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Added on the 28/01/2016 17:20:17 - Copyright : Reuters EN
London (UK), Jan 22 (EFE/EPA), (Camera: Facundo Arrizabalaga).- UK clothing stores closed 2020 with their worst year ever due to a 25.1% annual slump in sales due to the coronavirus crisis, according to data released Friday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).FOOTAGE OF CLOTHING STORES IN OXFORD STREET, LONDON (UK).
Soldiers of the British Coldstream Guard, wearing their traditional "bearskin" tall fur cap, take part in the changing of the Republican Guard on the steps of the presidential palace in Paris, to celebrate 120 years of Entende Cordiale agreements between France and the UK. IMAGES
The nationalist pro-Irish Irish party Sinn Fein says the installing of a nationalist first minister in North Ireland, after the main pro-UK party agreed to endorse a deal with London, will be "a moment of very great significance". Speaking in Belfast, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald says it will mark "the extent of change that has occurred here in the north and indeed right across Ireland". The The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP agreement with London -- approved on January 30 in an internal vote at a closed-door meeting in Lisburn, near Belfast -- formed a basis to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly, that has been paralysed for nearly two years. SOUNDBITE
In his first speech of the year, UK opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer says an election is "one thing that we can be sure is coming", adding that he is "ready for it" as the Labour leader outlines his party's election year pitch. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to call a general election at some point in 2024, but exactly when is becoming a source of increasingly fevered speculation among political observers. SOUNDBITE
The European Commission proposes a three-year delay on tariffs on electric vehicles that are sold to, or imported from, Britain that was due to apply from January. The commission, the EU's executive arm, says it decided a one-off extension after the automotive industry raised concerns about the massive costs that would arise from a post-Brexit 10-percent tariff. Maros Sefcovic, EU Commission Vice President, calls the proposal "balanced and forward-looking" which "supports the competitiveness of our industry and protect jobs in the European Union" SOUNDBITE