World
Rallies demonstrate Imran Khan’s political force
Since he was toppled by parliament five months ago, former Prime Minister Imran Khan has demonstrated his continued popularity with mass rallies across Pakistan, signaling to his rivals that he remains a considerable political force.
On Tuesday, he addressed some 25,000 supporters in the northwestern city of Peshawar, the capital of deeply conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.
Khan said he would soon organize a mass march to the capital, as a culmination of his campaign to force the government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to hold a snap election, which some analysts say Khan might win due a groundswell of support.
“I will soon give you a call for a march on Islamabad,” Khan told the cheering crowd, then asked: “Are you ready for it?”
“Yes,” came the response from his supporters.
Read: Modi congratulates next British PM Liz Truss
Sharif has rejected the demand for early elections, saying the vote should take place as scheduled in 2023.
As during previous rallies, Tuesday’s speech was not shown live by TV stations on instructions from the country’s media regulatory agency. The regulators have banned broadcasting his live speeches, purportedly because of his recent critical remarks about the military and judiciary. Viewers also had difficulty accessing the speech via YouTube and other social media.
Since his ouster, Khan has claimed that the current government came into power under a plot by the U.S. which allegedly disagreed with his more independent foreign policy; Washington has denied such a claim.
Khan had served as prime minister for over three-and-a-half years until he was brought down by an alliance of political parties in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April.
In a new twist to his comeback campaign, the former cricket star-turned-Islamist politician faces terrorism charges for allegedly threatening police and a judge at a rally last month in Islamabad. At the time, Khan sharply criticized the authorities for having arrested his close aide Shahbaz Gill on charges of inciting troops to mutiny against top army generals.
Khan could face several years in prison under Pakistan’s 1997 anti-terrorism law, which grants police wider powers. He is currently on a type of bail that shields him from arrest until Sept. 12.
“Look, a terrorist is standing in front of you,” Khan sarcastically told the crowd Tuesday evening.
Analysts say that even in the opposition, Khan remains a political force.
“Yes, Imran Khan will win elections whenever the voting takes place,” predicted Rana Akram Rabbani, a newspaper columnist and former senior politician.
In Tuesday’s speech, Khan again attacked Washington, saying his removal from office was the result of a U.S.-organized plot and collusion with Sharif. Both have denied the allegation.
Khan said Pakistan should not allow its soil to be used for attacks against any country.
His comments come amid reports that the U.S. drones were using Pakistan’s air space for surveillance in neighboring Afghanistan, where the Afghan Taliban seized power last year.
Khan is a vocal critic of military operations.
Read: Typhoon batters South Korea, forcing thousands to flee
Even before coming to power, he called for the resolution of the Afghan issue through peace talks. Addressing the United States on Tuesday, he said he wants friendship with Washington, but that “we will not accept your slavery.”
Khan has said in recent months that the United States wanted him gone because of his foreign policy choices in favor of Russia and China, and a visit he made on Feb. 24 to Moscow, where he held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.
Khan has said he was not aware that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would start during his visit.
After coming to power in 2018, Khan initially enjoyed excellent ties with the military.
His troubles began when he resisted the appointment of a new spy chief by the army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Although the issue was later resolved, analysts say Khan and Bajwa never repaired the relationship and that Khan still believes Bajwa was part of the alleged plot to topple him.
Khan claimed Tuesday that his political opponents tried to drive a wedge between him and the army which traditionally plays an out-sized role in Pakistan politics.
“I love my army,” Khan said.
Uvalde students go back to school for 1st time since attack
Gilbert Mata woke up excited Tuesday for the first day of school since a gunman’s bullet tore through his leg three months ago in a fourth grade classroom in Uvalde.
The 10-year-old has healed from his physical wounds, but burning smells still remind him of gunfire and the sight of many police officers recalls the day in May that an assailant killed 19 of his classmates and two teachers.
On a morning that many Uvalde families had dreaded, a new school year began in the small South Texas town with big hugs on sidewalks, patrol cars parked at every corner and mothers wiping away tears while pulling away from the curb in the drop-off line.
Mata was ready to return, this time with his own cellphone. His mother, Corina Comacho, had a tougher time letting her child go back to class.
