England

LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Russia on Tuesday paved the way for the formal annexation of swathes of Ukrainian territory, backing referendum plans in areas of Ukraine its soldiers control in a direct challenge to the West that could sharply escalate the war.

After nearly seven months of war, including a critical battlefield defeat in northeastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is pondering his next steps. Annexation could be his answer.

LONDON (AP) — The cannons have sounded, the bells have rung and the mourners have paid their respects.

Now King Charles III faces the task of preserving a 1,000-year-old monarchy that his mother nurtured for seven decades but that faces an uncertain future. The challenge is immense.

LONDON (AP) — Britain and the world said a final goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II at a state funeral Monday that drew presidents and kings, princes and prime ministers — and crowds who thronged the streets of London to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an age.

LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is no longer expected to attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral on Monday, a British foreign office source said on Sunday, contrary to Britain's earlier expectations that he would.

Saudi Arabia would be represented instead by Prince Turki bin Mohammed al Saud, the source said. Prince Turki is a minister of state and has been a member of the cabinet since 2018. He is the grandson of late King Fahd and part of the new generation that has been brought to power by Prince Mohammed.

LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the best advice the late Queen Elizabeth gave her on becoming a leader and a mother was "you just get on with it".

Ardern, in London for the queen's funeral on Monday, became the first woman in the country’s history to give birth while in office when she had her daughter in 2018, and was pregnant when she first met the queen.

Ardern, 42, is one of the few elected leaders to hold office while pregnant. Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto gave birth while she was prime minister in 1990.

LONDON (AP) — In retrospect, it seems as if she was preparing us all along.

Whether it was due to age, ill health or a sense that the end was near, Queen Elizabeth II spent much of the last two years tying up loose ends, trying to make sure the family firm would keep ticking along after her death.

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of police, hundreds of British troops and an army of officials made final preparations Sunday for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II — a spectacular display of national mourning that will also be the biggest gathering of world leaders for years.

U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders have flown into London for the funeral, to which around 500 royals, heads of state and heads of government from around the globe have been invited.

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of people spent London’s coldest night in months huddled in line to view the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, and authorities warned Saturday that arriving mourners face a 16-hour wait.

A tide of people wanting to say goodbye streamed into Parliament’s Westminster Hall, where the queen’s coffin is lying in state, draped in her Royal Standard and capped with a diamond-studded crown. The numbers have grown steadily since the public was first admitted on Wednesday, with a queue that snakes around Southwark Park and stretches out at least 5 miles (8 kilometers).

LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Russian-backed separatists in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson said Ukrainian forces had bombarded government buildings on Friday, killing at least one person and wounding others.

Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy head of the Kherson region, told Russian state TV that one wing of the administration's building in Kherson had been practically destroyed in the strike, which he said involved U.S.-made HIMARS rockets.

LONDON, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Despite legal action from the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom (UK) said on Thursday that it will continue with its pause on border checks on goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

"I can confirm we have received a reply from the UK. We will now analyze the reply before deciding on the next steps," European Commission spokesperson for EU-UK affairs Daniel Ferrie said on Thursday.