Sunak and Starmer hit UK campaign trail after shock election call

Sunak and Starmer hit UK campaign trail after shock election call
Britain’s Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative party, Rishi Sunak waves as he arrives to speak at a general election campaign event at the ExCeL in east London, on May 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 23 May 2024
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Sunak and Starmer hit UK campaign trail after shock election call

Sunak and Starmer hit UK campaign trail after shock election call
  • Sunak’s Conservatives have trailed Labour by around 20 percentage points in opinion polls since he became PM in Oct. 2022
  • Sunak has shocked and angered many in his party when he gambled by calling a July 4 election, months earlier than expected

LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Labour Party rival Keir Starmer kicked off their election campaigns on Thursday, each arguing that only they can snap the country out of its economic and political malaise.
Sunak, whose Conservatives have trailed Labour by around 20 percentage points in opinion polls since he became prime minister in October 2022, shocked and angered many in his party when he gambled by calling a July 4 election, months earlier than expected.
He argued on Thursday that the economy was turning a corner and he had a plan to tackle illegal immigration. But with prices in the shops up 21 percent in the last three years and the national health service buckling under record waiting times, it may be hard to persuade voters that Britain is on the right track.
“Even though there’s more work to do and I know it will take time for you to see the benefits, the plan is working,” Sunak told voters at an event with workers in central England.
The former investment banker announced his decision in the pouring rain in Downing Street on Wednesday, having to shout over protesters blaring the song “Things Can Only Get Better” — an anthem associated with Labour’s crushing 1997 election victory under Tony Blair that ended the last long period of Conservative rule.
Sunak also admitted on Thursday that the first flights sending illegal migrants to Rwanda, a flagship policy that is tangled in legal challenges, would not start before the vote.
He did receive one boost, however, when Nigel Farage, a former Brexit campaigner, said he would not seek election for Reform, likely blunting the appeal of the right-wing party and reducing its ability eat into the Conservatives voter base.
At stake is control of the world’s sixth largest economy which has endured years of low growth and high inflation, is still battling to make a success of its 2016 decision to leave the European Union, and is slowly recovering from twin shocks of COVID-19 and an energy price spike caused by the war in Ukraine.
That backdrop makes the economy one of the most important electoral battlegrounds. The two parties are also likely to focus on migration, defense, health and security.
POLITICAL TURMOIL
Polls show voters want change, even if they are not hugely enthused by Starmer and his Labour Party, after 14 years of Conservative government marked by unprecedented levels of political turmoil and so-called culture war issues.
Coffee shop worker Kitty McMurray, on her way to work, said the country needed an election because it felt like everything was falling apart. “Bring it on,” the 29-year-old said.
Starmer told voters at an event in Gillingham, southeast England, that he wanted to renew, rebuild and reinvigorate Britain. He focused on deprivation and the invisible barriers that prevent many from improving their lot.
Referencing children who live in inner-city areas where big corporations such as Google have a presence, he said: “they cannot imagine themselves ever making that journey from their school to those jobs. It’s a few hundred yards.”
Starmer is the country’s former chief prosecutor who has pulled Labour’s politics back to the center ground after it lurched to the left under his predecessor.
Were Labour to win, Starmer would become Britain’s sixth prime minister in eight years, the highest turnover since the 1830s, underscoring the level of turmoil that has gripped a country once known for its political stability and pragmatism.
While the electioneering gets underway, activity in parliament is expected to pick up too as the government works out which of the pieces of legislation currently in process will be rushed through, and which will fall by the wayside.
Laws currently under discussion include Sunak’s plan to impose some of the world’s strictest anti-smoking rules by banning anyone aged 15 and under from ever buying cigarettes.
With Sunak calling the election earlier than the October or November that most had expected, all parties were also racing to line up enough candidates to contest every seat.


