England

About 100,000 protesters join pro-Palestinian march through London

LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - About 100,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in central London on Saturday, marching through the British capital to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel two weeks ago.

Chanting "Free Palestine", holding banners and waving Palestinian flags, the protesters moved through London before massing at Downing Street, the official residence and office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

UK: Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters march in London as Israel-Hamas war roils the world

LONDON (AP) — Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through a rainy London on Saturday to demand Israel stop its bombardment of Gaza, and similar calls were heard in cities around the world as the Israel-Hamas war entered its third week.

On the day a trickle of aid entered Gaza, where more than 1 million people have left their homes because of the conflict, protesters gathered in at Marble Arch near London’s Hyde Park before marching to the government district, Whitehall.

UK: Musk’s X tests $1 fee for new users in the Philippines and New Zealand in bid to target spam

LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk’s social media platform X has begun charging a $1 fee to new users in the Philippines and New Zealand, in a test designed to cut down on the spam and fake accounts flourishing on the site formerly known as Twitter.

The company said late Tuesday that it has started trying out the annual subscription method for new and unverified accounts. The program, dubbed Not a Bot, won’t apply to existing users.

It’s not clear why it only applies to New Zealand and the Philippines or why those countries were chosen.

UK: Climate activist Greta Thunberg detained by police in London

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Climate activist Greta Thunberg was detained by police in London on Tuesday, a Reuters witness reported, after she and others protested outside an oil and gas conference, preventing some delegates from attending.

Thunberg, who became the face of young climate activists worldwide after staging weekly protests in front of the Swedish parliament in 2018, has this year been detained by police or removed from protests in Sweden, Norway and Germany.

UK: Trump sues ex-British spy over dossier containing ‘shocking and scandalous claims’

LONDON (AP) — A lawyer for Donald Trump told a London judge Monday that the ex-president plans to prove that a discredited report by a former British spy that contained “shocking and scandalous claims” that he was compromised by Russians in his first bid for the presidency was wrong and harmed his reputation.

Trump has sued the company founded by Christopher Steele, who created a dossier in 2016 that contained rumors and uncorroborated allegations about Trump that erupted in a political storm just before he was inaugurated.

UK: Palestinian mother fears for her children as she wonders about the future after evacuating Gaza City

LONDON (AP) — Najla Shawa and her family are safe for now after fleeing their home in Gaza City, but she’s worried she may never be able to return.

Shawa, a Gaza native who works for the international aid group Oxfam, is sheltering with her husband, two daughters and about 50 others at a compound in Zawaida, a community just south of the area Israeli forces ordered residents to evacuate before an anticipated ground offensive.

UK: Palestine supporters march in London against Israel action in Gaza

LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in central London on Saturday, calling for an end to Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip which was triggered by last weekend's rampage in Israel by the Hamas militant group.

Protesters, many of them waving Palestinian flags and signs saying "Free Palestine," gathered close to Oxford Circus from where they planned to head to Downing Street, the official residence and office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

UK: Russian nuclear test would send warning signal, prompt others to follow suit

LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Russia may be paving the way to conduct a nuclear test, a move that would sharply raise tensions with the West and likely prompt other world powers to resume testing for the first time this century.

President Vladimir Putin last week said Russia's parliament should consider withdrawing Moscow's ratification of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which prohibits tests involving nuclear explosions. Parliamentary leaders were due to discuss the issue on Monday.

UK Supreme Court weighs if it’s lawful for Britain to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda

LONDON (AP) — The British government’s contentious policy to stem the flow of migrants faces one of its toughest challenges this week as the U.K. Supreme Court weighs whether it’s lawful to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

The Conservative government is challenging a Court of Appeal ruling in June that said the policy intended to deter immigrants from risking their lives crossing the English Channel in small boats is unlawful because the East African country is not a safe place to send them.

An independent inquiry opens into the alleged unlawful killings by UK special forces in Afghanistan

LONDON (AP) — An independent inquiry opened Monday to examine claims that British special forces murdered dozens of Afghan men during counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan a decade ago, as well as allegations that authorities subsequently covered up the alleged illegal activity or failed to investigate it properly.

The inquiry, which opened at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, focuses on alleged unlawful killings that took place during night raids carried out by elite military units in the war-torn nation between 2010 and 2013.

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