Hong Kong Authorities Ban Popular Protest Song in Schools as City's Freedoms Are Further Eroded
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam invoked rarely used and sweeping emergency powers Friday to ban face masks at demonstrations, a move that sought to quell pro-democracy protests but that quickly had the opposite effect, intensifying anger on the streets.
Lam's decision to use colonial-era security powers further inflamed tensions roiling since June and heightened fears that Hong Kong's basic freedoms were being eroded. The order effectively expands police powers of arrest, even as many in Hong Kong fear that police are operating with impunity in their growing use of force.
