Jill Lawless

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street to attend the weekly session of Prime Ministers Questions in London, Jan. 12, 2022 (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

January 12, 2022, 4:32 pm

UK’s Johnson sorry for attending lockdown party, but says he deemed it a work event

British PM facing mounting anger over May 2020 garden party at Downing Street office; declines to resign amid demands he come clean about the ‘bring your own booze’ gathering

By Jill Lawless

Shoppers wearing face masks walk down Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, in London, on December 23, 2021. (AP/Frank Augstein)

December 23, 2021, 9:09 pm

UK data suggest hospitalization 50-70% less likely with Omicron than Delta

Preliminary findings add to emerging evidence variant produces milder illness, but also spreads faster and better evades vaccines

By Jill Lawless

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is shown on June 22, 2019. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)

December 21, 2021, 7:33 pm

UK court orders Dubai ruler to pay ex-wife $730 million in divorce settlement

Mohammed bin Rashid must pay Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, who fled UK in 2019 and sought custody of her two children through British courts, claiming to be ‘terrified’ of him

By Jill Lawless

G7 Foreign and Development Ministers pose for a group photo in Liverpool, England Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is hosting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other Group of Seven counterparts for weekend talks in the northwest England port city of Liverpool as the wealthy nations club faces growing tensions with Russia, China and Iran. From left, Italy's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Marina Sereni, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze, Phillippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro L Locsin Jr, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly, Canada's Minister of International Development Harjit Sajjan, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell and Brunei Darussalam's Minister of Foreign Affairs Dato Erywan Pehin Yusof. (Olivier Douliery/Pool via AP)

December 13, 2021, 5:57 am

G7 warns Russia of ‘massive’ consequences if Ukraine invaded

Moscow told to ‘de-escalate’ its military buildup near the Ukrainian border or face severe economic pain

By Jill Lawless

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson records an address to the nation at Downing Street, London, to provide an update on the booster vaccine program, December 12, 2021. (Kirsty O'Connor, Pool via AP)

December 12, 2021, 11:18 pm

Johnson says UK faces ‘tidal wave’ of Omicron cases

Britain’s PM says everyone over 18 to be eligible for COVID booster shot by end of December; health agency warns existing vaccines appear less effective against new variant

By Jill Lawless

Actor Antony Sher poses for photographers after winning the best Shakespearean performance award at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards in central London, on January 27, 2015. (Grant Pollard/Invision/AP, File)

December 3, 2021, 6:44 pm

Acclaimed Shakespearean actor Antony Sher dies at 72

After winning renown, Sher began to explore both his Jewish and his South African heritage, including adapting Primo Levi’s Auschwitz memoir into a one-man show

By Jill Lawless

An armed police officer holds a breaching shotgun, used to blast the hinges off a door, at an address in Rutland Avenue in Sefton Park, after an explosion at the Liverpool Women's Hospital in Liverpool, England, November 15, 2021. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)

November 15, 2021, 5:57 pm

UK raises terror threat to ‘severe’ following deadly Liverpool taxi explosion

4 ‘associates’ of dead passenger arrested in connection to incident; mayor says cab driver ‘heroically’ locked vehicle’s doors, preventing ‘awful disaster’ at nearby hospital

By Jill Lawless

Abulrazak Gurnah in 2009 (Wikimedia commons CC by 2.0)

October 7, 2021, 6:06 pm

Tanzanian Abdulrazak Gurnah awarded Nobel literature prize

UK-based writer is hailed for his ‘uncompromising writings on the ‘effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee’; is only 6th Africa-born writer to win the award

By david keyton and Jill Lawless

Actors Patsy Ferran, right and Luke Thallon, stars of the play Camp Siegfried, pose for a photographer in front of the Old Vic theatre in London, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

September 17, 2021, 12:31 pm

New London play tells real-life story of American Nazi summer camp

‘Camp Siegfried,’ written by Bess Wohl, is based on the Long Island camp in the 1930s that indoctrinated young German-Americans into Nazi ideology

By Jill Lawless

Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab arrives at 10 Downing Street, in London, September 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

September 17, 2021, 2:16 am

In shakeup, UK’s Johnson demotes foreign secretary after Afghanistan fiasco

Dominic Raab downgraded from top diplomat to justice secretary after failing to cut short his vacation amid Kabul chaos; education chief also fired; more cabinet changes expected

By Jill Lawless and Pan Pylas

In this handout photo provided by the Ministry of Defence, UK military personnel onboard a A400M aircraft departing Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. (Jonathan Gifford/Ministry of Defence via AP)

August 29, 2021, 4:05 am

Last UK troops leave Afghanistan, ending 20-year military involvement

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hails ‘heroic’ evacuation effort, even as the government acknowledges some eligible Afghan civilians have been left behind

By Jill Lawless

Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a RAF Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, England, as they return from helping in operations to evacuate people from Kabul airport in Afghanistan, on August 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool)

August 28, 2021, 6:20 pm

Final UK evacuation flight departs Afghanistan, troops start withdrawing

Top British military official acknowledges ‘we haven’t been able to bring everybody out,’ with some 1,100 Afghans entitled to move to UK left behind

By Jill Lawless

Charlie Watts, drummer for The Rolling Stones, seen visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday, June 3, 2014, a day before the band's concert in Tel Aviv. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90)

August 25, 2021, 1:44 am

Charlie Watts, legendary Rolling Stones drummer, dies at 80

Reluctant rock star had glittering 6-decade career; Watts and the Stones played Israel once, in 2014, when he also toured Western Wall and had crowd sing Happy Birthday in Hebrew

By Jill Lawless and Gregory Katz

In this January 26, 2021 photo, people in the International Arrivals area at Heathrow Airport in London, during England's coronavirus lockdown. (AP/Matt Dunham)

July 29, 2021, 12:16 am

Britain ends isolation mandate for vaccinated tourists from US, most of Europe

France excluded from new rules, set to take effect Monday; Heathrow Airport and British Airways welcome move

By Jill Lawless

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a media briefing on coronavirus in Downing Street, London, on July 5, 2021. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/Pool Photo via AP)

July 18, 2021, 3:57 pm

In U-turn, British PM Boris Johnson to quarantine after COVID-19 contact

Reversal after 3 hours comes after PM was criticized for announcing he’d skip isolation in new pilot program; development comes as Britain set for major removal of restrictions

By Jill Lawless