“There’s a certain time he can get his phone out and text us he’s OK,” she said after walking him into a new school, Flores Elementary, and dropping him off behind doors with new locks. “That’s like, ‘OK, that’s good. Now I feel better.’”
Outside Uvalde Elementary, teachers in matching turquoise shirts emblazoned with “Together We Rise & Together We Are Better” gently led students through a newly installed 8-foot (2.4-meter) fence and past a state trooper standing outside the front entrance.
“Good morning, sunshine!” greeted one teacher. “You ready to have a good school year?”
Robb Elementary, where the attack unfolded on May 24, is permanently closed and will eventually be demolished.
A large memorial of stuffed animals, victims’ photographs and crosses remains outside the scene of one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
Outside the other schools in Uvalde — which are only a short drive away — some added safety measures that the district rushed to implement after the attack were incomplete.
Security cameras are still in the works. New metal fencing surrounds some campuses, partially encloses others and isn’t up at all at Flores Elementary, where many Robb students are enrolled this year.
The attack lasted more than 70 minutes before police finally confronted the gunman and killed him. The delay infuriated parents and led to a damning report by state lawmakers. Now more police are on patrol, but distrust is rampant.
Youtube video thumbnail“There’s a big ol’ gap right here. Anyone can walk through,” said Celeste Ibarra, 30, pointing to the new barrier around Uvalde Elementary while standing in her front yard across the street.
Ibarra’s older daughter, 9-year-old Aubriella Melchor, was in Robb Elementary during the shooting and seemed to drag out Tuesday morning as long as possible, taking longer than usual to get dressed and poking at her breakfast. When back-to-school shopping rolled around, she didn’t want to go to Walmart, and the glittery pencils Ibarra bought to get her daughter excited didn’t work.
“She kind of just played with her cereal,” Ibarra said after dropping her off. “She was thinking. I know she was scared.”
New UK PM Truss vows to tackle energy crisis, ailing economy
Liz Truss became U.K. prime minister on Tuesday and immediately faced up to the enormous tasks ahead of her: curbing soaring prices, boosting the economy, easing labor unrest and fixing a national health care system burdened by long waiting lists and staff shortages.
Truss quickly began appointing senior members of her Cabinet as she tackles an inbox dominated by the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which threatens to push energy bills to unaffordable levels, shuttering businesses and leaving the nation’s poorest people shivering at home this winter.
Truss — Britain’s third female prime minister — named a top team diverse in gender and ethnicity, but loyal to her and her free-market politics. Kwasi Kwarteng becomes the first Black U.K. Treasury chief, and Therese Coffey its first female deputy prime minister. Other appointments include James Cleverly as foreign secretary and Suella Braverman as home secretary, responsible for immigration and law and order.
Making her debut speech outside her new Downing Street home in a break between torrential downpours, Truss said she would cut taxes to spur economic growth, bolster the National Health Service and “deal hands on” with the energy crisis, though she offered few details about how she would implement those policies. She is expected to unveil her energy plans on Thursday.
British news media reported that Truss plans to cap energy bills. The cost to taxpayers of that step could reach 100 billion pounds ($116 billion).
“We shouldn’t be daunted by the challenges we face,” Truss said in her first speech as prime minister. “As strong as the storm may be, I know the British people are stronger.”
Read: Liz Truss: UK's incoming PM who models herself on Iron Lady Thatcher
Truss, 47, took office earlier in the day at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, when Queen Elizabeth II formally asked her to form a new government in a ceremony dictated by centuries of tradition. Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson formally resigned during his own audience with the queen a short time earlier, two months after he had announced his intention to step down.
It was the first time in the queen’s 70-year reign that the handover of power took place at Balmoral, rather than Buckingham Palace in London. The ceremony was moved to Scotland to provide certainty about the schedule, because the 96-year-old queen has experienced problems getting around that have forced palace officials to make decisions about her travel on a day-to-day basis.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received a call from Truss on her first day. She spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden, too.
Ze;emslyy wrote on Twitter: “I was the first among foreign leaders to have a conversation with the newly elected British Prime Minister, Liz Truss. I invited her to Ukraine. I thanked the people of Britain for their leadership in the military and economic support of Ukraine.”
