Wartime bomb found in Happy Valley, Cantonese is not an official language and the Pan-democrats are divided

Wartime Bomb Found in Happy Valley

A 2,000-pound U.S. World War II-era bomb was unearthed last week at a Happy Valley construction site next to the Xinhua News Agency Building. The police found the detonator still attached, meaning any movement could’ve triggered the explosives. The bomb contained 1,000 pounds of explosives, and if detonated, would have caused severe damage within a 10-meter radius. The police cordoned off a 200-meter radius zone and evacuated 2,260 people while the bomb disposal team removed, then burned the explosives. According to police, the U.S. Navy dropped the bomb on the Japanese army occupying the city in 1945, but it didn’t detonate because it landed on soft ground. It’s the biggest wartime bomb found in the city.

Our take: Is it just a coincidence that the bomb was found next to the Xinhua Building? Let the conspiracy theories begin…

Cantonese: Officially Jibberish?

The Education Bureau stated that Cantonese is “a Chinese dialect that is not an official language” on a website post promoting trilingualism in Hong Kong last week. In response, critics and netizens complained that the government was trivializing the role of Cantonese in the education system. Netizens further dug up two educational TV programs produced by the government in 2004 and 2006 that depicted Cantonese as a villain, and Putonghua as a martial arts hero. The bureau later apologized and removed the post. HKU law professor Eric Cheung said the bureau has no legal justification for its claim.  

Our take: If Cantonese is not an official language, what are lawmakers speaking in LegCo?