Sudan's Protesters Claim Victory For Their 'Revolution'

RCHIVO - En esta fotografía de archivo del 30 de junio de 2019, manifestantes sudaneses gritan consignas durante una protesta contra el consejo militar, en Jartum, Sudán. (AP Foto/Hussein Malla, archivo)

BY FAY ABUELGASIM, NOHA ELHENNAWY

KHARTOUM, SUDAN (AP) — Leaders of Sudan’s pro-democracy movement welcomed on Friday the power-sharing agreement with the ruling military council as a victory for their “revolution,” raising hopes for an end to the three-month standoff with the generals and deadly violence.

“Today, our revolution has won and our victory shines,” read a statement posted early Friday on the Facebook page of the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, which has spearheaded the protests.

The emerging deal could break the political impasse that has gripped the country since the military ousted the longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April, amid an uprising against his rule.

In the following months, protesters stayed in the streets demanding the generals handover power to a civilian leadership. Talks collapsed when security forces razed a protest camp outside the military headquarters in Khartoum on June 3 leaving more than a hundred killed, according to protesters.

The African Union and Ethiopia made intensive efforts to bring the generals and the protesters back to the negotiating table.

Negotiations resumed earlier this week, after tens of thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of Sudan’s main cities over the weekend, in the biggest show of numbers since the razing of the protesters’ sit-in camp. At least 11 people were killed in clashes with security forces, according to protest organizers.

When news of the deal broke around dawn on Friday, hundreds of protesters returned to the streets dancing, singing and waving Sudanese flags, while passing drivers honked.

The military-controlled Al-Sudan television channel played national songs. It also reran excerpts of the press conference announcing the agreement, held jointly by protest and military leaders, which it subtitled “Congratulations to the Sudanese people.”

“We hope that the formation of transitional institutions marks the beginning of a new era,” said Omer El-Digair, a leader of the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, a political coalition representing the protesters, at the joint press conference with the military and African mediators following the conclusion of the deal. “We hope it is an era where we can shut off the sound of pistols and destroy for good prisons of arbitrary detention.”

The two parties agreed to form a joint sovereign council to lead the country during a transitional period of three years and three months, said the SPA statement.

The council will include five civilians representing the protest movement and five military members. An eleventh seat will go to a civilian chosen by both parties.

A military member will preside over the council during the first 21 months, followed by a civilian member after, according to the statement.

This suggests a significant concession on the part of pro-democracy forces, which had insisted that the sovereign council have only a civilian president. However, the deal did secure another key demand, that protest leaders select the members of a technocratic Cabinet to be formed independently from the generals.

The two parties also agreed to launch “a national independent investigation” into the killings of protesters since al-Bashir was ousted on April 11, according to the statement.

Rep. Amash, Lone GOP Critic Of Trump, Leaves Republican Party

In a June 12 file photo, Rep. Justin Amash listens to debate as the House Oversight and Reform Committee considers whether to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents related to the Trump administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Image: J. Scott Applewhite

BY DONNA CASSATA

WASHINGTON (THE WASHINGTON POST) -- Rep. Justin Amash, the only Republican in Congress to have accused President Trump of impeachable acts, said Thursday that he is leaving the GOP and becoming an independent, bemoaning that “modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral, but there is an escape.”

In an op-ed in The Washington Post, the Michigan congressman described himself as a lifelong Republican who has grown disenchanted with party politics and frightened by a two-party system that has “evolved into an existential threat to American principles and institutions.”

Citing the warnings in George Washington’s farewell address, Amash said Americans “have allowed government officials, under assertions of expediency and party unity, to ignore the most basic tenets of our constitutional order: separation of powers, federalism and the rule of law.”

He maintained that most Americans are not “rigidly partisan” and that the country can do better than the two-party system.

“No matter your circumstance, I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us,” Amash wrote, declaring his party affiliation as independent on the nation’s Independence Day.

Amash, who was elected in the tea party wave of 2010, embraced libertarian principles and repeatedly broke with his party on major issues and even the mundane before he challenged the president.

A few hours after Amash’s declaration, Trump derided him in a tweet: “Great news for the Republican Party as one of the dumbest & most disloyal men in Congress is ‘quitting’ the Party. No Collusion, No Obstruction! Knew he couldn’t get the nomination to run again in the Great State of Michigan. Already being challenged for his seat. A total loser!”

House Republican leaders had no immediate response to Amash quitting the party.

Amash does not mention Trump by name in the op-ed, but his party switch comes weeks after he posted tweets arguing that former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III documented “impeachable conduct” in his report on Trump’s campaign and administration and Russian interference in the 2016 election. In subsequent public statements, Amash challenged colleagues from both parties to act.

About 80 House Democrats and several 2020 presidential candidates have called for launching impeachment proceedings against Trump, a step that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted. Amash is the only Republican calling for such a move.

His stand has drawn the wrath of Trump, widespread criticism from other Republicans, and a challenger in next year’s election. Amash, 39, who is serving his fourth term, has not announced whether he will run again. He has acknowledged that he is instead considering running for president as a member of the Libertarian Party.

Michigan state Rep. Jim Lower, a Republican, announced his bid for Amash’s House seat, describing himself as “a Pro-Trump, Pro-Life, Pro-Jobs, Pro-2nd Amendment, Pro-Family Values Republican.”

Last month, Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, indicated that he planned to campaign for Lower.

“See you soon Justin,” Trump Jr. said in a tweet. “I hear Michigan is beautiful during primary season.” Attached to his tweet were poll results showing Amash trailing Lower in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District.

Past supporters of Amash also turned on him in the aftermath of his impeachment comments.

The leader of the Club for Growth, a conservative group that has staunchly backed Amash since his first congressional run in 2010, and whose spending helped him overcome a 2014 primary challenge, criticized his comments.

The congressman has been steadfast in defending his position. Facing voters at a town hall in Grand Rapids several weeks ago, Amash said Congress “has a duty to keep the president in check.”

“I’d do it whether it was a Republican president or a Democratic president,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. You elected me to represent all of you.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has dismissed Amash as an outlier among Republicans, citing a number of instances in which the congressman voted with Democrats.

“Justin Amash can determine his own future. But I think, on a philosophical basis, he’s probably in a different place than the majority of all of us,” McCarthy said last month.

Amash also left the conservative House Freedom Caucus, a group he helped found four years ago.

It was unclear whether the congressman would caucus with Democrats. The only other independents in Congress — Sens. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Angus King (Maine) — caucus with Democrats in the Senate.

