World

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was impeached for abuse of power in a historic vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, setting up a Senate trial on removing him from office after three turbulent years.

By a 230 to 197 vote in the Democratic-majority House, the 45th US president became just the third occupant of the White House in American history to be impeached.

Democrats said they had "no choice" but to formally charge the 73-year-old Republican, whose impeachment along stark party lines places an indelible stain on his record while driving a spike ever deeper into the US political divide.

"What is at risk here is the very idea of America," said Adam Schiff, the lawmaker who led the impeachment inquiry, ahead of the vote.

Trump will now stand trial in the Senate, where his Republicans hold a solid majority and are expected to exonerate him.

The House vote came four months after a whistleblower blew open the scandal of Trump pressuring Ukraine's president to investigate his potential White House challenger in 2020, the veteran Democrat Joe Biden.

After a marathon 10-hour debate, lawmakers also voted 229-198 to approve the second article of impeachment facing Trump — for obstructing the congressional probe into his Ukraine dealings.

Trump spent the first part of the day at the White House, tweeting in frustration, but on Wednesday night the president was on friendlier territory.

In an extraordinary split screen moment, as the House was casting votes to impeach him, thousands of Trump’s most fervent supporters were cheering him at a rally in Michigan where he railed against a “radical left” he said was “consumed with hatred”. 

“The Democrats are declaring their deep hatred and disdain for the American voter,” Trump said to boos and cheers.

“They’ve been trying to impeach me from day one. They’ve been trying to impeach me from before I ran,” he said.

“Four more years, four more years,” the crowd chanted back.

Despite testimony from 17 officials that Trump leveraged his office for political gain, the president maintained his innocence throughout the impeachment inquiry — denouncing it as an “attempted coup” and an “assault on America”.

‘Threat to national security’

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham blasted the House vote as “one of the most shameful political episodes in the history of our Nation”, saying Trump “is prepared for the next steps and confident that he will be fully exonerated”. 

Neither of the two previous presidents impeached since 1789, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998, was convicted in the Senate, and both held onto their jobs.

But despite the high likelihood of Trump being cleared by Senate Republicans, Democrats said that overwhelming evidence had forced the House to act.

“It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“It is a matter of fact that the president is an ongoing threat to our national security and the integrity of our elections.” 

The day of dramatic and often angry oratory saw both sides delving deep into Constitutional law, citing the country’s hallowed founders Benjamin Franklin or Alexander Hamilton, as outside Congress protesters clamored for impeachment.

Republicans claimed Trump was treated more unfairly than those tried as witches in the 17th century — or even than Jesus Christ.

“Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers. During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats afforded this president and this process,” said Georgia Republican Barry Loudermilk.

“Voters will never forget that Democrats have been triggered into impeaching the president, because they don’t like him, and they don’t like us,” charged Republican Matt Gaetz.

On Wednesday night, Trump himself weighed in, tweeting an ominous black and white photo of himself, finger pointing forward, captioned: “In reality they’re not after me[.] They’re after you[.] I’m just in the way.”

Battle opens over Senate trial

Both sides were already gearing up for a battle over the Senate trial, where Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has the upper hand in setting rules and has already said he will coordinate with Trump’s team in doing so.

That could lead to a trial as short as two weeks, which by acquitting the president could turn impeachment into a political win in the run-up to the November 2020 election.

Democrats declared after Wednesday’s vote that McConnell needs testimony from four current and former White House aides with direct knowledge of Trump’s Ukraine dealings — and who he blocked from testifying in the House.

“The question is now whether Senator McConnell will allow a fair trial in the Senate, whether the majority leader will allow a trial that involves witnesses and testimony and documents,” said Schiff.

Pelosi hinted that the House leaders could hold off sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate to pressure McConnell on the witness issue.

“So far, we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,” she told reporters. “We’ll decide what that dynamic is.”

“But right now, the president is impeached.”

BUXTON, Australia — A state of emergency was declared in Australia's most populated region on Thursday as an unprecedented heatwave fanned out-of-control bushfires, destroying homes and smothering huge areas with a toxic smoke.

As thousands of firefighters battled blazes, temperatures neared 50ºC in some places and authorities warned the extreme weather conditions could get even worse.

Australia endures bushfires every year but the early and intense start to this season, along with the record temperatures, has fuelled concerns about global warming.

