LONDON: The simmering showdown between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Britain’s Parliament over Brexit came to a head as lawmakers delivered three defeats to the government’s plans for leaving the European Union, before being sent home early Tuesday for a contentious five-week suspension of the legislature.
In a session that ran well past midnight, Parliament enacted a law to block a no-deal Brexit next month, ordered the government to release private communications about its Brexit plans and rejected Johnson’s call for a snap election to break the political deadlock.
Parliament was then suspended — or prorogued— at the government’s request until Oct. 14, a drastic move that gives Johnson a respite from rebellious lawmakers as he plots his next move.
Opponents accuse him of trying to avoid democratic scrutiny. What is usually a solemn, formal prorogation ceremony erupted into raucous scenes as opposition lawmakers in the House of Commons chamber shouted “Shame on you” and held up signs reading “Silenced.”
Commons Speaker John Bercow expressed his displeasure at Parliament’s suspension, saying “this is not a standard or normal prorogation.”
“It’s one of the longest for decades and it represents an act of executive fiat,” he said.
The prime minister has had a turbulent week since Parliament returned from its summer break on Sept. 3. He kicked 21 lawmakers out of the Conservative group in Parliament after they sided with the opposition, and saw two ministers quit his government — one of them his own brother.
Parliament’s suspension ended a day of blows to the embattled Johnson. First an opposition-backed measure designed to stop Britain from crashing out of the EU on Oct. 31 without a divorce deal became law after receiving the formal assent of Queen Elizabeth II. The law compels the government to ask the EU for a three-month delay if no deal has been agreed by Oct. 19.
Johnson says the country’s delayed exit must happen at the end of October, with or without a divorce agreement to smooth the way. But many lawmakers fear a no-deal Brexit would be economically devastating, and are determined to stop him.
“I will not ask for another delay,” Johnson said. But he has few easy ways out of it. His options — all of them extreme — include disobeying the law, which could land him in court or even prison, and resigning so that someone else would have to ask for a delay.
Legislators also demanded the government release, by Wednesday, emails and text messages among aides and officials relating to suspending Parliament and planning for Brexit amid allegations that the suspension is being used to circumvent democracy.
Under parliamentary rules, the government is obliged to release the documents.
In a statement, the government said it would “consider the implications of this vote and respond in due course.”
Then, early Tuesday, lawmakers rebuffed, for a second time, Johnson’s request for an early election, which he said was “the only way to break the deadlock in the House.”
Opposition parties voted against the measure or abstained, denying Johnson the two-thirds majority he needed. They want to make sure a no-deal departure is blocked before agreeing to an election.
“We’re eager for an election, but as keen as we are we, we are not prepared to inflict the disaster of a no deal on our communities, our jobs, our services, or indeed our rights,” Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said.
Johnson acknowledged Monday that a no-deal Brexit “would be a failure of statecraft” for which he would be partially to blame.
On a visit to Dublin, Johnson said he would “overwhelmingly prefer to find an agreement” and believed a deal could be struck by Oct. 18, when leaders of all 28 EU countries hold a summit in Brussels.
The comments marked a change of tone, if not substance, for Johnson, who is accused by opponents of driving Britain at full-tilt toward a cliff-edge Brexit.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warned Johnson that “there’s no such thing as a clean break,” and if Britain crashed out, it would “cause severe disruption for British and Irish people alike.”
Johnson and Varadkar said they had “a positive and constructive meeting,” but there was no breakthrough on the issue of the Irish border, the main stumbling block to a Brexit deal.
The EU says Britain has not produced any concrete proposals for replacing the contentious “backstop,” a provision in the withdrawal agreement reached by Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May that is designed to ensure an open border between EU member Ireland and the UK’s Northern Ireland.
An open border is crucial to the regional economy and underpins the peace process that ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
Opposition to the backstop was a key reason Britain’s Parliament rejected May’s Brexit deal with the EU three times earlier this year. British Brexit supporters oppose the backstop because it locks Britain into EU trade rules to avoid customs checks, something they say will stop the UK from striking new trade deals with countries such as the United States.
