UN 'appalled' by Israel evacuation orders as Gaza battles rage on

The United Nations protested on Tuesday over the latest mass evacuation orders issued by Israel in Gaza as the army said it had killed dozens of militants in 'close-quarters combat' in its latest offensive in Gaza City.Israel extended its evacuation warning to cover most of Gaza's main city on Monday and intense fighting erupted.Israel has now issued three evacuation orders for Gaza City and one for the south of the Palestinian territory since June 27 in a new stepping up of its military operations. The UN says tens of thousands of civilians have fled.Gaza City residents reported 'explosions and numerous gun battles' and helicopter strikes through the night in southwestern neighbourhoods.Residents said civilians were still leaving the city and many of the displaced said they had already moved from one evacuation zone only to find their new place of refuge had become a target too.The UN Human Rights Office said it was 'appalled' at new orders to civilians, 'many of whom have been forcibly displaced multiple times, to evacuate to areas where IDF military operations are ongoing and where civilians continue to be killed and injured'.The office said civilians told to head west out of central Gaza City on Monday were caught up in new fighting as the Israeli army 'intensified its strikes in the south and west of Gaza City, targeting the very areas where they had instructed people to move to'.Gaza City residents have now been told to move to the central district of Deir al-Balah, which the UN office said 'is already seriously overcrowded with Palestinians displaced from other areas of the Gaza Strip'.The Israeli military said it was pursuing a 'counterterrorism operation' against Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza City.'Over the last day, the troops eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat and aerial strikes,' the military said in a statement, adding that weapons have been seized and an 'underground route' destroyed.bur-tw/kir

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686317/international/un-appalled-by-israel-evacuation-orders-as-gaza-battles-rage-on

Samsung says 'no disruption' to production despite strike

South Korean tech giant Samsung said Tuesday that production was not being disrupted despite a three-day general strike by thousands of workers.More than 5,000 members of the National Samsung Electronic Union stopped working Monday, the organisation said, as part of a long-running battle over pay and benefits.The union has more than 30,000 members -- more than a fifth of the company's total workforce.'There has been no disruption to production,' local media quoted Samsung as saying.Park Seol, a senior member of the union, told AFP Tuesday that production was being affected.'But more importantly, the company should understand that we aren't trying just to affect their production line, we want them to hear our voice and understand how desperate we are,' he said.The union has been locked in negotiations with management since January, but the two sides have failed to narrow differences on benefits and a 5.1 percent pay raise offer from the firm was rejected.In a regulatory filing last week, Samsung Electronics said that its April-June operating profits were expected to rise to 10.4 trillion won ($7.54 billion), up 1,452.2 percent from 670 billion won a year earlier.Sales, meanwhile, are expected to rise 23.3 percent to 74 trillion won, Samsung said.Samsung Electronics is the world's largest memory chip maker and accounts for a significant chunk of the global output of high-end chips.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686316/international/samsung-says-no-disruption-to-production-despite-strike

France condemns Israeli occupation's plan to expand settlements in West Bank

The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in France condemned the Israeli occupations plan to expand settlements in the West Bank, stressing that this expansion decision could have serious consequences for peace and stability in the region.The Ministry denounced, in a press statement, the occupation authorities plan to legalize five colonial outposts, and its approval of a plan to build more than 5,000 additional settlement units in the West Bank.The statement indicated that the occupation authorities approved a plan to build more than 20,000 new settlement units in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem since 2023, and seized more than 2,300 hectares of land.Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories is a violation of international law that has inflamed tension in the region, the Ministry stressed.The so-called Israeli Ministerial Council for Political and Security Affairs (the Cabinet) recently approved the legalization of settlement outposts in the West Bank, and advanced plans to build thousands of new settlement units throughout the West Bank.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686312/international/france-condemns-israeli-occupations-plan-to-expand-settlements-in-west-bank

