NEW YORK: Former US president Donald Trump celebrated the election of fellow populist Nigel Farage to Britain’s parliament on Friday, neglecting to mention the new prime minister, Keir Starmer.
Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party won the third largest vote haul, but under Britain’s electoral system it took just four seats while Starmer’s Labour party swept into office with a landslide.
“Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big WIN of a Parliament Seat Amid Reform UK Election Success. Nigel is a man who truly loves his Country!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Farage is a long-standing ally of Trump, who has dubbed the divorced father-of-four “Mr Brexit” and previously said the British populist would have done a “great job” as the UK’s ambassador to Washington.
Farage is a champion of Brexit who was elected to parliament on his eighth attempt and has made no secret of his desire to take over the now-main opposition Conservative party, which was trounced at the polls by Labour.
“There is a massive gap on the center-right of British politics and my job is to fill it,” he said after a comfortable win in Clacton, eastern England.
The result bucks a rightward trend among Britain’s closest allies, with the far-right National Rally in France eyeing power and Trump looking set for a return in the United States.
Farage’s win will likely embolden the attention-grabbing populist figurehead in his long-term aim of staging a “takeover” of the Conservatives.
Millions of their voters appeared to have already switched their support to Reform, handing the Tories one of their worst-ever results.
An initial exit poll had caused a stir Thursday night after predicting Reform would secure 13 seats — far exceeding forecasts in the latter stages of the campaign that it would win just a handful of seats.
Trump congratulates UK’s Farage, ignores PM Starmer
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Trump congratulates UK’s Farage, ignores PM Starmer
- Farage is a long-standing ally of Trump
- Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party won the third largest vote haul
Four Indian soldiers killed in clashes in Indian-administered Kashmir
- Fighting broke out after militants ambushed an army convoy in the Malhar area, an officer says
- India and Pakistan both claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full and have fought three wars over it
NEW DELHI: Four Indian soldiers were killed and at least six others were wounded in gunbattles with militants in Indian-administered Kashmir, a senior police officer said Monday.
The officer, who was not authorized to speak to the media, said fighting broke out after militants ambushed an army convoy in the Malhar area of Jammu.
This is the latest incident in an uptick of attacks in the disputed territory.
On Sunday, two soldiers and six suspected militants were killed in two separate gunbattles in villages in the Kulgam district, police said.
India and Pakistan both claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full and have fought three wars for control of the Himalayan region.
Rebel groups have waged an insurgency since 1989, demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels.
In June, nine Indian Hindu pilgrims were killed and dozens wounded when a gunman opened fire on a bus carrying them from a shrine in the southern Reasi area.
It was one of the deadliest attacks in years and the first on Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir since 2017, when gunmen killed seven people in another ambush on a bus.
Russian missiles kill 36 in Ukraine, gut Kyiv children’s hospital
- President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched dozens of missiles toward five towns and cities
KYIV: Russia struck cities across Ukraine on Monday with a missile barrage that killed three dozen people and ripped open a children’s hospital in Kyiv, an assault condemned as a ruthless attack on civilians.
Dozens of volunteers including hospital staff and rescue workers dug through debris from the Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital in a desperate search for survivors after the rare day-time bombardment, AFP journalists on the scene saw.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched dozens of missiles toward five towns and cities, in the south and east of the country, as well as the capital.
Ukrainian officials said 33 people were killed and another 137 wounded in the wave of 38 missiles. Three more were killed by Russian fire in Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.
The air force said air defense systems had downed 30 projectiles.
Zelensky called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council over the barrage and urged Ukraine’s allies to deliver “a stronger response to the blow that Russia has once again delivered on our population, on our land and on our children.”
The UN condemned the “unconscionable” Russian strikes while the EU slammed Moscow for “ruthlessly” targeting civilians and the French foreign ministry called the bombardment of a children’s hospital “barbaric.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the attack as “abhorrent.”
