United Kingdom

14 October 2022; MEMO: British intelligence agencies were aware of their Canadian counterpart's involvement in trafficking Shamima Begum and other Britons to Syria only days after it took place, sources have reportedly revealed.

LONDON, October 14. /TASS/: Activists from the 'Just stop oil' environmental movement threw tomato soup over Sunflowers, a masterpiece by Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), at London’s National Gallery on Friday, and glued their hands to the wall below the painting afterwards, Sky News reported.

The famous painting has an estimated value of about 73 million pounds ($82 million).

"What is worth more? Art or life?" one of the girls shouted in response to indignant exclamations from onlookers, the TV channel reports.

LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Airbus (AIR.PA) and Qatar Airways fought in court in front of Boeing on Friday as a dispute over damage to A350 jets descended into a tug-of-war over confidential documents while the sums at stake in their unprecedented falling out topped $1.5 billion.

Boeing was dragged into the case for the first time as lawyers quarrelled over access to a preliminary contract for its 737 MAX jets - illustrating the domino effect on a $150 billion global jetliner industry from the rare London legal battle.

LONDON, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Jeremy Hunt, former foreign secretary of the United Kingdom (UK), has been appointed as chancellor of the exchequer, Downing Street said in a statement on Friday.

Hunt, 55, replaces Kwasi Kwarteng, who resigned earlier in the day after his mini-budget was blamed for causing economic turmoil.

"You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted," Kwarteng said in his resignation to Prime Minister Liz Truss posted on Twitter.

LONDON (AP) — Embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss sacked her Treasury chief and reversed course on a major part of her tax-cutting economic plan Friday as she struggled to hang on to her job after weeks of turmoil on financial markets. But the market response was muted and the political reaction to what many saw as panicked moves left Truss’ credibility in tatters after only six weeks in office.

LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - If Ukraine is admitted into the U.S.-led NATO military alliance, then the conflict in Ukraine would be guaranteed to escalate into World War Three, a Russian Security Council official was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin formally proclaimed the annexation of up to 18% of Ukraine on Sept. 30, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced a surprise bid for fast-track membership of NATO.

Full NATO membership for Ukraine is far off because all the alliance's 30 members would have to give their consent.

LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Thursday that the goals of Moscow's "special military operation" in Ukraine were unchanged, but that they could be achieved through negotiations.

The comments to the Russian newspaper Izvestia were the latest in a series of statements this week stressing Moscow's openness to talks - a change of tone that follows a run of humiliating defeats for Russian forces as the war in Ukraine nears the end of its eighth month.

LONDON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Wednesday scolded Western leaders for engaging in "provocative" nuclear rhetoric after a series of warnings from Russia, the United States and NATO on the dangers of escalating the Ukraine conflict into a nuclear war.

President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 21 warned the West he was not bluffing when he said he would be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia against what he said was "nuclear blackmail" from major Western powers.

LONDON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - A flurry of military activity in Belarus this week has caught the attention of Ukraine and the West as a potential sign that President Alexander Lukashenko may commit his army in support of Russia's flailing war effort in Ukraine.

Lukashenko has ordered troops to deploy with Russian forces near the Ukraine border, and his defence ministry says "combat readiness" drills are under way. On Tuesday, the interior ministry held exercises to eliminate "sabotage groups" near Yelsk, only 20 km (12 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

LONDON, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- The United Kingdom's (UK) gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 0.3 percent in August, after growth of 0.1 percent in July, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Wednesday.

The 0.3 percent GDP fall in August was below economists' previous forecast of zero growth, deepening the concerns that the UK economy is sliding into recession.