United Kingdom

LONDON, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- A British F-35 fighter jet has crashed into the sea during a routine operation in the Mediterranean, the country's Ministry of Defence said Wednesday.

The pilot ejected and returned safely to the royal navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, the ministry said.

It added the incident happened at 10:00 GMT over international waters and hostile action is not thought to have been involved.

An investigation has begun and would likely focus on potential technical or human error, reported the BBC.

LONDON (AP) — Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has signed a deal with a U.N.-backed group to allow other manufacturers to make its experimental COVID-19 pill, a move that could make the treatment available to more than half of the world’s population.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Pfizer said it would grant a license for the antiviral pill to the Geneva-based Medicines Patent Pool, which would let generic drug companies produce the pill for use in 95 countries, making up about 53% of the world’s population.

LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - People in Britain must come forward for COVID-19 vaccines when they are eligible if new COVID restrictions this winter are to be avoided, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday.

"If we want to avoid new restrictions on our daily lives, we must all get vaccinated as soon as we are eligible," Johnson said at a news conference after the booster vaccination programme was expanded.

LONDON (AP) — A blast in a taxi outside a hospital in England that killed a man was caused by an improvised explosive device and is being treated as a terrorist incident, but the motive remains unclear, police said Monday.

Russ Jackson, the head of Counterterrorism Policing in northwest England, said Sunday’s explosion at Liverpool Women’s Hospital was caused by “the ignition of an explosive device” that was brought into the vehicle by a passenger.

The male passenger died in the explosion and fire that followed, and the taxi driver was injured.

LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - One person was killed and another was injured in a vehicle explosion outside the Women's Hospital in Liverpool in northern England on Sunday, police said, adding that counter-terrorism officers were leading the investigation.

Merseyside Police said in a statement that they understood that the car involved was a taxi which had pulled up at the hospital shortly before the explosion occurred.

Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said police were called to reports of a car explosion just before 1100 GMT on Sunday.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Negotiators at the this year’s U.N. climate talks pored over fresh proposals Saturday for sealing a deal that could credibly be said to advance worldwide efforts to tackle global warming.

British officials chairing the talks in Glasgow, Scotland, released new draft agreements after shuttle diplomacy continued past the official Friday evening deadline. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, both indicated cautious optimism late Friday that the negotiations were moving forward.

LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday said he was cautious about rising cases of COVID in Europe, warning of gathering "storm clouds" of a new wave of coronavirus infections.

Britain has had much higher rates of COVID-19 than the rest of Western Europe since the summer when Johnson scrapped coronavirus restrictions in England.

However, rates in Britain are now coming down just as they are rising sharply in countries such as Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Parts of Eastern Europe have also seen a sharp rise in cases.

LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union will intensify efforts next week to break their impasse over post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, as Brussels cautiously welcomed a change in tone from London.

After meeting with Britain's Brexit minister David Frost in London, EU negotiator Maros Sefcovic said the two sides would now seek to make headway on key issues such as customs checks and the movement of medicines into Northern Ireland.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Negotiators at this year’s U.N. climate talks in Glasgow appeared to be backing away from a call to end all use of coal and phase out fossil fuel subsidies completely.

The latest draft proposal from the meeting’s chair released Friday calls on countries to accelerate “the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.”

A previous version Wednesday had called on countries to “accelerate the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuel.”

GLASGOW, Britain, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States on Wednesday released the China-U.S. Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s here at the ongoing 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.