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British police were hunting for a man believed to be armed with a crossbow on Wednesday after three women were killed in a house near London. Hertfordshire Police said Kyle Clifford, 26, was being sought over the suspected triple murder. Chief Superintendent Jon Simpson of Herfordshire Police said Clifford is believed to have targeted the women, who were related. “The manhunt also involves armed police officers and specialist search teams responding at pace in the wake of what has been an horrific incident, involving what is currently believed to be a crossbow and other weapons may also have been used,” Simpson said. Police said the three women — ages 25, 28 and 61 — were found seriously injured in a house in Bushey, northwest of London, on Tuesday evening. Police and ambulance crews tried to save them, but they were pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not say whether Clifford, who is from London, was connected to the women. Clifford may still be armed and the public was warned not to approach him. “Kyle, if you are seeing or hearing this, please make contact with the police,” Simpson said.

Hundreds of newly elected lawmakers trooped excitedly into Parliament on Tuesday after the U.K.’s transformative election brought a Labour government to power. The halls of the labyrinthine building echoed with excited chatter of the 650 members of the House of Commons — 335 of them arriving for the first time. That compares to 140 new lawmakers after the last election in 2019. The seat of British democracy took on a back-to-school feel, from the rows of lockers temporarily installed in wood-paneled corridors to the staff holding “Ask Me” signs ready to help bewildered newcomers. The new House of Commons includes the largest number of women ever elected — 263, some 40% of the total — and the most lawmakers of color, at 90. The youngest new lawmaker is Labour’s Sam Carling, 22. He is one of 412 Labour legislators elected last week who will cram onto green benches on the government side of the House of Commons. Opposite them will be a shrunken contingent of 121 Conservatives, a vastly increased number of Liberal Democrats, 72 strong, and a smattering of representatives from other parties including the environmentalist Green Party and the anti-immigration Reform UK. Even as the newcomers arrived, lawmakers who lost their seats last week were carting away the contents of their offices in boxes and suitcases. First job: electing a speaker The first task for lawmakers was electing a speaker to oversee the business of the House of Commons and try to keep the often unruly assembly in line. The speaker is chosen from the ranks of lawmakers and sets his or her party affiliation aside while they fill the impartial role. New Labour government's mission is to stimulate economic growth: Britain's Treasury Chief Lindsay Hoyle — originally elected for Labour to the speaker’s post in 2019 — was reelected unopposed. He promised lawmakers he would continue to be “fair, impartial and independent." In keeping with tradition, the speaker feign reluctance and was dragged to the speaker’ chair by colleagues — a custom dating back to the days when speakers could be sentenced to death if they displeased the monarch. After tributes from party leaders including Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Rishi Sunak, the speaker-elect was taken to the House of Lords by an official known as Black Rod to receive Royal Approbation, the formal approval of King Charles III. Starmer said all lawmakers had a responsibility “to put an end to a politics that has too often seemed self-serving and self-obsessed, and to replace that politics of performance with the politics of service.” Sunak, fresh off the Conservatives' crushing election defeat, agreed that “in our politics, we can argue vigorously, as the prime minister and I did over the past six weeks, but still respect each other.” Swearing in With a speaker in place, lawmakers were sworn in one by one, taking an oath of allegiance to the king and “his heirs and successors.” Members can swear on a religious text of their choice or make a non-religious affirmation. They must take the oath in English first, and can repeat it in Welsh, Ulster Scots, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Cornish. Who is Keir Starmer, the Labour leader favored to win Britain's July 4 election? The longest-serving lawmakers — Conservative Edward Leigh and Labour's Diane Abbott, known as the father and mother of the House — were sworn in first, followed by the prime minister and the Cabinet, senior members of the official opposition and then remaining lawmakers in order of their length of service. There are also seven lawmakers from Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, who refuse