England

LONDON (AP) — Longtime British tour company Thomas Cook collapsed after failing to secure rescue funding, and travel bookings for its more than 600,000 global vacationers were canceled early Monday.

The British government said the return of the firm’s 150,000 British customers now abroad would be the largest repatriation in its peacetime history. The process began Monday and officials warned that delays are inevitable.

BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said he is convinced Brexit will happen, reiterating that if Britain left the European Union without a deal there would be a new border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

“I’m convinced that Brexit will happen,” he told Sky News in an interview last week, before he had seen the ideas Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government sent to Brussels to try to push Brexit talks forward.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will accept the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on whether the government’s decision to suspend parliament was lawful, foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday.

“Of course we will respect whatever the legal ruling is from the Supreme Court, whether it’s tomorrow or later in the week,” Raab told the BBC.

BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - British opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Sunday his party would guide him on how to campaign in a second Brexit referendum, pledging to offer voters a choice between staying in the European Union and a “credible” deal.

At the start of Labour’s annual conference in the English seaside resort of Brighton, Corbyn was again under pressure by party members and even some of his top team to unequivocally back remaining in the EU in any new vote.

LONDON/ BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - The deputy leader of the Labour Party survived an attempt to oust him over Brexit on Saturday after party chief Jeremy Corbyn moved to defuse a row that threatened to overshadow the party’s bid to show it was ready for power.

Holding its annual party conference just weeks before Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised “do or die” to lead Britain out of the European Union, Labour was keen to set out its agenda for government rather than put its Brexit divisions on display.

BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - A government run by Britain’s main opposition Labour Party would secure a “sensible” deal to leave the European Union within three months and would hold a second referendum on the deal or staying in the bloc within six months, a draft statement said.

The draft statement, seen by Reuters, says: “After three years of shambolic Tory (Conservative) negotiations and parliamentary deadlock, a Labour government will get Brexit sorted one way or another within six months of coming to power.”

LONDON, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday said that a no-deal Brexit would be "catastrophic" and he was doing "everything to get a deal".

In an interview with Sky News, Juncker said that "we can have a deal" and he believed "Brexit will happen."

He said he did not have "an erotic relation" to the so-called backstop, an arrangement aimed at avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.

LONDON (Reuters) - Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament in the run-up to Brexit will come under attack in Britain’s Supreme Court on Thursday from one of his predecessors as prime minister and Conservative Party leader, John Major.

The court began hearing a third and final day of legal arguments on whether the suspension, or prorogation, was unlawful. A lawyer representing Major was due to speak against Johnson later in the morning.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Supreme Court will hear a third and final day of legal arguments on Thursday over whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted unlawfully when he suspended parliament in the run-up to Brexit.

If Johnson loses, he may be compelled to recall parliament earlier than scheduled, giving additional time for legislators to scrutinize and oppose his plans to lead Britain out of the European Union, with or without a divorce deal, on Oct. 31.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday they needed to work with international partners to form a collective response to Saturday’s attacks on Saudi oil plants, his spokesman said.

The two leaders also agreed there was a need to de-escalate tensions in the region and were committed to a common approach on Iran, which has been blamed by U.S. President Donald Trump for the attack on Saudi oil facilities.