Wednesday, January 08, 2020

HONG KONG PROTEST UPDATES

Hong Kong protests: China sacks top envoy after months of unrest


Wang Zhimin, former Director of the Central Government's Liaison OfficeImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionWang Zhimin served a little over two years as director of the liaison office

China has sacked the official in charge of relations with Hong Kong, Chinese state media reports.
Wang Zhimin was director of Beijing's liaison office for the territory.
The Xinhua news agency said Mr Wang had been replaced by Luo Huining, the Communist Party secretary for the northern province of Shanxi.
The sacking follows six months of often violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong that have tested Beijing's patience with top officials there.
Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, remains in office with the public support of the mainland leadership, despite being the face of a proposed bill which initially sparked unrest in March 2019.
The bill would have allowed for criminal suspects to be extradited from Hong Kong to mainland China, raising fears that the new law would be abused to detain dissidents and remove them from the territory.

Anti-government protesters sit after being detained during a demonstration on New Year's Day to call for better governance and democratic reforms in Hong Kong, January 1, 2020.Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionAnti-government protesters were detained on New Year's Day in Hong Kong

Hong Kong's protesters welcomed the new decade on Wednesday with a New Year's Day rally, which saw tens of thousands of people join a pro-democracy march. The gathering was largely peaceful, save for some small pockets of violence.
Police used water cannon to clear the Mong Kok market district and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters.
Some 40 parliamentarians and dignitaries from 18 countries sent an open letter to Ms Carrie Lam on New Year's Eve, urging her to "seek genuine ways forward out of this crisis by addressing the grievances of Hong Kong people".
Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997, when it was returned to Chinese control under the principle of "one country, two systems". While it is technically part of China, the territory has its own legal system and borders, and rights including freedom of assembly and free speech are protected.

Hong Kong's Lam promises to work closely with Beijing's new envoy

City's chief executive makes no mention of prolonged protests and pledges to return Hong Kong to 'right path'.

6 Jan 2020
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she hoped
 the territory would return to the 'right path', echoing 
comments made by China's top official in the city, 
Luo Huining, who was appointed at the weekend
 [Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters]
MORE ON HONG KONG PROTESTSWhy are people protesting in Hong Kong? | Start HereHong Kong's Lam promises to work closely with Beijing's new envoyTea and tear gas: Hong Kong's shops on the economic front lines'Return to right path': Beijing's new envoy tells Hong Kong
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that she would work closely with Beijing's top official in the territory to get the city back on "the right path" after more than six months of pro-democracy protests.

The appointment of a new head of the Chinese government's most important office in Hong Kong, Luo Huining, was unexpectedly announced at the weekend in a sign of Beijing's frustration with the latter's handling of the crisis.
More:
'Return to the right path', China official tells Hong Kong
Tea and tear gas: Struggling for business in a city under siege
Hong Kong's first rally of 2020 ends in clashes
The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region reports to China's State Council or cabinet, and is the main platform for Beijing to project its influence in the city.

"I would work closely with director Luo in the coming future, committing to 'one country, two systems', and the Basic Law, for Hong Kong to ... return to the right path," Lam said in her first news conference of the year, referring to the city's mini-constitution and system of governance.

Luo on Monday, in his first remarks since taking office, used the same language, saying he hoped the city would return to the right path.

Lam did not mention the protests in her opening remarks, which focused on health risks related to an outbreak of a respiratory virus in the city of Wuhan on the mainland.

Democracy protests resumed over the New Year after a
 lull during December; Chief Executive Carrie Lam says 
she hopes the territory will return to the 'right path'
 [File: Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

Authorities have identified 21 cases in Hong Kong, of which seven people have been released from hospital.

Broad support

Clashes between police and protesters intensified over the year-end holiday following an early-December lull in violence after an overwhelming win of the pro-democracy camp in city district council elections yielded no government concessions.

The protests in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which began over a now-dropped extradition bill, have evolved into a broader campaign for democracy with demands for universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into complaints of police brutality.

The police maintain they have acted with restraint.

Many people in Hong Kong are angered by what they see as Beijing's ever-tightening grip on the city which was promised a high degree of autonomy under a "one country, two systems" framework when it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Beijing denies interference and blames the West for heightening the unrest.

The protest movement is supported by 59 percent of city residents polled in a survey conducted for Reuters by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, while 57 percent of them wanted Lam to resign.


SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

Dozens held in Hong Kong after
violence at parallel trading march


Protests target mainlanders’ practice of bulk-buying goods to sell at profit in China

Agence France-Presse in Hong Kong
Sun 5 Jan 2020
 
Police pour water on a protester who was 
pepper-sprayed while being detained in 
Sheung Shui. 
Photograph: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

Petrol bombs have been thrown at a Hong Kong police station and dozens of people arrested after a march against parallel trading near the Chinese border.

The Democratic party said about 10,000 people marched peacefully in Sheung Shui district on Sunday, but violence erupted after police ordered protesters to disperse.

Several petrol bombs were thrown at Sheung Shui police station, about 1.5km (1 mile) from where the rally took place.

A pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong has been demanding greater freedoms from Beijing for nearly seven months.

The marchers were protesting against parallel trading, by which thousands of mainlanders cross the border every day to bulk-buy goods such as infant formula to sell at a profit in China.

There is significant resentment against the practice, which frequently leaves goods in short supply in border towns, and has driven up the price of commodities as well as shop rents.

Dino Chan, a Sheung Shui district councillor and one of the rally organisers, said: “If the police could spare one of the cars they drove here to handle the march to instead deal with the trading problem, we would not have to organise this protest.”

He said 42 people were arrested following the violence.


The anti-government protests have been blamed for helping plunge Hong Kong’s economy into recession for the first time in a decade.

The protests were triggered by a proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, but have morphed into a broader revolt for democratic freedoms.

On Sunday, the violence was not at the level seen during many previous protests, with police using pepper spray to disperse crowds but not teargas.

China and the Hong Kong administration have refused to bow to protesters’ demands, which include direct elections, an inquiry into alleged police misconduct and an amnesty for the nearly 7,000 people arrested so far.

HONG KONG

Tea and tear gas: Hong Kong's shops on the economic front line

As visitor numbers and retail sales figures plunge due to protests, some Hong Kong shop owners stand their ground.
by Caroline Malone 6 Jan 2020
Lo Bak Jun, owner of a well known tea house in Hong Kong,
 says business is the worst it has ever been for him, as
 violent pro-democracy protests show no sign of ending, 
driving tourists away [Caroline Malone/Al Jazeera]

MORE ON HONG KONG PROTESTSWhy are people protesting in Hong Kong? | Start HeretodayTea and tear gas: Hong Kong's shops on the economic front lines2 days ago'Return to right path': Beijing's new envoy tells Hong Kong2 days agoChina replaces Hong Kong liaison office head amid protests4 days ago

Hong Kong, China: Lo Bak Jun and his family have been running their successful tea house in Hong Kong for about three decades. He puts in approximately 70 hours a week, but despite the hard work, business is suffering.

"It's gotten worse since June this year. Business this year is the worst in 30 years for the shop," Lo told Al Jazeera.

Lo's parents started the Kam Yuen Tea House in the early 1990s when Hong Kong's economy was booming. But now, the city is in recession, tipped over the edge by more than six months of unrest and a protracted trade war between the United States and China.

Small businesses like his are on the financial front line, as tourists stay away and retail sales plunge.

He sells traditional and specialist Chinese teas such as Jasmine, Tieguanyin and Pu'er at the teahouse. He warmly welcomes customers, inviting them to sample different brews, and is happy to host regulars for hours who sip and chat.

"Some tourists will sit here all day and drink all the tea they are given."

In the past, at least one tour group would visit the shop a day. Now, days go past without a single foreign customer.

Government data shows Hong Kong visitor numbers were down 56 percent in November from a year earlier, after a 44 percent drop in October when tourism is usually thriving around China's national Golden Week holiday.

Lo misses his foreign customers but says he relies on locals for most of his business. For every 20 Hong Kong dollars ($2.57) spent by a tourist in his shop, a Hong Kong local would spend approximately 100 Hong Kong dollars ($12.85). "Hong Kong people love tea," says Lo.

Kam Yuen Tea House is in the bustling residential and commercial neighbourhood of Sai Ying Pun, west of Hong Kong's central business district.

Beijing's liaison office is on a parallel road nearby.

The area was the scene of some of the first provocative acts last year by protesters, who vandalised the Chinese emblem and threw eggs at the building. The police response was harsh, with liberal amounts of tear gas and mass arrests. It was the start of an escalation in violence that has seen protesters fighting and throwing petrol bombs while police use rubber bullets, bean bag rounds and even occasionally live gunfire to quell the unrest.

