“We burned them!” the demonstrators shouted as they streamed out of the high-security Green Zone housing the embassy just as easily as they had walked in on Tuesday. Thousands had massed outside the embassy in anger at deadly US airstrikes on pro-Iran Hashed faction, Kataib Hezbollah, that killed 25 paramilitary fighters on Sunday. Earlier yesterday, a leading Kataib Hezbollah commander told reporters that they would stay outside the embassy. “We in Kataib Hezbollah won’t withdraw even if the others do,” said the commander, who was among those outside. Trump blamed Tehran for the embassy attack and warned that it would face punishment if Americans are killed.

BloombergMacau gaming revenue last month slipped for the third straight month, marking the worst annual decline since 2015 as the world’s largest gambling hub struggled to lure high rollers amid geopolitical tensions and an economic slowdown. Gross gaming revenue was 22.84 billion patacas (US$2.85 billion), down 13.7 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. Full year revenue, at 292.5 billion patacas, was down 3.4 percent from 2018. XI EFFECTArrivals last month were further crimped by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the territory to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Macau’s handover. Meanwhile, rival gaming destinations, such as Vietnam, are threatening to chip away at Macau’s dominance.

Reuters, LONDONThe UK, the birthplace of coal power, produced more electricity from zero-carbon sources such as wind, solar and nuclear than from fossil fuel plants for the first time last year, National Grid PLC said yesterday. “As we enter a new decade, this truly is a historic moment,” National Grid chief executive John Pettigrew said, referring to the company’s latest data. The data showed that wind, solar, hydro, nuclear and imports produced about 48.5 percent of the UK’s electricity last year, while fossil fuels, such as coal and gas, contributed about 43 percent. The increase in zero-carbon power marks a huge shift from almost two decades ago, when fossil fuels provided about three-quarters of the country’s electricity. Eight percent of the UK’s electricity came from imports from Europe via interconnectors with France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland, the data showed.

This action by the university shows contempt for the principles of the University Act (大學法). When a student association holds an election for student representatives, it does so in the interest of implementing campus democracy. Second, the University Act states that universities should assist with student autonomy, but the NTU administration has adopted a haughty attitude in stubbornly obstructing the student representative election. Deleting this word is a significant change in that it reflects the NCHU administration’s respect for student autonomy. Now that he has the power, he is trampling on university autonomy by abusing that power to suppress student autonomy.

AFP, NEW YORKUS authorities on Monday laid federal hate crimes charges against a man who referenced Adolf Hitler in his diaries and allegedly stabbed five people at a rabbi’s house. “We have made it a habit when the Jewish community is attacked anywhere in the world to reinforce key Jewish community locations in New York City,” he said. The New York Times quoted Taleea Collins, a friend of the suspect, and his pastor, Wendy Paige, as saying that Thomas struggles with mental illness. He also searched for “Zionist temples” in the New York area, according to the complaint, which was first reported by the New York Times. In 2018, a white supremacist shot dead 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue — the deadliest attack against the Jewish community in the US.

AFP, WEST PALM BEACH, FloridaA woman who has said she was 14 when she had a sexual encounter with financier Jeffrey Epstein at his mansion sued his estate in Florida court on Monday for coercion, inflicting emotional distress and battery. The lawsuit does not give the woman’s name and only refers to her as “JJ Doe.”The woman went to Epstein’s Florida mansion in 2003 when she was “a vulnerable child without adequate parental support,” the lawsuit said. “Out of fear, plaintiff complied with Jeffrey Epstein’s commands,” the lawsuit said. “During the encounter, plaintiff resisted Jeffrey Epstein’s advances and demands, yet was assured if she complied, then he would stop and it would end soon,” the lawsuit said. The wealthy financier had pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing girls as young as 14 and young women in New York and Florida in the early 2000s.

By Elizabeth DrewMuch as he mocked the process for months, US President Donald Trump very much did not want to be impeached. Yet, for all the commentary about the “momentousness” of the House impeachment vote, the occasion seemed somehow lifeless. The essence of the first impeachment charge was that by holding up congressionally approved military assistance for Ukraine, which is under attack by Russia, Trump was using his government position to benefit himself. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had long resisted impeachment, fearing that it could rally Trump’s supporters for the election. She also worried that impeachment might jeopardize the Democrats’ control of the House, all of whose members also face re-election this year.

