The US president linked a humane resolution to anti-Beijing protests to China trade deal in tweets as Hong Kong activists plan more mass rallies this weekend to show their movement maintains public support despite disruptive sit-in at the airport.
Hong Kong is facing an economic crisis worse than either the 2003 SARS outbreak that paralysed the city or the 2008 financial crisis, leader Carrie Lam said.
Carrie Lam said traffic disruptions and confrontations between police and protesters have hurt the economy, particularly the retail and food and beverage sectors.
Men in white t-shirts, some armed with poles, stormed a subway station and attacked passengers. Witnesses said the masked men were attacking people that had been at the anti-government march.
Millions have thronged the streets in the past three weeks to demand the bill, which would allow criminal suspects to be sent to the mainland for trial in courts controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, be scrapped.
Protesters in Hong Kong left the streets, averting possible clashes after haggling for hours with police by moving to areas near the city's government headquarters.
Hundreds of thousands of residents have poured out on to the streets to oppose a controversial extradition law with China.
Three protest leaders were given 16 months, one of them suspended for two years, two received eights months in prison and two were given suspended eight-month sentences on charges of public nuisance offenses.
In a summary of his judgement, Justice Johnny Chan noted that while the concept of civil disobedience is "recognised in Hong Kong", it wasn't a defence to a criminal charge.
The annual protests take place on the anniversary of the city's return to China by colonial power Britain in 1997 but saw one of the lowest turnouts in history this year.
Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow were jailed in August last year for their role in the 2014 Umbrella Movement mass pro-democracy protests, after Hong Kong's government pushed for harsher sentences.
Subscribe to our Youtube channel for all latest in-depth, on the ground reporting from around the world.
Copyright © 2023 TRT World.