International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Britain clinched a narrow Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Thursday, just seven days before it exits one of the world’s biggest trading blocs in its most significant global shift since the loss of empire. The deal, agreed more than four years after Britain voted by a slim margin to leave
LONDON (Reuters) – The British government on Wednesday said huge swathes of England would be placed under its strictest COVID-19 restrictions as a highly infectious virus variant sweeps the country, pushing the number of cases to a record level. Britain reported almost 40,000 new infections as the mutated variant of the coronavirus, which could be
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) – China has launched an antitrust investigation into Alibaba Group and will summon the tech giant’s Ant Group affiliate to meet in coming days, regulators said on Thursday, in the latest blow for Jack Ma’s e-commerce and fintech empire. The probe is part of an accelerating crackdown on monopolistic behaviour in China’s
China is erecting a barbed-wire fence along its border with Myanmar to prevent unregistered migrants from spreading COVID-19 in what Myanmar authorities allege to be an encroachment of a neutral buffer zone, The Irrawaddy reported. According to the Myanmar news website, China started erecting the fence in October along the border in Kachin and Shan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed a bipartisan defense policy bill on Wednesday and raised the prospect that the United States could face a government shutdown during a pandemic, stirring new turmoil in Washington as he headed to Florida for Christmas. Angry at his fellow Republicans in Congress, Trump sought to refashion two
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday not to sign a $892-billion coronavirus relief bill that includes desperately needed money for individual Americans, saying it should be amended to increase the amount in the stimulus checks. U.S. government operations are being funded on a temporary basis through Dec. 28 waiting for the $1.4 trillion in
GENEVA/ZURICH (Reuters) – 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. WHO officials even put a positive light on the discovery of the new strains that prompted a slew of alarmed
DOVER, England (Reuters) – Countries across the globe shut their borders to Britain on Monday due to fears about a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of food shortages days before Britain is set to leave the European Union. India, Pakistan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Jordan and Hong
2020 has been filled with headlines, from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, bushfires, to street protests. Every year, TIME Magazine compiles photos, captured by news photographers around the world, which they believe, reflect the best (and the worst) moments of the past 12 months. This year, a picture of the anti-government protesters
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian states and territories on Friday begun imposing border restrictions after 28 COVID-19 cases were detected from a cluster on Sydney’s northern beaches, with fears the number of infections will rise. “Everyone in greater Sydney needs to be on high alert,” New South Wales (NSW) state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told a news
PARIS (Reuters) -President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, prompting a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government in recent days. Macron, who will turn 43 on Monday, is running France remotely and has gone into quarantine at the presidential retreat of La
(Reuters) – President-elect Joe Biden will get the coronavirus vaccine as soon as next week, transition officials said on Wednesday, as U.S. authorities try to build public confidence in a measure that promises to stanch the deadly pandemic. Vice President Mike Pence will get the vaccine on Friday, the White House said. Both men will
