United Kingdom

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden warned the United Kingdom that it must honour the Northern Irish peace deal as it extracts itself from the European Union or there would be no U.S. trade deal.

“We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit,” Biden said in a tweet.

“Any trade deal between the U.S. and U.K. must be contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period.”

LONDON, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a parliamentary committee Wednesday he did not believe the European Union (EU) was negotiating a Brexit deal with Britain in good faith.

Johnson spent more than an hour being grilled by the House of Commons Liaison Committee, made up of the chairs of the major parliamentary select committees.

LONDON (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc’s main UK subsidiary, Amazon UK Services Ltd., paid just 6.3 million pounds ($8 million) in corporation tax in 2019 despite the group reporting over $17.5 billion in sales in Britain, accounts published on Wednesday show.

Amazon said the low figure reflected the underlying condition of its UK business.

“Corporation tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given retail is a highly-competitive, low margin business and we continue to invest heavily,” the company said in a statement.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s minister for Northern Ireland said on Wednesday he was optimistic the government could find a way through its latest standoff with Brussels by using the joint committee set up to tackle issues with the divorce agreement.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has introduced an Internal Market Bill which it says is needed in case the European Union makes a “material breach” of the divorce agreement. The EU has said Britain’s bill could collapse trade talks and must be scrapped.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government sees a ‘way through’ the parliamentary maze for his bill that would break the Brexit divorce treaty as it talks with rebels in the Conservative Party, a minister said on Wednesday.

Johnson’s Internal Market Bill, which the EU has demanded he scrap by the end of September, is currently being debated in parliament, though he is facing a rebellion by some members of his Conservative Party.

London, Sep 15 (PTI) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's controversial bill that aims to override parts of the Brexit divorce agreement struck with the European Union (EU) cleared its first parliamentary hurdle by winning the first House of Commons vote by 340 to 263 votes.

The Internal Market Bill, which has faced strong criticism from the Opposition parties and senior members of Johnson's own Conservative Party, is set for rebellions as it progresses through further stages in its parliamentary process despite Johnson's 80-seat majority in the Commons.

SINGAPORE/LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major oil industry producers and traders are forecasting a bleak future for worldwide fuel demand, due to the coronavirus pandemic’s ongoing assault on the global economy.

The novel coronavirus hammered fuel demand in the spring, causing consumption to drop by more than one-third as billions of people worldwide restricted their movements. Consumption rebounded in the summer, but some countries where infections were under control are seeing a resurgence in the deadly virus, sparking waves of lockdowns that could hamper the recovery.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday defended his plan to unilaterally rewrite Britain’s divorce deal with the European Union as an insurance policy against the bloc’s unreasonable behavior — even as his former attorney general joined the ranks of once-loyal lawmakers condemning the contentious move.

Johnson said a planned law designed to override portions of the Brexit withdrawal agreement was needed because the EU might “go to extreme and unreasonable lengths” in its treatment of former member Britain.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will try to persuade rebellious lawmakers in his party to vote on Monday for a bill that will break international law by breaching parts of the Brexit divorce deal and which has enraged Brussels.

The House of Commons will debate the Internal Market Bill, which the EU has demanded Johnson scrap by the end of September in the latest brinkmanship of a four-year saga since Britain voted narrowly to leave the bloc.

LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Monday they charged a man with attempting to cause an explosion after a suspicious package was sent to an address in London.

Ovidijus Margelis, 26, who was arrested by counter-terrorism officers in Cambridge on Saturday, will appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court later on Monday accused of three counts of attempting to cause an explosion as well as other fraud offences.