The anime logo becoming a unique symbol across a country
The widespread use of the pirate flag, seen on streets and vehicles, signifies public discontent over issues such as government corruption, unemployment, budget cuts, and military influence.
The symbol's popularity stems from One Piece's narrative of a group rebelling against an authoritarian regime, resonating with protesters' desire for the government to address their concerns.
Government officials have condemned the use of the One Piece flag, with some labelling it divisive or "borderline treason", and authorities in East Java have seized some flags, drawing criticism from Amnesty International.
Despite official warnings of legal action for disrespecting national symbols, experts suggest the government should interpret the widespread display of the flag as a legitimate expression of public sentiment.
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BBC News
25 minutes ago
- BBC News
Who is Jimmy Lai, the HK media tycoon on trial for national security crimes?
Hailed by some as a hero and scorned by others as a traitor, Hong Kong's pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai is in the final stage of his national security trial. Closing arguments begin on Thursday for Lai, who is accused of colluding with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed national security law. The trial has drawn international attention, with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling for Lai's release. The 77-year-old has British as well as Chinese citizenship - though China does not recognise dual nationality, and therefore considers Lai to be exclusively Chinese. Lai has been detained since December 2020 and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if he is say Lai's case shows how Hong Kong's legal system has been weaponised to silence political opposition. Lai has been a persistent thorn in China's side. Unlike other tycoons who rose to the top in Hong Kong, Mr Lai became one of the fiercest critics of the Chinese state and a leading figure advocating democracy in the former British territory."I'm a born rebel," he told the BBC in an interview in 2020, hours before he was charged. "I have a very rebellious character." He is the most prominent person charged under the controversial national security law which China introduced in 2020, in response to massive protests which erupted in Hong Kong the year before. The legislation criminalises a wider range of dissenting acts which Beijing considers subversion and secession, among other says the national security law is necessary to maintain stability in Hong Kong but critics say it has effectively outlawed dissent. Over the years, Lai's son Sebastien has called for his release. In February, the younger Lai urged Starmer and US President Donald Trump to take urgent action, adding that his father's "body is breaking down". Rags to riches Lai was born in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, to a wealthy family that lost everything when the communists took power in was 12 years old when he fled his village in mainland China, arriving in Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing working odd jobs and knitting in a small clothing shop he taught himself English. He went from a menial role to eventually founding a multi-million dollar empire including the international clothing brand chain was a huge success. But when China sent in tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, Lai began a new journey as a vocal democracy activist as well as an started writing columns criticising the massacre that followed the demonstrations in Beijing and established a publishing house that went on to become one of Hong Kong's most influential. As China responded by threatening to shut his stores on the mainland, leading him to sell the company, Lai launched a string of popular pro-democracy titles that included Next, a digital magazine, and the widely read Apple Daily a local media landscape increasingly fearful of Beijing, Lai had been a persistent critic of Chinese authorities both through his publications and has seen him become a hero for many in Hong Kong, who view him as a man of courage who took great risks to defend the freedoms of the on the mainland he is viewed as a "traitor" who threatens Chinese national recent years, masked attackers firebombed Lai's house and company headquarters. He was also the target of an assassination none of the threats stopped him from airing his views robustly. He was a prominent part of the city's pro-democracy demonstrations and was arrested twice in 2021 on illegal assembly charges. When China passed Hong Kong's new national security law in June 2020, Lai told the BBC it sounded the "death knell" for the influential entrepreneur also warned that Hong Kong would become as corrupt as China. Without the rule of law, he said, its coveted status as a global financial hub would be "totally destroyed".The media mogul is known for his frankness and acts of 2021, he urged Donald Trump to help the territory, saying he was "the only one who can save us" from China. His newspaper, Apple Daily, published a front-page letter that finished: "Mr President, please help us."For Lai, such acts were necessary to defend the city which had taken him in and fuelled his once told news agency AFP: "I came here with nothing, the freedom of this place has given me everything... Maybe it's time I paid back for that freedom by fighting for it." Lai has been slapped with various charges - including unauthorised assembly and fraud since 2020. He has been in custody since December of that prosecution of Lai has captured international attention, with rights groups and foreign governments urging his the years, Sebastien Lai has travelled the world to denounce his father's arrest and condemn Hong Kong for punishing "characteristics that should be celebrated"."My father is in jail for the truth on his lips, courage in his heart, and freedom in his soul," he had said.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Well done Keir! 50k migrants & counting. Everything you touch is a disaster so here's MY 10 point plan to fix the crisis