Varadkar said he was open to any alternatives that were “legally workable,” but none had been received so far.
“In the absence of agreed alternative arrangements, no backstop is no deal for us,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bercow, whose control of business in the House of Commons has made him a central player in the Brexit drama, announced he would step down after a decade in the job.
The colorful speaker, famous for his loud ties and even louder cries of “Order!” during raucous debates, told lawmakers he will quit the same day Britain is due to leave the EU, Oct. 31.
Throughout the three years since Britain voted to leave the EU, Bercow has angered the Conservative government by repeatedly allowing lawmakers to seize control of Parliament’s agenda to steer the course of Brexit.
He said he was simply fulfilling his role of being the “backbenchers’ backstop” and letting Parliament have its say.
“Throughout my time as speaker, I have sought to increase the relative authority of this legislature, for which I will make absolutely no apology,” he said.
Johnson suspends UK Parliament after latest Brexit defeat
Johnson suspends UK Parliament after latest Brexit defeat

- Parliament enacted a law to block a no-deal Brexit next month
- Parliament was then suspended — or prorogued— at the government’s request until Oct. 14
Zverev shakes off recent funk to beat Muller in Munich

- Zverev has played six tournaments since losing the Australian Open final in three sets to Sinner in January, but has not made it past the quarterfinals at any
- World No. 15 Ben Shelton made a stuttering tourney start, coming from a set down to beat world No. 410 Borna Gojo 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7-3)
MUNICH: World No. 3 Alexander Zverev got his clay court season back on track with a 6-4, 6-1 over Frenchman Alexandre Muller in the first round of the ATP event in Munich on Monday.
The German lost his opener at last week’s Monte Carlo Masters to Italian Matteo Berrettini, missing the chance to bump Jannik Sinner from the world the No. 1 position.
Instead, that defeat and the Carlos Alcaraz’s victory in the final on Sunday saw Zverev dropping down a place in the rankings and dented his preparations for next month’s French Open.
On Monday, Zverev broke his opponent in the first game. Muller broke back at 3-3 before Zverev recovered to win the set in 47 minutes.
The No. 1 seed found his rhythm in the second, breaking his opponent three times.
The 27-year-old completed victory in one hour and 20 minutes.
Zverev has played six tournaments since losing the Australian Open final in three sets to Sinner in January, but has not made it past the quarterfinals at any.
“I’m very happy with the match,” Zverev told Sky Germany: “I want to play my best tennis again — and this was a very good step in the right direction.”
Since winning back-to-back titles in Munich in 2017 and 2018, Zverev has not made it past the final eight.
He will face either countryman Daniel Altmaier or Taiwan’s Tseng Chun-hsin in the quarterfinals.
Earlier on Monday, world No. 15 Ben Shelton made a stuttering start to the tournament, coming from a set down to beat world No. 410 Borna Gojo 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7-3).
Shelton, seeded second in Munich, fought off three match points, winning both of his sets via tiebreak in two hours and 24 minutes.
Defending champion Jan-Lennard Struff, who beat American Taylor Fritz in the final last season, opens his campaign against Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo on Tuesday.
Norris feels ‘nowhere near’ his best as Formula 1 title contest heats up inside McLaren

- After finishing third Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix, which was won by his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, Norris said he felt far more confident last year when he lost out on the title to Max Verst
- Norris says “something is just not clicking” for him with McLaren’s dominant car and that he even lacked confidence when he won the Australian Grand Prix last month
Lando Norris may be top of the F1 standings but he feels like he’s driving “nowhere near” his best and can’t work out why.
After placing third Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix — won by his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri — Norris said he felt far more confident last year, when he lost out on the drivers’ title to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
“I’m confident that I have everything I need and I’ve got what it takes,” Norris said. “I have no doubt about that, that I’m good enough, but something is just not clicking with me in the car.”
Norris, who qualified sixth for Sunday’s race, saw Piastri close to within three points of him in the standings.
“As soon as you’re not gelling (with the car), then you’re going to be in issues, and that’s what I have at the moment,” Norris said.
