Britain

DANNY Jones shared an affectionate moment with his wife Georgia Horsley at the Pride of Britain Awards after she stood by him through their marriage woes.

The married McFly singer, 40, was caught snogging Love Island star and TV presenter Maura Higgins at the BRIT Awards afterparty in 2025.

This led to Danny publicly apologising to Georgia after the drunken kiss – with his wife of 10 years agreeing to stand by him.

Showing they’re united, Georgia and Danny shared a clip of them posing together on the red carpet.

The pair shared a get ready with me clip with Georgia stunning in a burgundy dress and Danny opting for an all black suit.

Danny captioned the post: “Last night at Pride of Britain Awards we celebrated the courageous & extraordinary.

fam first

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GRACE’S GAG

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“In what can be a very scary world sometimes it’s so important to acknowledge the kindness & selflessness of these individuals.

“Truly inspiring stories and even more incredible & inspiring humans.

“Be kind, always.”

Meanwhile, Maura – who is currently competing on Dancing With the Stars in the US – was thousands of miles away.

On Sunday, Maura sizzled in a white PVC skintight bodysuit and corset as she attended the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Los Angeles.

The Sun revealed how Danny and Maura, who appeared together in I’m A Celeb last year, shared a brief kiss during Universal Music’s Brit Awards.

The duo then travelled separately to the five-star Nobu Hotel for more drinks.

Last March, Danny made his emotional statement on Instagram, and showed his regret for putting his loved ones “in this situation.”

The dad-of-one, who shares son Cooper with Georgia, 38, wrote: “Hello everyone.

“Sorry it’s taken me a while to post this but I’ve taken some time out to be with those closest to me.

“I want to deeply apologise to my wife and family for putting them in this situation.

“I love them so much and we’ll continue to deal with this privately.”

Danny continued: “I love you guys, thank you for your patience, understanding and support.

“See you all soon, Danny.”

At the time, pals previously said that Danny was keen to draw a line under the scandal, which saw him holding crisis talks with Georgia, his wife of ten years.

A friend said: “Danny wants to draw a line in the sand and move on.

“He has talked with Georgia, and they just want to carry on with their lives.

“His actions were incredibly embarrassing, and he has expressed how much he regrets it.

“Now is the time to move past it and try and get back to normal.”

It came after it was claimed Georgia had issued The Voice panelist with a “final warning.”

Flag football is now played by 20 million people in more than 100 countries and the rapid growth of the women’s game was key to it becoming one of five optional sports for LA28.

The sport has been backed heavily by the NFL, which aims to help it earn selection for Brisbane 2032 too.

The decision is due before the end of 2026 so flag football could head into its Olympic debut knowing it will feature in back-to-back Games.

Participation has boomed in Australia and scores of athletes are switching from Australian rules football, netball and rugby, while the American team has recruited basketball players.

GB’s Brittany Botterill (football/softball), Phoebe Schecter (equestrian), Marta Mathews (football), Jochebed Frimpong (athletics), Jess Allen (badminton) and Angelica Tait (athletics/snowboarding) all competed in other sports before playing flag football.

US-born Emily Kemp even became an ultimate frisbee world champion last year, in the same summer she helped GB win the flag Euros.

“We are an elite team already, we’re a potential medal threat at LA28, but we’re really aspirational so we’re looking to widen our talent pool,” said Chad Ehlertsen, chief executive of the British American Football Association (Bafa).

“If you look at the top flag players around the world, they’ve generally come from certain sports. They have good hand-eye coordination, agility, speed, decision-making under pressure. These are the qualities we’re looking for.

“In many ways we’re not looking for elite flag players, we’re looking for elite athletes that have the potential [to transfer] and then our coaches will help them understand the game.”

Britain’s energy giants stand to make huge profits in Venezuela amid a major diplomatic rapprochement between London and Caracas, it can be revealed.

It comes in the wake of the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro earlier this year in a move described by UN experts as a “deliberate violation of the most fundamental principles of international law”.

Donald Trump has repeatedly emphasised how the US intervention was motivated by oil interests, even telling the UN General Assembly last week: “To the victor belong the spoils”.

Hours after Maduro’s seizure, Keir Starmer said Britain was “not involved”, but refused to be drawn on whether it was unlawful. “We shed no tears about the end of the regime,” he declared.

The kidnapping is already resulting in a boon for Britain’s energy giants, with interim president Delcy Rodríguez welcoming foreign companies back to Venezuela and softening the country’s hydrocarbon legislation.

Since January 2026, BP and Shell have signed major agreements with the Venezuelan government as it appears to be operating under duress from the Trump administration.

Documents obtained by Declassified indicate how Britain’s Foreign Office has helped facilitate their return, with an influx of high-level meetings between executives and officials taking place in the weeks and months after Maduro’s removal.

