Schools and colleges across the United Kingdom closed on Tuesday ahead of a national lockdown as the country battled to control surging coronavirus cases that are threatening to overwhelm its healthcare system. The tough new measures were announced Monday even as Britain began rolling out the Oxford-AstraZeneca shots, a possible game-changer in fighting Covid-19 worldwide, […]

A major storm swept across Britain and into northern France on Sunday, leaving thousands of households without power. Around 18,000 households in northern France are without electricity, with coastal regions of Brittany and Normandy worst affected, the AFP news agency reported, citing the network operator Enedis. The weather service Meteo France warned of strong gusts […]

Canada and Britain have signed a temporary agreement to avoid an increase in tariffs between the two countries after the British exit from the European Union in early 2021, Ottawa said Tuesday. At the end of November, the two countries announced they had concluded a provisional post-Brexit trade agreement that would reflect, as of January […]

The list of European Union (EU) countries stopping flights from Britain continued to grow on Sunday as alarmed officials reacted to a new, highly contagious variant of the Coronavirus that has sent London and south-eastern England into lockdown. The Netherlands was the first on Sunday to announce an immediate ban on flights, with similar advisories […]

India, Poland, Norway, Finland and Denmark have suspended all direct flights from Britain with immediate effect, citing a quickly spreading variant of the coronavirus that was detected the country. All flights from Britain to India will be suspended, starting onTuesday and lasting until Dec. 31, says India. Flights from India to Britain will also be temporarily suspended during the time. In […]

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen named competition as the biggest stumbling block to a trade deal with Britain, and warned London it will have to play by the EU’s rules or accept the price of tariffs. “What is essential now to finalise the one and only important question, that is if the UK […]

The European Union and Britain ordered their negotiators back to work Sunday after agreeing to abandon a supposed make-or-break deadline for a post-Brexit trade pact. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Boris Johnson had said last week they would decide whether an agreement was possible by the end of Sunday, but agreed […]

Britain International Trade Secretary Liz Truss announced that Britain on Thursday signed a free trade deal with Singapore covering 17.6bn dollars. “Today I signed a deal with Singapore covering 17.6bn [pounds sterling] of trade – the 2nd biggest agreement we’ve signed in #AsiaPacific,’’ Truss wrote on Twitter. A photo showed Truss alongside Singapore’s trade minister […]

Senior members of the English and Scottish governments in Britain have outlined the lockdown restrictions for residents in their countries over the next few weeks.

Britain on Wednesday unveiled plans for new powers to prevent foreign companies snapping up strategic assets in “malicious” takeovers that are deemed to threaten national security. The UK government said that its new National Security and Investment Bill will “protect (the) UK from malicious investment” and strengthen its ability to investigate and intervene in mergers, […]

Britain will not become “a client state” under the terms of any post-Brexit trade deal struck with the European Union, the UK’s chief negotiator David Frost insisted late on Saturday. Ahead of an eighth and final round of scheduled talks with the EU next week, Frost said Britain was “not going to compromise on the […]

The number of migrants landing on Italy’s shores has more than doubled in the last year as an economic crisis in Tunisia fuels migration in boats across the Mediterranean, Interior Minister, Luciana Lamorgese, said on Saturday. More than 21,000 people reached Italy between August 2019 and the end of July, up 148 per cent year-on-year, […]

Britain on Saturday observed the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Japan in World War II, with many events held online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Victory in Japan (VJ) Day marks 75 years since Japan surrendered to the Allied forces, ending hostilities. A formal surrender ceremony was held on September 2 on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Fighting in the Asia-Pacific had continued for […]

Hoards of Britons holidaying in France were on Friday faced with the choice of returning in a hurry or staying put, after the UK announced sudden quarantines as part of a global step-up in travel restrictions. The two-week self-isolation period for travellers arriving in the UK from over the Channel comes as French authorities battle […]

Britain’s economy shrank by a fifth in the second quarter, higher than any European neighbour, as the coronavirus pandemic slammed businesses and plunged the country into a record recession. “It is clear that the UK is in the largest recession on record,” the Office for National Statistics said after gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by […]