Clashes in Mozambique after opposition leader calls for protest

Clashes in Mozambique after opposition leader calls for protest
Updated 7 sec ago
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Clashes in Mozambique after opposition leader calls for protest

Clashes in Mozambique after opposition leader calls for protest
MAPUTO: Police in Mozambique fired tear gas and deployed dogs to disperse protesters in the capital Maputo on Thursday, after the opposition called a demonstration against the contested election results.
The southern African nation has been rocked by violence since the Oct. 9 vote won by the Frelimo party, which has been in power for almost 50 years.
Leading opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, who says the results were false and that he won, called for a mass protest on Thursday, saying in an interview that it was a “crucial moment” for the country.
“I feel that there is a revolutionary atmosphere ... that shows that we are on the verge of a unique historical and political transition in the country,” said Mondlane, speaking from an undisclosed location.
The 50-year-old former radio presenter said he could not reveal his whereabouts other than to say he was not in Africa.
Several thousand people took to the streets on Thursday to protest the election result, some throwing rocks and setting up barricades using burning tires and bins. “This is not so much about Venancio (as Mondlane is popularly known). It’s more about change,” said Richard, a protester who asked to be identified only by his first name.
The uprising was to reflect “the voice of the people,” he added.
“Either they change and think about the people, or the country doesn’t move forward.”
Heavily armed riot police and soldiers flanked by tanks dispersed the crowds with tear gas, according to reporters at the scene.
“It’s scary ... we’re all here shaking from time to time, we run away, but it’s going to be worth it,” said Vadi, a woman who also only gave her first name. “We want change, that’s all.”
Shops, banks, schools, and universities were closed in the coastal city, which had around 1 million people.
“Our first objective ... is certainly the restoration of electoral truth,” Mondlane said.
“We want the popular will expressed at the polls on Oct. 9 to be restored.”
He was “waging a struggle” with “national” and “historical purpose,” he added.
“People have realized that it wasn’t possible to bring profound change in Mozambique without taking risks,” he said.
“Now they have to free themselves.”
Mondlane has used social media to rally supporters onto the streets on several occasions for demonstrations that have led to clashes with police.
At least 18 people have been killed in the post-electoral violence, according to Human Rights Watch.
One local NGO, the Center for Democracy and Human Rights, has put the toll at 24.
A police officer was also killed in a protest at the weekend, Defense Minister Cristovao Chume said on Tuesday, warning the army could intervene “to protect the interests of the state.”
“There is an intention to change the democratically established power,” he added.
President Filipe Nyusi is expected to step down early next year at the end of his two-term limit, handing over to Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo, who won the presidential election with 71 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission.
Mondlane, who has lodged a case at the Constitutional Council to request a ballot recount, said that he was “open to a government of national unity.”
The authorities have restricted access to the internet across the country, which HRW said was an apparent effort to “suppress peaceful protests and public criticism of the government.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has warned against “unnecessary or disproportionate force.”
Police should “ensure that they manage protests in line with Mozambique’s international human rights obligations,” he said.
The Southern African Development Community has called for an extraordinary summit between Nov. 16 and 20 in part to discuss developments in Mozambique.
Mondlane left the country last month following the unrest.
He initially said he would be at Thursday’s march but on Wednesday told AFP he wouldn’t return after all due to safety concerns.
“I wanted so much to be in Maputo with my people. But unfortunately, I received more than 5,000 messages ... Ninety-nine percent discouraged me from going to Maputo,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to be there.”

Russian attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia kills four, wounds 40

Russian attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia kills four, wounds 40
Updated 3 min 24 sec ago
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Russian attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia kills four, wounds 40

Russian attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia kills four, wounds 40
  • Russian forces have stepped up their attacks in Zaporizhzhia in recent days
  • “The death toll as a result of Russia’s strikes on Zaporizhzhia has risen to four,” the emergency services said

KYIV: Russian aerial attacks on the frontline city of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday killed at least four people and wounded another 40, including children, officials said.
Another two were killed in a separate attack on the eastern Donetsk region, strikes that followed a wave of overnight drone attacks, including on the capital Kyiv.
Russian forces have stepped up their attacks in Zaporizhzhia in recent days and are making rapid advances in the industrial territory of Donetsk, both of which the Kremlin says are Russian territory.
“The death toll as a result of Russia’s strikes on Zaporizhzhia has risen to four,” the emergency services said in a statement on social media.
“Forty were wounded, including four children,” governor Ivan Fedorov said in a separate statement.
Officials said earlier that a hospital had been damaged in Zaporizhzhia, which had a pre-war population of more than 700,000 people and lies around 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the nearest Russian positions.
A four-month old girl and boys aged one, five and 15 were wounded in the attacks, Fedorov said.
Officials posted images showing rescue workers pulling victims from the rubble and holding back distressed locals from getting to the destroyed buildings.
The strikes later in the Donetsk region killed two people and wounded five more in the village of Mykolaivka, the region’s governor Vadym Filashkin announced on social media.
“One of the shells hit a five-story building and four buildings nearby were damaged,” he wrote on social media.
He posted a photo of a Soviet-era residential building on fire, dozens of its windows blown out with debris littering the ground beneath it.


