UK

Labour's Andy Burnham, the current mayor of Greater Manchester, has won a special election for a seat in Parliament that puts him in a position to challenge embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer for leadership of the country. Burnham decisively won the seat of Makerfield in northwest England over Rob Kenyon of the anti-immigration party Reform UK. The victory announced early Friday cements the status of Burnham, a 56-year-old politician nicknamed the King of the North, as the top contender to replace Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and the country. Burnham won almost 55 per cent of the 45,510 votes cast for a field of more than a dozen candidates, over 9,000 more than runner-up Kenyon. Burnham's victory speech left no doubt that he wants to lead the country, and not just be one of the more than 400 Labour lawmakers in the 650-seat House of Commons. "Everyone knows that politics isn't working," he said. "Everyone can feel that the country isn't where it should be. Tonight coul

Keir Starmer isn't on the ballot, but the U.K. prime minister's future is on the line in a special election on Thursday. Voters in the Makerfield district of northwest England are electing a new lawmaker, and the leading contender is Andy Burnham of the governing Labour Party, the current mayor of Greater Manchester and oddsmakers' favorite to be the next prime minister. If Burnham defeats a candidate from the anti-immigration party Reform UK and wins the seat for Labour, he's almost certain to challenge the embattled Starmer for leadership of the party, and the country. Burnham has pledged that "if people put their trust in me, I will change politics" - a big promise for a politician who, if he wins, will be just one of 650 lawmakers in the House of Commons. But the scores of journalists from around the world who have flocked to Makerfield during the campaign are evidence that this is no normal by-election, the results of which are due early Friday. Starmer struggles since landsl

The French Navy, with support from the United Kingdom, has intercepted an oil tanker under international sanctions that was travelling from Russia, the latest effort by nations that support Ukraine to target Russian oil exports helping to finance President Vladimir Putin's war. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the interception in a post Monday on X, saying the Tagor was boarded on Sunday in the Atlantic. The post included a video showing a person rappelling from a helicopter onto a ship. "It is unacceptable that boats skirt international sanctions, violate the law of the sea and finance the war that Russia has been waging for more than 4 years against Ukraine," Macron wrote. "These ships, that don't respect the most elementary rules of maritime navigation, are also a threat to the environment and everyone's security." Oil revenue is a key part of Russia's economy, allowing Putin to pour money into the war effort against Ukraine without worsening inflation for everyday peo

The United Kingdom smashed a century-old temperature record for the second time in 24 hours on Tuesday as a spring heat wave scorches parts of Western Europe, triggering government warnings about risks to life. Several drownings were reported in Britain and France as people tried to cool down. A temperature of 35.1 degrees Celsius (95.2 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded at London's Kew Gardens, Britain's Met Office weather service said, breaking the 34.8 C (94.6 F) record set a day earlier at Kew. The provisional readings smashed the long-standing record of 32.8 C (91.4 F) set in 1922 and matched in 1944. London also recorded a rare "tropical night", defined as one in which the temperature does not fall below 20 C (68 F). Records also fell in France, where temperatures reached 36 C (97 F) on Monday in the country's southwest and widely remained above 20 C at night. The national weather service, Meteo-France, said a "heat dome", with heat held in place by a high-pressure weather fron

The Hindujas retained their top spot as the UK's richest family in the 2026 'Sunday Times Rich List', released on Friday, under a new generation of brothers following the death of Gopichand Hinduja last year. "Sanjay and Dheeraj Hinduja and family" emerged as the UK's richest for the fifth successive year with an estimated 38 billion pounds, up from last year despite global headwinds. The Hinduja Group operates in 38 countries with investments across several sectors, including mobility, digital technology, banking and financial services, media, project development, lubricants and specialty chemicals, energy, real estate, trading, and healthcare. "The death of their father, Gopi Hinduja, at the age of 85 last November has handed his place at the top of the 'Sunday Times Rich List' to his London-based sons, Sanjay and Dheeraj," the newspaper notes. "Sanjay, 62 this month, chairs Gulf Oil International while Dheeraj, 54, oversees the automotive giant Ashok Leyland. The latter has had

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The loss in one of Labour's safest seats, in the biggest electoral test in almost a year, puts further pressure on Starmer to prove that he should keep his job following weeks of political turmoil