International

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 08:50 UTC

  Britain's new polar ship Sir David Attenborough begins sea trials

  

  Britain's new polar ship, RRS Sir David Attenborough, has left her Merseyside construction yard. Sirens and accompanying tugboats marked the Attenborough's departure from builder Cammell Laird's wet dock at Birkenhead. Four years in the making, the £200m vessel is about to venture out on a series of sea trials.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 08:49 UTC

  UK/EU will resume post Brexit talks on Thursday: billions of dollars in trade at stake

  

  Britain will resume talks with the European Union on Thursday, marking a new push by the two sides to protect billions of dollars worth of trade from the beginning of next year.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 08:28 UTC

  Britain's record borrowing because of Covid-19; total public debt 103,5% of GDP

  

  Britain’s government borrowing in the first half of the financial year was more than six times higher than before the COVID pandemic, official figures showed on Wednesday, taking public debt to its highest since 1960.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 08:10 UTC

  Vaccine safety questioned in South Korea: 13 people die from flu shots

  

  At least 13 South Koreans have died after receiving flu shots in recent days, according to official and local media reports, ramping up fears about vaccine safety even as authorities rule out a link.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2020 - 09:40 UTC

  Venezuelan tanker listing dangerously: fears of a catastrophic spill of 1,3 million barrels of crude

  

  Concerns are growing that an oil tanker carrying millions of gallons of oil could spill its load into the sea between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, causing an ecological catastrophe.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2020 - 09:22 UTC

  NASA feat: spacecraft grabs a sample of rocks from an asteroid and begins to send back images

  

  NASA spacecraft touched down on the rugged surface of the Bennu asteroid on Tuesday, grabbing a sample of rocks dating back to the birth of our solar system to bring home. The minivan-sized OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, extended its 3.35m robotic arm toward a flat patch of gravel near Bennu’s north pole and plucked the sample of rocks, the space agency's first handful of pristine asteroid rocks.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2020 - 09:11 UTC

  A FIGAS refurbished BN-2 Islander delivered to Air Alderney

  

  Air Alderney has taken delivery of its first BN-2 Islander in the form of G-BLNI (msn 2188), according to the UK civil aircraft register. The 1987-vintage aircraft was previously operated by the Falkland Islands Government Air Service, FIGAS as VP-FBI. It remains parked at London Biggin Hill, according to Flightradar24 ADS-B data, but is already in Air Alderney's livery.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2020 - 09:03 UTC

  Multi-faiths event sees Pope Francis wear a face mask for the first time at a public function

  

  Pope Francis wore a mask for the first time at a public function on Tuesday when he and other religious leaders attended a prayer service for peace around the world. The pope wore a white mask during the service at the Rome Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Previously he wore masks only in a car taking him to his weekly audiences in the Vatican.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2020 - 08:58 UTC

  Robots will replace 85 million jobs in next five years, but 97 million will be created in tech industries, WEF study

  

  Robots will destroy 85 million jobs at mid-sized to large businesses over the next five years as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates changes in the workplace likely to exaggerate inequalities, a World Economic Forum (WEF) study has found.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2020 - 08:28 UTC

  EU begins legal action against Cyprus and Malta on “golden passport” schemes for wealthy investors

  

  Brussels on Tuesday launched legal action against Cyprus and Malta over their controversial “golden passport” schemes for wealthy investors, saying they were illegal and undermined EU citizenship.