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A new national security law has come into effect in the Chinese territory of Macau, widening punishments for any opposition to Beijing. The legislation puts greater emphasis on preventing foreign interference in the special administrative region. It expands on legislation first introduced in Macau in 2009. Macau's government says the changes are in line with legislation in Hong Kong, where Beijing has strictly tightened control following political turmoil. The original national security law laid out seven major crimes such as treason, subversion, theft of state secrets and foreign collusion - with punishments of up to 25 years in jail. Another of these offences, secession, has now been expanded to cover non-violent acts. Meanwhile, opposition to any central government department and the ideology in Beijing can be punished under the updated definition of subversion.

Nato has condemned as "totally unacceptable" attacks by demonstrators in Kosovo that left at least 30 of its peacekeepers injured. Police and Nato troops clashed with Serb protesters in the north where there has been unrest over the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors. Tear gas and stun grenades were used to deter protesters in Zvecan, after they tried to invade a government building. Nato soldiers also formed a security cordon around two other town halls. The crisis dates back to April when Kosovo Serbs boycotted local elections, allowing ethnic Albanians to take control of local councils with a turnout of less than four per cent. Both the EU and US have criticised the Kosovan authorities for destabilising the situation in north Kosovo, and warned against any actions that could inflame ethnic tensions there.

The possibility the Covid virus leaked from a laboratory should not be ruled out, a former top Chinese government scientist has told BBC News. As head of China's Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Prof George Gao played a key role in the pandemic response and efforts to trace its origins. China's government dismisses any suggestion the disease may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory. But Prof Gao is less forthright. In an interview for the BBC Radio 4 podcast Fever: The Hunt for Covid's Origin, Prof Gao says: "You can always suspect anything. That's science. Don't rule out anything." A world-leading virologist and immunologist, Prof Gao is now vice-president of the National Natural Science Foundation of China after retiring from the CDC last year. In a possible sign that the Chinese government may have taken the lab leak theory more seriously than its official statements suggest, Prof Gao also tells the BBC some kind of formal investigation into the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was carried out.

BBC News Malaysia has detained a Chinese-registered vessel suspected of looting two British World War Two shipwrecks. The bulk carrier was seized on Sunday for anchoring illegally at the site in the South China Sea. Ammunition believed to be from the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, which were sunk by Japanese forces more than 80 years ago, was then found on board. The UK Ministry of Defence had earlier condemned the alleged raid as a "desecration" of maritime war graves. Old shipwrecks are targeted by scavengers for their rare low-background steel, also known as "pre-war steel". The low radiation in the steel makes it a rare and valuable resource for use in medical and scientific equipment.

At least nine people were wounded in a mass shooting at Florida’s Hollywood Beach on Memorial Day, according to reports. The incident, which saw a 15-year-old victim among the wounded, took place in the area of the 1200 block of N Broadwalk on Monday evening, according to CBS Miami. “Please avoid the area of Johnson to Garfield Streets, as well as the Broadwalk, due to an ongoing shooting investigation. Heavy police presence in the area. If you are looking to reunite with a family member, we have set up a reunification area at Johnson St and N Ocean bus loop,” tweeted Hollywood Polie Department. Witnesses posted online that the shooting took place outside Nicks Bar & Grill at around 7pm ET.0

An online video showed the moment gunfire erupted on the popular hotspot. The crowd frantically scattered for cover and away from danger when gunshots started to ring out near the Margaritaville resort. Other videos from the scene showed emergency responders treating several victims as they lay along the sand.

Raging wildfires that have burned through thousands of acres have forced more than 16,000 Canadians to evacuate their homes and triggered a burn ban in Nova Scotia, as the region experiences record-breaking heat. Officials say the fires, which span a total of more than 25,000 acres and have been deemed “out of control” by officials, have destroyed multiple buildings and caused huge plumes of smoke to tower over the region. As of Monday, more than 16,000 people were forced to evacuate the area around Halifax, Nova Scotia’s largest city. How wildfires in Alberta lead to poor air quality in the Midwest The number of people who have been forced from their homes is about 16,429, Erica Fleck, Division Chief of Emergency Management of the Halifax Regional Municipality, said in a news conference Monday.

Among the 10 countries that drink the most in the world, nine are in the EU. But there are big differences between nations. If you feel that Europeans drink a lot, your hunch is correct: people across the continent consume more alcohol than in any other part of the world. Each year in Europe, every person aged 15 and over consumes, on average, 9.5 litres of pure alcohol, which is equivalent to around 190 litres of beer, 80 litres of wine or 24 litres of spirits. That’s according to the 2021 European health report by the World Health Organization (WHO).

With a few days to go before the U.S. was projected to hit the debt ceiling and run out of funds to pay the nation's bills, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden have struck a deal to suspend the debt limit, and Congress is expected to vote as soon as this week. Here's what the agreement entails: Suspending debt ceiling Under the deal, the debt limit would be suspended until the first quarter of 2025, beyond the 2024 elections. Rather than raising the debt ceiling by a specific dollar amount, suspending it allows Congress to define a period of time before the debt limit would need to be addressed again. Taking this approach ensures that it can't be used for political advantage during the campaigns. It leaves the next fight over the debt ceiling for the new administration and Congress soon after the 2024 elections.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed that nations who are willing “to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus” will be given nuclear weapons, days after confirming the transfer of some tactical nuclear weapons from Moscow to Minsk had begun. Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made the comments in an on-camera interview released Sunday on the state-run Russia 1 channel. During the interview, Lukashenko said, “no one minds Kazakhstan and other countries having the same close relations that we have with the Russian Federation.”

Persistent inflation has helped push Germany into recession in the first three months of the year, an upgrade to growth data shows. Europe's largest economy was also badly affected when Russian gas supplies dried up after the invasion of Ukraine, analysts said. The economy contracted by 0.3% between January and March, the statistics office said. That followed a 0.5% contraction in the last three months of last year. A country is deemed to be in recession when its economy shrinks for two consecutive three-month periods, or quarters. "Under the weight of immense inflation, the German consumer has fallen to his knees, dragging the entire economy down with him," said Andreas Scheuerle, an analyst at DekaBank. Germany's inflation rate stood at 7.2% in April, above the euro area's average but below the UK's 8.7%.

contractor Wagner has claimed that his forces have started pulling out of the besieged city of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin said that Wagner troops have now handed over control of the city to the Russian military, days after separate claims were made that the city had been captured by Moscow. A video published on Telegram shows Prigozhin saying the handover would be completed by Thursday June 1.

Virgin Galactic launched its sub-orbital spaceplane "Unity" on its first crewed flight in two years, carrying two pilots and four company astronauts to the edge of space in a final test flight before paying customers begin sub-orbital jaunts in June. The sleek rocketplane, bolted under the wing of Virgin's twin-fuselage VMS Eve carrier jet, took off Thursday from the company's Spaceport America runway in New Mexico at 11:15 a.m. EDT. Looking on was company founder Richard Branson, who was on board for Unity's last flight to space in 2021.