England

LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Greenpeace protesters draped the private home of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in black fabric on Thursday, stepping up their campaign against his government's policy on drilling for oil.

Sunak's record on environmental issues has come under scrutiny in recent months after he said he would take a "proportionate approach" to climate change that balances net zero ambitions with the need to keep consumers' bills down.

LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The Bank of England raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a 15-year peak of 5.25% on Thursday, and gave a new warning that borrowing costs were likely to stay high for some time.

Unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve or the European Central Bank - which also both raised rates by a quarter-point last week - the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee gave little suggestion that rate hikes were about to end as it battles high inflation.

LONDON (AP) — Britain said on Monday it will grant hundreds of new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea in a bid for energy independence, ignoring calls from environmental campaigners and the United Nations to stop the development of new fossil fuel projects.

The plans announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak include a pledge to invest 20 billion pounds ($26 billion) in carbon capture and storage projects as Sunak maintained the government’s commitment to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050.

LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William has served up a surprise to hungry members of the public when he dished out environmentally friendly burgers from a food truck in south London.

In a video released on Sunday, the heir to the throne handed out "Earthshot Burgers" to highlight the work of last year's winners of his annual Earthshot Prize, which he set up to help develop solutions to major environmental problems.

"Coming right up," the prince said as he served up the burgers to the stunned customers. "Morning everyone, nicely cooked, ready to go."

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - Prince Harry can take some of his lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group to trial but allegations of phone-hacking were too late, the High Court in London ruled on Thursday.

Harry, younger son of King Charles and the late Princess Diana, is suing News Group Newspapers (NGN) over multiple alleged unlawful acts he says were carried out on behalf of its tabloids, the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, from the mid-1990s until 2016.

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - When 22-year-old American student Amelia Dias completed her final year of studying international relations and law at the University of Edinburgh this summer, she was handed an apology letter instead of a degree certificate.

The letter told Dias that, as Edinburgh was among the more than 100 British universities hit by a staff boycott of marking and assessment this year, the assignments she had completed had not all been graded, and it could not award her a degree.

LONDON (AP) — The chief executive of NatWest, one of Britain’s biggest banks, left her job on Wednesday after discussing personal details of a client — the populist politician Nigel Farage — with a journalist amid a furor over financial institutions’ power to refuse customers for their political views.

The bank said Alison Rose was leaving “by mutual consent.” The surprise early-morning statement came just hours after NatWest had expressed full confidence in the CEO, who was the first woman to head one of Britain’s four big banks.

LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley cut Israel sovereign credit to a "dislike stance" on Tuesday after the country's parliament passed the first in a series of laws sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit the power of the Supreme Court

"We see increased uncertainty about the economic outlook in the coming months and risks becoming skewed to our adverse scenario," Morgan Stanley's analysts said in a research note.

"Markets are now likely to extrapolate the future policy path and we move Israel sovereign credit to a 'dislike stance'."

LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) - Britain's easyJet (EZJ.L) said on Sunday it was operating flights as normal to Rhodes but was closely monitoring the wildfires on the Greek island.

"We advise customers travelling to and from Rhodes to check the status of their flights on Flight Tracker," it said in a statement.

It said it was working to comply with the requests of the local authorities and is in contact with its customers there.

LONDON (AP) — Environmentalists cautioned Britain’s main political parties on Sunday not to water down their climate change promises after a special election result widely seen as a thumbs-down from voters to a tax on polluting cars.

The governing Conservatives suffered two heavy defeats in a trio of by-elections for House of Commons seats on Thursday. But they managed to win the third contest, for a suburban London district, by focusing on a divisive green levy imposed by London’s Labour Party mayor.