Tom McKibbin strengthened his bid to qualify for next year’s Masters and Open Championship with a third-round 65 as he continued to lead the Hong Kong Open.
After opening the tournament with a course record of 60 and carding a second-round 65, McKibbin registered one bogey and two birdies in the opening four holes of day three in Fanling.
The 22-year-old would add another birdie on the 12th before consecutive birdies on hole 16 and 17 took his total to 65 on the penultimate day.
The winner of the event will qualify for the 2026 Masters, while the highest-placed non-exempt player who makes the cut will earn a place at the 154th Open.
The Northern Ireland native is attempting to qualify for next year’s Masters for the first time, and the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in July.
McKibbin’s lead over M.J. Maguire was reduced to one after 54 holes, with Peter Uihlein two shots behind and Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Scott Hend three off the pace.
A cargo plane arriving from Dubai ran off the runway and into the sea while landing at Hong Kong International Airport. Two security workers on the ground were killed, and all four crew members were rescued.
Hong Kong police have defused a 450kg World War II-era bomb discovered at a construction site, prompting the evacuation of more than 2,800 residents. Authorities said the device was still ‘fully functional’ and could have caused mass casualties if mishandled.
Captain Litton Das hit a 33-ball half-century to guide Bangladesh to a comfortable seven-wicket win over Hong Kong in the Asia Cup.
Having restricted Hong Kong to 143-7, Bangladesh – led by Das’ 59 from 39 balls – knocked off the runs with 14 balls to spare.
The Tigers opted to field first in Abu Dhabi and struck twice during the powerplay, and despite Nizakat Khan leading a recovery, top-scoring with 42 from 40, Hong Kong were never able to get away from their Test-playing opponents.
Seamer Tanzim Hasan Sakib was the pick of the Bangladesh attack, taking 2-21, while his fellow quick Taskin Ahmed and wrist-spinner Rishad Hossain also took two wickets.
Bangladesh also lost two wickets in the powerplay but the experienced Das quickly got them back on track in the chase, hitting six fours and a six, as he put on 95 for the third wicket with Towhid Hridoy.
Das fell with just two needed for victory so it was left to Hridoy, who finished unbeaten on 35, to hit the winning run in the 18th over and get Bangladesh’s campaign off to a winning start.
An Evergrande housing development in Beijing, China, pictured in January 2024, around the time a Hong Kong court ordered the firm to liquidate because it was unable to pay its debts. File photo by Mark R. Cristino/EPA-EFE
Aug. 25 (UPI) — Chinese property giant China Evergrande was delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday, 20 months after being placed into liquidation by a court in the semi-autonomous region of China and almost 15 years after it was the most oversubscribed IPO of 2009 with a $50 billion valuation.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing said it canceled the listing effective Monday because an 18-month deadline for Evergrande to resume trading passed last month, with the company opting not to appeal the decision.
“The exchange advises shareholders of the company who have any queries about the implications of the delisting to obtain appropriate professional advice,” said HKEX.
Macrolens managing principal Brian McCarthy told CNBC he expected investors holding Evergrande shares and bonds to lose most of their money and that a surge in Chinese property stocks might just be the initial phase of a “speculative frenzy” in Chinese equities.
“There have been some attempts to attach [Evergrande’s] assets, but they’ve not really managed to liquidate anything for more than a few cents on the dollar,” said McCarthy.
He warned that the debacle put foreign investors who invest in China via Hong Kong on notice that they have “limited recourse to onshore assets if things went bad,” and predicted that shareholders and bondholders in most of the large Chinese property developers would end up with “goose eggs.”
Trading in Evergrande shares ceased in January 2024 after a judge issued a winding-up order after the developer repeatedly failed to come up with a viable plan to restructure liabilities of at least $325 billion.
Shares sold at 45 cents back in 2009 were worth 2 cents at the last quote early Monday.
Trading in the stock had been suspended several times since 2021, but it has always managed to resume within the maximum permitted gap of 18 months to avoid delisting.
“Once delisted, there is no coming back,” Dan Wang, China director at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told the BBC.
The firm sought bankruptcy protection in the United States in August 2023 and regulators suspended the stock the following month amid reports that founder and chairman Hui Ka Yan was under house arrest on the mainland.
Hui presided over a 15-year drive to build Evergrande into one of China’s largest businesses, but the growth was delivered through massive borrowing, much of it highly leveraged.
Much of Evergrande’s debt is owed to prospective homebuyers with down payments on apartments and houses that are half-built, or on which work has yet to start, as well as suppliers and subcontractors.
Hui was fined $6.5 million and received a life ban from participating in China’s capital market for claiming Evergrande’s revenue was $78 billion more than it actually was.
In summer 2023, after failing to issue financial results for two years, the group belatedly reported that it had lost $81.1 billion during the period as it battled to maintain payments to suppliers and lenders and complete projects across China.
The losses, $66.4 billion in 2021 and $14.7 billion in 2022, were blamed on a market slump that forced it to take haircuts on its developments and financial assets and higher borrowing costs.
