United Kingdom

17 March 2022; MEMO: British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, held talks about energy security on Wednesday with the de facto leaders of Gulf oil exporters, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but secured no public pledge to ramp up production, Reuters reports.

Johnson's trip to Abu Dhabi and Riyadh was aimed at securing oil supplies and raising pressure on President Vladimir Putin over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which led to sweeping Western sanctions on Moscow and soaring world energy prices.

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England on Thursday is likely to raise its key interest rate for the third time since December as it pushes ahead faster than other central banks in combating a global wave of inflation fueled by soaring energy prices.

LONDON (AP) — Two British citizens who had been jailed in Iran for more than five years — charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and retired civil engineer Anoosheh Ashoori — returned home to their families’ hugs and tears Thursday after the U.K. settled a decades-old debt to Iran.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe hugged her 7-year-old daughter, and her husband and members of Ashoori’s family tearfully embraced one another after the two arrived via a government-chartered aircraft at the Brize Norton air force base in Oxfordshire in the early morning hours.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday that talks were “moving forward” for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been detained in Iran for almost six years.

Johnson confirmed a negotiating team was at work in Tehran to free Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who holds dual U.K.-Iranian citizenship. Johnson’s comments were made on a visit to the Middle East, coming a day after Iran returned the passport of the charity worker.

LONDON (AP) — After dropping nearly all coronavirus restrictions last month, Britain is now ending some of its most widespread COVID-19 testing and monitoring programs, a move some scientists fear will complicate efforts to track the virus and detect worrisome new variants.

Officials have largely dismissed those concerns, despite a recent uptick in cases across Europe, insisting that high immunization rates will help dampen future waves of disease.

LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has had her British passport returned, British lawmaker Tulip Siddiq said on Tuesday.

"I am very pleased to say that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been given her British passport back," Siddiq, who is the member of parliament for where Zaghari-Ratcliffe used to live in London, said on Twitter.

"She is still at her family home in Tehran. I also understand that there is a British negotiating team in Tehran right now."

LONDON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the United States hard, "sparing no region, race or ethnicity," but some groups have suffered more than others in the country, The Guardian has reported.

The United States "is a large and diverse country. Its rifts and inequities were laid bare and worsened by the virus," the British newspaper said Sunday.

LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian forces could take full control of major Ukrainian cities and it had sufficient military clout to fulfil all of its aims in Ukraine without any help from China.

The United States and its European allies have cast President Vladimir Putin's invasion as an imperial-style land grab that they say has so far been poorly executed because Moscow underestimated Ukrainian resistance and Western resolve to punish Russia.

14 March 2022; MEMO: An Egyptian squash player has used his victory speech at the Optasia Championship at Wimbledon Club to ask why sports people are allowed to talk about Ukraine but not about Palestine.

"No one should accept any killings in the world, or oppression, but we've never been allowed to speak about politics in sports, but all of a sudden now it's allowed," said Ali Farag.

LONDON, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A security review warned on Friday that London is facing a rising threat of extreme right-wing terrorism, but is "significantly better prepared" for a terrorist attack than it was five years ago.

The review, commissioned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, said there have been significant improvements in communication and coordination between the British capital's emergency services and partner agencies to ensure the city is better prepared to respond to an attack.