The problem, which started on Monday morning, appears to be related to an issue at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
As of 9.20am (UK time), there were more than 2,000 reports of the Amazon Web Services outage in the US alone, according to Downdetector, which monitors issues and outages in real-time.
Follow live updates here
By 11am, AWS said it had observed recovery across most of the affected sites, and it was working towards a full resolution.
Here's what we know so far.
What has been affected?
Multiple banks, the UK's Government Gateway services - which is accessed through the Gov.uk website and includes things like HMRC, universal credit and pensions - mobile phone networks and video-chatting platform Zoom are among the websites reportedly having technical issues.
A UK government spokesperson said: "We are aware of an incident affecting Amazon Web Services, and several online services which rely on their infrastructure.
"Through our established incident response arrangements, we are in contact with the company, who are working to restore services as quickly as possible."
A Lloyds Bank spokesperson also apologised for issues affecting customers, adding: "We are seeing services coming back online and continue to work to see that happens as quickly as possible."
All Amazon products - including Prime Video, Alexa and Amazon Music - have also been affected, as well as the main Amazon website.
(Actually it seems Airbnb has played a part of this in many places around the world).
The timing of the first of several recent anti-gentrification protests in Mexico City was no coincidence - 4 July, US Independence Day.
Demonstrators gathered in Parque México in Condesa district – the epicentre of gentrification in the Mexican capital – to protest over a range of grievances.
Most were angry at exorbitant rent hikes, unregulated holiday lettings, and the endless influx of Americans and Europeans into the city's trendy neighbourhoods like Condesa, Roma and La Juárez, forcing out long-term residents.
In Condesa alone, estimates suggest that as many as one in five homes is now a short-term let or a tourist dwelling.
Others also cited more prosaic changes, like restaurant menus in English, or milder hot sauces at the taco stands to cater for sensitive foreign palates.
But as it moved through the gentrified streets, the initially peaceful protest turned ugly.
Radical demonstrators attacked coffee shops and boutique stores aimed at tourists, smashing windows, intimidating customers, spraying graffiti and chanting "Fuera Gringo!", meaning "Gringos Out!".
At her next daily press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the violence as "xenophobic".
"No matter how legitimate the cause, as is the case with gentrification, the demand cannot be to simply say 'Get out!' to people of other nationalities inside our country," she said.
The former speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Andriy Parubiy has been shot dead in the western city of Lviv, officials have said.
Unverified footage, purportedly of the shooting, appears to show a gunman dressed as a courier approaching Parubiy on the street and holding up a weapon as he walks behind him, before fleeing. A huge manhunt is now under way for the suspect.
.........He added that the attack appeared to have been "very carefully planned"..........
Parubiy was a pivotal figure in the Euromaidan movement, which began after Yanukovych's government refused to sign an association agreement with the EU in late 2013.
He organised and co-ordinated Maidan's "self-defence" - armed teams of protesters who guarded the sprawling tent camp in the heart of the capital Kyiv.
He was injured several times during clashes with Ukraine's riot police.
After Yanukovych's ouster, he became secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, during a period when Russia-armed separatists began fighting in eastern Ukraine - and when Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the southern Crimea peninsula.
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Parubiy joined Ukraine's territorial defence.
He had been a lawmaker in Ukraine's current parliament.
The Houthis have confirmed that their prime minister was killed during an Israeli air strike on the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
Ahmed al-Rahawi was killed on Thursday along with several ministers, who had gathered for a meeting, the Iran-backed rebels said in a statement.
Mr Rahawi was a politician – rather than a military figure – who had served as prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi-led government since August last year.
A Greek appeals court has found 10 individuals guilty of misdemeanour charges related to a devastating 2018 wildfire that claimed 104 lives.
The ruling, delivered on Tuesday, has sparked outrage among relatives of the victims of the blaze, which stands as the country's worst wildfire disaster in recent memory.
The court affirmed a previous verdict from a lower court last year, while also ordering the conviction of four additional people on misdemeanour charges, including involuntary manslaughter, according to legal sources. Those convicted include former fire brigade officials and an individual accused of arson.
However, eleven people, including regional governors, were acquitted.
The sentences for those convicted are expected to be announced on Wednesday. The penalty for a misdemeanour may include a suspended prison sentence or a jail term with the option of paying a fine..
The blaze that ripped through the seaside town of Mati, about 27 km (17 miles) east of the capital Athens, in July 2018 killed 104 people and injured dozens.
