International

• Thursday, July 16th 2020 - 09:32 UTC

  Combined exercise, sea, air and infantry landing, in the Falkland Islands

  

  HMS Forth joined the Army and RAF in a combined exercise in one of the islands in the Falklands. After a busy ‘remembrance season’ in the South Atlantic, which saw the patrol ship retrace the route of ships and troops involved in the 1982 conflict, the second-generation River-class vessel knuckled down to more regular military duties.

• Thursday, July 16th 2020 - 09:31 UTC

  Falklands' new port works scheduled to begin at the end of the month

  

  British contractor BAM Nuttall is set to start work at the end of this month on a new port for the Falklands Islands. The existing facilities will be replaced. BAM Nuttall was chosen by the Falkland Islands Government (FIG) in February to carry out the design and build contract for the new port. The contract was signed in early April but was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Thursday, July 16th 2020 - 09:29 UTC

  Criminal gangs control Venezuelan Amazon mining gold, diamonds, coltan, UN report

  

  Some gold, diamond and bauxite mines in the Venezuelan Amazon are largely controlled by criminal gangs who exploit, beat, and even kill workers, a United Nations investigation has found. Venezuelan security and military forces fail to prevent crimes and have participated in some violence against miners, the UN human rights office said in a report on Wednesday.

• Thursday, July 16th 2020 - 09:18 UTC

  Eight Overseas Territories, including Falklands, committed to improve corporate transparency

  

  Ministers updated Parliament on Wednesday on a major step forward by the UK’s Overseas Territories to help improve global corporate transparency. The written statement welcomes commitments from eight Overseas Territories to introduce publicly accessible registers detailing who owns the companies in their Territory.

• Thursday, July 16th 2020 - 09:09 UTC

  Chinese economy grows 3,2% in second quarter year-on-year; follows on steep slump of 6,8% in first quarter

  

  China's economy grew 3.2% in the second quarter from a year earlier, data showed on Thursday, recovering from a record contraction as lockdown measures ended and policymakers stepped up stimulus to combat the shock from the coronavirus crisis.

• Thursday, July 16th 2020 - 09:00 UTC

  UK anticipates sweeping tax cuts and planning ten new “free-ports”, after final divorce with EU

  

  British finance minister Rishi Sunak is preparing to introduce sweeping tax cuts and an overhaul of planning laws in up to 10 new “free-ports” within a year of the UK's becoming fully independent from the European Union in December, the Sunday Telegraph said.

• Thursday, July 16th 2020 - 08:03 UTC

  Danish ice cream maker removes the brand “Eskimo” from one of its products

  

  A Danish ice cream maker said on Wednesday it would remove the name “Eskimo” from one of its products in case it offended Inuit and other Arctic people. Hansens Is said it had opposed changing the name of its Eskimo ice lolly but after careful consideration had decided to choose a more suitable name.

• Thursday, July 16th 2020 - 07:40 UTC

  Report on per capita carbon “food prints” criticizes beef and dairy consumption

  

  If everyone alive ate steaks and dairy the way Brazilians and Americans do, we would need an extra five planets to feed the world, according to the first report to compare the carbon emissions from food consumption in Group of Twenty (G20) nations, released on Thursday.

• Thursday, July 16th 2020 - 06:43 UTC

  Major hack and “take and run” scam with Twitter high-profile accounts

  

  The official Twitter accounts of Apple, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and others were hijacked on Wednesday by scammers trying to dupe people into sending crypto-currency bitcoin, in a massive hack of the social media platform. The list of accounts commandeered simultaneously grew rapidly to include Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Uber, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, reality television show star Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West, among many others.

• Thursday, July 16th 2020 - 06:32 UTC

  London to announce the return of EU reclaimed regulatory powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

  

  Britain will publish plans this Thursday to keep trade flowing freely between its constituent nations when regulatory powers are reclaimed from the European Union at the end of the year and redistributed to devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.