Lo says he had to close the shop twice when protesters passed by. But he is sympathetic. "The students are polite," he continues, "the government needs to do better."

It all started earlier in 2019, when the Hong Kong government tried to rush through a new extradition bill. People protested over concerns it would give Beijing a legal avenue for political persecution, but it also stoked deeper resentment over a lack of universal suffrage in Hong Kong.
Growing frustration, shrinking economy

There is also pent-up frustration over stagnating living standards in a city with some of the world's most expensive real estate, making Hong Kong one of the least affordable places to live on the planet.

The protests against the bill evolved early on into five key demands including the release of protesters arrested during early demonstrations, an independent investigation into harsh police action against protesters and the right to fully vote for legislators and the Chief Executive, the head of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Anti-government protests in Hong Kong over the last six months have frequently turned violent [January 5: Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

After a tumultuous six months, the extradition bill is out, but Chief Executive Carrie Lam remains in.

The unrest has resulted in economic losses amounting to about two percentage points of Hong Kong's gross domestic product (GDP) - the sum of all finished goods and services produced in an economy - according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan.

The economy entered its first recession since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. Recent official estimates showed the economy contracted by 3.2 percent in the third quarter.

As the government sees it: "Local social incidents dealt a very severe blow to an economy already weakened by a synchronised global economic slowdown and US-Mainland trade tensions."

Economists forecast the loss of tourism will have a significant impact on Hong Kong's annual GDP.

Iris Pang, Greater China economist with ING Wholesale Banking told Al Jazeera "The direct impact of loss of tourism should amount to three percent of GDP. Indirect damage is that the impact of unemployment and underemployment due to the loss of tourism activities will appear in GDP data gradually. These impacts include fall in local consumption."

ING forecasts that Hong Kong's GDP most likely contracted by 2.2 percent in 2019, and will shrink by a further 5.8 percent in 2020.

Chief Executive Lam and her embattled government have drip-fed a series of initiatives to support the economy. The latest for small and medium businesses is four billion Hong Kong dollars ($514m) in stimulus measures including subsidies on water and sewage bills, an instalment system for profits and salaries tax, and training programs.

There are about 340,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong, which employ approximately 1.3 million people - or 45 percent of the workforce - in the private sector. In a place known for ease of setting up a business, SMEs make up more than 98 percent of all business establishments.

The Trade and Development Council says government support is vital: "The new round of measures will help ease the cash flow of SMEs, which will help restore confidence in affected industries by enabling them to continue their business."

Hong Kong-based Shanghai Commercial Bank Head of Research Ryan Lam told Al Jazeera his analysis shows the government's measures could help boost Hong Kong's GDP by 0.2 percent. "It is meaningful, because SMEs are likely to spend funds instead of stashing them under the pillow during a recession."

But for small business owners, like Lo, the government subsidies are not making any difference, especially while there is no end in sight to the unrest: "The students have made demands, but the government is not doing anything about it. So it's not going to stop."

Tourists from near and far have frequented Lo Bak Jun's tea house in Hong Kong for 30 years [Caroline Malone/Al Jazeera]

Hong Kong's entire retail sector is feeling the pinch with data showing overall sales fell 23.6 percent in November compared with the same month in 2018. It was the tenth consecutive month of falling sales, and was only marginally better than the record 24.4 percent year-on-year plunge in October.

Hardest hit were sales of jewellery, watches, clocks, and valuable gifts, which plummeted by 43.5 percent in November; medicine and cosmetics sales slumped by 33.4 percent while clothing fell by 31.9 percent. Even food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco sales dropped by 11 percent.
'Chasing an elephant with a pop gun'

Enzio von Pfeil, economist and financial adviser with St James's Place Wealth Management in Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera the lack of government action to address social ills - expensive housing, income disparity, antiquated education and a lack of competition - is the real problem.

"Government measures are akin to chasing an elephant with a pop gun."

There is also the continued uncertainty with the US-China trade negotiations to consider.

"It's all going to be pretty gloomy. The structural forces of Hong Kong's domestic problems, the cyclical forces with worsening economic times, and random forces of Trump's political antics," Pfeil said, referring to the US president's negotiating tactics.

Kam Yuen Tea House, Hong Kong [Caroline Malone/Al Jazeera]

Tommy Wu, senior economist at Oxford Economics, told Al Jazeera: "Retail sales and tourist-related sectors are experiencing their worst performance in over a decade and will remain under huge strain as a result of the plunge in inbound tourism and weak domestic sentiment,"

"This will lead to a spike in unemployment in 2020," said Wu.