Russia missile attack kills 36

Russia blasted the main children’s hospital in Kyiv with a missile in broad daylight yesterday and rained missiles down on other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 36 civilians in the deadliest wave of air strikes for months. Parents holding babies walked in the street outside the hospital, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack. Windows had been smashed and panels ripped off, and hundreds of Kyiv residents were helping to clear debris.“It was scary. I couldn’t breathe, I was trying to cover (my baby). I was trying to cover him with this cloth so that he could breathe,” Svitlana Kravchenko, 33, told Reuters.The government proclaimed a day of mourning today for one of the worst air attacks of the war, which it said demonstrated that Ukraine urgently needs an upgrade of its air defences from its Western allies. Air defences shot down 30 of 38 missiles, the air force said. Fifty civilian buildings, including residential houses, a business centre and two medical facilities were damaged in Kyiv, the central cities of Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro and two eastern cities, the interior minister said. An online video obtained by Reuters showed a missile falling from the sky towards the children’s hospital followed by a large explosion. The location of the video was verified from visible landmarks. The Security Service of Ukraine identified the missile as an Kh-101 cruise missile.Twenty-two people, including two children, were killed in Kyiv and 82 more were wounded in the main missile volley and another strike that came two hours later, officials said.Eleven were confirmed dead in the Dnipropetrovsk region and 64 were wounded, regional officials said. Three people were killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk where missiles hit an industrial facility, the governor said. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would retaliate and called on Kyiv’s Western allies to give a firm response to the attack. “We will retaliate against these people, we will deliver a powerful response from our side to Russia, for sure. The question to our partners is: can they respond?” Zelensky who is visiting Poland said during a joint press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Diplomats said the UNSC would meet today at the request of Britain, France, Ecuador, Slovenia and the US.The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out strikes on defence industry targets and aviation bases in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General said he discussed the attacks with International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan, adding that his office would be sharing evidence with the ICC.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686303/international/russia-missile-attack-kills-36

Tokyo Governor Koike wins 3rd term: media

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike declared victory in yesterday’s vote to elect the leader of one of the world’s most populous cities after Japanese media said exit polls showed her winning in a landslide.Koike, 71, a former minister and television anchor, has been Tokyo governor since 2016 and immediately vowed to strengthen the Japanese capital’s welfare, economy, and management of natural disasters.Exit polls by public broadcaster NHK and other media after voting stations closed at 8pm showed Koike had shrugged off challenges from other candidates.Among her most prominent challengers had been another woman running in Japan’s male-dominated political sphere, the 56-year-old former opposition lawmaker, model and TV anchor Renho, who goes by one name.“With Tokyoites’ strong support, I was assigned to lead this great city Tokyo,” Koike told her supporters after exit polls showed she had won her third term as governor of the megacity of 14mn people.“Today Japan and Tokyo face various challenges”, such as inflation and the low birth rate, Koike said.“I have to upgrade efforts of Tokyo’s reforms, and as I appealed in my election campaign, I will protect Tokyo residents’ lives and livelihoods,” she said.Japan has never had a woman prime minister and a large majority of lawmakers are men, although Tokyo accounts for a 10th of the national population and a fifth of the economy.While much of the campaigning attention centred on Koike and Renho, NHK’s poll showed independent candidate Shinji Ishimaru, 41, the former mayor of Akitakata in western Japan, coming second.Ishimaru had stressed his financial expertise as a former banker.Japanese media said the Tokyo election would have some impact on national politics because the opposition bloc had supported Renho while Koike was backed by an alliance led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which she was a former member.The Japanese government’s public support rate has been dwindling to around 20%, partly due to a political funds scandal revealed late last year, and Kishida will face the LDP leadership election later this year before a national vote due by late 2025.The Tokyo vote comes after new government data showed the birth rate hit a record low of 1.20 last year, with Tokyo’s figure 0.99 – the first Japan region to fall below one.Koike and her major rivals pledged to expand support for parenting, with the former promising subsidised epidurals.“After having their first child, I hear people say they don’t want to experience that pain again,” Koike said during the election campaign, according to local media. “I want people to see childbirth and raising children as a happiness, not a risk.”Vote counting started immediately after ballot boxes closed and the official result will be announced by early morning today.A record 56 people were standing in the election, not all of them serious, with one dressing as “The Joker” and calling for polygamy to be legalised.Others campaigned for more golf, poker or just to advertise their premises in Tokyo’s red-light district.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686243/international/tokyo-governor-koike-wins-3rd-term-media

