As the highest-ranking British official to visit China in five years, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly's recent trip to China carried significant diplomatic weight. In talks with Chinese Foreign Minister
The Foreign Secretary, Bharat Raj Paudyal, is visiting the United Kingdom (UK) to take part in the 6th meeting of Nepal-United Kingdom Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM).
LONDON: UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is been rated to have a 90 percent shot over former chancellor Rishi Sunak to succeed Boris Johnson in the race for becoming the next Prime Minister, according to the latest estimate by betting exchange firm Smarkets. According to the Smarkets, Sunak’s chance of becoming the next PM has […]
LONDON, July 21: Former United Kingdom (UK) Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss emerged as the final two candidates in the country's Tory leadership race on Wednesday.
International Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt was knocked out in the final round of ballot among Conservative lawmakers. Sunak won 137 votes, Truss received 113.
The contest to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister will now go before the Conservative Party's 200,000-odd dues-paying members, who will select the winner later this summer via mail-in ballot. The winner, to be announced on Sept. 5, will automatically become Johnson's successor.
Though Sunak has won each of the five rounds of voting by lawmakers, a YouGov poll published on Tuesday showed that he was less popular with the party's grassroots. He is predicted to lose to Truss, a favorite of the party's right wing, in the head-to-head contest.
Both candidates have made pledges on tax cuts as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite. However, Sunak dismissed as "fairytales" his rivals' promises of immediate tax cuts, arguing that inflation must be brought under control first. Inflation in the UK rose by 9.4 percent in June, hitting a fresh 40-year high, official statistics showed on Wednesday.
Truss, on the other hand, promised to start cutting taxes from day one.
The Tory leadership race was triggered after Johnson was forced to step down on July 7 by an avalanche of resignations of government officials, who protested against his scandal-plagued leadership. Johnson continues to serve as caretaker prime minister until a new Tory leader succeeds him.
Johnson, who won a landslide victory in the general elections in 2019, lost support after he was caught in a string of scandals, including the Partygate scandal and the Chris Pincher scandal involving his appointment of Pincher, a politician accused of sexual misconduct, to a high-level post.
But Johnson defended his record in his last appearance in the Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon, shortly before the ballot results were announced. The lawmakers will start their summer recess on Thursday.
Claiming that "mission largely accomplished - for now," he once again touted his achievements of pulling off the Brexit deal, rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine and helping Ukraine during his three-year premiership.
Johnson signed off his farewell speech by saying "Hasta la vista, baby" (See you later), a famous phrase used by Hollywood legend Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film Terminator, sparking speculation that he aims to make a political comeback.
LONDON, July 13: Eight candidates have been nominated to enter the race to be the leader of the Conservative Party and replace outgoing Boris Johnson as prime minister of the United Kingdom (UK), the party's backbench 1922 Committee said on Tuesday.
The eight contenders who successfully enlisted the required backing of at least 20 Conservative lawmakers are: Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak; Foreign Secretary Liz Truss; International Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt; backbench lawmaker Tom Tugendhat; Attorney General Suella Braverman; newly appointed Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi; former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch; and former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
The first round of voting among Tory lawmakers will be held on Wednesday and only those contenders who receive at least 30 votes can enter the second ballot, which is to be held on Thursday, according to the rules set by the 1922 Committee, which runs the leadership contest.
The number of contenders will be whittled down to two through more rounds of secret ballot, before British parliamentarians break up for the summer recess on July 21.
The final two contenders will then go through a postal ballot of all the Conservative members, numbering around 200,000, over the summer and the winner will be announced on Sept.5, becoming the new Tory leader and the UK's next prime minister.
The Tory leadership race was triggered after Johnson was forced to bow to the inevitable on Thursday by an avalanche of resignations of cabinet ministers and other junior government officials in protest against his scandal-plagued leadership. Johnson continues to serve as caretaker prime minister until a new Tory leader succeeds him.
Johnson, who won a landslide victory in the general elections in 2019, lost support after he was caught in a string of scandals, including the Partygate scandal and the Chris Pincher scandal related to allegations of sexual misconduct by the former Conservative Party deputy chief whip.
LONDON, June 14: The United Kingdom (UK) on Monday introduced a bill to change parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a post-Brexit trade deal, while the European Union (EU) said unilateral action is damaging to mutual trust and threatened legal action.
"PRACTICAL PROBLEMS"
The UK government said in a statement that the bill will allow it to address "the practical problems the Protocol has created in Northern Ireland" in four areas: burdensome customs processes, inflexible regulation, tax and spend discrepancies, and democratic governance issues.
"These problems include disruption and diversion of trade and significant costs and bureaucracy for business," it said. They are also undermining the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, and have led to the collapse of the power-sharing arrangements at the Northern Ireland Assembly, the government said.
