While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Nov 18, 2025

Britain toughens asylum policy in major overhaul

Britain on Nov 17 said it would make refugee status temporary and speed up the deportation of those who arrive illegally, in a major overhaul aimed at stemming the rise of the populist Reform UK party and tackling abuse of the current system.

Interior minister Shabana Mahmood outlined changes to how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) should be interpreted by UK courts to give the government greater control over who can remain in Britain.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, said Britain’s current asylum regime “is a significant pull factor” to asylum seekers, was more permissive than other countries in Europe, and was not designed to deal with the large number of people moving across the globe.

In what the centre-left Labour government says is the most sweeping asylum policy overhaul of modern times, Ms Mahmood announced changes that include quadrupling to 20 years the time refugees will have to wait to settle permanently.

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Indonesia coal power phase-out plan at risk due to stalled international funding

Indonesia’s plan to retire 6.7 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power plant capacity by 2030 to fight climate change is at risk of failure due to stalled disbursal of funding from rich countries, the country’s top official overseeing the programme told Reuters.

A coalition of 10 donor nations called the Just Energy Transition Partnership promised in 2022 to raise US$20 billion (S$26 billion) within three to five years for Indonesia, once described as the “single-largest climate finance transaction.”

Funds to retire plants representing 13.5 per cent of the country’s coal-fired power capacity were to be included in the sum.

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US judge finds evidence of government misconduct in FBI ex-chief James Comey probe

A US judge found on Nov 17 there is evidence of misconduct in how a federal prosecutor closely aligned with President Donald Trump secured criminal charges against James Comey, and ordered that grand jury materials be turned over to the former FBI chief’s defence lawyers.

Alexandria, Virginia-based US Magistrate Judge William Fitzgerald found that Ms Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-appointed US attorney leading the case, may have made significant legal errors in presenting evidence and instructing grand jurors who were weighing whether to charge Comey - mistakes that could have tainted the case.

“The record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding,” Mr Fitzgerald wrote in his ruling.

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WHO chief urges clampdown on nicotine products aimed at kids

Sleek-looking disposable e-cigarettes and candy-flavoured nicotine pouches are among a range of new products targeting young people and fuelling a new wave of tobacco and nicotine addiction, the WHO warned on Nov 17.

Speaking at the opening of a global conference on tobacco control, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus decried that surging numbers of children were being drawn to the new products.

“Schools are the new frontline in the war against tobacco and nicotine, where companies are actively recruiting generations of addicts,” he warned.

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Wall Street indexes fall sharply; investors brace for jobs data, Nvidia results

US stocks ended down sharply on Nov 17, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing below a key technical indicator for the first time since April, as investors braced for quarterly results from retailers and chip giant Nvidia and also awaited a long-delayed US jobs report this week.

Losses accelerated in afternoon trading as all three main indexes traded below their 50-day moving averages. This closely followed moving average is seen as a proxy for the intermediate-term trend.

The Dow closed below its 50-day moving average for the first time since Oct 10.

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