Kyiv said the children’s hospital had been struck by a Russian cruise missile with components produced in NATO member countries and announced a day of mourning in the capital.
Russia hit back claiming the extensive missile damage in Kyiv was caused by Ukrainian air defense systems.
Moscow said its forces had struck their “intended targets,” which it added were only defense industry and military installations.
Medical staff acted quickly to move patients and personnel to the facility’s basement after air raid sirens rang out over Kyiv on Monday.
“For some reason, we always thought that Okhmatdyt was protected,” said Nina, a 68-year-old hospital employee.
“We were 100 percent sure that they would not hit here,” she told AFP, as she described the frantic rush as staff moved children with IV drips to the bunker.
Officials in Kyiv said the attack had also damaged several residential buildings and an office block in Kyiv where AFP reporters saw cars on fire and shredded trees in charred courtyards.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said three of its electrical substations had been destroyed or damaged in Kyiv. Russian strikes on electricity infrastructure have already halved Ukrainian generation capacity in recent weeks compared to one year ago.
Russian forces have repeatedly targeted the capital with massive barrages since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and the last major attack on Kyiv with drones and missiles was last month.
The emergency services said 22 people were killed in Kyiv on Monday, including at both medical facilities hit in the attack and that another 72 had been wounded.
In Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rig, which has been repeatedly targed by Russian bombardment, the strikes killed at least 10 and wounded over 41, officials there said.
In Dnipro, a city of around one million people in the same region, one person was killed and six more were wounded, the region’s governor said, when a high rise residential building and petrol station were hit.
And in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have taken a string of villages in recent weeks, the regional governor said three people were killed in Pokrovsk — a town that had a pre-war population of around 60,000 people.
“This shelling targeted civilians, hit infrastructure, and the whole world should see today the consequences of terror, which can only be responded to by force,” the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, wrote on social media.
Zelensky and other officials in Kyiv have been urging Ukraine’s allies to send more air defense systems, including Patriots, to the war-battered country to help fend off deadly Russian aerial bombardment.
“Russia cannot claim ignorance of where its missiles are flying and must be held fully accountable for all its crimes,” Zelensky said in another post on social media.
Biden tells Hill Democrats he ‘declines’ to step aside and says it’s time for party drama ‘to end’
- Joe Biden stressed that the party has ‘one job,’ which is to defeat presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in November
- Anxiety is running high as top-ranking Democratic lawmakers are joining calls for Biden to step aside despite his defiance
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden, in a letter to congressional Democrats, stood firm against calls for him to drop his candidacy and called for an “end” to the intraparty drama that has torn apart Democrats since his dismal public debate performance.
Biden’s efforts to shore up a deeply anxious Democratic Party came Monday as lawmakers are returning to Washington and confronting a choice: decide whether to work to revive his campaign or edge out the party leader, a make-or-break time for his reelection and their own political futures.
Biden wrote in the two-page letter that “the question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end.” He stressed that the party has “one job,” which is to defeat presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in November.
“We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election,” Biden said in the letter, distributed by his reelection campaign. “Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It’s time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.”
Anxiety is running high as top-ranking Democratic lawmakers are joining calls for Biden to step aside despite his defiance. At the same time, some of the president’s most staunch supporters are redoubling the fight for Biden’s presidency, insisting there’s no one better to beat Trump in what many see as among the most important elections of a lifetime.
As lawmakers weigh whether Biden should stay or go, there appear to be no easy answers.
It’s a tenuous and highly volatile juncture for the president’s party. Democrats who have worked alongside Biden for years — if not decades — and cherished his life’s work on policy priorities are now entertaining uncomfortable questions about his political future. And it’s unfolding as Biden hosts world leaders for the NATO summit this week in Washington.
Time is not on their side, almost a month from the Democratic National Convention and just a week before Republicans gather in Milwaukee to renominate Trump as their presidential pick. Many Democrats are arguing the attention needs to be focused instead on the former president’s felony conviction in the hush money case and pending federal charges in his effort to overturn the 2020 election.
