
U.K. defense chief declares confidence in Trident nuclear missiles after reports of failed test off Florida
CBSN
London — Britain's Defense Secretary Grant Shapps sought to reassure U.K. lawmakers Wednesday that the country's nuclear deterrent weapons program was functional and ready to be called upon if needed after a second consecutive missile test reportedly failed. A nuclear-capable Trident II missile test launched in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida on Jan. 30 reportedly splashed back down shortly after launching, according to Britain's The Sun newspaper.
The missile was launched from one of the Royal Navy's HMS Vanguard-class submarines — with Shapps on board to observe — but its first stage booster engine failed to ignite, causing it to fall back down and then sink, according to CBS News partner network BBC News.
While Britain's Trident missiles are designed to carry nuclear warheads, they are not armed for test launches.

Europe vowed retaliation. China plotted tariffs of its own. Mexico scrambled to blunt the blow. But while the world's leaders were wringing their hands over President Donald Trump's announcement of sweeping tariffs on U.S. imports, Argentina's right-wing president was ebullient, feted at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.

London — A British anti-abortion rights activist whose case caught the attention of the Trump administration was convicted Friday by a U.K court of breaching an order banning protests and intimidating behavior in a designated zone around a reproductive health clinic in the city of Bournemouth, in southern England.

Brussels — Britain and France on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks aimed at halting his country's invasion of Ukraine. The countries demanded a swift response from Moscow after weeks of U.S. efforts to secure a truce in the three-year war, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it would be clear "very soon" whether Putin was serious about reaching a peace deal.

Bangkok — Thai police summoned a prominent American academic on Friday to face charges of insulting the monarchy, a rare case of a foreign national being charged under the kingdom's strict lese-majeste law. The army filed a complaint against Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Naresuan University in northern Thailand and a respected authority on the kingdom's politics, over comments he made in an online discussion.

Vienna archaeologists discover skeletal remains in mass grave of fighters in Roman Empire-era battle
As construction crews churned up dirt to renovate a Vienna soccer field last October, they happened upon an unprecedented find: A heap of intertwined skeletal remains in a mass grave dating to the 1st-century Roman Empire, likely the bodies of warriors in a battle involving Germanic tribes.