to swear loyalty to the Crown and do not take their seats to protest U.K. control over Northern Ireland. Down to business After all MPs are sworn in — a task expected to take several days — the House of Commons will rise until July 17, when a new session will formally start with the State Opening of Parliament. The new government will set out its legislative plans for the coming year in a speech read by the king from atop a golden throne. The King’s Speech is expected to include plans to establish a publicly owned green power company called Great British Energy, change planning rules to allow more new homes to be built and nationalize Britain’s delay-plagued railways. Britain's Rishi Sunak struggles with missteps while trying to lift Conservatives ahead of elections Holding the government to account will be a much-reduced Conservative Party led, temporarily at least, by Sunak. The former prime minister will serve as leader of the opposition until the party picks a replacement.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, deepening ties between the two nations as Western leaders gathered at a NATO summit in Washington and Russia stepped up attacks in Ukraine with deadly missile strikes. While leaders — including President Joe Biden and Britain's newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer — prepared to mark 75 years of the world’s biggest security organization, and reassure Ukraine of NATO's support, Putin and Modi were pictured viewing an exhibition of nuclear technology in space. Modi earlier Tuesday lay a wreath at a war memorial near the Kremlin during his first visit to Russia since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He also met Putin Monday at the start of his two-day trip, shortly after Russian missiles slammed across Ukraine, severely damaging the largest children’s hospital in Kyiv and killing at least 42 people across the country, officials said. While Modi’s trip received wall-to-wall coverage in Russia, coverage of Russia’s deadly attack on Ukraine has been muted. Modi posted photos of his arrival in Moscow on the social media platform X, in both Russian and English, saying he was “looking forward to further deepening the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between our nations.” “Stronger ties between our nations will greatly benefit our people,” he wrote, also sharing a picture of himself and Putin hugging. Russian state media reported that Putin and Modi would discuss energy ties, including Russia helping India to build more nuclear power plants. Russia has had strong ties with India since the Cold War, and New Delhi’s importance as a key trading partner has grown since war in Ukraine. China and India have become key buyers of Russian oil following sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies that shut most Western markets off to Russian exports. India now gets more than 40% of its oil imports from Russia, according to analysts. Modi last traveled to Russia in 2019, when he attended a forum in the far eastern port of Vladivostok and met with Putin. The leaders also saw each other in September 2022 in Uzbekistan, at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization bloc. Under Modi’s leadership, India has avoided condemning Russia’s military action in Ukraine while emphasizing the need for a peaceful settlement. The partnership between Moscow and New Delhi has become fraught, however, as Russia has moved closer to China. Modi notably stayed away from last week’s summit in Kazakhstan of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security grouping founded by Moscow and Beijing. A confrontation in June 2020 along the disputed China-India border dramatically altered their already touchy relationship as rival troops fought with rocks, clubs and fists. At least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed. Tensions have persisted despite talks — and have seeped into how New Delhi looks at Moscow. But Modi is expected to seek to continue close relations with Russia, which is also a major defense supplier for India. With Moscow’s arms industries mostly serving the Russian military in Ukraine, India has been diversifying its defense procurements, buying more from the U.S., Israel, France and Italy. Trade development also will figure strongly in the talks, particularly intentions to develop a maritime corridor between India’s major port of Chennai and Vladivostok, the gateway to Russia’s Far East. India-Russia trade has seen a sharp increase, touching close to $65 billion in the 2023-24 financial year, due to strong energy cooperation, Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra told reporters Friday. Imports from Russia touched $60 billion and exports from India $4 billion in the 2023-24 financial year. India’s financial year runs from April to March.

