Europe

UK royals to receive massive tax funding boost

(Reuters) – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and her royal family are set to see a huge boost to the funding they receive from United Kingdom taxpayers. Official estimates showing the crown’s finances will receive 76 million pounds this year — or 96 million United States dollars — nearly double what they received in the last two years. The money is used on everything from travel expenses to the cost of staff and upkeep of Buckingham Palace and […]

Canadian soldier becomes first infantry woman to captain UK queen’s guard

LONDON, United Kingdom (Reuters) — A Canadian soldier became the first woman from an infantry unit to take command of troops guarding Queen Elizabeth’s Buckingham Palace residence in London on Monday (June 26). Captain Megan Couto, 24, led the queen’s guard while visiting Britain to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Canada, one of the 15 nations in addition to the United Kingdom which has the 91-year-old queen as head of state. Guard duties are […]

Queen set for cash boost to fund Buckingham Palace refit

by Robin Millard Agence France Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s royal family is set for a bumper year of income as it embarks on a 10-year renovation of Buckingham Palace, royal officials said Tuesday. The works on the monarchy’s headquarters are expected to start in the coming months with ripping out 60-year-old rubber cabling, deemed the most pressing concern. The monarchy’s expenditure was £56.8 million ($72.2 million, 64.6 million euros) in the financial […]

Macron says France will not recognize Crimea ‘annexation’

PARIS, France (AFP) — President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France refuses to recognize Russia’s “annexation” of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea but that he hoped to make progress toward peace. Macron said after meeting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Paris that his approach to future talks was unambiguous: “France is committed to Ukraine’s sovereignty with its recognised borders,” he said. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 after a military intervention in eastern Ukraine. The new […]

May tells EU citizens: ‘We want you to stay’

  LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday that she wanted to end the anxiety of European Union nationals fearful of their future after Brexit, promising to protect their rights and saying: “We want you to stay.” But she was heckled by critics in the House of Commons, while opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said her plan was “too little, too late.” The futures of 3.2 million EU citizens living […]

US firm stops sales of Grenfell Tower cladding for high-rises

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The United States supplier of cladding encasing London’s Grenfell Tower before it was destroyed by a devastating fire announced on Monday it was stopping sales of the material for high-rise buildings. “Arconic is discontinuing global sales of Reynobond PE for use in high-rise applications,” a company spokesman told AFP. The firm put the decision down to “issues that have arisen in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy” and differences […]

Fewer than 90 accounts hit by UK parliament cyberattack

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — A “sustained and determined” cyberattack on Britain’s parliament compromised fewer than 90 email accounts, a parliamentary spokesman said Sunday. The National Crime Agency said it was investigating “a possible cyber incident affecting parliament,” which raised fears of blackmail threats against some of the 9,000 parliamentary email account holders. “Investigations are ongoing, but it has become clear that significantly fewer than one percent of the 9,000 accounts on the parliamentary network […]

60 buildings deemed unsafe in UK

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The fallout from London’s devastating tower block fire continued on Sunday as the government announced 60 high-rises have failed safety tests, while authorities struggle to evacuate some residents. The massive operation to test tower blocks follows the Grenfell Tower inferno earlier this month that is presumed to have killed 79 people after it spread at shocking speed. Suspicion has fallen on the cladding installed on the outside of Grenfell and […]

Italy to pay up to 17 bln euros to deal with two troubled banks: govt

ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy will pay up to 17 billion euros ($19 billion) to break up two insolvent Venetian banks, which have posed a threat to the country’s banking system, the government announced Sunday. Both face bankruptcy and European authorities had urged Italy to devise a rescue framework, selling off the good assets of the stricken Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca and transferring their toxic assets to a “bad bank,” essentially financed […]

Police mull manslaughter charges over London blaze

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Manslaughter charges could be filed over London’s deadly tower blaze, police said Friday after finding that exterior cladding on the building had failed safety tests and that the fire started with a faulty fridge. The government ordered immediate checks on the Hotpoint FF175BP fridge freezer model blamed for the June 14 blaze in west London, which left 79 people presumed dead. Hotpoint-branded fridge freezers were manufactured by Indesit between 2006 […]

Facebook launches plan to combat online extremism

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — US social media giant Facebook launched a campaign in Britain on Friday to counter the spread of online extremism following warnings from Prime Minister Theresa May after four terror attacks in three months. Facebook said it would seek to educate charities and other organisations on how to fight hate speech, in the wake of recent terror attacks in Belgium, Britain and France. The Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI) will act […]

London mosque driver charged with ‘terrorism-related murder’

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The British van driver who mowed down Muslim worshippers near a London mosque this week was charged Friday with terrorism-related murder and attempted murder, prosecutors said. Darren Osborne, 47, will appear before magistrates in central London later Friday in relation to the charges, the Crown Prosecution Service said, after one man died in the incident early Monday near Finsbury Park Mosque in north London. © Agence France-Presse