United Kingdom

29 Oct 2020; MEMO: Campaigners in Britain have launched a new legal challenge to the government’s decision to resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Activists for Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) have filed for a judicial review of the decision which saw British arms sales resume in July after a year-long moratorium on granting new export licences.

SOUTHAMPTON, England (Reuters) - The operator of an oil tanker stormed in the English Channel by British special forces thanked the authorities on Monday for their timely response, saying help was requested after seven stowaways who boarded in Nigeria had turned hostile.

Troops from the Special Boat Service, Britain’s elite naval special forces unit, stormed the Greek-operated Nave Andromeda near the Isle of Wight off southern England after the master of the ship said he was concerned about the safety of his crew.

24 Oct 2020; MEMO: Some prominent members of the Saudi Arabian royal family are being sued by British entrepreneur Gary Arnold for their alleged failure to honour a deal that has left him facing imprisonment.

The 50 year old, who developed his fish and chips franchise to 36 branches across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other parts of the Middle East, was arrested in Dubai this week over unpaid debts which he blames on the failure of Saudi royals to keep their part of a legally-binding deal.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union have made good progress in talks on a last-minute trade deal that would stave off a tumultuous finale to the five-year-old Brexit crisis, but fish is the biggest sticking point.

The United Kingdom left the EU in January but the two sides are trying to clinch a deal that would govern nearly a trillion dollars in annual trade before informal membership - known as the transition period - ends on Dec. 31.

LONDON Oct 22 (APP): Pakistan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Moazzam Ahmad Khan has said that further strengthening the existing friendly relations between Pakistan and the United Kingdom, facilitating and leveraging the potentials of our diaspora and highlighting the Kashmir issue at international levels for its peaceful resolution would be his top priorities.

He stated this while briefing a small group of UK based Pakistani media here at the High Commission, in his maiden interaction with them the other-day.

LONDON (Reuters) - The number of jobs furloughed as of Aug. 31 could reach 3.7 million, Britain’s tax office said on Thursday, highlighting that the arts and entertainment sector was making heaviest use of the scheme.

The tax authority said preliminary figures showed 3.3 million jobs were furloughed as of August 31, and that this could rise to 3.7 million once all data had been collected.

Use of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has fallen from a peak of 8.9 million job on May 8.

LONDON, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Britain announced on Wednesday that it will resume talks on future relationship with the European Union (EU) later this week in London, a few days after Downing Street said the post-Brexit negotiations were over.

"We are ready to welcome the EU team to London to resume negotiations later this week. We have jointly agreed a set of principles for handling this intensified phase of talks," Downing Street said in a statement.

It said the initial phase of the negotiations will take place in London from Oct. 22 until Oct. 25.

LONDON (AP) — The parent company of British Airways has cut its fourth-quarter passenger forecast to just 30% of last year’s level as government restrictions imposed to control a new wave of coronavirus infections reduces demand for flights.

International Airlines Group made the announcement Thursday as it posted a third-quarter operating loss of 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion), compared with a profit of 1.4 billion euros in the same period last year.

LONDON, October 20. /TASS/: The UK Foreign Office claims that Russian intelligence services tried to organize cyber attacks in order to derail the Tokyo Olympics before it was postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic, the statement by UK Foreign Office published on Monday reads.

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain stood firm on Tuesday in rebutting a European Union offer to discuss draft legal texts of a potential post-Brexit trade deal unless there were fundamental changes as their high-stakes diplomatic poker game risked a chaotic finale.

Failure by the world’s largest trading bloc and sixth richest economy to reach a deal by the end of the year to govern $900 billion in annual trade would send shockwaves round Europe, just as the coronavirus also pummels jobs and businesses.