In New South Wales, Australia's most populated state with Sydney as its capital, more than 100 bushfires were burning on Thursday, many of them out of control.

New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a seven-day state of emergency, the second since the bushfire season began early in September, due to "catastrophic weather conditions".

At Buxton, about 100 kilometres southwest of Sydney, longtime resident Paul Collins said a nearby bushfire that had destroyed dozens of buildings was "much worse" than in past years.

"It's spread faster with the wind, and the bush and the ground is just so dry," Collins told AFP, blaming climate change and a long-running drought for the worsening fires.

"It's just a horrendous situation, really."

At least 20 houses were destroyed in New South Wales on Thursday, according to national broadcaster the ABC.

Meanwhile, the roughly 5 million people of Sydney continued to choke on smoke from a "mega-blaze" ringing the city.

Public health emergency 

Leading doctors have warned the smoke, which has shrouded Sydney for weeks, has created a "public health emergency".

Hospitals have been recording large increases in emergency room visits for respiratory problems.

Vulnerable people in New South Wales have been urged by authorities to stay indoors amid worries the scorching heat combined with the toxic smoke could cause "severe illness, hospital admissions and even death".

The heatwave has led to a series of extraordinary records.

Australia endured a national maximum temperature of 41.9 ºC on Wednesday, a full degree higher than the previous record set just one day earlier.

Until this week, the record high had been 40.3ºC in January 2013.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Dean Narramore said the "dangerous and disastrous" heatwave was toppling dozens of "extraordinary" records across the country.

"We're heading into a fifth or sixth day in a row where multiple places broke a record. And we're likely to see 30 or 40 records around the country break," he told the ABC.

Climate protests 

The fires have sparked protests targeting Australia's conservative government, which environmentalists accuse of promoting coal and other industries that belch out greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

On Thursday hundreds of climate protesters marched on Prime Minister Scott Morrison's official residence in Sydney to demand curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.

They also sought to highlight his absence on an overseas holiday as large parts of the country burn.

Scientists say the blazes have come earlier and with more intensity than usual due to global warming and the prolonged drought that has left the land tinder dry.

Meanwhile, exhausted firefighters continued their battle on Thursday.

NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said a crew of five firefighters battling a "fast-moving" blaze had been injured after being "enveloped" by flames. 

Two seriously injured men had been airlifted to a specialist burns unit and a woman was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Fitzsimmons said some firefighters had been left "shattered" after losing their own homes while saving other properties.

"They and their families and colleagues are truly devastated by the loss," he said. "It will be another very emotional, very draining day for our firefighters."

Aside from New South Wales, more than 70 fires are raging across Queensland state to the north. Bushfires are also burning in Western Australia and South Australia.

At least 3 million hectares of land has been torched across Australia in recent months, with six people killed and more than 800 homes destroyed.

LA PAZ — Bolivia's attorney general on Wednesday ordered the arrest of exiled former president Evo Morales after the interim government accused him of sedition and terrorism.

Public prosecutors in La Paz signed a warrant for police to detain the 60-year-old — who is in Argentina — and take him to the attorney general's office.

Morales fled Bolivia last month after civil unrest broke out following his reelection in an October 20 poll widely dismissed as rigged.

The former trade union leader denounced the arrest order as "illegal, unfair and unconstitutional" on Twitter.

"I'm not worried. As long as I'm alive I'll continue with greater strength in the political and ideological struggle for a free and sovereign Bolivia," he said.

Morales ruled the South American country for almost 14 years before resigning last month and leaving Bolivia.

He initially received asylum in Mexico and then arrived in Argentina last week.

The allegations against him stem from an audio recording released by Arturo Murillo, the interim government's interior minister. In the recording, Morales allegedly tells one of his supporters to block trucks and interrupt the food supply to several cities.

Morales was in Mexico at the time, the complaint alleges.

Food, fuel shortages 

Murillo began legal action against Morales in November, after weeks of road blocks caused food and fuel shortages in the capital La Paz following his resignation.

The ex-president countered by accusing the interim government of manufacturing the audio to damage him politically.

The controversial October poll in which Morales was reelected was annulled following an Organisation of American States (OAS) audit that found clear evidence of vote rigging.

