United Kingdom

LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union wants a Brexit trade deal with Britain and will work until the last minute to get a fair agreement, though not at any cost, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said on Monday.

“It has to be a fair agreement for both sides - we are not going to sign an agreement at any cost,” Sefcovic told reporters after a meeting with Britain’s Brexit supremo Michael Gove in London.

“The European Union is ready to work until the last minute for a good agreement for both parties,” Sefcovic said.

LONDON (AP) — Irish privacy regulators have opened two investigations into Instagram over the social media site’s handling of young people’s personal data.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it launched the investigations in September after receiving complaints about the company. Facebook, which owns Instagram, said it’s in “close contact” with the commission and is “cooperating with their inquiries.”

18 Oct 2020; MEMO: Amnesty International on Saturday urged Lebanese authorities to investigate and hold accountable officers involved in the suppression of protesters during October 2019 demonstrations, reports Anadolu Agency. 

LONDON (Reuters) - A professor who has advised the British government on its COVID-19 testing programme said on Saturday a short nationwide lockdown was needed due to “eye-watering” levels of infection in parts of England.

As a second wave of infections gathers pace, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has favoured local restrictions in areas where cases are surging - hoping to shield the economy by allowing the least-affected regions to remain open.

LONDON, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- For Alan West, a recently retired sheep farmer and agricultural lecturer based in South East England, concern is growing over Britain's position on the standards of imported meat and the fate of the British farm industry.

Earlier this week, MPs rejected the latest attempt to require imported food to meet domestic legal standards from Jan. 1, 2021.

In the parliament, they struck down a House of Lords (upper house of parliament) amendment to the Agriculture Bill to force trade deals to meet Britain's animal welfare and food safety rules.

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday it was now time to prepare for a no-trade deal Brexit as the European Union had refused to negotiate seriously and that unless Brussels changed course there would not be an agreement.

A tumultuous “no deal” finale to the United Kingdom’s five-year Brexit crisis would sow chaos through the delicate supply chains that stretch across Britain, the EU and beyond - just as the economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic worsens.

Brussels, Oct 16 (AP/PTI) With both sides digging in their heels as another Brexit deadline passed Thursday, the European Union and Britain demanded concessions from one another in talks on a basic trade deal that would soften the economic blow of the coronavirus pandemic for all.

The EU leaders meeting in a summit on the day British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had set as a potential cutoff point for the acrimonious negotiations said in a joint statement it was now up to the UK to make the necessary moves to make an agreement possible."

(Reuters) - Britain’s data protection watchdog said on Friday it has fined British Airways 20 million pounds - its biggest such penalty to date - for failing to protect data that left more than 400,000 of its customers’ details the subject of a 2018 cyber attack.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said its investigators found BA should have identified weaknesses in its security and resolved them with measures available at the time, which would have prevented the data breach.

LONDON (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization’s Europe office said the exponential surge of coronavirus cases across the continent has warranted the restrictive measures being taken, calling them “absolutely necessary” to stop the pandemic.

In a meda briefing on Thursday, Dr. Hans Kluge warned that even more drastic steps might be needed in such “unprecedented times.”

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool, the English port city that gave the world the Beatles, weathered decades of industrial decline before becoming a celebrated symbol of urban renewal. Now, the coronavirus is putting the city’s hard-won revival in jeopardy, and raising tensions between the north of England and the wealthier south.