Back at Kam Yuen Tea House, Lo says he understands people just do not have the same spending power they used to have.

"If I had the money, I would leave Hong Kong." He adds: "Just kidding, I'm staying."

Lo may be staying but he is having to adjust to a new normal in Hong Kong that has made business and everyday life much harder.

"Everyone is heartbroken about Hong Kong, " he says. "I'm not even going to look at the news today."


SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
On world stage Trump loathed as much as Obama was loved, Pew survey shows
Kim Hjelmgaard
USA TODAY



They love him in Israel and India. In the Philippines. And Kenya. Oh, and in Nigeria.

The rest of the world? Not so much.

Confidence in President Donald Trump to do the right thing when it comes to world affairs remains broadly negative, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

The Washington-D.C.-based Pew's study, released Wednesday, found that among people it polled in 32 countries, just 29% expressed confidence in Trump. Sixty-four percent said they lacked confidence in the current White House occupant.

The figures stand in marked contrast to the final years of Barack Obama's presidency, when a median of 64% expressed confidence in Trump’s predecessor to direct America's role in the world in a positive manner.

Pew last conducted a survey of this kind in 2017.

The survey published Wednesday was conducted in the spring and summer of 2019, well before the Trump administration's slaying of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, an action that has brought fresh scrutiny to one of Trump's signature foreign-policy moves: exiting the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. It has led to increased tensions between Tehran and Washington.


Iran's assault was the most aggressive in decades: What happens next?

Pew noted that "observed shifts in foreign attitudes toward the U.S. and its leader" are sometimes "connected to U.S. policy or actions, as in the case of the Iraq War in 2003; sometimes they reflect domestic realities, such as the case of right-wing voters in Europe recently growing more favorable toward the U.S."


At home, Trump has an approval rating of roughly 45% and a disapproval rating of nearly 53%, with the remaining 2% not sure, according to an average of job approval polls published by RealClearPolitics, a website focused on political analysis.

Distaste for Trump was led by Europe, where approximately three-in-four people – 75% – in Germany, Sweden, France, Spain and the Netherlands lack confidence in Trump. Mexico, too, does not like him, where 89% do not have confidence in Trump.

Anti-Trump sentiment around the world was driven by his foreign policy actions, including increasing tariffs or fees on imported goods from other countries; withdrawing from the international climate change accord; and proposing to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. A majority of those polled also disapproved of Trump’s policies to allow fewer immigrants into the U.S. and his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear accord.

Trump's attempt to directly negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over that country's nuclear weapons program garnered the most support of all his various foreign policy actions across the 33 countries surveyed – although only a median of 41% of people approve of this action, compared with 36% who disapprove.

Pew, which describes itself as a non-partisan "fact tank" that does not itself take positions on policy decisions, tested the international popularity of four other world leaders in its survey: Germany's Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's President Xi Jinping.

Trump was more negatively viewed than all the leaders asked about in the survey.

In 12 countries, men are more likely than women to rate Trump positively. For example, 28% of men in Sweden have confidence in the president; just 8% of women do.

Still, overall global attitudes toward the U.S. remain largely favorable, although there are large differences across the 33 nations surveyed for that part of the study. Three Central and Eastern European nations – Poland (79 %), Lithuania (70%) and Hungary (66%) – had the most favorable opinion of the U.S.

Outside of the EU, Ukraine (73%) also scored high, although views about Trump were less favorable (46%). -- and Pew notes the survey in Ukraine was conducted prior to revelations last year about Trump's July 2019 phone call with the country's new president. In Russia, just 29% of those polled viewed America positively.

Israelis give the U.S. its highest rating on the survey (83% favorable). Elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, attitudes were more negative, especially the case in Turkey, where just one-in-five (20%) have a favorable opinion of the U.S., the lowest percentage registered in the survey.

The survey found that Trump was generally more popular among those on the political right in many of the nations that were polled. Trump's popularity in Israel (70%) partly reflects his decisions to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and to withdraw from the Iran nuclear accord.

