Hong Kong's global banks brace for 'cold war' to escalate
CNN
Banks in Hong Kong are increasingly being squeezed by a series of changes forcing them to fall in line with Beijing's agenda.
Financial institutions have been grappling with rising geopolitical risks, which have put pressure on how they operate in Hong Kong. The latest blow: orders to block access to retirement funds for Hong Kongers looking to leave the city on special British passports issued largely during colonial rule. This month, politicians also floated a new anti-sanctions bill that would bar foreign entities and individuals in Hong Kong and Macao from complying with sanctions against China, which now controls the former British colony. Experts say this could create headaches for financial institutions in the city, due to the global nature of their work.The US began pulling military equipment and additional personnel out of Niger on Friday after waiting months for the ruling military junta to approve US military flights into the country, two sources familiar with the matter said Saturday, ahead of a September 15 withdrawal deadline agreed to by the two countries.
The judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York on Friday informed the former president’s defense team and prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office that a comment was posted on the New York State Unified Court Systems’ public Facebook page last week by a poster who claimed to be a cousin of a juror, saying that Trump would be convicted.