UK

LONDON—British store WH Smith said it plans to close six shops and review its high street business following a drop in profits. The chain, which sells stationery, books, and magazines, said it plans to wind down trials like the 20 Cardmarket stores and its WH Smith Local convenience stores. The brand has 610 high street […]

LONDON—The Russian news website Fontanka named a third GRU military intelligence operative, Sergey Fedotov, as having been involved in trying to kill ex-spy Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury. The website said records show Fedotov visited Britain in 2016, 2017, and 2018 and left the country on March 4 this year, the same […]

LONDON—Amid warnings that a “no deal” or hard Brexit could damage the European economy and global economy, the EU and UK are inching closer to a deal, as EU leaders prepare for a summit on Oct. 17. The prospect of a “no deal” Brexit has been haunting markets and businesses in recent months, as governments […]

LONDON—The second suspect in the UK nerve agent poisoning case has been named as military doctor Alexander Mishkin. The investigative reporting website Bellingcat identified Mishkin, 39, and said he worked for Russia’s GRU intelligence service. Last month, Mishkin was charged by the UK under the name Alexander Petrov as one of the suspects in the […]

LONDON—Forget green fields and clouds. Blazing sunshine and rows of grapevines are now a growing part of the English countryside, leading to a rise in locally produced sparkling wine—boosted this year by a bumper harvest. At the Chapel Down winery in Kent, about 40 miles southeast of London, dozens of fruit-pickers are busy loading grapes […]

A 16-year-old boy appeared in court charged with the attempted murder and rape of a 10-year-old girl who was found on a quiet country road in the southwest of England after being attacked. The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will remain in custody before a further hearing later in the week on […]

LONDON—The second of two Russians who Britain says was responsible for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter was named by investigative website Bellingcat on Oct. 8, as a military doctor for Russia’s GRU military intelligence. Bellingcat, which covers intelligence matters, named him as Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin, aged 39, who was […]

LONDON/BRUSSELS—Britain said on Oct. 8 it couldn’t agree to a divorce deal with the European Union without a framework pact on future relations, throwing down the gauntlet to the bloc, which says it can’t move on talks until London does. Both sides are eyeing significant progress at an Oct. 17-18 summit in Brussels but in […]

  LONDON—Britain’s businesses are suffering from Brexit-related uncertainty as exports slow, recruitment difficulties mount, and investment plans are scaled back, two surveys showed on Oct. 8. The British Chambers of Commerce said its survey of 5,600 companies, the largest of its kind in Britain, showed services firms were having the most trouble finding staff since […]

Two men have been arrested after four police officers were injured in north London, two having stab wounds. London’s Metropolitan Police said in a release that four officers from the Central North Command Unit were injured around 11 p.m. on Oct. 6 after responding to a disturbance in Liverpool Road, which is in London’s Islington […]

The European Court of Justice has taken on a case that will settle the question of whether the United Kingdom can back out of Brexit without consent from the European Union. The announcement bolsters a campaign for lawmakers to be given the option to overturn Brexit when they vote on any deal brokered between the […]

Paul Crossley of East London was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder on October 5 for pushing two men toward the tracks of the London Underground earlier this year. According to a press release issued by the British Transport Police as well as reports from The Telegraph and the BBC, Crossley first attempted to push 23-year-old Tobias French […]

LONDON—A man who pushed a former Eurotunnel chairman onto the tracks of London’s Underground has been convicted of attempted murder. Paul Crossley, 46, ran up behind 91-year-old Sir Robert Malpas at Marble Arch station in central London and pushed him off the platform in late April this year. Minutes earlier, Crossley had tried to kill […]

An EasyJet passenger was forcibly removed from a plane by police after she “endangered” the flight by smoking in the toilet. Police in Liverpool escorted an unidentified female passenger traveling from Italy to England off the plane after she allegedly sneaked a smoke in the lavatory and put “the whole plane in danger,” the Liverpool […]

BRUSSELS—The European Union’s Brexit negotiators see a divorce deal with Britain as “very close”, diplomatic sources said, a signal that a compromise might be in the making on the most contentious issue of the future Irish border. The EU signaled on Oct. 4, it was engaging with new proposals emerging in Britain on avoiding extensive […]

LONDON—Unilever scrapped plans to move its headquarters to the Netherlands on Oct. 5, in the face of a shareholder revolt, keeping one of Britain’s most valuable companies in London ahead of Brexit. The climbdown comes three weeks ahead of the planned vote on the proposal and is a victory for shareholders who opposed the move, […]

LONDON—The British government has accused Russian military intelligence of being behind four cyber attacks aimed at spreading confusion and disinformation. Russian military intelligence (GRU) used a network of hackers across the world to attack a wide range of targets, including the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Netherlands and the UK’s […]

LONDON—A former investigator who worked to try to solve Madeleine McCann’s disappearance is convinced the girl is still alive and that the case could see a breakthrough. The British girl was three years old when she disappeared in May 2001 from the family’s apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while they were on vacation. Ex-detective […]

Four schools in the UK have been closed because of infestations of false widow spiders. Schoolchildren in two primary and two secondary schools in London’s Newham district were sent home after the discovery of the arachnids, which resemble the far more dangerous black widow spiders. A bite from a false widow can be painful and cause redness […]

Thousands of digital home pregnancy tests are being recalled after it was revealed that they are giving false results. The British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued the recall alert this morning (Oct. 4), warning that the Clear & Simple digital pregnancy tests may have incorrectly told women they are pregnant. The Chinese manufacturer, […]