Israel settlements:Donald Trump proves he's the 'King of Israel'



Puerto Rico residents sleeping outside as aftershocks rock region hit by deadly earthquake

By Leyla Santiago, Faith Karimi and Nicole Chavez, CNN
Updated 11:35 AM ET, Wed January 8, 2020


Guanica, Puerto Rico (CNN)Puerto Rico residents spent the night outside as aftershocks rocked the island following a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that knocked out power and water services in some areas.
The quake was the strongest and likely the most damaging of hundreds of temblors that have struck the island since December 28. It hit before dawn Tuesday, leaving a man dead and causing dozens of homes and structures to crumble.
It was centered off Puerto Rico's southern coast, 6 miles south of Indios. Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced declared a state of emergency and activated the Puerto Rico National Guard as she pleaded with residents to remain calm and prepare for aftershocks.


Shop owners and employees help clear the rubble of a collapsed hardware store in Guanica.
Terrified of sleeping indoors as aftershocks continue, neighbors put mattresses in their front yards while others spent the night Tuesday under white tents and tarps.

Riko Gonzalez and his parents were asleep in their home in Yauco, near Indios, when the quake struck. They scurried out of the house as dishes tumbled to the kitchen floor, he said.
Hundreds of aftershocks have hit the area in the past few days.


"People are afraid to go to bed, to then be woken up to worse earthquakes than the day before," Gonzalez said.

Water and power still an issue


Much of Puerto Rico is still without power Wednesday as engineers work to restore it in phases. About 500,000 customers are back on the grid, the Electric Energy Authority said in a tweet.
A system-wide power outage was reported after the Costa Sur power plant near Guayanilla suffered severe damage Tuesday, Vázquez Garced said.


The Costa Sur powerplant located in Valle Tallaboa, near Guayanilla, was damaged in the quakes.


"We lost the largest plant in the entire system," said Jose Ortiz, executive director of the Electric Power Authority.


Power has been restored in most hospitals, and crews are working to fully restore it by the weekend, Ortiz said. A nursing home in Ponce was evacuated and dozens of people in wheelchairs were waiting outside.


Other towns affected by earthquakes are Guanica and Yauco.

Classes have not resumed


Classes won't resume across the island until crews inspect all schools and confirm buildings are safe for students, education officials announced.


Jasmin Negron Lopez, 28, and her family take refuge at a coliseum in Guanica.
The Agripina Seda School in Guanica suffered major damage Tuesday, including a partially collapsed, three-story building.


"Classes in the public school system won't resume until a total evaluation of all campuses," Education Secretary Eligio Hernández Pérez tweeted, adding that teachers and staff won't return to the schools until further notice.

Damage worse than hurricane, official says


The earthquakes come after Hurricane Maria devastated the US territory in September 2017. Many in southern Puerto Rico said the earthquakes' damage was worse.
"There's no warnings for this," Puerto Rico Police Commissioner Henry Escalera said of the earthquakes. "A hurricane gives us time to plan ahead."


The quake wrecked the historic Inmaculada Concepcion Church in Guayanilla.
When asked what concerns him the most about the quakes' aftermath, he said, "That homes will not be safe to live in and the possibility of a collapse that will cause a person's death or serious injuries."


The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced aid has been made available to supplement local response efforts.


President Donald Trump's action authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts and provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures to save lives and protect property.

CNN's Leyla Santiago reported from Puerto Rico, and Nicole Chavez and Faith Karimi reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Angela Barajas contributed to this report.


'No power. No water. Nothing.' Deadly earthquake forces many Puerto Ricans to sleep outside
Ryan W. Miller
USA TODAY


Many Puerto Ricans slept outside and woke up to an island still largely without power Wednesday after a string of earthquakes rocked their home in recent days.

The worst quake – a magnitude 6.4 that struck early Tuesday – killed at least one person, injured at least nine others and caused the power outage that has left about half a million people in the U.S. territory without electricity as of Wednesday.

Hundreds of buildings have also been damaged or are close to crumbling, forcing people to pull their beds into the streets in fear that an aftershock could flatten their homes.

"There's no power. There's no water. There is nothing. This is horrible," 80-year-old Lupita Martínez told the Associated Press as she sat in a parking lot with her husband.

According to the U.S. Geologic Survey, there have been more than 950 earthquakes and aftershocks recorded in the area as of Tuesday night since Dec. 31, though many were weak and could not be felt.

U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Tuesday aid had been made available to help the recovery efforts after President Donald Trump signed an emergency declaration.

"All of Puerto Rico has seen the devastation of this earthquake," Gov. Wanda Vázquez told Reuters. Vázquez took office in August in the wake of massive protests and scandal that led Ricardo Rosselló to step down.

