England

LONDON (AP) — British airline easyJet said Thursday it rejected an unsolicited takeover approach as it announced plans to raise another 1.2 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) from shareholders to shore up its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, the company said its board had “unanimously” rejected the offer from an unnamed company, which according to widespread speculation in financial markets is thought to have come from rival Hungarian airline Wizz Air.

Wizz Air declined to comment on the speculation.

LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out plans on Tuesday to raise taxes on workers, employers and some investors to try to fix a health and social care funding crisis, angering some in his governing party by breaking an election promise.

After spending huge amounts of money to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson is returning to an election pledge to address Britain's creaking social care system, where costs are projected to double as the population ages over the next two decades.

LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan to hike taxes to fund social care has provoked fury among many of his own lawmakers, who fear that such a clear violation of his election promises shows he is happy to oversee a sweeping expansion of the state.

After the fiscal splurge on the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson is now addressing Britain's creaking social care system, whose costs will soar as the population ages, while facing numerous other thorny policy matters.

LONDON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - British vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi on Sunday said a decision had not yet been taken on whether healthy children aged 12- to 15-years-old should be vaccinated against COVID-19, following reports that a rollout could begin in the coming days.

Britain's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on Friday declined to recommend vaccinations for children in that group, taking a precautionary approach due to a rare risk of heart inflammation, but adding the issue was finely balanced. 

LONDON (AP) — One of the U.K.’s largest suppliers of seasonal influenza vaccines warned Saturday that there could be delivery delays of up to two weeks as a result of a shortage of truck drivers.

In a statement that has accentuated concerns about the potential scale of this winter’s flu outbreak, vaccine company Seqirus blamed “unforeseen challenges linked with road freight delays” for the disruption to deliveries in England and Wales.

The company said it “is working hard to resolve the delay to allow customers to reschedule their influenza vaccination clinics.”

LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Britain has started shipping COVID-19 vaccines to delegates attending global climate talks it is hosting next month who cannot access them at home, with the first shots to be delivered next week.

The COP26 conference, postponed from last year, takes place from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 in Glasgow.

LONDON (AP) — English educator Richard Sheriff watched this week as a group of energetic 11-year-olds entered their new secondary school for the first time — finding their classrooms, eating in the cafeteria, racing around the halls.

LONDON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Britain's foreign minister Dominic Raab said the intelligence assessment was that it was unlikely Kabul would fall this year as he defended Britain's withdrawal from Afghanistan after the Taliban swept across the country much more quickly.

Britain, like the United States, failed to predict how quickly the Afghan government would fall, meaning it had not made sufficient preparation for the chaos that would follow when the Taliban seized power.

LONDON, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- A multi-million-dollar task force, backed by major chewing gum producers, is to carry out a massive clean-up operation to remove chewing gum blighting 87 percent of sidewalks in England, a British government department announced Monday.

The task force is part of the British government's new strategy to support the evolution and regeneration of high streets across the country, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday praised the “colossal” effort to airlift civilians from Kabul, as U.K. troops and diplomats flew home after the two-week mission, ending 20 years of British military involvement in Afghanistan.

In a video message, Johnson praised the “colossal exertions” of British troops engaged in “a mission unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.”

But his government is facing criticism for leaving behind hundreds, or even thousands, of vulnerable Afghans whom the U.K. had promised to protect.