UK

Top events that shaped the world

The year 2022 is coming to an end and a lot has happened that shaped the world in the year. Let's have a look at some of these significant events

As part of a 'Cost of the crown' series, The Guardian newspaper has been chronicling an investigation into Britain's royal wealth and finances in the lead-up to the Coronation of Charles III on May 6

"TikTok should have known better. TikTok should have done better," UK Information Commissioner said

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday vowed to do whatever it takes as he condemned the political correctness which has prevented action against vile criminals behind the sexual abuse of children and young women and launched a new taskforce to go after such gangs. Sunak's announcement comes a day after his Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, said that the perpetrators of such crimes are groups of men, almost all British Pakistani, but that authorities have turned a blind eye to these signs of abuse out of political correctness, out of fear, of being called racists, out of fear, of being called bigoted. Asked about the ethnicity of the criminals during a visit to Rochdale one of the cities with a history of British Pakistani grooming gangs, Sunak told reporters: All forms of child sexual exploitation carried out by whoever are horrific and wrong". "But with the specific issue of grooming gangs, we have had several independent inquiries look at the incidents here in Rochdale, bu

The percentage of people from these groups expecting a "comfortable" retirement is also greater

The UK believes membership will give it a role in setting regional trade rules over the coming decades

IPL founder and ex-chairman Lalit Modi on Thursday in a series of acerbic tweets lashed out at Rahul Gandhi stating that he will take the Congress leader to court in the United Kingdom over allegation

Amid a diplomatic row following protests by secessionist groups near the Indian mission in London, Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said talks on a Free Trade Agreement with the UK are continuing. Talks are "going on very well" with the UK, Goyal said, adding, "trade stands on its own legs". The Union minister, however, made it clear that India will take into consideration a respect for her sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will not tolerate any interference in her Indian affairs. India's Ministry of External Affairs summoned the senior-most British diplomat in New Delhi on a Sunday evening recently, over reports of some Khalistani elements pulling down the Indian flag at the Indian high commission in London during a protest. India has also responded by proposing or undertaking several actions, like reducing security at the British mission and constructing a public toilet there. When asked about the impact of the ongoing events on the trade agreement, Goyal

Scientists from India and the UK have come together to create a real-time early warning system to help reduce the devastating impact of flooding on people and property, particularly in mountainous regions where extreme water events are a major problem. An international team of researchers from the University of Birmingham, Imperial College London, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, and People's Science Institute, Dehradun, worked on integrating science, policy and local community-led approaches to create a so-called SMART approach that better fits the local context. Publishing their findings in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences' this week, the team hopes their new approach could better signal impending risk from flooding around the world. "A 'wicked' problem is a social or cultural challenge that's difficult or impossible to solve because of its complex, interconnected nature. We believe that integrating social science and meteorological data will help to identify unkno

Ukraine has received its first British main battle Challenger tanks and other Western-made armoured vehicles, CNN reported citing Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov

Black children in England and Wales were six times more likely to be strip-searched by police, according to a report being released Monday that found children were failed by those sworn to protect them. Children's Commissioner Rachel de Souza found nearly 3,000 children were strip-searched between 2018 and mid-2022 and more than half the searches were conducted without an appropriate adult present. The investigation was launched after a Black 15-year-old girl suspected of having marijuana was strip-searched at a London school in 2020 by two female officers without another adult present. The girl, identified as Child Q, was menstruating and no drugs were found. A previous report said racism was a likely factor for the humiliating search. The bravery of a girl to speak up about a traumatic thing that happened to her led to the report that found widespread noncompliance of safeguards and evidence of a "deeply concerning practice, de Souza said. The findings follow a scathing report la

The top commander of Ukraine's military said on Saturday that his forces were pushing back against Russian troops in the long and grinding battle for the town of Bakhmut, and British military intelligence says Russia appears to be moving to a defensive strategy in eastern Ukraine. The Bakhmut direction is the most difficult. Thanks to the titanic efforts of the defence forces, the situation is being stabilized, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said in a post on Telegram giving a synopsis of a telephone call with Adm. Sir Tony Radakin, Britain's chief of defence staff. The seven-month fight for Bakhmut, where Russian forces have closed in on three sides, is the longest battle of the war, with Russia deploying both regular soldiers and fighters of the mercenary Wagner Group. Russian forces must go through Bakhmut to push deeper into parts of the eastern Donbas region, though Western officials say the capture of the city would have limited impact on the course of the war. Britain's Defence ...

