United Kingdom

LONDON (AP) — One of the U.K.’s largest suppliers of seasonal influenza vaccines warned Saturday that there could be delivery delays of up to two weeks as a result of a shortage of truck drivers.

In a statement that has accentuated concerns about the potential scale of this winter’s flu outbreak, vaccine company Seqirus blamed “unforeseen challenges linked with road freight delays” for the disruption to deliveries in England and Wales.

The company said it “is working hard to resolve the delay to allow customers to reschedule their influenza vaccination clinics.”

LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Britain has started shipping COVID-19 vaccines to delegates attending global climate talks it is hosting next month who cannot access them at home, with the first shots to be delivered next week.

The COP26 conference, postponed from last year, takes place from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 in Glasgow.

LONDON (AP) — English educator Richard Sheriff watched this week as a group of energetic 11-year-olds entered their new secondary school for the first time — finding their classrooms, eating in the cafeteria, racing around the halls.

02 Sep 2021; MEMO: Britain's Labour Party has become embroiled in another feud with its pro-Palestine members following reports that former leader Jeremy Corbyn and pressure group the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) have been banned from speaking later this month at the annual party conference.

LONDON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Britain's foreign minister Dominic Raab said the intelligence assessment was that it was unlikely Kabul would fall this year as he defended Britain's withdrawal from Afghanistan after the Taliban swept across the country much more quickly.

Britain, like the United States, failed to predict how quickly the Afghan government would fall, meaning it had not made sufficient preparation for the chaos that would follow when the Taliban seized power.

31 Aug 2021; MEMO: The UK retains "the right to exercise self-defense" after withdrawing from Afghanistan, the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reported.

Raab was speaking to British news channel ITV after British Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that the UK could launch airstrikes against 'ISIS-K', the branch of the Daesh terrorist group in Afghanistan.

31 Aug 2021; MEMO: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been urged by British lawyers representing victims to open a war crimes investigation into the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen. A dossier submitted to The Hague yesterday provides evidence which suggests strongly that crimes against humanity have been committed during the six-year conflict.

LONDON, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- A multi-million-dollar task force, backed by major chewing gum producers, is to carry out a massive clean-up operation to remove chewing gum blighting 87 percent of sidewalks in England, a British government department announced Monday.

The task force is part of the British government's new strategy to support the evolution and regeneration of high streets across the country, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday praised the “colossal” effort to airlift civilians from Kabul, as U.K. troops and diplomats flew home after the two-week mission, ending 20 years of British military involvement in Afghanistan.

In a video message, Johnson praised the “colossal exertions” of British troops engaged in “a mission unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.”

But his government is facing criticism for leaving behind hundreds, or even thousands, of vulnerable Afghans whom the U.K. had promised to protect.

29 Aug 2021; MEMO: England's military presence in Afghanistan came to an end after 20 years as the remaining UK troops have left, Britain's defense chief said late Saturday, reports Anadolu Agency.

"At 21.25hrs tonight the last RAF plane left Kabul Airport ending the evacuation of military and Afghan personnel," Ben Wallace wrote on Twitter.