England

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain unveiled a negotiating mandate on Thursday for talks with the European Union that puts it on a collision course with Brussels, saying it was ready to walk away if “good progress” was not made by June.

After officially leaving the EU last month, Britain has until the end of the year to negotiate a trade deal and agreements on everything from fishing to transport, to replace more than 40 years of closely aligned political and economic relations.

LONDON (Reuters) - The expansion of Heathrow Airport was declared unlawful by an appeal court judge on Thursday, a major setback for the $18 billion project that could prompt the British government to pull its support for a third runway.

The new runway was approved by the government in 2018, but British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously opposed expanding Heathrow, Britain and Europe’s busiest airport.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will likely secure only temporary access to the European Union financial market under a broader trade deal in which finance may take a back seat to sectors such as fishing, financial industry officials said on Wednesday.

Britain and the EU start talks next week on a trade deal that would come into effect next January after the “standstill” transition period that followed Brexit last month expires.

LONDON, Feb 25 (APP): The United Kingdom (UK) has condemned Israel’s announcement to move forward with the construction of 1,077 housing units in Givat Hamatos, southern Jerusalem, urging Israel to reverse the decision.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Tuesday that people who had visited northern Italy should self isolate if they had any flu-like symptoms.

Italy is trying to contain Europe’s worst outbreak of coronavirus so far that flared up in the regions of Lombardy and Veneto.

“The official advice which will be formally updated at eight o’clock this morning is going to change so that those who have been to northern Italy - that is essentially anybody who has been to Italy north of Pisa - should, if they have flu-like symptoms, self isolate,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

LONDON (AP) — Truth-telling journalist or reckless criminal: A British judge was given two conflicting portraits of Julian Assange as the WikiLeaks founder’s long-awaited extradition hearing began Monday in a London court.

A lawyer for the U.S. authorities, who want to try Assange on espionage charges, said the Australian computer expert was an “ordinary” criminal whose publication of hundreds of thousands of secret military documents a decade ago put many people at risk of torture and death.

24 February 2020; AFP: Britain on Monday began hearing Washington's extradition request for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, in a test case of media freedoms in the digital age and the limits of US justice.

A ruling against the 48-year-old Australian could see him jailed for 175 years if convicted on all 17 US Espionage Act charges and one count of computer hacking he faces.

LONDON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Britain is expected to re-introduce its blue passports from next month after almost three decades to mark its departure from the European Union (EU), the British government has announced.

Championed by Brexiteers, the distinctive blue cover documents will replace the standard-issue burgundy passports that were rolled out across EU countries from 1988.

The first new blue passports will be issued and delivered early next month. By mid-2020, all new passports will be blue, said the government.

(Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit team has been ordered to come up with plans to “get around” the Northern Ireland protocol in the Brexit withdrawal agreement, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

Officials in Taskforce Europe, which is run by David Frost, the prime minister’s European Union negotiator, are seeking to evade Irish Sea checks on goods passing from Britain to Northern Ireland, according to the newspaper.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain criticized the European Union on Sunday over the process of agreeing on its negotiating mandate for post-Brexit trade talks, saying the bloc was “hamstrung by indecision and delay” because different members wanted different things.

The outcome of the talks between Britain and the EU, its biggest trading partner, will define how the $2.7 trillion British economy develops following its departure from the EU.