LONDON The leader of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn said on Sunday he could suspend British involvement in air strikes against Syria if he was elected prime minister at a June 8 election. The veteran peace campaigner, whose Labour Party is around 20 points behind the ruling Conservatives in opinion polls, set out his position on a range of security and foreign policies, saying he […]
BEIRUT An Israeli attack against a military base for the Syrian pro-government National Defence Forces in southern Syria killed three NDF members on Sunday, the NDF militia and a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said it remained unclear if the source of the bombardment in Quneitra province was an air strike or shelling. Israel has carried out air […]
LONDON Britain’s Theresa May appeared on course to win a crushing election victory in June after opinion polls put support for her ruling Conservative party at around 50 percent, double that of the opposition Labour party. May’s decision to call a June 8 election stunned her political rivals this week and a string of polls released late on Saturday suggested the gamble had paid off, with one […]
By Ingrid Melander | PARIS PARIS France goes to the polls on Sunday for the first round of a bitterly fought presidential election, crucial to the future of Europe and a closely-watched test of voters’ anger with the political establishment. Nearly 47 million voters will decide, under tight security, whether to back a pro-EU centrist newcomer, a scandal-ridden veteran conservative who wants to slash public spending, a […]
By Leika Kihara and Francesco Canepa | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON International Monetary Fund members on Saturday dropped a pledge to fight protectionism amid a split over trade policy and turned their attention to another looming threat to global economic integration: the first round of France’s presidential election. Concerns that far-right leader Marine Le Pen and far-left rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon, both critics of the European Union, could top the […]
We apparently now live in an era of “alternative facts”, so it is perhaps not surprising that the alternative-history genre has been making something of a comeback in film and on television in recent years. Ben Wheatley’s film adaptation of J G Ballard’s High-Rise was a surprise indie box-office hit last year, while in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine travelled back in time […]
By Bate Felix and Daniel Pardon | PARIS/PAPEETE, French Polynesia PARIS/PAPEETE, French Polynesia French overseas territories and French residents in the United States and Canada began voting on Saturday in France’s presidential election, a day before the main first-round of a poll that could change the global political landscape. Of nearly 47 million registered French voters, there are fewer than a million resident in far-flung places like […]
Around 10,000 scientists and their supporters marched through London on Saturday — one of more than 500 demonstrations worldwide celebrating “robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity”. As the London demonstrators marched from the Science Museum to Parliament Square, they waved hundreds of colourful placards made in labs and homes across Britain, with messages ranging from “Nature isn’t fooled by […]
By Angela Moon | NEW YORK NEW YORK Social media did not take kindly to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions referring to the country’s 50th state of Hawaii as just “an island in the Pacific.” Using the hashtag #IslandinthePacific, many on Twitter reminded Sessions that Hawaii is in fact part of the country, the birthplace of former President Barack Obama and home to Pearl Harbor. Sessions told […]
As an ardent Brexiter, Simon Boyd did not support Theresa May to be prime minister. After all, she not only sat out the UK’s EU referendum contest last June but quietly voiced support for key arguments to remain in the bloc. But now Mr Boyd, the managing director of a specialty steelmaker in south-west England and regional head of a pro-Brexit business group, has the zeal of […]
By Kate Holton and William Schomberg | NEWTON FERRERS, England/LONDON NEWTON FERRERS, England/LONDON Before last year’s Brexit vote, Scott McCready was struggling to fill his holiday cabins on the coast of southwest England. Now the site is fully booked with British tourists avoiding more expensive foreign trips following a plunge in the pound. This turnaround in the 10 months since Britons decided to leave the European Union […]
By Maiya Keidan and Jemima Kelly | LONDON LONDON Hedge funds lost out on Tuesday after British Prime Minister Theresa May shocked markets by calling a snap election, but those led by humans outsmarted those led by machines, in a reversal of fortunes from the Brexit referendum. While computer-driven hedge funds garnered plaudits for their outperformance in the wake of Britain’s shock vote to leave the European […]
By Sarah White and Yann Le Guernigou | PARIS PARIS Hard-left presidential challenger Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative Francois Fillon were neck-and-neck behind the frontrunners in an opinion poll on Thursday, as candidates made last-ditch appeals to undecided voters. Voters will cast their ballots on Sunday in the first round of what has transformed into the most unpredictable French election in living memory, with four candidates within reach […]
BEIJING Britain will lose more than the European Union from its decision to leave the bloc, the EU’s top diplomat said on Thursday, and talks with London were expected to be difficult. Prime Minister Theresa May formally began Britain’s divorce from the EU last month, declaring there was no turning back, ushering in a tortuous exit process that will test the bloc’s cohesion and pitch her country […]
Britain’s benchmark stock index dipped into negative territory for the year on Wednesday, as investors worry that a stronger pound saps the foreign-based revenues for many of the FTSE 100’s multinational companies. The blue-chip gauge slipped as much as 0.5 per cent on Wednesday by the close of trading. The pound retraced some gains in late trade from session highs above the $1.2850 level after surging on […]
LONDON The United States must keep military options on the table when it comes to North Korea, but it does not want to use them unless it has to, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said during a visit to Britain on Wednesday. “… of course we don’t want to have military options employed, but we must keep all options on the table,” he said when […]
Photo The Monastery of St. Catherine, near Mount Sinai in Egypt, where a policeman was killed and four others were wounded on Monday. Credit Pedro Costa Gomes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images CAIRO — Gunmen attacked a checkpoint near the iconic St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world, killing one police officer and wounding four others on Tuesday evening, Egypt’s Interior […]
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday he has told Congress of plans to review whether sanctions relief given to Iran as part of the 2015 nuclear deal was in US national security interests.The notification came as the White House certified that Iran was complying with its commitments under the deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama, which is known as the Joint Comprehensive […]
Theresa May received overwhelming backing from MPs for a snap UK election that the prime minister said would give her more room for manoeuvre in Brexit negotiations if her Conservative party wins the poll. The prime minister won a vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday by 522 to 13, allowing her to press ahead with an early general election on June 8. The motion overrode […]
KHAN SHEIKHUN: A suspected chemical attack killed at least 58 civilians in opposition-held northwestern Syria on Tuesday, a monitor said, prompting global outrage and calls for international action.The attack in the town of Khan Sheikhun also left dozens suffering respiratory problems and symptoms including vomiting, fainting and foaming at the mouth, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.Hours later, airstrikes hit a hospital in the town […]
The composition of vast swathes of granite found underneath much of the South West peninsula of Britain could offer a vital clue to where deposits of metals crucial for the production of many low carbon technologies can be found. (via WSJ)
UNITED NATIONS The United States, Britain and France on Tuesday proposed a United Nations Security Council resolution to condemn a suspected deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria, which diplomats said is likely to be put to a vote on Wednesday. The draft resolution, seen by Reuters, asks U.N. chief Antonio Guterres to report monthly on whether the Syrian government is cooperating with an international inquiry into chemical […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The United States blamed the Syrian government and its patrons, Russia and Iran, on Tuesday for one of the deadliest chemical weapons attacks in years in Syria, one that killed dozens of people in Idlib Province, including children, and sickened scores more. A senior State Department official said the attack appeared to be a war crime and called on Russia and Iran to restrain […]
RIYADH British Prime Minister Theresa May called for an investigation into reports of a chemical weapons attack in northern Syria on Tuesday. “I’m appalled by the reports that there’s been a chemical weapons attack on a town south of Idlib, allegedly by the Syrian regime,” May said while visiting Saudi Arabia. “If proven, this will be further evidence of the barbarism of the Syrian regime.” She urged […]
