New top story from Time: As Hong Kong’s Leader Pledges to ‘Listen Humbly,’ Protesters Return to the Streets
Hong Kong began 2020 with more protests as crowds marched through downtown districts on New Year’s Day to call for greater political freedom. Local media reported that the city’s Victoria Park—the traditional staging ground for mass protests—began to fill up from the early afternoon. Marchers chanted “Liberate Hong Kong” and carried flags reading “Revolution Now.” Scores of trade unions set up recruiting booths along the route in a bid to draw members from Hong Kong’s newly politicized youth. Many of the unions are new , having been set up to counteract the pro-Beijing labor federations that have long dominated the sector. Wednesday’s procession came in the wake of a restive New Year’s Eve that saw hundreds protesters form human chains and others barricade Nathan Road—the Kowloon peninsula’s principal thoroughfare—sparking clashes with police. A train carriage was set on fire by masked radicals in the early hours of Wednesday, but nobody was injured. Radicals also hu...