UK condemns Hong Kong cash offer for help in arresting activists

A demonstrator holds a flag during a protest supporting the 45 pro-democracy activists sentenced to jail by Hong Kong's High Court, outside the Chinese Embassy in London last November

China has denounced as "interference" criticism over this type of appeal, which it has made three times previously .

People are being offered between $25,000 (HK$200,000) and $125,000 for information leading to the arrest of 19 individuals, all of whom are pro-democracy activists living abroad.

In a joint statement, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the move as "another example of transnational repression".

The UK has condemned the latest cash offer from Hong Kong authorities for people who help in the arrest of pro-democracy activists living in Britain.

The 19 people are accused of violating Beijing's national security law imposed in 2020 in response to the 2019 anti-government protests that rocked the city for months.

The amounts on offer vary depending on the individual. Among the highest offers on the list are those for Choi Ming-da and Fok Ka-chi, who Hong Kong police said operated a social media channel named "Tuesdayroad". Politician Nathan Law – who had been a lawmaker on the Legislative Council of Hong Kong – and activist and commentator Yuan Gong-Yi also appear on the lists.

The first such rewards were issued in July and December 2023. They targeted Nathan Law - who told the BBC that his life became more dangerous after a bounty was announced - and Simon Cheng, a former UK consulate employee detained in 2019 in a high-profile case.

The third series of rewards targeted six pro-democracy activists living in the UK and Canada, including Tony Chung, the former leader of a pro-independence group.

A special visa scheme introduced in 2021 saw around 150,000 Hong Kong residents move to the UK, according to the Home Office.

In November last year a Hong Kong court sentenced dozens of pro-democracy leaders to years in jail for subversion, following a controversial national security trial.

In their statement in response to the latest bounty, Ms Cooper and Mr Lammy said "this government will continue to stand with the people of Hong Kong, including those who have made the UK their home. We take the protection of their rights, freedoms, and safety very seriously."

Their joint statement added: "The UK is committed to human rights, the rule of law, and the safety of all individuals in the UK. That's why we have taken further steps to complete the severing of ties between the UK and Hong Kong extradition systems by removing Hong Kong from the Extradition Act 2003."

Cambodia calls for immediate ceasefire with Thailand as death toll rises

5 hours ago Share Save Jaroslav Lukiv BBC News Share Save

AFP via Getty Images Thailand's soldiers move in armoured vehicles

Cambodia has called for an "immediate" ceasefire with Thailand, as the two countries have seen more than 30 people killed, including civilians, in the ongoing border clashes. Cambodia's ambassador to the UN, Chhea Keo, said his country asked for a truce "unconditionally", adding that Phnom Penh also wanted a "peaceful solution of the dispute". Thailand has not publicly commented on the proposal, while rejecting third-party mediation. It earlier declared martial law in eight districts bordering Cambodia. At least 32 people - soldiers and civilians - have been killed and nearly 200,000 displaced in the two Southeast Asian countries, who accuse each other of firing the first shots on Thursday.

On Saturday, Thailand's military said the Cambodians launched attacks in a new area near the coast in the south, but were pushed back by the navy. Earlier, Thailand reported fighting in its Surin, Ubon Ratchathani and Srisaket provinces, along the border with Cambodia.

Officials in Bangkok said 19 people - 13 civilians and six soldiers - have been killed in the country since Thursday. Nearly 140,000 people have been evacuated, Thai officials added. Cambodia's defence ministry has reported 13 killed - eight civilians and five soldiers. It said more than 35,000 people have fled their homes. Thailand's acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai on Friday warned that the clashes could "move towards war". He said the fighting now included heavy weapons and had spread to 12 locations along the border. Thailand also accused Cambodia of firing into civilian areas and evacuated all villages deemed to be within the radius of its rockets. Cambodia, for its part, accused Thailand of using cluster munitions. Cluster munitions are banned in much of the world because of their indiscriminate effect on civilian populations. Thailand has not responded to the allegations.

