England

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former chief aide said Wednesday that the government “failed” the British people and “fell disastrously short” in handling the coronavirus pandemic.

Dominic Cummings made a blistering attack on the government he once served, telling lawmakers investigating Britain’s pandemic response that some ministers and officials went on vacation as the virus swept toward the U.K. in February 2020.

LONDON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The final step of easing the coronavirus lockdown in England on June 21 is not "not inevitable", a British government adviser said Tuesday.

Adam Kucharski, a member of Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), told the BBC that "we need to keep all options on the table".

The SPI-M gives expert advice to the Department of Health and Social Care and the wider British government on scientific matters relating to Britain's response to an influenza pandemic or other emerging human infectious disease threats.

(Reuters) --- Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson is critically ill after being shot in the head in south London in the early hours of Sunday, her political party said.

London's Metropolitan Police appealed for witnesses after offices found a woman, who they said was thought to be in her 20s, suffering a gunshot injury in Peckham.

Police said the woman, who they have not named, remained in hospital with life-threatening injuries.

(Reuters) --- Britain's early plan to combat COVID-19 was a "disaster" and "awful decisions" led to the government imposing lockdowns that could have been avoided, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's former top adviser said.

Dominic Cummings, who left Johnson's staff late last year, made his comments in a series of tweets just days before he is due to give evidence to members of parliament about the government's handling of the pandemic.

(Reuters) --- The first operational deployment of Britain's flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to Asia will show countries such as China that Britain believes in the international law of the sea, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.

Johnson said the Carrier Strike Group, which will interact with more than 40 nations on the deployment through the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and South China Sea to Japan, would project Britain's values as well as its military capabilities.

(Reuters) --- The Group of Seven is playing a "dangerous game" by making aggressive and baseless criticism of the Kremlin because it pushes Russia closer to China, Russia's ambassador to London Andrei Kelin told Reuters on Thursday.

G7 foreign ministers this month scolded both China and Russia, casting the Kremlin as malicious and Beijing as a bully, but beyond words there were few concrete steps aside from expressing support for Taiwan and Ukraine.

LONDON, May 17 (Xinhua) -- A total of 2,323 cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in India have been recorded in Britain, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday.

Speaking at the House of Commons, the lower house of British Parliament, Hancock said the variant is now the dominant strain of the virus in Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen, both in northwest England, with 483 confirmed cases.

According to Hancock, in Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen, cases of the variant have doubled last week.

LONDON (AP) — Gary Miller drove a London taxi. Rohit Patel worked behind the till in a supermarket. Barry Bwalya was in customer service.

When the coronavirus tore through their London neighborhoods in early 2020, they all got sick. More than a year later, they are still struggling.

(Reuters) --- Ministers will make a decision on June 14 about whether or not to proceed with the final phase of lockdown easing in England, health minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday, describing the pandemic as "under control".

On Friday Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that Britain would accelerate its COVID-19 vaccination programme to try to contain a fast-spreading variant first identified in India, warning that Britain's reopening could be knocked off track by the Indian variant. 

LONDON (AP) — Britain deployed public health officials, supported by the army, to distribute coronavirus tests door-to-door in two northern England towns on Saturday in an effort to contain a fast-spreading variant that threatens plans to lift all lockdown restrictions next month.