Author: Frank Jordan

BERLIN • Germany’s defense minister voiced caution Wednesday over media reports that a pro-Ukraine group was involved in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year. German daily newspaper Die Zeit and public broadcasters ARD and SWR reported Tuesday that investigators were able to largely reconstruct how the pipelines from…

BERLIN • Climate commitments by companies aren’t always as green as they seem. A new report concludes major brands are exaggerating how ambitious their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions are — in effect misleading consumers, investors and governments. The report published Monday by the Europe-based environmental think tanks NewClimate Institute and Carbon Market Watch…

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt • The world should confront climate change the way it does nuclear weapons, by agreeing to a non-proliferation treaty that stops further production of fossil fuels, a small island nation leader urged Tuesday. The proposal by Tuvalu came as vulnerable nations pushed for more action and money at international climate talks in…

BRUSSELS • Cutting off natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria cost Russian President Vladimir Putin very little — but it is adding stress on European countries wrestling with how to reduce the energy imports feeding the Kremlin’s war chest and how to keep a united front on the war in Ukraine. European Union officials say…

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s drug regulator insisted Tuesday that there is “no indication” the AstraZeneca vaccine causes blood clots as governments around the world faced the grimmest of dilemmas: push on with a vaccine known to save lives or suspend its use over reports of clotting in some recipients. The European Medicines Agency…

BERLIN • German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the possibility that a negotiated departure for Britain from the European Union might still be possible even as the clock is ticking on a deal that would satisfy both sides. Speaking Wednesday alongside U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson before the two leaders held bilateral talks in Berlin, Merkel…

KATOWICE, Poland • Almost 200 nations, including the world’s top greenhouse gas producers, China and the United States, have adopted a set of rules meant to breathe life into the 2015 Paris climate accord by setting out how countries should report their emissions and efforts to reduce them. But negotiators delayed other key decisions until…

KATOWICE, Poland • Divisions deepened at the U.N. climate talks Thursday, pitting rich nations against poor ones, oil exporters against vulnerable island nations, and those governments prepared to act on global warming against those who want to wait and see. The stakes were raised by a scientific report that warned achieving the most ambitious target…

CHEMNITZ, Germany • Anger over the suspected killing of a man by two refugees has sparked days of protests in this eastern German city, raising fresh concerns about the anti-migrant sentiment that has shaken up the country’s political system and seen the rise of a far-right party for the first time in decades. On Thursday,…