The opening of Venezuela’s economy has also paved the way for the normalisation of relations between London and Caracas. Plans were made earlier this month to upgrade diplomatic representation to ambassadorial level.

But serious questions surround benefitting from the kidnapping of a head of state amid a broader assault on Venezuela’s sovereignty.

“US coercive control over Venezuela’s oil revenues may have involved violations of Venezuela’s sovereignty”, said UN special rapporteur Ben Saul.

That includes breaches of “the duty of non-intervention, the right of economic self-determination, and the principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources”.

Professor Francisco Rodríguez, a leading Venezuelan economist who has advised its national assembly, told Declassified that “deals of this type are much more likely to survive when there is a broad consensus not only on their legal validity but on their desirability for the nation.

“At present, I see many more sectors of Venezuelan society that do not consider these agreements either legal or convenient for the nation, and some of them see them as outright exploitative”.

Rodríguez added: “It is hard to see any truly autonomous Venezuelan leaders signing these deals were a gun not pointed at their head”.

Firesale

Venezuela’s economy has been restructured under Delcy Rodríguez, who assumed power in January and was pictured with Trump earlier this month in New York, just miles from Maduro’s prison cell.

The country’s hydrocarbon legislation has been modified to make the terms more favourable for foreign firms, and its energy revenues are now being diverted through the US Treasury, with Washington taking a major cut.

By July, the US government had collected more than $13 billion in revenues from Venezuelan oil sales, according to the Financial Times.

In August, Trump also announced a “historic oil agreement” with Venezuela which would give the US control of more than 65 billion barrels of oil reserves for 100 years.

The deal would secure “our energy dominance for the next century”, Trump declared, “all at zero cost to the United States”. 

Remarkably, the company at the forefront of that agreement, North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), hired three lawyers who had previously worked for the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.

It is within this context that Shell and BP have returned to Venezuela.

Shell has been granted concessions to develop and operate two offshore gas fields, named Loran and Dragon, which are projected to contain vast amounts of recoverable gas.

The company also signed a preliminary deal to develop two onshore oil fields known as Carito and Pirital in Monagas State, one of the country’s most oil-rich regions. 

After signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Caracas in March, Shell’s regional manager Adam Lowmass recalled the company’s “long history in Venezuela, dating from 1912”. He declared: “I could not be prouder of our team”.

BP signed its own MoU with the Venezuelan government in April to develop the Cocuina-Manakin gas field which sits on the maritime border with Trinidad and Tobago.

The company was also granted a licence for the second phase of operations on the Loran field in partnership with Emirati XRG and Qatari UCC Oil and Gas, and has started trading oil in the US.

Shell and BP plan to process Venezuela’s natural gas using the Atlantic LNG plant and export terminal in Trinidad and Tobago, in which they are both major shareholders.

This cross-border presence will give the firms significant control over the supply chain of natural gas in the Caribbean, a large portion of which will be destined for Europe.

Meetings and lobbying

Data obtained by Declassified through the Freedom of Information Act indicates how the Foreign Office has facilitated Shell and BP’s return to Venezuela.

Executives from the companies met with Colin Dick, Britain’s chargé d’affaires in Caracas, eight times in the two months following Maduro’s kidnapping, compared with eight meetings for all of 2025.

While the Foreign Office has refused to disclose what was discussed beyond a few heavily redacted emails, the frequency of the meetings might be seen as implicit endorsement for the energy giants’ new ventures in Venezuela.

Oil has been guiding British foreign policy in Venezuela for over a century. Former foreign minister for the Americas Alan Duncan declared in 2018: “The revival of the oil industry will be an essential element in any recovery, and I can imagine that British companies like Shell and BP will want to be part of it”.

Britain’s current director for the Americas Harriet Thompson was in Caracas in early March 2026 as Shell was gearing up to sign major new energy deals.

Thompson “conducted a productive visit that included meetings at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry and engagements with representatives of British companies to explore growth opportunities for both countries”, the embassy said.

When asked in parliament whether those talks involved British natural resource companies, the Foreign Office said the question had already been answered in January – two months before the meetings had even taken place.

In its own write-up, the Venezuelan government said the delegation was the first of its kind for years, and opened new routes for “trade exchange” within a broader goal of “strengthening cooperation in strategic sectors”.

Earlier this month, Venezuela’s foreign minister and former ambassador to the UK Félix Plasencia and National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, Delcy’s brother, were in London for another high-level diplomatic exchange.

Standing outside the Foreign Office, Rodríguez noted how the meetings with British diplomats had covered “oil and gas investments” and the “rapid economic growth of Venezuela”. 

