French President Emmanuel Macron has said he was postponing planned trade sanctions on Britain so that negotiators from both sides could work on new proposals to defuse their dispute over post-Brexit fishing rights.

Nearly 90 countries have joined a US- and EU-led effort to slash emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels, a pact aimed at tackling one of the main causes of climate change, a senior Biden administration official said.

Britain yesterday told France that it must back down within 48 hours in a fishing row that threatens to spiral into a wider trade dispute or face tortuous legal action under the Brexit trade deal. 

French President Emmanuel Macron said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison lied to him over the cancellation of a submarine building contract in September, and indicated more efforts were required to rebuild trust between the two allies. 

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has cancelled plans to attend the COP26 climate conference after Britain failed to meet Ankara’s demands on security arrangements, two Turkish officials told Reuters yesterday.

“It’s time to say: enough,” the UN Secretary-General said. “Enough of brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.” He urged the delegates to: “Choose ambition. Choose solidarity. Choose to safeguard our future and save humanity.”

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) began in the Scottish city of Glasgow yesterday as world leaders gather amid calls to avert climate disaster.

Leaders of the world’s major economies yesterday met at the G20 summit in Rome, heading for a new deal on global taxation but still haggling on the pressing issue of climate change.

Facebook will face intense scrutiny over its future at next week’s Web Summit, with its “Meta” rebrand and a damaging whistleblower scandal set to dominate discussions at one of the world’s biggest tech conferences.

Leaders of the 20 richest countries will recognise the existential threat of climate change, a draft communique seen by Reuters shows, as Pope Francis yesterday said the COP26 summit must give future generations “concrete hope” by matching words with deeds.

Britain yesterday threatened to board French fishing boats and France stood by a plan to impose sanctions on British vessels in a deepening row over post-Brexit fishing rights.

Leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies are set to commit to supporting cutting to 100 days the period in which pharmaceutical companies can develop new vaccines, drugs and tests during a pandemic, according to a draft joint document.

These crises present us with the need to take decisions, radical decisions that are not always easy. ...moments of difficulty like these also present opportunities, opportunities that we must not waste. Pope Francis urges world leaders ahead of COP26 climate summit

The Kremlin warned Wednesday that the use of Turkish-made drones could further aggravate the conflict in Ukraine, after Kiev released footage of its military employing the weapons against pro-Russian separatists for the first time.

A German man was handed a two-year suspended sentence yesterday for passing on floor plans of parliament buildings to Russian secret services while employed by a security company.

A group of 12 European countries yesterday urged Israel to scrap plans for the construction of more than 3,000 settler homes in the occupied

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel on Wednesday admitted he should have acted "differently" after accusations he plagiarised swathes of his university thesis.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

Current commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions put the planet on track for an average 2.7 degrees Celsius temperature rise this century, a United Nations report said on Tuesday, in another stark warning ahead of crunch climate talks.

Only 158 investment funds with just 0.5 percent of assets under management are currently in line with Paris accord goals of limiting the increase