United Kingdom

21 May 2022; MEMO: British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said the non-violent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to end Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territories was "racist" and "anti-Semitic".

LONDON (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is facing criticism from the leader of Northern Ireland’s biggest unionist party after saying Congress won’t approve a trade deal with the U.K. if Britain scraps the agreement governing post-Brexit trade on the Irish island.

The trans-Atlantic sparring follows British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government announcing its intention to introduce legislation that would allow it to unilaterally suspend the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, an international agreement between Britain and the European Union.

LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - British police ended their investigation on Thursday into COVID-19 lockdown parties held at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Downing Street office, having handed out 126 fines in a scandal that had called into question his leadership.

Johnson has faced widespread calls from opposition politicians and some in his own party for him to resign over the "partygate" scandal after it was revealed both he and officials had broken stringent laws his government had made.

Kathmandu; 17 May 2022 (UMMN): Akke Rahman has officially become the UK's first British Bangladeshi Muslim to climb Mount Everest. He reached the 8,849-metre summit during the early hours of Friday.

The 39-year-old from Oldham started his ascent in April to lift cash for a charity supporting destitute ladies, males and kids of Afghanistan, Syria, Rohingya and from different locations impacted by warfare, battle, catastrophe and poverty.

London, May 17 (PTI) The UK government has said it strongly supports the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as Sweden and Finland confirmed their intention to apply for membership of the military alliance, in a historic shift of foreign policy stance in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Monday evening that the two Nordic countries should be integrated into NATO, which operates on a collective defence basis under which an attack against any one ally is considered as an attack against all allies.

LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that there was no threat to Russia if Sweden and Finland joined NATO but cautioned that Moscow would respond if the U.S.-led alliance bolstered military infrastructure in the new Nordic members.

Putin, Russia's paramount leader since 1999, has repeatedly cited the post-Soviet enlargement of the NATO alliance eastwards toward Russia's borders as a reason for the conflict of Ukraine.

LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that reported attempts by the U.S. FBI and CIA to recruit embassy staff in Washington were unacceptable.

Russia's ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, told state media that embassy employees had been threatened with physical violence, and were frequently badgered in the vicinity of the Embassy to work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Central Intelligence Agency.

LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Monday that Russia would respond if NATO began to bolster the military infrastructure of Sweden and Finland which have both decided to join the U.S. military alliance after the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin, Russia's paramount leader since the last day of 1999, has repeatedly cited the post-Soviet enlargement of the NATO alliance eastwards towards Russia's borders as a reason for the conflict of Ukraine.

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday renewed British threats to break a Brexit agreement with the European Union, blaming it for a political crisis that’s blocking the formation of a new government in Northern Ireland.

Ahead of a visit to Belfast, Johnson said there would be “a necessity to act” if the EU doesn’t agree to overhaul post-Brexit trade rules that he says are destabilizing Northern Ireland’s delicate political balance.

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - Russia has probably lost around a third of the ground forces it deployed to Ukraine and its offensive in the Donbas region "has lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule", British military intelligence said on Sunday.

"Despite small-scale initial advances, Russia has failed to achieve substantial territorial gains over the past month whilst sustaining consistently high levels of attrition," the British defence ministry said on Twitter.