United Kingdom

LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Britain gave France 48 hours on Monday to back down in a fishing row that threatens to spiral into a wider trade dispute between two of Europe's biggest economies or face tortuous legal action under the Brexit trade deal.

Post-Brexit bickering over fish culminated last Wednesday in the French seizure of a British scallop dredger, the Cornelis Gert Jan, in French waters near Le Havre. Paris has threatened sanctions from Nov. 2 that could snarl cross-Channel trade.

LONDON (AP) — The chief executive of British bank Barclays stepped down Monday following a report by United Kingdom regulators into his past links with the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Jes Staley has previously said he “deeply regrets” his relationship with Epstein, who killed himself at a federal jail in New York in August 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial. There is no suggestion that the 64-year-old Staley knew anything about Epstein’s alleged crimes.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson opened a global climate summit Monday, saying the world is strapped to a “doomsday device.”

Johnson likened an ever-warming Earth’s position to that of fictional secret agent James Bond — strapped to a bomb that will destroy the planet and trying to work out how to defuse it.

LONDON, Oct 31 (NNN-XINHUA) – China is committed to developing clean and low-carbon energy, Chinese Ambassador to Britain, Zheng Zeguang said, ahead of the 26th United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP26), in Glasgow, Scotland.

As the world’s biggest producer and consumer of energy, China is carrying out a massive energy revolution, Zheng said in a speech, via video link, in the recent The Responsible Energy Forum 2021.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow has formally opened, kicking off two weeks of intense diplomatic negotiations by almost 200 countries on how to tackle the common challenge of global warming.

Following the opening gavel, officials set about addressing a raft of procedural matters before leaders from around the world gather in Scotland’s biggest city Monday to lay out their countries’ efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the effects of climate change.

30 Oct 2021; MEMO: A rare painting of Hurrem Sultan, known in the Wests as Roxelana, was sold at a London auction on Wednesday for $173,000, Anadolu Agency reported.

The sale came as part of an auction called 'Arts of the Islamic World & India' by Sotheby's, one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles.

LONDON, Oct 29 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — The United Kingdom’s Departments for Transport and of Health and Social Care issued a joint press release announcing that the seven countries still on the travel red list, all of them from Latin America, would be removed from it shortly.

Effective Nov 1, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela will be moved up to the group of other nations from where travelers returning to England no longer need to go through a hotel quarantine.

LONDON, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- England could become the first in the world to prescribe medicinally licensed e-cigarettes to help reduce smoking rates, Britain's Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced Friday.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is publishing updated guidance that paves the way for medicinally licensed e-cigarette products to be prescribed for tobacco smokers who wish to quit smoking, said the department.

E-cigarettes are currently available commercially and are popular as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes.

LONDON (AP) — Protesters started gathering Friday in the heart of London’s historic financial district to lobby against the use of fossil fuels ahead of the start of the U.N. climate summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow.

The protests in London, which were to be joined by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, are part of a worldwide day of action before leaders head to Glasgow for the U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP26. Many environmentalists are calling the Oct. 31-Nov. 12 gathering the world’s last chance to turn the tide in the battle against climate change.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s environment minister pledged Friday to retaliate if France carries through on threats to block U.K. fishing ships from French ports, warning that “two can play at that game” in the worsening dispute rooted in Britain’s departure from the European Union.

Britain summoned the French ambassador for a dressing-down after French authorities fined two British fishing vessels and kept one in port overnight Thursday.