Right-wing deputy senate leader Jeanine Anez took over as interim president and has vowed to call new elections early next year, although no date has been set.

The interim government has barred Morales from standing in the ballot.

Bolivia's constitution limits a president to two consecutive terms but Morales stood for a potential fourth term in October.

Ahead of the last two elections, the constitutional court — filled with Morales loyalists — made controversial decisions authorising him to run again.

His detractors accused him of corruption and authoritarianism.

Speaking from Buenos Aires on Tuesday, Morales pledged to back another candidate from his Movement for Socialism party this time around.

"I'm convinced that we'll win the next elections. I won't be a candidate but I have a right to be in politics," Morales told reporters.

"My obligation now that I'm not a candidate, now that I'm not president, is to accompany candidates so that they can win the elections," added Morales, who was Bolivia's first ever indigenous president.

Previously he insisted he'd been the victim of a coup and has launched near-daily Twitter attacks against Anez and her allies.

Earlier on Wednesday he claimed US President Donald Trump — who hit out against Morales on Tuesday for provoking violence in Bolivia from afar — was behind the "coup".

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday put Britain's departure from the EU at the top of the agenda, as Queen Elizabeth II read out his plans for government in a parliamentary ceremony following a sweeping election win.

The monarch formally opened parliament with plenty of traditional pomp and pageantry before ermine and red-robed members of the upper House of Lords, and MPs from the lower House of Commons.

But before the monarch's set-piece speech, Scotland's first minister called for a new vote on independence, signalling a looming constitutional battle between London and Edinburgh.

Nicola Sturgeon said Brexit and election results north of the border made a clear "constitutional and democratic case" for a fresh look about whether Scotland should end its more than 300-year-old union with England and Wales.

Top of Johnson's to-do list is a bill to ratify the terms of Britain's exit from the European Union, which he negotiated in October but could not get through a deadlocked parliament.

Now with a comfortable majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, he hopes to push through the deal in time to fulfil his election campaign pledge to "Get Brexit Done" on the next EU deadline.

"My government's priority is to deliver the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union on 31st January," the queen confirmed from a gilded throne.

She added: "Thereafter, my ministers will seek a future relationship with the EU based on a free-trade agreement that benefits the whole of the United Kingdom."

In a sign of the government's vow to keep to the Brexit timetable, a spokesman said the Department for Exiting the European Union "will be wound up once the UK leaves the EU on 31 January".

Brexit cliff-edge? 

The Queen's Speech normally takes place about once a year but there was one in October after Johnson became Conservative leader in July following an internal party vote.

Rebellions over Brexit left him without the Commons support he needed to govern so he called a snap election — and won a landslide.

As a result, Thursday's speech was scaled down, with the 93-year-old monarch eschewing her horse-drawn carriage for a car and her regalia for a matching coral green hat and coat.

The highlight of the proposed legislation was the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) to ratify the terms of Brexit, which will be put to a first vote among MPs on Friday.

It covers Britain's financial obligations to the EU, the rights of European expatriates and new arrangements for Northern Ireland.

The bill will also enshrine the dates of a transition period, which will keep EU-UK ties largely unchanged until December 31, 2020, to allow both sides to sign a new trade deal.

The period can be extended for up to two years but London insists this will not be necessary.

Johnson, a leading figure in the 2016 referendum vote for Brexit, says it is time to end years of political wrangling over the result.

But the EU has warned the timetable is extremely tight to agree a new relationship after Britain leaves the bloc's single market and customs union.

The WAB also includes plans to allow courts other than the supreme court to overturn European Court of Justice rulings, to ensure Britain can more swiftly extricate itself from European case law.

 Scots away? 

Johnson's Tories may have won a majority countrywide in the December 12 poll but lost more than half their seats in Scotland on a campaign opposing a fresh independence vote.

First Minister Sturgeon said sweeping victories by her Scottish National Party in the three general elections since 2015 made the case for a new referendum "unarguable".

"Scotland made it very clear last week it does not want a Tory government led by Boris Johnson, taking us out of the European Union," Sturgeon told a news conference.

"That is the future we face if we do not have the opportunity to consider the alternative of independence."

Scots voted against independence in 2014 but two years later a majority said they wanted Britain to stay in the EU, unlike voters in England and Wales.

Pro-independence campaigners said that represents a "material change in circumstances" in Scotland's relations with the rest of the United Kingdom.