Twist in the French election tale

A loose alliance of French left-wing parties thrown together for snap elections was on course yesterday to become the biggest parliamentary bloc and beat the far-right, according to shock projected results.The New Popular Front (NFP) was formed last month after President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections, bringing together socialists, greens, communists and the hard-left into one camp.Veteran presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) led the race after the June 30 first round, with opinion polls predicting that she would lead the biggest party in Parliament after yesterday’s run-off.But projections based on vote samples by four major polling agencies and seen by AFP, showed no group on course for an absolute majority, and the left-wing NFP ahead of both Macron’s centrist Ensemble and Le Pen’s eurosceptic, anti-immigration RN.The left-wing group was predicted to take between 172 and 215 seats, the president’s alliance on 150 to 180 and the National Rally — which had hoped for an absolute majority — in a surprise third place on 115 to 155 seats.This marks a new high water mark for the far-right, but falls well short of a victory that would have been a rebuke for Macron, who called the snap election in what he said was bid to halt France’s slide towards the political extremes.Hard-left France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, giving his first reaction, called on French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to resign and said the left-wing coalition was ready to govern. Macron will attend next week’s landmark Nato summit in Washington a diminished but not defeated figure and France has been left without a stable ruling majority less than three weeks before Paris hosts the Olympics.The election campaign, the shortest in French history, has been marked by a febrile national mood, threats and violence — including racist abuse — against dozens of candidates and canvassers.Some 30,000 police have been deployed to keep order, and many voters expressed fears that rioting could erupt in some cities after the results were announced.Turnout was nevertheless high, with left-wing and centrist candidates urging supporters to defend democratic values and the rule of law – while the far-right scented a chance to upend the established order.By 5pm, according to interior ministry figures, some 61.4% of voters had turned out — the most at this stage of a legislative race since 1981.In the village of Rosheim, outside the eastern city of Strasbourg, an “anguished” 72-year-old Antoine Schrameck said he feared France would see “a turning point in the history of the republic”.And in Tourcoing, near the northeast city of Lille, 66-year-old retiree Laurence Abbad said she feared violence after the results are announced. “There’s so much tension, people are going mad,” she said.An outright RN victory would have seen Macron forced into an uneasy cohabitation with prime minister Bardella for the remaining three years of his term. Even without that scenario, France is left with a hung parliament with a large eurosceptic, anti-immigration contingent. This would have weakened France’s international standing and threaten Western unity in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.EU officials, already learning to deal with far-right parties in power in Italy and The Netherlands and frustrated by Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, are watching France closely.With the country on tenterhooks, last week saw more than 200 tactical-voting pacts between centre and left-wing candidates in seats to attempt to prevent the RN winning an absolute majority.This has been hailed as a return of the anti-far right “Republican Front” first summoned when Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie faced Jacques Chirac in the run-off of 2002 presidential elections.The question for France now is if this last-ditch alliance of last resort can now support a stable government, dogged by a huge RN bloc in parliament led by Le Pen herself as she prepares a 2027 presidential bid.If no coalition emerges Prime Minister Gabriel Attal could try to lead a minority government as, under French rules, the president cannot dissolve parliament again and call a fresh poll for 12 months.“France is on the cusp of a seismic political shift,” said analysts at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), warning of “legislative gridlock” that would weaken “France’s voice on the European and international stage”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686241/international/twist-in-the-french-election-tale

6 injured in Spanish bull running

Six people were hurt yesterday in Spain’s traditional annual San Fermin bull running festival, with one participant gored and five suffering bruising, local government sources said.A 37-year-old Spanish man emerged from his goring with slight injuries, officials said.The curtain went up on nine days of festivities on Saturday as thousands of revellers dressed in white clothes and red scarves filled the city’s main square for the “chupinazo” — the firecracker which launches an event dating back to medieval times.The run became world famous after being immortalised by US writer Ernest Hemingway in his novel The Sun Also Rises in 1926.The festivities include concerts, religious processions and copious amounts of wine.Each day at 8am hundreds of attendees launch themselves into a dangerous 850m race, seeking to outrun — or at least avoid — six heavy fighting bulls through the city centre’s narrow streets. During the intense “running of the bulls”, which lasts less than three minutes, the runners try to get as close as possible to the animals in their sprint to the Pamplona bullring, where bullfights are held in the afternoon.This year’s edition saw the day of San Fermin fall on a Sunday, allowing a stronger turnout than when the saint’s day falls on a weekday.Anyone aged 18 or above may participate.Dozens of people are injured each year, although most are injuries resulting from falls or being stomped by animals. To date, 16 deaths have also been recorded since 1911, the last coming in 2009.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686240/international/6-injured-in-spanish-bull-running