Image

Vázquez also declared an emergency and mobilized the national guard as more than 1,000 people were in government shelters in the southwest of the island.

Guánica, among the worst hit towns in the southwest, had to move about 200 people outside a shelter after quakes threatened the structure. They had been staying there because previous earthquakes damaged their homes.

"We are confronting a crisis worse than Hurricane Maria," said Guánica Mayor Santos Seda about the town of 1,500 people.

Nearly 700 homes are close to collapsing and about 150 have already been affected, he said.

"I am asking for empathy from the federal government," he added.

The powerful earthquake Tuesday was the strongest the island has seen in more than a century and comes as many areas are still recovering from the devastation of the deadly Hurricane Maria in 2017, which killed thousands.

Earthquake:What Puerto Rico tourists need to know

Many were critical of the federal government's response to Hurricane Maria, saying more could have been done to aid the recovery efforts.

Schools were still closed Wednesday and most government employees were told to stay home from work. According to Reuters, power should return to much of the island within the next day or two, barring no other large aftershocks or quakes.

The quakes have also destroyed a popular tourist landmark, Punta Ventana, a coastal rock formation that had formed a sort of rounded window. The Puerto Rico Tourism Company confirmed that two other sites, Cueva Ventana and Ruinas del Faro, also suffered irreparable damage.

Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller

25 PHOTOS SHOW 

https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/nation/2020/01/07/puerto-rico-earthquakes-cause-heavy-damage-and-knock-out-power/2830812001/

Many residents afraid to go indoors after Puerto Rico's strongest earthquake since 1918

A day after Puerto Rico's most powerful earthquake in more than a century, scientists warn it's impossible to predict when the tremors will stop. The 6.4 magnitude quake, Puerto Rico's strongest since 1918, leveled buildings and killed at least one man in the southern part of the island early Tuesday morning, leaving more than 300 people homeless.
There have been nearly 1,000 tremors in roughly the last week alone and a state of emergency is now in effect. It's just the latest blow to a community that is still feeling the lasting devastation of Hurricane Maria.
In Guanica, signs of the earthquake are everywhere. There are downed power lines, buildings reduced to rubble, and cars crushed beneath crumbled foundations. In some areas, it looks like a bomb went off.


Puerto Rico Earthquake
Cars are crushed under a home that collapsed after an earthquake hit Guanica, Puerto Rico, Monday, Jan. 6, 2020.   CARLOS GIUSTI / AP

First responders handed out water, provided medical care, and dispersed cots for hundreds of displaced residents as they prepared to settle in for the night.
Correspondent David Begnaud said there are people who feel safer outside than they do in their own homes because they've been dealing with earthquakes, as one woman said, seemingly almost every hour for the last seven days.
"[I've] never seen anything like this," Felix Rodriguez said. "Never."
Rodriguez kept watch over his elderly neighbor Tuesday night. Elsewhere, Rosalie Torres kept her children, 2 and 5 years old, close.
"We woke up. We'd been thrown around. Everything was shaking back and forth, back and forth. Everybody [kept] falling back down," Torres said.
"Boom, and then it started shaking, everybody started screaming, running, people on the floor," Torres' mother-in-law Noelia DeJesus said.
DeJesus told correspondent David Begnaud the family had just finished fixing the damage to their home inflicted by Hurricane Maria. Now, they'll be forced to start over again.
"Really, we don't have no place to stay because our house collapsed," DeJesus said. "I lost everything."
Puerto Rico's governor Wanda Vázquez Garced said Tuesday there was no way to prepare for the earthquake and warned families to evacuate because property can be replaced, but lives cannot.
The earthquake also destroyed a famous Puerto Rican landmark and natural wonder: The Punta Ventana arch.



Meanwhile, the Trump administration is monitoring the situation in Puerto Rico, and has authorized FEMA to coordinate relief efforts.



THE MEDIA ARE IGNORING ANDREW YANG | OPINION
JULIE HOLLAR ON 1/7/20 

VIDEO
02:58
Sixth 2020 Democratic Debate Highlights

The Democratic primary field may be narrowing, but Andrew Yang still can't get the media's attention. According to The New York Times, which breaks down the debates by speaking minutes, Yang, polling at fifth of the seven participating candidates, with an average of 3.5 percent, came in last in the December debate at 10 minutes, 56 seconds; that's nearly a minute less than Tom Steyer (polling at 1.5 percent) and far below centrism poster child Amy Klobuchar, who is neck-and-neck with Yang in polls but clocked a whopping 19 minutes and 53 seconds.