Even though he’s still leading and won the season-opening Grand Prix in Australia last month, Norris said he hasn’t felt comfortable all year with McLaren’s car — widely considered the fastest on the grid.
Last year, “I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car, how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year could not have felt more opposite so far,” Norris said.
“Even in Australia, I won the race but never felt comfortable, never felt confident. The car was just mega and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute, but I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say.”
Norris and Piastri combined to help McLaren won the constructor title in 2024, the team’s first since 1998.
Teammate battles which shaped F1
The years when F1 has been dominated by a single team have produced some of the most bitter rivalries, as McLaren witnessed in the late 1980s with a feud between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
More recently, the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg turned sour during their championship fight at Mercedes in 2016.
Norris and Piastri are keeping things civil, though there were awkward moments last year when Norris was asked to make way for his teammate in a race.
McLaren has faced tests from other teams, with Verstappen winning in Japan last week for Red Bull and Mercedes’ George Russell competing with Norris and Piastri on Sunday. Still, the pace of the other teams seems to be fluctuating from race to race, and McLaren’s isn’t. The gap of 58 points on the constructor standings to second-place Mercedes after just four races is vast.
“We haven’t had a consistent challenger week-in, week-out,” Piastri, a 24-year-old Australian, said. “As long as we have the best car, it’s going to be tight between Lando and I.”
Trump envoy says Putin open to ‘permanent peace’ deal with Ukraine

- Donald Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin
- Despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s special envoy said Monday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was open to a “permanent peace” deal with Ukraine, following talks seeking to end the more than three-year war.
Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between Russian and US officials.
On Friday, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Saint Petersburg – their third meeting third since the Republican leader returned to the White House in January.
Witkoff said during a Fox News interview televised Monday that he sees a peace deal “emerging,” and that two key Putin advisers – Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev – were in the “compelling meeting.”
“Putin’s request is to get to have a permanent peace here. So beyond the ceasefire, we got an answer to that,” Witkoff said, acknowledging that “it took a while for us to get to this place.”
“I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large.”
He added that business deals between Russia and the United States were also part of the negotiations.
“I believe there’s a possibility to reshape the Russian-United States relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities, that I think give real stability to the region too,” he said.
Despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire.
Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.
Xi’s Vietnam trip aiming to ‘screw’ US, says Trump

- Xi Jinping is in Vietnam as part of a Southeast Asia tour that will include Malaysia and Cambodia
- Beijing trying to position itself as a stable alternative to Trump as leaders confront US tariffs
HANOI: China’s President Xi Jinping paid tribute to Vietnam’s late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh on Tuesday, his last day of a trip to Hanoi that President Donald Trump said was aiming to “screw” the United States.
Xi is in Vietnam as part of a Southeast Asia tour that will include Malaysia and Cambodia, with Beijing trying to position itself as a stable alternative to Trump as leaders confront US tariffs.
The Chinese leader called on his country and Vietnam Monday to “oppose unilateral bullying and uphold the stability of the global free trade system,” according to Beijing’s state media.
Hours later, Trump told reporters at the White House that their meeting was aimed at hurting the United States.
“I don’t blame China. I don’t blame Vietnam. I don’t. I see they’re meeting today, and that’s wonderful,” he said.
“That’s a lovely meeting... like trying to figure out, how do we screw the United States of America.”
China and Vietnam signed 45 cooperation agreements on Monday, including on supply chains, artificial intelligence, joint maritime patrols and railway development.
Xi said a meeting with Vietnam’s top leader To Lam on Monday that their countries were “standing at the turning point of history... and should move forward with joint hands.”
Lam said after the talks that the two leaders “reached many important and comprehensive common perceptions,” according to Vietnam News Agency.
On the final day of his visit, Xi laid a red wreath emblazoned with his name and the words “Long live Vietnam’s great leader President Ho Chi Minh” at the late leader’s mausoleum in central Hanoi.
He is also due to attend the launch of the Vietnam-China Railway Cooperation, which will help manage an $8-billion rail project – announced this year – to link Vietnam’s largest northern port city to the border with China.