The demise of the firm, which at its peak had more than 1,300 projects in 280 Chinese cities, is the most high-profile symbol of the crisis enveloping China’s property sector, which accounts for as much as 25% of GDP.
Hong Kong activist Tony Chung and ex-lawmaker Ted Hui have been granted asylum in the UK and Australia, years after facing charges linked to the 2019 anti-government protests. Both fled amid Beijing’s crackdown under the national security law that criminalised dissent.
Sebastien Lai, son of imprisoned Hong Kong media publisher Jimmy Lai, showed a picture of his father, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva in February. Lai’s trial resumed Monday after pausing Friday for Lai’s heart issues. File Photo by Salvatore Di Nolfi/EPA
Aug. 18 (UPI) — A court in Hong Kong resumed closing arguments in the criminal trial of media mogul Jimmy Lai on charges of sedition and collusion with foreign powers.
The trial had paused Friday because Lai, 77, was having heart issues. Lai was given medication and a Holter monitor, which tracks the heart’s electrical activity. The trial had also been delayed Thursday because of torrential rain in the city.
Judge Esther Toh said extra breaks could be allowed for Lai if needed.
Lai, a citizen of the United Kingdom, founded Apple Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper published in Hong Kong from 1995 to 2021. The tabloid has been described as anti-government, pro-democracy and anti-China.
He is accused of collusion with foreign forces and sedition. He has been in solitary confinement since December 2020. He faces life in prison.
Prosecutors have accused Lai of requesting foreign countries to engage in “hostile activities,” such as imposing sanctions, against authorities in Hong Kong and mainland China.
He allegedly conspired with senior editorial staff of Apple Daily and was the “mastermind and financial supporter” of the Fight for Freedom; Stand with Hong Kong advocacy group, which lobbied for international sanctions against Hong Kong and China.
Lai denied in court that he had ever sought to influence the Hong Kong policies of other countries via his high-level contacts overseas, including former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.
Questioned about meetings with Pence and then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019, Lai said the meeting with Pence was more of a briefing where he updated him and answered questions about what was going on in Hong Kong
Lai, who was noticeably thinner Monday than when the trial began in late 2023, was dressed in a white jacket in the glass dock and pressed his palms together in a prayer gesture several times to his family and supporters, the Independent reported.
The prosecutor discussed the security law concerning the collusion charges, arguing that the request to impose sanctions must include officials and not just states.
He planned to lay out other issues in the afternoon and make his closing statement on Tuesday.
Lai is among hundreds of people who have been detained and charged under the controversial National Security Law, which critics say have silenced dissent in Hong Kong. Beijing justifies that the law is needed to maintain stability in the city.
Dozens of activists are on the run from authorities in the China-ruled city after a crackdown on civil liberties.
A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and a former parliamentarian wanted by the city’s Chinese authorities have been granted asylum in Britain and Australia, more than four years after facing criminal charges over the 2019 antigovernment protests.
Tony Chung, an activist who was imprisoned under Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law, and Ted Hui, a former lawmaker facing trial for his role in the mass demonstrations, both announced over the weekend that they have received asylum in Britain and Australia, respectively, where they now live.
They are among dozens of activists on the run from Hong Kong authorities. Civil liberties in the China-ruled city have been greatly eroded since 2020 when Beijing imposed a national security law essentially criminalising dissent.
Penalties can run up to life in prison for endangering national security, treason and insurrection; 20 years for espionage and sabotage; and 14 years for external interference.
Hui, who fled Hong Kong in December 2020, is part of a group of overseas activists for whom police have offered rewards of up to 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($127,800). The former lawmaker is now working as a lawyer in Adelaide.
The outspoken pro-democracy lawmaker is known for disrupting a legislative session by throwing a rotten plant in the chamber to stop a debate on a bill seeking to make it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem. He was subsequently fined 52,000 Hong Kong dollars ($6,600) for the act.
He announced on Facebook on Saturday that he and his family have been granted protection visas.
“I express my sincere gratitude to the Government of Australia – both present and former – for recognising our need for asylum and granting us this protection,” Hui wrote. “This decision reflects values of freedom, justice, and compassion that my family will never take for granted.”
He also expressed regret for the exile he has been forced into. “When people around me say ‘congratulations’ to me, although I politely thank them, I can’t help but feel sad in my heart. How to congratulate a political refugee who misses his hometown?” he wrote.
“If it weren’t for political persecution, I would never have thought of living in a foreign land. Immigrants can always return to their home towns to visit relatives at any time; Exiles have no home.”
Chung, who fled to Britain, had advocated for Hong Kong’s independence and was sentenced to almost four years in prison for secession and money laundering in 2020. He was released on a supervision order, during which he travelled to Japan and then to the United Kingdom.
In a post on the social media platform Threads on Sunday, he expressed his excitement at receiving refugee status in Britain along with a five-year residency permit. He said that despite his challenges over the past few years, including persistent mental health problems, he remains committed to his activism.
