Page 9 - Uk Govt

Iran attack on Israel risks provoking an uncontrollable escalation, says G7

Unequivocally condemning in the strongest terms Iran's direct and unprecedented attack against Israel, the G-7 leaders on Sunday said the development risks provoking an uncontrollable regional escalation even as permanent members of the UN Security Council announced to convene an emergency meeting on the issues in New York. With its actions, Iran has further stepped toward the destabilisation of the region and risks provoking an uncontrollable regional escalation. This must be avoided. We will continue to work to stabilise the situation and avoid further escalation, G-7 leaders said in a joint statement after a conference call among them initiated by President Joe Biden. The US assisted Israel in shooting down dozens of drones and missiles fired by Iran in its first direct military assault on the former. Israeli authorities said 99 per cent of the inbound weapons were shot down without causing any significant damage. In this spirit, we demand that Iran and its proxies cease their .

Survivors of Ariana's concert bombing take legal action against UK agency

More than 250 survivors of the suicide bombing that killed 22 people at a 2017 Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England are taking legal action against Britain's domestic intelligence agency, lawyers said. Lawyers from three law firms said Sunday they have submitted a group claim on behalf of more than 250 clients to the U.K.'s investigatory powers tribunal. They said they could not provide further details because it was an ongoing legal matter. Suicide bomber Salman Abedi set up a knapsack bomb in Manchester Arena, in northwestern England, at the end of Grande's concert on May 22, 2017, as thousands of young fans were leaving. More than 100 people were injured, many of them children and teenagers. Abedi died in the explosion. An official inquiry reported last year that Britain's domestic intelligence agency, MI5, didn't act swiftly enough on key information and missed a significant opportunity to prevent the bombing, the deadliest extremist attack in the U.K. in recent ...

UK PM Rishi Sunak condemns Iran's reckless' attack against Israel

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has condemned Iran's attack against Israel as reckless and pledged that the UK would stand up for security in the region after Tehran launched dozens of aerial drones and cruise missiles overnight on Saturday and into Sunday. The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said late on Saturday that several additional Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter jets had been moved to the region to help intercept the drone attacks. The aircraft and air-fuelling tankers are being deployed as part of the UK's ongoing Operation Shader against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in the region. I condemn in the strongest terms the Iranian regime's reckless attack against Israel, said Sunak in a statement issued by 10 Downing Street. These strikes risk inflaming tensions and destabilising the region. Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard. The UK will continue to stand up for Israel's security and that of all our regional partners, ...

UK deploys jets, air refuelling tankers amid Iranian attack on Israel

Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Saturday that Israel "intercepted a vast majority" of the strikes from Iran

EVs head for junkyard as mechanic shortage inflates repair costs in UK

Once there are more fully trained EV technicians, repair rather than replace becomes a more viable proposition, an expert said

UK PM Sunak resists call to set election date amid leadership threat

A general election must be held by the end of January and Sunak has said his "working assumption" is it will be in the second half of 2024

US, UK to implement restrictions on trade of Russian-origin metals

The U.S. and U.K. will begin restricting the trade of new Russian-origin metals including aluminum, copper and nickel on global metal exchanges and in derivatives trading. The announcement is meant to follow up on the Group of Seven nations' commitment in February to reduce Russia's revenues from metals as its invasion into Ukraine has dragged on for more than two years. Russia is a key exporter of metals like aluminum, steel and titanium but British and American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcement, said the economic impact from the ban would be negligible for consumers and producers. The intent is to limit Russia's revenues from metals, they say, as metals have earned the nation $40 billion in the past two years, according to British officials. Our new prohibitions on key metals, in coordination with our partners in the United Kingdom, will continue to target the revenue Russia can earn to continue its brutal war against Ukraine, said

EU, Britain, Spain to hold more talks on post-Brexit status of Gibraltar

British and Spanish foreign ministers will meet Friday with a top European Commission official for another round of negotiations over the status of the disputed territory of Gibraltar following Britain's exit from the European Union. The two ministers will hold talks with European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic in Brussels. Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo will also attend. Spanish Foreign Minister Jos Manuel Albares said that while the meeting with his British counterpart David Cameron may not be the final day," he was optimistic of an agreement as soon as possible. These are complex, technical issues, and then we will have to draft a whole set of documents, but we are already close to reaching an agreement on the general political lines, Albares told Spain's Onda Cero radio on Thursday. All sides are eager to clinch a deal before European elections in June. Britain left the European Union in 2020 with the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc unresolved. T

Russia, Germany, UK urge restraint as Iranian threat puts W Asia on edge

The German airline Lufthansa, one of only two Western carriers flying to Tehran, extended a suspension of its flights to the Iranian capital and Russia warned against travel to West Asia

Tata protests: Steelworkers at UK's plant vote to strike over job losses

Around 1,500 Tata Steel workers based at two plants in Wales voted in favour of industrial action on Thursday over the company's plan to close its blast furnaces and shed 2,800 jobs. The Mumbai-headquartered steel major said it was disappointed over the move while consultation continues and pointed to significant irregularities in the ballot process in favour of strikes. While the company says its restructuring plans were important to sustain the business as it transforms to new electric technology, Unite the Union said its workers from the Port Talbot and Newport Llanwern plants had voted against the disastrous plans because they did not agree with the approach. We are naturally disappointed that while consultation continues, Unite Union members at Port Talbot and Llanwern have indicated that they would be prepared to take industrial action up to and including strike action if an agreement cannot be reached on a way forward for the business and its employees, a Tata Steel ...