Another article on the Former fire officials......
the owner of the property where the fire started, received a three-year sentence for negligence and was also let go. Fifteen other firefighting officials, police, civil protection and local government officials were cleared of all charges.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greece-fires-athens-mati-police-b2536470.html
Interesting article. Jacinda is promoting her new book in the US!
Why New Zealand has turned on Jacinda Ardern - as she moves to the United States
A New Zealand commentator has launched a scathing critique of former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, as she promotes her memoir and accompanying documentary A Different Kind of Power.
Respected Christchurch-based journalist Chris Lynch took aim at Ms Ardern's international media tour, which has included high-profile appearances on the BBC and an interview with Oprah Winfrey, saying she was living in a 'parallel universe'.
'Every time I do a New Zealand interview, I message Clarke and say I'm feeling a bit squirmy,' she said, referring to her husband, Clarke Gayford who she married in 2024 following a five year engagement.
Lynch described her admission as 'telling' in an opinion piece on his news site, arguing that Ms Ardern enjoys a far warmer reception abroad than she does at home.
'Abroad, she is met with applause. At home, she is remembered as the face of division and government overreach,' he wrote.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Lynch said there was a stark disconnect between Ardern's international image and her domestic legacy, calling it a 'parallel universe.'
'It's always fascinating to see Jacinda Ardern appear on American television shows, where they seem to fawn over her with almost mythical admiration,' he said.
'Perhaps she understands, on some level, that while she presents an image of compassion and unity to the world, many New Zealanders are still living with the consequences of the decisions her government made.'
Lynch said Ms Ardern's memoir and tour were an attempt to rebrand herself with the assistance of an often fawning media that 'rarely questions her narrative.'
'Her memoir and media tour are not just about storytelling. They are a calculated attempt to reshape her reputation,' he said.
'Ardern wants to be remembered as a unifier. But many recall her leadership as defined by control, exclusion, and distrust.'
He criticised Ms Ardern's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that New Zealand's harsh lockdown rules were sold under a false message of kindness.
'"Be Kind" became a national slogan. In practice, it meant "do not question". Millions of dollars were spent on communication campaigns, compliance measures, and policing so-called disinformation.' he said.
'Under Ardern's leadership, the New Zealand Bill of Rights was breached. Police were given authority to enter homes without a warrant,' he said.
'Courts found aspects of her government's pandemic response unlawful. None of this gets mentioned during her international interviews.'
'The vaccine rollout became a symbol of coercion. Many lined up not out of trust in the science, but out of fear of losing their jobs. When asked in 2021 about creating a two-tier society, Ardern replied, “That is what it is”.'
Donald Trump made an unsettling blunder during a cabinet meeting on Monday, where he shockingly remarked that he was "activated last week".
In a situation that left him red-faced, Trump was apparently snubbed by Putin who made him wait before their scheduled phone conversation; however, Trump has persevered in attacking Ukraine and staunchly supporting Russia's stance in the ongoing war.
Claims from an ex-Soviet intelligence officer alleging that Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 and labeled with the codename 'Krasnov' have been circulating. His peculiar use of the term 'activation' has sparked anxiety among some who fear there could be some truth to the allegations...........
.........Trump then commended Musk for his loyalty, despite Tesla showrooms being targeted, mentioning, "I did get activated last week when I saw what they were doing," He then defended Musk's product readiness against attackers: "I said he makes an incredible product and we're going to go out and tell people you can't do that stuff."
This verbal slip went unnoticed by many watchers but left a few completely shocked at Trump's words.
Among the astonished, one individual took to Twitter to express disbelief: "Did Donald Trump just see the quiet part out loud? At this press conference. He got activated last week.
"IN THE CABINET MEETING TODAY TRUMP SAID HE WAS "ACTIVATED"," another person added.
The situation was further intensified by Trump's admission that his cabinet may have been swayed by Russian information.
A journalist queried: "Zelensky says he believes some members of your team has been influenced by Russian information. What do you say?".....
President Donald Trump on Friday indicated he would accept an offer from King Charles to join the British Commonwealth.
'I Love King Charles. Sounds good to me!,' Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
Trump was responded to an exclusive report in DailyMail.com that the King would make an 'exclusive' offer to the president for the U.S. to become the next 'associate member' of the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth, whose nations have a total population of more than 2.7billion, is one of the world's oldest political associations of states, with its roots in the British Empire.