Signed in 1998 after three decades of conflict, the landmark Belfast Agreement established a power-sharing system of government, including an Executive and Assembly. It underpins peace in Northern Ireland, its constitutional settlement, and its institutions.
Recently, it has become more urgent that disputes over the protocol should be resolved since Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist party, won elections in Northern Ireland for the devolved assembly.
Coming second in the elections, the pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party said it would not sit in the assembly. The party is opposed to the protocol, saying it creates a trade border in the Irish Sea.
Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the bill "will end the untenable situation where people in Northern Ireland are treated differently to the rest of the United Kingdom, protect the supremacy of our courts and our territorial integrity."
UK-EU RIFT
The protocol has deepened a rift between the UK and EU. Under the protocol, Northern Ireland is part of the UK's customs territory but is subject to the EU's customs code, value-added tax (VAT) rules and single market rules for goods.
Despite the two sides' agreement in October 2019, the protocol has caused divisions over how some of the rules should be implemented, particularly for goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
"The UK has engaged extensively with the EU to resolve the problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol over the past 18 months," the UK government said in its statement.
"However, it has become clear the EU proposals don't address the core problems created by the Protocol. They would be worse than the status quo, requiring more paperwork and checks than today," it added.
In response, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said on Monday that the UK's unilateral action is damaging to mutual trust.
"Renegotiating the Protocol is unrealistic. No workable alternative solution has been found to this delicate, long-negotiated balance," Sefcovic said.
The European Commission said it will consider continuing the infringement procedure which was launched against the UK government in March 2021, but subsequently put on hold.
The Commission will also consider launching new infringement procedures that protect the EU Single Market from the risks that the violation of the Protocol creates for EU businesses and for the health and safety of EU citizens, according to Sefcovic.
MARCH 1: Russia is becoming more isolated, with President Putin's announcement that he had put Russia's nuclear forces on "special" alert causing widespread alarm.
The Kremlin on Monday said that Russia's move was prompted by comments from UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and others, something dismissed by the British foreign office.
But what does Putin's announcement mean?
Russia accused of shelling residential areas
On the ground, dozens of people were killed on the fifth day of the Russian invasion as the city of Kharkiv was hit by heavy rocket fire, according to Ukrainian officials.
Videos on social media showed rockets landing all over Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, which has a population of 1.4 million. Hundreds were also reported injured.
Russia has previously denied targeting residential areas.
Meanwhile, Russian and Ukrainian representatives held talks in Belarus. Expectations for an immediate resolution were not high before the meeting and after several hours the talks ended, with reports that a second round could take place in the coming days.
As night fell air raid sirens were once again heard in Kyiv and residents had to take shelter amid reports of new Russian attacks on the outskirts of the capital. Satellite images revealed a long convoy of Russian military vehicles heading south towards Kyiv.
'The war has united people as never before'
Underground and above ground in central Kyiv, more and more life has been slowing to a stop.
The underground metro now only operates a train every hour or two and carriages are half empty. Meanwhile, people continue to use the stations, deep beneath the city, as bomb shelters.
Some of the people out on the streets today were Russian-speakers, the people Russia has accused Ukraine of persecuting.
Tamara speaks good Ukrainian but from her words I can tell her native language is Russian. She says she and her husband are from Kharkiv, a mainly Russian-speaking city in east Ukraine. Russian artillery has hit it heavily today.
She speaks about the immense sense of unity, support and care among Ukrainians and breaks into tears.
A young man approached me with a black AK-47 on his shoulder and a yellow band around his right arm - a symbol that he is a civilian volunteer. He is called Artem and uses Russian and Ukrainian mixed in his conversation.
Artem said that as a Russian-speaker, he'd never encountered any problems in Ukraine before the invasion.
"This war has united people as never before," he said.
A huge refugee crisis
The United Nations' refugee agency says half a million people have now fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries. The BBC's Jeremy Bowen saw queues of about a mile (1.6km) at one of the many border crossings into Poland. He says people are travelling on foot as well as in cars and coaches, and many of those being brought to the border are children.
More than 100,000 people are also displaced within Ukraine, according to the UN.
The BBC's Fergal Keane witnessed angry scenes at Lviv station as desperate families tried to board trains, with pushchairs lifted over the heads of the crowd to the platforms.
Russia's interest rate doubled
Russia doubled its interest rate to 20% as sanctions caused its currency to plunge in value.
The collapse in value of the Russian rouble erodes the currency's buying power and could wipe out the savings of ordinary Russians.
"There are no dollars, no roubles - nothing! Well, there are roubles but I am not interested in them," a man queuing at an ATM in Moscow told the BBC.
