UK Archives - The Minnesota Sun

UK Announces Children Under 12 No Longer Will Receive COVID Vaccine

September 11, 2022September 10, 2022 Minnesota Sun Staff

Young girl with a blue shirt on getting a vaccine

Children under 12-years-old in the United Kingdom will no longer be offered COVID injections, except for those in clinical risk groups, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed this week. The agency said the offer of COVID shots to healthy 5 to 11-year-olds was always meant to be temporary.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said children who had not turned five by the end of last month would not be offered a vaccination, in line with advice published by the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in February 2022. UKHSA said the offer of Covid jabs to healthy five to 11-year-olds was always meant to be temporary.

Hospital Admits Trans Patient May Have Raped Woman After Denying Any Men Were There, U.K. Parliament Member Says

March 21, 2022 Admin

A member of parliament in the U.K. said Wednesday that a hospital told police an alleged rape could not have really occurred because the attacker was transgender, according to The Telegraph.

Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, a member of parliament, told the House of Lords that it took a year for the hospital to acknowledge there was a male in the ward where the rape allegedly occurred. The victim reported the alleged rape more than a year ago, but hospital staff told police officers “that there was no male in the hospital, therefore the rape could not have happened,” the Telegraph reported.

Her comments came during a debate on a policy called Annex B, which allows patients to be placed in single-sex hospital wards based on self-identification of gender, according to the Telegraph.

Chinese Spy Suspected to Have Infiltrated UK Parliament

January 15, 2022January 14, 2022 Minnesota Sun Staff

The U.K.’s domestic spy service, MI5, informed the House of Commons speaker that a woman is suspected to have been used by China to exert influence over British lawmakers, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

The suspect, Christine Lee, is a London-based solicitor who “knowingly engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party,” authorities said Thursday, AFP reported.

House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle confirmed to AFP he had informed lawmakers of the incident through an email, AFP reported. “The Speaker takes the security of members and the democratic process very seriously, which is why he issued this notice in consultation with the security services,” a spokesperson for Hoyle told the outlet.

Counterterrorism Police Lead Investigation into Assassination of UK Lawmaker: British Reports

October 16, 2021October 15, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The 25-year-old knifeman who killed British MP Sir David Amess Friday is believed to be a “British Muslim of Somali descent,” according to the Daily Mail.

Earlier, Essex police announced they were keeping an open mind on whether the stabbing was a terror incident, but the investigation is now being run by counterterrorism police, according to British reports.

UK Court Decides Kids under the Age of 16 Can Take Puberty Blocking Medication Without Court Approval

September 21, 2021September 20, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Bink, a gender non-conforming 10 year old child playing outside.

Doctors can now prescribe puberty blocking medication to children under the age of 16 without a judge’s approval, Britain’s Court of Appeals ruled on Friday.

The decision reverses last year’s ruling that children seeking gender reassignment aren’t mature enough to give informed consent to take puberty blocking medicine, the Associated Press reported. The decision said that doctors should seek court approval before prescribing the medication because the drugs were still experimental.

The Tavistock and Portman National Health Service (NHS) trust, Britain’s only gender identity development service (GIDS) for children, appealed last year’s ruling, the AP reported. The Court of Appeal sided with the trust Friday, ruling it was “inappropriate” for the high courts to issue their guidance, and it was up to the doctors to “exercise their judgment” regarding patients’ consent.

Pfizer Says Its Vaccine Significantly Halts COVID-19’s Spread, Effective Against UK Variant

March 13, 2021March 12, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Pfizer said Wednesday that real-world data suggests its coronavirus vaccine is 94% effective in halting asymptomatic infections and effective against a highly transmissible variant first discovered in the United Kingdom.

Israeli analysis of vaccine distribution shows the vaccine being over 97% effective in preventing symptomatic cases and death, higher than the 90% efficiency that was reported in the vaccine’s Phase III trials, Pfizer said in a press release Thursday. Over 80% of the tested specimens were against the UK variant known as B.1.1.7.

Atlantic Council Ignored Anti-Corruption Activist’s Warnings About Burisma, the Ukrainian Firm Linked to Hunter Biden

March 13, 2021March 12, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

A top foreign policy think tank in Washington, D.C. rejected warnings from a Ukrainian anti-corruption activist against forming a partnership with Burisma Holdings, the energy firm linked to Hunter Biden that has faced allegations of corruption.

Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of a Ukrainian group called the Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC), contacted John Herbst, a director at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, on Jan. 20, 2017, and asked him to reconsider plans to work with Burisma, newly released State Department emails show.

U.K. Lockdown Could Last Nearly Three Months

January 11, 2021January 10, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Prime minister Boris Johnson confirmed that the end of lockdown may be delayed beyond mid-February and would last until the end of March, telling MPs the government will be “extremely cautious” about lifting restrictions and reopening schools.

On Monday, Prime Minister Johnson plunged England into a third national coronavirus lockdown. The lockdown includes a strict stay at home orders and the closure of all schools. Mr Johnson resisted calls from Tory MPs to guarantee the rules will start to be eased after the first review on February 15, the prime minister made it clear that a successful roll-out of the vaccine programme to the most vulnerable will be key to determining when the lockdown measures can be lifted. Adding on a lag for achieving immunity after vaccination and relieving “the pressure on the NHS”, he then tacked on a further two or three weeks, saying “we should remain cautious of the timetable ahead”, Breitbart reported.

Coronavirus Vaccines Can Guard Against New, More Contagious UK Strain, Experts Say

December 22, 2020December 21, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

The two coronavirus vaccines that have been approved for emergency use authorization in the U.S. will be able to combat a new, more contagious strain of the virus in the U.K., experts said Monday.

Vaccines made by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna will be effective against the new strain, which is “very similar” to previous strains at the genetic level, University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation affiliate assistant professor Vin Gupta told CNBC. The Food and Drug Administration has approved both vaccines for emergency use authorization after large-scale human trials showed efficacy of more than 90%.

UK, EU Leaders to Discuss Brexit, Free Trade Talks

October 3, 2020October 2, 2020 The Associated Press

The European Union and Britain said Friday that wide gaps remained in their fraught talks on a rudimentary trade agreement following the Brexit divorce and called for intensified negotiations before a deadline in a couple of weeks.

UK Backtracks on Giving Huawei Role in High-Speed Network

July 15, 2020July 14, 2020 The Associated Press

Britain on Tuesday backtracked on plans to give Chinese telecommunications company Huawei a role in the U.K.’s new high-speed mobile phone network amid security concerns fueled by rising tensions between Beijing and Western powers.

Britain said it decided to prohibit Huawei from working on the so-called 5G system after U.S. sanctions made it impossible to ensure the security of equipment made by the Chinese company.

Commentary: Britain’s ‘Red Tory’ Future

December 15, 2019December 14, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

It appears that social media is not the real world. Indeed, contrary to the predictions I read there, the most seismic election in British history was not even close.

Boris Johnson on Friday morning returned as Great Britain’s prime minister atop a landslide of voters whom the progressive Left abandoned long ago.

Boris Johnson’s Conservatives Win in a Landslide, Labour and Liberal Democrats Crushed

December 14, 2019December 13, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

In the United Kingdom’s general election, the Conservative Party has reclaimed a working majority by an even larger margin than most predictions and opinion polls expected, as reported by The Guardian.

Britain Drafts Plans to Sanction Iran Over Tanker Heist

July 22, 2019July 21, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Jamie Dettmer British officials are drawing up plans to target Iran with sanctions for its seizing of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait off Hormuz, and it may urge European Union countries to reimpose sanctions that were lifted in 2016 as part of Tehran’s agreement to curb its…

While Know-It-Alls Lecture on Tariffs Against China, Trump Dials Up New Trade Deals with UK, Europe and Japan

October 19, 2018October 19, 2018 Admin

by Robert Romano While President Donald Trump continues to bring the pressure to China, so far with 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods shipped to the U.S., rising to 25 percent in Jan. 2019, which comes atop another 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods…

Media-Fueled Demonstrators Flood Streets to March Against Trump in London

July 14, 2018July 13, 2018 Admin

A giant balloon (pictured) depicting President Trump as a screaming orange baby flew over London Friday as tens of thousands marched through the streets to protest the American leader’s visit to the U.K. The diaper-clad infant, with a quiff of hair and a mobile phone for tweeting, was the centerpiece…