A major Russian missile attack across Ukraine killed at least 31 people and injured almost 130 on Monday, officials said, with one missile striking a large children’s hospital in the capital, Kyiv, where emergency crews searched the rubble for casualties. The daytime Russian barrage targeted five Ukrainian cities with more than 40 missiles of different types, hitting apartment buildings and public infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post. Strikes in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s birthplace in central Ukraine, killed 10 people and injured 47 in what the head of city administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said was a massive missile attack. Seven people were killed in Kyiv, authorities said. “It is very important that the world should not be silent about it now and that everyone should see what Russia is and what it is doing,” Zelenskyy said on social media. Western leaders who have backed Ukraine in the war are holding a three-day NATO summit in Washington beginning Tuesday. They are to look at how they can reassure Ukraine of the alliance’s unwavering support and offer Ukrainians hope that their country can come through Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II. At the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, rescuers were searching for people under the rubble of a partially collapsed, two-story wing of the facility. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 16 people, seven of them children, were injured. On the hospital’s main 10-story building, windows and doors were blown out and walls were blackened. Blood spattered the floor in one room. The intensive care unit, operating theaters and oncology departments were all damaged, officials said. Medical personnel and local people searched for children and medical workers. Volunteers formed a line, passing bricks and other debris to each other. Smoke still rose from the building, and volunteers and emergency crews worked in protective masks. The attack forced the hospital to shut down and evacuate. Some mothers carried their children away on their backs. Others waited in the courtyard with their children as calls to doctors’ phones rang unanswered. A few hours after the initial strike, another air raid siren sent many mothers with their children hurrying to the hospital’s shelter. Led by a flashlight through the shelter’s dark corridors, mothers carried their bandaged children in their arms and medics carried them on gurneys. Volunteers handed out candy in an effort to calm the children. Marina Ploskonos’ 4-year-old son had surgery for cervical spine tuberculosis last Friday. “My child is terrified,” she said. “This shouldn’t be happening, it’s a children’s hospital,” she said, bursting into tears. Ukraine’s Security Service said it found wreckage from a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile at the site and had opened criminal proceedings on war crime charges. The Kh-101 is an air-launched missile that flies low to avoid detection by radar systems. Ukraine said it shot down 11 of 13 Kh-101 missiles launched by Russia on Monday. Czech President Petr Pavel said the hospital attack was “inexcusable” and that he expected at the NATO summit to see a consensus that Russia was “the biggest threat for which we must be thoroughly prepared.” Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted Ukrainian defense plants and military air bases and were successful. It denied aiming at any civilian facilities and claimed without offering evidence that pictures from Kyiv indicated the damage was caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile. Since early in the war that is stretching into its third year, Russian officials have regularly claimed that Moscow’s forces never attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, despite what officials in Kyiv say and Associated Press reporting on the ground. Elsewhere in Kyiv, where seven of the city’s 10 districts were hit in the heaviest Russian bombardment of the capital in almost four months, the strikes killed seven people and injured 25, officials said. About three hours after the first strikes, more missiles hit Kyiv and partially destroyed a private medical center. Four people were killed there, Ukraine’s Emergency Service said. The daylight attacks included Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, one of the most advanced Russian weapons, the Ukrainian air force said. The Kinzhal flies at 10 times the speed of sound, making it hard to intercept. City buildings shook from the blasts. An entire section of a residential multistory building in one district of Kyiv was destroyed, officials said. Three electricity substations were damaged or completely destroyed in two districts of Kyiv, energy company DTEK said. The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said the attack occurred at a time when many people were in the city’s streets.

The unexpected fireworks lit up Paris's Place de la Republique. For the thousands of French people who took to the streets on Sunday to celebrate the results of a parliamentary run-off vote, the outcome was a big relief. For the leaders of the leftist New Popular Front coalition that unexpectedly thwarted the far-right's advance, it was time to celebrate. Olivier Faure, the leader of the Socialist Party, clenched his fist during his victory speech after the final round of voting. The founder of hard-left party France Unbowed, Jean-Luc Melenchon, pledged to implement all his campaign promises. Easier said than done, critics said, with the country now facing a hung Parliament after none of the main groups was able to gather a majority of 289 seats to govern alone. After polls suggested ahead of Sunday's voting that the far-right was at the gate to power for the first time since World War II, the victory of the New Popular Front came as a surprise. While far-right supporters stayed at home, others gathered outside to celebrate the rejection of Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration National Rally party. On Paris' Place de la Republique, people chanted together, waved blue-white-red flags and lit fireworks. There were also a few tensions and some bicycles were burned during the night, but no major incidents were reported. And it was not just Paris which celebrated. Demonstrators waved French flags and set off smoke flares in the western city of Nantes, while In Lyon, two women sat on either side of a large rose, a longstanding symbol of the Socialist Party.

