Britain

Reuters reports: An initial field of 11 challengers has been whittled down following two days of votes by lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party, but no individual has yet emerged as the obvious successor to Boris Johnson who announced he was stepping down following a series of scandals. While ex-finance minister Rishi Sunak has topped those two votes, he faces …

NBC News reports: The candidates all had to win the initial backing of at least 20 of their fellow Conservative lawmakers in order to proceed to the first round of voting which takes place Wednesday. In order to whittle the number of candidates down to just two, more votes will now take place – beginning Wednesday – with the 358 …

Politico Europe reports: Boris Johnson’s premiership will end on September 6 under a timetable agreed Monday evening by Conservative Party bosses. The U.K prime minister is set to step down from his role in eight weeks’ time, after a new Tory leader is elected in a ballot of party members ending September 5. Johnson’s anointed successor is likely to take …

The BBC reports: Sir Mo Farah was brought to the UK illegally as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant, he has revealed. The Olympic star has told the BBC he was given the name Mohamed Farah by those who flew him over from Djibouti. His real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin. He was flown over from …

Reuters reports: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was sad to be leaving the best job in the world in a resignation statement on Thursday, and added: “Thems the breaks.” “I know that there will be many people who are relieved and perhaps quite a few who will also be disappointed. And I want you to know how sad …

The New York Times reports: Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain will resign as Conservative Party leader on Thursday after a wholesale rebellion of his cabinet, a wave of government resignations and a devastating loss of party support, prompted by his handling of the party’s latest sex-and-bullying scandal. Mr. Johnson plans to stay on in the role of prime minister …

Politico Europe reports: The party’s over but Boris Johnson refuses to leave. Despite more than 40 resignations from his government, an attempted coup by his top team and numerous calls to quit from his own Tory backbenchers, the British prime minister was locked in No.10 Downing Street with his closest aides on Wednesday night, trying to map out a way …

The BBC reports: Boris Johnson is battling to stay in office, amid a growing wave of resignations from his government in protest at his leadership. New chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has urged unity after his predecessor, the health secretary, and several junior ministers walked out. But the prime minister has been hit by six further resignations, taking the total to 16 …

ABC News reports: Two of Britain’s most senior Cabinet ministers have quit, a move that could spell the end of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership after months of scandals. Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned within minutes of each other. Javid said “I can no longer continue in good conscience.” Johnson has been hit by allegations …

The Hill reports: The U.K. Embassy in Washington, D.C., shared a playlist to commemorate the United States’s Independence Day on Monday, including only one song on repeat by the band Player: “Baby Come Back.” “Baby come back, any kind of fool could see/There was something in everything about you/Baby come back, you can blame it all on me/I was wrong …

Reuters reports: More than a million people flocked to central London on Saturday for a record-breaking 50th-anniversary Pride parade. The three-hour-long parade, headed by veterans of the LGBT movement who took part in Britain’s first Pride march, retraced part of the original route of 1972. Organisers said there had been 30,000 participants. The first Pride had seen a few hundred …

The BBC reports: A former deputy chief whip alleged to have groped two men in a private members’ club has been suspended as a Conservative MP. Chris Pincher will sit as an independent after he was reported to Parliament’s behaviour watchdog. He quit his government job in a resignation letter on Thursday, saying he had “drunk far too much” and …

The BBC reports: Tory deputy chief whip Chris Pincher has resigned from the government, after allegations that he groped two men at a private members’ club. In his resignation letter, he told the PM he “drank far too much” and “embarrassed myself and other people”. Witnesses told the BBC he was seen “extremely drunk” at the Carlton Club, the Conservative …

Politico Europe reports: Britain is headed for a fresh constitutional crisis as Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon prepares to outline plans for a second vote on Scottish independence — with or without Boris Johnson’s agreement. In a 20-minute speech to lawmakers in the Scottish parliament (Holyrood) on Tuesday, Sturgeon will set out her long-awaited route to some form of a …

The Telegraph reports: Polio is spreading in Britain for the first time in nearly 40 years, health officials have warned, as they declared a national incident and urged people to make sure they are vaccinated. Britain was proclaimed polio-free in 2003 and the last wild case was detected in 1984, making the current outbreak the first transmission event since the …

The Wall Street Journal reports: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can now be extradited from the U.K. to the U.S. to face espionage charges after British Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the order. The decision, which Mr. Assange has said he would appeal, is the latest step in a long-running legal saga. A London court authorized Mr. Assange’s extradition in April, …

The New York Times reports: Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a dramatic no-confidence vote on Monday, a too-close-for-comfort result that leaves him badly wounded and sets off a volatile period in British politics as he fights to stay in power and fend off potential challengers in his Conservative Party. The vote, 211 to 148, fell short of the simple majority …

NPR reports: The Tory rebels need the backing of at least 180 Conservative lawmakers out of 359 to vote Johnson out. But if they fail to oust Johnson, the rebels can’t challenge him again for another 12 months, under the current rules. Johnson’s team is telling his fellow Conservatives to slow down, warning that an internal clash will only help …

The BBC reports: Conservative MPs will decide whether to remove Boris Johnson from office later, amid a backlash to the Partygate scandal. The secret ballot has been triggered by scores of Tory MPs writing to party bosses calling on the PM to quit. Anger among backbenchers has been rising since Sue Gray published her official report into lockdown parties in …

Sky News reports: Thousands of people are taking part in a colourful street pageant in central London – one of the main events of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The pageant was led by the Gold State Coach – a 260-year-old carriage that carried the Queen to and from her coronation in 1953. The coach featured archival footage of the Queen …