Joshua Wong, who became the face of the 2014 “Umbrella Movement” as a teenager, walked free from prison on Monday and urged the territory’s leader Carrie Lam to step down amid days of mass protests against a controversial extradition bill that would allow suspects to be sent to China for trial.

The 22-year-old was released from the Lai Chi Kok Correctional Facility after completing a two-month sentence for his part in the so-called Umbrella pro-democracy protests that brought the city to a standstill five years ago.

Before being jailed, Wong had called for the Hong Kong government to scrap the planned changes in the extradition law, which has for now been shelved indefinitely.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive on Sunday apologised to the public and “promised to accept criticism with the most sincere and humble attitude”. But protesters have continued to demand her resignation.

“She is no longer qualified to be Hong Kong’s leader,” Wong told reporters. “She must take the blame and resign, be held accountable and step down.”

On Saturday, the chief executive had bowed to public pressure and suspended deliberation of the bill, but did not drop the proposal completely. The territory’s leader is chosen from a pre-selected list of candidates vetted by the government in Beijing.

Some camped out overnight on the streets after Sunday’s mass protest when an estimated two million people – most of them dressed in black – marched through the centre of the city to show their opposition to the bill.

Police said 338,000 were counted on the designated protest route in the “peak period” of the march. 

In the morning, as rain began to fall, the remaining demonstrators moved into a space outside Hong Kong’s Legislative Council allowing police to reopen roads to traffic.

The government building was closed Monday and was the scene of violent confrontations on June 12 in which about 80 people were injured. 

‘Extraordinary timing’

Wong, clutching his belongings and dressed in a white shirt, was mobbed by media and supporters as he walked out of jail.

Al Jazeera correspondent Sarah Clarke, reporting from Hong Kong, described Wong’s release as “extraordinary timing” for the pro-democracy groups and those opposed to the extradition treaty.

Wong’s sentence was reduced to two months from three because he was only 17 when he was arrested in 2014.

The pro-democracy activist won his appeal against a separate conviction and six-month sentence for unlawful assembly and was released after spending more than two months in prison in that case.

Soon after leaving prison Wong laid flowers at a makeshift memorial outside a shopping mall where a protester fell to his death on Saturday night after hanging a banner on some scaffolding.

Strikes and other smaller events were planned for Monday.

Former Hong Kong legislator Lee Cheuk-yan told AP demonstrators are looking at the long-term .

“If Carrie Lam does not respond to the five demands by the protesters, people will come back and the struggle will continue,” Lee said.

London, United Kingdom – The elusive favourite to become Britain’s next prime minister emerged unscathed from a television debate that failed to scrutinise his pledge to take the UK out of the European Union without a Brexit deal – despite refusing to take part.

Boris Johnson – who was “empty chaired” in the Channel 4 programme – risked coming under sustained fire from five rivals seeking to lead the ruling Conservative Party and hence become Britain’s next leader.

While rank outsider Rory Stewart – who has mounted a credible challenge to Johnson by advocating a more moderate Brexit position – scored well with the audience.

But Britain’s next prime minister will be decided by the Conservative members of parliament (MPs).

An ongoing theme in the press has been that Johnson – a highly paid newspaper columnist whose florid language often gets him into trouble – retains the potential to ruin his own chances.

His five rivals in the C4 debate – the first in a contest set to conclude in July – largely refrained from attacking him in his absence, saving their animosity for the Labour Party opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Only Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt – seen as one of the likeliest eventual challengers as the field is narrowed down to two candidates to be put to a vote of Conservative Party members – went on the attack.

“We have been talking about Brexit for 25 minutes and where is Boris?” asked Hunt.

“If he can’t join this team with five colleagues, how is he going to fare with 27 European countries? He should be here to answer that question.”

Dr Simon Usherwood, Reader in politics at the University of Surrey and Deputy Director of the UK in a Changing Europe think-tank, said, the debate was not a “game changer” and Johnson’s absence left one with a “ghost at the feast feeling”.

A former foreign secretary who resigned in protest at the Brexit deal reached with the EU by Prime Minister Theresa May, Johnson won 114 MPs’ votes in the first round of voting last week, giving him a commanding lead in the race to succeed her.

However, observers will be watching carefully how he fares in a debate on the state broadcaster BBC scheduled for Tuesday – after at least one of last night’s candidates is eliminated.

