Colin Wong has come to know the sting of pepper spray well. After more than a month of demonstrations in Hong Kong's sweltering heat, memories of the burning sensation are a constant reminder of what protesters call an excessive use of force by police. Each ...
Blasting Trump as affront, candidate Joe Biden pledges global summit on democracy
Denouncing President Donald Trump as an affront to American values, Democratic candidate Joe Biden vowed Thursday that if elected he would hold a summit aimed at halting a backslide in global democracy. The former vice president, who leads early polls for the Democratic nomination to ...
Hong Kong on Tuesday began picking up after historic protests left the legislature ransacked, the streets littered with spent tear gas canisters and the city's Beijing-backed leader promising to push back against further unrest. Chief Executive Carrie Lam used a dramatic 4 a.m. news conference ...
Hong Kong protests may give Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen electoral boost
Recent anti-government protests in Hong Kong are echoing in Taiwan, possibly giving the Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen a lift in her campaign to resist Beijing's pressure for political unification and win a second term in next year's elections. The demonstrations sparked by Hong Kong Chief ...
Hong Kongers fearful of China's grasp look longingly toward 'democratic beacon' Taiwan
For Hong Kong resident Yung Xiu Kwan, 67, a proposed extradition law that would allow people in the former British colony to be sent to mainland China for trial was the final straw. Yung is packing her bags and leaving the China-ruled city to set ...
Hong Kong, fearful for its own future, remembers Tiananmen crackdown
Large crowds turned out for a mass candlelight vigil in Hong Kong on Tuesday evening marking 30 years since China's bloody Tiananmen crackdown, a gathering tinged with symbolism as the city struggles to preserve its own cherished freedoms. The eye-catching spectacle — in which thousands ...
Sudan's military rulers faced heavy pressure from protesters and Western governments to hand power to a new civilian government Monday as a mass protest outside army headquarters entered its 10th day. Thousands remained camped outside the complex in Khartoum overnight after protest leaders issued demands ...
Are democratic principles at risk of being undermined?
Is democracy dying? Certainly authoritarianism is rising. A generation ago, it was the opposite — authoritarianism seemed moribund, democracy on the cusp of new life. Sekai magazine (April) sums up the gloomier mood now gaining ground. "We cannot," it says, "take democracy for granted." This ...
Democracy in a self-contradictory trap
Bellwether for stumbling African democracy: Nigeria goes to the polls
When Nigerians go to the polls on Saturday, there'll be much more at stake than the presidency and seats in the parliament of Africa's most populous nation. Democracy is on the back foot in Africa, and a credible and widely accepted outcome will go some ...
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen warned against interference in the country's affairs Tuesday, his first comments since the European Union launched steps to cancel trade benefits that would hammer the local garment industry. The bloc announced Monday it would begin a process of intensive monitoring ...
Czechs mark 50 years since Jan Palach's fatal fiery protest against the crushing of Prague Spring
Czechs marked the 50th anniversary on Wednesday of student Jan Palach setting himself on fire in central Prague in a desperate act aimed at lifting the apathy hanging over the country in the wake of the Soviet invasion that crushed the Prague Spring of ...
