HONG KONG: Chinese authorities working with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam this week declared war on protesters. Their strategy: to launch “preventive” arrests, deploy online trolls to promote contempt for young protest leaders, and use the army if needed. The U.S.

INDIA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday revoked semi-autonomous status for the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region, locking down the territory. Authorities placed local political leaders under house arrest.

Divine inspiration isn’t often highlighted in American diplomacy. Yet in his office Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has a framed index card with words from Psalm 126: “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” 

SYRIA: The Trump administration has until the end of Thursday to decide whether to end the temporary protected status of about 7,000 Syrians legally residing in the United States. My colleague Harvest Prude talked to several of them, who said going back to Syria would be “a death sentence.”

RUSSIA: Against his doctor’s wishes, opposition leader Alexei Navalny was discharged from a Moscow hospital and returned to prison, where he is serving a 30-day sentence. Russian authorities have imprisoned him repeatedly for protesting the Putin regime.

BRITAIN: The Conservative Party has named the Bertie Wooster of British culture, Boris Johnson, the country’s new prime minister. Pledging to take the U.K. out of the European Union—as former Prime Minister Theresa May was unable to do—by the statutory deadline of Oct. 31, Johnson has ascended to head of government through an unlikely path resembling U.S.

SYRIA: Locals in Idlib province say Russian forces carried out airstrikes on Monday that “massacred” more than 40 civilians and have left more than 100 wounded.