Biden, who worked closely with Johnson in confronting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was quick to congratulate Truss.
“I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression,” he said on Twitter.
Truss’ office said she and Biden discussed the Ukraine war and defense cooperation, as well as economic issues and maintaining the British-Irish Good Friday Agreement. The leaders were expected to meet in person soon — likely around this month’s U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.
Truss became prime minister a day after the ruling Conservative Party chose her as its leader in an election where the party’s 172,000 dues-paying members were the only voters. As party leader, Truss automatically became prime minister without the need for a general election because the Conservatives still have a majority of lawmakers in the House of Commons.
But as a national leader selected by less than 0.5% of British adults, Truss is under pressure to show quick results.
Ed Davey, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, on Tuesday called for an early election in October — something that Truss and the Conservative Party are highly unlikely to do since the Tories are slumping in the polls.
Johnson, 58, became prime minister three years ago after his predecessor, Theresa May, failed to deliver Britain’s departure from the European Union. Johnson later won an 80-seat majority in Parliament with the promise to “get Brexit done.”
But he was forced out of office by a series of scandals that culminated in the resignation of dozens of Cabinet secretaries and lower-level officials in early July.
Read: Ukraine says 4 civilians killed, 7 wounded by Russian shells
Always colorful, Johnson said he was “like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function.”
“I will now be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific,” he said.
Many people in Britain are still learning about their new leader, a one-time accountant who entered Parliament in 2010.
Unlike Johnson, who made himself a media celebrity long before he became prime minister, Truss rose quietly through the Conservative ranks before she was named foreign secretary, one of the top Cabinet posts, just a year ago.
Truss is under pressure to spell out how she plans to help consumers pay household energy bills that are set to rise to an average of 3,500 pounds ($4,000) a year — triple the cost of a year ago — on Oct. 1 unless she intervenes.
Rising food and energy prices, driven by the invasion of Ukraine and the aftershocks of COVID-19 and Brexit, have propelled U.K. inflation above 10% for the first time in four decades. The Bank of England forecasts it will hit 13.3% in October, and that the U.K. will slip into a prolonged recession by the end of the year.
Train drivers, port staff, garbage collectors, postal workers and lawyers have all staged strikes to demand that pay increases keep pace with inflation, and millions more, from teachers to nurses, could walk out in the next few months.
In theory, Truss has time to make her mark: She doesn’t have to call a national election until late 2024. But opinion polls already give the main opposition Labour Party a steady lead, and the worse the economy gets, the more pressure will grow.
In addition to Britain’s domestic woes, Truss and her new Cabinet will also face multiple foreign policy crises, including the war in Ukraine and frosty post-Brexit relations with the EU.
Truss, as foreign secretary, was a firm supporter of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia.
Truss has also pledged to increase U.K. defense spending to 3% of gross domestic product from just over 2% — another expensive promise.
Rebecca Macdougal, 55, who works in law enforcement, said outside the Houses of Parliament that time will tell whether Truss can turn things round.
“She’s making promises for that, as she says she’s going to deliver, deliver, deliver,” Macdougal noted. “But we will see in, hopefully, the next few weeks there’ll be some announcements which will help the normal working person.”
Typhoon batters South Korea, forcing thousands to flee
The most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in years battered its southern region Tuesday, dumping almost a meter (3 feet) of rain, destroying roads and felling power lines, leaving 20,000 homes without electricity as thousands of people fled to safer ground.
Typhoon Hinnamnor grazed the resort island of Jeju and made landfall near the mainland port of Busan in the morning and was moving northeast toward the sea with winds of up to 144 kilometers (89 miles) per hour. It is on track to move closer to eastern China later in the week, after ferry services in eastern China and flights in Japan were suspended in previous days.
South Korean officials put the nation on alert about potential damages from flooding, landslides and tidal waves unleashed by Hinnamnor, which came just weeks after heavy rains in the region around the capital Seoul caused flooding that killed at least 14 people.
Also read: More than 200 dead after typhoon slams Philippines
Prime Minister Han Duk-soo called for evacuations in areas vulnerable to flooding, saying Hinnamnor could end up being a “historically strong typhoon that we never experienced before.”