British and Australian authorities didn’t immediately comment on the activists’ statuses.
Hong Kong’s government did not comment directly on the cases but issued a statement on Saturday condemning “the harbouring of criminals in any form by any country”.
“Any country that harbours Hong Kong criminals in any form shows contempt for the rule of law, grossly disrespects Hong Kong’s legal systems and barbarically interferes in the affairs of Hong Kong,” the statement read.
The 77-year-old founder of the Apple Daily newspaper is charged with foreign collusion over 2019 protests.
Hong Kong judges have postponed the trial of media tycoon Jimmy Lai until he is provided with a heart monitoring device and related medication.
Friday’s decision marked the second delay to the case this week after his lawyer said he had suffered heart palpitations.
The 77-year-old founder of the Apple Daily newspaper is charged with foreign collusion under Hong Kong’s national security law, which Beijing imposed following widespread pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Closing arguments in the long-running trial were originally expected to begin on Thursday, but all court sessions were suspended due to bad weather.
As the court resumed on Friday, defence lawyer Robert Pang said that Lai had heart “palpitations” and had experienced the feeling of “collapsing”, but added that the tycoon did not want attention to be concentrated on his health.
Lai has been kept behind bars since December 2020, reportedly in solitary confinement, and concerns have previously been raised over the septuagenarian’s welfare.
‘The world is watching’
The three-judge panel adjourned the case to Monday to allow time for prison authorities to outfit Lai with a wearable heart monitor and provide medication.
The sprawling trial, which began in December 2023, is entering its final stages as Western nations and rights groups continue to call for Lai’s release.
Aside from the collusion charge – which could land him in prison for life – Lai is also charged with “seditious publication” related to 161 op-eds carrying his byline.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday that “the world is watching how Hong Kong treats its journalists”.
“The prolonged detention of Jimmy Lai not only destroys Hong Kong’s historic reputation as a free and open society, but also as a trusted hub for business,” said CPJ regional director Beh Lih Yi.
US President Donald Trump told a Fox News radio programme on Thursday that he had previously brought up the Lai case with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“I’m going to do everything I can to save him … you could also understand President Xi would not be exactly thrilled,” the outlet quoted Trump as saying.
The Hong Kong government said on Wednesday it “strongly disapproved and rejected the slanderous remarks made by external forces” regarding Lai’s case.
Lai is a British citizen and his son Sebastien reiterated in March calls for the Keir Starmer administration to do more, saying: “I don’t want my father to die in jail.”
Two prosecution witnesses, Chan Tsz-wah and Andy Li, also accused Lai of financially backing an advocacy group that ran overseas newspaper advertisements supporting the 2019 protests.
Lai has denied calling for sanctions against China and Hong Kong and said he never advocated separatism.
Apple Daily was forced to close in 2021 after police raids and the arrests of its senior editors.
Closing arguments are due to begin in the national security trial of Jimmy Lai, 77, a fierce critic of China’s Communist Party.
United States President Donald Trump has renewed his promise to “save” jailed Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai, who is on trial for alleged national security crimes over his pro-democracy activism and antipathy towards China’s Communist Party.
“I’m going to do everything I can to save him. I’m going to do everything … His name has already entered the circle of things that we’re talking about, and we’ll see what we can do,” Trump told Fox News Radio in the US.
Trump’s remarks came as closing arguments in Lai’s high-profile trial.
Closing arguments have been pushed from Friday to Monday after Lai’s lawyer said he had experienced heart palpitations.
The delay marks the second in as many days, after Hong Kong courts were closed due to bad weather.
Trump previously pledged to rescue Lai during an interview last October, just weeks before his election as president, and had said he would “100 percent get him out”.
Lai is one of the most prominent Hong Kongers to be charged under the city’s draconian 2020 national security law, and his cause has made international headlines.
The 77-year-old is a longtime opponent of China’s Communist Party thanks to his ownership of Apple Daily, a now-shuttered pro-democracy tabloid newspaper.
Thank you, President Trump, for your support for Jimmy Lai at this critical time.
“I’m going to do everything I can to save [Jimmy Lai]. I’m going to do everything…His name has already entered the circle of things that we’re talking about, and we’ll see what we can do. I… pic.twitter.com/EmscQHYQmX
He is facing two counts of “colluding with foreign forces” and a separate charge of sedition in the long-running national security trial that began in December 2023.
If found guilty, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. He has always protested his innocence.
Lai was first arrested in 2020, just months after Beijing imposed the new national security law on Hong Kong, which criminalised the city’s pro-democracy movement and categorised public protests as acts of secession, subversion and terrorism.
The law was later expanded in 2024 to include further crimes such as espionage and sabotage.
Lai has been in detention continuously since December 2020 and is serving separate prison sentences for participating in a banned candlelight vigil and committing “fraud” on an office lease agreement.
He has spent more than 1,600 days in solitary confinement, according to the United Kingdom-based Hong Kong Watch, despite his age and health complications.
