England

LONDON, Aug 8 (NNN-Xinhua) — Britain has reported another 28,612 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 6,042,252, according to official figures released Saturday.

The country also recorded another 103 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 130,281. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

LONDON, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain has warned all UK nationals in Afghanistan to leave the country immediately due to the “worsening security situation” as fighting intensifies.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on Friday updated its website to advise against all travel to Afghanistan.

“All British nationals in Afghanistan are advised to leave now by commercial means. If you are still in Afghanistan, you are advised to leave now by commercial means because of the worsening security situation,” it said.

LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - There are early signs that people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 may be able to transmit the Delta variant of the virus as easily as those who have not, scientists at Public Health England (PHE) said on Friday.

The findings chime with those from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which last week raised concerns that vaccinated people infected with Delta could, unlike with other variants, readily transmit it. 

LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The Atlantic Ocean's current system, an engine of the Northern Hemsiphere's climate, could be weakening to such an extent that it could soon bring big changes to the world's weather, a scientific study said on Thursday.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a large system of ocean currents which transports warm water from the tropics northwards into the North Atlantic.

LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Britain will offer all 16- and 17-year-olds their first dose of Pfizer (PFE.N) COVID-19 vaccine, its vaccine advisers said on Wednesday, a move that will give more children protection against the disease before schools return in September.

Britain's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) had initially advised less than two weeks ago that only medically vulnerable children would be offered the vaccine, saying it was taking a precautionary approach.

LONDON, August 3. /TASS/: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has had a meeting with leader of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in London. The PA agency reported on Tuesday that Johnson voiced support for "human rights and civil society" in Belarus during the meeting at 10 Downing Street. 

LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said on Tuesday a non-violent transition to democracy from President Alexander Lukashenko's "hell" was possible in the former Soviet republic.

"I absolutely believe in a non-violent transition of power," Tsikhanouskaya, a 38-year-old former teacher and blogger, told Reuters. "What is going on in Belarus is our pain - we want this hell finished as soon as possible in our country."

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that he wanted to get the travel industry moving again with a simple user-friendly system of rules to allow for trips abroad.

"We need to get people, get the travel industry moving again," Johnson told reporters.

"We want an approach that is as simple as we can possibly make it."

Britain reopened its borders to large parts of the world on Monday, scrapping quarantine for fully vaccinated arrivals from the European Union, excluding France, and the United States. L8N2P923E

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - England's COVID-19 mobile phone app will be tweaked so that fewer contacts of asymptomatic people who test positive for the disease will need to self-isolate, Britain's health ministry said on Monday.

Business leaders have raised concerns about the numbers of staff who are having to self-isolate after being "pinged" by the app when they come into contact with someone who then tests positive for COVID-19.

LONDON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The work plan of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the second phase of investigation into the origins of COVID-19 is politicized and lacks a spirit of cooperation, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Britain said Sunday.

Responding to the question of why China rejected the WHO's work plan, the spokesperson said the plan "was heavily disrupted by politicization and was a document that lost scientific principles and lacked a spirit of cooperation."