International

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 10:58 UTC

  Johnson strikes a deal with EU, but he still has to convince a reluctant Parliament

  

  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will this Friday seek to sell his Brexit deal to skeptical MPs, as he returns home fresh from an EU victory but risking defeat in parliament. Johnson pulled off a major coup in agreeing a new divorce deal with the European Union leader, paving the way for him to deliver his promise to leave the bloc on Oct 31.

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 10:55 UTC

  New IMF chief pledges full support for Argentina, but will wait for election results

  

  The International Monetary Fund will stand by Argentina as it works through its economic crisis, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday. She added that the Fund was waiting to see the future policy framework adopted by Argentina, which holds an election later this month in which a change of government is widely predicted.

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 10:47 UTC

  Catalonia independence vote in two years, proposes head of the region

  

  Catalonia should hold a new vote on independence from Spain within two years, the head of the region's government said on Thursday in a fresh challenge to Madrid following days of unrest by pro-separatist protesters.

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 10:35 UTC

  Trump's latest surprise: he will host the G7 economic summit at his Florida golf resort

  

  U.S. President Donald Trump will host next year’s Group of Seven economic summit of leaders of developed nations at his Florida golf resort, a move Democrats and others decried as more evidence of the president misusing his office for personal gain.

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 10:30 UTC

  Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon after another independence referendum in 2020

  

  Scotland must hold another independence referendum in 2020 and will soon request the powers needed to hold it legally, Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon said. Scots rejected independence in a referendum in 2014 but the SNP says that Britain's vote to leave the European Union fundamentally changes its constitutional arrangements and means that the independence question should be revisited.

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 10:25 UTC

  China's economy grows at its slowest rate in three decades in the third quarter

  

  China's economy expanded at its slowest rate in nearly three decades in the third quarter, hit by cooling domestic demand and a protracted US trade war, official data showed on Friday. 

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 09:49 UTC

  Venezuela in Human Rights Council: US and Argentina deplore UN “embarrassment”

  

  Venezuela on Thursday won a seat on the controversial U.N. Human Rights Council -- a move that the U.S. quickly branded “an embarrassment” and further proof that its decision last year to leave the body last was the right one.

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 09:44 UTC

  BAS technique to detect stranded whales from space

  

  A new technique for analyzing satellite images may help scientists detect and count stranded whales from space. Researchers tested a new detection method using Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite images from Maxar Technologies of the biggest mass stranding of baleen whales yet recorded.  It is hoped that in the future the technique will lead to real-time information as stranding events happen.

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 09:38 UTC

  Credit Suisse will charge wealthy clients with large cash deposits

  

  Credit Suisse will start charging wealthy clients with large cash deposits in Swiss francs, the latest Swiss bank to pass on negative interest rates to customers. Individual and business customers will be charged a rate of -0.75per cent on cash balances above 2 million Swiss francs (US$2.02 million), Switzerland's second-biggest lender said. Balances of less than 2 million francs will be unaffected.

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 09:29 UTC

  Humpback whales in the SW Atlantic total some 25.000, NOAA survey

  

  One of the whale populations taken to the edge of extinction by commercial hunting in the early 20th Century has essentially recovered its numbers. It's estimated the humpbacks that frequent the southwest Atlantic once totaled perhaps 27,000 animals.