Britain's new Labour government will make stimulating economic growth its mission while limiting bureaucracy to make it easier to invest in the country, the Treasury chief said Monday. In her first major speech, Rachel Reeves said there was no time to waste to reverse what she called “14 years of chaos and economic instability” under Conservative governments. British Prime Minister heads to Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales as 're-set' with UK's 4 nations “Where governments have been unwilling to take the difficult decisions to deliver growth – or have waited too long to act – I will deliver," she told business leaders and reporters. Reeves, Britain’s first female Treasury chief and a former Bank of England economist, said sustained economic growth was the only way to improve living standards for all and to rebuild the country's stretched and underfunded public services. A NATO summit and mending EU relations are among first tasks for new UK leader Keir Starmer She said she is taking immediate action to deregulate planning rules to make it easier to build infrastructure, housing and energy projects. “To investors and businesses who spent 14 years doubting whether Britain is a safe place to invest, then let me tell you, after 14 years, Britain has a stable government,” she said. “In an uncertain world, Britain is a place to do business.” Keir Starmer is officially the new UK prime minister Reeves said she will assess the “spending inheritance” left by the Conservatives over the coming months before making the government’s first budget statement later this year. Reeves has pledged to set a mandatory target of 1.5 million new homes in England over the next five years, and reverse a ban on onshore wind energy developments. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who became leader on Friday after a landslide majority in last week's election, has pledged to “rebuild the infrastructure of opportunity” for voters frustrated with a stagnant economy, rising poverty and dysfunctional public healthcare.

A coalition of the French left won the most seats in high-stakes legislative elections Sunday, beating back a far-right surge but failing to win a majority. The outcome left France, a pillar of the European Union and Olympic host country, facing the stunning prospect of a hung parliament and political paralysis. The political turmoil could rattle markets and the French economy, the EU’s second-largest, and have far-ranging implications for the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe’s economic stability. In calling the election on June 9, after the far right surged in French voting for the European Parliament, President Emmanuel Macron said turning to voters again would provide “clarification.” On almost every level, that gamble appears to have backfired. According to the official results released early Monday, all three main blocs fell far short of the 289 seats needed to control the 577-seat National Assembly, the more powerful of France’s two legislative chambers. The results showed just over 180 seats for the New Popular Front leftist coalition, which placed first, ahead of Macron’s centrist alliance, with more than 160 seats. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and its allies were restricted to third place, although their more than 140 seats were still way ahead of the party’s previous best showing — 89 seats in 2022. A hung parliament is unknown territory for modern France. “Our country is facing an unprecedented political situation and is preparing to welcome the world in a few weeks," said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who plans to offer his resignation later in the day. With the Paris Olympics looming, Attal said he was ready to stay at his post “as long as duty demands.” Macron has three years remaining on his presidential term. Attal made clearer than ever his disapproval of Macron's shock decision to call the election, saying “I didn't choose this dissolution" of the outgoing National Assembly, where the president's centrist alliance used to be single biggest group, albeit without an absolute majority. Still, it was able to govern for two years, pulling in lawmakers from other camps to fight off efforts to bring it down. The new legislature appears shorn of such stability. When Macron flies to Washington for a summit this week of the NATO alliance, he will leave a country with no clear idea who may be its next prime minister and facing the prospect that the president may be obliged to share power with a politician deeply opposed to his policies. Still, many rejoiced. In Paris’ Stalingrad square, supporters on the left cheered and applauded as projections showing the alliance ahead flashed up on a giant screen. Cries of joy also rang out in Republique plaza in eastern Paris, with people spontaneously hugging strangers and several minutes of nonstop applause after the projections landed. Marielle Castry, a medical secretary, was on the Metro in Paris when projected results were first announced. “Everybody had their smartphones and were waiting for the results and then everybody was overjoyed," said the 55-year-old. “I had been stressed out since June 9 and the European elections. ... And now, I feel good. Relieved.” A redrawn political map Even before votes were cast, the election redrew France's political map. It galvanized parties on the left to put differences aside and join together in the new leftist alliance. It pledges to roll back many of Macron's headline reforms, embark on a massively costly program of public spending and take a far tougher line against Israel because of the war with Hamas. Macron described the left's coalition as “extreme” and warned that its economic program of many tens of billions of euros in public spending, partly financed by tax hikes for high earners and on wealth, could be ruinous for France, already criticized by EU watchdogs for its debt. Yet, the New Popular Front's leaders immediately pushed Macron to