Grenade attack targeted Israeli embassy in Denmark: report

Copenhagen Police investigated two explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen last month. (AP)
Copenhagen Police investigated two explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen last month. (AP)
Updated 33 sec ago
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Grenade attack targeted Israeli embassy in Denmark: report

Copenhagen Police investigated two explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen last month. (AP)
  • The grenades landed on the terrace of a house adjacent to the embassy
  • Two Swedes aged 17 and 19 have been detained

COPENHAGEN: Israel’s embassy in Denmark was likely the target of grenades thrown nearby last month, Danish media reported Thursday, citing the pre-indictment of two teenage suspects detained in the case.
Two Swedes aged 17 and 19 went before a judge in Copenhagen who remanded them for another 20 days.
Their pre-indictment, citing investigations, said they were suspected of violating terrorism laws by “throwing hand grenades at the Israeli embassy in Denmark on October 2,” the Ritzau news agency reported.
The grenades landed on the terrace of a house adjacent to the embassy, where they exploded, causing no injuries.
The two suspects were arrested at a Copenhagen railway station hours later initially on suspicion of violating gun laws.
They have since been accused of a terror offense and police, who have arrested a man in his fifties in connection with the incident, are also looking for other accomplices.
“It makes no sense to imagine this is an act they committed alone. There must be accomplices,” Ritzau quoted prosecutor Soren Harbo as saying at the start of the hearing.
The teens deny the accusations.
The case comes against a backdrop of severe tensions in the Middle East, with conflict in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as increasing gang violence with Danish criminal gangs suspected of recruiting underage Swedes to settle scores.


Renowned Indian scholar, philanthropist Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini dies aged 80

Renowned Indian scholar, philanthropist Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini dies aged 80
Updated 22 min 57 sec ago
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Renowned Indian scholar, philanthropist Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini dies aged 80

Renowned Indian scholar, philanthropist Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini dies aged 80
KALABURAGI, India: Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini, a prominent scholar, educationalist, philanthropist and chancellor of Khaja Banda Nawaz University in India’s Karnataka state, died on Wednesday evening aged 80.

Funeral prayers were held on Thursday evening at the Sharif Mosque. He is survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.

He completed a Master of Arts in Islamic Studies at McGill University in Canada and was awarded a Ph.D. from Belford University, US, for his research work.

Since 2007 he brought significant changes to the Khaja Education Society on the organizational, administrative and functional levels. He also expanded existing institutions and was instrumental in establishing Khaja Bandanawaz Institute of Medical Sciences at Kalaburagi in 2000.

Through perseverance, he established Khaja Bandanawaz University in August 2018. As vice-president of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board and chancellor of Khaja Banda Nawaz University, he played a vital role in promoting modern and Islamic education in India.

In addition to his administrative skills, Hussaini was known for his deep and scholarly understanding of Sufism. He was awarded the prestigious Karnataka Rajyotsava Award for excellence in education by the government of Karnataka in 2017.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and other political leaders expressed their condolences over his death.

Putin congratulates Donald Trump on his election victory in first public comments on US vote

Putin congratulates Donald Trump on his election victory in first public comments on US vote
Updated 53 min 9 sec ago
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Putin congratulates Donald Trump on his election victory in first public comments on US vote

Putin congratulates Donald Trump on his election victory in first public comments on US vote
  • The Kremlin earlier welcomed Trump’s claim that he could negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine
  • ″I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election as president,” Putin said

SOCHI, Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Donald Trump on winning this week’s US presidential election and said on Thursday he was ready to speak to Trump, as any ideas on facilitating an end to the Ukraine crisis merited attention.
Putin said he was impressed with how Trump, who decisively defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to secure his return to the White House, handled himself in the moments after an assassination attempt in July, describing Trump as a brave man.