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Pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong shifted out of the airport and back into the streets on Wednesday — as the Chinese appeared to amass paramilitary vehicles in a nearby sports arena. Heavily armed Hong Kong police faced off with civilians Wednesday night outside a police station in the residential Sham Shui Po area, where a vigil was taking place, according to CNN. Cops fired tear gas at a group of protesters who had gathered to burn phony currency and incense to signal their opposition to police during the Hungry Ghost Festival, when offerings are made to fend off the spirits of ancestors. Earlier in the day, only a few dozen protesters remained camped out at the busy airport arrivals area after a mass demonstration that exploded into mob violence forced more than 100 flight cancellations Tuesday. The lingering activists spread pamphlets and posters across the floor but were not impeding the flow of passengers as additional ID checks were put in place. The US State Departm...

Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba is weighing a delay to its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange due to massive anti-China protests that have shuttered the airport and captivated the world. The Chinese online retailer had been working toward a September listing on the Hong Kong exchange as recently as last week, two sources told The Post. But after protests broke out in Hong Kong — shuttering the airport for two days and drawing China’s troops to the border — the company is rethinking those plans, a source said. Alibaba in June filed to sell shares in Hong Kong without setting a firm date. The offering is expected to be roughly $20 billion. The Hong Kong listing will let pensions and other investors from the mainland buy shares of one of the country’s most recognizable Chinese companies. The Hongzhou, China-based Alibaba is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange but the Chinese government does not allow its citizens to buy shares of companies listed on a US exchange. Cr...

Jeffrey Epstein told his lawyers that a hulking ex-cop inflicted the injuries that left him nearly unconscious in his cell last month, a source close to the convicted pedophile’s case told The Post. Epstein was treated for neck injuries following the July 23 incident inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, law-enforcement officials have said. At the time, Epstein was sharing a cell with former Westchester County cop Nicholas Tartaglione, who faces a death-penalty trial in four drug-related slayings upstate. Epstein told his lawyers that “the cop roughed him up, and that’s why they got him off suicide watch,” the source said. Tartaglione’s lawyer, Bruce Barket, disputed that account, saying, “I spoke to his lawyers and they never hinted at that to me, but he must have said something to get off suicide watch.” “I do know that Nick was not brought up on any charges at all in the institution, so they cleared him,” Barket said. “It’s simply, patently false to ...

ATLANTA — Brian Poole has lined up opposite Matt Ryan and the Falcons offense plenty of times. But on Thursday night, the cornerback will be doing it wearing a different uniform for the first time. Poole spent the past three seasons playing for the Falcons and went head-to-head with Ryan and the Atlanta receivers every day in practice. The Falcons chose not to tender Poole as a restricted free agent this offseason, though, and the Jets grabbed him to replace Buster Skrine as their slot corner. On Thursday, Poole returns to Atlanta in green and white. “I’m definitely going to be excited to see a lot of the guys I’ve been going to battle with the last couple of years,” Poole said this week. “Some are lifelong friends. It’s definitely a group of guys I won a lot of games with and there’s a relationship there, so I’m excited to see my guys.” It is just a preseason game so the intensity won’t be as high as it could be if this were a meeting in the regular season. Poole started 21 of 47 ...

Shares of “The Big Bang Theory” network CBS plummeted Wednesday as Wall Street digested its planned merger with Viacom and decided the benefits of the merger are too little too late. Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger cast the deal — aimed at creating a media conglomerate to compete with the likes of Netflix and Disney — as a copycat move that lacks sufficient scale to succeed. “We don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that CBS/Viacom, like many others, has seen the stock market’s positive reaction to Disney’s plans and decided ‘let’s do that too,’ ” he wrote in an update that lowered CBS’ rating to underperform. Juenger’s reaction, coupled with other negative reviews, sent the stocks of Viacom and CBS down 8.5% and 8.3%, respectively — almost three times the Dow’s plunge on Wednesday of 3.1%. BMO analyst Daniel Salmon also downgraded CBS’ stock to market perform, claiming “the next 12 months are more likely to be focused on near-term content investment and potentially more M...

