LONDON (Reuters) -A posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain’s Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her as a teenager, went on sale in London on Tuesday, days after the disgraced prince gave up his Duke of York title.
Much of the contents of the book were reported before its release, triggering renewed scrutiny on Andrew – King Charles’ brother – whose conduct and connections with the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have long been criticised.
Andrew, 65, has always denied Giuffre’s account.
He quit all royal duties in 2019 and then was stripped of his military links and royal patronages in 2022 during legal action by Giuffre in the United States.
That year, he settled a lawsuit brought by Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, which accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager.
Giuffre’s book “Nobody’s Girl” contains fresh allegations against Andrew. She wrote that she feared she might “die a sex slave” under Epstein’s control and describes three alleged sexual encounters with Andrew in London, New York and on the late financier’s private island.
The memoir also alleges Andrew correctly guessed Giuffre’s age – 17 – when they first met.
In Friday’s statement Andrew said he would voluntarily give up his titles while repeating that he vigorously denied accusations against him.
The Scottish National Party has called for further action and is seeking a parliamentary debate demanding the government introduce a law to formally strip Andrew of his titles.
The government has said it believes the prince took the right course of action giving up his titles.
(Reporting by William James; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
LONDON (Reuters) -China accused Britain on Monday of lacking “credibility and ethics” after the UK government postponed a decision on whether to approve Beijing’s plan to build a new embassy in London.
China’s plans to build its biggest embassy in Europe near the Tower of London have stalled for the past three years because of opposition from local residents, lawmakers and Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners in Britain.
Last week, Britain again delayed a decision on whether to approve the plan, days after ministers faced pressure over the collapse of a trial of two men accused of spying for Beijing.
The Chinese embassy in London on Monday expressed “strong concern and opposition” to the latest postponement, which pushes a final decision on the project back to December 10.
“The UK has shown a total lack of the spirit of contract, credibility and ethics,” the embassy said in a statement. “It has repeatedly put off the approval …citing various excuses and linked the project with other issues, constantly complicating and politicising the matter.”
The British government cited delays in receiving input from different government departments as the reason for the move.
Some British media have reported that the government had given assurances to China over the approval of the embassy, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said: “No such assurance could have been given, as this decision is subject to a quasi-judicial process, independent from the rest of government.”
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Alistair Smout; Writing by Catarina Demony; Editing by Ros Russell)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid by a group of physicians and healthcare providers to revive their antitrust lawsuit accusing drugmaker Merck of misleading federal regulators to maintain a decades-long monopoly over the mumps vaccine market.
The justices turned away an appeal by the plaintiffs of a lower court’s decision to throw out the lawsuit on the basis that the drugmaker was protected under a legal doctrine that immunizes companies from antitrust claims based on actions aimed at swaying government decision-making.
A collection of family doctors and physicians’ groups from New Jersey and New York filed the lawsuit in 2012 in federal court in Philadelphia, seeking monetary damages.
The claims remaining in the long-running litigation involve allegations that the plaintiffs were overcharged for New Jersey-based Merck’s mumps vaccines as a result of the company’s monopolization of the mumps vaccine market in violation of federal antitrust law and New Jersey and New York state laws.
The plaintiffs said that submissions by Merck to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration contained misrepresentations that effectively boxed out competitors such as GlaxoSmithKline and delayed market entry of a rival vaccine for more than a decade.
Merck made the only mumps vaccine in the United States from 1967 until 2022. It is sold as part of a combined vaccine against mumps, measles and rubella, known as MMR-II.
The FDA in the 1990s raised concerns that the mumps vaccine lost potency toward the end of its 24-month shelf life, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit accused Merck of misleading the FDA in the 2000s about the potency and efficacy of the mumps vaccine. Merck boosted the vaccine’s initial potency and submitted a supplemental application to the FDA to continue selling it without revising its efficacy claims.
The so-called Noerr-Pennington doctrine at issue in the case was established under a pair of Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s.
Merck has denied any wrongdoing and has argued that its communications with the FDA were legitimate regulatory submissions protected by Noerr-Pennington immunity.
The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Noerr-Pennington immunity is broad, though not absolute. Actions intended to influence government decision-making are not immune from liability if they are deemed a “sham,” it said. But it decided that even if Merck’s petitions to the FDA contained falsehoods, they were not “sham” petitions because they succeeded in obtaining the agency’s approval.
In their request to the Supreme Court to hear their appeal, the plaintiffs urged the justices to resolve what they said was a split among federal appeals courts over whether alleged intentional deception can fall outside Noerr-Pennington’s protections.
Merck countered that the alleged misrepresentations did not materially affect any statement on the vaccine label. The company also said the FDA had taken no action to revise the label despite being made aware of the allegations years earlier.
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by Will Dunham)
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s governing party leader, Sanae Takaichi, is on track to become the country’s first female prime minister, after finding a badly needed replacement for a crucial partner that left her Liberal Democratic Party’s coalition.
Takaichi, 64, would replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tuesday’s parliamentary vote. If she’s successful, it would end Japan’s three-month political vacuum and wrangling since the coalition’s loss in the July parliamentary election.
The moderate centrist Komeito party split from the LDP after a 26-year-long coalition. The move by Komeito came days after Takaichi’s election as president of her party, and it forced her into a desperate search for a replacement to secure votes so that she can become prime minister.
The Buddhist-backed Komeito left after raising concerns about her ultraconservative politics and the LDP’s lax response to slush fund scandals that led to their consecutive election defeats and loss of majority in both houses.
While the leaders of the country’s top three opposition parties failed to unite for a change of government, Takaichi went for a quick fix by teaming up with the most conservative of them: The Osaka-based Ishin no Kai, or Japan Innovation Party. But the long-term stability of their cooperation is an unknown.
The two parties are set to sign a coalition agreement on Monday.
An eventual Takaichi premiership would be on a cliff edge. The fragile new coalition, still a minority, would need cooperation from other opposition groups to pass any legislation. It would be a risk that could lead to an unstable, short-lived leadership.
Big diplomatic tests come within days — talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and regional summits. At home, she needs to quickly tackle rising prices and compile economic boosting measures to address the frustrated public.
An admirer of former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi’s breaking of the glass ceiling makes history in a country whose gender equality ranks poorly internationally.
But many women aren’t celebrating, and some see her impending premiership as a setback.
“The prospect of a first female prime minister doesn’t make me happy,” sociologist Chizuko Ueno posted on X. Ueno explained that Takaichi’s leadership would elevate Japan’s gender equality ranking, but “that doesn’t mean Japanese politics becomes kinder to women.”
Takaichi, an ultraconservative star of her male-dominated party, is among those who have stonewalled measures for women’s advancement. Takaichi supports the imperial family’s male-only succession, opposes same-sex marriage and a revision to the civil law allowing separate last names for married couples, so women don’t get pressured into abandoning theirs.