There were fears of a possible run on banks in the country, after long queues were seen at cash machines as well as in some food shops.
Despite the financial hit the Kremlin said Russia will "ride out" economic sanctions.
Acts of defiance, bravery - and sabotage
Since the invasion began, videos from social media have showed Ukrainians standing up to Russian troops.
Some have angrily confronted soldiers while others have attempted to stop tanks from entering populated areas.
Other have taken up arms to try to help defend their country. One MP, Lesia Vasylenko, told the BBC that her father-in-law has trained her to use an AK-47
And in the very different location of the Spanish island of Majorca, a Ukrainian sailor admitted trying to sink a yacht owned by the head of a Russian state arms firm. He told a judge that it was in retaliation for attacks in Ukraine and that he regretted nothing.
JAN 23: The Foreign Office took the unusual step of naming former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev as a potential Kremlin candidate.
Russia has moved 100,000 troops near to its border with Ukraine but denies it is planning an invasion.
UK ministers have warned that the Russian government will face serious consequences if there is an incursion.
In a statement, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: "The information being released today shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking.
"Russia must de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy.
"As the UK and our partners have said repeatedly, any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs."
Russia has seized Ukrainian territory before, when it annexed Crimea in 2014, after the country overthrew their pro-Russian president.
Western and Ukrainian intelligence services have suggested another invasion or incursion could happen some time in early 2022, after Russian forces amassed on the border.
Russia has denied it is planning any attack but President Putin has issued demands to the West, including that Ukraine be prevented from joining the Nato military alliance.
He also wants Nato to abandon military exercises and stop sending weapons to eastern Europe, seeing this as a direct threat to Russia's security.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that the Foreign Office was "circulating disinformation" and urged it to "cease these provocative activities" and "stop spreading nonsense".
Mr Murayev, a media owner, lost his seat in the Ukrainian parliament when his party failed to secure 5% of the vote in the 2019 elections.
He told the Observer newspaper that the Foreign Office "seems confused".
"It isn't very logical. I'm banned from Russia. Not only that but money from my father's firm there has been confiscated," Mr Murayev said.
The Foreign Office also named four other Ukrainian politicians who it said maintained links with the Russian intelligence services.
It said some of the individuals had been in contact with Russian intelligence officers working on an invasion plan.
They include Mykola Azarov, who served as prime minister under the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in 2014.
Mr Azarov then fled to Russia where he established what was widely seen as a puppet government-in-exile.
He has been the subject of international sanctions and an Interpol "red notice" issued at the request of the Ukrainian government, for charges including embezzlement and misappropriation.
Also named is Volodymyr Sivkovych, the former deputy head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, who was this week made the subject of US sanctions for allegedly working with Russian intelligence.
The others are Serhiy Arbuzov and Andriy Kluyev, who both served as deputy prime minister under Mr Yanukovych.
Hours after Russia's foreign minister and his US counterpart held what they called "frank" talks to try to reduce the chance of a wider conflict in Ukraine, a US shipment of "lethal aid" arrived in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Saturday.
The delivery, including ammunition for "front line defenders", marked the first part of a $200m (£147.5m) security support package approved by US President Joe Biden in December.
Earlier, the chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee warned an invasion could be imminent and said the UK must do more to support Ukraine.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also called on the government to "protect our values and security" by being "steadfast in our opposition to Russian aggression".
Dozens of British troops have been in Ukraine since 2015 to help train their armed forces, and the UK has also made a commitment to help rebuild Ukraine's navy following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014.
Earlier this week, the UK announced it was sending defence weapons and extra troops for training.
Nato's 30 members - including the UK, US and several former Soviet Union states which share a border with Russia - agree that an armed attack against one is an attack against them all, and they will come to the aid of one another.
What does Putin want?
Russia's president has long claimed that the US broke a guarantee it made in 1990 that Nato would not expand further east. "They simply deceived us!" he said at a news conference last month.
Interpretations differ over what exactly was promised to the then-Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. But it is clear that Mr Putin believes the guarantee was made.
Since then, several central and eastern European countries, which used to be part of the Soviet Union or its sphere of influence, have joined Nato. Four of them - Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - have borders with Russia.
Russia argues that this expansion, and the presence of Nato troops and military equipment near its borders, is a direct threat to its security.
The country seized and annexed the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine in 2014 after Ukrainians overthrew their pro-Russian president. Ever since, Ukraine's military has been locked in a war with Russian-backed rebels in areas of the east near Russia's borders.
There are fears that the conflict, which has claimed 14,000 lives and caused at least two million people to flee their homes, may reignite and that Russia's military will cross the border.