The proposal was originally floated in Trump's first term, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who Trump adored.
Now the British are reviving the plan to extend the invitation with the hope the King will personally make the case to Trump when the president and first lady make their state visit to the UK later this year.
The proposals were made by the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS), with the apparent backing of Queen Elizabeth, during Trump's first term as president, but did not come to fruition. Now, the plans have been revived, with members of the society hopeful that the King will make the case to Trump when he meets him.
'This is being discussed at the highest levels,' a member of the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) told DailyMail.com: 'It would be a wonderful move that would symbolize Britain's close relationship with the US.
'Donald Trump loves Britain and has great respect for the Royal Family, so we believe he would see the benefits of this. Associate membership could, hopefully, be followed by full membership, making the Commonwealth even more important as a global organization.'
The source added: 'The Commonwealth is also a great forum for resolving differences between nations, and the King has shown that he is a natural peacemaker.'
So, are we keeping the Royal Family....hmm...
They know people are getting angry of feeding a Bureaucratic Monster, and ponzi jobs. Getting out quick, before attention is shone on them.
NHS England’s workforce will be cut by half, with around 6,500 jobs to go, in a bid to save at least £175m annually.
The government plans aim to “avoid duplication” with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and will see the health service enter “a period of critical transformation”.
Meanwhile, a string of NHS "directors" will be stepping down, with chief executive Amanda Pritchard and medical director Sir Stephen Powis leading the way. Announcements of their departures were followed by those of chief financial officer Julian Kelly, chief operating officer Emily Lawson and chief delivery officer Steve Russell.
https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/nhs-england-to-halve-workforce-and-save-at-least-175m/
Which is the world's biggest employer? - BBC News 20 Mar 2012 · Sizing up the world's biggest employers and compiling a list of the top 10, the NHS is revealed to be the fifth largest, with 1.7 million workers across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland...
A huge amount of the NHS cost is BLOATED by Bureaucratic staff, translators for migrants, and "support". It did not start out that way. Just like USAID there is a whole lot of money being wasted.
Elon Musk's DOGE revealed Tuesday that President Donald Trump has saved taxpayers a staggering $55 billion in less than a month. It said the savings were found through a combination of detecting and deleting fraud, cancelling contracts and leases, and selling assets.
The group - nicknamed the 'nerd army' - also ending grants, fired federal employees, changed some programs, and saved money with regulatory reforms. 'DOGE's total estimated savings are $55 billion,' read a message on the official doge.gov website, citing data since February 17.
It said users of the website could expect updates twice a week, promising additional updates and improvements with time. The listed savings were primarily found within the US Agency For International Development (USAID), the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Agriculture, according to the website.
Savings listed on the website feature million of dollars in cancelled contacts for diversity, equity, and inclusion training as well as cancelled subscriptions for Politico Pro and other news organizations. Elon Musk and the DOGE efforts to cut government waste continue capturing the headlines as Democrats and government workers continue protesting in the streets about the disruptive and draconian cuts.
Democrat protesters continue assailing Musk as an unelected oligarch that should not be trusted to access data from the federal government to find fraud and savings cuts. On Monday, the White House clarified in court papers that Musk’s title was ‘senior adviser to the president’ and that he is 'not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator.
Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former chairman of Twitter, seems like a good guy. He stumped up £608,000 from his philanthropic fund last month to help fund independent news in developing nations.
Dorsey’s donation to the charity BBC Media Action will go into a pot that does vital work in protecting the world’s information ecosystem. The charity supports some of the few Afghan women journalists still working under the Taliban. It trains media workers in Nepal and Bangladesh to convey life-saving warnings of landslides and cyclones caused by climate change.
Elon Musk, who bought Twitter for £35bn in 2022 and renamed it X, seems less of a good guy. This month Musk effectively prised away £2.6m in annual funding from BBC Media Action – 8 per cent of its budget – as he froze the work of USAid, the US government’s development agency.
He then exacerbated the damage by questioning the independence of the London-based charity – and the BBC itself – by suggesting that US taxpayers have been bankrolling the broadcaster. “BBC is literally state-funded media,” he tweeted.
The BBC charity has been forced into fire-fighting. It works with media outlets in 30 countries and in 50 languages. Aside from USAid, it receives funding from the Foreign Office, Unicef, and development agencies in Canada, Switzerland and Sweden. Its CEO Simon Bishop, who previously worked for the Power of Nutrition, an international development organisation, protested that BBC Media Action is “editorially completely separate from BBC News”.
