at all. The rides themselves were nowhere near full capacity -- at the Mad Hatter Tea Cups ride, most of the giant...

WASHINGTON—President Trump’s sudden escalation of the trade war with China last month triggered a telephone call from billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson, who warned the president about the conflict’s impact on the U.S. economy and Mr. Trump’s re-election prospects, according to people familiar with the call. During his call with Mr. Trump, Mr. Adelson focused on the broader implications of the U.S.-China trade war and their potential political consequences for Mr. Trump, according to one of the people, and not on his own company’s situation. Mr. Adelson is chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp. The casino company...

China’s top technology hub Hangzhou plans to assign government officials to work with 100 private companies including e-commerce giant Alibaba, according to state media reports, in a move likely to raise concerns over the growing role of the state. The step underscores how Chinese government and party authorities are growing more deeply integrated into the private sector, as its economy sputters amid an intensifying trade war with the United States. The city of Hangzhou, home to Alibaba, will designate government officials to work with 100 local companies in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the local government said on its website.

The RCMP have charged one of its highest-ranking intelligence officials with illegally storing and communicating classified information, raising fears of a massive security breach at the national police force that stands to affect the operations of law-enforcement agencies in Canada and around the world. Current and retired members of the RCMP were shocked by the arrest of Cameron Jay Ortis, who was director-general of the National Intelligence Coordination Centre. The 47-year-old faces seven charges under the Security of Information Act and the Criminal Code in relation to alleged infractions between 2015 and 2019. According to documents filed in court, he...

For the men of ODA 1333 and their detachment of around 100 U.S. soldiers and Afghan commandos, the orders sounded straightforward: help secure two Afghan helicopters downed by the Taliban near Ghazni. They knew they would have to take the long way around, because the Taliban had buried so many land mines along the direct road leading into Ghazni that it was impassable. What was usually a 60-mile trip westward from Paktia province would instead cover 160 miles of terrain. The troops loaded up their weapons and clambered aboard hulking RG-33 and M-ATV armored vehicles, which rumbled into the night...

Abdullah said most of his orders came from Peshawar, a city in Pakistan where many Afghan Taliban commanders still live and are educated, and a short drive — about two hours on well-paved roads — from Bati Kot. It was the health facility explosion, in which several workers were injured and a much-needed clinic being built was left in rubble, that made him rethink his role. “Before giving orders to destroy it, I went to have a look. I saw the construction workers. They were laboring away in the hot sun, stacking heavy bricks. We desperately needed healthcare at that...

A strategy paying dividends Ultimately, Iran’s summer brinkmanship paid off. First, Tehran demonstrated that it poses a highly credible military threat to the Strait of Hormuz. Second, it exposed Trump’s extreme reticence about engulfing the United States in another Middle Eastern war. Third, rather than bring European powers closer to the U.S. sanctions strategy on Iran, Tehran’s threat to commerce in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes sent the Elysee into a diplomatic frenzy, paving the way for Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s surprise visit to the G-7 in Biarritz to discuss a French proposal for a $15 billion...

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has forced Christian churches across Henan province to replace the Ten Commandments with quotes from President Xi Jinping in its latest effort to “sinicize” religious practice in the officially atheist country. One pastor from a state-run Protestant church said that the CCP’s latest move is part of a systematic plan to erode Christian doctrine in the country, adding that the ultimate goal of the party is to “become God.” “The government’s first step is to prohibit religious couplets” said the pastor, who spoke under the condition of anonymity. “Then it dismantles crosses and starts to...

HONG KONG—Chinese authorities have detained a FedEx Corp. pilot in the southern city of Guangzhou, elevating pressure on the express shipping giant that is already in Beijing’s crosshairs amid a U.S.-China trade war. The pilot, a former U.S. Air Force colonel named Todd A. Hohn, was detained a week ago while waiting for a commercial flight to his home in Hong Kong after flying deliveries throughout Asia from the FedEx regional hub in Guangzhou, people familiar with the matter said. A lawyer for the Hohn family in Niceville, Fla., confirmed that Mr. Hohn had been detained in China. He was...

Left-wing billionaire and political donor George Soros wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on Monday in which he praised President Donald Trump’s policies toward China. He then urged Congress to maintain the president’s firm stand against Chinese telecom giant Huawei – overriding the White House if necessary, should Huawei become a bargaining chip in the larger trade war. The leftist money man did not exactly shower Trump with praise in his op-ed. He portrayed Trump’s actions against China as the “greatest, and perhaps only, foreign policy accomplishment of the Trump administration.” Soros, 89, lauded Trump’s policy as “coherent...

