International

• Wednesday, December 23rd 2020 - 09:30 UTC

  Brexit “final push”: EU prepared to yield in fisheries issue but UK proposal “totally unacceptable”

  

  The European Union is making a “final push” to strike a Brexit trade deal with Britain, although there are still deep rifts over fishing rights, the bloc’s chief negotiator said on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, December 23rd 2020 - 09:22 UTC

  Widowed penguins comforting each other, winner of Ocean Photograph awards

  

  The year 2020 has produced many poignant and powerful photographs. But a shot of two widowed penguins appearing to comfort one another in Australia has been picked out as a winner in Oceanographic magazine's Ocean Photograph Awards.

• Wednesday, December 23rd 2020 - 08:34 UTC

  Kashmir's saffron “red gold” harvest depleted by climate change

  

  On sweeping fields once blanketed in lush purple, a thin and bedraggled crop of flowers was all farmers in Indian-administered Kashmir’s saffron-growing region Pampore had to show for this year’s harvest.

• Wednesday, December 23rd 2020 - 08:16 UTC

  FAO report on the lanternfish in the deep Atlantic Ocean

  

  Deep below the Atlantic Ocean’s surface, glowing objects glide through the inky black depths. On closer inspection, it is clear that they are actually a special group of fish, lanternfish, who get their name from their incredible ability to produce light.

• Tuesday, December 22nd 2020 - 08:40 UTC

  WHO downplays the latest variant of coronavirus: it's part of the pandemic's evolution

  

  The World Health Organization cautioned against major alarm over a new, highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain, saying this was a normal part of a pandemic’s evolution.

• Tuesday, December 22nd 2020 - 07:54 UTC

  Johnson tells Scotland's leader Sturgeon he will not extend deadline to reach a post Brexit deal with EU

  

  Responding to calls from the leader of the Scottish Nationalists and the mayor of London, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he will not make moves to extend the deadline to reach a post-Brexit deal with the European Union.

• Tuesday, December 22nd 2020 - 07:49 UTC

  Following EU approval of Pfizer vaccine, Germany will begin immunization of the elderly on December 27

  

  Germany will begin its first coronavirus vaccinations in care homes for the elderly on Dec. 27, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday. He welcomed the approval of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech by the European Medicines Agency as a milestone in the fight against the pandemic.

• Tuesday, December 22nd 2020 - 07:22 UTC

  PM Johnson pledges to unblock trade across the Channel, but situation sounds chaotic

  

  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday sought to sound a note of calm saying he was working “as fast as possible” to unblock trade across the Channel after France shut its borders to UK haulers in a bid to contain a new variant of the coronavirus.

• Monday, December 21st 2020 - 09:32 UTC

  Advancing Falklands' sovereignty claims, one of Argentina's objectives as chair of Mercosur

  

  Argentina is holding the pro tempore rotating chair of Mercosur during the next six months and three are its main objectives during that period according to foreign ministry sources in Buenos Aires. They include Bolivia, the Falklands/Malvinas claim and trade accords and negotiations with other countries.

• Monday, December 21st 2020 - 08:55 UTC

  Argentina and Chile suspend flights from UK as of midnight Tuesday

  

  Argentina and Chile announced late Sunday that they are suspending flights from the UK after health officials in Britain confirmed that a new variant of the coronavirus was rapidly spreading in the country.