Tee time with Trump - striking balls and deals over 18 holes

4 hours ago Share Save Anthony Zurcher North America correspondent Share Save

EPA Trump at his National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia

Mick Mulvaney thought he had beaten Donald Trump. The president and his White House chief of staff were playing golf at Trump's Bedminster club in 2019, and Mulvaney was up by one stroke with three holes left. "I slapped him on the shoulder and joked with him, 'I got you today, old man,'" Mulvaney told the BBC. "He looked at me, half smiled, half-sneered and just laughed." The president birdied two of the next three holes and beat Mulvaney by two. Mulvaney, who worked in Trump's White House for three years in his first term, says he played golf with, or in the group just behind, the president around 40 times and never beat the man 21 years his elder. "Just soul-crushing" is how he described it. Golf has been a popular activity for many modern American presidents, but none has had quite the same relationship with the sport as Trump, who is in Scotland this weekend for the opening of a new Trump course near Balmedie in Aberdeenshire. For presidents like Barack Obama and George W Bush, golf seemed to serve as a diversion from the burdens of office. For the current president, however, golf is a business venture, a networking opportunity and – as Mulvaney recounts - a fiercely competitive undertaking. On the fairways and greens, he says, the president is focused on the game and has little tolerance for poor shots or slow play. "In fact, if you are slow," Mulvaney said, "you aren't going to get invited back and might get left behind on the course."

PA Trump at his course in Ayrshire, UK, in 2023

British golf journalist Kevin Brown experienced that first-hand when he played with Trump on his Balmedie course in 2012. He said he was taking in the scenery on the second hole, when one of the other players in his foursome told him that Trump had asked if he could "get a move on". "He was more focused, head down, motoring on ahead of us," Brown said. "Most of the time, he was just playing his own game and obviously thinking about stuff he had to do." After the round, however, Brown spoke to Trump for nearly an hour about his connection to golf. He said the future president's passion was clear. "He's nuts about golf," he said. "He knew the background and history of the game. It was impressive." Trump, a real-estate developer turned politician, has played golf since his college days and bought his first golf property, Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach Florida, in 1999. Trump Golf currently owns 11 courses in the US and three in the UK, manages several others and has plans for new resorts in Oman, Indonesia, Vietnam and Qatar. Golf clubs are a prized possession for Trump – and not always a profit-making one. According to filings with the British government, Trump's Balmedie course lost $1.83m (£1.35m) in 2023 – its 11th-straight year running a deficit. Turnberry, on the other hand, reported about $5m in profit. Trump has at times clashed with local authorities over land use and sought to restrict construction of wind turbines off the coast of his Balmedie property. While his US courses have hosted major professional tournaments, he has long wanted Turnberry, which he will visit this weekend, to be the site of a future British Open Championship. The historic course has hosted four of the prestigious competitions, but none since Trump purchased the property in 2014.

PA Trump with Rupert Murdoch at Trump's golf course in Aberdeen in 2016

According to Brown, Trump is drawn to high-profile golf properties because of the prestige they provide. "He just likes the quality and the pedigree," he said. "It's about attracting the right people – i.e. filthy rich businessmen with pretty deep pockets." A single round of golf at Turnberry, for instance, costs around $1,350. Golf has long been an avocation enjoyed by the elite, where the wealthy and the powerful could conduct business and make connections in an exclusive – and, until recently in many cases exclusively white and male – environment. For businessman Trump, it was a pathway to the kind of connections helpful to building his real estate empire. It has offered him a means to connect with American politicians and foreign leaders – even if he did promise in 2016 that he was "not going to have time to play golf" if he was ever voted into White House. Early in his first presidential term, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gifted Trump a golden golf club. The two would later play five rounds together – forging a friendship that lasted until Abe was assassinated in 2022. Trump's regular golf partners have included close political allies, like South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and Republicans with whom he sought to forge new connections, such as 2016 presidential rival Rand Paul of Kentucky. "He's a little better golfer than I am, admittedly, but we had a good time," Paul said after a 2017 round with the president, adding that the two mostly focused on golf – but also discussed Trump's tax policies.

