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UK’s Starmer says he will resign

Less than two years after he won a landslide election victory that promised to end chaos in British politics, Starmer said it was clear that his party wanted him to go.

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Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday he would resign, with a new ​leader to be in place by the time parliament returns in September, paving the way for Britain to have its seventh leader ‌in 10 years.

Less than two years after he won a landslide election victory that promised to end chaos in British politics, Starmer said it was clear that his party wanted him to go, Reuters reported.

“The question my party is asking now ​is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election, I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party ​to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace,” he said.

PRESSURE HAD BEEN BUILDING FOR MONTHS

The threat to ⁠Starmer, which had been building for months, increased sharply on Friday when Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, decisively won a parliamentary election to return to Westminster, ​beating a candidate from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which has led national opinion polls for more than a year.

That victory gave hope to Labour lawmakers that ​Burnham, a career politician known for his communication skills, could transform the fortunes of a party that has lost support under Starmer, whose popularity ratings have sunk to the lowest for any British leader.

Starmer thanked his colleagues for their support, his voice cracking with emotion as he also paid tribute to his wife and children.

The pound and British government ​bonds were steady in the immediate aftermath of Starmer’s announcement, which investors had widely expected.

Despite the attempt at a smooth handover, the change is not ​without risk.

Beyond saying that the country needs fundamental change and to bring down the cost of living, Burnham has yet to make clear his approach to foreign affairs, the economy ‌and defence.

Like ⁠Starmer, he could find he has little room to manoeuvre, hemmed in by bond market investors opposed to any additional borrowing, and confronted by an angry electorate which believes the country is not working properly.

Britain already has the highest borrowing costs in the Group of Seven wealthy nations due to its high debt and interest payments, years of anaemic economic growth, its struggles to cut spending and the need to invest in areas like defence.

Investors spoken to by Reuters were divided over whether Burnham, ​who said last September that Britain ​had to get “beyond this thing of ⁠being in hock to the bond markets” would respect the need to reassure markets.

He has since said he was misrepresented.

“In our view, a Burnham premiership would inherit a precarious fiscal situation with few tools to deliver meaningful change,” ​economists at Citibank said on Friday.

STARMER HAD PLEDGED TO FIGHT ANY CHALLENGE

Starmer had said on Friday he would stand ​in any formal Labour ⁠leadership contest that sought to replace him. But that appeared to change over the weekend.

Whoever replaces Starmer will become Britain’s seventh prime minister since the Brexit vote to leave the European Union which took place 10 years ago this week.

That level of turnover – the highest in Britain in nearly two centuries – underlines the struggle of maintaining the ⁠support of ​voters angry at successive failures to improve living standards, public services and tackle illegal immigration.

The political ​advisory group Eurasia had said the best outcome could be for Starmer to say he will step down in September, enabling him to attend a UK-European Union reset summit in July and ​give Burnham time to prepare for government.

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Israel rejects Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza, PM Netanyahu says

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Israel ​has ‌rejected U.S. President ​Donald ​Trump’s Board ⁠of ​Peace 15-point ​plan for Gaza, ​and ​will not withdraw ‌until ⁠Hamas fully disarms, ​Prime ​Minister ⁠Benjamin Netanyahu ​said ​on ⁠Sunday, Reuters reported.

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Ex-U.S. President Biden’s cancer has spread, is very painful, son says

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Former U.S. President Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him severe pain, his son Hunter Biden has said in an interview with the BBC.

“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” Hunter Biden told BBC’s Newsnight, according to video of the interview posted online on Friday. He described the illness as “very painful” and “very debilitating in many respects.”

A spokesperson for the 83-year-old Biden declined to comment on Hunter Biden’s remarks on Saturday.

Biden announced in May 2025, less than four months after leaving the White House, that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. At the time, he said the cancer had already spread to his bones.

In October, a spokesperson said Biden was receiving radiation treatment and hormone therapy.

Biden was the oldest person to be elected U.S. president when he won the 2020 election. His physical health and mental fitness also came under increased scrutiny during his presidency from 2021 to 2025.

Biden attended the dedication of former President Barack Obama’s presidential library in Chicago in June. He served as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017.

Biden’s presidential memoir is scheduled to be released on November 17.

 
 
 
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US Senate passes Russia sanctions championed by Graham; US House next

In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed passage, ​calling it “a timely and significant step that strengthens pressure on Russia.”

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The U.S. Senate easily passed sweeping Russia sanctions legislation on Friday, advancing a long-delayed measure backed by late ​Senator Lindsey Graham and setting the stage for consideration by the House of Representatives within weeks, Reuters reported.

Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died ‌last month, was among Kyiv’s most outspoken allies in Congress in its four-year-long war with Russia, and the bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

It also includes expanded sanctions on Iran sought by President Donald Trump as lawmakers pushed for a vote on the measure well over a year since it was introduced in 2025.

The Senate’s Republican leaders had not ​brought the bill up because of resistance from Trump, who had kept decisions on sanctions at the White House, not Congress, since starting his second ​term in January 2025.

The Senate voted 86-11 to pass the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026,” to sanction ⁠Russian officials and authorize stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed passage, ​calling it “a timely and significant step that strengthens pressure on Russia.”

However, broad support may not be enough to secure House passage, with some lawmakers and industries wary that new tariff ​powers for Trump could raise costs for U.S. importers and consumers while exposing Republicans to political blowback.

Representatives Gregory Meeks of New York and Don Beyer of Virginia said in a statement they still had “fundamental concerns” about the tariff powers for Trump, who has made them a central piece of his “America First” approach to foreign policy, read the report.

“What the bill does grant … are ​sweeping new tariff authorities that the president could weaponize with abandon, as he has repeatedly done in the past,” said Meeks, the top Democrat on the House ​Foreign Affairs Committee, and Beyer, the senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee.

Trump’s fellow Republicans control only slim majorities in both the House and Senate.

Only one Senate Republican, Rand Paul of ‌Kentucky, voted ⁠against the bill, likening tariffs to taxes on American consumers.

The chamber erupted into applause after Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to fill his seat, read out the final tally.

The Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Paul and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon that would have removed the tariff powers.

Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who also sought to change the tariff language, said he had received a written commitment from Trump’s U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, to put guardrails on the tariff authorities, Reuters reported.

If it is approved by ​the House and signed into law by ​Trump, the measure would allow the ⁠president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that are major consumers of Russian energy, including India, Japan and some countries in the European Union, and leave it to his discretion to lift them.

The legislation’s backers insist that the tariffs ​are narrow enough that they would do their intended job of reducing Russian energy revenue that funds its war on Ukraine ​without negative consequences.

Supporters called the legislation ⁠the best opportunity to support Ukraine, and the strong bipartisan Senate vote provided momentum for it to pass the House after it returns from its summer recess on August 31.

Graham had announced shortly before his sudden death on July 11 that he and Trump agreed finally to move forward with the legislation.

The legislation lets the president impose targeted ⁠tariffs on ​imported goods from countries that buy the vast majority of Russian oil or gas and enable Russia’s ​evasion of sanctions.

The bill limits these tariffs to the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas and the top five countries that aid Russia’s energy sanctions evasion. The measure includes a provision to ​prevent a lapse in sanctions authority that restricts funding for Iranian energy and weapons.

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