Airports, Wall Street, Olympics in crosshairs of climate activists

Climate activists in the United States and Europe are planning protests at airports, banks and the Olympic Games in a summer of stunts they have defended as necessary even if their tactics differ.From blocking highways to spray painting jets and the megaliths at Stonehenge, and throwing food at artworks, some climate activists have turned to more provocative tactics since the Covid-19 pandemic put an abrupt end to the mass marches spurred by Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement.The last 12 months have been the hottest ever recorded and with swathes of the world blanketed in extreme heat, campaigners have heavy-polluting corporations and business interests in their sights.A22 Network, an alliance of activist groups committed to non-violent protest, said it was planning to disrupt airports in eight countries over the northern hemisphere summer.Protests are planned in the UK, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, US, Scotland and Norway, UK-based activists from the alliance told AFP.Global aviation is responsible for around 2.5% of global carbon emissions, more than the annual carbon footprint of Brazil and France combined.“Our resistance will put the spotlight on the heaviest users of fossil fuels and call everyone into action with us,” Just Stop Oil, one of the groups that embraced more controversial forms of protests, said in a statement.UK police said they pre-emptively arrested 27 supporters from Just Stop Oil before the protest had even begun under laws that make it illegal to conspire to disrupt national infrastructure.But Gabriella Ditton, a spokesperson for the group, said the arrests hadn’t deterred them.“While we face the massive crisis that we are in, we can’t stop,” she told AFP.They are demanding governments sign the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, which seeks a halt to the expansion of fossil fuels and the phasing out of coal, oil and gas.In the US, activists have been targeting Wall Street and barricading the entrances to major banks and firms that finance, insure and invest in fossil fuel companies.Organisers of “The Summer of Heat” campaign have vowed “joyful, relentless non-violent direct action to end fossil fuel financing” over the coming months.Notably in Europe, Extinction Rebellion (XR), once notorious for shutting down bridges over the Thames River in London, have shifted their main focus from mass civil disobedience to building an inclusive grassroots movement.This summer, they are calling on governments in the UK and France to establish citizen assemblies on climate and nature, while picketing the companies insuring the fossil fuel industry.Gail Bradbrook, XR’s co-founder, told AFP their new-look approach to climate activism strived “to reach more mainstream folks” and do “the deeper work of local organising”.They are, however, planning “mass occupations” over the summer — including one at the start of the Olympic Games opening in Paris on 26 July.Organisers in France say this could last several days but would be “more visible than disruptive”, but have not offered further planning details.Which approach is best at grabbing attention — and which is better at driving change — has been the subject of debate, particularly following polarising stunts targeting famous landmarks.When two Just Stop Oil activists threw orange cornflour on Stonehenge in June “they got a heck more media attention than by spraying paint on airfields,” said Dana Fisher, a sociologist at American University in Washington DC.The goal of these “shock” actions “is to make people mad”, Fisher said. The more people talked about the protest, the more they discussed the climate issue, she added.Several studies in the UK and Germany showed that public concern about climate change stayed the same — or even increased — after acts of civil disobedience even if most people were unsupportive of such stunts.“Historically, there is substantial evidence that shows that the radical flank drives support for the cause and moderate factions,” said Fisher.But between “gluing yourself to something, blocking a bank or throwing soup, which is more effective, we do not know yet,” she added.For Jamie Henn, co-founder of campaign group 350.org and director of Fossil Free Media, “confrontational tactics work best when they’re confronting the source of the problem”.“Mainstreaming the idea that we can finally go fossil free needs to be a top priority for the climate movement,” he said.Laura Thomas-Walters, a social scientist at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, said political change was achieved “by targeting the people of power propping up the status quo, and we need to do it in a sustained way”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686184/international/airports-wall-street-olympics-in-crosshairs-of-climate-activists

