Philip Reeves

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LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

In Britain today, parliament continues its hearing on the interest rate scandal at Barclays Bank. This week, several of the bank's top executives resigned, including the chief executive, Bob Diamond. Yesterday, parliamentarians quizzed Diamond for three hours.

NPR's Philip Reeves is in London, where he says outrage is growing.

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LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

The Olympic Games are now just over three weeks away. NPR's Philip Reeves is tracking preparations. He brings us his latest letter from London.

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: So it's true then. Surface-to-air missiles really will be stationed on London's rooftops during the Olympic Games.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And European leaders worked through the night last night, at a summit in Brussels aimed at tackling the eurozone's worsening debt crisis.

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: NPR's Philip Reeves is there and says they've reached an agreement on at least some issues.

Spain and Italy are among the largest economies in Europe. Their borrowing costs have been spiraling towards unsustainable levels. Spain has warned that it can't afford to pay them for much longer.

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The soccer game - they call it football - between Greece in Germany in Poland yesterday was always about more than just sport. Of course, there's friction between these two countries because of that eurozone crisis and both sides said they'd try to set aside politics for the day just to enjoy the entertainment. Now, of course, as has been widely reported, Germany won the game. They head to the semi-finals of the European championship. NPR's Philip Reeves was there and he sends us this account of an unusual day.

The queen of England this year marks 60 years on the throne, and Buckingham Palace is coordinating a week of events, including a concert at the palace and a 1,000-boat flotilla along the River Thames. NPR's Philip Reeves reports.

The people of Ireland vote Thursday on a European treaty that imposes strict budgetary rules on eurozone nations. It's triggered a heated debate in Ireland about whether austerity measures are working. The Irish government says rejecting the treaty would cut Ireland off from future EU bailout funds, and isolate the nation.

A mass tax revolt is under way in Ireland, and hundreds of thousands of people have resolved to break the law and refuse to pay a newly-introduced levy on households. The tax is $125 a year, but protesters say it could lead to larger property taxes in the future.

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The British have been holding a public inquiry into press ethics for the last few months. The government is responding to the outcry over the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World. The inquiry's investing the way newspapers, the police and politicians may feed off each other and that means shining a light into the secluded world, in particular, of the prime minister's social set. NPR's Philip Reeves has been watching the questioning.

(SOUNDBITE OF INQUIRY)

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LYNN NEARY, HOST:

It's a mere one hundred days remain before the opening of the Olympic Games in London. From time to time, MORNING EDITION has been getting dispatches from NPR's London-based correspondent Philip Reeves, about the preparations. In his latest, Reeves says the British are gearing themselves up for this great contest, both physically and mentally.

Barely a day passes without a fresh example of abusive behavior in cyberspace. Cyber-bullying is an epidemic that's causing misery to a multitude of often vulnerable people. NPR's Philip Reeves says the problem is so bad in Britain that people there are fighting back.

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After many months of bad new and devastation to its stock price, the British satellite TV giant BSkyB will try to move forward under new leadership.

NPR's Philip Reeves says this follows the resignation yesterday of its chairman, Rupert Murdoch's son, James.

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: James Murdoch announced his departure, acknowledging he's worried his role in Britain's phone-hacking scandal was threatening to hurt BSkyB. He doesn't want to be a lightening rod in a storm. That storm shows no sign of passing any time soon.

House prices have crashed. Banks and businesses have failed. Jobs have been axed. People are struggling to make the mortgage.

The Republic of Ireland's 4.6 million people have suffered considerably since the financial crisis began four years ago, forcing their government to turn to the European Union and International Monetary Fund for a $90 billion bail-out.

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

They call the Danish port city of Aarhus the City of Smiles, but not many smiling today. Police are patrolling the streets to stop violence from erupting, as far-right anti-Muslim groups from around Europe gather for a demonstration. Observers say it's the first time these hard-line groups have gotten together like this. NPR's Philip Reeves is on the streets of Aarhus, Denmark. Phil, thanks for being with us.

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: You're welcome.

SIMON: What are you seeing right now?

Those in Britain who complain that their politicians tend to be mealy-mouthed mediocrities who spend their lives battling over the middle ground are being compelled to think again.

One of the country's most fiesty political brawlers, George Galloway, has once again sprung back into the political ring by unexpectedly securing a return to parliament, long after most pundits had written him off.

A new political scandal has hit Britain's ruling Conservative Party. A senior official has resigned over an influence-peddling scheme uncovered by a British newspaper.

There is good news to report on Fabrice Muamba, the soccer player in Britain who went into cardiac arrest during a big game last Saturday in London.

Muamba, a 23-year-old from Congo, collapsed on the field as his team, Bolton, was playing English Premier League rival Tottenham. The Bolton club doctor, Jonathan Tobin, says the stricken player failed to respond to multiple defibrillator shocks, and that 78 minutes elapsed before Muamba's heart started beating on its own again.

Americans and Britons share the same language, yet transatlantic visitors to the London Olympics might struggle to understand what's going on. The games are in East London, home of rhyming slang, a form of linguistic gymnastics. It was pioneered in the nineteenth century by Cockneys as a code to confuse snooping policemen.

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Many lives are being turned completely upside down by the eurozone crisis. That's especially true in Ireland, where they're still clearing up the mess left when the property bubble burst. Thousands of homes lie empty and unsold. And as NPR's Philip Reeves reports, some people have been left with colossal debts.

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: Step, for a minute, into the strange world of Jill Godsil. She lives among the farms and villages and rolling hills of Ireland's Wicklow County. The countryside's spectacular.

The Greece debt crisis has forced the country to look to the eurozone for a bailout. But Greece is looking less and less like part of Europe. In the capital Athens, they are still cleaning up from the weekend riots. Even in its tourist precincts, the area is shabby and covered with graffiti.

At the E.U. summit in Brussels, Britain was the only nation to rule out treaty changes aimed at saving eurozone countries from default and saving the euro. A look at what's behind Britain's latest show of euro skepticism — and what it means for the Tory Prime Minister David Cameron, who, ironically, is in a coalition with the pro-Europe Liberal Democratic party.

Public sector workers walked off their jobs Wednesday in Britain, to protest pension cuts. They tied up airports, shut down schools and slowed delivery of health services. No one knows for sure how many joined the walk-out, though some reports it was as many as two million. The strike is an important sign of the growing discontent with Britain's austerity program.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now, the Occupy protests have focused on economic issues, which are also motivating a massive strike in Britain today. It is being described as the largest national strike in a generation. It is estimated that as many as 2 million public sector workers may be taking part, the latest in a wave of protests over austerity measures.

NPR's Philip Reeves is covering that story in London. And Philip, where are you?

Britain opted out of the euro, but it's by no means protected from the eurozone troubles. Declining demand on the continent means fewer British exports. The picture is particularly bleak in places like Hull — a dreary port city with the highest rate of youth unemployment in Britain.

For a long time, much of the world saw the eurozone sovereign debt crisis as Europe's problem. Now world leaders, including the United States, realize a eurozone meltdown could have dire consequences for everyone. They are working up a massive rescue plan whose contours are beginning to emerge. Although Britain does not use the euro, that nation's politicians are using their party conventions to issue dire warnings about the euro's fate. And one eminent economist is proposing a novel solution to limit the impact of the European debt crisis.