The future Scots chose in the EU referendum "is simply no longer available to them", said Sturgeon. "That is not a union worthy of the name and it is not of equals," she added.

She called on London to transfer powers allowing the devolved administration in Edinburgh to hold the vote.

LONDON — Britain's new government is taking aim at the BBC, accusing it of bias in reporting the recently concluded elections that gave Prime Minister Boris Johnson a sweeping mandate.

The row over perceived partiality from the corporation and ensuing threats about its licence fee funding have erupted before but this time come against a backdrop of tensions about Brexit.

The issue is likely to dominate the brief of newly-reappointed culture minister Nicky Morgan in the run-up to talks in 2022 about whether to maintain the licence at current levels.

Morgan has said she would be "open-minded" about scrapping the licence and replacing it with a Netflix-style subscription service.

The government has previously committed to maintain the licence fee model until 2027. A standard licence costs each British household just over £154 ($202, 182 euros) a year.

But junior finance minister Rishi Sunak suggested non-payment could now be decriminalised.

“That is something the prime minister has said we will look at, and has instructed people to look at that,” he said on Sunday.

Interview no-show 

In the last financial year to April 30, the BBC received £3.7 billion in funding from the licence fee — an enviable revenue stream in tough economic times for media companies.

That makes it open to criticism, particularly from commercial rivals as advertising revenues fall, and viewing habits and news consumption change to streaming and social media.

A largely right-wing print media, meanwhile, sees the giant corporation as an unapologetic bastion of the liberal, metropolitan — and largely pro-EU — elite.

Anger and frustration at the failure to implement Brexit — particularly outside London — has only made the situation more acute.

Johnson’s electoral success largely came on the back of populist sloganeering to “Get Brexit Done” but he also faced criticism that he was unwilling to face close scrutiny over his policies.

His ruling Conservative party were incensed when one of the BBC’s top political interviewers, Andrew Neil, publicly berated the premier on air for refusing to speak to him.

The Tories were also angry at the broadcaster’s reporting of a story from the main opposition Labour-supporting Mirror about a young boy sleeping on the floor of a hospital.

The government has not denied reports it has since stopped senior ministers from appearing on BBC radio’s flagship “Today” show, which often sets the day’s political agenda.

To some extent, the row is the most recent example of the government of the day trying to control its media image.

But Ivor Gaber, professor of political journalism at the University of Sussex, said the threats were also “revenge” for Neil’s personal attack on Johnson and the hospital scandal.

Breakdown in trust? 

Jean Seaton, professor of media history at the University of Westminster and the BBC’s official historian, said similar criticism from Labour made the situation more dangerous.

“That’s what’s unusual,” she told AFP, describing the face-off as an “information war”.

Andy McDonald, a lawmaker close to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, has claimed the BBC’s political coverage “played a part” in the party’s crushing election defeat.

Corbyn had been “demonised and vilified” during the campaign, and portrayed as a supporter of anti-Semitism, and as a terrorist sympathiser, he said.

“We have a catalogue of complaints against our public service broadcaster, our precious BBC, which I’m afraid has been brought into the fray.”

Despite claims about a breakdown in trust in the national broadcaster, at least twice as many people watched the BBC on election night than their rivals, figures showed.

National arbiter 

The corporation maintains that the licence fee, at £2.97 per week, is value for money, as it pays for all its TV, radio and online services.

BBC chairman Tony Hall said in a post-election message to staff that elections “always put the BBC’s impartiality in the spotlight”.

He blamed social media for offering “a megaphone to those who want to attack us and makes this pressure greater than ever. The conspiracy theories that abound are frustrating”.

Abuse of journalists had been “sickening”, he said, calling on social media platforms to “do more” about the vitriol.

Veteran news presenter Huw Edwards also weighed in, admitting some “honest mistakes” but accusing the BBC’s most vocal critics of seeking to “undermine trust” and “cause chaos and confusion”.

“The BBC can never be good enough, and people will forever shout at the screen,” added political commentator and ex-BBC staffer Polly Toynbee in the Guardian newspaper.

“To be the only national arbiter of everything is an impossible burden. But recently it has become infinitely harder.”

HONG KONG — Six people were killed and dozens injured in Hong Kong on Wednesday when a double-decker bus smashed into a tree, police said.