The charity’s board of trustees is chaired by Fran Unsworth, former head of BBC News, and includes the familiar news presenter Reeta Chakrabarti. But the relationship with the newsroom is limited to upholding the “editorial values and standards” of the BBC. The actual journalism supported by BBC Media Action is done by the likes of Wambaz Oleman Learat, an investigative reporter exposing the impact of cattle rustling in rural Kenya, where he works for Sidai FM radio station. It supports Ukrainian media workers in providing basic public service information in devastated cities such as Dnipro and Zaporizhzhya, combating the swirl of false rumours on the Telegram social media app.
The West owes such support. The women working at the 10 female-focused Afghan radio stations helped by BBC Media Action were let down – along with all Afghan women – by the chaotic abandonment of Kabul by Joe Biden’s administration in 2021. In Bangladesh, the BBC charity gives media training to Rohingya refugees who were driven out of Myanmar in atrocities that partly resulted from hate whipped up on Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook.
WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand expressed renewed concern on Monday about the Cook Islands' prime minister travelling to China this week to sign agreements without properly consulting with Wellington despite the two nations' constitutional ties.
New Zealand has become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific region and the potential threats it poses to the country’s national security.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Monday at a press conference New Zealand expected transparency and consultation with Cook Islands after its prime minister, Mark Brown, announced that he was heading to China seeking a partnership in national development including infrastructure, trade and the economy.
The Cook Islands is a self-governing country in free association with New Zealand, which provides budget support and commits to defend the South Pacific nation, whose people are New Zealand citizens.
"Under our constitutional arrangements, we expect, you know, matters of defence and security to be transparently discussed between partners. That's all we're asking for here," Luxon said.
He said once New Zealand knew what was in the proposed partnership, the government would respond.
China did not confirm the visit, but its foreign ministry on Monday called the Cook Islands an important partner in the South Pacific.
"China believes that New Zealand and the Cook Islands are both important partners of China," ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a news briefing, adding that China's ties with the Pacific nation are not aimed at any third party.
New Zealand has repeatedly asked the Cook Islands to consult on the contents of agreements that Brown plans to sign with China but has not received a proper response, deputy prime minister Winston Peter's office said in a statement on Sunday.
"To those who suggest that our engagement with China is somehow secretive, I reject that completely," Brown said in a video statement on Cook Islands Television News Facebook page on Friday, without providing specifics on that engagement.
"Every agreement we enter into will be in the best interest of the Cook Islands," he said.
Cook Islanders have also questioned secrecy around the agreement. Tina Browne, leader of the opposition Democratic party, told New Zealand-based radio station 531pn that people were concerned about the lack of consultation firstly about a proposed Cook Islands' passport and then about the agreement with China.
“If there is nothing to hide, why are we not consulting with New Zealand?” Browne said.
China has filed a World Trade Organisation (WTO) complaint against US president Donald Trump's 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods after a trade war between two global powers began this week.
Mr Trump’s 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods, which Beijing called a “serious violation” of international trade rules, came into effect on Tuesday. Beijing responded by imposing 15 per cent levies on coal and liquefied natural gas and 10 per cent on oil and agricultural levies.
The WTO on Wednesday said China submitted a request for consultations with the US on the tariffs.
China in its complaint accused the US of making "unfounded and false allegations" about Beijing's role in the flow of fentanyl opioids and their precursor chemicals to the US to justify the tariffs. Beijing added that the measures were "discriminatory and protectionist" which violated the trade rules.
A flurry of naval drills surrounding the Philippines involving the United States and its partners has prompted complaints from Beijing, which claims the entire South China Sea and accuses Manila of colluding with others to destabilize the region.
The U.S. 7th Fleet based in Japan said forces from Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and the U.S. conducted a “multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity” within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone on Wednesday.
Such drills “strengthen the interoperability of our defense/armed forces doctrines, tactics, techniques, and procedures," the fleet said in a news release. The maneuvers were taking place within the Philippines’ zone, but the fleet gave no details on the exact location.
More exercises involving the U.S., Japan and France were planned for later this week in the Philippines Sea, which China does not claim.
That exercise “is designed to advance coordination and cooperation between French, Japanese and U.S. maritime forces while simultaneously demonstrating capabilities in multi-domain operations,” the fleet said.