Slovak PM Fico makes first public appearance since assassination attempt

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico appeared in public on Friday for the first time since a May assassination attempt, railing in a speech against progressive ideologies and backing Hungarian leader Viktor Orban’s visit to Moscow.Fico, who is recovering after being shot four times at close range in mid-May, made his appearance at an evening ceremony marking Saints Cyril and Methodius Day, a public holiday in Slovakia. He spoke standing at a podium at a castle ruins dating back over 11 centuries.Fico, a four-time leftist prime minister who returned to power after winning an election last September, was shot when he greeted supporters at a government meeting in the central Slovak town of Handlova, leaving him needing hours of surgery. He has been recovering at home since the end of May.The attack has deepened the polarisation in the central European country of 5.4mn.Fico’s leftist-nationalist government has quickly shifted policy since taking power last year, including changing some criminal laws andcancelling a special prosecutor’s office, transforming the public broadcaster, and halting state military aid to Ukraine.Opposition parties have battled Fico’s government over the changes while the European Union has watched for any damage to rule of law or media freedoms.Fico hit back against progressive and liberal ideologies he said were “spreading like cancer” and hurting the country.“I don’t want Slovakia to be among the countries that make a caricature of Western civilisation,” he said. In a video message posted on Facebook in early June, Fico had called his attacker an opposition activist, but said he felt no hatred toward him and would not seek damages.His attacker, a man identified by prosecutors as 71-year old Juraj C., was detained and charged with attempted premeditated murder. Prosecutors this week upgraded the case to a terrorist attack.The detained man has, according to court documents, said he had wanted to hurt the prime minister, but not kill him, because he disagreed with the government’s policies.Fico has faced criticism for views leaning toward Russia while his foreign minister has met his Russian counterpart despite EU officials avoiding high-level meetings with Moscow.Fico, in his first live speech since the attack, reiterated a call for peace talks in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and said he would have joined Orban on his visit to Moscow if health allowed.Orban faced outcry from some EU leaders for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.“There are not enough, I repeat, not enough peace talks, peace initiatives,” Fico said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686183/international/slovak-pm-fico-makes-first-public-appearance-since-assassination-attempt

Record number of cabinet ministers defeated

A record number of Cabinet ministers lost their seats on Friday in Britain’s general election, leaving only a couple of obvious contenders for the party leadership if Rishi Sunak resigns.

Nine members of prime minister Rishi Sunak’s top team failed to be re-elected, beating the previous high of seven who lost out in 1997, as the ruling Conservatives suffered a mauling at the hands of the main opposition Labour party.

Grant Shapps, the UK’s defence secretary for nearly a year, was the most high-profile casualty, losing his Welwyn Hatfield seat north of London.

Liz Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, suffered further political ignominy on Friday when she sensationally lost her seat in parliament at the general election.

Truss’s defeat came as the constituencies of all her predecessors since the Tories won power in 2010 turned either Labour or Liberal Democrat - a damning indictment on the Conservatives’ 14 years in power.

Truss, who sparked financial turmoil during her 49 chaotic days in charge in 2022, lost her Norfolk South West constituency in eastern England to Labour by 630 votes.

Labour candidate Terry Jermy overturned Truss’s massive majority of more than 26,000 which she secured at the last election in 2019 - a notional 27.85% swing.

Truss - whose shelf-life as premier was lampooned as shorter than that of an Iceberg lettuce - said she had “a lot to think about” when asked if she wanted to stay in politics.

Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt, who shot to international attention as a sword carrier at King Charles III’s coronation last May, lost in Portsmouth North on England’s south coast.

A former defence secretary, she tried twice to become Tory leader, and was tipped to try again after Thursday’s election, with Sunak expected to stand down.

Other Tory casualties included education secretary Gillian Keegan, justice secretary Alex Chalk, culture secretary Lucy Frazer, transport and science secretary Michelle Donelan.

Veteran minister Johnny Mercer and Brexit champion Jacob Rees-Mogg also lost out, as voters grew fed up with the Conservatives after 14 years in power.

The defeats have already sparked soul-searching among re-elected and departing Conservatives, who said the party had been punished for a series of scandals and infighting in recent years.

“I think that we have seen in this election an astonishing ill-discipline within the party”, said former justice secretary Robert Buckland, after losing his seat.

Shapps, an MP since 2005, criticised the Tories’ “inability to iron out their differences” amid an endless political “soap opera” that saw five prime ministers since the 2016 Brexit vote.

“What is crystal clear to me - it is not so much that Labour won but that the Conservatives lost,” he added.

Right-winger Suella Braverman, sacked as interior minister by Sunak late last year for a series of incendiary comments, was re-elected and finance minister Jeremy Hunt survived a major scare to squeak victory.

Current interior minister James Cleverly also held on to his seat. Secretary of state for business and trade Kemi Badenoch and security minister Tom Tugendhat also won their races.

Most of those high-profile survivors are expected to challenge for the leadership.