It’s what Biden himself might call an inflection point. As he defiantly says he will only step aside if the Lord almighty comes and tells him to, Democrats in the House and Senate are deciding how hard they want to fight the president to change course, or if they want to change course at all.
In an effort to “get on the same page,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is convening lawmakers for private meetings before he shows his own preference, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it. He plans to gather Democrats on Monday whose bids for reelection are most vulnerable.
But a private call Sunday of some 15 top House committee members exposed the deepening divide as at least four more Democrats — Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state and Rep. Mark Takano of California — privately said Biden should step aside.
Nadler, as the most senior ranking member on the call, was the first person to speak up and say that Biden should step aside, according to a person familiar with the call who was granted anonymity to discuss it. He did so aware of his seniority and that it would allow others to join him.
Many others on the call raised concerns about Biden’s capability and chance of winning reelection, even if they stopped short of saying Biden should step out of the race.
Still other members, including Rep. Maxine Waters of California and Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, both leaders in the Congressional Black Caucus, spoke forcefully in support of Biden, as did Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
And several lawmakers appeared frustrated that leadership was not providing direction or a path forward, according to people familiar with the call. One Democratic lawmaker said regardless of the decision, the situation has to “end now,” one of the people said.
Neal said afterward that the bottom line is Biden beat Trump in 2020 and “he’ll do it again in November.”
The upheaval also is testing a new generation of leaders, headed by Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Both New Yorkers have refrained from publicly directing lawmakers on a path forward as they balance diverse opinions in their ranks.
Behind the scenes is Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who continues to field calls from lawmakers seeking advice about the situation, and is widely viewed as the one to watch for any ultimate decision on Biden’s future because of her proximity to the president and vote-counting skills in party politics.
Pelosi spoke up last week, saying Biden’s debate performance raised “legitimate” questions he needed to answer, but she has remained supportive of the president. And Biden called her last week when he reached out to other party leaders.
When Biden’s prime-time ABC interview on Friday appeared to do little to calm worried Democrats, and some said made the situation worse, Pelosi stepped forward to publicly praise Biden on social media as a “great President who continues to deliver for America’s kitchen table.” She added, “and we’re not done yet!”
Schumer has kept a lower profile throughout the ordeal but will convene Democratic senators Tuesday for their weekly lunch when senators are certain to air many views.
One Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, had intended to gather senators Monday to discuss Biden privately, but a person familiar with his thinking said those conversations will take place in Tuesday’s regular caucus luncheon with all Democratic senators.
Another Democrat, Sen. Alex Padilla of California, said it was “time to quit the hand-wringing and get back to door knocking.”
Padilla spoke with Biden over the weekend, and urged his campaign to “let Joe be Joe.”
“Given the debate, I think the campaign has no choice,” Padilla said Sunday, explaining that Biden needs to hold town halls and unscripted events to show voters “the Joe Biden I know, and that most people in American have come to grow and love.”
While some deep-pocketed donors may be showing discomfort, strategists working on House and Senate races said they posted record fundraising as donors view congressional Democrats as a “firewall” and last line of defense against Trump.
House Democrats have had some of their better fundraising days yet, including a $3 million haul last Friday night after the debate at an event with former President Barack Obama and Jeffries in New York City. That’s on top of $1.3 million that rolled into the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the debate and its immediate aftermath.
Senate Democrats are also seeing a “surge” of support, according to a national Democrat with knowledge of Senate races.
As Democratic candidates campaign alongside Biden, the advice has been to focus on building their own brands and amplifying the way the work that’s done in Congress affects their local districts.
France players celebrating election results back home ahead of Euro 2024 semifinal
- Marcus Thuram: ‘Congratulations to all those who came forward in the face of the danger that hovered over our country’
- Jules Kounde: ‘Congratulations to all the French people who mobilized so that this beautiful country that is France does not find itself governed by the extreme right’
MUNICH: Several France players are already celebrating something at the European Championship — the result of the elections back home.
