Hong Kong protesters are worried about facial recognition technology, but there are many other ways they’re being watched
This weekend, a wave of protesters took to the streets in Hong Kong, in open defiance of a police ban. Impressively, the demonstrations have sustained momentum for more than two months.
Since the protests started over a controversial extradition bill, participants have covered their faces, smashed closed-circuit television cameras, and communicated over encrypted apps to conceal their identities.
But now that the protests have grown into a wider resistance movement, with police expanding their tactics and nearly 750 people arrested, protesters are increasingly paranoid about how the authorities are working to identify them.
China is one of the most powerful authoritarian countries — its citizens are already heavily surveilled, often using facial recognition. With the government becoming more aggressive toward protesters, we took a close look at how China is tracking the Hong Kong protesters, beyond facial recognition.
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Six months before the release of the live-action remake of Mulan, the movie is already subject to boycott calls — its Chinese American star, Liu Yifei, posted in support of the authorities' crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
His wife died in the El Paso shooting and he has no other family, so hundreds showed up at the funeral
Antonio Basco has no other family. Last week, he issued an open invitation for his wife Margie Reckard’s services. Reckard was one of 22 people who were killed in the Aug. 3rd mass shooting in El Paso.
On Friday night, moved by Basco’s invitation, hundreds of people showed up. The line of mourners wrapped around the nearby streets, and thousands of flowers were delivered.
Those who came out wanted to let Basco know he wasn't alone in his grief and that he did indeed have a family in El Paso. They also came to heal together after a horror that shook their community.
As Basco looked out onto the crowd, he said: “I'm not alone. I thought I wanted to be alone, but I don't want to be.”
SNAPSHOTS
Boris Johnson will meet with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron next week to discuss Brexit. Macron and Merkel will be hoping that Johnson will come prepared with ideas on how he intends to avoid a no-deal Brexit. The UK prime minister has pledged to leave the European Union on Oct. 31, with or without a Brexit deal.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to legalize firing workers just for being transgender. A brief filed by the Justice Department says federal law offers no protection to transgender workers who endure discrimination because of their gender identity.
A man wanted on child sex assault charges disappeared three years ago — and police just found him in a solar-powered bunker. Jeremiah Button had been living since 2016 off trash in a hideout, complete with solar energy and a well. When people saw him, he pretended he was a hiker. Authorities say he built the bunker while he was out on bond and awaiting trial in 2016.
Noah Centineo said goodbye to his character Peter Kavinsky, and hearts are breaking everywhere. The second installment of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before will be released around Valentine’s Day, and while Lara Jean will go on, it’s the end of the road for Kavinsky. Centineo celebrated playing Kavinsky, and fans are in mourning.
Iceland held a funeral for its first glacier lost to climate change and left a warning sign
The once-iconic Okjökull glacier was declared dead in 2014, an icy victim as the world warms at an unprecedented rate.
On Sunday, officials and researchers gathered at the site of the country’s first glacier lost to climate change. It will likely not be the last.
Dozens of people, including Iceland's prime minister and other leaders, hiked to the site to install a plaque that carries a message to the future and memorialize the frozen body that once spanned 15 square miles but has since melted into a lake.
The funeral comes just days after scientists confirmed July was the Earth's warmest month ever recorded.
This 17-year-old’s insanely viral TikTok is taking over the internet
Once in a generation, a viral video comes along that changes everything. Since I’m not in the future, I don’t yet know how the universe will be altered by this TikTok, but I assure you it will be.
Jade Taylor-Ryan, a 17-year-old Canadian high school student, made a silly and perfect video, moving her cat as the 1954 song “Mr. Sandman” plays. The result is a video we can all get behind — and the internet has, as it spurred thousands of comments and so many recreations.
I just strongly think you should start your day with this.