9 Nigerians Among 44 Migrants Bombed In Libya

Migrants in Libya. Image via PM News.

PM NEWS
Nine Nigerians were among the 44 migrants killed in an airstrike on a detention centre in Tajoura, Tripoli on Tuesday night.

Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Executive Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), said some of those killed had been profiled to leave Libya in the coming days.

International Organisation for Migration(IOM) said that more than 180 others staying in the same detention centre were registered to return to their home countries through the UN agency’s voluntary migrant return programme, which helps arrange their documents and transport.

In a statement on Thursday, Dabiri-Erewa condoled with families of the nine Nigerians.

She said it was regrettable that migrants survived a treacherous journey only to be killed in someone else’s war in Libya.

“It is disheartening that nine Nigerians have been identified as victims in the unfortunate incident.

”Nigerians, who were due to be airlifted back to Nigeria, were cut down in their prime,” she said.

The NIDCOM boss reiterated her call for Nigerians, especially the youths, to shun movement into hostile countries.

According to her, if they must travel, they should do so legally with a legitimate mission to those countries.

Dabiri-Erewa prayed for the repose of the souls of all the people, who died in the airstrike and sent condolence messages to the families of the victims.

She noted that more than 13.000 migrants had been brought home so far, from Libya, and expressed appreciation to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), NEMA and other international agencies involved in the evacuation of the migrants.

She, however, called on the UN to hasten up in the protection of other detention centres from such attacks.

IOM has moved around 40,000 migrants out of Libya through the same program me.
The airstrike on the Tajoura centre where at least 600 people were being held, came less than two months after another airstrike landed less than 100 meters from the centre, injuring two people.

Political Void Crimps Nigeria's Stocks, Rattles Investors

* Nigeria still without a cabinet four months after election

* MSCI Nigeria index down 15% in 2019, defying frontier rally

* Civil servants with little authority left in charge

* Payment delays frustrate contractors

BY KARIN STROHECKER, ALEXIS AKWAGYIRAM & LIBBY GEORGE

LONDON/LAGOS (REUTERS) - The failure of Nigeria's president to appoint a cabinet four months after winning a second term has stymied the country's stock market, prompted foreign investors to trim holdings and threatened growth prospects for Africa's largest economy.

Inaugurated on May 29, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria's 76-year-old former military leader, faces a long list of challenges including tepid economic growth, high unemployment and a decade-old Islamist insurgency.

Government activities, which almost ground to a halt ahead of February's election, slowed further after his victory, leaving foreign investors trying to gauge how much of a hit the stock market will take from the hiatus.

"It is massive," said Andrew Brudenell, lead senior portfolio manager for frontier markets equities at Ashmore Group. "Even when oil prices were back up at $70 heading to $80 again, the stock market did not do anything. They (stocks) just continue to trickle down as people give up on their investments."

The stock market in Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, has failed to keep up with frontier markets peers, a subset of smaller and often riskier emerging economies. The MSCI Nigeria index has dropped more than 15% since the start of the year, making it one of the worst performing markets in the index, even as the wider MSCI Frontier Market index rallied nearly 10%.

Nigerian politics often move at a glacial pace. Buhari took six months to swear in a cabinet after the 2015 election - a delay critics contend contributed to the slow response to low oil prices that pushed Nigeria into a recession in 2016.

But some investors said they had hoped that as the incumbent, he would move more quickly. Senegal's Macky Sall and South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa both appointed ministers within days of being sworn in as president this year.

THE BIG VOID

Since the dissolution of Buhari's first cabinet in late May, senior civil servants, who oversee day-to-day operations but lack authority to approve major decisions, have run Nigeria's government departments.

Civil servants do not approve capital expenditure, which means contractors are not getting paid.

"The process of payments is challenging and extremely time consuming," said one large government contractor, who asked not to be named.

Civil servants also do not take leading roles in deal-making in the all-important oil sector, a fact that has slowed negotiations with Saudi Arabia, a source close to the talks told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia is considering investing millions of dollars into revamping the state oil company's ailing refineries – a years-long target for the petrol-importing country. It is also mulling construction of an entirely new refinery and investing in liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The political void has affected investors of all types.

"You want to see that: a) people are in control and b) work on behalf of all stakeholders - including foreign shareholders," said Julian Mayo of Fiera Capital. "I don't think really any of that applies in Nigeria at the moment."

WHY CHANGE?

Buhari has offered no public explanation for the delay. Some insiders say it stems from a desire to avoid delegating to ministers.

Members of his first-term cabinet complained they lacked access to Buhari and did not know what was expected of them, said Clement Nwankwo, director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, an Abuja-based think-tank.

"Whether his approach is related to his military background, I don't know. It just seems to be who he is," Nwankwo said.

Buhari's spokesman, Garba Shehu, declined to comment on this but rejected suggestions that delays over cabinet appointments had adversely affected government operations.

"Normal running of government is going on because the permanent secretaries (senior civil servants) are running the ministries until the ministers are appointed," he said.

Shehu said Buhari would likely submit cabinet nominees to the upper house of parliament in July. Picks must be vetted by security services and then approved by parliament. But the legislature is expected to go on leave in July and not return until September.

Some observers question how much difference new ministers will make in an administration in which power is concentrated in the hands of the president and a close circle of confidants, including chief of staff Abba Kyari.

"I don't see any reason why that would necessarily change," said a Western diplomat, who did not want to be named.

Buhari has made other key appointments: He confirmed central bank governor Godwin Emefiele for a second term and appointed a new head of the state oil company.

Bucking a trend of one-term governors, Emefiele said he will keep the controversial managed float of the naira, which investors and the International Monetary Fund have asked Abuja to scrap.

That policy prompted many overseas investors to quit Nigeria in Buhari's first term.

"Across the board everyone is saying they don't see any prospect for real policy change," said a U.S.-based fund manager, speaking on condition of anonymity.

(Reporting by Karin Strohecker in London and Alexis Akwagyiram and Libby George in Lagos Additional reporting by Paul Carsten and Felix Onuah in Abuja and Chijioke Ohuocha in Lagos Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram and Karin Strohecker Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Frances Kerry)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Distrust Of Nigerian Police Grows Among Women Over Rape Allegations

Image via Legit/NAIJ

BY OLUWATOSIN ADESHOKA

ABUJA, NIGERIA (TRT WORLD) -- Several women have alleged that they were raped by members of the police who used plastic bags often used to sell water in little packages in Nigeria as condoms.

When the news broke that officers of the Nigerian police arrested women and allegedly raped them while they were detained, Chioma Aguwegbo was disappointed but not surprised.