The prospect for a dual system for last names is fading under Takaichi, Ueno says.
“Ms. Takaichi’s policies are extremely hawkish and I doubt she would consider policies to recognize diversity,” said Chiyako Sato, a political commentator and senior writer for the Mainichi newspaper.
Rising prices and population decline
If she’s successful in the parliamentary vote, Takaichi would immediately launch her Cabinet on Tuesday and make a policy speech later in the week.
A protege of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Takaichi is expected to emulate his economic and security policies. With a potentially weak grip on power, it’s unknown how much Takaichi would be able to achieve.
She would have only a few days to prepare for diplomatic tests — major regional summits and talks with Trump in between. She has to reassure that there will be stable ties with China and South Korea, which are concerned about her revisionist views on wartime history and past visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.
The shrine honors Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan’s wartime past.
Takaichi supports a stronger military, currently undergoing a five-year buildup with the annual defense budget being doubled to 2% of gross domestic product by 2027. Trump is expected to demand that Japan increase its military spending to NATO targets of 5% of GDP, and purchase more U.S. weapons.
Takaichi has to follow up on Japan’s pledge of $550 billion to Trump’s administration as part of a U.S. tariff deal.
Her policies focus on short-term measures such as rising prices, salary increase and subsidies, as well as restrictions against a growing foreign population amid a rise of xenophobia. Takaichi hasn’t shown a vision for Japan to address bigger issues like demographic challenges.
Takaichi’s mission is to regain conservative votes by pushing the party further to the right.
The LDP’s new coalition with the right-wing JIP may fit Takaichi’s views, but experts say that she would have to avoid pushing them and prioritize stability.
She needs to balance relations between China and the United States under Trump, while at home she also needs balance to gain support from the opposition camp to achieve anything.
“She needs to be realistic,” says Sato, the commentator.
On Friday, Takaichi sent a religious ornament instead of going to the Yasukuni Shrine, apparently to avoid a diplomatic dispute with Beijing and Seoul.
To consolidate opposition cooperation and lift her coalition closer to a majority, she has reached out to smaller opposition groups, including the far-right Sanseito.
“There is no room for Takaichi to show her true colors. All she can do is cooperate per policy,” said Masato Kamikubo, a Ritsumeikan University political science professor. “It’s a pathetic situation.”
Takaichi’s election as LDP leader as she seeks the premiership is about power politics by the 85-year-old conservative former Prime Minister Taro Aso, the party’s most powerful kingmaker.
In her first move as LDP president, Takaichi appointed Aso as the party’s vice president and gave more top jobs to his allies and others who supported her, including Abe allies linked to the funds scandal. Takaichi is expected to appoint them to her Cabinet.
Political observers expect that a Takaichi government wouldn’t last long. An early election may have to be called later this year, in hopes of regaining a majority in the lower house, though that would be tough.
Experts also raise concerns about how Takaichi, a fiscal expansionist, can coordinate economic policies with Ishin’s fiscal conservative views.
“The era of LDP domination is over and we are entering the era of multiparty politics. The question is how to form a coalition,” Sato said, noting a similar trend in Europe. “We need to find a Japanese way of forming a coalition and a stable government.”
About a dozen opposition parties span the spectrum from the Japanese Communist Party on the left to Sanseito and several others on the extreme right.
“What’s going on here right now is what’s going on in all our democracies for a lot of complicated reasons,” said Gerald Curtis, a Columbia University professor and expert on Japanese politics, citing the mainstream political parties losing popularity, and voters acting on the basis of anger and resentment.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The 2025 BFI London Film Festival has closed in style thanks to Julia Jackman’s superstar 100 Nights of Hero cast.
The Canadian filmmaker was joined by Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, Amir El-Masry, Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones at the city’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday night to wrap up an almighty run of premieres for the LFF. Key cast members Nicholas Galitzine and Charli xcx were not in attendance.
Jackman’s sophomore feature, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Isabel Greenberg, is a visually stunning fantasy set in a fairytale kingdom. Cherry (Monroe) is happily married to Jerome (El-Masry) and living a seemingly idyllic life. But the couple have yet to conceive an heir, so when Jerome absconds and his dashing friend Manfred (Galitzine) arrives with dastardly intentions, Hero (Corrin), Cherry’s wily and loyal maid, is forced to concoct a plan to distract Manfred by telling captivating stories about rebellious women.
“I’ve been dreaming of making this film for a long time,” Jackman said on stage. “And I actually, to be honest, didn’t know whether I’d get the chance. So to be here with you guys is incredible. Thank you so much for coming.”
Corrin, star of The Crown, Nosferatu and Deadpool & Wolverine, added about crafting the character of Hero with Jackman: “So much of it was in Julia’s incredible adaptation. … Hero’s all-knowing wisdom — she [has] confidence and knows who she is and there’s a real relief to playing someone like that. We chatted a lot about that, and [about] getting the comedy right.”
Monroe — best known for last year’s horror hit Longlegs — said Jackman’s script was “so incredible unique and so beautiful.” She said: “Even just reading the script, I could imagine this fantastical world. I fell in love with Cherry. … [There] was just this feeling of, like, needing to do this role.”
The Hollywood Reporter‘s review out of Venice Critics Week — where 100 Nights of Hero earned its world premiere in August — described the feature as “eccentric, fey and surprisingly dark.” Leslie Felperin wrote that “viewers may start to expect anything could happen — like pop superstar Charli xcx showing up in a supporting role as an unlucky bride with barely any lines but a sumptuous assortment of jewel-toned gowns.”
It marks the end to another BFI London Film Festival after 11 days of star-studded screenings that had A-listers, including the likes of George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Daniel Craig, Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jacob Elordi, Josh O’Connor, Oscar Isaac, Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley and Daniel Day-Lewis, flocking to London’s Southbank.
“It’s not enough for a film to just have an incredible cast — the film has to really stand on its own two feet,” London Film Fest director Kristy Matheson told THR at the opening-night gala. “We’re really trying to find a program that’s got a lot of different textures in it, that really feels like it reflects the city that we are in. We want a really great geographical spread.
“We want different types of stories, because here in London,” she continued, “the cinema audiences are amazing. They’re seeing great films every day of the week here. They really do know their cinema, so we have a standard that we need to meet.”
A total of 247 titles — comprised of features, shorts, series and immersive works — from 79 countries premiered at this year’s festival, with official wins for Martel’s Landmarks (Nuestra Tierra), David Bingong’s The Travelers (Les Voyageurs), as well as One Woman One Bra by Vincho Nchogu and Coyotes, directed by Said Zagha.
