UK Labour Party sweeps to power in historic election win. But impatient voters mean big challenges
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Labour Party has swept to power after more than a decade in opposition, as a jaded electorate handed the party a landslide victory. But Labour also faces a mammoth task of reinvigorating a stagnant economy and dispirited nation. Labour leader Keir Starmer will officially become prime minister later Friday, leading his party back to government less than five years after it suffered its worst defeat in almost a century. In the merciless choreography of British politics, he will take charge in 10 Downing St. hours after the votes are counted. Conservative leader Rishi Sunak will be hustled out.
The Latest | Labour secures big majority to win UK election
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the British people have “delivered a sobering verdict” as he conceded that the Labour Party has won the election. With more than two-thirds of results counted, Labour has secured enough seats to form a majority government. Exit poll results suggested that after 14 years in power under five different prime ministers, Sunak’s Conservatives are set to have their seats in the 650-seat House of Commons cut down to 131. That would be the Tories’ worst result in the party’s two-century history.
He’s derided as dull, but Keir Starmer becomes UK prime minister with a sensational victory
LONDON (AP) — For someone often derided as dull, Keir Starmer has delivered a sensational election result. Starmer has led Britain’s Labour Party to a landslide election victory, and on Friday will become prime minister. It’s the latest reinvention for a man who went from human rights attorney to hard-nosed prosecutor and from young radical to middle-aged pragmatist. He became the first Labour Party leader to win a U.K. national election since Tony Blair. The son of a toolmaker, Starmer studied law at university and took on civil liberties cases before becoming chief prosecutor in 2008.
Iran holds runoff presidential vote pitting hard-line former negotiator against reformist lawmaker
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranians have begun voting in a runoff election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last month, as public apathy has become pervasive in the Islamic Republic after years of economic woes, mass protests and tensions in the Middle East. Voters face a choice between the hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and longtime parliament member who has allied himself with moderates and reformists within Iran’s Shiite theocracy. An initial round of voting June 28 saw no candidate get over 50% of the vote, forcing the runoff. It also saw the lowest turnout ever for an Iranian election, leaving turnout Friday a major question.
Brazil’s Bolsonaro indicted for alleged money laundering for undeclared diamonds from Saudi Arabia
SAO PAULO (AP) — The indictment of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro for money laundering and criminal association in connection with undeclared diamonds from Saudi Arabia marked the far-right leader’s second formal accusation with more potentially in store. Two sources with knowledge of the case confirmed Thursday’s indictment by Federal Police, which followed another formal accusation in May against Bolsonaro for allegedly falsifying his COVID-19 vaccination certificate. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Brazil’s Supreme Court has yet to receive the police report with the latest indictment, which dramatically raises the legal threats facing the divisive ex-leader.
Biden heads into a make-or-break stretch for his imperiled presidential campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is opening a critical stretch in his effort to salvage his imperiled reelection campaign. There’s a growing sense that Biden may have just days to make a persuasive case that he’s fit for office before Democratic support for him completely evaporates in the aftermath of his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump. Already, some financial backers are holding off or canceling upcoming fundraisers. And Biden himself acknowledged to Democratic governors that he needs to get more sleep and limit late events so he can be fit and rested for the job.
FACT FOCUS: Trump’s misleading claims about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said during his debate with President Joe Biden last week that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol involved a “relatively small” group of people who were “in many cases ushered in by the police.” But that’s not what happened. Thousands of his supporters were outside the Capitol that day and hundreds broke in, many of them beating and injuring law enforcement officers in hand-to-hand combat. Trump, now the presumptive GOP nominee to challenge Biden, has not only continued to mislead voters about what happened that day but has also heaped praise on the rioters.
Fireworks light up the skies across the US as Americans endure searing heat to celebrate July Fourth
Millions of Americans are celebrating the Fourth of July despite heat warnings, a projected record number of travelers and so many beachgoers that officials had to close some parks to latecomers. In the nation’s capital, neon bursts of light illuminated the night sky above the Washington Monument. The Boston Pops performed a musical fireworks spectacular at that city’s Hatch Memorial Shell. And at parades all across the country, revelers dressed up in red, white and blue and waved the Stars and Stripes in commemoration of the country’s Independence Day. The July Fourth holiday generally unites Americans in their shared love of country, but the 2024 version comes against a backdrop of deep political polarization and a divisive presidential race.
Hurricane Beryl takes aim at the Mexican resort of Tulum as a Category 3 storm
TULUM, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Beryl has strengthened back into a Category 3 storm and is headed for what could be a direct hit on Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Tulum, where authorities are urging tourists to leave white sand beaches. Beryl was the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic before weakening into a Category 2 storm. But it regained strength late Thursday with windspeeds of 115 mph (185 kph ) as it neared landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a statement late Thursday saying Beryl may make a direct hit on Tulum, which, while smaller than Cancun, still holds thousands of tourists and residents.
A bench and a grandmother’s ear: Zimbabwe’s novel mental health therapy spreads overseas
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — In Zimbabwe, talk therapy involving park benches and a network of grandmothers has become a saving grace for people with mental health issues. Now the concept is being adopted in parts of the United States and elsewhere. Zimbabwe has scarce clinical mental health resources. The Friendship Bench was started by a local psychiatrist. Grandmothers from the community are equipped with basic training in problem-solving therapy and have become trusted listeners. It’s inspired by traditional practice in which grandmothers were the go-to people for wisdom in rough times.
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