One evening in 2017, at one of the many illegal checkpoints established by officers of the Nigerian police in Abuja, Agbuegbo and her friend were stopped. Agwuegbo’s friend, who was driving at the time, was wearing a short skirt with her thighs exposed and was forced to get out to open the trunk of her car.

“Because she was exposed, I immediately came down to open the trunk of the car because I had longer shorts, but the police told me to get back into the car,” Agwuegbo tells TRT World. Thankfully that was one of the milder interactions had with the Nigerian Police.

While Nigerians took to social media and the streets to protest the arbitrary arrests and deaths of Nigerian citizens by the police in the#EndSARS campaign, the targeted arrests of women in Nigeria's capital city Abuja had been largely unreported.

“To a large extent, the treatment of women as property in Nigeria extends to institutions and their interactions with women,” Agwuegbo explains to TRT World.

Over 65 women were arrested by the police and a task force in a raid of night clubs in Abuja on April 27. In a press conference held by the women in Abuja, they alleged that they had been arrested, asked to give bribes for their freedom and when a few of them could not, they were raped and beaten.

Several women alleged that they were raped by members of the police who used plastic bags often used to sell water in little packages in Nigeria as condoms.

In the end, 27 women were charged with prostitution without access to their lawyers or families and coerced into pleading guilty.

The women who pleaded guilty were sentenced to a month in prison or told to pay the fine of $8.3 [3,000 Naira].

This Abuja incident is a prime example of gender-based violence and sexual harassment against women in Nigeria. The Women At Risk International Foundation reports that over 10,000 girls are raped or sexually assaulted every day in Nigeria and as of 2016, Nigeria had only 18 recorded rape convictions.

Among the abusers are policemen who use their power as a means for extortion — taking monetary or sexual bribery from women, especially those vulnerable positions. Through extensive interview-based research that Human Rights Watch carried out in 2011, it found that many policemen use the threat of rape and other forms of sexual assault to extort money from women, particularly at checkpoints, in public spaces or those in police custody.

In 2012, Nigerian actress Dorothy Njemanze was arrested with three other women by officers of the same task force and accused of being a prostitute. Despite her arrest, she was never charged. But in a high-profile case, Njemanze took the Nigerian government to court and in October of 2017, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court ruled in her favour, ordering the Nigerian government to pay Njemanze and two other women $50,000 (18 million Naira).

“But as a woman in Nigeria, even around law enforcement, there is a serious fear of being sexually molested,” Agwuegbo says.

After the arrests of the women, protests were quickly organised via Twitter and people organised in various cities including Lagos, Abuja, Accra in Ghana and in the United Kingdom.

“As huge as the gaps in policing in Nigeria are, there is a bigger problem of sexual harassment in Nigeria and at the moment, it does not seem like a priority for the Nigerian government,” Ayodeji Osowobi explains. Osowobi is the founder of Stand to End Rape, a non-profit established in 2014 to bring forward conversations about sexual rights in Nigeria.

“We are invested in the creation of a framework to guarantee safety at home and in the workplace for women in Nigeria,” Osowobi tells TRT World. Her non-profit was one of the major players in the protests organised to get justice for the arrested women.

During the planning stage of the protests, the organising groups reached out to inform the police of their protest and to get a security detail, but the response given to them was that the police would not guarantee their safety during the protests.

Already, there is a general distrust of security agencies in the country with ‘peaceful protests’ often turning bloody. In 2018, officers of the Nigerian army shot dozens of peaceful Shia protesters in Northern Nigeria.

While protesting at the front of the police command in Lagos state, Ebele Molua was threatened by a policeman who wanted to “press her breasts”.

“I understood the situation the women were in immediately it was said to me because we were at the police station, the one place we are supposed to be safe, but I was still very scared,” Moula explains.

At the end of the protest, she filed an official complaint to the police, but until today does not know how the case ended. “I got a couple of calls from officers of the police and eventually the man apologising, but I was not told any action had been taken against him,” Moula says.

The protests and their subsequent coverage, however, did not do anything to bring about any change or discussions with regard to policy. Instead, non-profits and people on social media are taking a different approach towards the next generation of Nigerians. Ololade Ginikale, Founder of the Hands Off Initiative, goes around schools in Nigeria teaching consent to teenagers and young adults.

With a network of volunteers across Nigeria and even extending to South Africa and a few West African cities, Ginikale is looking to change the status quo on how Africans see and interact with sex. “I believe [that] if children and young people are made to understand what consent is, there will be a whole generation where cases of sexual assault, harassment and rape will be non-existent,” Ginikale explains.

However, as a largely conservative country it is unlikely that conversations about sex and harassment in Nigeria will be brought up on a national scale. Several older Nigerians including religious leaders believe that it is the proliferation of Western ideas that have led to incidences of rape and harassment in the country.

Nigerian comedian and actor Ime Bishop Umoh released videos on his social media accounts asserting that the women allegedly raped by the police were not raped but stolen from. He argued that they could not have been raped because they are “selling themselves”.

But, the times are changing. Nigeria is currently in the middle of its #MeToo campaign with the church firmly rooted in a scandal. On Sunday June 30, peaceful protests happened simultaneously in Abuja and Lagos at the church whose leader is accused of being a rapist.

While this seems like slow progress, it is still progress. Non-profits and women on Nigerian social media are at the forefront of protests and discussions about women's rights and freedoms. Agbuegbo is excited. “This generation of Nigerian women are ready to scream for their rights and it’s obvious that this is the way we will change the world”.

Judge Blocks Trump Policy Keeping Asylum-Seekers Locked Up

In this June 28, 2019, file photo, Matt Adams, center right, Legal Director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, leaves the U.S. Courthouse with others after a hearing on asylum seekers in Seattle. On Tuesday, July 2, 2019, a federal judge in Seattle has blocked a Trump administration policy that would keep thousands of asylum seekers locked up while they pursue their cases. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

BY GENE JOHNSON

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked a Trump administration policy that would keep thousands of asylum-seekers locked up while they pursue their cases, saying the Constitution demands that such migrants have a chance to be released from custody.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled Tuesday that people who are detained after entering the country illegally to seek protection are entitled to bond hearings. Attorney General William Barr announced in April that the government would no longer offer such hearings, but instead keep them in custody. It was part of the administration’s efforts to deter a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Pechman said that as people who have entered the U.S., they are entitled to the Fifth Amendment’s due-process protections, including “a longstanding prohibition against indefinite civil detention with no opportunity to test its necessity.”

Immigrant rights advocates including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project sued to block the policy, which was due to take effect July 15.