The storm dumped more than 94 centimeters (37 inches) of rain in central Jeju since Sunday, where winds peaked at 155 kph (96 mph).
A 25-year-old man was missing after falling into a rain-swollen stream in the southern city of Ulsan, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, which didn’t immediately report more casualties. Fires were reported at a major steel plant operated by POSCO in the southern city of Pohang, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether they were caused by the storm.
The Safety Ministry said more than 3,400 people in the southern regions were forced to evacuate from their homes because of safety concerns and that officials were advising or ordering 14,000 more people to evacuate. At least five homes and buildings were flooded or destroyed, and scores of roads were damaged.
More than 600 schools were closed or converted to online classes. More than 250 flights and 70 ferry services were grounded while more than 66,000 fishing boats evacuated to ports. Workers as of 6 a.m. managed to restore electricity to 2,795 of the 20,334 households that were knocked out of power.
Also read: Typhoon In-fa hits China’s east coast, canceling flights
A South Korean presidential official, who spoke on condition of anonymity during a background briefing, said officials were investigating the cause of the fires at POSCO's Pohang plant, where firefighters were working to extinguish flames that damaged at least three facilities at the complex.
Lim Yoon-sook, an official from the North Gyeongsang province fire department, said the flames destroyed a building housing electricity equipment and were continuing to burn through a separate office building, although workers were close to extinguishing a smaller fire at a cokes factory.
In North Korea, state media reported “all-out efforts” to minimize damage from flooding and landslides. The Korean Central News Agency reported leader Kim Jong Un during government meetings had issued unspecified “detailed tasks” to improve the country’s disaster response capacity but it didn’t elaborate on the plans.
North Korea sustained serious damage from heavy rains and floods in 2020 that destroyed buildings, roads and crops, shocking the country's already-crippled economy.
Earthquake kills 65, triggers landslides in southwest China
The powerful earthquake that set off landslides and shook buildings in southwestern China killed at least 65 people and injured hundreds, state media said Tuesday.
At least 16 other people are missing a day after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck a mountainous area in Luding county in Sichuan province, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau where tectonic plates meet and is hit regularly by quakes. The temblor shook buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, whose 21 million residents are already under a COVID-19 lockdown.
Power was knocked out and buildings damaged in the historic town of Moxi in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Garze, where 37 people were killed. Tents were erected for more than 50,000 people being moved from homes made unsafe by the quake, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
State broadcaster CCTV showed rescue crews pulling a woman who appeared uninjured from a collapsed home in Moxi, where many of the buildings are constructed from a mix of wood and brick. Around 150 people were reported with varying degrees of injuries.
Also read: Southwest China quake leaves 30 dead, triggers landslides
Another 28 people were killed in neighboring Shimian county on the outskirts of the city of Ya'an. Another 248 people were reported as injured, mainly in Moxi, and another 12 people were reported missing.
Three of the dead were workers at the Hailuogou Scenic Area, a glacier and forest nature reserve.
Along with the deaths, authorities reported stones and soil falling from mountainsides, causing damage to homes and power interruptions, CCTV said. One landslide blocked a rural highway, leaving it strewn with rocks, the Ministry of Emergency Management said.
Buildings shook in Chengdu, 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the epicenter.
The earthquake and lockdown follow a heat wave and drought that led to water shortages and power cuts due to Sichuan’s reliance on hydropower. That comes on top of the latest major lockdown under China’s strict “zero-COVID” policy.
Also read: Strong undersea quake causes panic in western Indonesia
China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan. The temblor devastated towns, schools and rural communities outside Chengdu, leading to a years-long effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.
Modi congratulates next British PM Liz Truss
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated Liz Truss after she was named Britain's next Premier.
"Congratulations @trussliz for being chosen to be the next PM of the UK," Modi tweeted, an hour after Truss triumphed Indian-origin Rishi Sunak in the internal leadership race of Britain's ruling Conservative Party.
"Confident that under your leadership, the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership will be further strengthened. Wish you the very best for your new role and responsibilities," the Prime Minister wrote.
Also read: PM Hasina greets new UK Tory leader Lizz Truss
Truss will be the third woman to occupy the highest executive post in the UK after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
"We need to show that we will deliver over the next two years. I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy," Truss said, after she was declared the winner.