give the alliance the first chance to form a government and propose a prime minister. The most prominent of the leftist coalition’s leaders, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said it “is ready to govern.” While the National Rally took more seats than ever, the anti-immigration party with historical links to antisemitism and racism fell far short of its hopes of securing an absolute majority that would have given France its first far-right government since World War II. “Disappointed, disappointed," said far-right supporter Luc Doumont, 66. “Well, happy to see our progression, because for the past few years we’ve been doing better.” After the party finished top of the first-round vote last weekend, its rivals worked to dash its hopes of outright victory Sunday, by strategically withdrawing candidates from many districts. That left many far-right candidates in head-to-head contests against just one opponent, making it harder for them to win. Many voters decided that keeping the far right from power was more important to them than anything else, backing its opponents in the runoff, even if they weren’t from the political camp they usually support. Still, National Rally leader Le Pen, expected to make a fourth run for the French presidency in 2027, said the elections laid the groundwork for “the victory of tomorrow.” “The reality is that our victory is only deferred," she added. But Le Pen's older sister, Marie-Caroline, was among her party's losers Sunday, defeated by a leftist candidate and just 225 votes in her district. Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s 28-year-old protégé who’d been hoping to become prime minister, rued that the national outcome “throws France into the arms of the extreme left.” A statement from Macron's office indicated that he wouldn’t be rushed into inviting a potential prime minister to form a government. It said he was watching as results came in and would wait for the new National Assembly to take shape before taking “the necessary decisions.” Unknown territory Unlike other countries in Europe that are more accustomed to coalition governments, France doesn’t have a tradition of lawmakers from rival political camps coming together to form a majority. France is also more centralized than many other European countries, with many more decisions made in Paris. The president was hoping that with France’s fate in their hands, voters might shift from the far right and left and return to mainstream parties closer to the center — where Macron found much of the support that won him the presidency in 2017 and again in 2022. But rather than rally behind him, millions of voters seized on his surprise decision as an opportunity to vent their anger about inflation, crime, immigration and other grievances — including Macron's style of government. The sharp polarization of French politics – especially in this torrid and quick campaign – is sure to complicate any effort to form a government. Racism and antisemitism marred the electoral campaign, along with Russian disinformation campaigns, and more than 50 candidates reported being physically attacked — highly unusual for France.

President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are meeting in Washington this week to mark the 75th anniversary of the world’s biggest security organization just as Russia presses its advantage on the battlefield in Ukraine. The three-day summit, which begins Tuesday, will focus on ways to reassure Ukraine of NATO’s enduring support and offer some hope to its war-weary citizens that their country might survive the biggest land conflict in Europe in decades. Much of what NATO can do for Ukraine, and indeed for global security, is misunderstood. Often the alliance is thought of as the sum of all U.S. relations with its European partners, from imposing sanctions and other costs on Russia to sending arms and ammunition. But as an organization, its brief is limited to the defense by military means of its 32 member countries — the sacred Three Musketeers-like vow of all for one, one for all — and a commitment to help keep the peace in Europe and North America. That also means not being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia. Here's a look at NATO and how it's aiding Ukraine: What is NATO?Founded in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed by 12 nations to counter the threat to European security posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Dealing with Moscow is in its DNA. NATO’s ranks have grown since the Washington Treaty was signed 75 years ago — to 32 countries after Sweden joined this year, worried by an increasingly aggressive Russia. NATO’s collective security guarantee — Article 5 of the treaty — underpins its credibility. It's a political commitment by all member countries to come to the aid of any member whose sovereignty or territory might be under attack. Ukraine would meet those criteria, but it is only a partner, not a member. NATO’s doors are open to any European country that wants to join and can meet the requirements and obligations. Importantly, NATO takes its decisions by consensus, so every member has a veto. Who's in charge?The United States is the most powerful member. It spends much more on defense than any other ally and far outweighs its partners in terms of military muscle. So Washington drives the agenda. NATO’s day-to-day work is led by its secretary-general — former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, until he is replaced on Oct. 1 by outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. NATO’s top civilian official chairs almost weekly meetings of ambassadors in the North Atlantic Council at its Brussels headquarters. He chairs other “NACs” at ministerial level and summits of heads of state and government. Stoltenberg runs NATO HQ. He does not order the allies around. His job is to encourage consensus and speak on behalf of all 32 members. NATO’s military headquarters is based nearby in Mons, Belgium. It is