Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s League Party, calling for new parliamentary elections, moved to hold a no-confidence vote (FT) on Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. The uncertainty comes during a period of tensions with the European Union (Reuters) over Italy’s 2019 budget and hard-line position on migrants and refugees. 
 
The dispute reflects a long-building conflict between the two largest parties in the governing coalition, recently brought to a head in a debate over public spending. The right-wing League Party has grown in popularity this year (Guardian), while its governing partner, the antiestablishment Five-Star Movement, has seen its support fall by half. A breakdown of the coalition (Politico) could lead to either immediate elections or the installation of a caretaker government to pass a 2020 budget.

Hundreds of pro-democracy protesters have begun a sit-in (SCMP) at Hong Kong’s international airport. The protest’s organizers plan for it to continue through Sunday.

In Foreign Affairs, Michael C. Davis and Victoria Tin-Bor Hui look at China’s toolkit for addressing the protests.
 
Philippines: Police have opened an investigation (WSJ) into 8chan, the site that hosted a manifesto about last week’s mass shooting in El Paso, for possible negligence. The site’s owner and founder both live in the country.  
 
This CFR Backgrounder compares global approaches to online hate speech.

Former national security advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar suspended his campaign (VOA) despite strong polling, citing security issues. The Taliban has threatened to target rallies ahead of the twice-delayed elections, now scheduled for September 28, and analysts say they could be further postponed if a peace deal moves forward.
 
Kyrgyzstan: Authorities arrested former President Almazbek Atambayev (RFE/RL) on corruption charges a day after his supporters fought off an arrest attempt, killing one police officer and wounding nearly eighty people.

Syria denounced a U.S. and Turkish plan (Al Jazeera) to enforce what the two countries described as a peace corridor in northeastern Syria. The foreign ministry called on the international community to condemn the potential incursion, which Turkey could use to keep Syrian Kurdish forces from its border and to repatriate refugees.
 
CFR’s Global Conflict Tracker looks at the fault lines of the civil war in Syria.
 
Lebanon: Beirut’s Daily Star newspaper published a protest issue without articles, imploring Lebanese to “wake up” (Al Jazeera) to the country’s political and economic crises. The newspaper highlighted the 25 percent unemployment rate and rising sectarianism, as well as political deadlock; the government has not met since a June 30 shooting.

Malawi’s top court has begun hearing a challenge (AFP) to the results of the May presidential election. Opposition groups, including one whose candidate narrowly lost, have alleged fraud, arguing that results sheets were altered with correction fluid.
 
Ethiopia: The central bank has granted the first financial services license (Reuters) to a foreign firm as part of an initiative to open up the economy. The New York–based Africa Asset Finance Company plans to lease MRI scanners, tractors, drilling rigs, and other equipment to companies that cannot import them due to foreign exchange shortages.

Marek Kuchcinski, a senior politician in Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, announced his resignation (FT) after the parliament was set to debate his family’s use of government jets.

Authorities arrested eight people in an investigation (Reuters) into a scheme that helped companies skirt around $670 million in value added taxes over twelve years, President Ivan Duque announced.
 
Colombia: Conflict between militant groups in the Catatumbo border region has displaced more than forty thousand people since 2017 and resulted in civilian killings, disappearances, and sexual violence, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. Catatumbo has become a major destination for displaced Venezuelans.

More than 300 of the 680 people arrested in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Mississippi this week have been released (AP) with notices to appear in immigration court, an agency spokesman said.