England

LONDON/DUBAI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - OPEC+ agreed to stick to its oil output targets at a meeting on Sunday as the oil markets struggle to assess the impact of a slowing Chinese economy on demand and a G7 price cap on Russian oil on supply.

The decision comes two days after the Group of Seven (G7) nations agreed a price cap on Russian oil.

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The number of people in Europe with undiagnosed HIV has risen as testing rates fell during the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening a global goal of ending the disease by 2030, a report said.

The joint World Health Organization (WHO) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) report said that in 2021 a quarter fewer HIV diagnoses were recorded compared to pre-pandemic levels in the WHO's European region.

This region includes Russia and Ukraine, which have the area's highest rates of HIV infection.

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A member of the British royal family's household has left her role after making "unacceptable and deeply regrettable" comments about race and nationality to a woman at a grand reception at Buckingham Palace, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Ngozi Fulani, who was born in Britain and works for a domestic abuse support group, wrote on Twitter that the royal aide had repeatedly asked her: "What part of Africa are you from?" when she attended an event hosted by King Charles's wife Camilla, the queen consort, on Tuesday.

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Britain will change its rulebook to allow banks to take more risks to help to keep the City of London's status as a leading global financial centre, a government minister said on Tuesday.

The City of London was largely cut off from the European Union by Brexit and faces greater competition from centres like Paris and Frankfurt, as well as longstanding rivals like New York and Singapore.

The EU will next week set out a new law to force banks in the bloc to shift some of their euro derivatives clearing from London to Frankfurt.

LONDON (AP) — Fewer than half the people in England and Wales consider themselves Christian, according to the most recent census — the first time the country’s official religion has been followed by a minority of the population.

Britain has become less religious — and less white — in the decade since the last census, figures from the 2021 census released Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics revealed.

LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Friday met with more than a dozen mothers of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, telling those who had lost sons that he and the entire leadership shared their suffering.

The war in Ukraine has killed or wounded tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides, according to the United States, and the Russian invasion has triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis.

LONDON (AP) — Rishi Sunak has been Britain’s prime minister for a month. In the tumultuous world of U.K. politics in 2022, that’s an achievement.

Sunak, who took office a month ago Friday on Oct. 25, has steadied the nation after the brief term of predecessor Liz Truss. Britain’s first prime minister of color, Sunak has stabilized the economy, reassured allies from Washington to Kyiv and even soothed the European Union after years of sparring between Britain and the bloc.

LONDON, November 23. /TASS/: The UK Supreme Court denied Scotland the power to hold a new referendum on the region’s independence, Supreme Court President Robert Reed said on Wednesday.

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Scotland does not have the power to hold a new referendum on independence without the consent of the British government. The judgment is a setback for the Scottish government’s campaign to break away from the United Kingdom.

The top court ruled that the Scottish Parliament “does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence.”

LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - European traders are rushing to fill tanks in the region with Russian diesel before an EU ban begins in February, as alternative sources remain limited.

The European Union will ban Russian oil product imports, on which it relies heavily for its diesel, by Feb. 5. That will follow a ban on Russian crude taking effect in December.