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by Diana SIMEONOVA / Vessela SERGUEVA Agence France-Presse PERNIK, Bulgaria (AFP) – Forced to “live without water, in the 21st century, in a European Union country”: Bulgarian Yana Stoyanova is not bemoaning climate change, but the incompetence of the authorities which has left some 100,000 people with an acute water shortage. Accountant Stoyanova does not live in an isolated backwater, but around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the capital Sofia. She is at the sharp […]
NORTH SHIELDS, United Kingdom (AFP) – Roland JACKSON / William EDWARDS Just before dawn, the Good Fellowship trawler casts its nets deep into the North Sea’s cold swirling waters, fishing for prawns off England’s northeast coast. Britain finally departs the European Union on Friday but remains bound by the bloc’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) until the end of a transition period on December 31. The Good Fellowship’s captain, David Shiel, is cautiously hopeful that Brexit […]
DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) – Sebastian SMITH and Alex PIGMAN President Donald Trump tore into environmental “prophets of doom” at the Davos forum Tuesday, rejecting fiery warnings from teenage campaigner Greta Thunberg and talking up his own record in a counterpoint to impeachment back home. Thunberg was in the audience in the Swiss Alps to hear the typically bullish speech by Trump, delivered just before the US Senate opened the crucial next stage in his trial […]
PARIS, France (AFP) – Patrick GALEY Some of the world’s biggest banks, insurers and pension funds have collectively invested $1.4 trillion in fossil fuel companies since the Paris climate deal, Greenpeace said Tuesday at the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos. With the climate emergency expected to be front and centre at the annual summit of the world’s business elite, the charity accused some institutions in attendance of failing to live up to […]
by Dmytro GORSHKOV Agence France-Presse KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukraine’s prime minister offered his resignation on Friday after audio was leaked of him reportedly criticizing President Volodomyr Zelensky’s understanding of the economy. “To remove any doubts about our respect for and trust in the president, I have written a resignation letter and handed it over to the president,” Oleksiy Goncharuk wrote on his official Facebook page. He said the audio “artificially created an impression that […]
TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) – The head of Libya’s UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj and his rival, strongman Khalifa Haftar, are expected to sign a ceasefire agreement in Moscow on Monday, a senior Libyan official said. The oil-rich North African country has been wracked by bloody turmoil since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising killed long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with multiple foreign powers now involved. The signing of the agreement will pave the way for […]
by Julia ZAPPEI VIENNA, Austria (AFP) — Austria’s conservative Sebastian Kurz will return to office Tuesday as the world’s youngest democratically elected leader heading an unlikely coalition with the Greens after his previous far-right alliance collapsed. Vowing to “protect the climate and the borders”, the 33-year-old will become chancellor of a government — termed as “exotic” and “unlikely” by Austrian media — that marks the first time the Greens rule in the small Alpine country. Kurz’s People’s […]
by Jing Xuan TENG Agence France Presse China hosted the leaders of squabbling neighbors South Korea and Japan for their first official meeting in over a year on Tuesday, flexing its diplomatic muscle with America’s two key Asian allies and seeking unity on how to deal with a belligerent North Korea. The gathering in the southwestern city of Chengdu was held with the clock ticking on a threatened “Holiday gift” from North Korean leader Kim […]
WASHINGTON, DC (AFP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the firing of his hawkish national security advisor John Bolton, saying he disagreed “strongly” with his positions, in the latest upheaval for US foreign policy. “I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning,” Trump announced on Twitter, saying he would name a replacement next week. Bolton, who had been due to give a press conference at the White House […]
by Jerome TAYLOR / Catherine LAI Agence France-Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Pro-democracy protesters retreated from Hong Kong’s airport on Wednesday following two days of hugely disruptive rallies that turned violent and plunged the global financial hub further into turmoil. The protests ended early Wednesday morning following a series of clashes in which a policeman drew his gun after being beaten by demonstrators and other officers fired pepper spray. The rallies paralysed one of […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AFP) — Vice President Mike Pence vowed Thursday to press North Korea to respect freedom of religion, despite the narrow US focus on denuclearization in high-profile summits. Pence made the pledge to a high-level State Department conference on religious freedom, which came weeks after President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the third time and agreed to jumpstart working-level negotiations. “You can be confident, as President Trump continues […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AFP) — A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that US President Donald Trump cannot legally block users on Twitter based on their political differences with him, affirming a lower court decision. The three-judge panel agreed with last year’s ruling by a federal judge that Trump was using “viewpoint discrimination” in violation of the constitutional rights of people with opposing views. The court sidestepped the question of the president’s free speech rights under […]
