John Lee and his wife Janet celebrate after Lee was named as the city's new leader in Hong Kong John Lee and his wife Janet celebrate after Lee was named as the city's new leader in Hong Kong AFP/ PETER PARKS
Hong Kong’s former deputy leader John Lee will become the city's next Chief Executive in July.
Lee received a majority endorsement for the top job on Sunday with 1,416 votes from the city’s Election Committee, which is stacked with pro-Beijing loyalists.
Eight voted to "not support" him.
As the sole candidate, Lee has vowed to re-establish Hong Kong’s image as an international city after several years of political upheaval.
Set to be the city's first leader with a police background, Lee thanked his supporters and said it was an important, historic day for him.
He was partly responsible for ending the city's massive protests that began in 2019 when he was security minister, and enforced a harsher regime under a national security law imposed by Beijing in mid-2020.
The law has since been used to arrest scores of pro-democracy politicians and activists, disband civil society groups and shutter liberal media outlets. Beijing says the law restored stability in the former British colony.
Lee will replace Carrie Lam, whose popularity has plunged over her rocky five year term.
Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones, accompanied by large-scale evacuation of population.
A fourth US Army soldier, who together with three others went missing in Lithuania last week when their vehicle sank in a peat bog, has been found dead, US and Lithuanian officials said on Tuesday.
The United Nations on Tuesday dismissed as "ridiculous" an assertion by Israel that there was enough food in the Gaza Strip to last for a long period of time, despite the closure of all 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP).
United Nations officials who surveyed earthquake damage in Myanmar urged the global community to ramp up aid before the looming monsoon season worsens already catastrophic conditions, with the death toll at 2,719 and expected to surpass 3,000.
Syria suffered a nationwide power outage on Tuesday night due to malfunctions at several points in the national grid, a spokesperson from the energy ministry told Reuters.
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