Dr David Jeffery, a lecturer in British politics at the University of Liverpool who has studied the Conservative Party, said: “The only real question is: will Boris ruin his chances in the next debate?”

Mike Bird, the Conservative leader of Walsall council – a region in the West Midlands that voted heavily for Brexit – said: “I don’t think he will win: he was the man who was going to lose this election rather than win it.

“Boris has got great charisma. People on the street love him. But conversely there are those in government and local government who say he keeps dropping the ball.”

Raab under attack

Hardline Brexiter Dominic Raab – a former Brexit secretary – came under sustained attack for hints last week that whoever becomes the next prime minister could suspend parliament to force through a “no deal” Brexit, which economists say would be disastrous.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid, one of the contenders in the race, told the audience: “We are not selecting a dictator of our country, we are selecting a prime minister of one of the proudest parliamentary democracies in the world.”

Environment Secretary Michael Gove – whose chances have been overshadowed by an admission that he took cocaine – piled further pressure on Raab.

“One of the reasons why I argued why we should leave the European Union was to make our parliament stronger, to reinvigorate our democracy,” he said.

“It would be a terrible thing that, having said that we should have more power in this country and trust our institutions more, we did as Dominic Raab seems to be implying and shut the doors on parliament.”

Stewart – the international development secretary and a popular writer – has made an overt appeal to the centre ground against a no deal Brexit.

He told the audience: “One of the reasons why I absolutely want to reject this push for no deal Brexit and I absolutely want to reject the politics of Corbyn is that I think the energy in this country is in the centre-ground, with pragmatism, with compromise.”

Usherwood, said that although Stewart “had some good lines, “that’s still going to have more of an impact with the public at large rather than MPs – who are not likely to have seen anything that is going to change their minds.”

Jeffery added that Stewart delivered some punchy lines, “but he is still trailing massively in MPs nominations and latest polling still has him trailing far behind Boris – so I don’t think it’s changed the narrative.”

Bird, a supporter of Raab’s Brexit position, said Gove came across as a “man of experience” and was set to go head to head with Hunt.

“I have said from Day 1 that I think Raab has got a lot to offer and he would have been my choice – having said that Michael Gove does come across as the man of greater experience, but we could see Raab narrowing that gap.”

The Farage factor

The other absent elephant in the room in the C4 debate was the maverick politician Nigel Farage, whose new Brexit Party – the big winner in European elections in May – poses a serious threat to the Conservative Party.

Stewart has insisted that he would include Farage in talks to resolve the Brexit impasse that has paralysed British politics, but other candidates insist it would not be wise to “out Brexit the Brexit Party”.

Hunt told the audience: “I think all of us agree that the only way to deal with the Brexit Party is to deliver Brexit. But you don’t beat the Brexit Party by becoming the Brexit Party.”

Bird told Al Jazeera: “As far as I am concerned Farage is a one trick pony. Jeremy Hunt made the point: the answer to Nigel Farage is to deliver Brexit. Talking to Farage like Stewart has is absolutely the wrong thing to do.”

Jeffery added that evidence from the European continent showed that centre-left parties which aim to match the rhetoric and policy positions of radical right populist movements merely end up emboldening them.

“The difference here is that the Brexit Party spans the ideological spectrum with one unifying image, which is to deliver Brexit.

“If you deliver Brexit it will take the wind out of the Brexit Party’s sails.”

Yemen’s Houthi movement launched a new drone attack targeting the Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia, the group’s Al-Masirah TV said on Monday.

There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from Saudi Arabia, which on Saturday launched air attacks on Houthi rebel forces in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, part of an escalation of tit-for-tat attacks that has stoked regional tensions.

The Houthis have stepped up drone and missile attacks on cities in neighbouring Saudi Arabia in recent months as tensions have risen between Iran and Gulf Arab states allied with the United States further afield across the Middle East.

In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in support of the internationally recognised President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was forced out of power by the Houthis.

Last week, the Houthis launched several drone and missile strikes targeting southern regions of Saudi Arabia, including Abha, Khamis Mushait and Jizan.

At least 26 people were wounded in a missile attack on Jizan airport carried out by the Houthis on Wednesday.

Proxy war

Since the Western-backed coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) began their military campaign nearly four years ago, more than 10,000 people have been killed.

The civil war has pushed the impoverished country to the verge of famine, according to the United Nations and aid agencies.