Lai was also denied the lawyer of his choice during trial and access to independent medical care.
Evergrande, once China’s second-largest property developer and now the world’s most indebted company, said on Tuesday it will be delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange on 25 August.
The company, founded in 1996, grew on a wave of debt-fuelled expansion by aggressively borrowing to buy land and build projects. It later diversified into wealth management, electric vehicles, theme parks, bottled water and even a soccer club.
Delisting in Hong Kong
Evergrande was the world’s most heavily indebted real estate developer, with over $300 billion (€257.1bn) owed to banks and bondholders, when the court handed down a liquidation order in January 2024.
The court had ruled that the company had failed to provide a viable restructuring plan for its debts, which fuelled fears about China’s rising debt burden, and trading of its shares has been halted since the ruling.
The Hong Kong stock exchange stipulates that the listing of companies may be cancelled if trading in their securities has remained suspended for 18 months consecutively.
China Evergrande Group received a letter on 8 August from the city’s stock exchange notifying the firm of its decision to cancel the listing as trading had not resumed by 28 July. The last day of the listing will be 22 August and Evergrande will not apply for a review of the decision, the company said in a statement.
“All shareholders, investors and potential investors of the company should note that after the last listing date, whilst the share certificates of the shares will remain valid, the shares will not be listed on, and will not be tradeable on the Stock Exchange,” the statement said.
A trouble-ridden sector
Evergrande is among scores of developers that defaulted on debts after Chinese regulators cracked down on excessive borrowing in the property industry in 2020. Unable to obtain financing, their vast obligations to creditors and customers became unsustainable.
The crackdown also tipped the property industry into crisis, dragging down the world’s second-largest economy and rattling financial systems in and outside China.
Once among the nation’s strongest growth engines, the industry is struggling to exit a prolonged downturn. House prices in China have continued to fall even after the introduction of supportive measures by policymakers.
The Hong Kong court system has been dealing with liquidation petitions against several Chinese property developers, including one of the largest Chinese real estate companies, Country Garden, which is expected to have another hearing in January.
China South City Holdings, a smaller property developer, was also ordered to liquidate on Monday.
Evergrande, founded in the mid-1990s by Hui Ka Yan, also known as Xu Jiayin, had over 90% of its assets on the Chinese mainland, according to the 2024 ruling. The firm was listed in Hong Kong in 2009 as “Evergrande Real Estate Group” and suspended its share trading on 29 January 2024, at 0.16 Hong Kong dollars (€0.017).
The liquidators said they have assumed control of over 100 companies within the group and entities under their direct management control with collective assets valued at $3.5 billion (€2.99bn) as of 29 January 2024. They said an estimate of the amounts that may ultimately be realised from these entities wasn’t available yet.
About $255 million (€218.5m) worth of assets have been sold, the liquidators said, calling the realisation “modest.”
“The liquidators believe that a holistic restructuring will prove out of reach, but they will, of course, explore any credible possibilities in this regard that may present themselves,” they said.
Hui, Evergrande’s founder, was detained in China in September 2023 on suspicion of committing crimes, adding to the company’s woes.
Record-breaking rains flooded parts of Hong Kong, disrupting flights, schools, and courts as the city recorded its highest August rainfall since 1884. The storm followed deadly flash floods in southern China that killed five people.
Hong Kong’s Security Bureau announces measures over activists’ alleged role in unofficial parliament overseas.
Hong Kong authorities have cancelled the passports of 12 activists based overseas in their latest crackdown on activities that they claim pose threats to national security.
Hong Kong’s Security Bureau announced the measures on Monday after a local court issued arrest warrants last month for the 12 activists and seven other pro-democracy campaigners over their alleged roles in establishing an unofficial parliament overseas.
The bureau said it had also banned individuals from providing financial support or leasing property to 16 of the “absconders,” and entering into joint ventures or partnerships with them.
The wanted activists include Chongyi Feng, an Australian citizen and professor at the University of Technology Sydney, and Sasha Gong, a United States citizen and journalist who previously worked for Voice of America.
Hong Kong authorities allege that the 19 activists’ participation in the “Hong Kong Parliament” advocacy group constitutes subversion under the Chinese-ruled city’s sweeping national security law.
A Hong Kong government spokesperson said the activists had continued to “blatantly engage in activities that endanger national security” while hiding in countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
The Hong Kong parliament condemned last month’s announcement of arrest warrants and bounties for the campaigners as a “blatant abuse of legal instruments to pursue political persecution”.
“These actions represent a clear escalation of Beijing’s transnational repression, extending its coercive reach beyond China’s borders and infringing upon the sovereignty of democratic nations, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and members of the European Union,” the group said.
Once known for its spirited political opposition and media, Hong Kong has radically curtailed the space for dissent since the introduction of a sweeping Beijing-decreed national security law in 2020 in response to violent anti-government protests.
