Pound soars as Johnson heads for landslide British election win

The British pound surged more than 2% on Thursday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party looked set for a decisive election victory that markets believe makes an orderly exit from the European Union all but certain.
13 December 2019, 04:57 AM

British PM Johnson: We have a powerful mandate for Brexit

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that his government appeared to have won a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done.
13 December 2019, 04:26 AM

Britain speeds towards Brexit as Johnson wins large majority in election

Prime Minister Boris Johnson wins a resounding election victory that will allow him to end three years of political paralysis and take Britain out of the European Union by Jan. 31.
13 December 2019, 01:15 AM

Climate pledges ‘misleading’

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg yesterday accused wealthier nations of inventing ways to avoid slashing their greenhouse gas emissions, branding their climate action “misleading” at a summit in Madrid.
11 December 2019, 18:00 PM

All you need to know

Months of fractious political disagreement over Brexit saw MPs agree in October to hold an early general election.
11 December 2019, 18:00 PM

Youth vote an unpredictable factor

Young voters are the most europhile and left-wing in Britain, yet also the least likely to vote, representing an unknown factor in Thursday’s battle for Downing Street.
11 December 2019, 18:00 PM

Talks out of sync with demands

UN climate negotiations in Madrid remained bogged down in the fine print of the Paris treaty rulebook, out-of-sync with a world demanding action to forestall the ravages of global warming.
10 December 2019, 18:00 PM

30,000 face extinction

Already facing the threat of habitat destruction, hundreds of plant and animal species are now under further pressure from manmade climate change, the IUCN yesterday said in its updated “Red List of Threatened Species”.
10 December 2019, 18:00 PM

UK PM pockets reporter’s phone in hospital row

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused on Monday of grabbing a journalist’s phone and putting it into his pocket to avoid looking at an image of a boy sleeping on a hospital floor.
10 December 2019, 18:00 PM

2 Algeria ex-PMs get long jail terms in graft trial

An Algerian court yesterday sentenced two former prime ministers to long jail terms in the first of a series of high-profile corruption trials launched after longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned in the face of mass protests in April.
10 December 2019, 18:00 PM

NZ volcano toll rises to six

Fearing the volcano could erupt again, search parties were unable to set foot on New Zealand’s White Island for eight people still missing yesterday, as police raised the death toll to six from the eruption a day earlier.
10 December 2019, 18:00 PM

Toxic bushfire haze blankets eastern Australia

Toxic haze blanketed Sydney yesterday triggering a chorus of smoke alarms to ring across the city and forcing school children inside, as “severe” weather conditions fuelled deadly bush blazes along Australia’s east coast.
10 December 2019, 18:00 PM

Oil, gas groups ‘destroying’ climate talks

Oil and gas groups were yesterday accused of seeking to influence climate talks in Madrid by paying millions in sponsorship and sending dozens of lobbyists to delay what scientists say is a necessary and rapid cut in fossil fuel use.
7 December 2019, 18:00 PM

Travel misery in France as nationwide strike continues

The most serious nationwide strike to hit France in years caused new misery for weekend travellers yesterday, with defiant unions dismissing proposals by the government and warning walkouts would last well into next week.
7 December 2019, 18:00 PM

Scientists warn of social ‘tipping point’

With young climate activists taking to the streets of Madrid, the UN climate chief and a leading scientist warned of a growing risk of social unrest as the effects of a warming world worsen inequality and poverty worldwide.
7 December 2019, 18:00 PM

Germany kicks out Russian diplomats

Germany expelled two Russian diplomats yesterday after prosecutors said Moscow could be behind the killing of a former Chechen rebel commander in a Berlin park.
4 December 2019, 18:00 PM

EU to miss 2020 green goals

The EU will not meet its environmental targets for 2020 but could achieve those for 2030 and 2050 if urgent action is taken, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said Wednesday.
4 December 2019, 18:00 PM

UN seeks $29b

The UN launched a humanitarian appeal for nearly $29 billion yesterday as climate change and increasingly protracted conflicts put tens of millions of people in urgent need of aid.
4 December 2019, 18:00 PM

Kamala Harris ends 2020 White House bid

Democrat trailblazer Kamala Harris pulled the plug on her US presidential campaign Tuesday after a promising start to her bid was eroded by underperforming in a crowded field and a failure to raise sufficient funds.
4 December 2019, 18:00 PM

November 2019 was joint hottest on record: data

Last month was the joint hottest November in history, satellite data showed yesterday, marking six consecutive months where the world either broke or equalled record temperatures.
4 December 2019, 18:00 PM