Meanwhile, Tian Junli, spokesperson for China's Southern Theater Command, accused the Philippines of “colluding with outside countries to organize ‘so-called joint patrols’, " which he said ”destabilize the region," Chinese state media said on Thursday.
Tian said the Philippines actions were “an attempt to endorse its ‘illegal claims’ in the South China Sea and ”undermine China’s maritime rights and interests." He specifically pointed to U.S.-Philippines joint patrols on Tuesday and said China had carried out its own patrols in the region on Wednesday.
"If you are a member of something, it means you've accepted membership. Anything with 'ship' on the end, it's giving you a clue: it's telling you that's maritime law. That means you've entered into a contract."
This isn't your standard legal argument and it is becoming clear that I am dealing with an unusual way of looking at the world.
I'm in the library of a hotel in Leicestershire, a wood panelled room with warm lighting, and Pete Stone, better known as Sovereign Pete, is explaining how 'the system' works. Stone is in his mid-50, bald with a goatee beard and wearing, as he always does for public appearances, a black T-shirt and black jeans.
With us are six other people, mainly dressed in neat jumpers. They're members of the Sovereign Project (SP), an organisation Stone founded in 2020, which, he says, now has more than 20,000 paying members.
As arcane as this may sound, it represents a worldview that is becoming more influential - and causing problems for authorities. Loosely, they're defined as "sovereign citizens" or "freemen on the land".
Their fundamental point is that nobody is required to obey laws they have not specifically consented to - especially when it comes to tax. They have hundreds of thousands of followers in the UK across platforms including YouTube, Facebook and Telegram.
.....they are focussed on issues like questioning the obligation to pay taxes, as Stone explains, referencing the feudal system that operated in the Middle Ages....
...."Do you know about the feudal system when people were slaves and were forced to pay tax?" he asks.
"Now, unless the feudal system still operates today, and we still have serfs and slaves, then the only way that you can pay taxes is to have a contract, you have to agree to it and consent to it.".....
.....He explains that, really, the UK government isn't actually in control: there is a shadow government above them.
"These are the people who control government," he explains.
"A lot of people say this could be the crown council of 13, this could be a series of Italian families."......
....."We've got the Magna Carta - all these checks and balances. We just need to pack up, go down to Parliament and say: It's time to dismiss you. You're not fit for purpose."....
A family accused of masquerading as Afghans to illegally claim asylum in the UK will not stand trial until 2026 - a decision that will cost the taxpayer another £164,000, MailOnline can reveal today.
Gurbakhsh Singh, 72, his wife Ardet Kaur, 68, their son Guljeet Singh, 44, and his wife Kawaljeet Kaur, 37, all appeared on bail at Croydon Crown Court last Thursday.
The husband, wife, son and daughter-in-law are accused of claiming to be from Afghanistan when they arrived at Heathrow Airport just before Christmas 2023.
But they were then accused of twice having failed to obtain visas to come to Britain as Indian citizens earlier that year.
They are currently living in a £575,000 luxury house in the exclusive Home Counties commuter town of Hemel Hempstead. Until recently they were housed at Wembley's Holiday Inn, which has been completely booked by the UK Government and is currently not accepting any customers.
Based on Home Office-accepted figures, it costs the UK around £164,000-a-year to house a family of four asylum seekers.
The Singh Kaurs have been in Britain illegally for 13 months and with their trial now set for February 2026, they are set to cost the taxpayer the same amount again bringing their accommodation bill to at least £328,000 by next year.
Last week they appeared at Croydon Crown Court for the first time, but the hearing was adjourned because no Punjabi or Dari Afghan interpreters had been booked.
It is alleged they had all previously declared themselves to be Indian nationals and provided documentary evidence in two failed visa applications three months earlier.
They are also all charged with making a false statement or representation at Heathrow Airport, namely requesting asylum as Afghan citizens when Home Office records confirm they are Indian nationals, contrary to the Immigration and Asylum Act.
All four are also charged with knowingly entering the UK without leave on December 23, last year, contrary to the Immigration Act.
A daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma has been arrested and is expected to appear in court on Thursday to face terrorism charges.
Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, who is also a member of the South African Parliament, is accused of inciting violence during riots in July 2021 which led to the deaths of more than 350 people.
“The arrest is as a result of a meticulous investigation by the Durban Crimes Against the State unit of the Serious Organized Crime Investigation, following the unrest that brought the country to a standstill in 2021,” police spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo said.