Is Britain safe for Jews? On Thursday authorities in Birmingham, the country’s second-largest city, prohibited the fans of an Israeli soccer team from attending a match next month, even though the threats to cause trouble are coming from locals. What an alarming message from police, and it comes barely two weeks after an Islamist terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester.
The match, scheduled for Nov. 6, is part of a larger tournament and will pit Birmingham’s Aston Villa team against Maccabi Tel Aviv. The Safety Advisory Group, an arm of the city government, last week barred Tel Aviv fans from attending, ruling that the event is “high risk.” West Midlands Police, which advises the committee, said the decision “is based on current intelligence and previous incidents.”
SARAJEVO (Reuters) -The parliament of Bosnia’s Serb Republic appointed Ana Trisic Babic as an interim president on Saturday, acknowledging officially for the first time that former President Milorad Dodik is stepping aside after a state court banned him from politics.
Trisic Babic, Dodik’s close ally, will hold the position for one month until new presidential elections are held in the Serb Republic on November 23.
The parliament also annulled a series of separatist laws that were passed over the past year after Dodik had been indicted for defying decisions of the international envoy and the constitutional court.
Dodik, a pro-Russian nationalist who wants the Serb Republic to secede and join Serbia, had so far refused to step down and continued to perform duties and travel abroad in the capacity of president. He is appealing the state court’s verdict at the constitutional court.
The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it has removed four Dodik allies from a sanctions list, in a move praised by Dodik who has been campaigning to get U.S. sanctions against himself lifted.
He has been sanctioned by the U.S. and Britain for obstructing the terms of the Dayton peace deal that ended Bosnia’s war in the 1990s, as well as by several European countries that say his separatist policies endanger peace and stability in Bosnia.
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Writing by Renee Maltezou, Editing by Franklin Paul)
The Scot’s latest feature — following Lawrence as Grace, a new mother who finds herself spiraling into the depths of psychosis — had its U.K. premiere Friday night at London’s Royal Festival Hall, with Ramsay going into more depth about the filming process at a Saturday Screen Talks session with fellow industry execs and creatives.
Known for her movies Ratcatcher (1999), Morvern Callar (2002) and We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), Ramsay discussed getting to know Hollywood heavy-hitters and recalled meeting Phoenix, star of her 2017 neo-noir psychological thriller You Were Never Really Here. The film follows Phoenix as a traumatized mercenary named Joe, who is hired by a politician to rescue his kidnapped daughter in New York.
“He’s amazing,” began Ramsay, “I mean, he’s totally terrifying. He’s a beast, you know? When I first met him, I was like — oh, my God, I think I said something really stupid like, ‘Are you left-handed or are you right-handed?’”
She went on to explain the lengths that Phoenix, an Oscar winner for his performance in Joker, would often go to on set. “He would just never do the same thing twice, he’d just surprise you,” she continued, remembering one unscripted take where Phoenix purposely fell down some stairs. “Everyone’s running, going, ‘What’s happened to Joaquin?!’” said Ramsay. “He just thought, ‘I’ll try this and see if it works.’ […] Honestly, I’ve never worked with such an exciting actor in my life,” she added. “He’s phenomenal and he wants to just get on with it — he’s not into all the paraphernalia and these bullshit things… I feel bad for telling you that story because he’ll kill me!” When filming wrapped, Phoenix suggested they take the same crew and make another film straight away.
Ramsay delighted the BFI LFF audience with a couple of anecdotes about You Were Never Really Here, including one on a French financier who was desperate for it to go to Cannes. “He was obsessed with Cannes,” recalled the celebrated filmmaker. “He wanted to see a cut every week… [I said], ‘You can wait until you get the director’s cut. But he persuaded me into it. And then [he said], ‘This is shit, this is shit’ for the rest of the edit, which was actually so soul-destroying.”
Joaquin Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here.
When the movie finally nabbed a spot on the 2017 Cannes lineup, there were still scenes to shoot and Ramsay was left with a week to get the film ready. It later won best actor for Phoenix and best screenplay at the prestigious festival, but it was “the nuttiest film I had ever been on,” according to its director.
When asked about bringing music into her films, Ramsay admitted it was only after working with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood on You Were Never Really Here that she had enjoyed hiring composers. “I never used music unless it was in the scene. And then the more and more I worked on features, and especially after I worked with Jonny Greenwood, whose work really enhanced my film, I changed my mind,” she said. “Because I feel that music can tell you so much about character.” She added that receiving files from Greenwood, who recently composed the score for Paul Thomas Anderson’s buzzy thriller One Battle After Another, was like “getting a Christmas present… I was just blown away by the music.”
Towards the end of the session, Ramsay was nervous to reveal too much about her latest film with Lawrence and Pattinson. “Jennifer Lawrence was just in a permanently bonkers situation,” she did tease, before going into depth about the characters of Grace and Jackson. “She does the most outrageous things, but he still loves her, you know?”
“But she kind of takes it to the limit,” continued Ramsay. “It’s also about her marriage and whatnot, and she feels a bit invisible… There’s all that hope moving into a new house, there’s wild sex and then a baby comes in and he doesn’t want sex with her anymore. Those kinds of things that happen in relationships are in the film as well as elements of [postpartum depression].”
After emails emerged this week showing that Prince Andrew remained in contact with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein longer than he previously admitted, the House of Windsor finally moved to insulate the monarchy from years of tawdry headlines about Andrew’s dodgy friends and suspicious business deals.
Buckingham Palace on Friday released a statement from Andrew saying that he had agreed to give up use of his last remaining royal titles so that continued allegations about him “don’t distract from the work of His Majesty.”
This week’s revelations demonstrated that Andrew had committed the unforgivable sin of misleading the British public, said Craig Prescott, an expert on the monarchy and constitutional law at Royal Holloway University of London.
“To say something which is proven not to be true, I think, is the straw that broke the camel’s back,’’ he said.
The move comes as Charles, who is 76 and undergoing treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer, works to ensure the long-term stability of the monarchy under his son and heir Prince William.
William recently gave an interview in which he set out his vision for the monarchy, saying that the institution needed to change to make sure that it is a force for good.
“In some ways, Prince Andrew has been the exact opposite of that,” Prescott said. “And there is no space for that in the modern monarchy.”
Andrew, 65, is the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II. He spent more than 20 years as an officer in the Royal Navy before leaving to take up his royal duties in 2001.
Following Friday’s announcement, Andrew will no longer use his remaining royal titles, including the Duke of York, though he technically retains them. Formally stripping him of those titles would be a time-consuming process requiring an act of Parliament.
That was triggered by a disastrous interview Andrew gave to the BBC as he sought to counter media reports about his friendship with Epstein and deny allegations that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, Virginia Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein in 2001. The prince was widely criticized for failing to show empathy for Epstein’s victims and for offering unbelievable explanations for his friendship with the disgraced financier.