CONGRATULATIONS, Sir Keir! The number of people arriving here in small boats from France has reached 50,000 since your magnificent government took office. That's something to be proud of, isn't it? The way things are going, you might make it 100,000 by the end of the year. 4 Smashing the gangs was the plan you announced upon taking office. It was about as much use as howling at the moon. And although you deny it, the policy seems to have been quietly shelved. Nor will the one-in, one-out deal work. A pilot scheme which was only ever going to deal with one in 20 of the illegal migrants. You scrapped the Rwanda plan. That at least provided SOME deterrent. And so, like almost every other thing you turn your hand to, you've made things worse and worse. So here's my ten-point plan to stop what seems to be an unstoppable tide. It's not really unstoppable, if you really want to do it. 1: Let it be known that anyone arriving here illegally automatically loses their right to live in the UK, in perpetuity. Cost of this? Nil. Deterrence effect? Very high. No place to live, no permit to work, no schooling, no health care. 2: No more hotels. As Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has suggested, house the migrants who arrive in tents. Empty every hotel which has migrants in them, immediately. Cost of this? Rather less than the hotels, I would reckon. 3: No grants for swimming lessons, gym workouts and hair extensions. No grants for anything except a ticket home. 4: Withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and all other supranational jurisdiction which stops us from solving our own problems in our own ways. They are well past their sell-by dates, anyway. 5: Abolish the immigration tribunals, immediately. They are all presided over by judges who spend most of their lives advocating the causes of asylum seekers. The legal issue is clear: Arriving illegally means no entry. 6: In complex cases, where it is either not clear where the migrant comes from, or the country of origin refuses to have them back, send them for processing at a place under British jurisdiction. Such as St Helena — a windswept island in the middle of the Atlantic. Or South Georgia. Or, for the really devious ones, Rockall. 7. For those who have already arrived and are currently going through the appeals process, let it be made clear that by arriving illegally they have automatically lost their right to stay here. Also, abolish all legal aid for those who have arrived. 4 8: Offer those who have been here for some time £1,000 to leave the country, never to return. You could throw in some free bags of Monster Munch, and one of those neck cushions, for the flight. 9: Strike a deal with the French to allow British policemen or soldiers to puncture the boats before they leave France. Or otherwise hole them below the waterline. It is obvious we can't trust the French to do this. 10: Start taking things seriously, Starmer. Begin with the conviction that all who arrive illegally must go. Including those who have already arrived. And if the Left moans, so be it. I SPOKE to Rob Davies a few days ago. He's the shopkeeper from Wrexham who was visited by the police for having put up a sign describing shoplifters as 'scumbags'. He was ticked off and warned he might have offended people. Who, shoplifters? We mustn't offend THEM now? Totally bizarre. And you can see where this policy is getting us. There is now one case of shoplifting every minute in the UK. Businesses are closing down because their losses are unsustainable. And when a hard-working shop owner complains about it, he then gets a visit from the Old Bill. Before the last election Sir Keir Starmer warned he was going to get tough on shoplifters. What happened, Keir? Meanwhile the Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Barber, has said the public must help in fighting shoplifting. Really? And risk being charged by the Old Bill for being nasty to a vulnerable person? Boring tunes Taylor-made for kids GOT your pre-order in for the new Taylor Swift album? Nope, me neither. But I suppose million upon million will. Her music is bloodless and boring, written by a committee. The lyrics are naff. But she is a consummate saleswoman. She's already been giving teasing hints as to what's on the new album. It includes a cover of a George Michael song, for example. Which is, for me, another reason to stay well away from it. Ah well, she's what a certain section of the kids want now and I suppose I am not necessarily her target audience. But couldn't the kids fall in love with something a little more exciting, and dangerous, and full of adventure? NAKED TRUTH THE Metropolitan Police is considering prosecuting the vigilantes who stopped a bloke waving his b*****s around after he dropped his trousers and pants on the Tube in front of women and children. A few blokes on board remonstrated with him and then, when he got aggressive, wrestled