Canadian Town Fined £7,800 For Refusing To Fly Pride Flags: 'We Only Have 3 Flags—Canadian, Provincial, and Municipal'
A small Canadian town has been fined £7,800 ($10,000) for its refusal to recognise Pride Month or fly the rainbow flag, sparking national debate over inclusion and tradition. Emo, a township of approximately 1,300 residents located near the Minnesota border, has also been ordered to provide mandatory human rights training to its mayor and council members following a legal complaint.
Controversial Decision Draws Criticism The dispute began in May 2020 when Borderland Pride, a local LGBTQ advocacy group, requested that the town formally declare June as Pride Month and fly the rainbow flag. During a council meeting to review the request, Mayor Harold McQuaker made remarks that later became central to the case. He stated, "There's no flag being flown for the other side of the coin... there's no flags being flown for the straight people," as reported by National Post.
McQuaker, along with council members Harrold Boven and Warren Toles, voted against the motion, defeating it 3-2. Critics viewed the decision as a step backward for inclusion, with Borderland Pride Co-Chair Douglas Judson describing the move as "extremely disappointing."
Tribunal Ruling and Financial Penalties The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ruled in November 2024 that the town's actions violated provincial human rights codes. Tribunal Vice-Chair Karen Dawson stated that the mayor's remarks were "demeaning and disparaging" to the LGBTQ community, constituting discrimination under the law.
As part of the ruling, the township was fined £7,800 ($10,000), with Mayor McQuaker personally fined an additional £3,900 ($5,000). These penalties were less than what Borderland Pride initially sought, which included £11,800 ($15,000) from the township and £7,800 ($10,000) from each councillor who voted against the proclamation.
Borderland Pride argued that symbolic proclamations like Pride Month are now routine in larger cities such as Toronto and Hamilton. "These are basic gestures of inclusion and support," Judson said. "They shouldn't be controversial."
The Destruction of Western Countries continues.
"Wealthy" countries yesterday agreed to triple the amount of aid they pay to developing nations to tackle climate change in a last-minute deal at the Cop29 summit.
Developed countries including the UK, US and EU nations agreed to pay $300billion (£239billion) a year – up from the $100billion they pay now.
The sum was described by the United Nations as ‘an insurance policy for humanity’. But the action – which excludes the world’s biggest polluter China – was dismissed as ‘too little, too late’ by developing countries.
India branded it a ‘paltry sum’, as it falls well short of the $1.3trillion (£1.04trillion) that was pushed for.
China, the world’s second-biggest economy, presents a problem as it is not obliged to contribute. It was until recently a ‘developing’ country and is not yet among the ‘developed’ nations. So it falls between two stools and has merely been ‘invited’ to contribute.
Poorer countries say global warming was caused by wealthier Western countries who got rich from burning fossil fuels – and now developing nations are being told they cannot use oil, gas and coal to power their own economies.
But climate groups labelled the funding agreement, designed to help developing nations combat global warming and to modernise their economies, a ‘drop in the ocean’ of rising seawaters.
Dr David Kelly was a weapons inspector who died of apparent suicide. Blair was considered by many to be responsible for his death.
An ex-government minister who investigated the death of weapons inspector David Kelly has called for him to be awarded a posthumous honour.
Former Lib Dem MP Norman Baker believes the scientist should get a knighthood for his work on the biological weapons threat from Russia and Iraq.
The former transport minister, whose book The Strange Death Of David Kelly has been updated, also called for an inquest to be held into the weapons inspector's death, which shocked Britain more than two decades ago.
Dr Kelly, 59, was at the centre of a row between the BBC and Tony Blair's Labour government over claims that No10 'sexed up' a dossier on Iraq's weapons capability.
After he was named as a source for a BBC report – as Mr Blair was making a case for Britain to join the US in a war in Iraq – he was hauled before MPs to give evidence.
Days later, on July 18, 2003, his body was found in woodland near his home in Oxfordshire after he apparently took his own life.
Mr Baker has investigated claims Dr Kelly was murdered or assassinated because of his role in the 'dodgy dossier' row or his work as a weapons inspector in Iraq.
......the Government-commissioned Hutton Inquiry was 'a travesty'.
It found Dr Kelly committed suicide. Critics of the Hutton Inquiry claim it failed to fully examine how Dr Kelly died, including the official cause of death.
