Hong Kong urges property developers to cut rent for retailers
Hong Kong’s financial chief urged landlords and property developers on Friday to offer rent subsidies to retailers and food and beverage businesses suffering after four months of protests that have dented tourism and consumer spending.
Hundreds take to Hong Kong streets, weekend protests planned
Hundreds of mask-wearing pro-democracy protesters marched through Hong Kong’s central business district at lunchtime on Friday, occupying a main thoroughfare and disrupting traffic as the city braced for another weekend of turmoil.
Iran confirms attacks on Iranian oil tanker in Red Sea: TV
Iran’s foreign ministry confirmed that the Iranian-owned oil tanker Sabiti had been attacked in the Red Sea on Friday and was damaged, state TV reported.
Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric slams government over protester deaths, demands investigation
Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric on Friday blamed the Baghdad government for the killing of scores of protesters and gave it a two-week deadline to find out which “undisciplined elements” had used snipers to shoot them, in an apparent reference to Iran-backed…
Russia: too early to assign blame for explosion on Iranian tanker: RIA
Russia’s foreign ministry on Friday said it was too early to assign blame for an explosion on an Iranian oil tanker in the Red Sea near Saudi Arabia, the RIA news agency reported.
North Syria camp by displaced to be moved after shelling: Kurdish-led authority
A camp sheltering more than 7,000 displaced people in northern Syria is to be evacuated and talks are underway about moving a second camp for 13,000 people including families of Islamic State fighters after both were hit by shelling, the Kurdish-led au…
Thousands flee, hospital closed after bombings in northeast Syria: aid groups
The only public hospital in a region of northeast Syria has been forced to shut after most of its staff fled from bombings over the past 24 hours, Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a statement on Friday.
German synagogue gunman admits to anti-Semitic motive: reports
The man accused of killing two in a gun attack near a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle has admitted to the crime and to having a far-right, antisemitic motivation, German media outlets reported on Friday.
Hard Brexit won’t hit us, 60% of Germany’s small and medium-sized firms say
Around 60% of Germany’s Mittelstand, the small and medium-sized companies that form the backbone of Europe’s biggest economy, see no impact on their business from a hard Brexit, a survey by Germany’s KfW state development bank showed on Friday.
Brexit negotiators meet for breakfast after ‘pathway to deal’ opens
The chief Brexit negotiators of the European Union and Britain met for breakfast on Friday, hours after Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Irish counterpart unexpectedly said they had found a pathway to a possible deal at last-ditch talks.