Also read: Liz Truss: UK's incoming PM who models herself on Iron Lady Thatcher
"I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people's energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply," she added.
OPEC+ makes small cut to global oil supplies as prices dip
OPEC and allied oil-producing countries, including Russia, made a small trim in their supplies to the global economy Monday, underlining their unhappiness as recession fears help drive down crude prices — along with the cost of gasoline, to drivers’ delight.
The decision for October rolls back a mostly symbolic increase of 100,000 barrels per day in September. It follows a statement last month from Saudi Arabia’s energy minister that the OPEC+ coalition could reduce output at any time.
Oil producers such as Saudi Arabia have resisted calls from U.S. President Joe Biden to pump more oil to lower gasoline prices and the burden on consumers. OPEC+ has stuck with only cautious increases to make up for deep cuts made during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were finally restored in August.
Since then, growing worries about slumping future demand have helped send oil prices down from June peaks of over $120 per barrel, cutting into the windfall for OPEC+ countries’ coffers but proving a blessing for drivers in the U.S. as pump prices have eased.
Read: Foreign exchange rate stable after Bangladesh Bank tightens spending
The supply cut for October is only a small fraction of the 43.8 million barrels per day under OPEC+ production goals, but wrong-footed several market analysts’ predictions of no change in output.
The amount of oil per day “may seem negligible, but the message from today’s cut is clear: OPEC+ thinks they’ve fallen enough,” Columbia University energy policy expert Jason Bordoff tweeted.
Oil prices jumped after the announcement. U.S. crude rose 3.3%, to $89.79 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent was up 3.7%, to $96.50, after the decision.
Oil prices have gyrated in recent months: Recession fears have pushed them down, while worries of a loss of Russian oil because of sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine pushed them up.
Recently, recession fears have taken the upper hand. Economists in Europe are penciling in a recession at the end of this year due to skyrocketing inflation fed by energy costs, while China’s severe restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus have sapped growth in that major world economy.
Those falling oil prices have been a boon to U.S. drivers, sending gasoline prices down to $3.82 per gallon from record highs of over $5 in June and offering a potential boost to Biden as his Democratic Party heads into midterm elections.
In June, fears that U.S. and European sanctions would take Russian oil off the market helped push Brent to over $123. Prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks as it became clear that Russia is still managing to sell significant amounts of oil in Asia, albeit at sharply discounted prices.
Read: Liz Truss: UK's incoming PM who models herself on Iron Lady Thatcher
But concerns about the loss of Russian supply are still out there because European sanctions aimed at blocking most Russian oil imports won’t take effect until the end of the year.
Other factors are lurking that could influence the price of oil. For one, the Group of Seven wealthy democracies plan to impose a price cap on Russian oil aimed at battling high energy prices and reducing oil profits that Russia can use for its war in Ukraine.
That’s if the cap works as intended. Russia could refuse to supply oil to countries and companies observing the cap, which would take barrels off the market. The price cap has not been set, and its influence on the global price remains unclear.
Meanwhile, a deal between Western countries and Iran to limit Tehran’s nuclear program could ease sanctions and see more than 1 million barrels per day of Iranian oil return to the market in coming months. However, tensions between the U.S. and Iran appear to have risen in recent days: Iran seized two U.S. naval drones in the Red Sea, and U.S., Kuwaiti and Saudi warplanes flew over the Middle East on Sunday in a show of force.
OPEC+ countries’ energy ministers said Monday that their September increase of 100,000 barrels a day was only for that month and that the group could meet again at any time to address market developments. The group said its chairman could call an extraordinary meeting at any time ahead of the next scheduled meeting Oct. 5.
Liz Truss: UK's incoming PM who models herself on Iron Lady Thatcher
As a child, Liz Truss marched in demonstrations against Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. As an adult, she came to admire Britain’s first female leader — and now she is about to enter No. 10 Downing St. with a Thatcherite zeal to transform the U.K.
Truss, Britain’s foreign secretary, was named winner Monday in the contest to replace the scandal-plagued Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and the country’s prime minister. The party said Truss won the votes of around 57% of Conservative members, compared with about 43% for ex-Treasury chief Rishi Sunak.