A man said his hatred for his brother led him to chop down an iconic Connecticut tree that was featured on “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” according to a report. Curtis Pardee, 63, confessed to hacking the 200-year old Hamden, Conn. Door Tree — aptly named because its lower part grew in the shape of an archway — over the course of three days in late June, according to a newly released arrest record obtained by obtained by the Hartford Courant. When questioned at first about the felled tree on July 22, Pardee’s answers to authorities were evasive. But he copped to the chopping once police presented him with a piece of mail addressed to him that was left at the scene. He said he did the deed because of “hatred for my brother,” David Pardee, who is known locally as “Mr. Door Tree” because of his adoration for the white oak. Pardee began the destruction on June 28 and finished two days later, he told cops. Along with the letter, police also found a can of chainsaw oil that they determi...

Now that Joe Tsai, the Nets’ minority owner, is closing in on his purchase of Barclays Center, that opens the door to accelerating his takeover of the rest of the team. But what does that means for fans? Once Tsai completes the deal for the team, worth an NBA-record $2.35 billion, and adds the arena to go with it in a move first reported by The Post, the Nets will swap one wealthy foreign owner for another. What will change and what stays the same? The deep pockets, for one, will remain. Tsai will replace Mikhail Prokhorov as the third-richest principal owner in the NBA; both men are estimated to have net worths in the vicinity of $10 billion. And sources have consistently said Tsai will give general manager Sean Marks the money needed to win. But expect Tsai to be more visible. More visible around the Nets and the NBA and even more visible in New York. Despite being the co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba — and presumably taking an even bigger role with founder Jack Ma...

In the latest attack on Grubhub’s businesses model, a New York state agency proposed a cap on how much third-party companies can earn helping restaurants with food orders. The New York State Liquor Authority says it wants to prevent third-party food companies from charging more than 10 percent commission for delivering food or for helping to generate orders — unless they become partners on the state liquor license. If the proposal goes into effect, it could seriously cut into the profits at Grubhub because it is NY state’s largest food ordering company. It could also affect Seamless, which Grubhub owns, Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates and other food ordering and delivery services that can charge as much as 30 percent per order. Grubhub shares closed Wednesday down 7 percent, to $60.90, a 52-week low. Neither DoorDash nor Postmates is publicly traded and Uber Eats is a relatively small part of ride-hailing company Uber’s business. Grubhub criticized the draft proposal, which would b...

A group of two women and two children were escorted out of the Philadelphia house where at least one gunman barricaded himself Wednesday, during an hours-long standoff with police that that left six cops injured. One of the evacuees told CBS3 she was inside, on the second floor of the home in Philly’s Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood when the shootout began. “I thank God for these cops they are good people,” the woman said. “Don’t say nothing bad about them, they kept us safe the whole time.” Police were conducting a drug raid on the house around 4:30 p.m. when at least one male suspect began blasting at them with some sort of rifle. Some of the officers had to jump out through windows to escape after the gunman opened fire, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross told reporters. Hours after the shootout began, the suspect was still holed up inside on the first floor, according to CBS3. Two officers were also inside the home, on the second floor, with three individuals, the ou...

A white Mississippi sheriff enraged over a local legislator’s opposition to the construction of a new jail said the pol was “worse than a black person,” according to a report. Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson made the shocking statement in a text exchange with another local elected official that was recently obtained by the Daily Journal. “He’s worse than a black person, your [sic] not going to please him,” Johnson wrote to Lee County District 1 Supervisor Phil Morgan in August 2017. Johnson was referring to Hispanic Mississippi state Rep. Shane Aguirre, whom the sheriff was “aggravated” at for opposing a bill that would have green-lighted a new county jail outside Tupelo, the paper reported. Addressing the texts in an interview with the Daily Journal, Johnson said, “I was aggravated at him.” “There was probably no call for mentioning anything of race.” The sheriff later told the paper he harbors no racists feelings. “God made us all the same,” Johnson said. “I don’t treat anybod...

MIAMI — His club seemingly headed to a second consecutive last-place finish in the NL East, Miami Marlins CEO Derek Jeter isn’t ready to disclose whether manager Don Mattingly will return next season. “There hasn’t been a decision yet,” Jeter said before Miami hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night. “To be honest with you, we’ve been so focused on the trade deadline and see what we could do with it.” “At the end of every year, we sit down and evaluate all members of the organization, whether it’s the manager, coaches, player development, scouting, front office,” he said. Mattingly is in the final year of a four-year contract. The former Dodgers manager was hired by ex-owner Jeffrey Loria prior to the 2016 season. The Marlins began the day with a 44-74 record that was the worst in the National League. Jeter, the public face of the ownership group that purchased the club from Loria before the 2017 season, credited Mattingly for his leadership during the team’s rebuild. M...