It's part of a pattern for Yang. In the November debate, he also came in dead last on speaking minutes, at 6:48, despite polling higher than fellow debaters Klobuchar, Steyer, Tulsi Gabbard and Cory Booker. He also had the fewest minutes in the September and June debates. Business Insider found that Yang has consistently received less speaking time at the debates than one would expect, given his polling numbers.

By FAIR's count, he's been given 37 prompts across the six debates; Klobuchar—who has consistently polled below Yang for months, though her numbers have risen slightly to match his in recent weeks—has gotten 54. Booker and Beto O'Rourke, who didn't even appear in all six debates and have polled at or below Yang's levels since September, received 43 and 36, respectively.
An analysis by the national media watch group FAIR shows that Andrew Yang consistently got less speaking time in debates than fellow candidate Amy Klobuchar.COURTESY OF FAIR.ORG

Yang's campaign focus is on a universal basic income of $1,000 a month, and his background is in business; perhaps as a result, a disproportionate number (10) of the questions he's been asked relate to economic issues. The other topic he's gotten a disproportionate number of questions on? China. With three China-related questions aimed at (U.S.-born) Yang, only Pete Buttigieg (with 63 total prompts) has gotten to speak about the subject as much.

But given the lack of overall questions directed to him, Yang has been largely missing from the conversation on health care, one of the issues given the most attention in the debates; he has been asked only three of the 127 questions on the topic. (More questions about his position on health care would be quite useful; Yang says his plan embraces the "spirit of Medicare for All," though his plan does not involve everyone getting Medicare, or even being offered a public option. Of 71 questions related to governance (things like impeachment, bipartisanship and money in politics), Yang has gotten two. Guns have accounted for 39 of the debate questions; none went to Yang.

As others have documented, Yang's media woes extend beyond the debates. Yang has been repeatedly left out of MSNBC and CNN on-screen graphics showing the Democratic candidate lineup; MSNBC once even misidentified him as "John Yang." Yang briefly boycotted MSNBC, demanding an on-air apology for its sleights. (He ended his boycott, without the on-air apology, on Chris Hayes' show in December.)

In the last six months, Yang has been mentioned 98 times on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN; Klobuchar has gotten 149 mentions. (MSNBC was omitted from FAIR's search because of Yang's one-month boycott.)

It's possible that some of the discrepancy between Klobuchar and Yang's speaking time in the debates could in part be due to how often other candidates referenced them (which, by debate rules, generally gives the named party the right to respond), or how aggressively they vie for the moderators' attention, or push past allotted time limits. (For the record, a review of the December debate didn't turn up instances where Klobuchar was given a chance to respond to being invoked by another candidate, though several prompts noted that she had her hand up.) But it's the moderators' job to provide a fair playing field—which they are obviously failing at here.

CNN's Chris Cillizza acknowledged that Yang "should be getting more attention" from media, but made sure to get in some digs at Yang's supporters who had called out that lack of coverage: "What it's not is some sort of widespread media conspiracy out to get Yang. (Sorry Yang Gang!)"

Cillizza blamed Yang's being an "outsider" (which meant that "at the start of the race no one—including reporters—had any sense of who he was"), that his ideas are "radically different...and different poses challenges to a media used to covering a political race via a certain set of established guidelines," and that Yang is like erstwhile Republican candidate Ron Paul, who "could never grow his support beyond that dedicated core."

Cillizza's arguments seem to depict journalists as quite an intellectually challenged crew. In reality, it's not that they can't work to get a sense of a new candidate or to cover "radical" political ideas; it's that the news organizations they work for give them no incentive to—no conspiracy necessary, just an unhealthy bias toward the political establishment. Witness: A search of all CNN transcripts after Cillizza's September 4 mea culpa found not a single instance of Cillizza mentioning Yang's name on the air.
Democratic presidential candidates away the start of the 
Democratic presidential primary debate on December 19,
 2019, in Los Angeles.MARIO TAMA/GETTY

Echoing Cillizza's third point, New York magazine's Ed Kilgore suggested journalists may be ignoring Yang because he has "no plausible path to the Democratic nomination," given that his support mainly lies among millennials and Asian Americans, and that if he had a breakout debate performance "his media coverage will skyrocket." How Yang might be expected to have a breakout debate when the moderators keep him on the sidelines isn't clear.

