Hong Kong’s legislature has passed today the controversial bill criminalising insult of the Chinese national anthem by a comfortable majority, despite months of wrangling over fears of curbs to free expression. Offenders who are now found guilty of deliberately altering March of the Volunteers risk fines up to HK$50,000 or three years in prison.

The 2020 US presidential race is becoming a digital-first campaign as the coronavirus pandemic cuts candidates off from traditional organizing and in-person events.

China on Wednesday accused Britain of having a "colonial mentality," after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised Hong Kong residents a path to citizenship if China enacted planned national security laws.

Kosovo named a new government Wednesday after months of political turmoil in the former Serbian province, casting out left-wing leader Albin Kurti and raising tensions with his supporters. The new government was cobbled together by Kurti's former coalition partner, the centre-right LDK, who quit his alliance in March, plunging Kosovo into a leadership crisis in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

China warned Britain on Wednesday that interfering in Hong Kong will backfire, after the former colonial power vowed to give sanctuary to any local who may flee the city if a controversial security law is passed.

Belarus was hit by a new wave of protests in the last weeks after President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed he will run for a sixth term in office. His opponents try to inflict a sort of unrest similar to the one in neighbouring Ukraine a decade ago, but Belarusian strongman vowed never to allow a "colour revolution" and was fast to put his main political opponents in jail.

President Donald Trump vowed to order a military crackdown on once-in-a-generation violent protests gripping the United States, saying he was sending thousands of troops onto the streets of the capital and threatening to deploy soldiers to states unable to regain control.

The UK government has confirmed its intention to establish an own emissions trading system from 2021, which is to replace the European Union’s system for trading carbon emissions. The government also said it intended to open a consultation on the design of a carbon tax “as an alternative to a UK ETS, to ensure a carbon price remains in place in all scenarios”.

 A donor conference on Yemen was set to kick off on Tuesday as the United Nations aspires to shore up financial support for aid operations in the war-torn country. The video pledging event is co-hosted by Saudi Arabia, which is leading a military alliance fighting Iran-linked rebels in Yemen, and the United Nations.

Canada does not support Russia's return to the Group of Seven, proposed by US President Donald Trump over the weekend, because Moscow continues to flout international law, PM Justin Trudeau said on Monday cited by news wires. "Russia was excluded from the G7 after it invaded Crimea a number of years ago, and its continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms," he said during his daily news conference.