“The court reaffirmed what has been settled for decades: that asylum-seekers who enter this country have a right to be free from arbitrary detention,” Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said in a written statement. “Thousands of asylum-seekers will continue to be able to seek release on bond, as they seek protection from persecution and torture.”

The Justice Department did not immediately return an email seeking comment, but the government was expected to quickly appeal the decision, as Pechman noted in her order.

For the past 50 years, the government has given asylum-seekers bond hearings before immigration judges where they can argue that they should be released because they are not flight risks and pose no threat to the public, the immigrant rights groups told the court. That gives the asylum-seekers an opportunity to reunite with relatives in the U.S. and to find lawyers to handle their asylum claims, making them more likely to succeed.

The new policy would end that practice, keeping between 15,000 and 40,000 immigrants in custody for six months or more without requiring the government to show that their detentions are justified, the groups argued. Typically, close to half of asylum-seekers who are granted bond hearings are released from custody.

“The Court finds that Plaintiffs have established a constitutionally-protected interest in their liberty, a right to due process which includes a hearing before a neutral decisionmaker to assess the necessity of their detention, and a likelihood of success on the merits of that issue,” the judge wrote.

Pechman, who heard arguments last Friday, said the government must provide a bond hearing within seven days of a request by any immigrant who has demonstrated that they have a credible fear of persecution or torture if returned to their home country. The asylum-seekers must be released if not granted a hearing within that time frame, she said.

Pechman also said the burden must be on the government at such hearings to show that keeping asylum-seekers in custody is necessary because they pose a flight risk or a danger to the public.

President Donald Trump has said he is determined to end the “catch and release” of migrants at the border. He has also called the asylum system broken, saying that some take advantage of it with frivolous claims.

The lawsuit, a nationwide class action, began as a challenge to the separation of family members at the border under Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy. Its legal claims have morphed as the government’s policies have shifted.

Pechman first issued an order in April saying that the government must give the asylum-seekers hearings within a week, saying delays in holding such hearings violated their rights. Eleven days later, the attorney general issued a decision finding that they weren’t entitled to bond hearings at all.

The Justice Department argued that the policy is a legitimate interpretation of a federal law that says if immigration officers determine immigrants have a credible fear of persecution, they “shall be detained for further consideration of the application for asylum.”

The government also argued that even without bond hearings, detained asylum-seekers would still have another avenue for release: a request to an immigration officer for parole. Such requests are rarely granted under the Trump administration, however, and the immigrant rights groups said they are not a substitute for bond hearings before independent fact-finders.

Border Patrol Head Condemns Agents' Offensive Facebook Posts

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, walks to the front of the Clint Border Patrol station to talk about what she saw at area border facilities Monday, July 1, at the station in Clint. (Briana Sanchez / El Paso Times via AP)

BY CEDAR ATTANASIO, COLLEEN LONG

CLINT, TEXAS (AP) — The head of the U.S. Border Patrol on Monday slammed as “completely inappropriate” sexually explicit posts about U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and comments questioning the authenticity of a photo of a drowned man and his young daughter in a secret Facebook group for agents.

The existence of the group was reported by ProPublica as roughly a dozen members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, including Democrats Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Veronica Escobar of Texas, toured border facilities where attorneys said they had found migrant children living in fetid, filthy conditions.

Some of the posts were graphic, doctored images of Ocasio-Cortez, including one that shows a smiling President Donald Trump forcing her head toward his crotch. Other comments refer to Ocasio-Cortez and Escobar as “hoes,” and one member encouraged agents to throw a “burrito at these bitches.”

Ocasio-Cortez said she wasn’t surprised by the posts, especially after the treatment of migrants she said she witnessed at the facility.

“It’s just indicative of the violent culture that we saw,” she said.

The revelation about the Facebook posts only added to the vitriolic atmosphere surrounding immigration and the treatment of tens of thousands of migrants who have crossed the border, vastly straining the system that has been struggling to keep up amid Trump’s hardline rhetoric.

The Democrats delivered an emotional denunciation of what they saw inside the border facilities as protesters shouted that they didn’t believe them.

“When we went into the cell, it was clear that the water was not running ... in fact, one of the women said that she was told by an agent to drink from the toilet,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas and twin brother of presidential candidate Julian Castro.

The Texas visit came the same day as Trump signed a $4.6 billion emergency aid package that Congress passed on Friday. The Democratic-led House had pushed for more restrictions on how the money could be used and stricter oversight, but ultimately lost the battle.

Trump said he hadn’t seen the postings, but claimed Border Patrol agents were not happy with Congress.

“So the Border Patrol, they’re patriots, they’re great people. They love our country. They know who’s coming in,” said Trump.

Lawmakers who toured the facilities shared their experiences widely on social media. Rep. Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts called them “jail-like. No way to keep a child or innocent human being.” The head of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, California Rep. Judy Chu said “what we saw was appalling and disgusting.”

Castro said there would likely be a Congressional investigation into the Facebook posts.

Billed as “fun, serious and just work related,” the group of about 9,500 members of current and former Border Patrol employees states: “We are family, first and foremost,” according to ProPublica.

Another thread involved the image published last week by The Associated Press of a migrant father and his toddler, drowned on the banks of the Rio Grande. One commenter suggested the image was doctored because the bodies were too clean.

“We’ve all seen the dems and liberal parties do some pretty sick things,” the comment read.

They marked a sharp contrast to accounts of Border Patrol officers spending their own money on food for migrants in their care, or rescuing migrants from the Rio Grande , or from a bombing range in Arizona. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of Border Patrol, said an investigation into “disturbing social media activity” was underway.

“These posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honor and integrity I see — and expect — from our agents day in and day out,” Border Patrol chief Carla Provost said. “Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable.”

Ocasio-Cortez raised hackles last month when she tweeted: “This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying.”

Her tweet set off a firestorm of criticism from GOP lawmakers and others over her use of “concentration camps,” with some saying she was unfairly comparing the southern border to the Holocaust. The Border Patrol’s union, while condemning the Facebook posts, also took a swipe at her.

“Whether one agrees with the politics of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Escobar, they both must be treated with dignity and respect,” according to a statement from the union. “Similarly, when Rep. Ocasio-Cortez refers to CBP facilities as concentration camps ... she does nothing to improve the political discourse.”

___

Long reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report from Washington.

Africa’s Noble Legacy Of Support For Palestinian Struggle

BY RAMZY BAROUD

EURASIAN REVIEW

Europe’s “Scramble for Africa” began in earnest in 1881, but never ended. Attempts to dominate the continent using old and new strategies continue to define Western relationships with this rich region.