Live footage showed firefighters trying to reach victims on the vehicle’s top deck, which had been turned into a tangled mess of twisted metal and shattered glass, leaving some passenger seats dangling to the side.

Victims were seen being removed in black body bags and placed next to a sign reading “Temporary Mortuary” at the roadside in Kwu Tung, a region close to the border with China.

Police said six people were certified dead at the scene — three men and three women — with dozens injured.

The city’s Hospital Authority said 40 people had been injured. 

One survivor dressed with a bandage around his head and right arm told local broadcaster TVB he was asleep when the crash happened.

“When I woke up I was already trapped in my seat,” the man said.

Hong Kong prides itself on having one of the world’s best public transport systems but deadly bus accidents are not unknown.

The densely-packed city has many winding, narrow and often steep roads. But unions say driver fatigue from working unforgiving hours is also commonplace.

Last year was an especially bad one for fatal bus crashes in Hong Kong.

A speeding double-decker overturned in northern Hong Kong in February 2018, killing 19 people, one of the worst bus accidents on record. 

Five people were killed when a coach carrying Cathay Pacific staff to Hong Kong’s airport collided with a taxi in November. 

A month later, four people died when an empty runaway school bus mounted a pavement. 

In 2003, a double-decker bus collided with a truck and plummeted off a bridge, killing 21 people and injuring 20.

WASHINGTON — The Arab Spring gave way to bloodletting in Syria, a refugee exodus and surging violence. Obama gave way to Trump. The United Kingdom chose to Brexit. And for many around the world, while the 2010s began with hope for a more equitable world, they end with a slide towards nationalistic populism.

The following is a look at some of the people and events that shaped the past decade:

America divided

The United States will begin the 2020s with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, as a president of a country riven by political, societal and economic discord — and a leader facing impeachment.

Trump — who is accused of abusing his power to ask a foreign nation, Ukraine, to investigate a domestic political rival — has every chance of being acquitted by the Senate, where his Republican Party faithful hold the majority.

But Trump still stands to become the third ever US president to be impeached, after Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson — Richard Nixon having resigned before he could face judgment by lawmakers.

The stranger-than-fiction unfurling of his presidency mirrors his rise to power — in 2016, it seemed unfathomable to some that a real estate mogul-turned-reality show star would lead the world's biggest economy.

But he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in what was for many an upset for the ages, and the tall New Yorker with the wispy blond mane succeeded Barack Obama, America's first black president.

Obama was a Nobel peace laureate; Trump once hosted "The Apprentice". POTUS 44 and 45 could not be more different.

Trump — who is a climate change sceptic, a protectionist and tough on immigration — has eschewed tradition and run the White House his way, taking no prisoners.

"From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it's going to be America First," he said on the Capitol steps in his inauguration speech on January 20, 2017.

As the 2010s draw to a close, the booming success of the American economy will help his chances at reelection next year.

Abroad, Trump is rough with his allies, flouts international agreements and does not hesitate to boost his ties with authoritarian governments like that of North Korea's Kim Jong-un.

A disappointing 

Arab Spring 

After the decade began with the hope of the Arab Spring, it ends with strongmen back in power in several countries.

On January 14, 2011, Tunisian dictator Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali was chased from office by a popular rebellion that was unthinkable only a few weeks before.

The Arab Spring erupted in the Middle East and North Africa.

Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi was toppled that same year in a NATO-backed uprising.

In Egypt, the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square spelled the end of Hosni Mubarak's reign, but the country ended the decade in the iron grip of general turned President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

The fate of millions of people would be changed in Syria. A protest movement against the ruling Assad family descended into a bloody crackdown and eventually a brutal civil war.

In eight years of conflict since early 2011, more than 370,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced from their homes. And the conflict has gone global.

Russia intervened on behalf of Bashar Assad. Turkey moved to prevent the Kurds from setting up a stronghold on the border.

The West built a coalition to defeat the "caliphate" of the Daesh, an extremist group that profited from the chaos to claim swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.

The terrorists wrought havoc, and attracted thousands of foreign fighters — mainly from Europe — to their cause.

Europe destabilised 

Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi proclaimed the establishment of the "caliphate" in June 2014, extending from Aleppo in northern Syria to Diyala in Iraq.

