Shareholders in Exxon Mobil have backed a motion requiring the company to assess the risks from climate change. The plan, proposed by investors including the Church of England, was supported by over 62% of those eligible to vote.
The European Commission president has said that it was the duty of Europe to stand up to the US if President Donald Trump decides to pull his country out of the Paris climate change accord. Jean-Claude Juncker said that the Americans can't just get out of the agreement, adding that it takes three to four years to pull out.
The White House has denied the president's budget proposal contains an egregious math error. Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers pointed out the spending plan double-counts US$2trillion. But White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told reporters: We stand by the numbers.
The United Nations has warned that President Donald Trump's plans to cut contributions to peacekeeping will make such work impossible. The US administration signaled heavy cuts to UN operations, in its budget proposals released on Tuesday. The US foots more than a quarter of the UN's US$7.9bn peacekeeping bill.
United States President Donald Trump is selling off his multi-million-dollar 11-bedroom beachfront estate in the French Caribbean island of St Martin. Le Château des Palmiers, located on Plum Bay Beach, Terres Bassesis on the south-western tip of the island, has been listed by Sotheby's International Realty, which does not reveal any asking price on its website. It says the price is available upon request.
The United States debt level reached a record high this year, surpassing the peak touched just as the worst of the recession was taking hold in 2008, and marking a milestone for households that now lean less on mortgages and more on auto and student loans
Asia-Pacific trade ministers agreed to try to revive a massive free trade pact, even though the United States reaffirmed its decision to pull out, as fears grow of a new global era of protectionism. The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) covered 40% of the global economy before US President Donald Trump abruptly abandoned it in January, to meet a campaign pledge to save American jobs which he says have been sucked up overseas.
The Donald Trump administration took the first step toward renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, plunging into a battle that pits some Republicans and industry supporters of the pact against Democrats and some of the president's most ardent backers.
A former FBI boss has been named special counsel to oversee an inquiry into Russia's alleged meddling in the election and any Trump campaign ties. In naming Robert Mueller, the deputy attorney general said it was in the public interest to have an outsider. The appointment has been widely praised by politicians from both sides.
Journalists in the U.S. and Mexico are reeling from the death of Mexican reporter Javier Valdez Cardenas, who was shot dead on Monday in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, where he lived and worked. Valdez Cárdenas was an internationally recognized journalist who specialized in reporting on drug-trafficking and organized crime in Mexico.