Labour lost seats including Jonathan Ashworth’s in Leicester, where angry voters say they felt ignored
When Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth lost his Leicester South seat to the pro-Palestine independent candidate Shockat Adam, it was widely seen as one of the biggest upsets of election night.
But a walk along Evington Road, a busy shopping street with a large Muslim population in the constituency, showed that all the signs were there.
Continue reading...Forward-looking British front pages reflect the incoming government’s work ahead and the post-election-win jubilance of the Labour leader and his wife
After Labour’s seismic defeat of the Tories, the UK papers’ front pages have focused on the work ahead for Keir Starmer amid his post-election glow after the new prime minister vowed to put “country first, party second” and rebuild Britain “brick by brick”.
The Guardian ran a full-page photo of the Labour leader pointing the way forward while holding hands with his wife, Victoria Starmer, beside a quote headline from his first speech as PM: “We will fight every day until you believe again”.
Continue reading...From the surprise decision to call a snap election to the divisions inside the doomed campaign machine
When rumours were ablaze that Rishi Sunak was about to call a snap election, one Conservative cabinet minister was asked by a colleague what was happening. “No idea,” he replied. “He’s either going to call a snap election today, name a date for the autumn or tell everyone that AI is really, really important.”
The cabinet – and most officials in Tory headquarters, which was disastrously underprepared – had been kept in the dark until almost the last moment. When Sunak did announce the election in Downing Street in the pouring rain, the move went down like a lead balloon with his colleagues.
Continue reading...Victory reflects deep dissatisfaction with direction of country and could bring greater cooperation with west
The reformist Masoud Pezeshkian has pulled off a stunning victory in the Iranian presidential runoff, reflecting deep dissatisfaction with the direction of the country in recent years and opening potential new avenues of cooperation with the west.
Pezeshkian won 16,384,403 votes to defeat the ultra-conservative Saeed Jalili, who received 13,538,179 votes, on a final turnout of 49.8% – a big increase on the record low turnout of 39% recorded in the first round. In the first round, Pezeshkian came top, defeating three Conservative rivals. The turnout included more than 1m invalid votes.
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Joe Biden has cancelled his upcoming Sunday address to the National Education Association Staff Union after the country’s largest union announced a strike over unfair labor practice complaints including overtime nonpayments.
A statement released by Biden’s campaign team said:
President Biden is a fierce supporter of unions and he won’t cross a picket line. The president is still planning to travel to Pennsylvania this weekend, and we will have more details to share at a later point.
I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.
Continue reading...The president blamed his debate performance on a bad cold, said he was in fine cognitive shape, and doubled down on staying in the race
Joe Biden is pushing back against questions about whether he has the mental and physical stamina to serve another term is president, arguing, in a much-hyped Friday television interview, “I just had a bad night.”
In a pre-taped sit-down interview that aired on Friday evening, the 81-year-old president told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he had been sick, exhausted, and had not prepared well for last week’s presidential debate with Donald Trump.
Continue reading...In appearance aimed at quelling nascent rebellion among Democrats, Biden made no big gaffes, but reviews are mixed
Joe Biden has insisted that only “the Lord almighty” could persuade him to exit the US presidential race in a potential make-or-break TV interview aimed at quelling a burgeoning rebellion in the Democratic party.
In an exchange free from major gaffes but unlikely to appease his critics, Biden was asked by George Stephanopoulos of ABC News how he would feel if he were to remain the nominee and lose to Donald Trump. “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” the president replied.
Continue reading...Bureau of Meteorology forecasts ‘showery weekend’ across the entire east coast of New South Wales and Queensland
Australia is set for more wet weather in the coming days with three separate rain bands forecast to end the recent south-east cold snap.
Angus Hines, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said it would be a “showery weekend” across the entire east coast of New South Wales and Queensland.
Continue reading...Homicide squad detectives are investigating the death, which is being treated as suspicious
The body of a woman has been found at a waste management facility in Melbourne’s north.
Workers made the grim discovery while moving green waste at the site on Cooper Street in Epping on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Counsellor tells court she took file notes that Haigh expressed concerns for her own safety and the future safety of her baby
Disappeared teenager Amber Haigh feared losing her baby to the man now accused of her murder, and was forced to change the locks on her apartment when he broke in to steal the infant’s cot, a court has heard.
Haigh was a 19-year-old mother when she vanished from the New South Wales Riverina in July 2002, leaving behind her five-month-old son.
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