Truss, 47, will become Britain’s third female prime minister, after Thatcher, who governed from 1979 to 1990, and Theresa May, who held office from 2016 to 2019.
Conservative Party members have embraced Truss’ vows to slash taxes and red tape and keep up Britain’s staunch support for Ukraine. Some see echoes of the Iron Lady — as Thatcher was known — in Truss’ vision of a “network of liberty” binding democracies around the world.
To critics, Truss is an inflexible ideologue whose right-wing policies won’t help Britain weather the economic turmoil set off by the pandemic, Brexit and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mark Littlewood, a libertarian commentator who has known Truss since their university days, said Britain’s new leader is less a conservative than a “radical,” who — like Thatcher — wants to “roll back the intervention of the state” in people’s lives.
“I’m expecting a lot of fireworks and a lot of controversy and a lot of action,” he said.
Born in Oxford in 1975, Mary Elizabeth Truss is the daughter of a math professor and a nurse, who took her on anti-nuclear and anti-Thatcher protests as a child, where she recalled shouting: “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie — out, out, out!”
In a 2018 speech, she said she began developing her own political views early, “arguing against my socialist parents in our left-wing household.”
The family lived in Paisley, Scotland, before moving to Leeds in northern England, where Truss attended a public high school — something that sets her apart from her many privately educated Conservative colleagues.
During the leadership campaign, Truss emphasized her relatively modest background. But she riled some former classmates and teachers when she said students at her school were “let down by low expectations, poor educational standards and a lack of opportunity.” The school’s alumni include academics, judges and several other members of Parliament.
Truss went on to Oxford University, where she studied philosophy, politics and economics — the degree of choice for many aspiring politicians — and was president of the university branch of the Liberal Democratic Party. The economically centrist Lib Dems back constitutional reform and civil liberties, and Truss was an enthusiastic member, putting up “Free the Weed” posters that called for decriminalization of marijuana and arguing in a speech for the abolition of the monarchy.
Littlewood, who was a fellow member of the Oxford Lib Dems and now heads the Institute for Economic Affairs, a free market think tank, remembers Truss as “headstrong and determined and outspoken.”
“You were never in any doubt where she stood on an issue or a person,” he said.
After Oxford, Truss joined the Conservative Party — “when it was distinctly unfashionable,” she later said.
She worked as an economist for energy company Shell and telecommunications firm Cable and Wireless, and for a right-of-center think tank while becoming involved in Conservative politics and espousing free market Thatcherite views. She served as a local councilor in London and ran unsuccessfully for Parliament twice before being elected to represent the eastern England seat of Southwest Norfolk in 2010.
She won the safely Conservative seat after a bump on the way — some local Conservatives were outraged when it was revealed she had had an affair with another MP when both were married to other people. Truss won over her critics, and her marriage survived. She and husband Hugh O’Leary, an accountant, have two teenage daughters.
She founded the Free Enterprise group of Thatcherite Tory lawmakers who produced “Britannia Unchained,” a political treatise that notoriously included the claim that British workers are “among the worst idlers in the world.”
David Laws, a former Cabinet minister who worked with Truss in government a decade ago, recalled her as energetic and “mind-bogglingly ambitious,” comparing her in his memoir to “a young Margaret Thatcher on speed.”
Truss got her first Cabinet job as food and environment secretary in 2014, making her biggest impression with a much-mocked speech in which she thundered that it was “a disgrace” that Britain imports two-thirds of its cheese.
In Britain’s 2016 referendum on whether to leave the European Union, Truss backed the losing “remain” side, though she says she was always a natural euroskeptic. Since the vote, she has won over Brexiteers with her uncompromising approach to the EU.
She became justice secretary, but she was demoted to a more junior role in the Treasury by May in 2017. When May was toppled by her repeated failure to break a political deadlock over Brexit, Truss was an early backer of Boris Johnson to replace her. When he won, Johnson made Truss trade secretary, a role in which she Instagrammed her way around the world signing post-Brexit trade deals and raising her profile.