This reality was further validated when I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, on June 23. Although my objective was to address various Kenyan audiences at universities, public forums and in the media, I also came here to learn. Kenya, like the rest of Africa, is a source of inspirationfor all anti-colonial and liberation movements around the world. We, the Palestinians, can learn a great deal from the Kenyan struggle.

Although African countries have fought valiant battles for their freedom against their Western colonizers, neocolonialism now defines the relationship between many independent African countries and their former occupiers. Political meddling, economic control and, at times, military interventions, as in the recent cases of Libya and Mali, point to the unfortunate reality that Africa remains, in myriad ways, hostage to Western priorities, interests and diktats.

At the infamous Berlin Conferenceof 1884, Western colonial regimes attempted to mediate among the various powers that were competing for Africa’s largesse. It assigned each a share of the continent, as if Africa was the property of the West and its white colonists. Millions of Africans died in that protracted, bloody episode unleashed by the West, which shamelessly promoted its genocidal oppression as a civilization project.

Like most colonized countries in the Southern Hemisphere, Africans fought disproportionate battles to gain their precious freedom. Here in Kenya, which became an official British colony in the 1920s, freedom fighters rose in rebellion against the brutality of their oppressors. Most notable among the various resistance campaigns was the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s, which remains a stark example of the courage of Kenyans and the cruelty of colonial Britain. Thousands of people were killed, wounded, disappeared or were imprisoned under the harshest of conditions.

Palestine fell under British occupation, the so-called British Mandate, during the same period that Kenya also became a British colony. Palestinians, too, fought and fell in their thousands as they employed various methods of collective resistance, including the legendary strike and rebellion of 1936. The same British killing machine that operated in Palestine and Kenya at that time also operated, with the same degree of senseless violence, against numerous other nations around the world.

At one of my recent talks in Nairobi, I was asked by a young participant about “Palestinian terrorism.” I told her that the Palestinian fighters of today are Kenya’s Mau Mau rebels of yesteryear. I said that, if we allow Western and Israeli propaganda to define the discourse of Palestinian national liberation, then we condemn all national liberation movements throughout the Southern Hemisphere, including Kenya’s own freedom fighters.

We Palestinians, however, must shoulder part of the blame of why our narrative as an oppressed, colonized and resisting nation is now misunderstood in parts of Africa. When the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) committed its historic blunder of signing off Palestinian rights in Oslo in 1993, it abandoned a decades-long Palestinian discourse of resistance and liberation. Instead, it subscribed to a whole new discourse, riddled with carefully worded language sanctioned by Washington and its European allies. Whenever Palestinians dared to deviate from their assigned role, they were decreed by the West to return to the negotiating table, which became a metaphor for obedience and submission.

Throughout these years, Palestinians mostly abandoned their far more meaningful alliances in Africa. Instead, they endlessly appealed to the goodwill of the West, hoping that the very colonial powers that primarily created, sustained and armed Israel would miraculously become more balanced and humane.

However, Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, etc., remained committed to Israel and, despite occasional polite criticism of the Tel Aviv government, continued to channeltheir weapons, warplanes and submarines to every Israeli government that has ruled over Palestinians for the last seven decades.

Alas, while Palestinians were learning their painful lesson, betrayed repeatedly by those who avowed to respect democracy and human rights, many African nations began seeing in Israel a possible ally. Kenya is, sadly, one of those countries.

Understanding the significance of Africa in terms of its economic and political potential (particularly support for Israel at the UN General Assembly), right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched his own “Scramble for Africa.” Netanyahu’s diplomatic conquests on the continent have been celebrated by the Israeli media as “historic,” while the Palestinian leadership remained oblivious to the rapidly changing political landscape.

Kenya is one of Israel’s success stories. In November 2017, Netanyahu attended the inauguration of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who supposedly received an astonishing 98 percent of votes in the previous month’s elections. While Kenyans rose in rebellion against their corrupt ruling classes, Netanyahu was seen embracing Kenyatta as a dear friend and ally.

Netanyahu’s strategy in Kenya — and the rest of Africa — has been based on the same logic, where Israel would use its security technology to support corrupt and undemocratic regimes in exchange for their political support.

Tel Aviv had hoped that the first Israel-Africa summit in Togo would usher in a complete paradigm shift in Israeli-African relations. However, the October 2017 conference never materialized due to pressure by various African countries, including South Africa. There is still enough support for Palestine on the continent to defeat Israeli stratagem, but that could soon change if the Palestinians and their allies do not wake up to the alarming reality.

The Palestinian leadership, intellectuals, artists and civil society ambassadors must shift their attention back to the Southern Hemisphere, and Africa in particular, rediscovering the untapped wealth of true, unconditional human solidarity that is provided by the peoples of this ever-generous continent.

The legendary Tanzanian freedom fighter Julius Nyerere, who is also celebrated in Kenya, knew well where his solidarity lay. “We have never hesitated in our support for the right of the people of Palestine to have their own land,” he once said— a sentiment that was repeated by the iconic late South African President Nelson Mandela and many other African liberation leaders.

This generation of African leaders should not deviate from that noble legacy. If they betray it, they betray themselves, along with the righteous struggles of their own peoples.

3 Nigerian Women Beg For US to Help Stop Persecution Of Christians

Christians in Nigeria suffer mutilation and death for their faith. Pictured: The damaged altar of St. Moses Catholic Church in the village of Bakin Kogi, in Kaduna State in northwest Nigeria, after a recent attack by Fulani militants. (Photo: Stefan Heunis/AFP/Getty Images)

BY CARMEL KOOKOGEY
After 110 Nigerian girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in February 2018, all but one eventually were released.

But Leah Sharibu, 16, is still held captive by the terrorists because of her refusal to renounce her Christian faith.

The trend of Christian persecution in the African country was discussed at a Heritage Foundation gathering last month, “Insecurity in Nigeria: Eyewitnesses Speak,” featuring three Nigerian women who shared their harrowing stories in hopes of prompting action from the U.S. government.

Here’s what they had to say.

‘A Prisoner of Conscience’

In Nigeria, Leah Sharibu is celebrated today as a martyr. Songs are composed about her, videos are produced, and books are written. But for Leah’s mother, getting her daughter back matters more than anything else.

“I stand here for pleading the government of U.S.,” Rebecca Sharibu said in tears and broken English during the Heritage event on Capitol Hill. “Please, help me. Please, help me. I need my daughter back. I need my daughter.”

