The European Parliament’s first official delegation to Taiwan yesterday said the diplomatically isolated island is not alone and called for bolder actions to strengthen EU-Taiwan ties as Taipei faces rising pressure from Beijing.

Developing countries need up to 10 times more funding to protect themselves from increasingly ferocious effects of climate change than the world has currently earmarked, the UN said yesterday.

Britain called an end to the era of coal on Thursday, saying it had 77 signatories to a pledge to phase out the dirtiest of the fossil fuels that cause global warming, as a study showed carbon dioxide emissions had rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels.

1942 - British troops defeated the Germans under General Erwin Rommel at El Alamein in Egypt after a 12-day battle during World WarII.

A four-year-old Australian girl abducted from a campsite 18 days ago was discovered “alive and well” during a raid on a locked house yesterday, telling her shocked and elated rescuers: “My name is Cleo.”

Attention yesterday turned to how the world will pay for its plan to decarbonise and help vulnerable nations survive climate change, after a world leaders’ summit at COP26 that yielded a landmark methane slashing deal.

In her first public address since she leaked a trove of damaging documents about Facebook’s inner workings, whistleblower Frances Haugen urged her former boss, Mark Zuckerberg, to step down and allow change rather than devoting resources to a rebrand.

It is the hope of many that the legacy of this summit - written in history books yet to be printed - will describe you as the leaders who did not pass up the opportunity; and that you answered the call of those future generations. … But we are doing this not for ourselves but for our children and our children’s children.

A crucial UN conference heard calls on its first day for the world’s major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis.

Nearly all internationally available development financing is now committed to reducing or ending investment in coal-fired power after moves by China and the G20 to stop supporting new projects overseas, new research showed yesterday.

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.

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

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.