United Kingdom

LONDON, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The coal used to generate electricity in Britain will be phased out by 2024, a year earlier than originally planned, the British government announced Wednesday.

In 2012, coal accounted for 40 percent of the British power generation, dropping to only 1.8 percent in 2020, the government said in a release.

The move, announced by Energy and Climate Change Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan, means that within just 10 years, Britain will have reduced the national power grid's reliance on coal from previously around a third to zero.

30 June 2021; MEMO: One of Britain's leading trade unions, ASLEF, has published an article in its monthly journal highlighting Israeli apartheid. This is another sign of the growing awareness of systemic racism that Palestinians suffer under Israel's brutal military occupation.

LONDON (AP) — Marlies Haselton has called Britain home for more than 30 years. The Dutch national married a Briton, had her children there, and considers herself “part and parcel” of the U.K. Until Britain’s divorce from the European Union, she had never given a thought to her immigration status in the U.K.

LONDON, June 29 (Xinhua) -- British Education Secretary Gavin Williamson on Tuesday called for a ban on cellphones in school classrooms as part of a drive to improve student behavior.

The Department for Education (DfE) announced a plan to ask teachers and school leaders for views on managing good behavior, including on the use of cellphones in the school day.

Williamson's call came ahead of plans to update government guidance later this year on behavior and discipline in schools, as well as student suspensions and permanent exclusions.

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - Britain's government will investigate how footage of former minister Matt Hancock kissing his aide found its way into the media and forced his resignation, in the latest scandal to hit Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government.

After first rejecting calls for Hancock to be sacked or resign as health minister after pictures were published of him embracing a woman he had appointed to a taxpayer-funded role, Johnson accepted his decision to step down on Saturday.

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has released two women's rights activists detained nearly three years ago after they had served their time, London-based Saudi rights group ALQST said on Sunday.

Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah were detained in July 2018, along with more than a dozen other activists, on suspicion of harming Saudi interests, a move that drew international condemnation.

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - Classified documents from Britain's defence ministry containing details about a British warship and Russia's potential reaction to its passage through the Black Sea have been found at a bus stop in southern England, the BBC reported on Sunday.

The BBC said the documents, almost 50 pages in all, were found "in a soggy heap behind a bus stop in Kent early on Tuesday morning" by a member of the public, who wanted to remain anonymous.

26 June 2021; MEMO: Amnesty International has accused Israeli occupation police of using "ruthless excessive force" against "peaceful" Palestinian protesters in occupied East Jerusalem, a press release issued on Thursday revealed.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has led the country’s response to the coronavirus, resigned Saturday, a day after apologizing for breaching social distancing rules with an aide with whom he was allegedly having an affair.

LONDON, June 26 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was under mounting pressure on Saturday to fire his health secretary after the admission that he broke COVID-19 guidelines by kissing an employee sparked accusations of blatant hypocrisy.

Matt Hancock, 42, has been at the centre of the government's fight against the pandemic, routinely telling people to follow strict rules and even welcoming the resignation last year of a senior scientist who broke restrictions in a similar manner.