The interview also sowed the seeds of this week’s upheaval, when Andrew told the BBC that he had cut off contact with Epstein in December 2010.
British newspapers on Sunday revealed that Andrew wrote an email to Epstein on Feb. 28, 2011. Andrew wrote the note after renewed reporting on the Epstein scandal, telling him they were “in this together” and would “have to rise above it.”
Andrew has recently faced another round of grimy stories as newspapers release excerpts of Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, which will be published on Tuesday. Giuffre died by suicide in April at the age of 41.
Andrew in 2022 reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre after she filed a civil suit against him in New York. While he didn’t admit wrongdoing, Andrew did acknowledge Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.
Front-page fodder for wrong reasons
The prince has been the subject of tabloid stories stretching back to at least 2007, when he sold his house near Windsor Castle for 20% over the 15 million pound asking price. The buyer was reported to be Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, then-president of Kazakhstan, raising concerns that the deal was an attempt to buy influence in Britain.
Last year, a court case revealed Andrew’s relationship with a businessman and suspected Chinese spy who was barred from the United Kingdom as a threat to national security. Authorities were concerned that the man could have misused his influence over Andrew, according to court documents.
While the palace said Andrew had decided to give up his royal titles, royal commentator Jennie Bond said the king and Prince William exerted “enormous pressure” on him.
“We could say he has fallen on his sword, but I think he’s been pushed onto it,” Bond told the BBC. “I don’t think this is a decision that Andrew, quite an arrogant man — very, very fond of his status — would have willingly made without a lot of pressure.”
Insulating the monarchy at a delicate time
While the cumulative weight of Andrew’s scandals demanded a response from the royal family, this week’s revelations came at a particularly sensitive moment for the king as he prepares for a state visit to the Vatican, where he is expected to pray beside Pope Leo XIV.
The visit is very important to Charles, who has made the bridging of faiths an important part of his “mantra,” said George Gross, an expert on theology and the monarchy at King’s College, London.
“I think this was the speediest, really the quickest way of lowering his status even more without having to go to Parliament,” Gross said. “Even if Parliament would have approved, it takes time.’’
Charles may also have been motivated by a desire to protect the work of Queen Camilla, who has made combating domestic violence one of her signature issues, and the Duchess of Edinburgh, who has sought to combat sexual violence in war zones such as Congo.
The king will hope that this move finally draws a line between Andrew and the rest of the royal family, Prescott said.
“If there are allegations, or further stuff comes out, it will all be on Prince Andrew,” he said. “They’ve severed the connection between Prince Andrew and the monarchy as an institution.”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Britain’s Prince Andrew was forced to relinquish use of his remaining royal titles after the latest revelations about his relationship with the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein proved one scandal too many for his brother, King Charles III.
Andrew’s antics have tried the patience of the royal family for more than 40 years, triggering embarrassing headlines, lawsuits and suspicions that the prince, now 65, was using his position for personal gain.
Here are some of the episodes that tarnished the reputation of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s second son and finally forced his older brother to banish him from public life.
1984 — Andrew sprays reporters and photographers with paint while touring a construction project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. “I enjoyed that,” Andrew said, while wiping his hands on a piece of newspaper.
2007 — The prince sells his house at Sunninghill Park, near Windsor Castle, with news reports suggesting the buyer paid 20% more than the asking price of 15 million pounds. The buyer was reported to be Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, then president of Kazakhstan, raising concerns that the deal was an attempt to buy influence in Britain.
2010 — An undercover reporter posing as a wealthy Arab films Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, apparently offering to sell access to the prince for 500,000 pounds ($670,000 at the current exchange rate).
2011 — Andrew is forced to resign as Britain’s special trade envoy following the first reports of his links to Epstein. The prince was also facing questions about his friendship with Said Gadhafi, son of the late Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, as well as his links to a convicted Libyan gun smuggler.
July 2019 — Epstein is arrested for a second time on charges of sex trafficking and later commits suicide in a New York jail cell. The news focuses public attention on allegations that Andrew had sex with at least one underage teenager trafficked by Epstein. Andrew denies the allegations.
Nov. 16, 2019 — Andrew attempts to staunch the flood of criticism by agreeing to an on-camera grilling by BBC reporter Emily Maitlis. The interview backfires when Andrew defends his relationship with Epstein, fails to show empathy for his victims and offers explanations of his behavior that many people find hard to believe. Andrew says he broke off contact with Epstein in December 2010, a date that will come back to haunt him.
Nov. 20, 2020 — Buckingham Palace announces that Andrew will suspend all royal duties “for the foreseeable future.” Four days later, the prince is stripped of his role as patron of 230 charities.
2022 — Andrew agrees to settle a New York civil lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17. While Andrew didn’t admit to any of Giuffre’s allegations, he acknowledged that she had suffered as a victim of sexual abuse. Legal experts estimate that the undisclosed settlement cost Andrew as much as $10 million.
2024 — Andrew’s ties to a suspected Chinese spy are revealed in court documents. The businessman and suspected spy was barred from the U.K. because of concerns he posed a threat to national security. Security officials were concerned that the man could have misused his influence over Andrew.
April 25, 2025 — Virginia Giuffre dies of suicide in Australia, where she had lived since about 2002.
Oct. 12, 2025 — British newspapers reveal that Andrew sent an email to Epstein on Feb. 28, 2011, more than two months after the prince had told Maitlis he cut off all contact with his one-time friend. Andrew wrote the email after continued media reporting about the Epstein scandal, telling him they were “in this together” and would “have to rise above it.”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The October evening sales brought the London auction houses their highest totals in years. Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Sales aren’t just buoyant at Frieze this week—London’s auction houses also saw their strongest results in years, signaling renewed confidence at the top of the market. Kicking off the action, Christie’s 20th/21st Century London Evening Sale on October 15 achieved a robust £106,925,400 ($142,852,000), marking the auction house’s best Frieze Week evening sale in more than seven years. The total was up 30 percent from last year, with 92 percent sold by lot and 90 percent sold by value. Katharine Arnold and Keith Gill, vice-chairmen of 20th/21st century art, Christie’s Europe, reported entering the week with confidence and “carefully priced material,” noting a “spirited and well-attended” public viewing at King Street. “We are proud to have realized such a solid outcome during Frieze Week, a moment that highlights the energy and cultural vitality of London’s art scene,” they told press.
Leading the sale was Peter Doig’s monumental Ski Jacket (1994), which sold for £14,270,000 ($19,064,720) against a £6,000,000-8,000,000 estimate after more than 13 minutes of fierce bidding between six contenders. Carrying a third-party guarantee, the painting had been acquired in 1994 by Danish collector Ole Faarup, and 100 percent of the proceeds will now go to his foundation. This unusual arrangement also helped Christie’s secure two additional Doigs, despite the artist having become a rare presence at auction.
