UK

Queen cancels Northern Ireland trip and told to rest

The Queen has cancelled a trip to Northern Ireland and “reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for the next few days”, Buckingham palace said. A spokesperson for the palace said:…

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UPDATED: UK hospitals on the edge as government resists fresh COVID measures

British hospitals are on the edge and people should wear masks and come forward for vaccines to stop them being overwhelmed by a rising wave of COVID-19 cases, senior medical…

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UK reports 223 COVID-19 deaths, most since March

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain on Tuesday reported 223 deaths within 28 days of a positive test for COVID-19, the highest figure since March, according to official data. A total of…

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UK says new taxes will be needed to replace fuel duty in net zero push

Britain will probably have to introduce new taxes to compensate for the loss of revenues from its shift away from fossil fuels which will hit the government's income that is…

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Children fuel English COVID case rise after slow vaccine start

The spread of COVID-19 among children in England is fuelling a recent rise in cases nationally and causing concern among some scientists that vaccines are being rolled out in schools too slowly, risking…

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Britain reports greatest increase in Covid-19 cases since July

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain reported 49,156 new COVID-19 cases on Monday and 45 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test, official data showed. The figures compared to 45,140…

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Sunak considers cutting VAT on household energy bills

(Reuters) - British finance minister Rishi Sunak is considering a cut to the 5% rate of value-added tax on household energy bills, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Government officials…

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UK Treasury prepares to launch online sales tax- The Telegraph

(Reuters) - British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak is stepping up plans for an online sales tax, the Telegraph reported on Sunday. Treasury officials have accelerated work on a new e-commerce…

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Flying taxis to take to the sky in mid-2020s, says UK’s Vertical Aerospace

Fed up with traffic jams? Imagine a world where your taxi takes to the skies and lands on top of your office building, recharges and sets off afresh. That's the…

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UK considers ways to boost lawmaker security after stabbing

Britain is considering a number of options to boost the security of lawmakers after a parliamentarian was stabbed to death during a meeting with constituents, interior minister Priti Patel said…

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Prince William calls on society to ‘unite to repair planet’

The Duke of Cambridge will today call for society to "unite in repairing our planet" at the first ever Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony. Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge…

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Matt Hancock loses UN job just four days after his appointment

Matt Hancock has lost his new job at the United Nations just four days after being appointed, following outrage from figures who condemned the “jaw dropping” decision to appoint him…

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Suspect in Sir David Amess murder detained under Terrorism Act

A man detained after MP Sir David Amess was stabbed to death on Friday is 25-year-old Ali Harbi Ali, Whitehall officials have confirmed to the BBC. Police said the British…

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Britain reports a 12.8% weekly increase in Covid-19 cases

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain reported 43,423 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, government statistics showed, with the total number of cases recorded between Oct. 10 and Oct. 16 up 12.8% from…

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UK PM Johnson visits church where lawmaker was stabbed to death

LEIGH-ON-SEA, England (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday laid flowers at the church where a lawmaker was stabbed to death a day earlier, in what police say was…

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British police says murder of lawmaker declared as a terrorist incident

(Reuters) - The Metropolitan Police has said that the murder of British lawmaker David Amess in Essex on Friday has been declared as a terrorist incident, with the investigation being…

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British MP stabbed to death at voter meeting in church

LEIGH-ON-SEA, England (Reuters) -A British lawmaker was stabbed to death on Friday in a church by an assailant who lunged at him at a meeting with voters from his constituency,…

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Germany rejects negotiations over Northern Ireland Protocol

Germany rejects new negotiations over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which stipulates Northern Ireland's will continue to follow EU rules on product standards to prevent checks along the border, a German…

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Britain calls for 800 foreign butchers to avoid pig cull

LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Britain will offer six-month emergency visas to 800 foreign butchers to avoid a mass pig cull, it said on Thursday, after farmers complained that an…

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Britain’s chicken king says: the 20-year binge on cheap food is over

Britain's 20-year binge on cheap food is coming to an end and food price inflation could hit double digits due to a tidal wave of soaring costs that are crashing…

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UK’s Prince William says great minds should focus on saving Earth not space travel

Britain's Prince William has taken a thinly veiled swipe at the billionaires embroiled in a space tourism race, saying the world's greatest brains should instead be focused on solving the…

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Northern Ireland’s DUP and business groups react cautiously to EU proposals

Northern Ireland's largest pro-British party said on Wednesday the European Union's proposed measures to ease the transit of goods to Northern Ireland from Britain are a "starting point" but "appear…

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Desperate British pig farmers tell Johnson: Ease immigration rules

Two sisters running a pig farm in northeast England have a message for Prime Minister Boris Johnson: lift strict immigration rules for butchers or risk seeing the pork sector collapse…

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Britain and Italy start work on partnership to boost trade

Britain and Italy have agreed to pursue a new trade partnership, the British trade department said on Wednesday following talks on the sidelines of a G20 ministerial meeting in Italy.…

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UPDATED: Don’t panic buy for Christmas, Britain says after port chaos

Britain said on Wednesday that people should buy normally for Christmas and there would be no shortage of gifts after shipping containers carrying toys and electrical goods were diverted from…