The organisation would eclipse Al Qaeda and unleash a new torrent of violence, taking several forms.

It encouraged its followers to commit their own elementary acts of terror, rather than stage elaborate operations like the September 11 attacks.

On November 13, 2015, a Belgium-based cell run from Syria descended on Paris, killing 130 people in bombings and shootings at a concert hall, bars, restaurants, and the Stade de France sports stadium.

At the Bataclan, a fabled Paris concert venue, 90 people died at a show by American group Eagles of Death Metal.

France, Belgium, Denmark and Britain all fell victim to extremist attacks in the course of the decade. The movement swept through Africa's vast Sahel region, and parts of Asia.

But the United States, their Kurdish allies and European nations together seized back the Daesh "caliphate" — which was declared eliminated in March this year.

And Baghdadi was killed in a raid by US special forces — he died "like a dog", as Trump said on October 27.

 Migrant tragedies 

The Syrian conflict resulted in the export of violence, but also in an immense human tragedy on Europe's doorstep, as millions left their homes in search of security and a better life.

They criss-crossed Europe in giant processions, ending up in whichever country would welcome them with open arms.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's Germany thought it could absorb the influx of refugees.

"If Europe fails on the question of refugees, if this close link with universal civil rights is broken, then it won't be the Europe we wished for," she said on August 31, 2015.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians would end up in Germany.

But the pressure mounted in countries straining under the weight of the constant arrivals of people in dire straits.

In the north of France, at the port of Calais, migrants crammed into makeshift camps waiting for a chance to cross the English Channel to Britain.

In the Mediterranean, desperate migrants made the journey through north Africa to the sea, using rickety boats and rafts to try to get to Europe. Many did not survive.

In the United States, Trump made the fight against migrants illegally entering the country from Mexico one of his signature political issues.

And he asked Congress for billions of dollars to build a wall to help keep them out.

Trump's rise emboldened a surging wave of populist and far-right political movements — from Hungary's Viktor Orban to Italy's Matteo Salvini and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro.

In France, the far-right remained a political force thanks to the Le Pen family, and gathered strength in Germany, where some questioned the soundness of Merkel's open arms.

In Britain, a historic 2016 referendum in which voters opted to leave the European Union promised to change the complexion of the continent.

After a tortuous process, Prime Minister Boris Johnson seems on his way to leading the United Kingdom out of the bloc after an election win, with the blessing of Trump, the first US leader not to back European unity.

Citizens take action 

As 2019 comes to an end, one Swedish teenager has rewritten the rules about activism and awakened public consciousness about the fight against climate change.

Millions of young people see themselves in 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, and think their elders have sacrificed the planet on the altar of economic growth and creature comforts.

"How dare you?" the teen said in September at the United Nations, challenging world leaders over their inaction on global warming.

In a decade that began with a major nuclear accident in Japan sparked by an earthquake and deadly tsunami, the world has focused on extreme weather and its ill effects.

We are not winning the race to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — and the temperature is rising.

The international community managed to reach the landmark Paris accord in 2015, but the commitments made were not enough, and the United States is withdrawing from the plan.

Protection of the environment is front and center in many countries. But a simpler question — how men and women relate to each other — also took centre stage during the 2010s.

The #MeToo movement, which went viral in the wake of a litany of allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, has encouraged women to confront their abusers, and led to the downfall of a number of powerful men.

The question of gender and identity also rose to the fore this decade, with many redefining what it is to be a man or a woman — or neither.

"They" — the pronoun preferred by many who identify as non-binary — was Merriam-Webster's word of the year in 2019.

Humanity: Connected 

From school kids fighting for the planet, to women calling out their abusers, to citizens pushing for democracy — or militants advocating terror, all had one thing in common: an ever-growing reliance on social media; 2.4 billion is a giant, difficult to grasp number, but it is the number of regular monthly users on Facebook, the world's largest social network. 

In 2011, that figure was a little more than 500 million.

Technology is radically changing how we live.

Dating, friendship, news, politics, music, banking and shopping are all now handled in cyberspace, and we spend more and more time staring at screens.

Facebook is not the only boldface name in the sector dominated by US firms. Google, Twitter, Amazon, Apple and WhatsApp are some of the other brands that have transformed our lives.

They are making billions of dollars — and sparking their share of controversies.

These companies have access to our personal data, and the threat to privacy is considerable.