Dr Kelly was a weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, following the first Gulf War, and was nominated for a Nobel peace prize. He spent most of his career as a consultant on arms control for the Ministry of Defence and other government departments.
The health regulator is being sued over its decision to approve a private trans clinic for children which has been set up by former Tavistock staff.
Gender Plus was registered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to prescribe hormones for those aged 16 and over despite a crackdown on such treatment by NHS England.
That decision will now be reviewed in the High Court after the judge granted permission for judicial review in a case brought by a Tavistock whistleblower and the mother of a trans teenager.
Paul Conrathe, Senior Consultant Solicitor at Sinclairslaw, said: “Despite well-known concerns about gender medical treatment for children with gender dysphoria, the CQC registered the first hormonal clinic run by ex-Tavistock clinicians.
“The High Court has ordered that a full trial should take place which could result in the clinic’s licence being revoked.”
The private clinic was set up by Dr Aidan Kelly, a clinical psychologist who worked at the Tavistock for five years, and it employs a number of former GIDS staff members.
It was registered with the CQC in January, making it the first of its kind to be approved by the health regulator to prescribe cross-sex hormones to over-16s. It is an offence for providers of regulated healthcare activities in the UK to operate if they are not registered.
The CQC made the decision despite previously publishing a highly critical inspection report which was instrumental in the closure of the Tavistock.
It approved Gender Plus just months before the publication of the long-awaited Cass review.
The report by Dr Hilary Cass, a paediatric consultant, made 32 recommendations, including calling for the “unhurried” care of those under 25 who think they may be transgender and an end to the prescribing of powerful hormones to under-18s.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards planned to assassinate Masih Alinejad while she delivered a talk to students in Connecticut’s Fairfield University.
The 48-year-old dissident journalist uncovered corruption and women’s rights in the theocratic regime for years, but fled her home country more than a decade ago, moving to New York to build a new life.
The FBI this week informed her that she was on an Iranian hit list, with the date of her lecture chosen for the assassination attempt.
That was the first surprise. The second was that the hitman assigned to kill her, whom authorities have named as Farjad Shakeri, was also under orders to kill Donald Trump, the president-elect.
“I am shocked. I just learned from the FBI that two men were arrested yesterday in a new plot to kill me at Fairfield University, where I was scheduled to give a talk,” Ms Alinejad wrote on social media.
“I also learned that the person assigned to assassinate [Mr Trump] was also assigned to kill me on US soil,” she continued, adding that the “alleged killers” had turned up at her house in Brooklyn.
She was catapulted to fame as a reporter in the Iranian parliament, questioning powerful men in a country where women do not have the vote and have been beaten to death for leaving home without a hijab.
She once approached a politician for an interview, only for him to wave a fist in her face and threaten to beat her when he spotted a few hairs poking out of her head covering.
Ms Alinejad says she shouted back: “All this fuss about two strands of hair. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
In an interview with the Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, she asked why other countries should “respect our Islamic values” when western women were forced to wear a hijab in Iran. Khatami, by her account, was left “speechless”.
Italian judges have ordered seven men detained in a migration hub in Albania to be transferred to Italy, in another blow to a controversial deal between the far-right Rome government and Tirana aimed at curbing the arrival of asylum seekers.
The men arrived at the Albanian port of Shëngjin aboard a military vessel on Friday after being rescued in international waters while trying to make their way to Europe.
The Italian government had argued that all should be returned to their “safe” home countries of Egypt and Bangladesh. One man who had originally formed part of the group was already taken to Italy after he was deemed vulnerable.
“Another political sentence, not against the government, but against Italians and their security,” said the deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini.
Under the deal, men from countries deemed “safe” and intercepted in international waters while attempting to cross from Africa to Europe are supposed to be held in Albania while their asylum claims are processed. The scheme, which excludes women, children and vulnerable individuals, could process up to 3,000 men a month.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has provoked outrage after refusing to release the names of 900 Nazis who escaped to Canada after World War Two.
This decision has been called “disgraceful” by Jewish groups who claim it dishonours victims of the Holocaust.
Numerous Ukrainian SS Waffen soldiers relocated to Canada following the war. The list of members of the Nazi-led SS Galicia unit was put together by the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, led by retired Superior Court of Quebec judge Jules Deschênes.
They then met with members of the Ukrainian community and a “discrete group of individuals or organisations” to help decide if the names should be released.