United Kingdom

LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) - A global food crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine escalated on Wednesday as Indonesia tightened curbs on palm oil exports, adding to a growing list of key producing countries seeking to keep vital food supplies within their borders.

The conflict in Ukraine is threatening global grain production, the supply of edible oils and fertiliser exports, sending basic commodity prices rocketing and mirroring the crisis in energy markets.

08 March 2022; MEMO: Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair has admitted that he "may have been wrong" in his decision to invade Afghanistan and Iraq around two decades ago.

Speaking to the Anglican Church's Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on BBC Radio 4 yesterday, Blair said that "People often say over Iraq or Afghanistan that I took the wrong decision but you've got to do what you think is right."

LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - The British government faced heavy criticism from all sides of parliament on Tuesday over its policy towards Ukrainian refugees after Immigration Minister Kevin Foster said Britain had so far issued 500 visas to those fleeing the Russian invasion.

Unlike European Union counterparts, Britain requires those seeking refuge from the fighting in Ukraine to have a valid visa upon arrival. It has announced two new visa routes since the Russian invasion but only one of those is currently operational.

LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address British lawmakers via videolink in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the first time a president of another country has addressed the main Westminster chamber.

Zelenskiy, who has spoken to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on several occasions since Russia invaded his country, has made a number of impassioned speeches to Western leaders in the last week, asking for supplies and military support.

  LONDON, March 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Several Western countries, including the UK and the United States, have called on Interpol to suspend Russia from the international law enforcement organisation, according to British Home
Secretary Priti Patel.

   The UK, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have requested “the immediate suspension of Russia’s access to its systems”, Patel tweeted.

   The grouping asked Interpol’s executive committee to make a decision this week.

LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - Britain defended its record on welcoming refugees fleeing Ukraine on Monday, after criticism it was not doing enough and was far behind its European neighbours in helping address the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War Two.

The United Nations estimates that more than 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia started bombarding its neighbour, with hundreds of thousands pouring into Poland, Romania, Slovakia and elsewhere.

LONDON, Mar 6 (NNN-XINHUA) – Several prominent U.S. cases, where Black people got harsher sentences, for unintentional voting errors than whites, who committed fraud, have shown that, there is a racial double standard in the country’s criminal justice system, The Guardian reported.

Bruce Bartman, white, was only sentenced to five years of probation, after he went to Pennsylvania’s voter registration website and signed up his mother and mother-in-law, both dead, to vote in the late summer of 2020, the report said.

LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Western sanctions on Russia were akin to a declaration of war and warned that any attempt to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine would lead to catastrophic consequences for the world.

Putin reiterated that his aims were to defend Russian- speaking communities through the "demilitarisation and de-Nazification" of the country so that Russia's former Soviet neighbour became neutral and no longer threatened Russia.

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday accused Ukrainian radicals for an incident on March 3 at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

French President Emmanuel Macron asked Putin by telephone about a fire at Europe's biggest nuclear power plant.

"Vladimir Putin informed [Macron] about the provocation by Ukrainian radicals in the area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant," the Kremlin said. "The radiation levels are normal."

Putin also accused Ukraine of preventing civilians from leaving Mariupol.

LONDON, Mar 4 (APP): Pakistan’s High Commissioner to UK Moazzam Ahmad Khan has lauded the role of British Pakistani community in advancing Pak-UK relations and making constructive contribution to the progress and development of both countries.

He particularly emphasized the significance of youth in shaping the contours of a futuristic relationship.