With an extensive exhibition history, Doig’s Country Rock (1998-1999) nearly hit seven figures in sterling—though it comfortably did so in dollars—achieving £9,210,000 ($12,304,560). A third, more abstract and heavily textured work, also acquired by Faarup in 1994, sold a few lots later just shy of its high estimate at £635,000. The strong results coincided with the opening of Doig’s new show at the Serpentine in London, further fueling demand.
Christie’s evening opened with a standout result for Domenico Gnoli, whose hyperrealistic painting fetched £977,000, doubling its low estimate. Immediately after, a more impressionistic landscape by René Magritte landed at £762,990—well above expectations—reinforcing both continued momentum for the artist and the broader strength of surrealism. Later in the sale, Magritte’s drawing La veillée (The Vigil) exceeded its £500,000 high estimate, selling for £812,800.
The 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale at Christie’s resulted in several new artist records. Photo: Guy Bell | Courtesy of Christie’s
Picasso, as usual, delivered dependable results, with several works selling above or within estimate, including the £2,002,000 oil and ink on panel Chevalier, pages et moine. The modern and impressionist offerings also performed within expectations, largely due to the quality of the material: a Marc Chagall painting fetched £2,246,000, while a lyrical bucolic scene by Nabis painter Maurice Denis sold for £1,697,000. Meanwhile, a horizontal abstract work by Hurvin Anderson exceeded expectations, fetching £3,222,000.
The sale also set several new world auction records, underscoring the ongoing momentum for women artists and long-overlooked names being rediscovered. Paula Rego’s Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (1995) soared to £3,466,000 ($4.63 million), setting a new landmark record for the artist. Suzanne Valadon’s Deux nus ou Le bain (1923) followed with a £1,016,000 ($1.36 million) record. Contemporary sculptor Annie Morris’s Bronze Stack 9, Copper Blue (2015) achieved £482,600 ($644,754), while Danish artist Esben Weile Kjær set his first auction record with Aske and Johan upside down kissing in Power Play at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND (2020), which sold for £25,400 ($33,934).
Among the few unsold works of the night were Yoshitomo Nara’s drawing Haze Days, which failed to find a buyer at its ambitious £6.5-8.5 million estimate, and a gray monochrome by Gerhard Richter—even with the artist opening a major survey at the Fondation Louis Vuitton during Paris Art Week. A black Blinky Palermo also went unsold, while a colorful but slightly less iconic Nicholas Party work, Tree Trunks, was withdrawn ahead of the sale.
Notably, Christie’s reported that 56 percent of buyers in the evening sale came from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with only 28 percent from the Americas and 16 percent from the Asia-Pacific region. This confirms revived demand in the regional market, as also evidenced earlier in the day by the heavy attendance at Frieze.
A £17.6M Bacon headlined at Sotheby’s
Led by a £17.6 million Francis Bacon, Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction closed at $63.5 million. While the total was less than half of Christie’s the night before, the comparison needs context: this was Sotheby’s third major London evening sale since March—whereas it was Christie’s first of the season. Sotheby’s has already staged two major white-glove sales this year—the £101 million Karpidas collection auction in September and the £84 million Summer Evening Sale—meaning that with last night’s results, the house has now sold £233 million worth of modern and contemporary art in London since March. Moreover, the £63.5 million total marked the highest October evening sale result since 2023, up 25 percent from the previous year.
Since March, Sotheby’s has sold £240 million worth of Modern and Contemporary art in London. Courtesy Sotheby’s
“Frieze is always a special time for London, with so many collectors in town whose presence we always feel in our sales,” Ottilie Windsor, co-head of contemporary art, Sotheby’s London, told Observer. “It was great to have them with us tonight and to see so much live action in the room, helping sustain the strong momentum we’ve built over the past few seasons here.”
The Francis Bacon result came after 20 minutes of suspense and fierce bidding across multiple phone specialists and a bidder in the room, pushing the final price to nearly double its £6-9 million estimate. In U.S. dollars, the hammer plus fees rose to $17.6 million. For comparison, the last notable Bacon—Portrait of Man with Glasses II—sold at Christie’s in March for £6,635,000 ($8.4 million), and that work was almost a third smaller. Another, smaller Bacon, closer in scale to Christie’s example, sold here for £5,774,000 ($7.3 million). Bacon’s record still stands at $142.4 million, set at Christie’s New York in 2013 with his triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud.
The sale opened strong, with solid results for several younger contemporary artists who have recently drawn both market and institutional attention. At lot one, a painting by Ser Serpas landed at £27,940 ($35,700)—just under estimate but still enough to set a new auction record for the artist. The California-born painter, who studied in Switzerland and gained early recognition there, was recently included in a MoMA PS1 exhibition and held a solo show at Kunsthalle Basel during the June fairs.
Two of the hottest rising names in recent auctions—driven largely by Asian demand and limited primary-market availability—followed. An abstract by Emma McIntyre, now a Zwirner favorite, sold for £50,800 ($65,000), and Yu Nishimura achieved the same price. Both works carried estimates of £40,000-60,000, reflecting the tight competition at this level.
In between, a 2009 painting by Hernan Bas acquired from Perrotin sold just above its low estimate, likely to its guarantor, at £254,000 ($323,000). Momentum continued for Lucy Bull, whose kaleidoscopic abstraction from 2021—originally acquired from Paris gallery High Art—more than doubled its top estimate of £500,000 ($635,000), landing at £1,260,000 ($1.6 million) after being chased by five bidders, most from Asia.
Overall, the auction confirmed the ongoing strength of the market for women artists, all of whom sold above estimate. Sotheby’s also posted strong results for Paula Rego: her pastel on paper Snow White Playing with her Father’s Trophies sold within estimate for £900,000 (about $1.15 million), while Jenny Saville’s charcoal study exceeded its high estimate, selling for £533,000 (around $675,000).
Among other notable six-figure results, a monumental El Anatsui sold just shy of its high estimate at £1,999,000 (about $2.53 million). Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (The Arm) from 1982—a pivotal year in the artist’s rise—landed squarely within estimate at £5,530,000 (approximately $7 million). Andy Warhol’s Four Pink Marilyn (Reversal) followed, selling within estimate for £4,326,000 (about $5.5 million).
The masters also held firm. Both of Auguste Rodin’s monumental sculptures from his seminal series The Burghers of Calais sold within estimate to a collector in the room: Jean de Fiennes, vêtu, Grand Modèle achieved £762,000 ($1 million), while Pierre de Wiessant, vita, Grand Modèle, vêtu sold for £889,000 ($1.2 million).
