News Headlines - 04 June 2020

▽Hong Kong: Tens of thousands defy ban to attend Tiananmen vigil - BBC News

Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Hong Kong have defied a ban to stage a mass vigil for the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.
Officers erected barricades around the city's Victoria Park, but some pro-democracy protesters knocked them down and held candlelit gatherings.
Police banned the vigil this year, citing coronavirus measures.

▽Hong Kong passes law to criminalise insult of Chinese national anthem | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

Hong Kong’s legislature has passed a controversial bill criminalising insult of the Chinese national anthem by a comfortable majority, despite months of wrangling due to fears of curbs to free expression.
The vote on Thursday saw 41 lawmakers - constituting the council’s pro-Beijing majority - back the resolution, whilst one objected and no one abstained. Democrats launched a last-minute protest in a bid to stall proceedings, with most refusing to take part in the ballot.

▽India: Unable to access online classes, Dalit girl kills herself | Al Jazeera

Students have protested in southern India after the suicide of a teenage girl who was unable to attend online classes because she did not have access to the internet or television.
Schools have been shut across India since the country locked down its 1.3 billion people on March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus, leaving millions of children whose families cannot afford expensive devices with no access to education.
Among them was Devika Balakrishnan, the 14-year-old daughter of a daily wage labourer in the southern state of Kerala who was found dead near the family home on Monday, the first day of the new school term, having apparently taken her own life.

▽Large-scale early Maya sites in Mexico revealed by lidar mapping technology

Archaeology is transforming our view of how ancient Maya societies developed. Use of lidar technology has now led to the discovery that large, monumental structures that aid naked-eye astronomy were built unexpectedly early.

▽Cannes announces lineup for a festival canceled by COVID - The Mainichi

From an empty movie theater in Paris, organizers of the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday announced the films that would have played at there in May had it not been canceled by the pandemic.
The selections were an exercise in what-might-have-been for Cannes, the international French festival that for the last 73 years has been one the most prestigious and glitzy annual gatherings of cinema. Cannes, originally slated for mid-May, initially considered postponing to July but ultimately gave up on a 2020 edition.