United Kingdom

LONDON, Sep 05 (APP): Pakistan High Commissioner to United Kingdom (UK), Mohammad Nafees Zakaria, has said that the tragic human rights situation and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), since August 5, 2019, in particular, and for the past seven decades Indian governments had been perpetrating grave human rights’ violations in the occupied territory unabatedly with impunity.

MPs clapped at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday when Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi asked the prime minister to apologise for comparing Muslim women to letterboxes in a “racist” attack.

“If I decide to wear a turban or you decide to wear a cross or he decides to wear a kippah or skullcap or she decides to wear a hijab or burqa, does that mean it is open season for right honourable members of this house to make derogatory and divisive remarks about our appearance?” asked Dhesi, who is a Sikh.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will continue preparing for a no-deal Brexit even if parliament passes a law forcing Prime Minister Boris Johnson to seek a delay because any European Union member state could block that request, Brexit minister Stephen Barclay said on Thursday.

“The legal position on an extension is that it requires the support of every member state, including the United Kingdom,” Barclay told parliament. “So it is the case ... we would need to continue to prepare for no deal because it is within the scope of any member state to block an extension.”

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson abused his powers by suspending parliament from next week until shortly before Britain leaves the European Union, London’s High Court was told on Thursday.

Johnson announced at the end of August that he would suspend parliament from mid-September to mid-October, just before Britain is due to exit the European Union on Oct. 31, to allow the government to announce a new legislative program.

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused Britain’s main opposition leader on Thursday of trying to dodge an election, after rebellious lawmakers rejected the U.K. leader’s call to trigger a snap poll and moved to block his plan to leave the European Union next month without a divorce deal.

Johnson remained determined to secure an election as the only way out of Britain’s years-long Brexit impasse. His office said he would argue in a speech later that politicians must “go back to the people and give them the opportunity to decide what they want.”

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Britain’s bid to leave the European Union (all times local):

9:50 p.m.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has failed to win sufficient parliamentary support for an early national election on Oct. 15.

The vote was 298 in favor and 56 opposed, not enough to force the election because a large number of lawmakers abstained, meaning he failed to reach the required threshold.

Under U.K. law, Johnson needed the support of two-thirds of the 650 legislators in the House of Commons, which equates to 434.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told opposition parties on Wednesday Labour would not fall for “Boris Johnson’s tricks” and would not support a new election until he is confident that the threat of a no deal Brexit has been removed.

Corbyn, who says he wants a new election, hosted opposition parties as part of a series of meetings to try to thwart what many of them see as Prime Minister Johnson’s bid to lead Britain out of the European Union without a deal on Oct. 31.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will try to call a snap election on Wednesday after lawmakers seeking to prevent him taking Britain out of the European Union without a divorce deal dealt him a humbling parliamentary defeat.

Parliament’s move leaves Brexit up in the air, with possible outcomes ranging from a turbulent no-deal exit to abandoning the whole endeavour - both outcomes would be unacceptable to swathes of the United Kingdom’s voters.

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Iran will free seven crew members of the detained British-flagged tanker Stena Impero, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday, although the vessel’s owner said it had yet to receive any official confirmation of the release date.

The Swedish-owned Stena Impero was detained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on July 19 in the Strait of Hormuz waterway for alleged marine violations, two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar. That vessel was released in August.

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Brexit (all times local):

11:35 p.m.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain’s Parliament is “on the brink of wrecking any deal” his government might be able to make with the European Union on Brexit terms.

He said Tuesday after a sound defeat in Parliament that a possible vote Wednesday to block a possible “no-deal” Brexit would give the EU the upper hand in negotiations.

The prime minister says that would mean “more dither, more delay, more confusion.”