Opposition parties have been effectively eliminated from the city’s legislature, and public commemorations of sensitive events, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, essentially outlawed.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said last month that 332 individuals had been arrested for national offences since 2020.
Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials have defended the law, and additional national security legislation introduced in 2024, as necessary to restore stability to the city after the turmoil caused by the mass protests.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
As awards season begins to take shape, this week the New York Film Festival announced its closing night selection: the world premiere of Bradley Cooper’s “Is This Thing On?”
Starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern as a couple on the brink of splitting up when he immerses himself in the world of stand-up comedy, the film has been described as a “pivot” from Cooper’s previous directing efforts “A Star Is Born” and “Maestro.”
Will Arnett in Bradley Cooper’s “Is This Thing On?,” which will have its world premiere on closing night of the New York Film Festival.
(Jason McDonald / Searchlight Pictures)
Dennis Lim, artistic director of the NYFF, said that in putting together a program each year, he doesn’t mind drawing from films that have already premiered at festivals throughout the year, including Sundance, Cannes, Venice, Telluride, Toronto and others.
“How do we make a case for cinema as an art form that is still vital and relevant? I think programming the New York Film Festival is answering this question,” said Lim. “If I’m going to put forward a list of films that makes the case for cinema as an art form that matters today in 2025, which are the films that I’m going to put forward as evidence? The program is our answer to that question.”
John Woo on Hong Kong action cinema
Chow Yun-fat, left, and Danny Lee in John Woo’s “The Killer.”
(Shout! Studios)
The stylish, delirious action cinema that emerged from Hong Kong in the late 1980s and early 1990s redefined the genre, creating a visual grammar and thematic template that is still wildly influential to this day. The American Cinematheque and Beyond Fest, in partnership with Shout! Studios and GKIDS, are launching “Hong Kong Cinema Classics,” a series to celebrate these explosively exciting films.
Due to tangled rights issues, many of these movies have been largely out of circulation in the U.S. for years. To have them now remastered in 4K from original camera negatives is a thrill and puts them back in front of audiences where they belong.
The series will launch Saturday with the U.S. premiere of the new restoration of John Woo’s 1992 “Hard Boiled,” his final film made in Hong Kong before coming to the U.S., starring Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung and Anthony Wong. Woo himself will be present for the screening at the Egyptian Theatre and will return on Sunday for 1989’s “The Killer” and a triple-bill of the “A Better Tomorrow” trilogy.
Other films in the series include Woo’s “Bullet in the Head,” Ringo Lam’s 1987 “City on Fire,” Tsui Hark’s “Peking Opera Blues” and Ching Siu-tung’s trilogy of “A Chinese Ghost Story” films.
Director John Woo, photographed in Los Angeles in 2023.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
After relocating to America in 1993, Woo would go on to make a string of English-language films in Hollywood such as “Hard Target,” “Broken Arrow,” “Face/Off,” “Mission: Impossible 2” and “Windtalkers” as well as the more recent “Silent Night” and a 2024 remake of “The Killer.”
Speaking from his home in Los Angeles recently, Woo noted what it means to him that audiences still respond to his Hong Kong films.
“I so appreciate all the fans — for all these years they still give me great support,” said Woo, 78. “That’s why I’m so excited. It’s hard to believe that after so many years, I still have a chance to meet the audience and the audience is still excited about it. So I’m very proud.”
The Hong Kong action movies celebrated in the series slowly found their way to western audiences via festival screenings, limited theatrical releases and eventually home video.
Writing about “The Killer” in 1992, The Times’ Kevin Thomas said, “Sentimentality and violence have gone hand-in-hand from the beginning of the movies, but seldom have they been carried to such extremes and played against each other with such effectiveness.”
For Woo, there was a creative freedom while making his movies at that time. Proven Hong Kong directors were often allowed to largely do what they wanted without interference.
“In the rest of the world, I’ve been told there are very clear rules for every kind of movie,” said Woo. “The comedy is comedy. Action is only for the action fan and people who enjoy the melodrama never go to see the action movie. So each kind of movie has a certain kind of audience. But for the Hong Kong film, it is so much different. We had — in one movie — a human drama, a sense of humor and then the action. We can put everything all together.”
Chow Yun-fat, left, and Tony Leung in John Woo’s “Hard Boiled.”
(Shout! Studios)
In a 1993 profile of Woo by Joe Leydon, writer-director Quentin Tarantino, then known only for his debut “Reservoir Dogs,” lavished praised on his fellow filmmaker, saying “John Woo is reinventing the whole genre. The guy is just terrific — he’s just the best one out there right now.”
Tarantino added, “After I saw ‘A Better Tomorrow,’ I went out and bought a long coat and I got sunglasses and I walked around for about a week, dressing like Chow Yun-fat. And to me, that’s the ultimate compliment for an action hero — when you want to dress like the guy.”
Woo has always been open about the influence of filmmakers such Jean-Pierre Melville, Sam Peckinpah and Martin Scorsese on his own movies.
