Rishi Sunak has called a surprise early election for 4 July in a contest that will see Keir Starmer try to take power for Labour after 14 years of Conservative-led government. The prime minister announced the election would be in the early summer in a high-risk move for the Conservative party as it trails 20 … [Read more…]
Iran began funeral processions Tuesday for President Ebrahim Raisi, as the country grapples with the fallout from his sudden death at a time of heightened regional tensions and domestic uncertainty. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has declared five days of national mourning for Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six others killed in the helicopter crash in a remote … [Read more…]
Ebrahim Raisi, whose helicopter crashed in the northwest of Iran on Sunday, was both the President of Iran and a candidate jockeying to succeed the elderly actual ruler of the country, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Both political positions carried an elevated risk level roughly comparable with that of traveling by air inside Iran—where aviation safety, compromised by … [Read more…]
Melinda French Gates, one of the world’s preeminent philanthropists, said Monday she would resign as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that she has helped lead since 2000. The foundation has made nearly $78 billion worth of grant payments in the nearly 25 years since its founding. French Gates made the decision “after … [Read more…]
President Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia’s election on Sunday, cementing his grip on power though thousands of opponents staged a noon protest at polling stations and the United States said the vote was neither free nor fair. For Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, the result is intended to … [Read more…]
King Charles has been diagnosed with a form of cancer, says Buckingham Palace. The type of cancer has not been revealed – it is not prostate cancer, but was discovered during his recent treatment for an enlarged prostate. The King began “regular treatments” on Monday and will postpone public duties during it, the Palace said. … [Read more…]
The World Court ordered Israel on Friday to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and do more to help civilians, although it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire as requested by the plaintiff South Africa. While the ruling denied Palestinian hopes of a binding order to halt the war in Gaza, it represented a legal setback for … [Read more…]
Gabriel Attal promised to be bold and act fast to help the middle class weather the rising cost of living, after President Emmanuel Macron, seeking to breathe new life into his second term, on Tuesday made him France’s youngest ever prime minister. The appointment of Attal, 34, a popular and media-savvy rising star of French politics, … [Read more…]
Colorado’s Supreme Court has ruled former United States President Donald Trump is ineligible to run for the White House because of his role in the 2021 assault on the Capitol by his supporters and should be removed from the state’s primary ballot. While the ruling only applies to Colorado, it marks the first time in US … [Read more…]
People in Gaza described begging for bread, paying 50 times more than usual for a single can of beans and slaughtering a donkey to feed a family as food aid trucks were unable to reach most parts of the bombarded Palestinian territory. Israel was pounding the length of the Gaza Strip in pursuit of its goal of … [Read more…]
Russia’s upper house of parliament has voted to set the date for the country’s next presidential election for March 17, 2024, potentially moving President Vladimir Putin closer to a fifth term in office. Members of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly voted unanimously on Thursday to approve a decree setting the date. “With this decision, we … [Read more…]
A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled that Donald Trump must face civil lawsuits over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters, rejecting the former president’s claim that he is immune. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that Trump was … [Read more…]