TRUMP TO SIGN EXECUTIVE ORDER ON SOCIAL MEDIA ON THURSDAY: WHITE HOUSE

US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on social media companies on Thursday, White House officials said after Trump threatened to shut down websites he accused of stifling conservative voices.

The officials gave no further details. It was unclear how Trump could follow through on the threat of shutting down privately owned companies including Twitter Inc. The company declined comment.

The dispute erupted after Twitter on Tuesday for the first time tagged Trump's tweets about unsubstantiated claims of fraud in mail-in voting with a warning prompting readers to fact check the posts.

Separately, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Washington on Wednesday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by a conservative group and right-wing YouTube personality against Google, Facebook, Twitter and Apple accusing them of conspiring to suppress conservative political views.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the First Amendment of the US Constitution limits any action Trump could take.

"Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen," Trump said in a pair of additional posts on Twitter on Wednesday.

The president, a heavy user of Twitter with more than 80 million followers, added: "Clean up your act, NOW!!!!"

"Big Tech is doing everything in their very considerable power to CENSOR in advance of the 2020 Election," Trump tweeted on Wednesday night. "If that happens, we no longer have our freedom."

Trump's threat is his strongest yet within a broader conservative backlash against Big Tech. Shares of both Twitter and Facebook fell on Wednesday.

HONG KONG POLICE ARREST HUNDREDS AND FIRE PEPPER PELLETS AMID FRESH UNREST

Police in Hong Kong have arrested about 300 people and fired pepper pellets amid new anti-mainland unrest.

Protesters were rallying against a bill on China's national anthem and Beijing's planned introduction of a national security law.

Police said most arrests were on suspicion of unauthorised assembly.

Protesters oppose the anthem bill, which would criminalise insulting it, and the security law, which they fear will strip Hong Kong of basic freedoms.

A proposed security law could allow Chinese mainland authorities to set up shop in Hong Kong, but their powers would likely be restricted to intelligence gathering and an advisory role, a member of China’s top political advisory body said Wednesday.

China’s rubber-stamp Parliament is expected to approve on Thursday a proposal to draft a national security law for the semi-autonomous city, which has sparked fresh protests over fears the financial hub will lose its unique freedoms.

Daniel Fung, Hong Kong member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said the idea is to establish a security agency similar to one that existed when the city was a British colony. “I would expect the powers and duties of this agency to be restricted to intelligence gathering, and playing an advisory role,” Mr. Fung said, while noting its exact functions will have to be set out under the legislation that will be passed at a later date. Enforcement of laws, he added, should remain with the Hong Kong government under the proposal, which would ban secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference.

Under the city’s mini-constitution, local police are responsible for law enforcement but mainland police officials are allowed to operate within the territory. Activists fear the new proposals will end this firewall.

Meanwhile in the US, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he has certified to Congress that Hong Kong no longer merits special treatment under US law.

"No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground," he said in a statement.

U.S. STRIPS HONG KONG OF SPECIAL TRADING STATUS

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared on Wednesday that Hong Kong no longer enjoys the autonomy promised by Beijing, stripping the financial hub of its special status under U.S. law.

Hours before Beijing will hold a key vote on a controversial new security law on Hong Kong, Mr. Pompeo sent a notice to Congress that China was not living up to obligations from before it regained control of the territory from Britain in 1997. “I certified to Congress today that Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997,” Mr. Pompeo said in a statement. “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground.”

Under a law passed last year by Congress aimed at supporting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, the administration has to certify that the territory is still autonomous to enjoy its separate status with the U.S. for trading purposes.

The legislature is expected on Thursday to move forward on a law that would ban “sedition” and other perceived offences.

“While the United States once hoped that free and prosperous Hong Kong would provide a model for authoritarian China, it is now clear that China is modeling Hong Kong after itself,” Mr. Pompeo said.

US TO REVOKE IRAN NUCLEAR COOPERATION SANCTIONS WAIVERS

The Trump administration is ending nearly all of the last vestiges of US sanctions relief provided under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, according to current and former US officials and congressional aides.

They said Wednesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will revoke all but one of sanctions waivers covering civil nuclear cooperation. The waivers had allowed Russian, European and Chinese companies to continue to work on Iran's civilian nuclear facilities without drawing American penalties.