always run by a top U.S. officer. The current supreme allied commander Europe is Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli. What is NATO doing to help Ukraine?Even though most allies believe that Russia could pose an existential threat to Europe, NATO itself is not arming Ukraine. As an organization, NATO possesses no weapons of any kind. Collectively, the alliance provides only non-lethal support — fuel, combat rations, medical supplies and body armor, as well as equipment to counter drones or mines. But members do send arms on their own or in groups. NATO is helping Ukraine’s armed forces shift from Soviet-era military doctrine to modern thinking. It’s also helping strengthen Ukraine’s defense and security institutions. In Washington, NATO leaders will endorse a new plan to coordinate the delivery of equipment to Ukraine and training for its armed forces. The leaders will renew a vow that Ukraine will join the alliance one day, but not while it’s at war. Why is NATO stationing more troops on its European borders?While some allies have left open the possibility of sending military personnel to Ukraine, NATO itself has no plans to do this. But a key part of the commitment for allies to defend one another is to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin, or any other adversary, from launching an attack in the first place. Finland and Sweden joined NATO recently over concern about this. With the war in its third year, NATO now has 500,000 military personnel on high readiness to counter any attack, whether it be on land, at sea, by air or in cyberspace. The alliance has doubled the number of battle groups along its eastern flank, bordering Russia and Ukraine. Allies are almost continuously conducting military exercises. One of them this year, Steadfast Defender, involved around 90,000 troops operating across Europe. Isn't the U.S. doing the heavy lifting?Due to high U.S. defense spending over many years, America’s armed forces benefit not only from greater troop numbers and superior weapons but also from significant transport and logistics assets. Other allies are starting to spend more though. After years of cuts, NATO members committed to ramp up their national defense budgets in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The aim was for each ally to be spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense within a decade. A year ago, with no end to the war in sight, they agreed to make 2% a spending floor, rather than a ceiling. A record 23 countries are expected to be close to the spending target this year, up from only three a decade ago.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is heading off Sunday to the four corners of the U.K. as part of an “immediate reset” with governments in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Starmer, who said he has a “mandate to do politics differently” after his party's landslide victory, will meet Scottish First Minister John Swinney in Edinburgh in an effort to “turn disagreement into cooperation.” A NATO summit and mending EU relations are among first tasks for new UK leader Keir Starmer “That begins today with an immediate reset of my government’s approach to working with the first and deputy first ministers,” he said. “Meaningful co-operation centered on respect will be key to delivering change across our United Kingdom.” While each of the devolved nations in the U.K. elects members to the House of Commons in London, they also have their own regional parliaments. Starmer’s Labour Party trounced Swinney’s Scottish National Party for seats in Parliament. But the SNP, which has pushed for Scottish independence, still holds a majority at Holyrood, the Scottish parliament. The trip to build better working relations across the U.K. is part of Starmer's broader mission to work toward serving people as he tackles of mountain of problems. The Labour government inherited a wobbly economy that left Britons struggling to pay bills after global economic woes and fiscal missteps. It also faces a public that is disenchanted after 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule and fiscal austerity that hollowed out public services, including the revered National Health Service, which Starmer declared broken. A NATO summit and mending EU relations are among first tasks for new UK leader Keir Starmer Starmer said he wants to transfer power from the bureaucratic halls of government in London to leaders who know what’s best for their communities. After his brief tour, he'll return to England, where he plans to meet with regional mayors, saying in his first news conference Saturday that he would engage with politicians regardless of their party. “There’s no monopoly on good ideas,” he said “I’m not a tribal political.” On Tuesday, Starmer will jet off to Washington for a NATO meeting. Meanwhile, his top diplomat, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, was due in Poland and Sweden Sunday after visiting Germany on Saturday for his first trip abroad to strengthen ties with European partners. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on the social media platform X that the U.K. was an indispensable part of Europe and they were working with the British government to see how it could move closer to the European Union. Lammy reiterated Starmer's pledge not to rejoin the EU single market after British voters in 2016 voted to break from the political and economic union. Look forward to working closely with UK under Starmer’s leadership: PM Hasina “Let us put the Brexit years behind us," Lammy told The Observer. “We are not going to rejoin the single market and the customs union but there is much that we can do together.” Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Sunday on Sky News that the U.K. should look for ways to improve trade with the EU and that removing some trade barriers was sensible. But he said the Labour government was not open to the free movement of people that was required as a member of the union.

