International

• Monday, December 21st 2020 - 08:10 UTC

  Merkel suggests Christmas greetings with loved ones on video

  

  Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to avoid visiting family members over Christmas and to use video calls instead for greetings, the way service members stationed abroad do, as the country battles COVID-19.

• Monday, December 21st 2020 - 08:07 UTC

  China planning fleet of 50 large scale fish farming vessels

  

  Construction of the world's first 100,000-ton large-scale fish farming ship started in Qingdao of East China's Shandong Province on Saturday, pioneering a new mode of industrial farming with “movable fish farms” on distant seas.

• Monday, December 21st 2020 - 07:14 UTC

  UK truck drivers: no ham and cheese sandwiches allowed into the EU

  

  British lorry drivers crossing the Channel next month will face a new regulation that may be hard to swallow: a ban on ham-and-cheese sandwiches, the UK government has warned.

• Saturday, December 19th 2020 - 10:00 UTC

  UK leads Global Ocean Alliance to turn 30% of oceans into Marine Protected Areas by 2030

  

  Some thirty countries have now joined the Global Ocean Alliance championing an international commitment for a minimum 30% of the global ocean to be protected through Marine Protected Areas by 2030.

• Saturday, December 19th 2020 - 09:50 UTC

  Argentina asks Portugal to consider the Falklands a litigation issue and not a British Overseas Territory

  

  Argentina and Portugal foreign ministers agreed on a fluid dialogue and standing contact during the next six months to address bilateral issues, the Mercosur/European Union trade deal and the Falklands/Malvinas question.

• Saturday, December 19th 2020 - 09:50 UTC

  A68a iceberg heading for South Georgia shifts direction and loses a chunk of mass

  

  Strong currents have taken hold of a massive Antarctic iceberg that is on a collision course towards South Georgia Island, causing it to shift direction and lose a major chunk of mass, a scientist tracking its journey said on Friday.

• Saturday, December 19th 2020 - 09:19 UTC

  Pfizer complains of vaccine price confidentiality breach in Belgium parliament

  

  U.S. drugmaker Pfizer complained of a breach of confidentiality after a politician in Belgium published on Thursday the price per dose of COVID-19 vaccines ordered by the country, according to a Belgian newspaper.

• Saturday, December 19th 2020 - 09:10 UTC

  Chicago aquarium celebrates Rockhopper penguin Wellington, 33th birthday

  

  For a penguin to make it to age 33, a lot of things have to break right. Predator avoidance. Good genes. And, sometimes, cataract surgery. And this was part of the longevity recipe for Wellington, Chicago's Shedd Aquarium’s oldest and best-known rockhopper penguin, which marked the milestone birthday on Friday as a guest of honor at an 8:30 a.m. Facebook Live event.

• Saturday, December 19th 2020 - 09:05 UTC

  US record imports from China in 2020, despite Trump administration's tariffs

  

  Despite the Trump administration's tariffs on Chinese goods and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. imports from China are surging as the year 2020 draws to a close, The New York Times reported.

• Saturday, December 19th 2020 - 08:50 UTC

  Falklands' register for UK's new polar ship RRS Sir David Attenborough

  

  Britain’s new polar ship, the RRS Sir David Attenborough, has been registered on the British register of ships at Stanley, Falkland Islands.