“I just feel like we are all in a big family,” said Woo of his enduring influence, which you can see evidence of as recently as the “John Wick” franchise. “We are all learning from each other. Every time it’s a learning process for me.”
Alex Ross Perry visits ‘Videoheaven’
Maya Hawke records the narration for Alex Ross Perry’s “Videoheaven.”
(Cinema Conservancy)
Having already released the boldly form-defying hybrid documentary “Pavements” this year, filmmaker Alex Ross Perry continues his adventurous streak with “Videoheaven,” an epic essay film about the rise and fall and continued life of video stores and their importance to film culture, with narration by Maya Hawke.
Perry will be in-person for a series of L.A. screenings this week, starting at Vidiots on Wednesday for a Q&A moderated by “The Big Picture” podcast co-host Sean Fennessey. On Thursday, the film will play at Videothèque with Perry in conversation with the store’s co-manager, Lucé Tomlin-Brenner. On Friday, Aug. 8, the film will play at the Los Feliz 3 with an introduction by Perry.
Points of interest
‘Zola’
Riley Keough, left, and Taylour Paige in “Zola.” Its director, Janicza Bravo, will attend the movie’s screening Thursday at the Academy Museum.
(Anna Kooris / A24)
The Academy Museum is screening Janicza Bravo’s 2020 “Zola” on Thursday with the filmmaker in person. Written by Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris, the film is based on a notorious 2015 Twitter thread by A’Ziah “Zola” King that chronicled an uproarious tale of a road trip gone very wrong. With a cast that includes Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun and Colman Domingo, the film plumbs disorientation and information overload both with equal skill.
Bravo, who has directed recent episodes of “The Bear” and “Too Much” (also appearing in the latter as an actor) spoke at the film’s release about balancing outrageous humor with the darker currents of its story, which touch on complex issues around sex work, sex trafficking and race.
“If it were a not funny movie about sex work and sex trafficking, I don’t think that I would be the right director for it,” said Bravo. “But A’Ziah King, who wrote this story, had imbued it with so much dark humor — you’re laughing at some of the most disturbed moments. … Her way of exorcizing her trauma — it feels so familiar to me. I feel so close to it. This is how I move through the world.”
“Zola” is screening as part of the series “American Gurl: Seeking…” which spotlights coming-of-age films about women of color. Also upcoming in the series is Martine Syms’ “The African Desperate”; Minhal Baig’s 2019 “Hala,” starring Geraldine Viswanathan; Nisha Ganatra’s “Chutney Popcorn” in 35mm with the filmmaker in conversation with Fawzia Mirza; Robert Townsend’s 1997 “B.A.P.S.” in 35mm with screenwriter Troy Byer and Spike Lee’s “Girl 6” in 35mm.
‘Taxi Zum Klo’
The 45th anniversary re-release poster for “Taxi Zum Klo.”
(Altered Innocence)
For its 45th anniversary, Frank Ripploh’s 1980 German film “Taxi Zum Klo” is returning to theaters in a new 4K restoration. A semi-autobiographical tale of a schoolteacher (played by Ripploh) exploring Berlin’s queer underground scene, the film was groundbreaking for its unapologetic candor. The film will have a limited run at the Los Feliz 3, playing on Aug. 5, 10 and 12.
In a 1981 review of the film, Sheila Benson wrote, “Films like ‘Taxi’ as so rare as to be unique, a collage of cinema journalism, an unblinking (but selective) view of homosexual life and intensely personal sexual images.”
Merle Oberon and ‘Dark Waters’
Merle Oberon, center, in 1944’s “Dark Waters.”
(United Artists / Photofest)
On Saturday the UCLA Film and Television Archive will have a 35mm screening of André de Toth’s 1944 “Dark Waters,” starring Merle Oberon. Along with the film there will be a Q&A with Mayukh Sen, author of the book “Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood’s First South Asian Star,” moderated by programmer and critic Miriam Bale. Sen will also do a signing before the screening.
A tense thriller that combines elements of Southern Gothic and film noir, the movie is about an heiress (Oberon) who finds herself taking refuge at a relative’s Louisiana plantation. She becomes embroiled in local intrigues and entanglements.
Writing about the movie in 1945, Philip K. Scheuer said, “The production builds suspense rather ingeniously, and culminates in an exciting night-shrouded chase in and around the bayou. … Miss Oberon never tops her initial outburst of hysterics, which I found pretty terrifying, but it is nice to see her in the part.”
In other news
‘Cat Video Fest’ returns
An image from “Cat Video Fest 2025.”
(Oscilloscope Laboratories)
The “Cat Video Fest” is back for its eighth installment, playing at Vidiots, the Alamo Drafthouse DTLA and multiple Laemmle locations. Created and curated by Will Braden, the series has raised more than $1 million since 2019 to help shelters, support adoptions and foster care and volunteer sign-ups.
Yes, you can watch plenty of cat videos on your phone. But sitting in a theater delighting in them with an audience is something else entirely.
The UK has condemned the latest cash offer from Hong Kong authorities for people who help in the arrest of pro-democracy activists living in Britain.