Braverman apologised to voters in her victory speech, saying the Tories had failed to listen to voters.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686114/international/record-number-of-cabinet-ministers-defeated

New PM Starmer pledges to rebuild Britain after years of chaos

Labour government will act to fix BritainStarmer says change will take timeSunak stays on as Conservative leader for a whileBritain's new prime minister Keir Starmer pledged on Friday to use his massive electoral majority to rebuild the country, saying he wanted to take the heat out of politics after years of upheaval and strife.Standing outside his new office and residence at Number 10 Downing Street, Starmer acknowledged the scale of the challenge after his party's landslide victory in a parliamentary election ended 14 years of often tumultuous Conservative government.He warned that any improvements would take time, and he would need to first rebuild faith in politics.'This lack of trust can only be healed by actions, not words. I know that,' he said.'Whether you voted Labour or not, in fact, especially if you did not, I say to you directly - My government will serve you. Politics can be a force for good. We will show that.'Starmer was greeted by huge cheers and took time before making his speech to shake hands with and hug aides and well-wishers who lined Downing Street - scenes that were reminiscent of Tony Blair's arrival in government in 1997.Standing behind a lectern, he said he understood that many Britons were disillusioned with politics after years of scandal and chaos under the Conservatives, who were roundly rejected in Thursday's election, suffering a historic loss.Starmer said the rejection signalled that Britain was ready for a reset: 'Because no matter how fierce the storms of history, one of the great strengths of this nation has always been our ability to navigate away to calmer waters.'The centre-left Labour won a massive majority in the 650-seat parliament, prompting Rishi Sunak's resignation on Friday morning, before Starmer went to meet King Charles and be formally named prime minister.He said he would fight every day to rebuild trust, saying Britain would have a 'government unburdened by doctrine', underlining something he had repeated during the campaign - that he would put country first, party second.'To defy, quietly, those who have written our country off. You have given us a clear mandate, and we will use it to deliver change.'The election result has upended British politics. Labour won more than 410 seats, an increase of 211, while the Conservatives, the western world's most successful party, lost 250 lawmakers, including a record number of senior ministers and former Prime Minister Liz Truss.Sunak's Conservatives suffered the worst performance in the party's long history as voters punished them for a cost of living crisis, failing public services and a series of scandals.'To the country I would like to say first and foremost I am sorry,' Sunak said outside Downing Street, adding he would stay as Conservative leader until the party was ready to appoint his replacement.'I have given this job my all, but you have sent a clear signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change, and yours is the only judgment that matters. I have heard your anger, your disappointment and I take responsibility for this loss.'Despite Starmer's convincing victory, polls suggested there was little enthusiasm for Starmer or his party. Thanks to the quirk of Britain's first-past-the-post system and a low turnout, Labour's triumph was achieved with fewer votes than it secured in 2017 and 2019 - the latter its worst result for 84 years.The pound and British stocks and government bonds rose marginally on Friday, but Starmer comes to power at a time when the country is facing a series of daunting challenges.Britain's tax burden is set to hit its highest since just after World War Two, net debt is almost equivalent to annual economic output, living standards have fallen, and public services are creaking, especially the much cherished National Health Service which has been dogged by strikes.Some of Labour's more ambitious plans, such as its flagship green spending pledges, have already been scaled back while Starmer has promised not to raise taxes for 'working people'.Likewise, he has promised to scrap the Conservative's policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, but with migration a key electoral issue, he will be under pressure himself to find a way to stop tens of thousands of people arriving across the Channel from France on small boats.'I don't promise you it will be easy,' Starmer said earlier at a victory rally. 'Changing a country is not like flicking a switch. It's hard work. Patient, determined, work, and we will have to get moving immediately.'Britain's election result showed growth in support for the right-wing Reform party, led by Nigel Farage, echoing recent similar results in Europe where the far right have been surging.But, unlike France where Marine Le Pen's National Rally party made historic gains in an election last Sunday, overall the British public has plumped for a centre-left party to bring about change.Starmer has promised to improve relations with the European Union after Brexit, but Labour has said rejoining the EU is not on the table.He may also have to work with Trump if he wins November's presidential election. Trump has already sent congratulations to Farage, via his social media platform Truth Social.While he has promised to bring change domestically, Starmer has vowed to continue London's unequivocal support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. On many foreign issues, his policies are similar to Sunak's.The election victory represents an incredible turnaround for Starmer and Labour, which critics and supporters said was facing an existential crisis just three years ago when it appeared to have lost its way after its 2019 drubbing.A series of Conservative scandals - most notably revelations of parties in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns - undermined then prime minister Boris Johnson and its commanding poll lead evaporated.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686083/international/ukeurope/new-pm-starmer-pledges-to-rebuild-britain-after-years-of-chaos