Roy Kwong Chun-yu, 36, was ambushed by four individuals – including one filming the assault – in a car park in Tin Shui Wai at around 10am, according to the Democratic Party, which he is a member of.
The government later condemned the attack and said police would follow up on the case.
Kwong gave a short account of the incident after being discharged from Tin Shui Wai Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
“When I got into the car, I was dragged away by a masked man,” Kwong said, adding that he was going to drive to the Legislative Council for work.
“I was beaten by three men – punching and kicking me – what was unusual was that a fourth person was filming the whole process with a phone,” Kwong said.
The attack lasted about one minute and ended after one man kicked his neck from behind, according to Kwong.
The lawmaker said he was still in pain but vowed to continue his work.
“If protecting Hongkongers, students and the public means you should be assaulted, this is an international scandal,” Kwong said.
He also said people should not let hatred blind them.
In recent months, Kwong has been active in the protests as a mediator between demonstrators and police.
The incident, which happened on Tin Yip Road, has been logged by police as a case of “assault and person injured”.
After visiting Kwong, Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai called on supporters to exercise restraint.
“Even after Roy Kwong being attacked, we hope friends in the social movement can handle this calmly,” Wu said.
He added that people should express their views in a peaceful manner, rather than using violence against those of different political beliefs.
The police had also taken a statement about the alleged attack, he said.
Speaking outside the Legislative Council, fellow Democrats Lam Cheuk-ting and James To Kun-sun said the attack was coordinated.
To tackle “outrageous and grotesque and immoral” levels of inequality in the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday proposed a new wealth tax on the richest Americans that economists say would slash the fortunes of billionaires in half over 15 years and raise an estimated $4.35 trillion in revenue during the first decade.
“I don’t think that billionaires should exist,” Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, told the New York Times in an interview. “This proposal does not eliminate billionaires, but it eliminates a lot of the wealth that billionaires have, and I think that’s exactly what we should be doing.”
Sanders’s “Tax on Extreme Wealth” plan, detailed on the senator’s campaign website, would create a one percent tax on wealth between $32 and $50 million, with the rate progressively increasing on richer Americans.
“A progressive wealth tax is the most direct policy tool to curb the growing concentration of wealth in the United States,” economists Gabriel Zucman and Emanuel Saez wrote in a letter analyzing Sanders’s proposal. “Senator Sanders’s very progressive wealth tax on the top 0.1 percent wealthiest Americans is a crucial step in this direction.”
Sanders’s website outlines the framework of the tax plan:
1 percent tax on wealth from $32 to $50 million;
2 percent on wealth from $50 to $250 million;
3 percent on wealth from $250 to $500 million;
4 percent on wealth from $500 to $1 billion;
5 percent on wealth from $1 billion to $2.5 billion;
6 percent on wealth from $2.5 billion to $5 billion;
7 percent on wealth from $5 billion to $10 billion;
8 percent on wealth over $10 billion.
“At a time when millions of people are working two or three jobs to feed their families, the three wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of the American people,” Sanders said in a statement. “Enough is enough. We are going to take on the billionaire class, substantially reduce wealth inequality in America, and stop our democracy from turning into a corrupt oligarchy.”
To prevent the rich from evading the wealth tax, Sanders’s plan would establish a number of oversight and enforcement mechanisms, including:
Creating a national registry and significant additional third-party reporting requirements
The world’s fourth largest emitter, Russia, has formally adopted the Paris Agreement, drawing an end to months of national tensions on the subject.
“The Russian Federation has accepted the Paris Agreement and is becoming a full-fledged participant of this international instrument,” Ruslan Edelgeriev, the president’s climate advisor, told the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York, before proceeding to list the country’s climate contributions.
“Russia is already playing a leading role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared to the 1990 base-line,” he continued. “Our total emissions over this period have decreased almost by half. This represent 41 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent which on the planetary scale has allowed to cumulatively hold global warming for an entire year.”
This baseline maps to the collapse of the Soviet Union and its vast industries, making it a relatively easy baseline for the country to promote past success.
“Russia is making another colossal contribution to combatting CO2 emissions and CO2 sequestration which is not reflected in the contributions but is a crucial factor in this effort. These are Russia’s boreal forests which are the lungs of the planet, ” Edelgeriev said.
Whereas he had previously intended to submit the decision to parliament, months of opposition from industry lobbyists and deputies have swayed president Putin to bypass the chamber and endorse the pact via a government accord. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed the government decree in the day.
The country’s climate pledge is however notoriously weak, with Climate Action Tracker labelling it as “critically insufficient”.
Observers of the country’s climate policy welcomed the decision.
“It’s a really important signal for Russian society, for regional governors, for business, for NGOs, that Russia is onboard with global efforts,” Alexey Kokorin, WWF Russia climate programme director, told Climate Home News. “That Russia recognises the importance of the climate problem, and that Russia does not oppose the anthropogenic impact of climate change, which is already really important.”
“The adoption of the Paris Agreement increases the chances of preventing a global climate catastrophe, but this chance must be utilised correctly and, most importantly, taken quickly – there is no time left for compromises and attempts to maintain the status quo of a fossil power,” Greenpeace climate officer Vasily Yablokov said. “Russia’s actions in this matter are of great importance: our country has enormous potential to reduce greenhouse emissions.”
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