In a joint statement, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the move as “another example of transnational repression”.
People are being offered between $25,000 (HK$200,000) and $125,000 for information leading to the arrest of 19 individuals, all of whom are pro-democracy activists living abroad.
The 19 people are accused of violating Beijing’s national security law imposed in 2020 in response to the 2019 anti-government protests that rocked the city for months.
The amounts on offer vary depending on the individual. Among the highest offers on the list are those for Choi Ming-da and Fok Ka-chi, who Hong Kong police said operated a social media channel named “Tuesdayroad”.
Politician Nathan Law – who had been a lawmaker on the Legislative Council of Hong Kong – and activist and commentator Yuan Gong-Yi also appear on the lists.
The first such rewards were issued in July and December 2023. They targeted Mr Law – who told the BBC that his life became more dangerous after a bounty was announced – and Simon Cheng, a former UK consulate employee detained in 2019 in a high-profile case.
The third series of rewards targeted six pro-democracy activists living in the UK and Canada, including Tony Chung, the former leader of a pro-independence group.
A special visa scheme introduced in 2021 saw around 150,000 Hong Kong residents move to the UK, according to the Home Office.
In their statement in response to the latest bounty, Ms Cooper and Mr Lammy said: “This government will continue to stand with the people of Hong Kong, including those who have made the UK their home.
“We take the protection of their rights, freedoms, and safety very seriously.”
Their joint statement added: “The UK is committed to human rights, the rule of law, and the safety of all individuals in the UK.
“That’s why we have taken further steps to complete the severing of ties between the UK and Hong Kong extradition systems by removing Hong Kong from the Extradition Act 2003.”
UK Foreign Secretary Lammy, Home Secretary Cooper call on China to stop targeting opposition voices living in Britain.
The United Kingdom has condemned Hong Kong authorities for offering payment in exchange for assisting in the arrest of pro-democracy activists living in Britain, even as the British government begins the process of reinstating an extradition deal with the autonomous Chinese city.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper issued a joint statement on Friday shortly after Hong Kong announced cash rewards for information leading to the arrest of 19 pro-democracy activists based abroad, including in Britain, who are accused of violating the strict national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.
In their statement, Lammy and Cooper called on China to stop targeting opposition voices in Britain.
“The Hong Kong Police Force’s issuing of further arrest warrants and bounties on individuals living in the UK is another example of transnational repression,” their statement read.
The bounties range from 200,000 to one million Hong Kong dollars (about $25,000-$125,000), depending on the individual the Hong Kong authorities seek to arrest.
This is the fourth time Hong Kong authorities have made reward offers, which have drawn strong criticism from Western countries, to which China, in turn, has denounced as “interference”.
In their statement, the two British ministers said that “this Government will continue to stand with the people of Hong Kong, including those who have made the [United Kingdom] their home. We take the protection of their rights, freedoms, and safety very seriously”.
But a recent proposal by the British government to reform extradition rules has prompted serious concerns, with some fearing it could pave the way for a resumption of extraditions to Hong Kong, which have been suspended since the 2020 national security law was enacted.
On Friday, Al Jazeera reported that the UK Home Office applied to Parliament to make changes to the country’s legislation regarding extradition on July 17, followed by a letter to Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp the next day.
“It is in our national interest to have effective extradition relationships to prevent criminals from evading justice and the UK becoming a haven for criminals,” the July 18 letter from Security Minister Dan Jarvis said.
The Home Office also plans to restore an extradition framework with Chile and Zimbabwe, according to the letter, which was shared on X by Conservative MP Alicia Kearns.
Cases for Hong Kong and Zimbabwe would both be considered on a “case-by-case basis”, Jarvis said.
About 150,000 Hong Kong nationals migrated to the UK under a special visa scheme introduced in 2021.
An antigovernment protester shelters behind an umbrella as he attends a rally outside the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong in September 2019 [File: Jorge Silva/Reuters]
In 2024, legislators in Hong Kong approved a new national security law – referred to as Article 23 – that gave the government new powers to crack down on all forms of dissent on the grounds of alleged treason, espionage, sedition and external interference in Hong Kong’s internal affairs. Since then, Hong Kong has been offering bounties for the arrest of activists who have fled the city while facing charges related to the pro-democracy protests.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, is a particular sticking point for the UK due to its historical relationship and the sharp decline in political freedoms in Hong Kong since China imposed controversial national security legislation in 2020.
The former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the guarantee of a high degree of autonomy, including freedom of speech, under a “one country, two systems” formula.
The United Kingdom government is moving to reinstate extradition cooperation with Hong Kong that was suspended five years ago due to concerns about the city’s Chinese national security laws.
The Home Office applied to Parliament to make the changes on July 17, followed by a letter to Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp the next day.
“It is in our national interest to have effective extradition relationships to prevent criminals from evading justice and the UK becoming a haven for criminals,” the July 18 letter from Security Minister Dan Jarvis said.
