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Britain Tag

Britain is set to join the United States in banning the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. The United Kingdom’s home office is expected to make a formal announcement barring the Shi'a Islamist outfit from the country later this week, Reuters news agency reported Monday. The UK had outlawed the military wing of the Hezbollah in 2008, allowing its 'political' wing to operate in the country.

Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry, is backing a campaign to "decolonize" the British curriculum by getting more women and ethnic minorities to join the faculties instead of "male, pale, and stale" professors, the UK newspapers report. Getting endorsement from the newly-minted Duchess of Sussex is more than a publicity coup for the leftist campaigners who are calling to purge Britain of its distinct cultural and historic legacy by replacing it with their politically correct worldview. The newest member of the royal family has a great sway over the academic policy making since she is the Patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, with over 500 member institutions in the UK and former British colonies.

Earlier this week, Mary wrote about the chaos in Venezuela as Juan Guaido Proclaims Himself Interim President, [and the] Military Backs Maduro.  At that point, the U.S. and Canada recognized Guaido as Venezuela's leader. Since then, Britain, Germany, France, and Spain said that Venezuela must agree to hold elections or they will recognize Guaido as the country's leader.  These countries have given Venezuela eight days to call the elections.

Following the British parliament's rejection of Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, the EU Council President, Donald Tusk, has told the country to stay in the bloc. "If a deal is impossible, and no one wants no deal, then who will finally have the courage to say what the only positive solution is?" the top EU official wrote on Twitter.

This is not Saturday Night Live. This is not The Onion or Babylon Bee. A Dutch animation artist put together a boy band to encourage the United Kingdom to stay in the European Union.  From NME:
“I cannot believe this is the end,” they pine on the song’s opening lines. “I still feel your love inside me. I still sing your words. I make a wish as your star falls.”

Few fruits are as popular in "green" California as the avocado. However, in Great Britain, some restaurants are banning the tasty delicacy from the menu in the name of "sustainability".
The Wild Strawberry Cafe, on Peterley Manor Farm in Buckinghamshire, shared a post on its Instagram page earlier this week explaining why it had decided to ban avocado from its kitchen.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has told the House of Commons that she will defer the vote tomorrow for her Brexit deal after many within her own party wouldn't support her deal due to the backstop. The Guardian reported that "the backstop is a device intended to ensure that there will not be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, even if no formal deal can be reached on trade and security arrangements."

British Prime Minister Theresa May remains on shaky grounds after two cabinet members resigned a day after she announced that the cabinet backed her proposal on Brexit. She has now lost a total of 12 cabinet members in the last year. From CBS News:
Dominic Raab, the second of May's Brexit secretaries to quit the role in as many years, said the draft agreement reached with Brussels would effectively leave Britain beholden to the rules and regulations of the European Union and even give the EU the power to stop the U.K. from extricating itself down the road. He said he could not "in good conscious support the terms" of the deal he helped to craft.

The UK Supreme Court has ruled in favor of two Christian bakers who refused to bake a cake iced with the slogan "support gay marriage." In a unanimous ruling, the five member Supreme Court bench reversed the previous rulings, upholding a business owners' right to freedom of expression and conscience.

"This court has held that nobody should be forced to have or express a political opinion in which he does not believe,” court president Brenda Hale said.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the British opposition Labour Party, said on Wednesday that he will recognize "the state of Palestine" should the party win the next general election. "In order to help make the two-state settlement a reality we will recognize a Palestinian state as soon as we take office," Corbyn told the delegates at the Labour Party’s annual conference. The pledged was greeted by a standing ovation and delegates waving Palestinian flags, British newspapers reported.

Islamist groups in Britain are "weaponizing" Islamophobia to silence legitimate criticism of Radical Islam, the country's counter-extremism tsar warned. The UK-based Muslim extremist groups "and their sympathisers weaponise Islamophobia in an attempt to shut down legitimate debate about Islamic extremism while undermining the general struggle against anti-Muslim hatred," Sara Khan, head of the UK Commission for Countering Extremism, said.

UK authorities have arrested a man on suspicion of terror offenses after a car drove into pedestrians outside of Parliament in Westminster on Tuesday morning. From The London Times:
The silver hatchback careered into a barrier just after 7.30am at what witnesses said looked to be about 40mph, hitting two people. Witnesses described flames and smoke coming from the car. The driver was dragged out of the vehicle by armed police. A black man in jeans and a puffa jacket was seen being held by about a dozen officers as emergency services rushed to the scene and police put a “terrorism act cordon” in place around Parliament Square, extending down Whitehall.

We haven't written much recently about Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain's Labour Party. In 2015, as he was campaigning for Labour leader, we covered his sordid history, Likely British Labour leader’s creepy associations, including Holocaust deniers, anti-Semites, Jihadist preachers, BDS and Max Blumenthal, among others.

Despite pressure from Prime Minister Theresa May and the UK Conservative Party, Britain's former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has refused to apologise for his critical remarks about women in burkas, the full-body Islamic veil. The senior Conservative politician stirred a controversy this week after likening burka-clad women to "letter-boxes" and "bank robbers". Johnson "won't be apologizing", reported the BBC citing a source close to the former Foreign Secretary. "We have to call it out. If we fail to speak up for liberal values then we are simply yielding ground to reactionaries and extremists," he reportedly added.