Voter turnout plunged below 30% in Hong Kong's first district council elections since new rules introduced under Beijing's guidance effectively shut out all pro-democracy candidates, setting a record low since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. According to official data on Monday, 27.5% of the city's 4.3 million registered voters cast ballots in Sunday's polls — significantly less than the record 71.2% who participated in the last elections held at the height of anti-government protests in 2019. The pro-democracy camp won those polls in a landslide victory, in a clear rebuke of the government's handling of the protests. Beijing loyalists are expected to take control of the district councils after Sunday's elections, with results showing big pro-government parties winning most directly elected seats. "The newly elected district councilors come from diverse backgrounds," Hong Kong leader John Lee said. "They will make the work in the districts more multidimensional ... better aligning with the interests of the citizens." UN officials and activists ramp up the urgency as climate talks enter final days The district councils, which primarily handle municipal matters such as organizing construction projects and public facilities, were Hong Kong's last major political bodies mostly chosen by the public. But under new electoral rules introduced under a Beijing order that only "patriots" should administer the city, candidates must secure endorsements from at least nine members of government-appointed committees that are mostly packed with Beijing loyalists, making it virtually impossible for any pro-democracy candidates to run. An amendment passed in July also slashed the proportion of directly elected seats from about 90% to about 20%. Many prominent pro-democracy activists have also been arrested or have fled the territory after Beijing imposed a harsh national security law in response to the 2019 protests. Critics say the low voter turnout reflects the public sentiment toward the "patriots" only system and the government's crackdown on dissent. The previous record low for participation in the council elections since the handover to Chinese rule was 35.8% in 1999. The electoral changes further narrowed political freedoms in the city, following a separate overhaul for the legislature in 2021. Following those changes, turnout in the last legislative election two years ago plunged to 30% from 58% in 2016. Battles rage across Gaza as Israel indicates it's willing to fight for months or more to beat Hamas Lee on Sunday said the council elections were the "last piece of the puzzle" in implementing the principle of "patriots" administering the city. Beijing's top office for Hong Kong affairs on Monday said the council elections helped promote the "enhancement of democracy." China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the Chinese government believed the newly elected members would be able to "serve as a good link" between the city's government and the people of Hong Kong. Government officials have downplayed turnout as a measure of the overhaul's success, but stepped up efforts to promote the polls. Lee's administration held carnivals, an outdoor concert and offered free admission to some museums to encourage voting. Kenneth Chan, professor at Hong Kong Baptist University's government and international studies department, said the low turnout was not the result of political apathy or a coordinated boycott, but rather "a widespread political disengagement by design" under the revised rules, with most people understanding that they were "disinvited." "The record low turnout must be hugely humiliating for the government and its allies given the unprecedented propaganda campaigns and ubiquitous mobilization," he said. Blinken defends bypassing Congress to sell weapons to Israel and presses lawmakers to help Ukraine John Burns, an honorary professor of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong, said a turnout of about 28% indicated a "lack of legitimacy" for the elections and the new councils to some extent. Burns anticipated the "narrow range of patriots" in the new councils were likely to consult like-minded people, and that might keep the government out of touch with people's true concerns and opinions. "This can lead to instability," he said. "It can lead to a government not understanding people's expectations when it makes policy. The government needs the active cooperation of all citizens to implement policies." Sunday's elections were extended by 1.5 hours because of a failure in the electronic voter registration system. Multiple politicians said the glitch would affect their chances of winning because some residents gave up voting before authorities implemented a contingency plan. David Lok, chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, refused to comment on the turnout and said it was unclear whether some voters were unable to cast ballots due to the system failure. "I can't rule out this possibility," he said. "If they can't vote due to our errors, I feel remorseful."