him to the ground and handed him over to an off-duty copper. In other words, they did the right thing. And the response of the idiots at the Met is why the public is reluctant to get itself involved when a crime takes place. UK IN A RIGHTS MESS WHEN friends make constructive criticisms, we should listen. The US State Department has just investigated human rights in the UK – something the Vice President JD Vance has been banging on about. It says our human rights worsened last year. And it claimed there were 'credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression', as well as 'crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism'. That seems to me pretty much bang on. Over the last 15 years our freedom to express ourselves has diminished and diminished. And that trend hastened last year with the advent of a Labour government which really hates the idea that people should express themselves freely. GOOD luck to all our readers who are about to open their A-level results today. It's always a fun time of year, isn't it? But it doesn't really matter in the end, believe me. And here's a bit of advice to anyone who got lower than As and Bs. Don't go to university. It's not worth the bother. Instead, get yourself an apprenticeship and learn something useful which will keep you in work. Soon you will be earning a decent income while the debt-laden students slum it on awful courses. High flyer? What do you take me for? NOW I really have heard it all. A trolley dolly has just won a discrimination case against British Airways. Jennifer Clifford said she was too scared to fly. Being up in the air in one of those planes made her kind of stressy, you see. So she shouldn't have been given the boot. Do you ever get the impression that, much as the Fun Boy Three suggested all those years ago, the lunatics really have taken over the asylum?
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Albanese praises RBA's rate cut despite housing concerns
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has embraced the RBA's recent rate cut despite experts raising fears the decision will price more Aussies out of the property market. On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to cut the cash rate for the third time this year, bringing it down 25 basis points to 3.60 per cent. Within an hour, Mr Albanese praised the decision as the result of his government's efforts to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. 'Interest rates have just been cut again. It will mean Australians paying less on their mortgages,' he said. 'We're working hard to help families with the cost of living . There's more to do and that's what we're focused on every day.' The announcement fell on deaf ears, with a number of Australians pointing out the decision will drive up demand for housing, ultimately pushing up prices. 'Historically, every time interest rates have been cut, home prices tend to increase,' Mr van Onselen told the Daily Mail. 'Cutting interest rates is a band-aid. It can increase your borrowing capacity and it can reduce your monthly mortgage payments - so if you already have a mortgage, it's great if you're looking to buy again. 'It can lower your payments on a new home loan because you've got to pay less monthly. 'But as that lower interest rate gets capitalized into higher prices, it then reduces affordability going ahead. So, it makes affordability structurally worse down the road.' Mr Van Onselen says the root cause of the housing crisis was rising immigration. 'We've grown by 8.7million people in less than 25 years - 46 per cent population growth - and you wonder why we don't have enough housing, we don't have enough infrastructure. 'We've run one of the biggest immigration programs in the world, and we haven't built enough houses, enough infrastructure, enough anything, to cope with it.' According to his analysis, if Australia's population growth slowed by 15 per cent over the next five years, the country would end up with a surplus of 40,000 homes. 'That was buried at the back of the NHSAC's report and what that tells you is that the solution to this mess is to cut immigration,' Mr van Onselen said. The Albanese government has committed to shoring up Australia's housing supply, with a target of 1.2 million new homes in the next five years. Meanwhile, the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council predicted in May the government will fall short of its goal by at least 250,000. Even if it were to reach its goal, Mr van Onselen said rising demand fueled by government policy would keep accessibility out of reach. 'It's a government policy failure - we've got the supply issues but it won't get better until the government stops pumping demand with things like its five per cent deposit scheme and mass immigration,' he said. Despite the government's efforts to address the supply issue, NSHAC predicted Australia's housing shortage will worsen over the next five years. According to Loan Market, home loan pre-approvals spiked across the country last month as homebuyers scrambled to secure financing ahead of an expected rate cut. Loan pre-approvals were 53 per cent higher in July compared to the same time last year, with an 80 per cent spike in the Northern Territory and South Australia. Pre-approvals were up 79 per cent in Western Australia while the eastern states all recorded upticks of nearly 50 per cent. Loan Market chief executive David McQueen said a tight housing stock was forcing homebuyers to test their borrowing capacity ahead of the Spring rush.
