United Kingdom

27 September 2023; MEMO: British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has urged Germany to approve the delivery of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, in an apparent bid to save the United Kingdom’s economy from further detriment.

LONDON (AP) — Britain on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for a major oil and gas project in the North Sea, ignoring warnings from scientists and the United Nations that countries must stop developing new fossil fuel resources if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change.

LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Britain's Home Secretary Suella Braverman warned on Tuesday uncontrolled migration poses an "existential challenge" to Western nations and called for the rewriting of a treaty which has influenced global asylum policy for the last seven decades.

Addressing the American Enterprise Institute think-tank in Washington, Braverman said the United Nations refugee convention has expanded the definition of "persecution" and increased the number of people qualifying for refugee protection.

LONDON, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- A recent poll found out British voters are "largely pessimistic" about Britain's hopes of achieving net zero emissions, The Times reported on Saturday.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a series of relaxations of key climate policies this week, including delaying the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035.

Many of Sunak's decisions are popular, but British people are skeptical about the reasons behind them, said the British newspaper.

23 September 2023; AA: Thousands of anti-Brexit protesters on Saturday gathered in the British capital to call for rejoining the EU.

Organized by the National Rejoin March, thousands of people marched toward Parliament Square and demanded "we want our star back."

The protesters were carrying EU flags and wearing hats and t-shirts which also featured the EU flag. They were also carrying banners that called on the government to resign.

LONDON (AP) — British competition regulators gave preliminary approval Friday to Microsoft’s restructured $69 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard, easing a final global hurdle that paves the way for one of the largest tech transactions in history to go through.

The Competition and Markets Authority said the revamped proposal “substantially addresses previous concerns” about stifling competition in the fast-growing cloud gaming market, which frees players from buying expensive consoles and gaming computers by streaming to tablets, phones and other devices.

21 September 2023; MEMO: The Welsh Government has announced that it is formally opposing Michael Gove’s anti-boycott bill, which grants special protection to Israel and recommended the Welsh Senedd withhold legislative consent. This follows months of campaigning by rights groups, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), demanding the Welsh government and Senedd oppose the bill.

LONDON, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of England (BoE) has voted to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 5.25 percent, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday.

At its meeting ending on Wednesday, the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee voted by a majority of five to four in favor of the decision, the statement noted. Four members preferred to increase the interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 5.5 percent.

This is the first time the BoE has kept the interest rates unchanged after 14 consecutive rate hikes since December 2021.

LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Rishi Sunak watered down Britain's plans to tackle climate change on Wednesday, saying he would delay a ban on sales of new petrol cars to maintain the consent of the British people in the switch to net zero.

Sunak said he remained committed to the legally-binding target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 but said Britain could afford to make slower progress in getting there because it was "so far ahead of every other country in the world".

LONDON, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 officers of the Metropolitan Police (Met) have been dismissed, suspended, or placed on restricted duties amid what the force referred to as "the strongest doubling down on standards in 50 years."

According to the Met, 100 police officers have been dismissed for gross misconduct in the last 12 months.