welcome to newsday. it s seven am in singapore and fourthirty am in sri lanka the bbc has confirmed that sri lanka s president gotabaya rajapaksa has left the country days after popular protests forced him to abandon his official residence and after several earlier failed attempts to leave. he left by plane. his destination is not clear but it s understood he had his but it s understood he had brotherformerfinance minister his brotherformerfinance minister has also left the country. president gotabaya country. president gota baya rajapaksa country. president gotabaya rajapaksa had promised to resign but remaining in position he kept his immunity from prosecution. many sri lankans blame him for the economic crisis which has crippled their country leaving it short of funds to buy medicines or fuel. our correspondent rajini vaidyanathan was with protestors outside the presidential palace in colombo when the news of president rajapaksa s departure was made public. there
the economic crisis which has crippled their country leaving it short of funds to buy medicines or fuel. our correspondent rajini vaidyanathan was with protestors outside the presidential palace in colombo when the news of president rajapaksa s departure was made public. there is a real party atmosphere here at colombo seafront for that which has been a protest site for many weeks for that one of the may need demands protesters have for gotabaya rajapaksa to go. their slogan, their chant was go home go tile. we now know that president gotabaya rajapaksa has left the country. he fled on eight militaryjet with members of his family. we don t know where exactly he s headed to for been in hiding for the last few days, ever since his home, his official residence was overrun by protesters. it wasn tjust his official residence, in fact over there his presidential
communist nation and likened it to what s happening in hong kong saying that china will handle it militarily. it will take out the protesters. whatever happened with its economy, at its core it s going to be a military power and respond accordingly just like it did 30 years ago. what do you think? there were some shots fired last night at protesters. there is some belief that the chinese national police have moved in to help quell this outpouring of protest. we all thought that when the provision was taken away that would allow for extradition, that that would quiet things down. there are more demands protesters have. hopefully this can be resolved peacefully. neil: she is not so optimistic. we ll see, general. thank you very, very much. we have mentioned about the
in fact the united states government was footing the bill and he didn t get that trip for free. joe johns at the white house, thanks very much. new this morning really significant development and a big victory for the protesters in hong kong who have been protesting for 13, 14 weeks now, nonstop demonstrations. and hong kong s chief executive has announced this morning she will fully withdraw that extradition bill. it s what sparked all of these protests. but it s just one of five major demands protesters have. one of their demands is that she resign although she said she s not going to. that s right. still quite a step. if you didn t think brexit could get anymore complicated it just did. today the you can parliament is set to have a vote so it s not a