Gloria Puldu, a friend of the family and a senior lecturer in the political science department at the University of Jos in central Nigeria, spoke on behalf of Rebecca Sharibu.

Puldu explained why Leah was singled out among the 110 girls.

“The other girls, who are all Muslim girls, are released. … When [Leah] was told to renounce her faith and recite the Kalima-e-Shahadah–“Kalima-e-Shahadah” means the Islamic faith creed–she refused to do that,” Puldu said. “That was the only reason that she was kept back.”

After Leah’s capture, Puldu said, her family and friends did everything they could to get the attention of the federal and local governments in Nigeria, without success. She said that even though many people advocated government action on TV and social media, the Nigerian government has not done anything to free the teen.

“She is a prisoner of conscience,” Puldu said of Leah. “She didn’t do anything, but up till now, we did not get that attention. And that is why we are here. And what [Rebecca Sharibu is] saying is to plead with your government to please pressure our government, because our government seems unable to secure her release.”

‘If I Keep Quiet, to What Gain?’

Alheri Magaji is the daughter of the current leader of the Adara tribe in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna State.

The tribe, almost completely Christian, was attacked by Fulani militants from mid-February through April. Nearly 400 people–mostly women, children, and the elderly–were killed.

The Fulani militants, also called “Fulani herdsmen,” are a tribe of Muslims who, since this year’s attacks, have become more deadly to Nigerian Christians than the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram.

Magaji, who appeared to be in her late 20s, told the Heritage audience that she was warned not to speak about the persecution her tribe suffered because she might be killed or beaten by Kaduna State police. She said:

But I asked the person that called me, I said, ‘What have I got to lose if I don’t talk?’ My family is killed every day. My dad was locked up for over a hundred days. My tribe is now extinct. So if I keep quiet, to what gain will that be?

The people who die every day are human beings too. And if I have an opportunity to let the world know what’s happening in my hometown, I will do anything to be able to save–even if it’s one life.

The Nigerian government describes the Fulani’s attacks as merely “retaliatory.” But Magaji said the Adara people never have attacked the Fulani.

She told the story of a mother who was nine months pregnant with her fifth child when the Fulani came to attack the Adara tribe. About 400 Fulani militants with AK-47s came into the community at 6:30 a.m. on a February morning. The Adara, as hunters with no assault weapons, ran for cover and were unable to respond, Magaji said.

The Fulani told all the Adara children to lie down on the floor, Magaji said, and one of the woman’s sons began to cry when he saw his two siblings’ heads being severed.

“But when they got to the fourth child to slaughter, the Fulani men couldn’t find the child,” she said. “And [the mother] said God was telling her in the midst of that chaos that he’s alive, and he’s there.”

She continued:

They searched everywhere, but they couldn’t find the fourth child. And he was sitting right there, in front of her. And she was trying to reach out and hold her kid, but she couldn’t even. And then when they went out and she ran to her kid, to hug him, they came back inside and then they cut off her left hand, and tried to sever her head, and then kicked her tummy. She started bleeding and passed out. It was the reverend father that came and rescued her.

By the time she woke up, her 9-month-old baby had died; they had operated on her and removed the child. Her only surviving child was the child that God protected from the Fulani herdsmen.

So I want to tell you that we believe in God. We know that God is the reason why we are even here to tell our story. What we’ve been through–it’s impossible to even stand and talk, because it’s so real when you’re living in situations like that.

Magaji said that although her people are “sleeping under the skies,” they are not asking for relief supplies.

We are here to beg people, beg you, beg the U.S. government, to please wade into the armada. We want justice for our land. We need our land back. We are 95% Christian, Adara. Adara is the largest Christian community in Kaduna State.

So we know it won’t end at Adara alone. There seems to be a systematic plan to take over Kaduna State and Nigeria as a whole. It is purely religious. Purely. I’m living this. It’s not something I read in the newspaper. It’s what we’re living.

‘Where Is Your Jesus?’

Mercy Maisamari, a member of the Adara tribe who was kidnapped by the Fulani militants, described how they came to her parents’ home asking after her father for unknown reasons.

The Fulani kidnapped Maisamari along with her siblings and her mother, walking them for 12 hours to the Fulani camp. They remained captive for 11 days.

Even after her father paid the ransom the terrorists demanded, the Fulani took him into the camp and beat him before releasing the family together the next day.

Maisamari explained:

After the whole kidnapping thing, the government arrested my dad twice, on different occasions. He was taken with some of the nine [Adara] elders away, locked up for 105 days, over what we know nothing about. They said 66 Fulani were killed.

Our people were killed, but nobody said anything about it, not even the media. But they arrested our elders, and locked them up for 105 days, without any proof that they did this thing.

Maisamari also shared how the Kaduna State governor paid the militants to stop the kidnappings.

“I just wonder how [the Nigerian government says] they can’t get these people to arrest them,” she said. “You find out that the government are trying to negotiate with the kidnappers, to pay them to stop kidnapping people. How? How do they agree to negotiate when they can always arrest these people?”

Maisamari also pleaded for the U.S. to help Christians in Nigeria:


We are here to beg the U.S. government to please come to our aid. Girls, your girls, like Leah Sharibu and others, are kidnapped almost on a daily basis. They kidnap you, they do whatever, they beat you up, they abuse you.

They ask you–some of them would ask us, ‘Where is your Jesus? Call your Jesus to come and save you!’ So we are here to beg the U.S. government to please come to our aid.

SOURCE: THE DAILY SIGNAL

Protesters In Hong Kong Break Into Legislature, Paint Logos

Protesters gather inside the meeting hall of the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, Monday, July 1, 2019. Protesters in Hong Kong took over the legislature's main building Friday night, tearing down portraits of legislative leaders and spray painting pro-democracy slogans on the walls of the main chamber.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

BY KEN MORITSUGU

HONG KONG (AP) — Hundreds of protesters in Hong Kong swarmed into the legislature’s main building Monday night, tearing down portraits of legislative leaders and spray-painting pro-democracy slogans on the walls of the main chamber as frustration over a lack of response from the administration to opposition demands boiled over.

Police carrying riot shields and firing tear gas moved in shortly after midnight to clear surrounding streets but appeared to have paused outside the legislative building. A spokesman had earlier broadcast a warning that “appropriate force” would be used in the clearance operation, but there was no immediate word on any arrests or injuries.

The flashing blue and red lights of dozens of police vans and buses lit up the abandoned streets leading to the legislature.

The sharp escalation in tactics came on the anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China, a city holiday, and reflected mounting frustration with Hong Kong’s leader for not responding to protesters’ demands after several weeks of demonstrations.

