🌊What time is it? Time to steal a watch!

Featuring music and lyrics by the Law Society

Harbour Times

Aug 31

Good morning,

Last week we tested fish in China. This week we test cars

Inty @__Inty__

中国开始给车做核酸了。。。

I think this makes a lot more sense. You see, fish don’t have lungs so they can’t really catch COVID. Cars however are often filled with people, which do have lungs and can catch COVID. In addition, cars are like really fast, which means one COVID positive car can infect like 100 people a minute.

I, meanwhile, am a sedentary creature. If I were positive, I’d only infect the pigeon that stares through the balcony door asking for food.

~ Cyril

On Today’s Tide

Politics | John Lee visits the Mainland…virtually
COVID | Private hospitals taking more non-COVID patients
Law (and …music?) | Law Society conducts overseas visits
Sports | Rugby 7 rules being finalised
Events

Behind the paywall:

Protest |
- Heavy police presence in Prince Edward on 831
- ‘First Aider’ given 4 years in prison for 831
Crime | What time is it? Time to steal a watch

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John Lee’s stay-at-home Mainland visit

Speaking after the Belt and Road Summit where he thanked the President for ‘gracing’ Hong Kong with his important speech, CE John Lee said he would hold a virtual meeting on Thursday with officials from Guangdong province, and the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, to discuss topics relating to deeper collaborations, including “cross-border exchanges”.

Lee said that due to rising COVID cases on both sides, it is safer and more convenient to have the meetings virtually.

When asked whether he would push for quarantine free travel between Hong Kong and the Mainland, Lee said they will definitely discuss ways but added “to avoid confusion, I think it’s not appropriate to disclose details at this stage. But we will actively consider any options”.

Hong Kong SAR Government News @newsgovhk

The Health Bureau announces that 380 #PrivateHospital beds are now available for accepting patients transferred from the Hospital Authority

news.gov.hk380 beds set for patient transferThe Health Bureau announces that 380 private hospital beds are now available for accepting patients transferred from the Hospital Authority.

COVID-19 in Hong Kong

New cases: 9495 (228 imported)
Total cases: 1,540,803
New deaths: 9
Total deaths: 9,690
Compulsory Testing locations: 64

Over 300 more private hospital beds for non-COVID patients

Health Sec Lo Chung-Mau has brokered a deal between private hospitals and public Hospital Authority for there to be 364 more beds in private hospitals for non-COVID patients.

A statement from the HA said that if numbers go over 10,000, due to the high transmissibility of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, they will have to cut back on non-essential and non-COVID services.

Law Society to conduct more overseas visits

Pro-Gov aligned Law Society President Chan Chak-Ming, said on Tuesday that he is planning to conduct more overseas visits to as it is the Law Society’s responsibility to “clarify misunderstandings” about Hong Kong’s legal system.

He added that Hong Kong’s legal reputation has exactly been rosy internationally but that we should be proud of being the only Common Law system within China.

“I intend to go out more. To travel internationally, to attend international conferences, to explain how it works, i.e., there is a system in place to make sure the defendants’ rights are protected,” he said.

“If a defendant is not satisfied with the outcome of a judgment, there’s a very established mechanism for him or her to appeal”.

A music video!

I don’t believe I missed sharing this on Tide, but the Law Society has been trying to “clarify misunderstandings” for months. In July they released this music video:

And here is the Coconuts review of it.

The 7s details almost finalised

Sports Commissioner Yeung Tak-Keung said on Wednesday that details for the Rugby Sevens happening in November have been finalised (subject still, as always, to how the pandemic develops).

While international staff and players will still need to do 3 days of hotel quarantine, they will be allowed to go for training during those three days in a closed loop system. I.e: they need to first test negative, then travel to designated training sites on designated transport.

There are currently no plans requiring spectators to test negative, but they will not be allowed to eat in the stands (drinks are paradoxically fine).

Events and deals

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Official media partner: ReThink HK returns 5-6 Oct

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Ukrainian Cinema: Contemporary filmmaking @ The Goethe Institut

“Fear sows political bigotry, rumours turn into conspiracy theories, cultural fronts harden” – for these reasons The Goethe Institut is hosting a series of films by Ukrainian filmmakers to support local cultural creators and explore Ukrainian culture together.

Five films will be shown over the course of September including The Tribe (Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy), Atlantis (Valentyn Vasyanovych) and The Rain Will Never Stop (Alina Gorlova)

Find all times and dates here.
And book your tickets directly from Broadway Cinematheque here.
Look under the ‘bc Sunday’ special programme when booking!