The market for Lucio Fontana also showed signs of recovery—at least for major works. His rare blue 14-slashed Concetto spaziale, Attese sold just above estimate at £2.8 million (about $3.7 million) following a fierce bidding war among four potential buyers. The deep blue of the canvas was inspired by Yves Klein’s IKB pigment—but Klein’s own Untitled Fire Colour Painting (FC 28), which appeared one lot earlier, surprisingly went unsold after failing to meet its £1.8-2 million estimate ($2.3-2.5 million), despite both an irrevocable bid and a guarantee.
Other unsold works of the night included paintings by Frank Auerbach and Daniel Richter. Still, Sotheby’s achieved a healthy 89 percent sell-through rate by lot.
On October 17, Sotheby’s also staged a single-owner sale of 17 iPad drawings by David Hockney from his celebrated series The Arrival of Spring. The results were remarkable: the group doubled its high estimate to reach £6.2 million ($8.3 million), achieving a white-glove sale and setting a new auction record for the artist. With this result, Sotheby’s London has now brought in £240 million (approximately $304 million) since March. Notably, American buyers accounted for 40 percent of the purchasers in the Hockney sale, underscoring the continued global demand for blue-chip British artists.
A £2,374,000 Basquiat tops Phillips’ London Evening Sale
On October 16 at 5 p.m., Phillips hosted its London Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale, achieving a total of £10,332,200 ($13,884,410) across 22 lots. The auction was more modest—and less successful—than the others, posting a 32 percent drop compared to last year after four lots failed to sell and four others were withdrawn before the start. The evening was led by a new auction record for Emma McIntyre: Seven types of ambiguity (2021) sold for £167,700 ($225,355) from a modest £50,000-70,000 estimate, edging past her previous record of $201,600 set in May 2025 at Phillips Hong Kong. The second-highest lot of the night was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (Pestus) (1982), which comfortably met its pre-sale estimate at £2,374,000 ($3,190,181).
An energetic moment from Phillips’s London Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale. Courtesy Phillips
Once again, contemporary women artists confirmed their momentum at Phillips, reaching a high point after Emma McIntyre’s record-setting result when Flora Yukhnovich’s My Body knows Un-Heard of Songs (2017) fetched £1,276,000 ($1,714,689) against a £900,000-1,500,000 estimate.
Opening the sale was a purple-and-pink abstraction by Martha Jungwirth—now a familiar presence across Thaddaeus Ropac’s fair booths—which exceeded expectations at £180,600. A few lots later, an early work by Sasha Gordon sold just shy of its high estimate at £116,100. Demand for Gordon has been reignited by her blockbuster solo debut at Zwirner in New York, which made her the youngest artist represented by the mega-gallery. Painted in 2019 during her studies, Drive Through marks a transitional moment in her shift toward the more discursive, cartoon-inflected style that catapulted her into the global spotlight.
Later in the sale, Noah Davis’s Mitrice Richardson (2012) found a buyer within estimate at £451,500 ($606,726), while Derek Fordjour’s Regatta Pattern Study (2020) fetched £528,900 ($710,736), surpassing its high estimate of £500,000. Other notable results included Sean Scully’s Wall of Light Summer Night 5.10 (2010), which achieved £967,500 ($1,300,127) against a £600,000-800,000 estimate, and Robert Rauschenberg’s Gospel Yodel (Salvage Series), which sold for £709,500 ($953,426), more than doubling its £350,000-550,000 estimate. A 2012 sculpture by Bernar Venet fetched £516,000 ($693,401) from a £250,000-350,000 estimate, reflecting the artist’s rising demand—particularly in Asia.
Not everything landed. A Warhol-inspired Banksy portrait of Kate Moss, estimated at £700,000-1,000,000, failed to find a buyer, while a cacophonic abstract work by Sigmar Polke from 1983-84 also went unsold, likely due to its overly ambitious £600,000-800,000 estimate relative to current market demand for the artist.
For Olivia Thornton, Phillips’s head of modern and contemporary art, Europe, the overall positive auction reflected “the vibrancy of contemporary collecting” and reaffirmed London’s enduring magnetism: “London remains the cultural crossroads of the global art market.”
Prince Andrew agreed to stop using the title “Duke of York” and has been banned from attending British royal family Christmas gatherings, as Buckingham Palace continues to try to distance itself from the royal over his past friendship with convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The demotion comes after pressure from King Charles III to put further space between the royal family and his younger brother as British media headlines continue to be dominated by tales of Andrew’s alleged abuse of one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre. Andrew denies he abused Giuffre, who
died by suicide this year, and had previously settled a claim with her out of court without admitting guilt.
London — The world of professional sumo wrestling stepped outside of Japan for only the second time in its centuries-long history on Wednesday night, as fighters clashed on a specially constructed ring in the middle of London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The iconic venue in the British capital is hosting the Grand Sumo Tournament —the roughly 1,500-year-old sport’s most important competition — for the second time, drawing more than 44 professional wrestlers, or Rikishi, to compete in 100 bouts over five days. The only other time the tournament was held outside Japan was in 1991, when it also came to the Royal Albert Hall.
There are unique challenges in bringing sumo to London, as the contemporary national sport of Japan is rooted in two millennia of tradition, interwoven with the Shinto religion, and thus treated with the utmost respect and protection to ensure adherence to its rituals and norms.
Sumo wrestlers Kitanowaka Daisuke and Fukutsuumi Akira of Japan pose with a London Black Cab following an event to announce the Grand Sumo Tournament being held at the Royal Albert Hall, in London, England, Dec. 4, 2024.
Ryan Pierse/Getty
“One of the things that we’ve worked really hard at is to make sure that we have a good understanding of the cultural and religious significance that sumo has,” Matthew Todd, the Royal Albert Hall’s programming director, told CBS News.
He said attention to detail was “really critical to the authentic presentation that we’re able to make here.”
That meant shipping 11 tons of clay from Japan to construct the ring, or dohyo, in the center of the concert venue, where the wrestlers compete. Shipping containers were at sea for three months making the voyage. A big team of ring attendants (yobisdashi), also had to make the trip from Japan — alongside 11 interpreters to help them communicate with British workers.
A general view as the ring, or dohyo, is constructed for the Grand Sumo Tournament at Royal Albert Hall, Oct. 13, 2025, in London, England.
Ryan Pierse / Getty Images
The roof for the dohyo, now suspended from the Albert Hall ceiling, was built in Britain, but its design is taken straight from traditional Japanese Shinto shrines, which, according to Todd, “helps to show that this is a sacred area,” in which routines and holy ceremonies are conducted as part of the tournament.
It’s a vital step, he said, to ensure the Shinto gods are paid their due respects before the fights.