The Yemen conflict is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Attacks on oil tankers near the Straits of Hormuz has raised tensions, with the US and Saudi Arabia pointing fingers of blame at Tehran.

But the Houthis have denied taking any orders from Tehran and say they took up arms to fight corruption.

The rebels said they had the right to defend themselves in the face of more than four years of Saudi-UAE bombing and an air and sea blockade.

The Houthi forces’ spokesman had issued a warning on Friday to airlines and civilians to avoid Saudi airports and military sites threatening further raids.

“We tell the Saudi regime that our operations against airports and military sites will continue as long as Saudi aggression against our country continues.

“We also call on airline companies and civilians to stay away from airports and military sites as they have become legitimate targets,” spokesman Yahya Sariee said in a Facebook post.

In May, two oil pumping stations in Saudi Arabia were targeted by Houthi drones causing minor supply disruptions highlighting an apparent significant leap in the drone capabilities of the Houthis.

Buenos Aires, Argentina – A massive power outage plunged tens of millions of people in Argentina, Uruguay and parts of Paraguay into the dark on Sunday, in what government officials called an “extraordinary” and unprecedented blackout, the cause of which is not yet known.

The blackout struck 7:07am local time, triggered by what Argentine government officials called a failure in a coastal grid that serves a number of countries, and a “total disconnection.”

It paralysed transportation systems, closed shops, caused long queues at petrol stations, and delayed provincial elections in Argentina, forcing voters to cast ballots by flashlight or by the light of their mobile phones.

The lights went out as Blanca Brito was leaving her house to head to work at a hair salon in the capital, Buenos Aires.

“At that hour, you couldn’t see anything. The bus was traveling in slow motion, because the driver was afraid he might hit someone. It was terrible,” said Brito, a manicurist, standing in the dark in the Crema Rusa salon as she waited for clients to arrive.

Aida Suarez, her colleague and a recent arrival from Venezuela, said her thoughts went to her home country. “They are things that take you back, to live a little of what you have already lived,” she said.

‘Extraordinary event’

At the Parilla de Rolo restaurant in the capital, there was no power for the entire morning. But the lights came on around 1:30 pm and within an hour, hungry clients were streaming in amid the waft of meat on the grill.

Running the cash register, Adriana Rasgido sighed in relief. They had stocked up for Father’s Day, and bills had to be paid.

“Five years ago, there were power outages all the time. I went five days without power at home at one point. But never at work. This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this,” she said.

By mid afternoon, nearly half of Argentina, with a population of 44 million people, was still without power.

“This is an extraordinary event that should never have happened,” Argentine Energy Secretary Gustavo Lopetegui told reporters a press conference in Buenos Aires Sunday afternoon. “It’s very serious. We can’t leave the country without power from one moment to another.”

Argentine power distributor Edesur said that the failure originated at an electricity transmission point between the Yacyreta and Salto Grande power stations, in the northeast part of Argentina.

‘Nothing ruled out’

The government is not ruling anything out, including a cyberattack, although Lopetegui said it is not among the primary potential causes being considered.

Carlos Garcia Pereira, head of Transener, Argentina’s largest power-transmission operator, said the failure in the system could be caused by something as simple as humidity during a day of heavy rainfall.

Lopetegui stressed that Argentina’s power system is “very robust” and is generating more than it requires.

An investigation is underway to determine who is responsible, and if sanctions are necessary.

“It is important to clarify that this total disconnection happens automatically. It’s the computers that run the system that do it, when they detect imbalances that could cause major harm, and in milliseconds the system disconnects in order to protect itself,” said Lopetegui.

“There was no alert here,” he added. “There was no possibility for an alert here because it’s something that a human can’t detect. There is no human intervention.”

By 3:30 pm on Sunday, 56 percent of Argentina had its power restored, and most of Uruguay, with a population of 3.5 million, was back online. Uruguay officials blamed the blackout on “flaws” in Argentina’s system.

Every province in Argentina except for the southern-most Tierra del Fuego, which is on its own system, was affected.

In Neuquen city in west Argentina, most businesses were closed and street lights were out on Sunday. But at the Alto Comahue mall, one of the few places that was open amid the blackout, the generators rumbled loudly, blowing warm air into the rainy, winter morning.

The mall was a popular location for a Father’s Day outing, and families camped out on benches and crowded the food court.