Notwithstanding the impact of Russia's war with Ukraine, the UK and India are heading towards an era of positive engagement in trade and business relations, with steps underway to promote mutual investments in both the nations, British Deputy High Commissioner in charge of Kerala and Karnataka Chandru Iyer said. Iyer who is also UK's Deputy Trade Commissioner for South Asia spoke in detail to PTI on Friday about the trade and investments between the UK and India and said there was potential to double the business by 2030. He was in the state to take part in various official engagements, including a meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and also in connection with the port of call made by the British Royal Navy's frigate ship, HMS Lancaster, at Kochi. Calling war a global phenomenon that affects all countries in more ways than one, the British Deputy High Commissioner hailed entrepreneurs for being enterprising and resilient in the face of adversity. "If you look at t

Revenue from tobacco now makes up just 1% of total public sector receipts, down from 1.9% two decades ago. Alcohol brings in 1.3% of receipts, shrinking from 1.7%

The commissions of the House of Commons and House of Lords have announced they will follow the move taken by the government on official devices, citing the need for cyber security

Indian High Commissioner to UK Vikram Doraiswami recently met Commandant Major General Zack Stenning OBE at Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and discussed engagements in Professional Military domain

The vandalism by pro-Khalistan extremists at the Indian High Commission here was on Thursday raised in the House of Commons, with British MPs demanding action against "Khalistani hooligans" and the safety of India's diplomatic staff. While Conservative Party MP Bob Blackman called for a debate in Parliament to discuss steps to ban groups behind the violence, Opposition Labour Party MP Gareth Thomas asked the Leader of the House of Commons about the steps being taken to ensure there is "no repeat of such behaviour". The Cabinet minister addressing the Business of the House, Penny Mordaunt, responded by reiterating Foreign Secretary James Cleverly earlier statement announcing a review of the protection measures around the Indian mission here. "We strongly condemn the vandalism and violent acts that took place outside the Indian High Commission in London. It was a completely unacceptable action against the High Commission and its staff," Mordaunt told MPs. "There is ongoing work with

The annual bilateral maritime exercise between the Indian Navy and UK's Royal Navy was held off the Konkan coast in the Arabian Sea from March 20-22, an official statement said on Thursday. INS Trishul, a guided missile frigate, and HMS Lancaster, a Type 23 guided missile frigate, participated in 'Konkan 2023' and undertook multiple maritime drills to enhance interoperability and imbibe best practices, the Indian Navy said in the statement. The exercises covered all domains of maritime operations, air, surface and sub-surface, and included gunnery shoots on surface inflatable target Killer Tomato', helicopter operations, anti-air and anti-submarine warfare drills, Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS), ship manoeuvres and exchange of personnel, it said. "The exercise yielded excellent training value to the personnel of both navies. A high level of professionalism and enthusiasm was also evident during its conduct," the Indian Navy said. "The focus personnel exhibited on op-readines

The Bank of England focused on fighting inflation, announcing an 11th consecutive interest rate increase Thursday despite concerns about the economic fallout from troubles in the global financial system. Britain's central bank boosted its key rate by a quarter-percentage point to 4.25 per cent, a day after the US Federal Reserve approved a similar move to tame inflation that is crimping household budgets and slowing economic growth. The decision by the bank's Monetary Policy Committee came after the UK statistics agency surprised policymakers Wednesday by reporting that inflation accelerated to 10.4 per cent in February, driven by the cost of food, clothing and dining out. Before the figures were released, many analysts had expected the Bank of England to keep rates on hold following the collapse of two US banks and the ensuing troubles at Switzerland's Credit Suisse, which forced a hastily arranged takeover by rival UBS. The bank will continue to monitor closely indications of ...

The UK will review the security at the Indian High Commission here following "unacceptable" acts of violence by pro-Khalistan protesters, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said, asserting that the government takes these matters "very seriously" and would "robustly" respond to such incidents. Around 2,000 protesters waving Khalistan flags descended upon the Indian mission here on Wednesday for a planned demonstration and hurled objects and chanted slogans amid a heightened security presence and barricades. Unlike the violent disorder on Sunday when the India House came under attack, the protesters were barricaded across the road with uniformed officers standing guard and patrolling the area throughout. The protesters, including turbaned men, and some women and children, had been bused in from different parts of the UK and chanted pro-Khalistan slogans. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Cleverly said the British government takes such matters very seriously and