French President Emmanuel Macron told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday that there was not enough time to wholly rewrite the UK's Brexit divorce deal before an Oct. 31 deadline. Johnson met Macron in Paris a day after talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who challenged Britain to come up with acceptable alternatives to the agreed safety net provision for the UK-Irish land border. More than three years after the United Kingdom voted to quit the European Union, it is still unclear on what terms - or indeed whether - the bloc’s second largest economy will leave the club it joined in 1973. Macron left the door open to Britain seeking a solution to the Irish “backstop”, but said any alternative must respect both the integrity of the EU single market and stability on the divided island of Ireland. On his first trip abroad since entering 10 Downing Street a month ago, Johnson has warned Merkel and Macron that they face a potentially disorderly no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 unless the EU does a new deal.

Ukraine’s president is backing leading European powers on Thursday in opposing the readmission of Russia to the Group of Seven advanced economies, saying Moscow still occupied Crimea and was frustrating peace in eastern Ukraine. President Donald Trump said this week it would be “appropriate” to have Russia rejoin what used to be the G8. But Germany, France, Britain — all G7 members — quickly rebuffed Trump, noting that Russia was excluded after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimea and then backed an anti-Kiev rebellion in the industrial region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine. The EU and the United States have imposed sanctions on Russia over its role in the Ukraine conflict, in which some 13 thousand people have been killed to date, according to U.N. data. Fighting continues in Donbas, albeit at a low intensity. A peace process brokered by Berlin and Paris has stalled. France will host a meeting of G7 leaders this weekend. The United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada make up the G7 group.

North Korea continued to rail against South Korea's joint military exercises with the United States and its purchase of U.S. military hardware on Thursday, warning the moves would "trigger a new cold war on the Korean Peninsula and in the region." In a statement released Thursday, a spokesperson for North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned South Korea's "dangerous and unnatural military moves," singling out the country's purchase of F-35A stealth fighters from the United States. Seoul has ordered 40 of the F-35A stealth fighters, that can fly at speeds up to Mach 1.8. South Korea received delivery of two of the aircraft on Wednesday at an airbase Cheongju, located 87 miles south of Seoul, bringing its current total to six. Two more aircraft are scheduled to arrive in a matter of days, and the entire order will be delivered by 2021. The North Korean spokesperson also condemned the Pentagon's test of a new type of modified Navy Tomahawk cruise missile, which was launched from San Nicolas Island in California on Sunday, as well as Washington's planned sales of F-35B and F-16V fighters to Japan and Taiwan.

South Korea said Thursday it would end its alliance to share military intelligence with Japan, the latest sign of strained relations between the two U.S. allies. Washington valued the pact because it helped ensure the tracking of North Korea's missile tests. Japan uses satellites, radar, and aircraft to monitor North Korea, while South Korea collects valuable intelligence from spies and defectors. A spokesperson for South Korea's National Security Council said Seoul was scrapping the intelligence-sharing agreement because a series of trade restrictions Japan recently imposed on South Korea "caused an important change in security-related cooperation between the two countries." Neither Japan nor the U.S. immediately responded to the news of South Korea's decision.

Federal Reserve policy makers were split when they voted last month to cut interest rates for the first time since the financial crisis a decade ago, according to minutes from the meeting released Wednesday. The Fed reduced its target short-term interest a quarter point, but the minutes indicated that "a couple" of people in the meeting were in favor of a half-point cut. "Several" people wanted to keep rates unchanged, citing the strong job market. Leaders of the central bank said the aim of the rate cut was to support the economy in the face of slowing global growth, persistently low inflation, and the possible impact from President Trump's trade war with China. The division demonstrated the uncertainty about how the trade tensions will affect an otherwise strong economy.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday said 16 states have reported 153 cases of serious respiratory illnesses in people who vape. Most of the patients said they had difficulty breathing and experienced chest pain before going to the hospital, and several also said they used products containing THC, the chemical in marijuana that makes a person high. Officials are trying to get to the bottom of what exactly is causing the illnesses, and are now trying to determine which products were used. The cases were reported from June 28 to August 20, with mostly teenagers and young adults affected. The CDC said it has not received any reports of death linked to the illness.

Exposure to even small amounts of toxic air pollutants is linked to increased cardiovascular and respiratory death rates. The new international study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, is the largest ever undertaken to investigate the short-term impacts of air pollution on death. The study looked at tiny particles of pollution known as particulate matter (PM). Study lead author Yuming Guo from Monash University's School of Public Health in Melbourne, Australia, said there is no threshold for the association between particulate matter and mortality, He said, "Even low levels of air pollution can increase the risk of death." Unlike previous studies which focused on single cities, regions or countries, this study allowed researchers to examine and compare particulate matter concentrations with deaths from all causes at the global, regional and national levels.

Saudi Ar