United Kingdom

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Unlike some of her European colleagues, Leonore Gewessler arrived at the U.N. climate conference with a clean conscience.

The 27-hour journey by sleeper train from Vienna to Brussels, and then on to Glasgow, Scotland, spared Austria’s climate minister the kind of criticism many VIPs faced for taking planes to a conference that’s all about cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

“Wherever possible I try to choose the climate friendly option,” said Gewessler, whose portfolio also include transport.

LONDON, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Another 30,305 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 9,301,909, according to official figures released Sunday.

The country also reported a further 62 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 141,805. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

There are currently 9,160 patients in hospital with COVID-19.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to talk about climate change. But his opponents want to focus on corruption.

As a United Nations climate summit aimed at staving off catastrophic global warming enters its final week in Glasgow, Scotland, host Johnson is facing a barrage of criticism in London over his attempts to change the system that oversees lawmakers’ standards.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Barack Obama is expressing confidence at U.N. climate talks Monday that the Biden administration will ultimately get its $555 billion climate package through Congress, and faulting U.S. rivals China and Russia for what he calls a “dangerous absence of urgency” in cutting their own climate-wrecking emissions.

LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will travel to Malaysia on Sunday as part of a week-long visit to southeast Asia aimed at deepening economic and security ties in the region, her office said.

Truss will also visit Thailand and Indonesia, chosen to reflect their "growing economic and diplomatic heft", as post-Brexit Britain looks to strengthen relations with nations and regions beyond Europe.

"I want to position Britain where the future growth is and to think about who our major partners will be in 2050 and beyond," Truss said in a statement.

LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government rejected fresh accusations of corruption on Sunday after a newspaper investigation found major donors to his Conservative Party were offered seats in parliament's upper chamber.

The government has been embroiled in a corruption row over the past week, with Johnson forced to abandoned plans pushed through parliament to protect one of his lawmakers who was found to have broken lobbying rules. 

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — As this year’s U.N. climate talks go into their second week, negotiations on key topics are inching forward. Boosted by a few high-profile announcements at the start of the meeting, delegates are upbeat about the prospects for tangible progress in the fight against global warming.

Laurent Fabius, the former French foreign minister who helped forge the Paris climate accord, said the general atmosphere had improved since the talks began Oct. 31 and “most negotiators want an agreement.”

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister John Major on Saturday attacked fellow Conservative Boris Johnson's handling of a corruption row, saying the government's behaviour was arrogant, broke the law and was "politically corrupt".

Johnson was forced to make a U-turn after he abandoned plans pushed through parliament to protect a lawmaker found to have broken lobbying rules.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The public pressure that helped spur more world action on global warming is due to be on full display outside the U.N. climate summit Saturday, when thousands of demonstrators are expected to march through the rainy grey streets of Glasgow to demand leaders move faster to cut fossil fuels that are wrecking the climate.

LONDON/BRUSSELS, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The European Union said on Friday that Britain had made no move to seek a compromise on post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland and cautioned London against triggering emergency unilateral provisions in the Brexit deal.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit negotiator David Frost ruled out immediately triggering such provisions, a move that would sour ties with the EU, concern the United States and anger Ireland.

But Frost made clear he wanted Brussels to offer more.