The protesters whacked away at thick glass windows until they shattered and broke and pried open steel security gates and propped them open with barricades to get inside. Police in riot gear retreated as the protesters entered about 9 p.m., avoiding a confrontation and giving them the run of the building.

Protesters gather outside the Legislative Council as they stage a rally in Hong Kong, Monday, July 1, 2019. Combative protesters are staging a protest outside the Hong Kong legislature as a crowd of thousands prepares to start a march in that direction.(AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

They stood on lawmakers’ desks in the main legislative chamber, painted over the territory’s emblem high up on a wooden wall and wrote slogans calling for a democratic election of the city’s leader and denouncing now-suspended extradition legislation that sparked the protests. Many wore yellow and white helmets, face masks and the black T-shirts that have become their uniform.

Police announced about 10:30 p.m. that they would clear the area, asking protesters to leave.

The actions prompted organizers of a separate peaceful march against the extradition bill to change the endpoint of their protest from the legislature to a nearby park, after police asked them to either call it off or change the route. Police wanted the march to end earlier in the Wan Chai district, but organizers said that would leave out many people who planned to join the march along the way.

Police estimated 190,000 people joined the peaceful march, the third major one in as many weeks. Organizers estimated the number at 550,000.

Hong Kong has been wracked by weeks of protests over a government attempt to change extradition laws to allow suspects to be sent to China to face trial. The proposed legislation, on which debate has been suspended indefinitely, increased fears of eroding freedoms in the territory, which Britain returned to China on July 1, 1997.

Protesters want the bills formally withdrawn and Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, to resign.

Lam, who has come under withering criticism for trying to push the legislation through, pledged to be more responsive to public sentiment but has not responded directly to protesters’ demands.

In an address after a flag-raising ceremony marking the anniversary of the handover, Lam said the protests and two earlier marches that attracted hundreds of thousands of participants have taught her that she needs to listen better to youth and people in general.

“This has made me fully realize that I, as a politician, have to remind myself all the time of the need to grasp public sentiments accurately,” she told the gathering in the city’s cavernous convention center.

She insisted her government has good intentions, but said “I will learn the lesson and ensure that the government’s future work will be closer and more responsive to the aspirations, sentiments and opinions of the community.”

Security guards pushed pro-democracy lawmaker Helena Wong out of the room as she shouted at Lam to resign and withdraw the “evil” legislation. She later told reporters she was voicing the grievances and opinions of the protesters, who could not get into the event.
Mainland China’s entirely state-controlled media made no mention of Monday’s protests. The main evening news broadcast carried video of the flag-raising ceremony, along with parts of Lam’s address and shots of Hong Kong residents praising displays put on by the People’s Liberation Army garrison in the territory.

Chinese media outlets have barely reported on the protests since they began last month, other than to blame foreign forces for stirring up unrest.

The extradition bill controversy has given fresh momentum to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition movement, awakening broader concerns that China is chipping away at the rights guaranteed to Hong Kong for 50 years under a “one country, two systems” framework. The two marches in June drew more than a million people, according to organizer estimates.

Jimmy Sham, a leader of the pro-democracy group that organized Monday’s march, told the crowd that Lam had not responded to their demands because she is not democratically elected. The leader of Hong Kong is chosen by a committee dominated by pro-China elites.

“We know that Carrie Lam can be so arrogant,” Sham said, rallying the crowd under a blazing sun before the start of the march at Victoria Park. “She is protected by our flawed system.”

The protesters are also demanding an independent inquiry into police actions during a June 12 protest, when officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a demonstration that blocked the legislature on the day that debate on the bill had been scheduled to resume.

The police say the use of force was justified, but since then have largely adopted softer tactics, even as protesters besieged police headquarters in recent days, pelting it with eggs and spray-painting slogans on its outer walls.

The area around Golden Bauhinia Square, where the flag-raising ceremony took place, was blocked off from Saturday to prevent protesters from gathering to disrupt it. Before the morning ceremony, protesters trying to force their way to the square were driven back by officers with plastic shields and batons, the retreating protesters pointing open umbrellas to ward off pepper spray.

“We are horrified, this is our obligation to do this, we are protecting our home,” said Jack, a 26-year-old office worker who would only give his first name. “I don’t know why the government is harming us. It’s harming the rule of law, the rule of law is the last firewall between us and the Chinese Communist Party.”

The extradition legislation has drawn opposition from the legal profession, commercial groups and foreign nations, reflecting Hong Kong’s status as an international business center with a strong independent judiciary and high degree of transparency.

During a brief visit to Mongolia on Monday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said Washington expects “China like every other country to adhere to its international obligations” regarding Hong Kong.

China rejects all such statements as foreign interference. In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a daily briefing that “Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs, and no foreign country has the right to intervene.”

Associated Press journalists Raf Wober, Alice Fung, Johnson Lai and Dake Kang in Hong Kong and Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.

The Latest: Police Begin Clearing Hong Kong Legislature

A protester holds a black flag to symbolize mourning for Hong Kong during a protest in Hong Kong on Monday, July 1, 2019. Protesters in Hong Kong pushed barriers and dumpsters into the streets early Monday morning in an apparent bid to block access to a symbolically important ceremony marking the anniversary of the return of the former British colony to China. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HONG KONG (AP) — The Latest on protests on the anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China (all times local):

12:05 a.m.

Police have begun advancing on Hong Kong’s legislature building to clear protesters who broke into it and vandalized offices and the main chamber.

An AP journalist said he could feel tear gas Monday night as he and other media left the building with protesters.

The crackdown began around midnight.

Police earlier announced they would begin clearing the building and warned they would use appropriate force if they encountered resistance.

Hundreds of protesters broke into the building at about 9 p.m. and spray-painted slogans on the walls of the main chamber.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of others marched through the city to demand expanded democracy on the 22nd anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China.

10:45 p.m.

Hong Kong police have announced that they plan to clear Hong Kong’s legislative building after it was taken over by a group of protesters.

Police said in an announcement on Facebook on Monday night that they would clear the area in a short period of time, and warned they would use appropriate force if they encounter resistance.

They asked unrelated protesters to leave the area around the building as soon as possible.

Hundreds of protesters broke into the building at about 9 p.m. and spray-painted slogans on the walls of the main chamber.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of others marched through the city to demand expanded democracy on the 22nd anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China.

The protesters’ demands include the withdrawal of an extradition bill and the resignation of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam.

9:45 p.m.

A group of protesters in Hong Kong has taken over the legislative chamber, spray painting slogans on the wall and over the territory’s emblem.

