While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Nov 29
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Hundreds in Hong Kong hail Trump's endorsement of Bills
Hundreds gathered in Hong Kong's Central financial district on Thursday night to celebrate the signing of a Bill in the United States that supports the city's pro-democracy protesters.
Some participants waved American flags while the crowd shouted slogans like "fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong".
Prominent activist Joshua Wong, who lobbied for the new US laws, said it was a "remarkable achievement" that human rights triumphed over crucial US-China trade talks.
He said he hoped more countries would set up similar mechanisms to sanction Hong Kong officials who undermine the city's freedoms. "Now is the time for the Western world to stand with Hong Kong," he said.
Trump makes surprise Thanksgiving trip to Afghanistan
US President Donald Trump made a surprise Thanksgiving visit to US troops in Afghanistan on Thursday and said he believed Taleban insurgents would agree to a ceasefire in America's longest war.
Trump's visit was his first to Afghanistan since becoming president and came a week after a prisoner swap between Washington and Kabul that has raised hopes for a revival of peace talks.
"The Taleban wants to make a deal," Trump said. "And we are meeting with them and we say it has to be a ceasefire and they didn't want to do a ceasefire and now they want to do a ceasefire, I believe. It will probably work out that way."
Boris Johnson's Conservatives raise record campaign funds
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives smashed the record for the amount of money raised in the first fortnight of an election campaign on Thursday (Nov 28), while the unions turned on the taps to keep the opposition Labour Party in touch.
Official spending data from the Electoral Commission showed that in the first two weeks of a campaign that will determine Britain's EU future, the Conservatives raised £8.6 million (S$15.1 million) compared with Labour's £3.7 million.
This is the second time this year Johnson has broken a record for political donations. Over the summer, he raised the most money by a British politician campaigning to lead their political party, underlining his popularity with donors.
Facebook working to resolve issues on its social media platforms
Facebook said it suffered an outage Thursday (Nov 28) because of what it called a software problem, hindering access to the social platform and its other apps such as Instagram.
Several users reported issues like not being able to post pictures and videos on their main feeds and an error message saying "Facebook Will Be Back Soon" appeared on log-in attempts.
Facebook says it has 2.45 billion active monthly users across its array of products. It is not the first time the social media company has had connectivity problems on its platforms.
The Life List: Best Black Friday 2019 sales in town
Barely a month after Singles Day on Nov 11, the discounts are back in full force for the Black Friday sale on Friday. The annual American retail sale that traditionally takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving has been gaining traction with both shoppers and retailers here in recent years.
While many of the best deals are found in brick-and-mortar stores, these days, Black Friday sales usually stretch to the following Monday, called Cyber Monday, when more deals are found online.
The Straits Times rounds up nine retailers with the best deals.