But the idea of a candidate having "no plausible path" to victory is a self-fulfilling prophecy: Journalists decide a candidate can't win, so they don't give the candidate coverage, which means the candidate can't reach voters, influence the political discussion and rise in the polls. The whole point of the primaries is to let voters get to know the candidates and decide for themselves who is electable—the last thing people need is journalists narrowing the field for them.

Yang himself suggested recently that his race may have something to do with the lack of coverage, "in the sense that my candidacy seems very new and different to various media organizations." It's a perspective shared by author Marie Myung-Ok Lee, who wrote in a Los Angeles Times op-ed:

"There is no way to prove these omissions are related to Yang's being Asian, but it's impossible to miss the similarities with the micro (and macro) aggressions people in the Asian-American community experience daily."

Media observers have lamented the decreasing diversity of the Democratic debates, as Yang was the only candidate of color in the December debate. But their treatment of Yang, both in the debates and in the coverage, indicates little real interest in confronting media's role in that.

Julie Hollar is senior analyst for FAIR's Election Focus 2020 project. She was managing editor of FAIR's magazine, Extra!, from 2008 to 2014.

This piece originally appeared on FAIR.org. Republished with permission.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
ANDREW YANG SUGGESTS GIVING AMERICANS 'A TINY SLICE' OF AMAZON SALES, GOOGLE SEARCHES, FACEBOOK ADS AND MORE

BY BENJAMIN FEARNOW ON 12/24/19 

Tech entrepreneur and Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang touted the benefits of a "trickle-up economy" that allows average Americans the ability to reinvest and spend a tiny portion of the profits pulled in by corporations such as Amazon and Google.

Yang's 2020 campaign has long focused on the "challenges of the 21st Century economy" and how to cope with automation displacing human workers. Speaking with CNN Tuesday, the lawyer-turned-tech businessman again touted the benefits of taxing multibillion-dollar corporations such as Amazon—which now pay zero dollars in federal taxes—to put some of that money in the hands of regular Americans. Yang said that companies benefiting from artificial intelligence could easily put in place a system to redirect that money down to people who will spend it on everyday, local economic necessities.

.@AndrewYang: "If we put a mechanism in place where we get our fair share, a tiny of slice of every Amazon sale, every Google search, every Facebook ad, and eventually every robot truck mile and AI work unit, we can generate hundreds of billions of dollars off the bat." pic.twitter.com/PxLPARrA26
— The Hill (@thehill) December 24, 2019

"If we put a mechanism in place where we get our fair share, a tiny of slice of every Amazon sale, every Google search, every Facebook ad, and eventually every robot truck mile and AI work unit, we can generate hundreds of billions of dollars off the bat," Yang told CNN.

"And that number has a big 'up arrow' attached to it and then when we put this money into Americans' hands where does the money go? It goes right back into the local economy to car repairs and little league sign-ups and daycare expenses—this is a trickle-up economy," Yang added in the CNN segment called "Democrats vs. The Economy."

Yang's "trickle-up" economic platform has caught on among Democratic voters as he has flipped the long-held Republican Party concept of creating more jobs in a way critics say comes at the expense of workers' happiness and well-being. Speaking at a CNN Town Hall in April, Yang said, "We have to instead think about how we can make Americans prosperous through this time. The goal should not be to save jobs. The goal should be to make our lives better."

Yang followed up those comments in an April PBS News Hour segment in which he again targeted Silicon Valley companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google which are replacing humans with AI while simultaneously paying few, if any, taxes. Yang has previously touted how a value-added tax (VAT) on these Silicon Valley companies would not be "regressive" and would instead help increase the buying power of the bottom 90 percent of Americans -- the same people whose data is collected and sold by such tech giants.

"Right now, the biggest winners from artificial intelligence and new technology, Amazon and the biggest tech companies, are right now paying zero in taxes which is the case with Amazon, so we need to wake up to the challenges of the 21st Century economy and get more buying power in the hands of Americans, but also make sure our biggest companies are not benefiting without paying their fair share." Yang told PBS News Hour in April.



"The economy needs to work for everyone," Yang added.
Andrew Yang touted the benefits of a "trickle-up economy" 
that allows average Americans the ability to reinvest and 
spend a tiny portion of the profits pulled in by corporations 
like Amazon and Google.
JUSTIN SULLIVAN / STAFF/GETTY IMAGES