United Kingdom

23 Dec 2018; AFP: A man and a woman arrested over the drone disruption that brought Christmas getaway flights to a standstill at London's Gatwick Airport were released without charge on Sunday, police said.

A 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman from the town of Crawley, near Britain's second-busiest airport, were arrested on Saturday.

The police swooped after three days of disruption from Wednesday to Friday, affecting 140,000 passengers.

LONDON (AP) — London’s Gatwick Airport is seeking to run a full schedule Saturday after police arrested a man and a woman in connection with the “criminal use of drones.”

In a statement, Britain’s second-biggest airport said it is operational but urged passengers, tens of thousands of whom have been stranded since the drone incursions began on Wednesday evening, to check the status of their flights.  

18 Dec 2018; AFP: The British government on Tuesday said it was allocating two billion pounds ($2.5 billion) to fund Brexit and putting 3,500 troops on stand-by after ministers agreed to make no-deal planning "an operational priority".

The news came amid continued opposition to Prime Minister Theresa's May draft divorce deal, just 14 weeks before the country leaves the EU.

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Theresa May is set to condemn calls for a second referendum on Britain’s departure from the European Union, saying it would do irreparable damage to trust in democracy.

In remarks released ahead of her speech in the House of Commons on Monday, May says that staging another referendum “would say to millions who trusted in democracy that our democracy does not deliver.”

She’s also expected to argue that such a ballot would exacerbate divisions rather than heal them.

LONDON (AP) — The German parliament has approved a motion stating that the Brexit deal can’t be renegotiated, underlining the stance of the government and European Union allies.

The largely symbolic motion was approved hours before Chancellor Angela Merkel and the other 27 EU leaders gather in Brussels.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking reassurances about the withdrawal deal, which she is struggling to sell to skeptical lawmakers.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking a lifeline from European Union leaders Thursday after winning a no-confidence vote among her own Conservative lawmakers.

May will ask the other 27 EU leaders at a summit in Brussels for reassurances about the deal that she can use to win over a skeptical British Parliament, particularly those within her party who triggered the no-confidence vote in the first place.

Earlier this week, to great uproar in Parliament, May scrapped a planned vote on the deal this week when it became clear she would lose.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May battled on Wednesday to save her job, her EU divorce bill and maybe even Brexit itself as lawmakers in her Conservative Party held a no-confidence vote on her leadership.

Legislators began casting their secret ballots in a wood-paneled room in Parliament after May’s Conservative opponents, who have been circling for weeks, finally got the numbers they needed to spark a vote.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Top European Union officials on Tuesday ruled out any renegotiation of the divorce agreement with Britain, as Prime Minister Theresa May fought to save her Brexit deal by lobbying leaders in Europe’s capitals.

May began her quest over breakfast with Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte, a day after she abandoned a vote in the U.K. Parliament to secure support for the agreement thrashed out with the EU over more than a year. She acknowledged that the deal would be rejected in London “by a significant margin.”

Berlin, Dec 11 (AFP) Embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May embarked on a tour of European capitals on Tuesday in a desperate bid to salvage her Brexit deal, a day after delaying a parliamentary vote on the text to avoid a crushing defeat.

May had breakfast with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague before heading to Berlin for lunch with Chancellor Angela Merkel, and was then to travel on to Brussels.

7 Dec 2018; AFP: Ecuador's president said Thursday that conditions have been met for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to leave the country's embassy in London, which would end a six-year standoff with British authorities.

"The way has been cleared for Mr Assange to take the decision to leave in near-liberty," President Lenin Moreno told reporters, explaining that he still had to answer in Britain for violating the terms of his bail.