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Maersk Diverts Ships From U.K. Ports Short on Truckers

Supermarkets are searching for alternative ways to bring food into Britain as ships are diverted from the UK’s main port due to congestion. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said “further…

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UK jobs hit record high as Bank of England weighs up rate hike

British employers increased their payrolls to a record high in September, shortly before the end of the government's wage subsidies scheme, potentially encouraging the Bank of England's progress towards a…

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UK’s ‘policy approach of fatalism’ early in pandemic was major error, lawmakers say

The delay to England's first coronavirus lockdown was a serious error based on groupthink that went unchallenged, lawmakers said in a report published on Tuesday, adding that failures in testing…

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Britain ‘shifting playing field’ on N.Ireland trade talks – Dublin

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland accused Britain on Monday of "shifting the playing field" in talks to resolve post-Brexit trading issues in Northern Ireland after London emphasised the need to remove…

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UK police: no further action over Prince Andrew, Epstein allegations

LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Monday they would be taking no further action after conducting a review of evidence relating to sex crime allegations against Queen Elizabeth's son,…

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UK’s Truss plots reset of UK foreign and trade policy -FT

(Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is planning to reset the UK's foreign and trade policy to strike more security and technology pacts in the style of the recent…

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Britain and Ireland argue on Twitter over Brexit deal

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and Ireland traded barbs on Twitter on Sunday after British Brexit negotiator David Frost restated his view that the EU must agree "significant change" to the…

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Britain to stress need for ‘significant change’ in Northern Ireland protocol

LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Britain will tell the European Union again next week that "significant change" to the Northern Ireland protocol is vital for the restoration of genuinely good…

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1 in 14 pupils at English secondary schools have Covid, ONS data shows

One in 14 secondary school-age children had Covid last week, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics. The substantial increase – up from an estimated one in…

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New rules needed to cover risks from cloud computing, says Bank of England

New rules will be needed to deal with operational risks from banks relying on outsourced ‘cloud’ computing from Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others for providing services to customers, the Bank…

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British industry warns of factory closures without help on fuel costs

Britain's most energy intensive manufacturers, including producers of steel, glass, ceramics and paper, have warned the government that unless something is done about soaring wholesale gas prices they could be…

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UK card spending recovers to 100% of pre-pandemic level

Spending on payment cards in Britain last week rose to 100% of its pre-pandemic level of February 2020, up from 95% a week earlier, data showed on Thursday. Separate figures…

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UK COVID-19 cases rise to 40,701, highest in a month

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain recorded 40,701 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, up 12% on a week ago and marking the biggest total since Sept. 6, government data showed. The…

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UK petrol retailers say recovery from fuel crisis too slow

LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The recovery from fuel shortages at gas stations in England is happening too slowly, the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) said on Thursday, after a shortage…

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UK eases travel rules for countries including India

LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Britain will scrap tough COVID-19 quarantine travel rules for 47 destinations including South Africa on Monday and said it would recognise the vaccine status of…

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07

Oct

NatWest pleads guilty to money laundering offences

NatWest pleaded guilty on Thursday to failing to prevent the laundering of nearly 400 million pounds ($544 million), the first bank in Britain to admit to such an offence. NatWest,…

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Britain’s National Grid warns of tight winter electricity supply

Britain faces tight electricity supplies this winter on rising demand and capacity constraints, National Grid said in a report on Thursday, though a top official said he was confident it…

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UK drops advice against non-urgent travel to 32 destinations

Britain dropped its advice against all but essential travel for 32 countries and territories as it continued to simplify its coronavirus travel regime after progress in fighting COVID-19 across the…

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06

Oct

UK watchdog investigating retailer French Connection’s audit

Britain's Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has opened an investigation into the audit of retailer French Connection Group by accountants Mazars, the accounting watchdog said on Wednesday. The FRC said it…

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British PM Johnson vows to reshape Britain

Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed to radically re-shape Britain on Wednesday, exhorting his Conservative Party faithful to help the government press on with tackling regional inequality by ending "long term…

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Offering essay-writing services to students for a fee to be made illegal in England

Offering essay-writing services to students for a fee will become a criminal offence under plans to tackle cheating by "essay mills". The government says the move will protect students from…

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Clean environment could become U.N. human right. Not so fast, say U.S., Britain

Britain and the United States are among a few countries withholding support for a proposal brought at the United Nations that would recognise access to a safe and healthy environment…

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Scruffy Boris Johnson’s ‘man of the people’ look is part of a long British tradition

by Dominic JanesProfessor of Modern History, Keele Universityvia The Conversation It’s often suggested that UK prime minister Boris Johnson uses his distinctive hair as a political device. His trademark untameable…

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Is the UK in 1970’s-style crisis? Johnson says: ‘No’

Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied on Tuesday that Britain was in crisis due to a shortage of labour or that it was facing a 1970s-style inflationary spiral. Johnson said that…

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UPDATED: Fire at Westminster underground station under control

Updated 1500 The UK Fire Brigade said that the fire, which originated from an electrical room within the basement of the station, was now under control. Around 100 people left…

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04

Oct