United Kingdom

LONDON (Reuters) - Facebook’s move to block all media content in Australia is a staggeringly irresponsible attempt to bully a democracy and will stiffen the resolve of legislators across the world to get tough with the tech giants, a senior British lawmaker said.

“This action - this bully boy action - that they’ve undertaken in Australia will I think ignite a desire to go further amongst legislators around the world,” Julian Knight, chair of the British Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, told Reuters.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Wednesday, underpinned by a major supply disruption in the southern United States this week where a winter storm hit Texas.

Benchmark Brent crude gained $1.37, or 2.2%, to $64.72 a barrel at 1237 GMT.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.18, or 2%, to $61.23 a barrel.

Both contracts were at their highest level since January 2020.

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson is plotting a staged exit from lockdown that would see the United Kingdom’s battered economy returning to work over the next five months after leaping ahead of most of the world on vaccinating its people.

The novel coronavirus, which emerged in China in late 2019, has killed 2.4 million people worldwide, upended normal life for billions and tipped the United Kingdom into its worst slump in 300 years.

LONDON, Feb 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain’s High Court dismissed Sierra Leone’s challenge of a 2020 International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) decision over claims by SL Mining after a dispute over its iron ore mining operations in the country.

The miner, a subsidiary of US commodity trader Gerald Group, filed for arbitration with the ICC in August 2019 and suspended its Marampa mine the following month.

Later that year, Sierra Leone cancelled the company’s mining licence, saying it had breached its contractual obligations. SL Mining denied the accusation.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices hovered near 13-month highs on Tuesday, supported by a cold snap that shut wells in the biggest U.S. producing state Texas, although gains were capped by a wage deal in Norway that averted supply disruptions in Europe.

The global rollout of coronavirus vaccinations, fuelling expectations of a recovery in the global economy and oil demand, has also kept prices buoyant.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices soared on Monday to their highest in about 13 months as vaccine rollouts promised to revive demand and producers kept supply reined in.

Brent crude was up 77 cents, or 1.2%, at $63.20 a barrel at 0955 GMT, after climbing to a session high of $63.76, the highest since Jan. 22, 2020.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained $1.04, or 1.8 %, to $60.51 a barrel. It touched $60.95 - its highest since Jan. 8 last year, earlier in the session.

Oil prices gained around 5% last week.

LONDON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure to lift all COVID-19 lockdowns in two and a half months as lockdown-sceptic Tories called on him to commit to a timetable for easing the restrictions with a complete end to controls by the end of April.

In a letter to the prime minister, leaders of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) said the "tremendous pace" of the vaccination rollout means restrictions in England should begin easing from early March, the London-based Evening Standard newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK has written an open letter calling on world leaders to pressure the Saudi authorities to release the detained scholar Salman al Salman Al-Ouda. The following is the full text of their open letter released on 13 February:

To whom it may concern

Re: Salman Al-Ouda, political detainee by Saudi Authorities

After the death of his wife in an accident in 2017, Salman Al-Ouda became everything for his family especially his young children.

LONDON (Reuters) - British foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday he shared concerns about the level of access given to a World Health Organization COVID-19 fact-finding mission to China, echoing criticism from the United States.

The White House on Saturday called on China to make available data from the earliest days of the novel coronavirus outbreak, saying it had “deep concerns” about the way the findings of the WHO’s COVID-19 report were communicated.

LONDON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will host a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) leaders Friday to discuss efforts to ensure an equal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and prevent future pandemics.

Johnson will call for a new global approach to pandemics, drawing on lessons from the divisions that characterised the initial international response to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a press statement released Saturday night by Downing Street.