Unemployment in Britain has fallen again, despite the end of a government scheme to keep millions of private-sector workers in their roles during the coronavirus pandemic, official data showed Tuesday. The jobless rate — which measures the number of people out of work as a proportion of the working population as a whole — slipped […]
Britain
England to drop quarantine rule for fully jabbed arrivals from France
The UK government said late Wednesday it will ease English entry rules requiring arrivals from France to quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated, following its latest review of travel curbs. The change — which will come into effect at 4:00 am (0300 GMT) on Sunday — puts France back on England’s so-called “amber” list […]
US eyes Iran over ship ‘hijacking’ as tensions rise
The United States said Wednesday it suspected Iranian involvement in the alleged hijacking of a ship in the Gulf of Oman as it vowed to work with Britain to respond to an earlier deadly attack it blamed on Tehran. Oman said that the Asphalt Princess, an asphalt and bitumen tanker, was involved in “a hijacking […]
AstraZeneca says Covid vaccine sales top $1.0 bn
British pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca said Thursday that its Covid jab generated $1.2 billion (1.0 billion euros) in sales in the first half of the year as global vaccination programmes accelerated. Sales more than tripled to $894 million in the three months to June, from $275 million in the three months to March, it said in […]
EU pauses legal action against Britain over N.Ireland trade
The EU said Thursday it was pausing its legal action against Britain for allegedly breaching the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland as it weighs London’s proposals to overhaul the pact. “We want to give ourselves the space to find the durable solutions for the implementation of the protocol,” a spokeswoman for the European Commission said. […]
Olympic athletes inspire robotic zen garden in Tokyo
At a serene zen garden in a Tokyo park, abstract lines inspired by the movements of Olympic athletes are carefully traced in the gravel — not by monks, but by robots. The newly installed artwork, titled “The Constant Gardeners”, features four large industrial robotic arms that work together to sculpt a traditional Japanese rock garden. […]
UK could bar China firm from nuclear projects: report
Britain is investigating ways to block China’s state-owned nuclear energy company from all future power projects in the UK, amid chilling relations between London and Beijing, according to reports Monday. The move could see China General Nuclear (CGN) excluded from several projects, including a consortium planning to build a nuclear plant on the Suffolk coast […]
Woman in Charlie Hebdo T-shirt stabbed in London park
UK police on Monday said they were investigating a knife attack on a woman in a London park, with online footage showing she was wearing a T-shirt with a cartoon from Charlie Hebdo, the French magazine targeted by jihadists. The 39-year-old woman was treated in hospital for a minor slash injury after the attack on […]
E.Guinea closing UK embassy over sanctions against president’s son
The central African state of Equatorial Guinea announced Monday it was closing its embassy in London after Britain imposed sanctions against the son of its veteran president over corruption allegations. “The first decision that the government has taken is the total closure of our diplomatic mission in London,” Foreign Minister Simeon Oyono Esono told state […]
Health minister sorry for saying UK should not ‘cower’ from Covid
Britain’s Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Sunday apologised after he tweeted that the country need not “cower” in the face of coronavirus, having himself recovered from a bout of the disease. “I was expressing gratitude that the vaccines help us fight back as a society, but it was a poor choice of word and I […]