The waivers were last renewed at the end of March and are due to expire at the end of the week. The revocations will give foreign companies 60 days to wind down their operations, according to the officials, who were not authorised to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. A formal announcement was expected on Thursday.

Deal supporters say the waivers give international experts a valuable window into Iran's atomic program that might otherwise not exist. They also say some of the work, particularly at the Tehran reactor on nuclear isotopes that can be used in medicine, is humanitarian in nature.

But Iran critics in Congress have pressed Pompeo to eliminate all the waivers, saying they should be revoked because they give Iran access to technology that could be used for weapons. Pompeo canceled that waiver in mid-December but the others, which permit work at the Bushehr nuclear power station, the Arak heavy water plant and the Tehran Research Reactor, had been kept in place until now. The waiver for work at Bushehr will be the only one extended for 90 days.

EUROPEAN UNION UNVEILS €750 BILLION ECONOMY RESCUE PLAN

The European Union (EU)’s executive unveiled a €750 billion plan on Wednesday to prop up economies hammered by the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, hoping to end months of squabbling over how to fund a recovery that has exposed fault-lines across the 27-nation bloc.

Under the proposal, which could still be blocked by more frugal northern nations, the European Commission would borrow the funds from the market and then disburse two-thirds in grants and the rest in loans to cushion the unprecedented slump expected this year due to the coronavirus lockdowns.

Much of the money will go to Italy and Spain, the EU nations worst affected by the pandemic. EU leaders agree that, if they fail to rescue economies now in freefall, they risk something worse than their divisive debt crisis of a decade ago, which fanned euroscepticism and threatened to pull the eurozone apart.

The euro rose as she laid out in the European Parliament details of the Commission’s plan, entitled “Europe’s Moment: Repair and Prepare for the Next Generation”.

US PASSES DIRE MILESTONE OF 100,000 COVID-19 DEATHS

Unthinkable just four months ago, the United States on Wednesday surpassed the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths, as the pandemic tightened its grip on Latin America.

With the European Union unveiling a massive recovery plan to step up its emergence from the crisis, the catastrophic US figure was a reminder of the devastation being wreaked across the ocean all over the hard-hit Americas.

Confirmed US deaths just before 2200 GMT stood at 100,047, with 1.69 million infections, according to the tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi paused during a news conference to note the staggering toll of the "villainous virus," even as states cautiously re-open their shuttered, devastated economies.

"Little did we know we would be coming here almost at the exact time when our country would be registering 100,000 people dying from the coronavirus," Pelosi said.

Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee, noted the grisly landmark by speaking directly to suffering families.

"To those hurting, I'm so sorry for your loss," the former vice president said via tweet. "The nation grieves with you."

ENGLAND'S TEST AND TRACE PROGRAMME TO LAUNCH ON THURSDAY, PM JOHNSON SAYS

A COVID-19 test and trace service will launch in England on Thursday to help the loosening of lockdown measures, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

"We are also saying from tomorrow, and this is an important development, that there is a new test and trace operation which will change people's lives and which will require a great deal of thought and compliance but which I think will be worth it for the whole nation," Johnson told a committee of lawmakers on Wednesday.

The service, which will have a taskforce of 50,000 people to test and identify the contacts of anyone who tests positive for the virus, will not initially include the app that is key to finding anonymous contacts. The government did not give a date for when the smartphone technology would be deployed.

IRAN’S NEWLY ELECTED PARLIAMENT CONVENES DESPITE PANDEMIC

Iran convened its newly elected parliament on Wednesday, dominated by conservative lawmakers and under strict social distancing regulations, as the country struggles to curb the spread of the coronavirus that has hit the nation hard.

Iran is grappling with one of the deadliest outbreaks in the Middle East, with more than 7,500 fatalities out of over 139,500 confirmed cases. Turkey has the region’s largest outbreak, with 156,800 confirmed cases and more than 4,300 deaths.

Iranian state TV said all 268 lawmakers who were in attendance on Wednesday have tested negative for the virus. The lawmakers were sworn in after many of them arrived for the opening ceremony wearing face masks and observing social distancing regulations. Temperatures were taken before they entered the parliament building.

They also chose a temporary speaker, based on age seniority, and were to listen to a message from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a speech by President Hassan Rouhani. A permanent parliament speaker will be chosen next week, for a one-year term.