 At just 28 years old, Jordan Bardella has helped make the far-right National Rally the strongest political force in France. And now he could become the country's youngest prime minister. After voters propelled Marine Le Pen's National Rally to a strong lead in the first round of snap legislative elections on June 30, Bardella turned to rallying supporters to hand their party an absolute majority in the decisive round on Sunday. That would allow the anti-immigration, nationalist party to run the government, with Bardella at the helm. France is voting in a key election that could force Macron to share power with the far right Who is the National Rally president? When Bardella replaced his mentor, Marine Le Pen, in 2022 at the helm of France's leading far-right party, he became the first person without the Le Pen name to lead it since its founding a half-century ago. His selection marked a symbolic changing of the guard. It was part of Le Pen's decadelong effort to rebrand her party, with its history of racism, and remove the stigma of antisemitism that clung to it in order to broaden its base. She has notably distanced herself from her now-ostracized father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who co-founded the party, then called the National Front, and who has been repeatedly convicted of hate speech. Bardella is part of a generation of young people who joined the party under Marine Le Pen in the 2010s but likely wouldn't have done so under her father. Since joining at age 17, he has risen quickly through the ranks, serving as party spokesperson and president of its youth wing, before being appointed vice president and becoming the second-youngest member of the European Parliament in history, in 2019. "Jordan Bardella is the creation of Marine Le Pen," said Cécile Alduy, a Stanford University professor of French politics and literature, and an expert on the far right. "He has been made by her and is extremely loyal." On the campaign trail, Le Pen and Bardella have presented themselves as American-style running mates, with Le Pen vying for the presidency while pushing him to be prime minister, Alduy said. "They are completely in line politically." How France's Macron went from a successful political newcomer to a weakened leader How did he become the movement's poster child? It wasn't only having a different last name that made Bardella an attractive prospect for a party seeking to widen its appeal beyond its traditionally older, rural voter base. Bardella was born in the north Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis in 1995 to parents of Italian origin, with Algerian roots on his father's side — and far from seeking to deny these roots, he has used them to soften the tone (if not the content) of his party's anti-immigration stance and its hostility to France's Muslim community. Although Bardella attended a semi-private Catholic school and his father was fairly well-off, party-sanctioned accounts have stressed his upbringing in a rundown housing project beset by poverty and drugs. Never having finished university, Bardella's relatively modest background set him apart from the establishment. What's more, he could tell people directly — and crucially young voters — about it. With over 1.7 million followers on TikTok and 750,000 on Instagram, Bardella has found an audience for his slick social media content, which ranges from more traditional campaign material to videos mocking Macron and seemingly candid glimpses into the life of the National Rally's would-be prime minister. With a neat, clean-shaven look and social media savvy, he has posed for selfies with screaming fans. While his rhetoric is strong on hot-button issues like immigration — "France is disappearing" is his tagline — he has been relatively blurry on specifics. Renowned Nazi hunter in France advises Jews to choose far right over far left in elections What is he proposing for France? It was Bardella who in a post on X called on Macron to dissolve the parliament and call early elections after the president's centrist group suffered a crushing defeat by the National Rally at European elections in June. When Macron did just that, Bardella, often wearing a suit and tie, hit the campaign trail, toning down his popstar image to seem more statesman-like despite his lack of experience in government. In recent months, the National Rally has softened some of its most controversial positions, including pedaling back some of its proposals for more public spending and protectionist economic policies, and taking France out of NATO's strategic military command. Laying out the party's new program, Bardella said that as prime minister he would promote law and order, tighter regulation of migration and restricting certain social benefits, such as housing, to French citizens only. He said that dual citizens would be barred from some specific key jobs, such as state employees in the defense and security field. He promised to cut taxes on fuel, gas and electricity, and pledged a rollback of Macron's pension changes. His law-and-order minded government would also extend to the nation's public schools, extending the ban on cellphones to high schools. Rivals say his policies could do lasting damage to the French economy and violate human rights. On the international front, Bardella has aimed to counter allegations that Le Pen's party has long been friendly toward Russia and President Vladimir Putin. He said he regards Russia as "a multidimensional threat both for France and Europe," and said he would be "extremely vigilant" of any Russian attempts to interfere with French interests. Although he supports continued deliveries of French weaponry to Ukraine, he would not send French troops to help the country defend itself. He would also not allow sending long-rage missiles capable of striking targets within Russia. For voters with low incomes or who feel left out of economic successes in Paris or the globalized economy, Bardella offers an appealing choice, Alduy said. "The feeling of vulnerability people have to factors that are beyond their control, calls for a radical change in the minds of many voters," she said. "He has a clean slate and comes with no baggage of the past."