WHITE HOUSE: TURKEY TO INVADE SYRIA

The White House said Sunday that Turkey will soon invade northern Syria, renewing fears of a slaughter of Kurdish fighters allied with the U.S. in a yearslong campaign against the Islamic State group.

For months, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been threatening to launch a military assault on the Kurdish forces in Northern Syria, many of whom his government considers terrorists. The Kurdish forces bore the brunt of the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State militants, and Republicans and Democrats have warned that allowing the Turkish attack would send a troubling message to American allies across the globe.

U.S. troops “will not support or be involved in the operation” and “will no longer be in the immediate area” in northern Syria, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.

It was not clear whether that meant the U.S. would be withdrawing its 1,000 or so troops completely from northern Syria.

Protests, clashes as bid to block Hong Kong mask ban fails.

Furiously yelling “Wearing a mask is not a crime,” tens of thousands of masked protesters hit Hong Kong’s rain-drenched streets Sunday in defiance of a new ban on facial coverings. Riot police later swept in with volleys of tear gas and muscular arrests as peaceful rallies again degenerated into widespread violence and chaos in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

Instead of deterring rioting and calming antigovernment demonstrations that have gripped the international trading hub for four months, the ban that criminalized the wearing of face masks at rallies only redoubled the determination of both peaceful marchers and more radical black-clad youths.

North Korea: No more talks until U.S. ends “hostile policy.”

SEOUL,

North Korea said Sunday that it won’t meet with the United States for more “sickening negotiations” unless it abandons its “hostile policy” against the North, as the two countries offered different takes on their weekend nuclear talks in Sweden.

After their first talks in more than seven months in Stockholm on Saturday, the chief North Korean nuclear negotiator said the discussions broke down “entirely because the U.S. has not discarded its old stance and attitude” and came to the negotiating table with an “empty hand.”

However, the U.S. said the two sides had “good discussions” that it intends to build on with more talks in two weeks.

U.K. leader Johnson renews vow to leave EU by deadline.

LONDON» The British prime minister again said he plans to take the country out of the European Union by the Brexit deadline, in an apparent contradiction of a government pledge in court days earlier to ask for an extension if there’s no withdrawal deal.

“We will be packing our bags and walking out on” Oct. 31, Boris Johnson wrote in The Sun on Sunday and Sunday Express newspapers.

“The only question is whether Brussels cheerily waves us off with a mutually agreeable deal or whether we will be forced to head off on our own.”