Sumo is deeply intertwined with Japanese culture and religion in ways that many Western sports fans may find difficult to comprehend. According to legend, it originated as a ritual to ask the gods for a bountiful harvest, but it transformed over almost 2,000 years into the sport it is today, drawing competitors still primarily from Japan, but also from around the world.
Many of the most recent champions have been from Mongolia, and this year’s tournament features two rishiki from Ukraine. While Americans have competed successfully in past tournaments, there are no U.S. rishiki competing in this year’s event in London.
Spectators look on as the rikishi walk out during the opening ceremony on day one of the Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall, in London, England, Oct. 15, 2025.
Jordan Pettitt/PA Images/Getty
The nuance of the wrestling competition itself can also be difficult to fully grasp, with 82 winning techniques called kimirate, numerous ranks and divisions and a host of other rules. So to help translate all this for a largely Western audience, in-ear English language commentary is provided at the Royal Albert Hall, alongside video replay screens to describe and explain the bouts, which can sometimes end in just seconds when a competitor is forced out of the ring.
The wrestlers themselves live an incredibly regimented life. They are forbidden from driving cars and, somewhat counterintuitively, eating breakfast, and are normally required to take a long nap after their hefty lunch, to help them pack on the pounds.
The average weight of a rikishi is about 330 pounds, but some tip the scales at 550.
Wakatakakage (right) and Tamawashi compete in the Makuuchi Division bout on day one of the Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall, London, England, Oct. 15, 2025.
Jordan Pettitt/PA Images/Getty
They have been given some leave during their visit to the British capital to enjoy themselves, however — with organizers likely seeing the value in some degree of publicity.
During the lead-up to the tournament, social media platforms were full of photos and videos of the traditionally kimono-clad wrestlers sightseeing around London.
The Albert Hall will also be graced this week by the presence of two yokozuna, the highest ranking of all sumo wrestlers. The word yokozuna is generally translated as grand champion, but it translates literally to “horizontal rope,” in a reference to the special rope worn around their waists to display their rank.
Fans of sumo wrestling take a selfie with Japanese rikishi Tobizaru Masaya outside the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, Oct. 15, 2025.
Krisztian Elek/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty
Once a rishiki is promoted to the rank of yokozuna, they keep it until retirement. In nearly 400 years of professional sumo, only 75 men have attained the vaunted grand champion status. The honor typically requires not only multiple consecutive championship wins, but approval by a dedicated council that judges rishiki on their wrestling skills, but also a range of other personal attributes.
The tournament is due to end on Sunday, when the wrestler with the most victories in the ring will be crowned this year’s champion.
The field is considered wide open this year, but many, especially back at home in Japan, will be hoping for 25-year-old Yokozuna Onasato, the country’s first grand champion in almost a decade, to emerge victorious.
LONDON (Reuters) -Japan’s elite sumo wrestlers slapped, thrust and flipped their way through the first evening of their five-day exhibition tournament in London’s Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday, to the delight of a full house of spectators.
After a ceremony-heavy start and some lively explanations for first-time watchers from Japanese broadcaster NHK’s veteran English-language announcer Hiro Morita, the audience watched the first few bouts in an atmosphere of near-reverence.
By the time the small-but-powerful young wrestler Asakoryu, who like all “rikishi” goes by a single ring name, charged furiously into Sadanoumi in the fifth bout, the crowd had the gist of things. Fans cheered wildly as the elder man locked his opponent in a belt grip before slowly but surely marching him backwards out of the ring.
The event, the first such sumo match in the UK in 34 years, was aimed at promoting ties between the two countries, according to Hakkaku Nobuyoshi, chairman of the Japan Sumo Association.
Spectators revelled in the sight of Midorifuji, the lightest wrestler in London at a mere 114 kg (251 pounds) going toe-to-toe with towering Kazakh fighter Kinbozan – who is 64 kg heavier – before being lifted in the air and dumped outside the ring.
In the second half, the audience began to let rip.
A shout of “I love you Takayasu!” from high up in the arena may not have been the kind of encouragement the former champion wrestler was expecting. But it did the trick and he duly sent his opponent Abi crashing to the dirt.
The most skilful performance of the evening came from the young Ukrainian wrestler Aonishiki, who flipped his much heavier opponent Atamifuji over with a rarely seen technique, thrusting one of his legs outwards from inside the knee while twisting him downwards by the opposite shoulder.
The two grand champions, Hoshoryu and Onosato, each won their bouts in stately fashion to bring the evening to a close.
One final moment of ritual awaited as a junior wrestler stepped into the ring with a long stringless bow to perform the bow-twirling ceremony – a last chance to cast any evil spirits out of the “dohyo” earth and clay fighting platform before sending the audience out into the night.
“It’s just so different up close, so impressive!”, said Japanese London resident Masami Sato as she waited for a bus home outside.
(Reporting by Hugh Lawson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
LONDON (Reuters) -The British government has come under sustained criticism after a prosecution against two men accused of spying for China collapsed last month, with critics saying it was because of fears of upsetting Beijing.
Here is what the case is about and why it has proved controversial:
WHAT IS THE UK CHINESE SPYING CASE?
Two men, Christopher Cash, 30, a former director of the China Research Group think-tank, and Christopher Berry, 33, who worked as a researcher for a senior lawmaker, were arrested by British police in March 2023 on suspicion of spying for China.
In April 2024, the men were charged with an offence under the 1911 Official Secrets Act of passing politically sensitive information to a Chinese intelligence agent known as “Alex”. They denied any wrongdoing and China says the case is entirely fabricated and a malicious slander.
In an unexpected move, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped the charges on September 15, a month before the trial was due to start, saying the case no longer met the evidential threshold.
WHY DID THE CHINESE SPYING CASE COLLAPSE?
Since it was dropped, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government has been accused by opponents of undermining the prosecution because it did not want to upset China, with which it is seeking better economic ties.
Critics have particularly singled out Britain’s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell because of what they say are his ties to China.
The UK government has rejected these accusations. Starmer said the decision to drop the case was made independently by the CPS and that ministers were disappointed it had not gone ahead.
However, the CPS said, prior to the prosecution being dropped, that it had for many months asked the government for new evidence which it believed was necessary for the case to go ahead.
The problem centred around the wording of the charge. Under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), a law brought in to deal with German spying before World War One, it is an offence to communicate documents which might be useful to “an enemy”.
At the time when the men were charged, Britain’s then-Conservative government had classified China as an “epoch-defining challenge” but stopped short of officially labelling it a threat.
However, lawmakers and the intelligence agencies had regularly warned about the threat of Chinese espionage and activities designed to influence British politicians, businesses and academia.
