United Kingdom

LONDON (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth on Thursday was carrying out her first major engagement since a coronavirus lockdown in March, visiting the Porton Down military research facility which was involved in dealing with a 2018 Novichok nerve agent attack.

The 94-year-old monarch, who spent Britain’s national lockdown at Windsor Castle, has carried out her official duties remotely by video or telephone, or at her palace, since social restrictions were introduced. For her first public outing, she was joined by her grandson Prince William.

LONDON - The OPEC+ alliance will ensure oil prices do not plunge steeply again when it meets to set policy at the end of November, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said on Thursday.

He was answering a question about whether there was room in for a planned increase in oil output from January by OPEC+, a grouping that includes OPEC states, Russia and other allies.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new strategy for combating COVID-19 seemed to unravel Wednesday as regional leaders chose their own paths and the mayors of the cities facing the toughest restrictions accused Johnson of using the crisis to divide them for political advantage.

LONDON Oct 14 (APP): Pakistan Army team won the International Pace Sticking Competition held at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, United Kingdom (UK)
on October 13, 2020.

A statement of Pakistan High Commission London issued here said, while displaying the highest standards of drill, turnout and discipline, the team from Pakistan Military Academy won this competition for the third consecutive time.

This year 9 teams took part in the competition, the statement added.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday resisted a short lockdown for all of England but said he ruled nothing out in the face of calls to shut the country down for two weeks as a “circuit breaker” in order to save lives.

With cases rapidly rising, the British government opted this week for a three-tier system of local measures. The Liverpool area in the northwest became the first part of the country in the highest category, requiring bars, gyms and other businesses to shut, perhaps for months.

London, Oct 13 (AP/PTI) The British government carved England into three tiers of coronavirus risk on Monday in a bid to slow a resurgent outbreak, putting the northern city of Liverpool into the highest-risk category and shutting its pubs, gyms and betting shops.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the three-level national system was designed to simplify and standardize a confusing patchwork of local rules, as the country enters a crucial phase.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rebounded on Tuesday, drawing support from robust China data although concerns about waning demand elsewhere and supply resumptions in Norway, the Gulf of Mexico and Libya weighed.

Brent crude futures rose 60 cents, or 1.4%, to $42.32 a barrel by 0916 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 63 cents, or 1.6%, to $40.06 a barrel.

China, the world’s top crude oil importer, took in 11.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in September, up 5.5% from August and up 17.5% from September last year, customs data showed on Tuesday.

LONDON (AP) — Unemployment across the U.K. spiked sharply in August, a clear signal that the jobless rate is heading towards levels not seen in nearly 30 years when a British government salary-support scheme ends this month and new local restrictions are imposed to suppress a resurgence of the coronavirus.

The Office for National Statistics said Tuesday that unemployment rose by 138,000 in the three months to August from the previous three-month period. The unemployment rate jumped to 4.5%, its highest rate since early 2017, from 4.1% in the previous quarter.

LONDON (AP) — The British government carved England into three tiers of coronavirus risk on Monday in a bid to slow a resurgent outbreak, putting the northern city of Liverpool into the highest-risk category and shutting its pubs, gyms and betting shops.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the three-level national system was designed to “simplify and standardize” a confusing patchwork of local rules, as the country enters a “crucial phase.” Johnson said hospitals are now filling up with more COVID-19 patients than in March, when he ordered a national lockdown.

LONDON (Reuters) - The problem of increasing COVID-19 cases in England is not limited to the north of England, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam said on Monday.

“Pretty much all areas of the UK are now seeing growth in the infection rates,” Van Tam told a government briefing, presenting the latest data on infections.