United Kingdom

20 Nov 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian Mission in the UK on Friday condemned the designating of Hamas as a "terrorist organisation", stressing that this step "will make peace-making harder" than ever.

"With this move, the British government has complicated Palestinian unity efforts and undermined Palestinian democracy," the mission announced in a statement.

LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said it was "absolutely possible" his forces had helped migrants cross into Poland but denied they had been invited, the BBC reported.

"I think that's absolutely possible. We're Slavs. We have hearts. Our troops know the migrants are going to Germany," Lukashenko told the BBC in an interview. "Maybe someone helped them. I won't even look into this."

But Lukashenko denied inviting thousands in to provoke a border crisis, the BBC said.

LONDON (AP) — The British government said Friday that it intends to ban the Palestinian militant group Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The military wing of Hamas has been outlawed in the U.K. since 2001 but the organization as a whole is not proscribed.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is in charge of law and order issues, said on Twitter that she had “acted to proscribe Hamas in its entirety.”

She said the group “has significant terrorist capability, including access to extensive and sophisticated weaponry, as well as terrorist training facilities.”

LONDON, Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) – G7 foreign ministers urged Belarus Thursday to end a migrant crisis on its border with Poland, accusing it of callously engineering the stand-off and putting lives at risk.

  “We call on the regime to cease immediately its aggressive and exploitative campaign,” Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States said in a joint statement.

They charged that President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime orchestrated irregular migration across its borders.

LONDON, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- A British F-35 fighter jet has crashed into the sea during a routine operation in the Mediterranean, the country's Ministry of Defence said Wednesday.

The pilot ejected and returned safely to the royal navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, the ministry said.

It added the incident happened at 10:00 GMT over international waters and hostile action is not thought to have been involved.

An investigation has begun and would likely focus on potential technical or human error, reported the BBC.

LONDON (AP) — Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has signed a deal with a U.N.-backed group to allow other manufacturers to make its experimental COVID-19 pill, a move that could make the treatment available to more than half of the world’s population.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Pfizer said it would grant a license for the antiviral pill to the Geneva-based Medicines Patent Pool, which would let generic drug companies produce the pill for use in 95 countries, making up about 53% of the world’s population.

LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - People in Britain must come forward for COVID-19 vaccines when they are eligible if new COVID restrictions this winter are to be avoided, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday.

"If we want to avoid new restrictions on our daily lives, we must all get vaccinated as soon as we are eligible," Johnson said at a news conference after the booster vaccination programme was expanded.

LONDON (AP) — A blast in a taxi outside a hospital in England that killed a man was caused by an improvised explosive device and is being treated as a terrorist incident, but the motive remains unclear, police said Monday.

Russ Jackson, the head of Counterterrorism Policing in northwest England, said Sunday’s explosion at Liverpool Women’s Hospital was caused by “the ignition of an explosive device” that was brought into the vehicle by a passenger.

The male passenger died in the explosion and fire that followed, and the taxi driver was injured.

LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - One person was killed and another was injured in a vehicle explosion outside the Women's Hospital in Liverpool in northern England on Sunday, police said, adding that counter-terrorism officers were leading the investigation.

Merseyside Police said in a statement that they understood that the car involved was a taxi which had pulled up at the hospital shortly before the explosion occurred.

Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said police were called to reports of a car explosion just before 1100 GMT on Sunday.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Negotiators at the this year’s U.N. climate talks pored over fresh proposals Saturday for sealing a deal that could credibly be said to advance worldwide efforts to tackle global warming.

British officials chairing the talks in Glasgow, Scotland, released new draft agreements after shuttle diplomacy continued past the official Friday evening deadline. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, both indicated cautious optimism late Friday that the negotiations were moving forward.