Xi’s trip comes almost two weeks after the United States – the biggest export market for Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse, in the first three months of the year – imposed a 46 percent levy on Vietnamese goods as part of a global tariff blitz.
Although the US tariffs on Vietnam and most other countries have been paused, China still faces enormous levies and is seeking to tighten regional trade ties and offset their impact during Xi’s first overseas trip of the year.
Xi will head to Malaysia later Tuesday and then Cambodia on a tour that “bears major importance” for the broader region, Beijing has said.
Xi earlier urged Vietnam and China to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.”
He also reiterated Beijing’s line that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere” in an article published on Monday in Vietnam’s major state-run Nhan Dan newspaper.
China and Vietnam, both ruled by communist parties, already share a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” Hanoi’s highest diplomatic status.
Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach – striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.
The two countries have close economic ties, but Hanoi shares US concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea.
High-level IFC delegation in Pakistan to identify ‘viable opportunities’ for investment

- Investment in infrastructure, energy, transport, public finance, and privatization top discussions
- PM Sharif has vowed to reduce dependence on foreign loans and seek more direct investment
KARACHI: Top officials from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) are visiting Pakistan this week to explore the market and engage with key government stakeholders on identifying “viable opportunities” for investment,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government has vowed to reduce dependence on foreign loans in the coming years and seek more direct investment.
The country in 2023 nearly defaulted on the payment of its foreign debts until it was rescued by a last-gasp $3 billion bailout loan from the IMF. Last year, Islamabad secured a new $7 billion loan deal from the international lender.
Since then, the country’s economy has started improving, with inflation dropping to 0.7 percent year-on-year in March 2025, the lowest in sixty years and a sharp contrast to the 38 percent peak experienced in May 2023. Aggressive interest rate cuts by Pakistan’s central bank, removal of energy subsidies in line with fiscal reform, increased inflows through remittances and exports and stabilization efforts under Pakistan’s economic framework supported by global partners have all come together to support the stabilization efforts.
At Monday’s meeting with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Linda Rudo Munyengeterwa, IFC Global Director for Public Private Privatization & Corporate Finance, reiterated the international financial institution’s commitment to “supporting the country’s macroeconomic reform, investment, and privatization initiatives.”
“The delegation conveyed that they had come to Pakistan with an open mind, intending to explore the market and engage with key government stakeholders to identify potential areas for investment,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
“IFC’s extensive global experience across various sectors, including infrastructure, energy, transport, public finance, and privatization, was highlighted as a valuable asset that could be leveraged to support Pakistan’s development agenda.”
The delegation emphasized their readiness to partner with Pakistan in “exploring viable opportunities for collaboration and investment,” the statement added.
Recognizing the fiscal challenges in managing public finances and meeting the country’s expanding development needs, Aurangzeb stressed the importance of utilizing the expertise and financial resources of international institutions like the IFC through public-private partnerships.
“He affirmed that such collaborations could facilitate the implementation of essential reforms and enhance efforts to develop efficient energy, transport, and infrastructure systems in response to the demands of a growing population,” the statement added.
The IFC delegation also called on Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari in Islamabad on Monday and discussed “promoting private investment in the energy sector through Public Private Partnership models,” Radio Pakistan reported.
Leghari appreciated the role of the IFC in introducing modern technology for investment in the energy sector.
“Demand and pricing are our major problems, and we are thankful for IFC’s guidance for sustainable solutions,” Radio Pakistan reported the minister as telling the IFC delegation.
“Appreciating the IFC’s technical expertise and global experience, the Minister said the government is committed to provide a conducive environment to investors.”
The report said the IFC expressed its willingness to support the power ministry’s digital meterization policy and offered to assist in policy formulation and reforms.
The delegation presented examples of successful models in Brazil, Peru, Colombia and India where increased investment, integration of renewable energy and open access had been promoted.
“It is important for Pakistan to learn from international experiences for the right strategy,” the report said. “The meeting agreed that cooperation will be further promoted in the future and joint efforts will be implemented in various energy projects.”