The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Source: Declassified UK

Britain is seeking a closer economic relationship with the European Union by asking to participate in the bloc’s “Made in Europe” industrial strategy, as Prime Minister Andy Burnham argues that the UK and EU face many of the same economic and industrial challenges.

Travelling to New York for his first United Nations General Assembly as prime minister, Burnham said Britain would seek to become a “trusted partner” in the initiative, which is intended to strengthen European production and reduce dependence on Chinese components.

“Europe’s argument is not with us,” Burnham told reporters on Monday. He said Britain and the EU faced similar pressures, particularly in industries such as steel, and argued that the UK should not face unintended consequences from a policy aimed at addressing dependence on China.

The British government has warned that excluding UK companies could disrupt established supply chains and create additional trade barriers between Britain and EU member states.

Why Britain wants access

The EU’s Made in Europe initiative is part of a broader effort to increase domestic industrial capacity and reduce reliance on overseas supply chains, particularly those involving China.

For Britain, exclusion could have consequences for sectors that remain closely integrated with European markets. The automotive industry, for example, relies on supply chains that cross the English Channel in both directions. Industry representatives have warned that excluding British manufacturers from European incentives and procurement opportunities could affect the competitiveness of both British and European companies.

British officials therefore want the EU to treat the UK as a partner in the initiative rather than as an external supplier.

Burnham has argued that British participation would reflect the practical connections that remain between the UK and European economies despite Brexit.

A wider attempt to rebuild UK EU ties

The dispute over Made in Europe is taking place as Burnham’s government seeks to deepen Britain’s relationship with the EU.

The UK government has already been pursuing closer cooperation with European countries in areas including defence, technology and manufacturing. Finance Minister John Healey recently urged EU counterparts not to exclude Britain from the bloc’s industrial strategy.

The government has also been seeking greater cooperation on European security. However, negotiations over British participation in the EU’s SAFE defence fund broke down, creating another obstacle to the government’s efforts to expand cooperation with Brussels.

Burnham has said he wants to move further and faster in rebuilding ties with the EU. His government has also been working toward a UK EU summit that was delayed following the change in prime minister.

The challenge inside Europe

Britain’s request for access is not simply a matter of negotiating with EU institutions. Member states also have different interests in how far the bloc’s industrial policies should extend to non member countries.

The proposed policy is intended to direct European economic activity toward European production and strengthen industrial resilience. Extending its benefits to British companies could therefore raise questions about what obligations Britain would have in return and how EU based businesses would compete with UK firms.

There are also broader questions about the meaning of the UK’s post Brexit relationship with the bloc. The British government is seeking closer economic and security cooperation without reversing the country’s decision to leave the EU.

That creates a difficult balance. London wants greater access to European programmes and markets, while Brussels must determine the conditions under which a non member state can participate in policies designed partly to strengthen the EU’s own industrial base.

What comes next?

Burnham’s immediate objective is to secure British participation in the Made in Europe framework while avoiding new barriers for industries whose supply chains remain closely connected to the continent.

The issue could become part of wider negotiations over the future of UK EU relations. Burnham has said his focus is on a renewed summit with European leaders, which he hopes can take place before the end of the year.

The outcome will indicate how far Britain and the EU can move toward closer economic cooperation without reopening the fundamental question of Britain’s membership.

For London, the argument is that Britain and Europe face shared challenges from global supply chain disruption and dependence on foreign production. For the EU, the question is how to strengthen European industrial capacity while determining the appropriate role for a neighbouring non member economy.

The debate over Made in Europe therefore reflects a broader post Brexit question: how closely can Britain integrate with European economic and security structures while remaining outside the bloc?

With information from Reuters.

Sonay Kartal and Katie Boulter lost their respective singles matches as Great Britain were beaten by a strong Czech Republic side in the Billie Jean King Cup quarter-finals.

Anne Keothavong’s team headed into the tie as underdogs, with all five Czech players placed higher in the singles rankings than any of the British squad.

Sonay Kartal produced a gritty performance as she returned to tennis after six months out with a lower back injury, but fell to a narrow 7-6 (7-2) 4-6 6-4 defeat in a marathon three-hour encounter with Marie Bouzkova.

Boulter could do little to get Britain back into the best-of-three tie as she was outplayed 6-2 7-6 (7-3) by Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova.

It was a second successive loss for Boulter at the hands of a Czech player, coming just three weeks after a 58-minute demolition by Karolina Muchova at the US Open.

It is the first time since 2023 that Britain have failed to reach the semi-finals at the Billie Jean King Cup and their wait for a maiden title will go on for another year.

The Czech Republic, who are 11-time winners of the tournament and the only team boasting two top-10 players at the Finals, will face either Kazakhstan or Spain in Friday’s semi-finals.