At a coffee shop, three young men hunched over laptops were making use of the internet.

“We work for a digital platform,” said Nicolas Doguoli, adding that they don’t usually work at the mall.

Cecilia Nowell contributed reporting from Neuquen

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has inaugurated a new illegal settlement in the occupied Golan Heights named after US President Donald Trump, in a gesture of appreciation for the US leader’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the territory.

Netanyahu on Sunday called Trump a “great friend” of Israel and described the Golan, which overlooks northern Israel, as an important strategic asset.

“The Golan Heights was and will always be an inseparable part of our country and homeland,” he said.

The settlement will be called “Ramat Trump”, Hebrew for “Trump Heights” and isn’t exactly new. Currently known as Bruchim, it is over 30 years old and has a population of 10 people.

“Thank you PM @netanyahu and the State of Israel for this great honor!” Trump tweeted later on Sunday.

Israel is hoping the rebranded settlement will encourage a wave of residents to vastly expand it.

“It’s absolutely beautiful,” said US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who attended Sunday’s ceremony.

Noting that Trump celebrated his birthday on Friday, he said: “I can’t think of a more appropriate and a more beautiful birthday present.”

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981. Most of the international community considers the move illegal under international law.

But during a visit to Washington by Netanyahu in March, just weeks before the Israeli elections, Trump changed decades of US policy by signing an executive order, officially recognising the strategic mountainous plateau as Israeli territory.

The decision, the latest in a series of US diplomatic moves benefitting Israel, was widely applauded in Israel.

“Few things are more important to the security of the state of Israel than permanent sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Friedman said.

“It is simply obvious, it is indisputable and beyond any reasonable debate.”

After a cabinet meeting at the site on Sunday, Netanyahu and Friedman unveiled a sign trimmed in gold with the name “Trump Heights”, adorned with US and Israeli flags.

‘Cheap PR stunt’

Reporting from Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett said opposition parties have been pointing out that Netanyahu’s transitional government ahead of September’s election doesn’t have the authority to enact a new settlement in the occupied Golan Heights.

“But that hasn’t stopped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He’s taken his cabinet up there for what he called a ‘festive cabinet meeting’ which was attended unusually by the US ambassador David Friedman,” Fawcett said.

Following Sunday’s decision to inaugurate the community, developing the settlement still requires overcoming several additional bureaucratic obstacles.

With Netanyahu running for reelection in the second national election this year, it remains unclear whether he will be able to complete the task.

Zvi Hauser, an opposition legislator who formerly served as Netanyahu’s Cabinet secretary, called Sunday’s ceremony a cheap PR stunt.

“There’s no funding, no planning, no location, and there’s no real binding decision,” he said.

Developing Trump Heights will not be easy. Ringed by high yellow grass and landmines, it is located roughly 20km from the Syrian border and a half hour drive from the nearest Israeli town, Kiryat Shmona, a community of about 20,000 people near the Lebanese border.

According to Israeli figures, almost 50,000 people live in the occupied Golan Heieghts, including about 22,000 Jewish Israelis and nearly 25,000 Arab Druze residents.

While Israel has encouraged and promoted settlement in the Golan, its remote location, several hours from the economic center of Tel Aviv, has been an obstacle.

The area is home to small agriculture and tourism sectors but otherwise has little industry.

Corruption charges

As Netanyahu unveiled the newly rebranded illegal settlement, his wife Sara on Sunday admitted to the misuse of public funds and asked a Jerusalem court to approve a plea bargain convicting her of fraud and breach of trust.

Under the charges in an amended indictment, Sara Netanyahu would plead guilty to exploiting the mistake of another person and pay a fine along with compensation, but corruption charges against her would be dropped.

Sara was initially charged in June 2018 with fraud and breach of trust for allegedly misusing state funds to pay for catered meals costing $100,000, by falsely declaring there were no cooks available at the prime minister’s official residence.

Separately, Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing possible indictment for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in the months ahead.

He is reportedly seeking legislation that would result in him being granted immunity.

“Of course the bigger question now confronts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has three corruption cases of his own,” Al Jazeera’s Fawcett said.

“He was unable to cement a coalition after the last election. He’s now … had the Israeli parliament call new elections for September 17.

“All of the stuff that has been going on in the Golan today is very much part of his efforts to try to get re-elected and also appeal to his friend in the White House, Donald Trump.”