In September 2021, she was appointed foreign secretary, Britain’s top diplomat. Her performance has drawn mixed reviews. Many praise her firm response to the invasion of Ukraine, and she secured the release of two British citizens jailed in Iran, where her predecessors had failed.
But EU leaders and officials who hoped she would bring a softer tone to Britain’s relations with the bloc have been disappointed. Amid trade wrangling, Truss introduced legislation to rip up parts of the binding U.K.-EU divorce agreement signed by both sides. The 27-nation bloc is taking legal action against Britain in return.
Truss has sometimes suggested the frequent comparisons to Thatcher are sexist, but at other times she has encouraged them. She has posed in a British Army tank in Eastern Europe, evoking an image of Thatcher during the Cold War. In a televised leadership debate, Truss sported a pussy-bow blouse just like one Thatcher used to wear.
By stressing her modest background, she is evoking comparisons to grocer’s daughter Thatcher, said Victoria Honeyman, associate professor of British politics at the University of Leeds — “the working-class girl done good.”
Truss’ own personality is hidden behind a stern public persona. Friends say she has a fun-loving side rarely glimpsed in public, and enjoys karaoke and blasting out tunes by Taylor Swift, Whitney Houston and Destiny’s Child.
Truss’ perceived loyalty to Johnson, who remains popular with many Tories, also helped her win. Many party members cited Sunak’s decision to quit Johnson’s Cabinet in July as a mark against him. Truss didn’t resign, saying she was a “loyal person” — though she had been courting party members for months at “fizz with Liz” events to build support for a potential leadership bid.
Conservatives have embraced Truss’ optimistic message of liberation through less government, which is reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s “morning in America” boosterism.
The wider British electorate is likely to prove a harder audience to win over. Times are tough and getting tougher as inflation soars and Britain’s cost-of-living crisis worsens. Truss’ focus on stimulating the economy through tax cuts is unlikely to provide much short-term relief.
Left-of-center commentator Will Hutton, writing in The Observer newspaper, said Truss’ economic ideas were “ruinous nonsense ... persistently anti-Europe, obsessed with tax cuts, buying into the faith that nameless regulations are shackling business.”
Truss doesn’t have long to persuade voters that she is on the right track. The next national election must be held in two years.
“Is Liz going to be able to say in 2024, ‘Are you richer now than you were when I became prime minister?’ Possibly,” Littlewood said. “But it’s not an obvious slam dunk.”
Southwest China quake leaves 30 dead, triggers landslides
At least 30 people were reported killed in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that shook China’s southwestern province of Sichuan on Monday, triggering landslides and shaking buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, whose 21 million residents are already under a COVID-19 lockdown.
The quake struck a mountainous area in Luding county shortly after noon, the China Earthquake Networks Center said.
Sichuan, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau where tectonic plates meet, is regularly hit by earthquakes. Two quakes in June killed at least four people.
The death toll rose to 30 as the search for trapped people continued Monday night, state media said.
Earlier, authorities had reported 7 deaths in Luding county and 14 more in neighboring Shimian county to the south. Three of the dead were workers at the Hailuogou Scenic Area, a glacier and forest nature reserve.
Also read: Strong undersea quake causes panic in western Indonesia
Along with the deaths, authorities reported stones and soil falling from mountainsides, causing damage to homes and power interruptions, state broadcaster CCTV said. One landslide blocked a rural highway, leaving it strewn with rocks, the Ministry of Emergency Management said.
Buildings shook in Chengdu, 200 kilometers (125 miles) away from the epicenter. Resident Jiang Danli said she hid under a desk for five minutes in her 31st floor apartment. Many of her neighbors rushed downstairs, wary of aftershocks.
“There was a strong earthquake in June, but it wasn’t very scary. This time I was really scared, because I live on a high floor and the shaking made me dizzy,” she told The Associated Press.
The earthquake and lockdown follow a heat wave and drought that led to water shortages and power cuts due to Sichuan’s reliance on hydropower. That comes on top of the latest major lockdown under China’s strict “zero-COVID” policy.
The past two months in Chengdu “have been weird,” Jiang said.
Also read: 7.3 earthquake hits north Philippines, causes some damage
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude of 6.6 for Monday’s quake at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). Preliminary measurements by different agencies often differ slightly.
