While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Dec 14

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Victorious Boris Johnson urges Britain to move past Brexit splits

Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on Britons on Friday to put years of bitter divisions over the country's EU membership behind them as he vowed to use his resounding election victory to finally deliver Brexit next month.

Johnson's Conservatives won their best result for three decades on Thursday night after promising to get Britain out of the European Union on Jan 31.

But in a victory speech in Downing Street, the former London mayor vowed to listen to those who opposed Brexit and lead an inclusive, "One-Nation" government.

"I urge everyone to find closure and to let the healing begin," he said, a few hours after visiting Queen Elizabeth II to be reappointed prime minister.

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Trump at brink of impeachment as US House committee approves charges

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Democrats in the US House of Representatives on Friday took Republican President Donald Trump to the brink of impeachment by approving two charges against him over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden.

A badly divided House Judiciary Committee voted 23-17 along party lines to approve articles of impeachment charging Trump with both abusing the power of his office over the Ukraine scandal and obstructing House Democrats' attempts to investigate him for it.

Trump is expected to become the third US president to be impeached when the full Democratic-led House votes on the charges, likely next week, setting up a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate. The Republicans have shown no signs of wanting to remove Trump from office.

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US and China agree to 'phase-one' deal easing trade tensions

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The US and China said they agreed to the details of the first phase of a broader trade agreement in a move that will see the US reduce tariffs and at least temporarily calm fears of an escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies.

The deal announced hinges on China increasing purchases of American farm goods such as soybeans and pork, and making new commitments on intellectual property and currency.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, President Donald Trump said he expects China's agriculture buying to hit US$50 billion (S$68 billion) annually "pretty soon," without specifying a timetable.

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I need a break, says globetrotting teen climate activist Greta Thunberg

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Tireless teenage activist Greta Thunberg has been crisscrossing the globe by car, train and boat - but not plane - to demand action on climate change.

But now even she needs a rest.

Fresh from being named Time magazine's Person of the Year, the 16-year-old Swede joined thousands of students in the north Italian city of Turin on Friday for a protest to pressure the government to take more action to curb carbon emissions.

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Football: Arsenal's Ozil condemns Muslim silence over Uighurs

Arsenal's Mesut Ozil, a German footballer of Turkish origin, on Friday expressed support for Uighurs in Xinjiang and criticised Muslim countries for their failure to speak up for them.

"Qurans are being burnt... Mosques are being shut down... Muslim schools are being banned... Religious scholars are being killed one by one... Brothers are forcefully being sent to camps," Ozil wrote in Turkish on his Twitter account.

"The Muslims are silent. Their voice is not heard," he wrote on a background of a blue field with a white crescent moon, the flag of what Uighur separatists call East Turkestan.

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