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that we’re in the Year of the Pig. Rarely has a single food source played as big a role in the nation’s politics as now. Fears over a year-long outbreak of deadly African swine fever have steadily grown to the point that the topic now dominates the nation’s domestic and foreign agenda with talk of “pork politics”, “pork economics” and “pork diplomacy”. There’s good reason for the fuss. Pork is the principal source of dietary protein for the Chinese, who consume half the world’s supplies. Since the virus was discovered at a farm not far from...

More Huawei defiance was aimed at U.S. President Trump on Sunday, but this time it was coming from much closer to home. Brad Smith, the President and Chief Legal Officer of America’s own Microsoft has criticized his government’s treatment of the Chinese tech giant—suggesting that the company’s U.S. supply chain restrictions should be revisited. In an interview, Smith suggests that the action taken against Huawei should be revisited, ensuring that anything done has a “sound basis in fact, logic, and the rule of law.” He has seen this first-hand, when Microsoft has itself engaged with the U.S. bodies enforcing the...

Yu Zhou and Li Chen were a husband-and-wife team that had built their reputations on breakthroughs in cutting-edge medical therapies at Ohio’s elite Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Along the way, they’d also founded a Chinese company and sold it to a Nasdaq-listed biotech business worth more than $150 million. But Zhou and Chen’s careers took a dramatic turn on July 29 when federal agents arrested them for stealing medical secrets from the former employer. But there’s more: Though they’re not being charged with economic espionage on Monday, Forbes has learned they’re still being investigated over links to the Chinese Communist Party....

Back in 2004, when Afghan and American generals were laying the foundations for the post-Taliban Afghan army and security forces the number one question in the minds of everybody around the table was “who will pay for it?” In those days, it was assumed the burden would fall on the United States and its allies, but that calculation is changing fast with President Trump in office and war fatigue across the capitals in Europe. Today, the answer is simple: Afghans will pay for it through revenues from its vast natural resources and geographical position combined with a national conscription system....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday it is “not fair” to either Turkey or the United States that Washington cannot sell Ankara billions of dollars worth of F-35 fighter jets after it bought a Russian air defense system. Turkey started taking delivery of Russia’s S-400 air defense system last week in defiance of U.S. warnings that the Pentagon would kick it out of the F-35 stealth fighter program Washington’s concern is that deploying the S-400 with the F-35 would allow Russia to gain too much inside information of the stealth system. Thomas Karako, an analyst at...

The medical school at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center will stop considering race as a factor in admissions, per an agreement sought by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to resolve a 2004 complaint. In the resolution agreement — which was signed in February and first reported by the Wall Street Journal this week — the medical school agreed to “discontinue all consideration of an applicant’s race and/or national origin” in the admissions process. Eric Bentley, vice chancellor and general counsel of the Texas Tech University System, said in an agreement letter that the medical school...

Saudi and American officials are investigating the possibility that attacks on Saudi oil facilities Saturday involved cruise missiles launched from Iraq or Iran, questioning Yemeni rebel claims of responsibility, people familiar with the matter said. Leaders of the Houthis, the Yemeni rebels whom Saudi Arabia is trying to dislodge from the country’s capital, claimed they sent a squad of drones hundreds of miles into the heart of Saudi Arabia to carry out coordinated attacks on two of the country’s vital energy sites. If true, the attacks marked the most effective and far-reaching drone strikes carried out by outgunned Houthi forces...

A secretive new “dark money” group is hitting the airwaves — and the road — to help Democrats win Arizona’s hotly contested Senate seat in 2020. Advancing AZ, which also goes by Honest Arizona, is hammering Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) over her vote to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act. The new group purchased nearly $155,000 worth of TV ads in Arizona to run through much of September, according to Federal Communications Commission records in OpenSecrets’ political ad database. “Tell Martha McSally to stop attacking our health care,” the 30-second ad tells viewers, displaying a phone number that redirects...

Full title: Newt Gingrich: Dem presidential candidates doing a great job showing voters why Trump should be reelectedRemember the exciting, unpredictable and entertaining 2015-16 Republican presidential debates? Who would candidate Donald Trump take down this week? How would he dominate media questioners yet again? Whether you were for Trump, appalled by him or just curious, each debate was worth watching. Trump was so different – and so cheerfully direct and aggressive – that people began to see the debates as a sort of reality TV (which is what they should be). Our country is better when more people want to...