tyb
US Navy Clippers on a quiet Sunday morning:
CNV4581 nw from MacGuire AFB, NJ
CNV4181 se from Angra de Hermosa, Azores after a ground stop-origin
CNV4902 west and CNV4484 east into the Atlantic from NAS Oceana, MD
Yerp is quiet
Lithuanian AF LYF261 C-27J Spartan se from Oslo, Norway-
Hong Kong protesters return as Beijing seeks to tighten grip
Police fire tear gas to disperse crowds rallying against planned security law
Thousands of people in Hong Kong defied police warnings and coronavirus-era bans on social gatherings to rally Sunday against Beijing's latest attempt to crackdown on dissent. Spurred by the Chinese government's push to pass a national security law for the semi-autonomous city, demonstrators gathered in the afternoon at the outside the Sogo department store in Causeway Bay.
They chanted slogans such as "Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong" and "Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our time." Some set up roadblocks to paralyze traffic in the area.
Riot police fired rounds of tear gas and employed water cannons to disperse the crowd. Pro-democracy activist Tam Tak-chi was arrested on charges of organizing an unauthorized assembly, and about 120 others were detained as police officers conducted stop-and-search operations across Hong Kong island. As of 6 p.m., a total of six people had been hospitalized from protest-related injuries, with a 51-year-old woman in critical condition. The gathering is the first large-scale protest against the central government in Beijing since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year.
The planned legislation would allow Beijing to further tighten its political grip on the city. The bill is expected to be passed in China's annual parliamentary session on May 28, and will be enacted in the coming months, bypassing Hong Kong's legislature. The new proposal targets activities such as "splitting the country, subverting state power," as well as terrorism and foreign interference in Hong Kong. Critics and pro-democracy lawmakers said it will mark the end of "one country, two systems," a framework that underpins Hong Kong's autonomy and democratic freedoms when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
The move has drawn international condemnation. Nearly 200 political figures around the globe, including members of the U.S. Congress, signed a joint statement on Saturday to decry the proposed laws, saying they are a "comprehensive assault on the city's autonomy, rule of law and fundamental freedoms."
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi justified the move to impose the legislation at a news conference Sunday in Beijing. He said violence has escalated with the calls for independence, terrorism acts and intervention by external forces in Hong Kong affairs.
"This has caused serious harm to China's national security, and threatened the 'one country, two systems' principles," Wang told reporters at the National People's Congress. "It is imperative to establish and improve the legal system and enforce a mechanism for safeguarding national security in the Hong Kong special administrative region." He added that the new bill "will not affect the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong, the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents, or the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors in Hong Kong."
Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, who was at the demonstration, said he is "very likely" to be one of the targets of the law, but he would continue to fight by lobbying for support from other countries. A protester who gave his surname as Ng told the Nikkei Asian Review that the planned law might mean the end of protests in the city.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Hong-Kong-protests/Hong-Kong-protesters-return-as-Beijing-seeks-to-tighten-grip
MAGMA14 USAF Dornier C-146A from Kuwait City-Ali Al Salem Air Base se and returning to Doha, Qatar-Al Udeid Air Base
This will be it's 2nd rt from these locations today
been less active in ME lately.
mebby that will change.
that AC made a run to Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar about a month ago