United Kingdom

Tokyo, Jul 20 (AP-PTI) The British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and its strike group will visit Japanese ports in September for joint exercises, defence ministers from Japan and Britain said on Tuesday as the two countries step up military ties amid increased Chinese assertiveness in regional seas.

British defence secretary Ben Wallace said the visit by the Royal Navy's largest warship is part of his country's Indo-Pacific tilt that shares goals with Japan.

LONDON, Jul 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) – England lifted almost all its remaining COVID-19 restrictions yesterday, according to its roadmap out of lockdown.

As the number of daily infections continues to rapidly increase, the final stage of easing virus restrictions came with a note of caution.

Yesterday was described by the British government as Freedom Day, where almost all legal restrictions on social contact have been removed.

LONDON (AP) — A disgruntled former top aide to Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the British leader was dismissive of the threat posed by surging coronavirus cases last year, saying he did not want to impose a new lockdown because the disease was only killing the elderly.

Dominic Cummings left his job as an adviser in November and has since launched a series of excoriating attacks on his former boss.

In an interview with the BBC, Cummings said Johnson resisted locking down the country in the fall of 2020 because “the people who are dying are essentially all over 80.”

BRUSSELS/LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - Britain will threaten this week to deviate from the Brexit deal unless the European Union shows more flexibility over Northern Ireland, one UK and three EU sources told Reuters, a move that could thrust the five-year Brexit divorce into tumult.

Deviating from the deal's so-called Northern Ireland Protocol is a risky step: its aim was to prevent Brexit from disrupting the delicate peace brought to Northern Ireland by the U.S.-brokered 1998 agreement that ended three decades of sectarian conflict.

LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) - Britain is backing 15 new studies into the treatment and diagnosis of "long COVID", a condition that can include dozens of symptoms and last for months after an initial bout of infection with COVID-19.

The projects, which will have nearly 20 million pounds ($27.54 million) of government funding, will focus on better understanding the condition, identifying effective treatments and the best ways to care for those suffering from it.

LONDON, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Britain has reported another 54,674 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 5,386,340, according to official figures released Saturday.

The figure is up from 51,870 cases reported on Friday, which was the highest since mid-January.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will spend 10 days self-isolating after contact with a confirmed coronavirus case, his office said Sunday — reversing an earlier announcement that he would not have to quarantine.

Johnson’s 10 Downing St. office said Sunday that the prime minister and Treasury chief Rishi Sunak were both alerted overnight by England’s test-and-trace phone app. He had a meeting on Friday with Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. Javid, who has been fully vaccinated, says he is experiencing mild symptoms.

LONDON (AP) — Tourists and the travel industry vented frustration and anger on Saturday after Britain reversed a plan to ease travel restrictions on France just two days after they were due to start, citing concerns about a variant of the coronavirus.

16 July 2021; MEMO: Britain's role in fuelling the Saudi-led war in Yemen is much greater than earlier thought, according to a new report by the UK-based organisation Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). More than three times as much weaponry and military equipment was sold to Riyadh over the past six years when one of the worst humanitarian crises since the Second World War was unfolding in the Arabian republic following a Saudi aggression.

LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - England's coronavirus crisis could return again surprisingly quickly and the country is not yet out of the woods, the British government's chief medical adviser said, as infections surged ahead of the lifting of legal restrictions.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is removing most pandemic restrictions in England from July 19, saying a rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has largely broken the link between infections and serious illness or death.