Kazakhstan's quarter-century struggle to assert its autonomy from former overlord Russia has hit an unlikely snag: the lowly apostrophe. A vast but sparsely populated country wedged between Russia and China, Kazakhstan came under the rule of its northern neighbour as Russia and Britain jostled for control of Central Asia in the Great Game. It also came under its linguistic influence, and to this day, many Kazakhs speak more Russian than their Turkic native tongue. This became especially concerning after Russian state media, which remain popular in Kazakhstan, helped whip up Russian-speaking separatists to fight government forces in Ukraine in 2014. In April, Kazakhstan's president of 27 years, Nursultan Nazarbayev, ordered the government to prepare a new Kazakh alphabet based on Latin characters and ditch the one based on Russia's Cyrillic script, which the Soviets implemented in 1940. He has said this will give Kazakhstan “real independence” and help it join the “informa...
Protesters clashed with riot police at Hong Kong's international airport on Tuesday evening after flights were disrupted for a second day, as Donald Trump warned that China is moving troops to the border. The airport scuffles broke out in the evening between police and protesters, after protesters allegedly detained two men suspected of being undercover Chinese officials. Trouble began as about 10-15 regular police officers entered the airport without riot gear to assist paramedics after a man collapsed. The man was accused by demonstrators of being a member of Chinese state security. Protesters then drove the police out of the terminal building. Shortly after, about 50 riot police arrived and clashes broke out in and around the entrance of the airport. Police used pepper spray and made a handful of arrests as scenes briefly turned violent. A policeman was cornered and beaten with his own baton before protesters dispersed when he drew his pistol. Cameramen and p...
(Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren took an unusually aggressive stance against her moderate rivals for the Democratic nomination in a speech billed as an economic address on Thursday.“We know that one Democratic candidate walked into a room of wealthy donors this year to promise that ‘nothing would fundamentally change’ if he’s president,” Warren said, referring to Joe Biden.“We know that another calls the people who raise a quarter-million dollars for him his ‘National Investors Circle’ and he offers them regular phone calls and special access. When a candidate brags about how beholden he feels to a group of wealthy investors, our democracy is in serious trouble,” Warren said, referring to Pete Buttigieg.For months, the Massachusetts senator refrained from directly criticizing her rivals in the race for the Democratic nomination. But Warren has seen her poll numbers slip both nationally and in the first two primary states. With the Iowa caucuses only a couple of months away, she’s taking...
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