
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who staked her legacy on welcoming hundreds of thousands of migrants into Germany, agreed on Monday to build border camps for asylum seekers and to tighten the border with Austria in a political deal to save her government.

United Nations member countries on Sunday agreed to a peacekeeping budget of just under US$ 6.7 billion, according to diplomatic sources. This is about US$ 122 million less than what had been recommended by a panel of experts.

Catholic archbishop in Australia has been given a maximum sentence of 12 months in detention for concealing child sexual abuse in the 1970s. Philip Wilson, now archbishop of Adelaide, is the most senior Catholic globally to be convicted of the crime.

Australia and other anti-whaling nations are seeking a showdown with Japan as Tokyo attempts to resume commercial whaling later this year. Japanese officials have reportedly confirmed the country's attempt to alter voting rules and allow hunting of whale species with healthy numbers at an International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Brazil in September.

European Union on Monday slammed the Trump administration for considering tariffs on auto imports, saying they could lead to global retaliation against some US$ 300 billion in U.S. goods amid signs of a brewing trade war.

The leader of Britain's biggest trade union says he will fight for another EU referendum if his members want one. Unite's Len McCluskey, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, said policy would be decided by a vote at the union's conference on Tuesday.

Firms are running out of patience over the lack of progress in the Brexit talks, a major business organization has warned Theresa May. The British Chambers of Commerce has published a list of 23 “real-world” questions that it says urgently need answers as the UK's EU exit approaches.

The British Prime Minister, Theresa May, will visit Berlin and the Netherlands in the coming days to meet with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch authorities before assembling her government to finally decide what commercial relationship her country wants with the European Union (EU) in the future, commented her spokesman on Monday.

The resolution to Germany's government crisis proved elusive on Sunday after the head of the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union in Angela Merkel's conservative bloc offered his resignation rather than back down from his stance against the chancellor's migration policies.

President Donald Trump said over the weekend that he had received assurances from King Salman of Saudi Arabia that the kingdom will increase oil production, “maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels” in response to turmoil in Iran and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia acknowledged the call took place, but mentioned no production targets.