United Kingdom

    Schools and nurseries do not need to close or send pupils home in the event of contact with someone suspected of having the coronavirus, according to new guidelines to be issued to schools across the UK this week. In the face of confusion over what the correct response should be, Public Health England and the Department for Education are to issue headteachers and childcare providers with fresh guidance on Monday . Some schools in Brighton and Hove have told parents they can choose to keep their children off school as authorised absences, after five people from the area were diagnosed with the virus, also known as Covid-19. But a department spokeswoman said: We are aware that some schools have said that parents can keep their children at home this is not the advice....

    UK negotiators have held trade talks with at least one unknown country in total secrecy, it has been claimed. The news emerged during a tribunal in central London, where campaign group Global Justice now is challenging the information watchdog to order ministers to publish data about government trade operations. During the hearing, government lawyers disclosed that some preliminary trade talks have not been made public as they were deemed too sensitive for public consumption, director Nick Dearden and Global Justice Now’s legal team have said. It comes amid widespread concern that public services, such as the NHS and the BBC, and consumer standards could be on the table. Dearden told HuffPost UK: The reason transparency is important is that trade deals today go mu...

    A British man left sleeping on foreign streets after being locked out of the UK by the Home Office has finally been allowed to return but been charged £100 to replace the passport they confiscated. Fatush Lala, 33, has been living rough in Brussels for more than three weeks after UK authorities voided his citizenship and blocked his passport while he was abroad on holiday with his family. But hours after The Independent reported on Mr Lala's plight he received a phonecall from officials saying he could come back. I went to the British embassy and they printed out the passport for me. But first I had to pay a fee of £100 for it, said Mr Lala, who has lived in Britain since he was 14 and naturalised. The British national had previously gone to the UK embassy in the ...

    Rishi Sunak has been appointed as Chancellor after Sajid Javid resigned over rows with Boris Johnson's team - including top aide Dominic Cummings. He was set to keep his job - but he quit as Chancellor when Number 10 ordered him to sack his team of advisors, a source close to the former minister said. In a shock move just 27 days before the Budget, Mr Javid announced "no self-respecting minister" could accept the condition being imposed. It is thought to be the first time a Chancellor has resigned in protest for 31 years after Nigel Lawson quit under Margaret Thatcher in 1989. His resignation makes Mr Javid the shortest-serving Chancellor for 50 years - and the last one only left the job because he died. Sunak is a relative newcomer to politics having been electe...

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have every right to earn their keep if they are going to become financially independent. They can't be expected to live on air. In fact, if the past is any guide, they are going to need an awful lot more than air to get by, since they are both used to the good things in life though Meghan's enjoyment of them is obviously more recent. But if they intend to go it alone, how can they earn the sizeable sums of money they will need to sustain what is, by anyone's measure, a highly enviable standard of living? Is it even possible for them to enrich themselves without causing embarrassment, and even damage, to the Royal Family, to which they will inevitably remain connected in people's minds whatever separate furrow they plough? Although it...

    Less than two weeks after leaving the European Union, the U.K. is already back in trouble with the bloc. While Brexit day was meant to enable Britain to finally throw off the shackles of the Brussels bureaucracy, the U.K. government now finds itself having to answer questions over an obscure transport tax that the EU doesn’t like. It’s a dispute that has the potential to end up in court. It’s a stark reminder that although the country technically ended its 47-year membership of the EU on Jan. 31, a transition period that extends throughout 2020 means it’s still bound by the bloc’s rules and jurisdiction. While Britain doesn’t get a say in any decisions or policy making, EU law applies in full. A levy that the U.K. introduced for heavy goods vehicles in 2014 discrim...

    Ursula von der Leyen has mocked Boris Johnson’s claims to be willing to accept an Australian-style trade deal with the EU by reminding MEPs that no such agreement exists. In a speech to the EU’s parliament in Strasbourg, the president of the European commission repeatedly named the prime minister as she picked out the contradictions in his approach to the post-Brexit arrangements. Von der Leyen noted that the Canada-style deal referred to by Johnson as his primary goal in the coming negotiations contained tariffs and quota limits on some goods crossing the Atlantic. Both sides have said they want to avoid such costs and barriers to trade. Von der Leyen also pointed out that there were also stringent level playing field conditions to ensure high standards in that de...

    British Airways has cancelled all its flights to Beijing and Shanghai until April due to the coronavirus outbreak. The airline said on Monday that it has cancelled flights to and from the cities due to the Foreign Office's "continued advice against all bust essential travel to mainland China." BA flights to Hong Kong remain unaffected, the carrier added. It comes after four more people were diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK, bringing the total to eight. Two of the new coronavirus cases announced on Monday involve healthcare workers, Public Health England said. Meanwhile, five are closely linked to a businessman who was told he had it last week in Brighton. In a statement on Monday, British Aiways said: "Following the Foreign Office’s continued advice against ...

    Ministers are actively looking into Boris Johnson’s idea of a road bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland, Downing Street has said, rejecting scepticism from engineers and criticism of the prime minister’s own somewhat mixed record on delivering bridges. “Government officials are carrying out work in relation to the idea of a bridge linking the GB mainland to Northern Ireland,” Johnson’s spokesman said, saying this was being done by “a range” of officials reporting into No 10. “There is a proper piece of work being carried out into the idea,” the spokesman said. “It is reporting into No 10, but obviously we will take advice from wherever it is needed.” He gave no details on when the work would be completed. Johnson, who as London mayor spearheaded the doomed ...