Former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, the son of pro-democracy icons who helped topple dictator Ferdinand Marcos and had troublesome ties with China, died Thursday, a cousin and public officials said. He was 61. Former Sen. Bam Aquino said he was heartbroken by the death of his cousin. “He gave his all for the Filipino, he did not leave anything,” he said. Details of his death were not immediately made public by members of his family, who were seen rushing to a metropolitan Manila hospital in the morning. But one of his former Cabinet official, Rogelio Singson, said Aquino had been undergoing dialysis and was preparing for a kidney transplant. Condolences poured in from Philippine politicians, the Catholic church and others, including the U.S government, current President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration and a daughter of Marcos who is now a senator. Philippine flags were lowered at half-staff in government buildings. Also read: China, Philippines swap protests over Manila-occupied island “We are saddened by President Aquino’s passing and will always be thankful for our partnership,” U.S. Embassy Charge d’ Affaires John Law said in a statement. Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, called for a moment of silence and prayers at the start of a televised news conference and Sen. Imee Marcos, a daughter of the late dictator, also offered her condolences. “For beyond politics and much public acrimony, I knew Noynoy as a kind and simple soul. He will be deeply missed,” Marcos said in a statement, using Aquino’s nickname. Aquino, who served as president from 2010 to 2016, was the heir to a political legacy of a family that has been regarded as a bulwark against authoritarianism in the Philippines. His father, former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., was assassinated in 1983 while under military custody at the Manila international airport, which now bears his name. His mother, Corazon Aquino, led the 1986 “people power” revolt that ousted Marcos. The army-backed uprising became a harbinger of popular revolts against authoritarian regimes worldwide. Although a scion of a wealthy land-owning political clan in the northern Philippines, Aquino, who was fondly called Noynoy or Pinoy by many Filipinos and had an image as an incorruptible politician, battled poverty and frowned over excesses by the country’s elite families and powerful politicians. One of his first orders that lingered throughout his presidency was to ban the use of sirens in vehicles that carried VIPs through Manila’s notorious traffic jams. Aquino, whose family went into exile in the U.S. during Marcos’s rule, had turbulent ties with China as president. After China effectively seized a disputed shoal in 2012 following a tense standoff between Chinese and Philippine ships in the South China Sea, Aquino authorized the filing of a complaint before an international arbitration tribunal that questioned the validity of China’s sweeping claims in the strategic waterway on historical grounds. “We do not wish to increase tensions with anyone, but we must let the world know that we are ready to protect what is ours,” Aquino said in his State of the Nation Address to Congress in 2011. The Philippines largely won. China refused to join in the arbitration and dismissed as a sham the tribunal’s 2016 ruling, which invalidated Beijing’s claims to virtually the entire South China Sea based on a 1982 U.N. maritime treaty and continues to defy it. Aquino’s legal challenge and the eventual ruling plunged the relations between Beijing and Manila to an all-time low. Born in 1960 as the third of five children, Aquino never married and had no children. An economics graduate, Aquino engaged in businesses before entering politics. During the politically tumultuous presidency of her mother, Aquino was wounded by gunfire during a failed 1987 coup attempt by rebel soldiers, who attempted to lay siege on the heavily guarded Malacanang presidential palace. Aquino was in a car with companions on the way back to the palace in Manila when they came under heavy gunfire. Three of his security escorts were killed and Aquino was severely wounded, with one bullet remaining embedded in his neck all his life because it was too dangerous to take out by surgery. He won a seat in the powerful House of Representatives in 1998, where he served until 2007, then successfully ran for a Senate seat. Aquino announced his presidential campaign in September 2009 by saying he was answering the call of the people to continue his mother’s legacy. She had died just weeks earlier of colon cancer. “I accept the responsibility of continuing our fight for the people. I accept the challenge to lead this fight,” he said. He won by a large margin on a promise to fight corruption and poverty, but his victory was also seen as a protest vote due to exasperation with the corruption scandals that rocked the presidency of his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was detained for nearly five years and was released after the Supreme Court cleared her of the charges. Arroyo later successfully returned to political power, at one time serving as House speaker under Duterte. Public expectations of Aquino were high and while he moved against corruption — detaining Arroyo and three powerful senators over corruption allegations — and initiated anti-poverty programs, the problems in his disaster-prone Southeast Asian nation, which remained wracked by decades-old communist and Muslim insurgencies, remained daunting. Under Aquino, the government expanded a program that provides cash dole-outs to the poorest of the poor in exchange for commitments by parents to ensure their children would attend classes and receive government health care. Big business, meanwhile, benefited from government partnership deals that allowed them to finance major infrastructure projects such as highways and airports for long-term gain. One of the legacies of the Aquino presidency was the signing of a 2014 peace deal with the largest Muslim separatist rebel group in the country, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in 2014 that eased decades of sporadic fighting in the country’s south, homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation. Political opponents have pounded on what they say were his administration’s bungling of a number of crises, including a Manila bus hostage crisis that ended with the shooting deaths of eight Chinese tourists from Hong Kong by a disgruntled police officer, and delays in recovery efforts in the massively disastrous aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Also read: Philippine president to be tested for virus, palace cleaned Aquino came under heavy criticism in 2015 for his absence in a solemn ceremony at a Manila airbase, where air force aircraft brought the remains of police commandos who had been killed by Muslim insurgents while staging a covert raid that killed one of Asia’s most-wanted terror suspects. Aquino proceeded with a scheduled inauguration of a car manufacturing plant and his opponents said he lacked empathy. Aquino retained high approval ratings when his single, six-year term ended in 2016. But the rise of the populist Duterte, whose deadly crackdown on illegal drugs has killed thousands of mostly petty drug suspects, was a reality check on the extent of public dissatisfaction and perceived failures during Aquino’s reformist rule. Aquino campaigned against Duterte, warning he could be a looming dictator and could set back the democracy and economic momentum achieved in his own term. After his presidency, Aquino stayed away from politics and the public eye. His former Public Works Secretary, Singson, told DZMM radio that Aquino told him in a cellphone message on June 3 that he was undergoing dialysis and was preparing for angioplasty, a delicate medical procedure to treat a blocked artery ahead of a possible kidney transplant. Singson said he would pray for the ailing presidency and for a successful treatment. “That was the last time,” said Singson, a respected former member of Aquino’s Cabinet who, like the late president, had an image as an incorruptible official in an Asian nation long plagued by corruption scandals.   Aquino is survived by his four sisters.

Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily increased its print run more than fivefold to 500,000 copies as residents lined up Friday to buy the paper in a show of support for beleaguered press freedoms, a day after police arrested five top editors and executives. The raid on the paper’s offices by hundreds of police and security agents — along with the freezing of $2.3 million worth of its assets — marked the first time a sweeping national security law has been used against the media. It was the latest sign of a widening crackdown on civil liberties in the semi-autonomous city, which has long cherished freedoms that don’t exist elsewhere in China. Police said the editors were arrested on suspicion of foreign collusion to endanger national security, based on over 30 articles that authorities said had called for international sanctions against China and Hong Kong. On Friday, the National Security Department charged two men with collusion with a foreign country to endanger national security, according to a government statement. The two will appear in court on Saturday. It did not name them, but the South China Morning Post newspaper cited an unnamed source saying they are Apply Daily’s chief editor Ryan Law and Cheung Kim-hung, the CEO of Apple Daily’s publisher Next Digital. The other three were being detained for investigation. With anti-government protests silenced, most of the city’s prominent pro-democracy activists in jail and many others fleeing abroad, people snapped up copies at newsstands and in convenience stores. “There are lots of injustices in Hong Kong already. I think there are a lot of things we cannot do anymore,” said resident Lisa Cheung. “Buying a copy is all what we can do. When the law cannot protect Hong Kong people anymore, we are only left to do what we can.” The front page of Friday’s edition splashed images of the five editors and executives led away in handcuffs. Police also confiscated 44 hard drives worth of news material. A quote from Cheung, the arrested CEO of Next Digital, said “Hang in there, everyone.” Another resident, William Chan, said he bought a copy of the paper as a show of support. “It was such a groundless arrest and suppressed freedom of the press,” he said. The national security law was imposed after massive protests in 2019 challenged Beijing’s rule by calling for broader democratic freedoms. It outlaws subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign countries. The maximum penalty for serious offenders is life imprisonment. READ: Editors of Hong Kong newspaper arrested under security law Security Minister John Lee had on Thursday warned other journalists to distance themselves from those under investigation at Apple Daily. He said those arrested had used journalistic work to endanger national security and that anyone who was “in cahoots” with them would pay a hefty price. The United States, which has imposed sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials over the crackdown, strongly condemned the arrests and called for the immediate release of the five arrested. “We are deeply concerned by Hong Kong authorities’ selective use of the national security law to arbitrarily target independent media organizations,” State Department spokesman Price said, adding that the suspected foreign collusion charges appear to be politically motivated. “As we all know, exchanging views with foreigners in journalism should never be a crime,” he said. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a tweet that freedom of the press is one of the rights China had promised to protect for 50 years when Britain handed over Hong Kong in 1997. “Today’s raids & arrests at Apple Daily in Hong Kong demonstrate Beijing is using the National Security Law to target dissenting voices, not tackle public security,” Raab said. European Union spokesperson Nabila Massrali said that the arrests “further demonstrate how the National Security Law is being used to stifle media freedom and freedom of expression in Hong Kong.” Media freedom and pluralism are fundamental to Hong Kong’s success under the “one country, two systems” framework, she said. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian rejected the foreign criticism and defended the government’s action, repeating China’s insistence that the national security targets only a “small group of anti-China elements who disrupted Hong Kong and endangered the national security of the country.” “No right or freedom, including freedom of the press, can break through the bottom line of national security,” Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing. “Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong, Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs, and no country, organization or individual has the right to intervene,” he said. Apple Daily has pledged to readers that it will continue its reporting, and on Thursday night invited members of the media to its printing presses to watch its Friday edition roll off the press in a show of commitment. READ: Hong Kong democracy activist Agnes Chow released from jail Its founder Jimmy Lai is currently serving a 20-month prison sentence on charges of playing a part in unauthorized protests in 2019, and faces further charges under the national security law that could potentially put him away for life. The paper’s average daily circulation has been around 86,000 copies.