United Kingdom

LONDON (Reuters) - Fossil fuel consumption is set to shrink for the first time in modern history as climate policies boost renewable energy while the coronavirus epidemic leaves a lasting effect on global energy demand, BP said in a forecast.

BP’s 2020 benchmark Energy Outlook underpins Chief Executive Bernard Looney’s new strategy to “reinvent” the 111-year old oil and gas company by shifting renewables and power.

LONDON (Reuters) - Former prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major on Sunday said Britain must drop a “shocking” plan to pass legislation that breaks its divorce treaty with the European Union, in a breach of international law.

The British government said explicitly last week that it plans to break international law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty that it signed in January, when it formally left the EU.

LONDON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Almost 8 million Britons will be subjected to tighter lockdown restrictions next week after fresh measures were imposed in the West Midlands and Scotland, local media reported Saturday.

From Tuesday, households in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull will be banned from mixing after the region reported a surge in coronavirus cases, according to the Evening Standard newspaper.

Further north, Lanarkshire joins areas around Glasgow subject to tougher controls, with the new rules in force as of midnight on Friday.

LONDON (AP) — Oxford University announced Saturday it was resuming a trial for a coronavirus vaccine it is developing with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, a move that comes days after the study was suspended following a reported side-effect in a U.K. patient.

In a statement, the university confirmed the restart across all of its U.K. clinical trial sites after regulators gave the go-ahead following the pause on Sunday.

LONDON, Sept 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain announced a £23.8 million investment to triple the size of its base in an Omani port close to the sensitive waters of the Gulf.

The expansion of the “logistics hub” at Duqm will “facilitate Royal Navy deployments to the Indian Ocean” and “further support British Army training in Oman,” the Ministry of Defence said.

“The long-standing friendships between the UK and the Gulf states are more important than ever,” said Defence Secretary Ben Wallace as he visited Oman and Qatar.

10 Sep 2020; MEMO: Amnesty International has called for an independent and impartial international investigation into the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by a Saudi hit squad inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is not threatening to “tear up” the Withdrawal Agreement that it signed with the European Union in January said UK trade policy minister Greg Hands on Friday, as the row between the two sides continues.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has refused to revoke a plan that will break the divorce treaty even though Brussels says it could sink four years of talks.

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union stepped up planning for a ‘no-deal’ Brexit on Friday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government refused to revoke an ultimatum on breaking the divorce treaty that Brussels says will sink four years of talks.

Britain said explicitly this week that it plans to break international law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty that it signed in January, when it formally left the bloc.

LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) - Britain secured its first big post-Brexit trade deal on Friday, an agreement with Japan which it hailed as “historic” as it struggles to agree on trade with its closest trading partners in the European Union.

Since formally leaving the EU in January, Britain has focused on negotiating new trade deals with countries around the world although experts say they are unlikely to replace exports lost to the EU if a deal cannot be reached with Brussels.

LONDON (Reuters) - The London extradition hearing for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was postponed on Thursday because of concern that one of the lawyers involved might have been exposed to COVID-19.

Assange is fighting extradition to the United States where he is wanted for conspiring to hack government computers and violating an espionage law over the release of confidential cables by WikiLeaks in 2010-2011.