A leftist coalition that came together to try to keep the far right from power in France won the most parliamentary seats in Sunday’s runoff parliamentary election.
“The victory of the People,” France midfielder Aurélien Tchouameni wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The first-round vote on June 30 saw major gains for the National Rally, potentially putting the far right in a position to govern France for the first time since World War II.
“Congratulations to all those who came forward in the face of the danger that hovered over our country,” France forward Marcus Thuram put on his Instagram story, after a graphic of the projected outcome.
“Long live diversity, long live the Republic, long live France. The fight continues.”
Thuram had already spoken out last month about the “sad reality” of the political situation back home and France’s players have consistently been vocal at Euro 2024 with calls to get out to vote in parliamentary elections.
Captain Kylian Mbappe had warned that his country was in a “catastrophic” political situation.
“The relief is equal to the worry of these recent weeks, it is immense,” France defender Jules Kounde wrote on X.
“Congratulations to all the French people who mobilized so that this beautiful country that is France does not find itself governed by the extreme right.”
France plays Spain in the Euro 2024 semifinal in Munich on Tuesday, hoping to reach its fourth major final in the past eight years.
That would be against either England or the Netherlands in Berlin on Sunday.
Heavy rains in India’s Mumbai hit transport, shut schools and suspend flights
- More than 300 mm of rain lashed the city of 12 million for six hours on Monday, officials said
- More heavy showers were forecast, accompanying a high tide of 4.40 meters in the coastal city
MUMBAI: Heavy rains flooded roads and railway lines on Monday in India’s financial capital Mumbai, disrupting flights and forcing the closure of schools and colleges.
Just ahead of the morning rush hour, more than 300 mm (11.8 inches) of rain lashed the city of 12 million in the six hours until 7:00 a.m (0130 GMT), civic officials said in a statement. More heavy showers were forecast, accompanying a high tide of 4.40 meters (14 ft) in the coastal city.
“There is heavy traffic on the roads and rail lines too have been affected,” Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, the western state whose capital is Mumbai, said on X, urging people to stay indoors unless necessary.
Mumbai commuters waded through knee-deep water that partially submerged vehicles in many areas, while traffic clogged the city’s Eastern and Western Express highways.
Water on the tracks forced railway authorities to cancel some long-distance trains. Television images showed some suburban passenger trains halted on inundated lines.
India’s seasonal monsoon rains, which start at the end of May, bring respite from heatwave conditions after a scorching summer but have also triggered widespread flooding across the country in recent years.
In Bihar state in the east of India, separate cases of lightning strikes killed 12 people, taking the toll from such incidents to 20 since the start of the month, a state government official said.
More than 2 million people have also been affected by rivers flooding in northeastern Assam, where the Kaziranga National Park, home to the rare one-horned rhinoceros, was inundated. Six of the animals drowned, authorities said on Sunday.
Assam authorities said 66 people have died in floods and rain-related incidents in the state since May.
Flooding has also affected 31 villages in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh on the Nepal border, the state government said.
Torrential monsoon rains have also triggered floods and landslides in Nepal, where at least 11 people were killed.
In neighboring Bangladesh, more than 2 million people were affected by the third wave of flooding since May, with 300,000 currently stranded in the northern parts of the country, officials from the disaster management ministry said.
With heavy rain forecast in coming days, the situation could deteriorate, the officials added.
FLIGHTS SUSPENDED
Just 10 days after record-breaking showers in India’s capital New Delhi caused the fatal collapse of an airport roof, Monday’s Mumbai rains also caused disruptions in air travel.
Airport authorities had to suspend runway operations for more than an hour from 2:22 a.m., airport sources said.
More than 430 flights were delayed and 49 canceled, the website of tracking service Flightradar24 showed. Airlines IndiGo, SpiceJet and Air India were among those reporting disruptions.
