Good morning,

Happy first day of restrictions loosening! This is the part of the restriction exit plan that has a date set to it. Every other phase is TBC ‘when the epidemic situation allows’.

Just be glad we’re not Shanghaied like the Shanghainese.

Anyway - we’ve collated a whole bunch of F&B events to share over the next few days to celebrate being able to have dinner at a table with friends.

Make sure to follow our social media channels where myself and Yassin are hard at work being responsible media professionals and sharing lots of alcoholic events.

Also Queen Liz is 96 today which is pretty old. Stick till the end (past the paywall) for some nice reminders of a simpler time when an unelected head of state dressed in fancy clothes would come to Hong Kong and get toured around housing estates full of poor people.

~ Cyril

On Today’s Tide:

1. Politics | John Lee loses his YouTube licence

2. COVID

3. Protests | ‘Fast Beat’ gets 11 charges, 40 months in prison

4. Events | Ever been on a Sake bar crawl?

For premium High Tide readers

1. Arts | Franchesca finally apologizes

2. International | China’s invading Taiwan!….wait no…shit

3. History | God Save The Queen

Become a premium subscriber for just $8US a month - extra daily news and weekend roundups!

John Lee’s not allowed on YouTube

CE hopeful John Lee had his official ‘John Lee 2022’ Youtube channel taken down yesterday. Speaking with HKFP, a Google spokesperson said this was due to Lee being sanctioned in 2020 by the US.

“Google complies with applicable US sanctions laws and enforces related policies under its Terms of Service. After review and consistent with these policies, we terminated the Johnlee2022 YouTube channel”

Holden Chow of the DAB said that the banning was serious and “interference by foreign forces”. He urged the government to lodge formal complaints against Google in case other foreign companies do similar acts which would “interfere in Hong Kong’s elections”

(I mean…I love YouTube but a YouTube ban is hardly ‘interference’ in Hong Kong elections is it…YouTube isn’t a Hong Kong company anyway….)

Meanwhile Lee is unfazed, saying

"The so-called sanctions against me are unreasonable and oppressive, and are intended to exert pressure on me, to make me doubt myself. But I have stressed many times that their unreasonable acts only convince me that what I’m doing is right. Therefore I won’t pay their sanctions any mind. They're not worth my attention”.

Lee’s team has said they will find alternate channels to disseminate election information.

Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, has said John Lee can maintain his platforms on their services but without professional tools or monetization.

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COVID in HK

Aaron Busch @tripperhead

COVID-19 cases 🇭🇰 April 20th • New reported local PCR+ cases: 317 • New reported RAT+ cases: 338 • Local total: 655 • Imported: 13 • Total cases: 1,199,706 • Local cases 5th wave: 1,185,873

8:38 AM ∙ Apr 20, 2022

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23Likes6Retweets

Coronavirus in Hong Kong

• New cases: 668 (13 imported)

• Total cases: 1,199,706

• New deaths: 10

• Total deaths: 8,973

Lockdowns:

• I…I think we’ve not got any

But we do have 40 Compulsory Testing Notices

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‘Fast Beat’ DJ Tam Tak-Chi gets 40 months

Former pro-democracy activist and DJ ‘Fast Beat’ Tam Tak-Chi has been sentenced over 3 years in prison (and a $5000 fine) over 11 separate charges.

Although he was found guilty in March, he was only handed his sentence yesterday. Tam was first arrested in 2020 and has been remanded since.

HKFP made a wonderful graph showing all his charges:

Part of his ‘seditious words’ was overt criticism of the Communist Party. While the defense argued that the CCP does not equal the Central Government or Hong Kong Government and hence could not make it seditious, NSL Judge Stanley Chan wrote that the status of the CCP within the Chinese Constitution is clear (they’re in charge), and that as the Central Government confers power to the HKSAR government, Tam’s open criticism of the CCP is equal to sedition against the state.

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Events and deals

Support Harbour Times, our friends and partners by attending these events! Let everyone know who sent you by tagging @harbourtimes

• Young Master’s Hot Wings for Free Beer Challenge

thealeproject

A post shared by The Ale Project (@thealeproject)

Fancy yourself a challenge? To celebrate F&B’s gradual reopening, Young Master Brewery’s gastropubs: TAP Mong Kok, TAP Mills, as well as Alvy’s are having a week long hot wings challenge

6 super hot wings in 2 minutes and get 1 free pint.
(The insta post is a brilliant example of how painful the experience is).

Where:
TAP1: 19 Hak Po Street, Mongkok
TAP2: Unit 302, The Mills, 45 Pak Tin Par Street, Tsuen Wan
Alvy's by Young Master: 8 Holland St., Kennedy Town

When: 21 Apr - 30 Apr as long as food is served!

• Sake 5km TST Bar Crawl

enso_sakebeerbar

A post shared by ENSŌ 円相 (@enso_sakebeerbar)

To celebrate the coming of spring (keep your mask on for the hay fever) the Federation of Japanese Sake Industry of Hong Kong is organising a bar crawl around eight specialist bars in Kowloon.

Buy-one-get-one-free on every cup of sake at any store AND when you’ve visited all 8, get a 720ml bottle for free!

Factcheck: It’s only 5km if you plan it to be 5km. If you plug it badly into Google maps, it’s 6.5km

Promotion ends 3 June, go get walking!

• Smashin’ Grapes - Hong Kong’s first Italian Grape Ale

Another week, another new craft beer launch! Deadman Brewery’s new brew is Hong Kong’s first Italian Grape Ale, a newer beer style which uses a large portion of wine grapes in fementation to create a wine-beer hybrid.

“We used 20% white grapes, 20% red grapes to add more layers of flavor and give the beer a beautiful light pink hue. Fermented with saison yeast. Aged on light toasted French oak for subtle oaky flavours to add complexity".

Grand launch at Craft Logic, Soho, this Saturday.

Grab a glass and drink till 10pm when please go home because that’s how long you’re allowed to stay out.

Want your events on Tide as well? Let us know!

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