In July 2024, in a separate case which involved a team of Bulgarians later found guilty of spying for Russia, London’s Court of Appeal determined that an enemy under the OSA meant a country which “represents a current threat to the national security of the UK”.
It was following that ruling that the CPS said it had sought new evidence from the government, but that none of the additional witness statements obtained stated that China was a threat to national security at the time of the offence.
The government says the statements, provided by a deputy national security adviser without any involvement from Powell, had to state the official position at the time of the charge under the then Conservative administration.
The CPS says it is now up to the government whether to make those statements public. Starmer said on Wednesday that these would be published.
It is possible that even disclosing these statements will fail to provide clarity on who was right, as some legal experts suggest both the government and the CPS got themselves in a muddle over the issue.
The experts say that if the CPS had enough evidence to bring a charge in April 2024, then it is not clear what more they needed after the Court of Appeal’s ruling which, if anything, made it easier to define an “enemy” under the OSA.
However, that is unlikely to deflect criticism that the government appeared to be unwilling to provide evidence which made clear China was a threat, even if it was not officially described as such, because it would have meant stating it publicly in court.
(Reporting by Michael HoldenEditing by Gareth Jones )
LONDON (AP) — Robotaxi pioneer Waymo plans to expand to London next year, marking the company’s latest step in rolling out its driverless ride service internationally.
Waymo said Wednesday that it will start testing its self-driving cars on London streets in the coming weeks — with a human “safety driver” behind the wheel — as it seeks to win government approval for its services.
In a blog post, Waymo said it will “lay the groundwork” for its London service in the coming months. The company said it will “continue to engage with local and national leaders to secure the necessary permissions for our commercial ride-hailing service.”
Waymo’s self-driving taxis have been operating in the United States for years, and currently serve the cities of Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Austin. This year, the company made its first moves to expand internationally by teaming up with local partners in Japan for testing, though no launch date has been set for commercial service there.
The company began as a secret project within Google and was then spun out from the tech giant.
Waymo will have to follow new U.K. regulations on self-driving cars that pave the way for autonomous vehicles to take to the country’s roads. They require self-driving cars to have a safety level “at least as high as careful and competent human drivers” and meet rigorous safety checks.
The company will be able to take part in a pilot program for “small-scale” self-driving taxi and bus services that the government plans for spring 2026.
Waymo will also have to stick to rules from Transport for London, the city’s transport authority, which oversees licensing for its famous traditional black cabs as well as other taxi operators like Uber.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain and the United States on Tuesday sanctioned a Southeast Asia-based multinational network accused of operating large-scale online ‘scam centres’ that used trafficked workers to defraud victims across the globe.
The British government said the centres, located in Cambodia, Myanmar and across the region, used fake job adverts to lure workers who were then forced to commit online fraud under threat of torture.
This included luring victims into fake romantic relationships before, persuading them to invest large sums into fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms.
“The masterminds behind these horrific scam centres are ruining the lives of vulnerable people and buying up London homes to store their money,” said British foreign minister Yvette Cooper.
She said the joint action with the United States aimed to “combat the growing transnational threat” posed by the network and to “keep dirty money off our streets”.
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a separate statement: “The rapid rise of transnational fraud has cost American citizens billions of dollars, with life savings wiped out in minutes.”
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti, Editing William James)
LONDON (Reuters) -The British government expects to have full and unredacted access to China’s plans for a huge new embassy in London ahead of its decision on whether to approve the project, its housing minister said on Tuesday.
Concerns that the new embassy could be used as a base for spying have prompted some politicians in Britain and the U.S. to warn the government to block Beijing’s plans.
The government has said it expects to make a final decision by October 21 after it pushed back an August deadline, blaming Beijing for withholding detail on the blueprints.
But the timing is problematic for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, after it was accused in recent weeks of downplaying the threat China poses to Britain’s national security by allowing a trial of two British men charged with spying for China to collapse.
Housing minister Steve Reed said he would be able to see the embassy plans in full, without any blacked-out areas, when asked about the government’s decision on Beijing’s plan to build the largest embassy in Europe on the site of a two-century-old building near the Tower of London.
“I expect to see everything that’s being proposed before I take a decision,” Reed told Times Radio, without clarifying how much of the plans he had seen.
Asked whether the government was downplaying the risk to secure investment from China, he said that was not the case.
“This government recognises that China poses a threat to national security,” he said. “The decision will be taken on the merits of the case in front of me. We would never compromise national security.”
Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 on Monday issued a rare public warning to members of parliament that they were being targeted by spies from China, as well as Russia and Iran.
In August, the planning consultancy working for the Chinese government said its client felt it would be inappropriate to provide full internal layout plans, when asked about the blacked-out areas on the drawings.
The Ministry of Housing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it still plans to meet its October 21 deadline for a decision.
(Reporting by Sarah Young and Sam Tabahriti, writing by Sarah Young; Editing by Ros Russell)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday questioned whether former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair would serve on a new “Board of Peace” that is intended to oversee the governance of Gaza, amid ongoing criticisms of Blair for his role in the Iraq War.
“I’ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody,” Trump said, without naming specific leaders who could be weighing in on his choice of Blair.
A Gaza peace plan floated by the White House last month listed Blair as a member of the proposed board.
Trump made his remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One during a flight to Israel, where he is scheduled to address the Knesset on Monday. He is also planning to attend a world leaders’ summit in Egypt aimed at formally ending the Gaza war, as a ceasefire now enters its fourth day.
Israelis are awaiting the planned release of 20 remaining hostages still alive and being held by Hamas since October 7, 2023, when the militant group’s attacks triggered the devastating Gaza war.
The Board of Peace will get up and running quickly, Trump said, but he sounded uncertain about whether Blair would be well received by everyone involved.
“I want to find out that Tony would be popular with all because I just don’t know that,” Trump said.
The notion of putting Blair on the board sparked disbelief among Palestinian politicians and analysts, and among members of his own Labour Party in Britain, where his reputation suffered from his decision to back the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Following that U.S.-led invasion, the claims by the United States and Britain that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction were ultimately shown to be false.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Richard Cowan; Editing by Sergio Non and Michael Perry)
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain will provide a 20 million pound ($27 million) aid package to deliver water, sanitation and hygiene services in Gaza, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday, as he arrived in Egypt for a world leaders’ summit on ending the conflict.
Britain said the funding would be delivered through UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the Norwegian Refugee Council and was designed to reach those facing famine, malnutrition and disease.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held in Gaza for a third day on Sunday – part of the first phase of an agreement to end the war after two years.
Britain said it would also host a three-day summit on the reconstruction of Gaza that would include international government representatives, private sector and development finance representatives, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank.
Britain said this financial year it had given 74 million pounds in humanitarian support to Palestine, which it formally recognised as a state last month.
