Stories for January 2017

Thursday, January 19th 2017 - 06:26 UTC
Lagarde anticipates “pain” as UK prepares departure from the European Union

The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned the UK there is still likely to be “pain” ahead as Theresa May prepares to trigger the UK's departure from the European Union. Christine Lagarde told the BBC the Brexit process would be complicated.
Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 12:05 UTC
HMS Protector recovers equipment abandoned in remote Antarctic island

Personnel from HMS Protector have removed equipment abandoned more than 30 years ago on a remote island in Antarctica. The ice patrol ship attempted to remove equipment three years ago from Brabant Island – the second largest island of the Palmer Archipelago within the British Antarctic Territory – but were thwarted by bad weather.
Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 11:57 UTC
Argentina to propose a Schengen space to promote regional tourism

Argentina aspires to become the back bone of an integrated Mercosur with the Pacific Alliance, said the country's Tourism minister Gustavo Santos attending the International Tourism Fair, Fitur, taking place in Spain.
Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 11:46 UTC
OAS praises strength of US electoral process but observes campaign financing

The strength of U.S. democracy goes beyond the particularities of an electoral process, said the Organization of American States, OAS, Electoral Observation Mission to the recent general elections in the United States in the presentation of its final report to the Permanent Council. However it also underlined that the campaign financing is “the most deregulated in forty years”.
Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 11:32 UTC
South Georgia: Colossal squid features on latest titanium “marine life” coin

The government and treasury of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands have issued two new coins in its ongoing Marine Life series, which features some the most amazing wildlife found in and around the South Atlantic Ocean. The design, which features the colossal squid, is issued in two versions, including titanium, which is tinted to enhance the design.
Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 10:27 UTC
Obama commutes sentence of Chelsea Manning, provider of secrets to Wikileaks

President Barack Obama on Tuesday shortened the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. military intelligence analyst who was responsible for a 2010 leak of classified materials to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the biggest such breach in U.S. history.
Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 10:20 UTC
Scotland “undoubtedly” closer to an independence referendum

First minister Nicola Sturgeon said that plans to take the UK out of the EU's single market brought a second Scottish independence referendum “undoubtedly” closer. She was speaking after Prime Minister Theresa May outlined her government's thinking on Brexit.
Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 04:26 UTC
Trump barking at the wrong tree: Automation revolution is taking the jobs, not evil foreigners

By Gwynne Dyer

The main message of 2016 was that we are entering a period of economic and political upheaval comparable to the Industrial Revolution of 1780-1850, and nothing expressed that message more clearly than Donald Trump's appointment of Andrew Puzder as Secretary of Labour. Even though it's clear that neither man understands the message.
Tuesday, January 17th 2017 - 17:32 UTC
Xi emphatic tells Davos “we say no to protectionism”; migration crisis caused by war and conflict

China's president Xi told the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday that the “migrant crisis had been caused by war, conflict and regional turbulence,” not globalization. Similarly, the 2007/8 financial crisis was caused by “the excessive pursuit of profits and a lack of economic regulations,” he said.
Tuesday, January 17th 2017 - 17:08 UTC
Hard Brexit: UK to leave the single market and Parliament will vote on the final deal, pledges PM May

Prime Minister Theresa May has said the UK “cannot possibly” remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean “not leaving the EU at all”, but at the same time promised to push for the “greatest possible” access to the single market following Brexit.