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"My appeal is to be heard in September at some point and I pray that justice is served in the 9th Circuit's decision at that time" That message from Jerry DeLemus one of the men still imprisoned for the 2014 Bunkerville Standoff near Bundy Ranch in Nevada..... Two teenage girls in a shopping center in Australia's Queensland state got a rude awakening to what their nation has become today when they were detained by police in the country's continuing coronavirus crackdown.... Standing up for his rights today Ammon Bundy of People's Rights not wearing a mask or muzzle when confronted...

Dean tweeted support for Beijing's decision to impose economic sanctions on 11 U.S. legislators and human-rights activists, including Republican senators Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ted Cruz (Texas). The measures are in response to the Trump administration's decision to sanction top Hong Kong officials for participating in Beijing's crackdown on the pro-democracy movement. "We'd like to sanction them too., [sic.] Can we send them to Beijing permanently," Dean wrote on Monday in a tweet linking to a news article about the sanctions.

Catholic philanthropist Jimmy Lai arrested in Hong Kong Arrest of media tycoon under new security law is ominous for press freedom in the city One of Hong Kong’s leading Catholic philanthropists, media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, has been arrested along with members of his family and company management as Beijing continues its swift implementation of the brutal new national security law (NSL). Lai, 72, has donated millions of dollars to Catholic causes and has been retired Cardinal Joseph Zen’s biggest financial backer. This has raised fears in some quarters that the prelate, who like Lai is a trenchant critic of...

American studios are not only cutting content that displeases the CCP, but actively inserting propaganda at the behest of the Chinese government. Producers, writers, and financiers inside Hollywood explained to PEN America just how far the industry goes to please the Chinese Communist Party, in an eye-opening report released Wednesday. “Most people do not burn China, because there’s an expectation of ‘I’ll never work again,'” one producer told PEN America. “You consult with Chinese experts and media consultants, you think about whether something is going to be perceived as criticism,” another producer added. “You worry about inadvertently crossing some line.”...

The communist government of China took steps to increase its control over the residents of Hong Kong. First, it was announced that the United Kingdom passports held by an estimated three million residents will no longer be honored. Second, 12 pro-democracy candidates were removed from the ballot in the upcoming election. Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming explained that "under our laws all resources belong to the collective. This includes the people. No one has the right to subtract himself from the collective without the permission of the governing authorities. The United Kingdom's offer of refuge to persons trying...

Stretching for miles across the horizon, a vast armada of Chinese fishing boats trawl the pristine waters close to the Galapagos Islands. Ostensibly fishing squid, the real target for the 265-strong fleet are sharks to serve the appetite for expensive fin soup, costing up to £350 a bowl, sold in markets across China and Hong Kong. Night and day, the vessels – many the size of a football pitch – ransack the seabed, scooping up not only whale and hammerhead sharks but other species including turtles and birds.

China is threatening to stop recognizing the British passports held by millions of Hong Kongers, creating the prospect of up to three million people being banned from leaving the region. Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK, on Thursday issued the threat in the latest escalation of a dispute between London and Beijing which began when China imposed a draconian security law on Hong Kong, a former British colony. The new law, which has seen hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong arrested, prompted Boris Johnson's UK government to offer all Hong Kong citizens — some three million people —...

Hong Kong disqualified at least 12 pro-democracy nominees from an upcoming election after the government said the candidates failed to pledge allegiance to both Hong Kong and Beijing. Among those barred Thursday from the September legislative election are prominent pro-democracy activist Tiffany Yuen, incumbent lawmaker Dennis Kwok from the pro-democracy Civic Party, and Joshua Wong, an activist who topped the polls in an unofficial primary earlier this month. The government said candidates for the Legislative Council, which helps to make and amend Hong Kong’s laws, will be invalidated if they advocated or promoted the territory’s independence, solicited intervention by foreign...

Tai was a leading figure in Hong Kong’s 2014 “Umbrella” protests, which paralysed the city for 79 days as demonstrators occupied main roads demanding greater democracy. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison last year for two public nuisance offences, but released on bail pending an appeal - a conviction that prompted HKU to begin reviewing his position. Tai was also singled out by Beijing officials this month for his role in helping organise an unofficial primary vote for the opposition pro-democracy camp to select candidates for elections to the city legislature. The officials said the vote was illegal...

Ivan Ko hopes to find site between Dublin and Belfast to host 50,000 fellow Hongkongers A Hong Kong property tycoon wants to build a city in Ireland to host 50,000 emigrants from the semi-autonomous city. Ivan Ko, the founder of the Victoria Harbour Group (VHG), an international charter city investment company, hopes to find a 50 sq km site between Dublin and Belfast to create a new city, named Nextpolis, from scratch. Ko has pitched the plan, which would include schools that teach in Cantonese, to Irish officials, arguing it would fit the government’s stated desire to develop regions outside...