Getty Images Trump with Abe at Mobara Country Club in Japan in 2019

In March of this year, Trump golfed with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in West Palm Beach, partnering in a club tournament Trump said the two men won. Stubb would later say that they talked about the war in Ukraine, Russia and global security. "In Finnish history, it's quite rare that the Finnish president has spent so much time with the president of the United States, either physically or on the phone or messaging," Stubb told Canadian broadcaster CBC News. It's this kind of access, and influence, that has made a tee time with Trump a coveted prize for those seeking a presidential audience. "Anybody who is sophisticated dealing with Donald quickly understands that everything about him is transactional," said Professor David Cay Johnston of Rochester Institute of Technology, who as a reporter covered Trump for decades and has written three books about the man. "If you're the head of a company or the head of a nation, you either try and minimise any prospective damage he might do to you by buttering him up or to size him up on something if you're unsure." Even back at the White House, foreign leaders have tried to parlay a golf connection into a friendly reception. When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the Oval Office in May, he gave the president an illustrated South African golf book and included golf professionals Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in his national delegation. That didn't help much, however, as the meeting devolved into an extended confrontation over South African land confiscation policies.

Truth Social/@realDonaldTrump Trump partnered with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in a tournament earlier this year

​​What is inside the GHF food aid box being distributed in Gaza?

5 hours ago Share Save Kevin Nguyen and Alex Murray BBC Verify Share Save

Reuters

More than two million Palestinians in Gaza are facing a starvation crisis, with deaths from malnutrition rising by the day, according to the United Nations. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a group backed by Israel and the US, has been operating in Gaza since late May. It says that it has distributed 91 million meals, primarily in the form of food boxes. While the BBC has been unable to see these boxes first-hand since Israel has blocked international journalists from entering Gaza, BBC Verify has examined photos and other information shared by the GHF and spoken to aid experts who have raised concerns about their nutritional value.

What's in the boxes?

Videos have circulated online of Palestinians showing the contents of the boxes, but the GHF has only shared images of them this week. Two pictures posted on X show mostly dried food items that require water and fuel to cook, including pasta, chickpeas, lentils, and wheat flour. Also included is cooking oil, salt and tahini, or sesame paste.

The GHF has said these boxes also contain some ready-to-eat food, like halva bars - a popular snack made from blending tahini or sesame paste and sugar. The organisation has provided us with a table of what it describes as a "benchmark" list of items in each box, with a calorie breakdown. A typical box contains 42,500 calories, and that "each box feeds 5.5 people for 3.5 days". according to the table.

It occasionally includes substitute items like tea, biscuits, and chocolate, and is also delivering potatoes and onions, but these are not included in the nutritional figures, the GHF has said.

'Serious weaknesses'

An international aid development professor from the London School of Economics analysed the list provided by the GHF to BBC Verify and said that while it could deliver sufficient calories needed to survive, it had "serious weaknesses". "In essence, this basket provides a full stomach but an empty diet," Prof Stuart Gordon said. "The biggest flaw is what's missing… This (is) very much a 'first aid' food basket, designed to stop the haemorrhaging effect that is acute hunger." "A diet like this over weeks would lead to 'hidden hunger', increasing the risk of diseases like anaemia and scurvy" he said.

X: cogatonline The Israeli government has also released images of different items contained in a GHF box

Dr Andrew Seal, an associate professor of international nutrition at the University College London, said the food boxes were deficient in calcium, iron, zinc, and vitamins C, D, B12, and K. He added there was also a lack of foods to suit young children. "Prolonged consumption of these foods, even if they were made available in adequate amounts, would lead to a range of deficiencies and serious health problems," he said. He added that unlike the GHF, agencies like the UN typically distribute food in bulk and supplement it with targeted nutrition for vulnerable groups. The World Food Programme (WFP) has said it also aims to deliver emergency supplies for young children and pregnant women. The GHF did not respond to BBC Verify's questions surrounding the advice it received about the nutritional contents of its aid boxes or whether it planned to address concerns raised by experts.

TikTok/@user427554577 Gazans have posted video of the aid boxes they've received