United Kingdom

24 Mar 2023; MEMO: Hundreds of people gathered outside Downing Street today in the British capital, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met his British counterpart Rishi Sunak.

The protest was called for by the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB), Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Stop the War Coalition, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Muslim Association of Britain (MAB).

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III’s state visit to France has been postponed indefinitely amid widespread protests over President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms, putting a damper on the new monarch’s debut on the international stage.

Charles and his wife, Camilla, will still travel to Germany on Wednesday in what was scheduled to be the second leg of his first overseas trip since ascending the throne in September.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomed Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to London on Friday while demonstrators gathered nearby to protest against the Israeli government’s right-wing policies.

Israel faces a national crisis over the government’s plans to overhaul the judicial system. They have ignited Israel’s biggest protests in history and sparked rare dissent from across Israeli society, including military reservists, navy veterans, high-tech businesspeople and former officials.

23 Mar 2023; MEMO: The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has called on the UK government to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes committed in Palestine, and to recognise the court's jurisdiction over the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

23 Mar 2023; MEMO: Unaccompanied asylum-seeking people in the UK face various threats, including deportation to Rwanda, if they complain about the condition of housing, according to a report by a refugee advocate group, Anadolu News Agency reports.

A new report, released on Thursday and titled "Hostile Accommodation" by Refugee Action revealed that people in asylum accommodation exposed conditions that actively harm their physical and mental health.

LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - New York kept the top spot in the latest rankings of global financial centres from Z/Yen Group on Thursday, with London and Singapore also unchanged in second and third place.

New York overtook London to head the table in September 2018 -- two years after Britain voted to leave the European Union -- but London has retained its second place ranking since then, despite some predicting it could take a heavy knock from Brexit.

LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates for the 11th time in a row on Thursday after a surprise jump in inflation dashed speculation that it might have been about to take a pause.

The BoE is trying to reconcile Britain's weak economic outlook and recent worries about global banks with stubbornly high price growth, and is due to announce its latest decision on rates at 1200 GMT.

Most economists had believed inflation was on course to fall steadily, after hitting a 41-year high above 11% in October.

22 Mar 2023; MEMO: The Refugee Council has said that the cost of detaining and accommodating people under the government's illegal immigration bill could be more than £9 billion ($10.6 billion) in the first three years.

The charity said that the figure is part of an impact assessment of the bill based on the Home Office being able to remove 30,000 people and send them to Rwanda, detaining people for 28 days and accommodating others.

22 Mar 2023; MEMO: More than 200,000 people have signed a petition calling for putting an end to the demolition of Palestinian homes as a first step towards dismantling apartheid, Amnesty International said yesterday.

LONDON, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The United Kingdom's (UK) Parliament passed a key part of the government's new post-Brexit trade deal on Northern Ireland on Wednesday despite opposition from the region's major unionist party.

The vote was on the so-called "Stormont Brake," which offers Northern Ireland more power over new European Union (EU) laws. Members of the House of Commons (lower house of Parliament) voted by a margin of 515 to 29. Those voting 'no' included six Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) members.