Letter 51: Getting To Know (and Appreciate) Rural Australia

LONDON — Prime Minister Keir Starmer held his first Cabinet meeting Saturday as his new government takes on the massive challenge of fixing a heap of domestic woes and winning over a public weary from years of austerity, political chaos and a battered economy. Starmer welcomed the new ministers around the table at 10 Downing St., saying it had been the honor of his life to be asked by King Charles III to form a government in a ceremony that officially elevated him to prime minister. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work,” he said. Starmer’s Labour Party delivered the biggest blow to the Conservatives in their two-century history Friday in a landslide victory on a platform of change. Among a raft of problems they face are boosting a sluggish economy, fixing a broken health care system, and restoring trust in government. “Just because Labour won a big landslide doesn’t mean all the problems that the Conservative government has faced has gone away,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. In his first remarks as prime minister Friday after the meeting “kissing of hands” ceremony with Charles at Buckingham Palace, Starmer said he would get to work immediately, though he cautioned it would take some time to show results., “Changing a country is not like flicking a switch,” he said as enthusiastic supporters cheered him outside his new official residence at 10 Downing.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran’s runoff presidential election Saturday, besting hard-liner Saeed Jalili by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country’s mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Pezeshkian promised no radical changes to Iran’s Shiite theocracy in his campaign and long has held Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the final arbiter of all matters of state in the country.

The floor is sticky. The room is hot and stuffy. Bodies swim past each other, spilling pints along the way. The smell of stale ale floats in the air. The bartenders at this North London pub look bored, while patrons buzz with anticipation, eyes glued to the giant projection screen airing a live BBC broadcast.

mdash; Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Mexico’s coast near the resort of Tulum as a Category 2 storm early Friday, whipping trees and knocking out power as it came ashore after leaving a trail of destruction across the eastern Caribbean. The U. S. National Hurricane Center said that Beryl is expected to rapidly weaken to a tropical storm as it crosses over the Yucatan Peninsula before it re-emerges into the Gulf of Mexico and likely regains hurricane strength. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Once in the warm waters of the Gulf, Beryl is forecast to head toward northern Mexico near the Texas border, an area had already been soaked by Tropical Storm Alberto just a couple of weeks ago. Once the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl spread destruction in Jamaica, St.

Eighth time proved the charm for right-wing British politician and Brexiteer Nigel Farage, who was finally announced as a Member of the British Parliament in the early hours of July 5, following the U. K. snap election. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The Farage-fronted populist party Reform UK—a rebrand of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Farage was a founding member of—enjoyed an unprecedented performance at Thursday’s general election, proving to be a thorn in the incumbent Conservative Party’s side.

Tensions between neighbors Pakistan and Afghanistan are running high as the Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said this week that his country plans to continue launching cross-border attacks as part of a new military operation to curb terrorism. The comments mark a notable shift for Pakistani officials who, until now, had only admitted to one such cross-border strike in March.