A well-known Hong Kong microbiologist is the latest to reveal information on how Beijing initially covered up China’s outbreak of the CCP virus, adding to a pile of evidence about authorities’ mismanagement of the pandemic crisis. Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, an infectious disease expert at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), was among a team of experts headed by China’s top respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan dispatched on a fact-finding mission to Wuhan, where the virus first broke out, on Jan. 19. Now, more than 6 months later, Yuen told the BBC in an interview on July 27 that Chinese local authorities...

Ireland is being considered as a possible location for an “international charter city” to be developed in anticipation of a mass exodus of Hong Kongers fleeing China’s tightening grasp on their home. Ivan Ko, a Hong Kong citizen with decades of experience in real estate and property development, has reportedly been searching for places around the world to build a new version of Hong Kong since China implemented its new national security law in the city. The charter city would be designed to have its own tax regime and regulations, U.K.’s The Telegraph reported. Last week, the British government outlined...

Many Indians thought former BBC journalist Humphrey Hawksley was being overly alarmist when he wrote the thriller Dragon Fire two decades ago about a war pitting China and Pakistan against India that ended apocalyptically with nuclear devastation. Hawksley, a veteran Asia hand, said his fiction was meant not just to entertain but also be a warning that China was expansionist and was a one-party state whose government had to prove itself to survive. Since then, though, we’ve seen China offering a different narrative in which global economic diplomacy was its choice weapon. The Chinese have been busy proving they’re responsible...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, from the podium at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, laid out in no uncertain terms what the administration wanted to do and how it planned to go about accomplishing its ambitious aims. America, the secretary of state said, has effectively ditched five decades of “engagement” policy and is now embracing a policy now out of favor across the American policy establishment: regime change. Formally, the State Department still “engages” China, Pompeo said, but “simply to demand fairness and reciprocity.” Gone are the days when American diplomats engaged China to...

When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to demolish Chinese Catholic churches, Vatican silence echoes. When the CCP goes on a crusade to destroy crucifixes and holy statues in systemic eradication of the faith, Vatican silence echoes. When the CCP prohibits Chinese children under the age of 18 from practicing religion, global human rights groups react, but Vatican silence echoes. Francis, known as thePope of Mercy, continues his silence while the CCP rounds up Catholic clergy who refuse to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Church. When retired Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen warned the Holy See about the danger of...

It's always ominous when a diplomatic mission destroys documents. Whatever the reason behind China's frantic purge at its Houston consulate, it isn't good. A dramatic scene unveiled Tuesday night when it was reported that personnel at the Consulate General of China in Houston were burning documents in its courtyard. Nearby residents reported seeing and smelling smoke in the air. Houston police and firemen rushed to the building but weren’t allowed to go inside.It is always an ominous sign when a diplomatic mission starts destroying documents. This scene is reminiscent of a similar event that took place on December 7, 1941,...

Accepting three million Hong Kongers should not pose a huge burden to the five core Anglosphere countries. Right now, they need all the help they can get. In a fierce but very typically British exchange, BBC editor Andrew Marr grilled the nonchalant Chinese ambassador to Britain, revealing amateur drone videos showing chained people boarding a train flanked on both sides by black-armored troops. In a time when Department of Homeland Security agents are decried by the U.S. speaker of the House as stormtroopers for defending federal properties, videos from China show what a genuine totalitarian system looks like.A full city...

Hongkongers with British National (Overseas) passports will be exempted from income tests during their five-year stay in Britain before they can apply for full citizenship, the Home Office said as it unveiled details of a historic policy change on Wednesday. From January (2021), an estimated 2.9 million eligible Hongkongers will be able to apply to resettle in Britain, together with their dependents, including their children, and even other adult dependents in “compelling” and “exceptional” circumstances... (UK Home Secretary Priti) Patel said the government will not impose skills tests or minimum income requirements, economic needs tests or place caps on numbers.

(Author Joe Hoft lived in Hong Kong for nearly a decade and provides this first hand perspective)China took control of Hong Kong, the former British colony, in 1997. Ever since that time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the small group that runs China, has attempted to control the tiny country. This has escalated over the past year. The CCP agreed to a 50-year plan to take over the country of Hong Kong in 1997 after the takeover. However, this may never have been the CCP’s intent. Now after less than 25 years, the CCP is hammering Hong Kong into...

The UK has suspended an extradition treaty with Hong Kong following the imposition of controversial new security laws on the territory by China. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced the "necessary and proportionate" measure in a statement to the House of Commons on Monday. The UK will also extend to Hong Kong the arms embargo it has applied to mainland China since 1989, Mr Raab said. "The extension of this embargo will mean there will be no exports from the UK to Hong Kong of potentially lethal weapons, their components or ammunition," the foreign secretary told MPs. "It will also mean...