Taiwan’s shameful treatment of migrant workers continues to make international headlines, the most recent being a Thomson Reuters Foundation report last week that pregnant workers often face a choice between getting fired and an abortion. Moreover, she had to pay back a New Year hongbao (紅包, red envelope containing money) to her employer. Of course, this is illegal in Taiwan, but migrant workers are often under the thumb of unscrupulous brokers who do not inform them of their rights and usually side with employers. Unfortunately, that would just address the financial and legal issues, as workplace discrimination against pregnant women is not limited to migrant workers. How will society respect pregnant women, or women in general, if the nation’s leaders keep making such comments?

A reporter at the scene saw flames rising from inside the compound and at least three US soldiers on the roof of the main building inside embassy. Dozens of protesters pushed into the compound after smashing the gate used by vehicles to enter the embassy. No one was immediately reported hurt in the rampage and security staff had withdrawn to inside the embassy earlier, soon after protesters gathered outside. Seven armored vehicles with about 30 Iraqi soldiers arrived near the embassy hours after the violence erupted, deploying near the embassy walls but not close to the breached area. The Iranian-backed Iraqi militia on Monday vowed to retaliate for the US military strikes.

“This is what dividing vulnerable communities looks like,” Jews for Racial & Economic Justice said on Twitter. I’m also deeply uncomfortable with the optics of cops functioning as security for Jews against POC,” Jewish Currents editor David Klion said. “The story of Crown Heights bears remembering right now,” De Blasio said, recalling how racial groups came together. “It took constant dialogue and constant effort to reach residents of the community, particularly our young people, and it took painstaking work. But the division that was healed and it has been changed into a community where people work together,” he said.

Young Taiwanese have been paying close attention to these developments, and those who participated in the Sunflower movement can empathize with victims of indiscriminate police violence. The idea of resisting China and protecting Taiwan has become a shared belief among the nation’s youth. This generation grew up after martial law was lifted, which means they were not fed anti-communist material in school as their parents were. This consolidated the KMT’s long hold on power, while a vast majority of Taiwanese grew up with a conformist mindset and weakened ability to engage in rational debate, logical analysis and self-reflection. Martial law was lifted and Taiwan started democratizing in the late 20th century, but even after the central government underwent its first transition of power in 2000, many people were still bound by self-imposed martial law.

AP, CAIROA Sudanese court on Monday sentenced 27 members of the country’s security forces to death by hanging for torturing and killing a detained protester during the uprising against former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir earlier last year. “We are now sure our revolution is continuing on the right path,” protester Amna Mohammed said. The death of protester Ahmed al-Khair, a school teacher, while in detention in February was a key point — and a symbol — in the uprising that convulsed the large African country. The Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella group of unions that led the protests against al-Bashir, welcomed Monday’s verdict. The image of the former dictator in a defendant’s cage on live TV sent a strong message for all of Sudan.

AFP, BANGALORE, IndiaDummy police are the newest recruits to law enforcement in India’s southern city of Bangalore, where authorities have adopted an unusual tactic to fight traffic offenders. “There are 44,000 intersections in the city, but traffic lights are installed in only about 450 intersections. Bangalore, which has been dubbed the Silicon Valley of India, is home to an estimated 13 million people. Many are blamed on drunk-driving, speeding and drivers ignoring traffic signals. Businessman Rohit Kamalkar said that the scheme would not work in a country such as India, where rules are flouted with impunity.

The row erupted after Bolivia’s right-wing interim government accused Spain of attempting to spirit a wanted former aide to former Bolivian president Evo Morales out of the Mexican embassy in La Paz. Relations with Bolivia have cooled since Mexico offered Morales political asylum and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called the ex-leader the victim of a coup. The Mexican embassy has become the center of a diplomatic row after it sheltered the 10 or so officials from Morales’ former government. The Mexican foreign ministry has said the incident occurred as Borreguero and Fernandez wrapped up a meeting with the Mexican ambassador. At that point, the Spanish diplomats were informed that their vehicles had been stopped from entering,” it said.

AFP, BENI, Democratic Republic of the CongoMilitants killed 20 people, most of them hacked to death, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DR Congo) eastern Beni region in the latest attack by an armed group blamed for massacres that have sparked angry protests. Local officials said that fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militia originally from neighboring Uganda, on Sunday attacked Apetina-Sana, west of Oicha, the chief administrative town in Beni region. “There was an incursion in Apetina-Sana by the ADF last night,” Beni administrator Donat Kibwana said. “[They] hacked 18 civilians to death.”Local officials later found two more bodies during a search after the attack, bringing the total to 20. In a separate incident in the eastern DR Congo on Monday, “armed bandits” attacked a base used by a Chinese-owned gold mine, killing four people, the Congolese armed forces said.