England

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain stood firm on Tuesday in rebutting a European Union offer to discuss draft legal texts of a potential post-Brexit trade deal unless there were fundamental changes as their high-stakes diplomatic poker game risked a chaotic finale.

Failure by the world’s largest trading bloc and sixth richest economy to reach a deal by the end of the year to govern $900 billion in annual trade would send shockwaves round Europe, just as the coronavirus also pummels jobs and businesses.

LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union wants a Brexit trade deal with Britain and will work until the last minute to get a fair agreement, though not at any cost, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said on Monday.

“It has to be a fair agreement for both sides - we are not going to sign an agreement at any cost,” Sefcovic told reporters after a meeting with Britain’s Brexit supremo Michael Gove in London.

“The European Union is ready to work until the last minute for a good agreement for both parties,” Sefcovic said.

LONDON (AP) — Irish privacy regulators have opened two investigations into Instagram over the social media site’s handling of young people’s personal data.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it launched the investigations in September after receiving complaints about the company. Facebook, which owns Instagram, said it’s in “close contact” with the commission and is “cooperating with their inquiries.”

LONDON (Reuters) - A professor who has advised the British government on its COVID-19 testing programme said on Saturday a short nationwide lockdown was needed due to “eye-watering” levels of infection in parts of England.

As a second wave of infections gathers pace, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has favoured local restrictions in areas where cases are surging - hoping to shield the economy by allowing the least-affected regions to remain open.

LONDON, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- For Alan West, a recently retired sheep farmer and agricultural lecturer based in South East England, concern is growing over Britain's position on the standards of imported meat and the fate of the British farm industry.

Earlier this week, MPs rejected the latest attempt to require imported food to meet domestic legal standards from Jan. 1, 2021.

In the parliament, they struck down a House of Lords (upper house of parliament) amendment to the Agriculture Bill to force trade deals to meet Britain's animal welfare and food safety rules.

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday it was now time to prepare for a no-trade deal Brexit as the European Union had refused to negotiate seriously and that unless Brussels changed course there would not be an agreement.

A tumultuous “no deal” finale to the United Kingdom’s five-year Brexit crisis would sow chaos through the delicate supply chains that stretch across Britain, the EU and beyond - just as the economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic worsens.

(Reuters) - Britain’s data protection watchdog said on Friday it has fined British Airways 20 million pounds - its biggest such penalty to date - for failing to protect data that left more than 400,000 of its customers’ details the subject of a 2018 cyber attack.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said its investigators found BA should have identified weaknesses in its security and resolved them with measures available at the time, which would have prevented the data breach.

LONDON (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization’s Europe office said the exponential surge of coronavirus cases across the continent has warranted the restrictive measures being taken, calling them “absolutely necessary” to stop the pandemic.

In a meda briefing on Thursday, Dr. Hans Kluge warned that even more drastic steps might be needed in such “unprecedented times.”

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool, the English port city that gave the world the Beatles, weathered decades of industrial decline before becoming a celebrated symbol of urban renewal. Now, the coronavirus is putting the city’s hard-won revival in jeopardy, and raising tensions between the north of England and the wealthier south.

LONDON (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth on Thursday was carrying out her first major engagement since a coronavirus lockdown in March, visiting the Porton Down military research facility which was involved in dealing with a 2018 Novichok nerve agent attack.

The 94-year-old monarch, who spent Britain’s national lockdown at Windsor Castle, has carried out her official duties remotely by video or telephone, or at her palace, since social restrictions were introduced. For her first public outing, she was joined by her grandson Prince William.