|
This is VOA News. I'm Alexis Strope.
Britain's newly elected prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, made his first public statement since leading Britain's Labour Party to a landslide election victory on Friday. More from VOA's Steve Miller. Starmer became the country's 58th prime minister, the first leader from the center-left party to win a U.K. national election since Tony Blair, who won three in a row starting in 1997. In his address to the nation, Prime Minister Starmer said the work of change began and that he will "establish a way of working across the United Kingdom that will be different and better to the way of working that we've had in recent years and to recognize the contributions of all four nations." Starmer's first meeting on the international stage will be next week when he attends the NATO summit in Washington. Steve Miller, VOA News. Texas is getting ready for Beryl to make landfall Monday potentially as a Category 1 hurricane as it churns in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. AP Correspondent Julie Walker reports. The National Hurricane Center's Jack Beven: "Most likely Beryl is Category 1 hurricane. It'll bring dangerous storm surge, flooding the portions of the Texas coast, hurricane-force winds to a small area near the center and tropical storm conditions to allow the rest of the Texas coast ..." He says up to 15 inches of rain and the forecast voluntary evacuations underway. Matagorda County spokesman Mitch Tame says they're in the middle of their Christmas in July festival - every Airbnb rented. "You always plan for the worst and hope for the best." Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean as a Category 4 and 5 before battering Mexico as a cat, too. I'm Julie Walker. You'll find expanded coverage of world news and events at our website, voanews.com. This is VOA News. Palestinians say the hunger situation in northern Gaza has become increasingly dire. AP correspondent Charles De Ledesma has more. ???Tayseer Al Nasha, a displaced Palestinian whose 16-year-old daughter was killed in the war, says that the situation is tragic in every sense of the word. The famine has returned now. It's the same scenario. We're searching at the open market, as you see, it's not really a market, while Walid Hegazi, a Jabaliya resident whose house was damaged in the war, tells the AP "Even if we had money, then no goods. We want to eat, but from where can we eat? The country is exhausted. The country's destitute. It's not suitable for living." Hegazi urges the international community to provide humanitarian aid to the strip's population. I'm Charles De Ledesma. Britain wants a balanced position on the war in the Middle East, its new foreign minister, David Lammy, told Reuters on Saturday. Lammy said Britain will use diplomatic efforts to ensure a cease-fire is reached and hostages held by Palestinian militant group Hamas are released. "The fighting has to stop. The aid has got to get in and I will use all diplomatic efforts to ensure that we get to that cease-fire." The Labour Party suffered significant election setbacks in areas with large Muslim populations in the election on Friday amid discontent over its position on the war in Gaza despite a landslide victory in the parliamentary vote. Human rights groups say dozens of Kenyans have been abducted in the past two weeks amid anti-government protests sparked by proposals to raise taxes, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. So far there have been 41 deaths, 35 abductions and 746 arrests as a result of the anti-finance bill protests. David Doyle from Reuters reports. In an interview on Sunday, President William Ruto denied police involvement in disappearances and broadly defended the actions of the security forces. However, Irungu Houghton, executive director at Amnesty International Kenya, said, "This pattern that we had not seen probably at this scale since the 1980s, where people who are considered to be protesters or organizers, or even just simply voices of dissent, are being plucked from their homes or even as they go to church with their family." Though Ruto withdrew the proposed tax increases and allegedly heavy-handed reaction has raised fears of rights backsliding. David Doyle from Reuters. Sudanese political and civil society groups met on Saturday in Egypt to discuss ways to end the war engulfing Sudan. Former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok: "The inability of the polarization, [of] inability of bringing the two belligerents together in negotiating seriously and stopping the war and moving forward on a political process ..." The warring parties, however, didn't take part in the Egypt-sponsored conference. I'm Alexis Strope, VOA News. |