Higher income threshold regime to apply for UK Family Visa comes into force

The minimum income required for British citizens and residents, including those of Indian heritage, wanting to sponsor their relatives on a Family Visa increased by over 55 per cent from Thursday, as the incremental increase in salary thresholds announced by the government last year are enforced. Starting Thursday, for someone to be sponsored to come to the UK on a Family Visa, they must have a minimum annual salary of GBP 29,000, up from GBP 18,600. By early next year, this will have increased two more times to match the Skilled Worker visa salary threshold of GBP 38,700. The UK Home Office said it marks the final measure in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary James Cleverly's package to reduce legal migration and ensure those arriving here do not burden the taxpayer. We have reached a tipping point with mass migration. There is no simple solution or easy decision which cuts numbers to levels acceptable to the British people, said Cleverly. I promised action and we have

Gaza war: UK sends naval ship, announces support for maritime aid corridor

Apart from deploying navy ship, the UK government also committed to provide aid deliveries worth up to £9.7 million, equipment support to the corridor

Defeat predicted for Rishi Sunak-led Conservative Party in UK polls: Survey

Public survey conducted by YouGov shows that the Opposition Labour Party is heading towards a landslide victory

UK airports get more time to put in new scanners allowing liquids, laptops

Drink it or bin it: That phrase should have become history this summer at all UK airports. But it's set to persist for at least another year after the British government said it will grant extensions to several large UK airports unable to meet the June 1 deadline to fully install new scanning technology. The airports include London's two biggest, Heathrow and Gatwick. The new scanners use computed tomography, commonly known as a CT scan, to produce clearer images. They are being rolled out globally, including in the US and across Europe, and will allow passengers to go through security with 2 litres (70 ounces) of liquid in their hand luggage rather than the current paltry 100 millilitres (3.5 ounces). They will also mean laptops and tablets won't need to be removed from bags saving even more time. The restrictions were introduced around the world in 2006 following a foiled terror plot to blow up planes flying from London to the US with homemade liquid bombs. They were not expect

UK's Thames Water faces new crisis as shareholders refuse to invest

The group has become a poster child for the failures of privatisation, after its performance deteriorated in the 2010s when its previous investors took out huge dividends

Japan approves plan to sell future next-generation jets to other nations

Japan's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it's developing with the UK and Italy to other countries, in the latest move away from the country's postwar pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan's role in the joint fighter jet project and part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan's arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to countries other than the partners. Japan has long restricted arms exports under the country's pacifist constitution, but has rapidly taken steps to deregulate amid rising regional and global tensions, especially from nearby China. The decision on jets will allow Japan to export lethal weapons it coproduces to other countries for the first time. Japan is working with Italy and the UK to develo

New Zealand joins US, UK in claims of China-backed cyber espionage

Hackers linked to the Chinese government launched a state-sponsored operation that targeted New Zealand's Parliament in 2021, the country's security minister said on Tuesday. New Zealand's allegation comes a day after US and UK authorities announced a set of criminal charges and sanctions against seven hackers, all believed to be living in China, who targeted US officials, journalists, corporations, pro-democracy activists and the UK's election watchdog. "The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable," Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) Judith Collins said in a media statement. Collins said the agency had also established links between a state-sponsored actor linked to China and malicious cyber activity targeting parliamentary entities in New Zealand. "The GCSB's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) completed a robust technical assessment following a compromi

US, UK accuse China of broad cyberattacks, British voter data theft

The hackers, part of a state-sponsored group known as APT31, have been charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud

UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch called 'massive fraud' mastermind by US

Lynch's lawyer, Reid Weingarten, countered in his opening that the government's narrative paints a black-and-white picture and "that ain't the way the world works"

UK's contentious plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda likely to clear Parl

The British government hopes one last push can revive its stalled plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda. A bill aimed at overcoming a UK Supreme Court block on deportation flights returns to the House of Commons and could be passed into law within days. That would be a boost for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is facing disquiet from fellow Conservative lawmakers as the party lags in opinion polls ahead of an election due this year. Britain and Rwanda signed a deal almost two years ago that would see migrants who cross the English Channel in small boats sent to the East African country, where they would remain permanently. So far, no migrant has been sent to Rwanda under the agreement. Lawmakers in the House of Commons on Monday rejected changes made to the Safety of Rwanda Bill by Parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords. The Lords inserted a series of amendments designed to water down the legislation. All 10 amendments, backed by opposition members of