Some stood on the desks of lawmakers Monday night while others climbed up to leave their messages on the soaring wooden wall.

Police appear to have retreated to avoid a confrontation, giving the protesters the run of the building.

They smashed and tore down portraits of legislative leaders after prying open metal gates to gain access.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of others marched through the city to demand expanded democracy on the 22nd anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China.

The protesters say the Hong Kong government is not responding to their demands for a full withdrawal of contentious extradition legislation and the resignation of city leader Carrie Lam.

9 p.m.

A group of protesters in Hong Kong has swarmed into the legislature building after breaking windows and prying open metal security curtains.

Police appeared to back off Monday night as the protesters came in, apparently to avoid a confrontation.

Hong Kong Cable TV showed the helmeted protesters walk through a security checkpoint and continue to smash through metal doors to try to go deeper into the building.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of others marched through the city to demand expanded democracy on the 22nd anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China.

The protesters say the Hong Kong government is not responding to their demands for a full withdrawal of contentious extradition legislation and the resignation of city leader Carrie Lam.

Lam said earlier Monday that she would do a better job of listening to the voices of young people, but she has resisted calls to step down.

6:35 p.m.

A group of protesters in Hong Kong has torn down part of glass and metal exterior wall of the legislature building.

Hong Kong Cable TV showed live video Monday of them pulling off long strips of metal framework from the wall and carrying them away.

Earlier, the mostly young protesters hacked away repeatedly at the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, shattering them until they collapsed.

The protesters say the Hong Kong government is not responding to their demands for a full withdrawal of contentious extradition legislation and the resignation of city leader Carrie Lam.

Lam said earlier Monday that she would do a better job of listening to the voices of young people, but she has resisted calls to step down.

6 p.m.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton says Washington expects China to adhere to its international obligations when it comes to handling matters related to the semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong.

Bolton’s comments during a brief visit to Mongolia on Monday came as thousands of Hong Kong residents filled city streets in an annual show of defiance against the Beijing-backed government. Marchers were energized by an ongoing controversy over now-suspended legislation that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland Chinese courts.

The U.S. expects “China like every other country to adhere to its international obligations,” Bolton said.

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a daily briefing that “Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs, and no foreign country has the right to intervene.”

5:45 p.m.

Protesters are making a second attempt to smash through windows at Hong Kong’s legislative building.

A clanging sound could be heard late Monday afternoon as they banged repeatedly on the windows.

Earlier in the day, protesters smashed the bottom of a floor-to-ceiling window before police repelled them with pepper spray.

Television footage showed police waiting with gas masks on, but it was unclear if they would deploy the gas.

The protesters say the government isn’t responding to their demands for a formal withdrawal of an extradition bill that has been suspended and the resignation of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam.

5:15 p.m.

Chris Patten, who served as Hong Kong’s final governor while it was a British colony, says the UK must take a “much firmer line” against China amid fears it is increasing its influence in Hong Kong.

Patten, speaking Monday on the 22nd anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China, warned that Chinese leaders have been “strengthening their grip” on the semi-autonomous territory.

He said the British government has not been tough enough over China’s treatment of the Sino-British joint declaration of 1984 for Hong Kong’s autonomy.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt used Monday’s anniversary to affirm Britain’s support for the “one country, two systems” relationship between Hong Kong and China.

3:50 p.m.

Organizers of a protest march in central Hong Kong have changed the ending point because of an ongoing protest by a smaller group trying to smash its way into the city’s legislative building.

The Civil Human Rights Front said Monday that the march would go to an area nearby instead of to the legislature. Police asked the organizers to stop the march at an earlier point, but the organizers refused.

The announcement came shortly before thousands of people set out from Victoria Park on a march down main roads. They are demanding that a proposed extradition law be withdrawn and that Hong Kong’s leader step down.

The annual march is held on the anniversary of Great Britain’s return of Hong Kong to China in 1997.

3 p.m.

Police are warning combative protesters to stop trying to break into the Hong Kong legislative building.

With a crowd of a hundred or more people around them, a group of eight to 10 people repeatedly rammed a shopping cart and poles into a glass panel. After they managed to get the cart wedged into the damaged panel, police grabbed the cart away from them. They also posted a sign saying to the protesters, stop charging before we use force.

The combative group tried to shield themselves with umbrellas, a tactic used in the past to ward off pepper spray.

The unexpected disruption stalled the start of an annual march Monday marking the anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China in 1997.

2:15 p.m.

Combative protesters are staging a protest outside the Hong Kong legislature as a crowd of thousands prepares to start a march in that direction.

The unexpected disruption stalled the start of the march Monday. The crowd has started filing out of Victoria Park around 2 p.m.

Police asked the marchers to change their route or cancel the march.

Both the combative protesters and the marchers are opposing a government attempt to change extradition laws to allow suspects to be sent to China to face trial. The proposal has increased fears of eroding freedoms in the territory that was returned to China in 1997.

11:45 a.m.

Protesters in Hong Kong are taking a break after a morning confrontation with police and ahead of a planned march in the afternoon.

Several hundred demonstrators sat or napped Monday in the shade of a covered outdoor plaza that has becoming their gathering point.

Police drove them back earlier in the day as they tried to force their way toward the venue for a ceremony to mark the 22nd anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997.

Many more people are expected to join the march against a proposal to allow suspects to be extradited to China to face charges.

A protester who gave only his first name, Jack, said “the rule of law is the last firewall between us and the Chinese Communist Party.”

9:30 a.m.

Hong Kong’s leader says a series of protests that have rocked her city have taught her that she needs to listen better to the youth and people in general.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam struck a conciliatory note Monday at a ceremony marking the 22nd anniversary of the return of the former British colony to China.

She said she has to remind herself all the time of the need to grasp public sentiments and ensure the government’s work is closer to the aspirations of the people.

Security guards pushed a pro-democracy lawmaker out of the room as she shouted at Lam to resign.

Lam has come under criticism for pushing legislation that many saw as eroding Hong Kong’s freedoms as a semi-autonomous territory of China.

9 a.m.

The Hong Kong government has marked the 22nd anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China, as police faced off with protesters outside the venue.

A flag-raising ceremony was held under high security Monday morning with police using riot shields to push back demonstrators who had blocked a nearby street.

Hong Kong leaders and guests watched the ceremony inside the city’s convention center instead of outside as they normally do. The government cited inclement weather after light rain earlier in the morning.

A march planned for Monday afternoon is expected to be larger than usual because of widespread opposition to recent government actions that have awakened broader fears that China is eroding Hong Kong’s freedoms.