International

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 09:12 UTC

  Brexit melee: Mrs. May to Brussels to meet Juncker; on Thursday Corbyn talks to Barnier

  

  Theresa May will return to Brussels on Wednesday to continue talks on her Brexit deal. She will meet the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. Earlier, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay updated Cabinet on talks with the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 09:06 UTC

  Huawei founder: “there's no way the US can crush us: we are more advanced”

  

  Huawei Technologies founder Ren Zhengfei said “there’s no way the US can crush us”, according to an interview he gave to BBC. “The world cannot leave us because we are more advanced. Even if they persuade more countries not to use us temporarily, we can always scale things down a bit,” he said.

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 08:51 UTC

  Fashion designer superstar Karl Lagerfeld dies in Paris aged 85

  

  Superstar fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has died, aged 85, in Paris following a short illness. The German designer, who was the creative director for Chanel and Fendi, was one of the industry's most prolific figures and worked up until his death.

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 08:32 UTC

  UK record employment in 2018 fourth quarter; jobless rate 4%, lowest since 1975

  

  The number of people in work in the UK has continued to climb, with a record 32.6 million employed between October and December, the latest Office for National Statistics figure show. Unemployment was little-changed in the three-month period at 1.36 million.

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 08:28 UTC

  Global trade growth forecasted to slow this year, says

  

  Global trade growth is on track to slide further the first quarter of 2019, the World Trade Organization said. WTO in September said it expects world merchandise trade growth will slow to 3.7% this year down from 3.9% in 2018.

• Tuesday, February 19th 2019 - 10:10 UTC

  Seven MPs quit Labour criticizing the party's Brexit policy and anti-Semitism

  

  Seven British Labour MPs have quit their party and set up as a group of independents, saying politics in Britain is “broken” and criticising Labour policy on Brexit and its failure to tackle anti-Semitism among its membership.

• Tuesday, February 19th 2019 - 09:46 UTC

  Macri on a state visit to India condemns terrorism and signs ten agreements

  

  India and Argentina inked ten agreements including in defense, agriculture, space, pharmaceuticals, Antarctic cooperation, agriculture, IT and nuclear cooperation. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Argentine President Mauricio Macri, accompanied by a high-level official delegation and around 100 top industry representatives of Argentine companies held bilateral talks on Monday.

• Tuesday, February 19th 2019 - 09:21 UTC

  Hammond visit to China called off amid reports of Beijing anger with UK defense actions

  

  A visit to China by Chancellor Phillip Hammond has been called off amid reports a speech by the UK's defense secretary angered Beijing. There were plans for trade talks between Mr Hammond and senior Chinese government figures during the brief visit this week. But last week, Gavin Williamson had indicated the UK's intention to send an aircraft carrier to the Pacific.

• Tuesday, February 19th 2019 - 09:20 UTC

  US/China trade talks resume in Washington... and are going “extremely well”

  

  US-China trade talks aimed at ending a damaging tariff war will resume from this Tuesday in Washington, the White House has announced. The last set of talks ended Friday in Beijing with no deal, though US President Donald Trump said the discussions were going “extremely well” and suggested he could extend a Mar 1 truce deadline for an agreement to be reached.

• Tuesday, February 19th 2019 - 09:18 UTC

  US sailor in iconic photo in New York celebrating the end of WWII, has died

  

  The US sailor famously photographed kissing a stranger in New York's Times Square to celebrate the end of World War Two has died aged 95. The picture of George Mendonsa bending over and kissing 21-year-old Greta Zimmer Friedman on VJ Day (Victory over Japan) became one of the most enduring images of the period.