They facilitate free speech, but the risk of harassment — or worse — is real.

They are making content more accessible to more people, but artists and news outlets are not always being paid for their work.

And in the end, Facebook was found to have been one of the principal weapons for a Russian campaign to interfere in the US presidential election in 2016.

US, China lock horns 

On the back of skyrocketing growth, China became the world's number two economy in 2010, surpassing Japan and only trailing the United States.

The world's workshop has brandished its military ambitions and is positioning itself as a strategic rival to Washington.

In the middle of the decade, China staked a claim in the technology sector, working to become a world leader in robotics, information tech and clean energy.

Beijing is trying to change gears — it no longer is satisfied with being home to the factories that produce the world's consumer goods.

America has sensed that its supremacy could be contested. And under Trump, that concern erupted in the open.

The Republican leader launched a trade war with China, accusing it of rampant intellectual property theft.

"Trade wars are good and easy to win," Trump boasted in 2018.

He has unleashed stiff tariffs on Chinese goods, but Beijing did not blink.

And even if the two countries just signed a "phase one" trade deal, their arm wrestling is sure to define the next decade.

MOSCOW — Russia on Wednesday lifted the veil on its tightly guarded space-based missile warning system, ahead of a vote in the US Congress on President Donald Trump’s plan to create a new space force.

The new system, named Kupol or dome, is designed to detect launches of ballistic missiles and track them to their landing site, according to documents presented by the general staff to military attaches and visible in photographs on the defence ministry website.

As part of the programme, three warning satellites called Tundra have already been put into orbit, starting from 2015.

Kupol’s exact configuration is not known but it has positioned itself as equivalent to the US surveillance system SBIRS.

General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, said the latest satellites had “significantly increased Russia’s capacity to ensure detection of launches and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

He spoke at a defence ministry briefing a day after US Congress approved a $738 billion (664 billion euro) spending bill to create the new space force, which is under the control of the air force.

Russia has had space forces since 2015 which are also integrated with its air force and largely tasked with anti-missile defence.

At the same time, it has long accused the United States of wanting to militarise space, which remains one of the last spheres of cooperation between the rival powers.

In 2018, the US, which in turn suspects Russia of seeking to develop space weapons, said it was alarmed at the “very abnormal behaviour” of a Russian satellite. Moscow dismissed what it called “unfounded allegations”.

Russia boasts for its part of developing “invincible” weapons that surpass existing systems, including the hypersonic Avangard missiles, Sarmat intercontinental missiles and Burevestnik cruise missiles, which it claims have an “unlimited range”.

“To be the only national arbiter of everything is an impossible burden. But recently it has become infinitely harder.”

LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was seeking on Tuesday to outlaw extending the Brexit transition period beyond the end of 2020, as he prepared to put the EU divorce deal before MPs.

Johnson won a big majority in last week's general election on a promise to "get Brexit done" by taking Britain out of the European Union by the end of January.

A transition period will then follow, during which London and Brussels hope to negotiate a trade agreement before the end of December next year.

European leaders have said the 2020 deadline would be too tight to complete a comprehensive deal, reviving fears of a "no-deal" outcome that could cause fresh uncertainty and chaos.

That was enough to pull the pound sterling lower in late trading in New York.

Johnson held his first Cabinet meeting since the election on Tuesday, welcoming back his ministers after what he called a "seismic" result.

"The voters of this country have changed this government and our party for the better and we must repay their trust now by working flat out to change our country for the better," he said during the meeting at his Downing Street office.

"We should have absolutely no embarrassment in saying we are a people's government and this is a people's Cabinet."

Johnson said senior ministers needed to work "flat out" to repay the trust of traditional Labour voters who switched to his centre-right Conservatives.

The government's agenda should be focused on social justice, better infrastructure and "extending opportunity across the whole of the United Kingdom", he added.

Parliament returns on Tuesday and Johnson plans to put the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill before MPs on Friday, after Queen Elizabeth II sets out the government's legislative programme on Thursday.

But the government is planning to block the transition period from going beyond the end of 2020.

"Last week the public voted for a government that would get Brexit done and move this country forward — and that's exactly what we intend to do, starting this week," a Downing Street source said.

"Our manifesto made clear that we will not extend the implementation period and the new Withdrawal Agreement Bill will legally prohibit government agreeing to any extension."

But Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warned: "I think the EU will find it strange that the UK is essentially closing off options that it itself could use later on in the process should they choose to.

"I mean, nobody's forcing the UK to apply for an extended transition period, but they have the option to do it if they want to," he told RTE.

Sam Lowe, from the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said there would a lot of "performance theatre" from the government in the next six months to fulfil his Brexit pledge.

"The landing zone for the negotiation probably won't emerge until later next year," he wrote on Twitter.

"For a deal to be reached in the space of 11 months, the UK will need to concede to most of the EU's demands. Politically, Johnson can't concede without having put up a jolly good fight first and alternative needs to be something worse.”

"So, the script for next year is written."

The pound sterling currency sank on no-deal Brexit fears after Johnson's move to outlaw any extension to the Brexit transition period.

At about 10:00 GMT, the pound was down 1.25 per cent at $1.3165, compared with late on Monday in New York. The euro surged almost 1.3 per cent to 84.65 pence.

The British currency had surged late last week after Johnson's governing Conservatives won the snap election, which was called to resolve the Brexit impasse.

BEIJING — China on Tuesday urged the UN Security Council to unanimously back its joint proposal with Russia to ease sanctions on North Korea, warning that dialogue to resolve nuclear tensions must not regress.

North Korea, whose official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has issued increasingly strident declarations in recent weeks, even promising an ominous “Christmas gift” if Washington does not come up with some concessions.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would be “disappointed” if North Korea had “something in the works”, warning that if it did, “we’ll take care of it”.

“We’re watching it very closely,” Trump said at the White House.

Negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have been largely stalled since the collapse of a February summit in Hanoi between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The North is under heavy US and United Nations sanctions over its nuclear programme, but it has been frustrated at the lack of relief after it declared a moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests.

“It is an important and sensitive period for the peninsula, and the urgency of a political solution has further increased,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

The international community should “prevent the peninsula from falling back into tense confrontation, and avoid a serious reversal of the situation”, Geng added.

Russia and China introduced a draft joint resolution at the United Nations on Monday seeking to lift some of the punitive measures that have been enforced on Pyongyang over its nuclear activities.

“We hope that the Security Council will unanimously support the political settlement of the Peninsula issue” and encourage Washington and Pyongyang to “respect each other’s concerns”, Geng said.

He said “contact should be restored as soon as possible to break the deadlock and to prevent the dialogue process from derailing or even regressing.”

While Beijing is Pyongyang’s most important diplomatic ally and key economic lifeline, it has backed sanctions against its neighbour in the wake of its nuclear activities.

‘Most favourable approach’ 

The draft text, obtained by AFP, said the Council “shall adjust the sanction measures towards the DPRK as may be needed in light of the DPRK’s compliance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions”.

It also underlined the necessity of having “the most favourable approach towards requests for exemptions from existing UN sanctions against the DPRK for humanitarian and livelihood purposes”.

The Russian and Chinese proposal did not detail exactly what North Korea will have to do in exchange for an easing of sanctions.

But in order to improve the lives of people in the impoverished North, the text called for an end to several significant measures which date from 2016 and 2017.

Russia and China want the UN to end the ban on its members importing coal, iron, iron ore and textiles from North Korea.

They also call for an end to sanctions, imposed in 2017, that require UN members to send back by December 22 North Korean workers employed abroad.

Those workers are an important source of revenue for the regime.

The Russia-China text also calls for inter-Korean rail and road cooperation projects to be exempt from existing UN sanctions.

Three pages of annexes to the draft resolution list products to be removed from sanctions lists.

Among them are bulldozers, small tractors, small metal items including scissors, bicycles, as well as washing machines for clothes and dishes.

China and Russia, which had cautiously backed pressure against North Korea after its past nuclear tests, had indicated last week they would reject further sanctions.

The text “welcomes the continuation of the dialogue between the United States and the DPRK at all levels”.

The draft text calls for “prompt resumption of the six-party talks” which involved China, the two Koreas, the US, Russia and Japan. Those talks lasted from 2003-2009.

Diplomats said no deadline was put forward for putting to a vote the text, which faces an uncertain future.

Texts related to North Korea are traditionally the purview of the United States, which wants Pyongyang to give up its atomic arsenal right away.