United Kingdom

LONDON, March 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Heathrow airport has said that some passengers may face longer queues to get through security during the Easter holiday period after it was unable to strike a deal with security worker unions over pay.

More than 1,400 security officers in the Unite union, who work for Heathrow Airport, are going ahead with a ten-day strike beginning on Friday. Eleventh-hour talks on Thursday broke down without a resolution. It threatens disruption at the UK’s largest airport at the start of the Easter school holidays.

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - The Bank of England on Wednesday told regulators to move fast to toughen rules for funds used by Britain's pension industry which nearly collapsed last year after former Prime Minister Liz's Truss's "mini-budget."

The BoE said Britain's banking system was not at risk from the kind of turmoil that has beset some banks in the United States and Switzerland's Credit Suisse.

But the BoE's Financial Policy Committee called on pension regulators to act "as soon as possible" to mitigate the risks posed by liability-driven investment (LDI) funds.

BELFAST, Britain, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Officials and experts from China and Northern Ireland on Tuesday expressed their desire to boost cooperation on new energy innovation, amid such challenges as climate change and biodiversity loss.

Green and low-carbon transformation is guiding countries as they upgrade their economic structures, Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom (UK) Zheng Zeguang said at the China-UK/Northern Ireland Forum on New Energy Innovation.

LONDON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Two-thirds of workers in the United Kingdom (UK) suffering long COVID symptoms claimed they were treated unfairly at their workplace, and one in seven had lost their job, said a report released on Monday.

The report, released by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the charity Long COVID Support, shows the results of the responses of a total of 3,097 long COVID sufferers who shared their experiences of work.

28 Mar 2023; MEMO: Amnesty International has accused the West of double standards in its dealing with human rights abuses. The rights group makes the allegation in its Annual Report for 2022 released on Monday.

LONDON (AP) — The U.K.’s MI5 intelligence service on Tuesday raised the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland’ to “severe” amid an increase in activity by dissident Irish republican militants.

Severe is the second-highest rung on a five-point scale and means an attack is considered highly likely. The threat had stood one notch lower at “substantial” for the past year.

27 Mar 2023; MEMO: Scotland's Health Secretary has been elected as the Chair of the Scottish National Party (SNP) following 14 days of voting by the party members, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Humza Yousaf became the first Muslim to lead a major UK party and is set to be confirmed as the first ethnic minority leader of a devolved government in the UK.

LONDON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A major incident has been declared after around 200 barrels of reservoir fluid leaked into Poole Harbour, in Southern England's Dorset on Sunday, local authorities have said.

"It is estimated that approximately 200 barrels of reservoir fluid has been released into the water column in Poole Harbour," said Poole Harbour Commissioners (PHC) in a statement.

Typically, there are five main types of reservoir fluids: black oil, volatile oil, condensate (retrograde gas), wet gas, and dry gas.

LONDON, March 25 (Reuters) - British retail consultant and television personality Mary Portas has written an open letter to the John Lewis Partnership accusing the group of losing its soul for considering a change to its longstanding model of employee ownership.

Last week, the partnership, which owns John Lewis department stores and the upmarket Waitrose supermarket chain, confirmed it was considering selling a minority stake in the business to outside investors to fund investment.

LONDON, March 25 (Reuters) - Plans by the British government to move migrants out of hotels and into military bases or even disused ferries are expected to be announced within weeks, Sky News reported on Saturday.

Previous suggestions involving the use of holiday camps and student halls were less likely to be brought into action, the report said.

The government has signalled it wants to end the use of hotels as asylum seeker accommodation.