Golden Tate took responsibility for taking a banned substance — but blamed a fertility doctor for prescribing it. A day after the NFL denied his appeal of his four-game suspension, the Giants receiver said the doctor misled him. Tate, who is trying to have another child with his wife, said his doctor told him the treatments, which contained the banned substance clomiphene, would not violate the NFL’s banned substance list. “I think ultimately because the doctor had said no, it’s not a banned substance and I have prescribed it to other NFL guys,” Tate said Wednesday when asked why he didn’t consult the league or the Giants. “If the doctor says I’m not sure, I would have 100 percent looked into it. If the doctor never said he had never given it to other NFL players, I 1,000 percent would have looked into it.” While out to dinner one night shortly after starting the treatments, Tate said he was discussing another player’s suspension when it dawned on him that he might want to double ...

Need a baby sitter? There’s an app for that. Uber-esque baby-sitting services, including the popular Bambino and UrbanSitter, are gaining traction among harried local parents, who love that they can hail child care as easily as a car. Of course, when it’s your kid — or pet — the stakes are high: Walkers on the dog-sitting app Wag have been hit with allegations of theft and worse. Although sitter apps promise careful screening, reportedly asking sitters to submit to in-depth background checks, Stamford, Conn.-based mother of two April Martin tells The Post that she has met some “psycho sitters” during her year and a half on Bambino. Like most top baby-sitting apps, Bambino, which launched in 2016, lets parents pore over sitters’ photos, user ratings (out of five stars) and referrals. For the most part, it’s worked well for 36-year-old Martin, who “found the best sitter” the day she signed up. But it didn’t screen out the bad egg who she claims “stole the kids’ iPad.” Though the mo...

ATLANTA — The Mets have largely avoided lost playing time for their most significant pieces this season, but Wednesday the lineup took a substantial hit, if only for possibly the short term. Jeff McNeil was placed on the injured list with what the team is calling a mild left hamstring strain, leaving a void atop the batting order for at least 10 days. McNeil sustained the injury trying to leg out a grounder in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s loss to the Braves. To fill the roster spot, Ruben Tejada was selected from Triple-A Syracuse, reuniting the veteran infielder with the team with which he spent six seasons before his right leg was broken by Chase Utley’s slide in Game 2 of the 2015 NLDS. McNeil is third in the National League in hitting, with a .332 batting average, and his versatility moving between right field and second base has added another component to his value. But the Mets are looking at the glass as half full, with an eye on the bigger picture than the next week or two...

RESNO, Calif. — A man died shortly after competing in a taco-eating contest at a minor league baseball game in California, authorities said Wednesday. Dana Hutchings, 41, of Fresno, died Tuesday night shortly after arriving at a hospital, Fresno Sheriff spokesman Tony Botti said. An autopsy on Hutchings will be done Thursday to determine a cause of death, Botti said. It was not immediately known how many tacos the man had eaten or whether he had won the contest. Tuesday night’s competition allowed amateurs to qualify for Saturday’s World Taco Eating Championship to be held at Fresno’s annual Taco Truck Throwdown, KFSN-TV reported. Fresno Grizzlies spokesman Paul Braverman said in a statement the eating contest was not connected to Saturday’s competition and added “out of respect for the grieving family, we are declining on-camera requests at this time.” Tuesday night’s competition came ahead of Saturday’s World Taco Eating Championship to be held at Fresno’s annual Taco Truck Thr...

Luke Voit walked into the Yankees’ clubhouse with a T-shirt soaked with sweat after going through agility drills, fielding ground balls outdoors and hitting indoors Wednesday morning. “It feels a lot better this time than last time,’’ Voit said of the abdominal injury he initially suffered June 29 running the bases against the Red Sox in London. The first baseman/DH may progress soon from batting practice and taking ground balls to a minor league rehab assignment. “I don’t know yet. I think I am going somewhere next week,’’ Voit said. Aaron Boone relayed that Voit told him he feels great. The manager said when the Yankees leave on a road trip Sunday, Voit will report to a minor league team to prepare for a rehab assignment. “There is a chance when we go west he might go either Tampa, or possibly Scranton. Not to play [games] right away but to get into full workouts and hopefully if that goes well start playing some games,’’ Boone said as his club beat Baltimore, 6-5. Based on Vo...