Attention to the Unseen

Antony Dapiran writes: In extraordinary scenes that could have been a direct replay of 2014’s Occupy Central protests, thousands of anti-government protesters surrounded the Hong Kong government offices and Legislative Council building at Admiralty today, blocking roads and forcing the government to postpone a planned meeting to debate a controversial proposed extradition law. Again, as in 2014, today’s protesters were primarily youths, clad in black t-shirts and chanting “Cit Wui!” (“Withdraw!”). Drawing on their experience from the Umbrella Movement, protesters…

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Reuters reports: U.S. President Donald Trump took a public stance against the use of CIA informants to spy on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday, saying it would not happen on his watch and possibly taking away a valuable tool of the U.S. intelligence community. Trump’s remarks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House represented a fresh attempt by the president to cozy up to the North Korean leader, a policy that has drawn criticism…

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The Intercept reports: In January 2017, three days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, a businessman from the United Arab Emirates was invited to a lavish dinner planned by Trump’s longtime ally Thomas J. Barrack Jr., who was chair of the president’s inaugural committee. The guest list placed Rashid al-Malik, a onetime business associate of Barrack’s, amid more than 100 foreign diplomats and top members of the incoming administration. The president-elect himself made a surprise appearance at the gathering. Al-Malik’s name…

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With no notes — the eloquence, clarity, and conviction all his own — Rory Stewart tests a revolutionary proposition: that it is possible to become a national leader by being deeply committed to truthfulness; by being able to discriminate between reality and fantasy; and by placing national interest above personal ambition. In a world where clowns succeed, lies flow in all directions, and the media is perpetually focused on maximizing audience size, Stewart’s seriousness is utterly out of place. But…

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One and a half million views of @rafaelbehr’s Brexit rant now. I think people may feel he has a point pic.twitter.com/G62NWH9WEq — Alan White (@aljwhite) June 10, 2019

Middle East Eye reports: A secret bomb factory run by members of the Iran-backed movement Hezbollah was found on the outskirts of London in 2015, with as much as three metric tonnes of bomb-making ingredients, the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday. The case, which was kept “hidden from the public”, unfolded after the British police and the MI5 intelligence service were tipped-off by a foreign government, security sources told the daily. Thousands of disposable ice packs containing three tonnes of…

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The New York Times reports: As the 23 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination struggle to distinguish themselves, Senator Elizabeth Warren has set herself apart with a series of sweeping proposals that would significantly remake the American economy, covering everything from tax policy to business regulation to student debt relief. Together, her plans offer a detailed portrait of what her presidency might look like. Many of the proposals from Ms. Warren, a former Harvard law professor and hawk on financial regulation,…

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Reuters reports: Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday urged a stop to the “endless war” that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and a return to the Iran nuclear deal and Paris climate accord scrapped by Republican President Donald Trump. Buttigieg, a Navy reservist who was deployed to Afghanistan, repudiated Trump’s go-it-alone, America First approach to the world in the first foreign policy speech of his 2020 White House campaign. He outlined a policy based on “America at our…

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Bloomberg reports: China has spent much of the past five years tightening its grip over Hong Kong with little challenge. Now, hundreds of thousands in the city are fighting back. Hong Kong is bracing for a potentially historic showdown over extradition legislation that could for the first time subject residents to face justice in Chinese courts, further eroding the city’s autonomy. Opponents on Sunday staged one of the largest protests since the former British colony’s return to China: Organizers said…

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