China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan. The temblor devastated towns, schools and rural communities outside Chengdu, leading to a years-long effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.
Liz Truss new leader of Conservative Party, set to be UK PM
Liz Truss has been elected as the Conservative Party's new leader, the party announced Monday, and she will take office Tuesday as Britain's new prime minister to steer the country through an acute cost-of-living crisis.
The 47-year-old Truss, who is currently foreign secretary, beat former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak after a leadership contest in which only about 170,000 dues-paying members of the Conservative Party were allowed to vote. Truss received 81,326 votes, compared with Sunak’s 60,399.
She faces immediate pressure to deliver on her promises to tackle the cost-of-living crisis walloping the U.K. and an economy heading into a potentially lengthy recession.
Queen Elizabeth II is scheduled to formally appoint Truss as Britain’s prime minister on Tuesday. The ceremony will take place at the queen’s Balmoral estate in Scotland, where the monarch is spending her summer, rather than Buckingham Palace in London.
Read: Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss to be named as UK's new prime minister
The two-month leadership contest left Britain with a power vacuum at a time of growing discontent across the country amid spiraling energy and food costs. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made no major policy decisions since he announced he was stepping down on July 7, and officials insisted that measures to address the energy cost crisis would be deferred until his successor is in place.
Meanwhile tens of thousands of workers have gone on strike to demand better pay to keep up with relentlessly rising costs. Inflation is above 10% for the first time since the 1980s, and the Bank of England has forecast that will reach a 42-year high of 13.3% in October. That’s largely driven by soaring energy bills, which will jump 80% for the average household starting next month.
“I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long term issues we have on energy supply," Truss told party members after she was elected.
“I know that our beliefs resonate with the British people: Our beliefs in freedom, in the ability to control your own life, in low taxes, in personal responsibility," she added. “I know that’s why people voted for us in such numbers in 2019 and as your party leader I intend to deliver what we promised those voters right across our great country.”
Truss has won the support of many Conservatives with her zeal in rolling back state intervention and slashing taxes. Both she and her rival Sunak have spoken of their admiration for Margaret Thatcher, who was prime minister from 1979 to 1990, and her free-market, small-government economics.
But it's not clear how Truss’s right-wing brand of conservatism, which played so well with party members — who represent far less than 1% of the U.K.'s adult population — will go down with the wider British public, especially those most in need of government relief to afford essentials like heating their homes this winter.
Truss has promised to act “immediately” to tackle soaring energy bills, but declined to give any details so far.
“The Conservative Party members wanted that message of tax cutting. The country, I would guess, less so,” said Bronwen Maddox, director of London's Chatham House think tank.
“At the moment you’ve got people deeply rattled, many very, very afraid going into a year where all they can see are rising costs," Maddox added. "Until she’s got an answer on that, she doesn’t have a claim to the popularity of the country, I think.
While the economy is certain to dominate the first months of the new premier’s term, Truss will also have to steer the U.K. on the international stage in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine, an increasingly assertive China and ongoing tensions with the European Union over the aftermath of Brexit — especially in Northern Ireland.
Truss will be the U.K.’s fourth Conservative prime minister in six years, entering Downing Street following Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron.
Johnson was forced to resign after a series of ethics scandals that peaked in July, when dozens of cabinet ministers and lower-level officials quit in protest over his handling of allegations of sexual misconduct by a senior member of his government.
Both Truss and Sunak were key players within Johnson’s Cabinet, though Sunak resigned in the last days of Johnson’s time in office.
A Truss government may not sit well with many because it reminds voters too much of Johnson’s misdeeds, said Steven Fielding, a professor of political history at Nottingham University.
“She’s basically been elected as Boris Johnson 2.0 by Conservative members — she’s made it very clear that she is a loyal Boris Johnson supporter,” he said. “I think she’s going to find it very difficult to disentangle herself from the whole Johnson shadow.”
Truss and Sunak were the final two candidates whittled down from an initial field of 11 leadership hopefuls.
Under Britain’s parliamentary system of government, the center-right Conservative Party was allowed to hold an internal election to select a new party leader and prime minister without going to the wider electorate. A new general election isn’t required until December 2024.