NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Hong Kong: Britain’s government announced Wednesday that it will open a new special pathway to obtaining United Kingdom citizenship for eligible Hong Kongers as of January, taking another step toward solidifying a policy denounced by China. In a statement, the Home Office said holders of the British National Overseas passport and their immediate family members can move to the United Kingdom to work and study. The change to immigration rules was introduced after Beijing imposed a new, sweeping national security law on Hong Kong.
_2 Editor fired: The editorinchief of Hungary’s largest independent news site, Index.hu, was fired Wednesday, a move seen as further risking the publication’s independence and journalistic integrity. Last month, Index moved its “independence barometer” to “in danger” from “independent” after it was confronted by management plans to reorganize the newsroom, which it strongly opposed. In a note posted on Index, over 90 staffers said they could not consider the firing of Szabolcs Dull as anything “but an open attempt to exert pressure,” which will make independent work in the newsroom impossible. Index is among a handful of independent media outlets that have suffered financially and seen their freedom to operate curtailed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s efforts to control an ever larger segment of Hungary’s media.
_3 Prince Philip: Britain’s Prince Philip made a rare public appearance as he attended a military ceremony at Windsor Castle to transfer a longheld ceremonial role to his daughterinlaw Camilla. The 99yearold Philip, Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, has been colonelinchief of The Rifles since 2007 and has served in the same role for earlier regiments that have made up the infantry unit since the 1950s. On Wednesday, Camilla, Prince Charles’ wife, was welcomed as the regiment’s new colonelinchief in a separate ceremony. Philip retired from public duties in 2017. He was last seen at a big event when he was a guest at Lady Gabriella Windsor’s wedding in May 2019.
_4 Activist sentenced: A Russian activist who has investigated Stalinera repression was sentenced to 3½ years in prison on Wednesday on charges of sexually abusing his adopted daughter, which rights activists have dismissed as a politically driven fabrication. The Petrozavodsk city court in the province of Karelia found Yuri Dmitriyev guilty on charges of sexual misconduct toward his underage adopted daughter. In the late 1990s, Dmitriyev — an ethnographer who led the widely respected Memorial human rights group’s branch in Karelia — discovered a mass grave that was full of skulls with holes in them. During the next two decades, he worked relentlessly to research and document Stalinera political purges in the region. His supporters say his work has angered influential members of KGB successor agencies. _5 Arctic role: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the United States will become more active in the Arctic to counter growing Russian influence and thwart attempts by China to insert itself into the region. During a brief visit to Denmark, Pompeo hailed the reopening of the U.S. Consulate in the semiautonomous Danish territory of Greenland and announced a new sustainable fisheries and commercial engagement agreement with the Faroe Islands, another Danish territory in the North Atlantic. The U.S. Consulate in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, reopened in June after a decadeslong hiatus. “It’s a new day for the United States in Greenland,” Pompeo said. The move attracted attention because of President Trump’s stated interest last year in purchasing Greenland from Denmark.