The Home Office also plans to restore an extradition framework with Chile and Zimbabwe, according to the letter, which was shared on X by Conservative MP Alicia Kearns.
Cases for Hong Kong and Zimbabwe would both be considered on a “case-by-case basis,” Jarvis said.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, is a particular sticking point for the UK due to their historical relationship and the sharp decline in political freedoms in Hong Kong since China imposed controversial national security legislation in 2020.
In 2024, legislators in Hong Kong approved a new national security law - referred to as Article 23 – that gave the government new powers to crack down on all forms of dissent on the grounds of alleged treason, espionage, sedition and external interference in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.
At the time, Hong Kong’s government said Article 23 was needed to prevent a recurrence of the protests of 2019, and that its provisions would only affect “an extremely small minority” of disloyal residents.
The UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and the United States all suspended their extradition agreements in 2020 with the Chinese city due to concerns about how the laws would be used.
“In my view, reinstating extradition with Hong Kong is morally indefensible. The Chinese Communist Party has turned Hong Kong into a surveillance state where freedom of expression, rule of law, and basic civil liberties are systematically dismantled,” Kearns wrote on X.
“This move risks legitimizing a regime that imprisons critics, silences democracy activists, and uses extradition as a tool of persecution,” she said.
Here is the letter from the Home Office.
In my view, reinstating extradition with Hong Kong is morally indefensible.
The Chinese Communist Party has turned Hong Kong into a surveillance state where freedom of expression, rule of law, and basic civil liberties are… pic.twitter.com/6gb923QXKb
Ronny Tong, a Hong Kong barrister and member of the city’s executive council, told Al Jazeera that concerns about a potential extradition deal were overblown.
“Extradition is in relation to non-political criminal cases, so any fear that it’d be used to transfer persons with political crimes, eg, national security cases, is totally unfounded and only shows ignorance of the procedure,” he said. “Furthermore, it is up to judges of the transferring state to ensure the procedure will not be abused.”
He said the city was “more than ready to restart the arrangement, as we have full confidence our judges are totally independent and of highest integrity”.
Hong Kong’s 2020 national security law criminalised secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference, and was supplemented in 2024 to include treason, sedition, theft of state secrets, espionage, sabotage, and external interference.
Hong Kong’s government has said the laws are necessary to protect the city from political sabotage and foreign influence, following months of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.
Security Minister Chris Tang said in June that 326 people have been arrested under Hong Kong’s national security laws since 2020.
The government has also used international bounties to expand its reach to Hong Kong activists abroad, or cancelled their passports while they were overseas.
The moves have been seen as largely symbolic, but also chilling for a city that was once considered the freest place in Asia.
On Friday, Hong Kong issued a new list of bounties for 19 activists involved with a pro-Hong Kong democracy NGO in Canada.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 as a “special administrative region” and was promised special rights and freedoms until 2047, under the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Hong Kong issues its highest tropical cyclone warning and China’s Hainan and Guangdong provinces have been put on high alert.
Hong Kong has issued its highest tropical cyclone warning as Typhoon Wipha batters the city, with authorities cancelling classes and grounding hundreds of flights and other transport services.
Wipha was located about 60km (37 miles) southwest of Hong Kong at around 1pm (05:00 GMT) on Sunday and was moving west towards coastal regions of southern China, according to the latest satellite reports from the United States weather monitor NOAA and Japan’s Himawari.
The Hong Kong observatory issued the T10 hurricane alert, saying “winds with mean speeds of 118kmph (73mph) or more are expected” and pose “considerable threat to Hong Kong”.
“Under the influence of its eyewall, hurricane force winds are affecting the southern part of the territory,” the observatory said, warning the public to “beware of destructive winds”.
Huge waves were spotted off the eastern coast of Hong Kong Island, according to the Reuters news agency.
A representative from Hong Kong’s Airport Authority on Sunday said about 500 flights have been cancelled, while 400 others are scheduled to take off or land later in the day.
China’s Hainan and Guangdong provinces were also put on high alert, according to the state news agency Xinhua. The cities of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Macao cancelled or delayed all daytime flights on Sunday.
More than 200 people have sought refuge at government-run temporary shelters in Hong Kong. One man sought medical treatment at the emergency room of a public hospital on Sunday morning, with officials receiving more than a dozen reports of fallen trees.
Authorities also suspended Sunday’s classes at all day schools and daycare centres, while trains offered limited services.
Hong Kong last hoisted the T10 warning signal for Super Typhoon Saola in 2023.
Wipha, which in Thai means “splendour”, also passed over the Philippines at tropical storm strength and drenched parts of Taiwan.
The typhoon also intensified seasonal monsoon rains in the Philippines, and two people have been reported missing, according to the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
More than 370,000 people in the Philippines were affected by days of stormy weather, including 43,000 who fled to government-run emergency shelters or homes of relatives due to flooding, landslides and fierce winds.
More than 400 houses were damaged in the onslaught, officials in the Philippines said.
