Two U.S. warships sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Monday, a U.S. official told Reuters, a move likely to anger Beijing at a time of tense relations between the world’s two biggest economies. Beijing and Washington are locked in a trade war and the ... Read More »
The Met Office is forecasting that temperatures for each of the next five years are likely to be 1C or more above pre-industrial levels. In the next five years there’s also a chance we’ll see a year in which the average global temperature rise could be greater than 1.5C. That’s ... Read More »
Theresa May will return to Brussels later to press EU leaders for legally binding changes to the Brexit deal. The PM will insist the UK will not be “trapped” in the backstop – the plan to avoid the return of Irish border checks should no UK-EU trade deal be in ... Read More »
Hope is real after landmark Taliban talks, but fears remain about what might happen if US troops depart The start of 2019 has brought for Afghanistan a tantalising hope of peace, fragile but very real, as the Taliban sat down for talks first with Americans in Qatar and this week ... Read More »
Luigi Di Maio says ‘winds of change’ have crossed the Alps France’s foreign ministry has said that Italy’s deputy prime minister meeting with leaders of the yellow vest movement is an “unacceptable provocation”. Luigi Di Maio, who also leads the populist, anti-establishment 5-Star party, said he met yellow vests leader ... Read More »
Surge affects navigation and is believed to be caused by a ‘jet’ stream in Earth’s liquid outer core Something’s up in the Arctic: the north magnetic pole is on the move. But rather than drifting around aimlessly as it has for centuries, the pole has picked up speed and is ... Read More »
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday no peace deal between the Taliban and the United States could be finalised without involving his government as “the decision-maker”. Ghani’s government has so far been shut out of the evolving peace talks between Taliban negotiators and U.S. envoys to end more than ... Read More »
North Korea is working to ensure its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities cannot be destroyed by military strikes, U.N. monitors said ahead of a meeting between U.S. and North Korean officials to prepare a second denuclearization summit. The U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, will meet his North ... Read More »
The oppression of the illegitimate, kleptocratic Maduro regime must end,’ says Jeremy Hunt Russia has warned against “destructive meddling” in Venezuela as Britain recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president. The US, Canada and several Latin American and European countries have disavowed Nicolas Maduro over his disputed re-election last ... Read More »
Think tank says ‘deterioration of US democracy will accelerate decline around the world’ Democracy is undergoing an “alarming” decline across the world as a growing number of countries move towards authoritarian rule, according to the Freedom House think tank. The US organisation’s annual “Freedom in the World” report found 2018 ... Read More »
Lebanese Ministry of Information
