WORLD NEWS LIVE BLOG: Liz Truss becomes UK PM after appointment by Queen

Shifaan Ryklief|Published 2 years ago

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and new Conservative Party leader and Britain's Prime Minister-elect Liz Truss meet at Balmoral Castle in Ballater, Scotland where the Queen invited Truss to form a Government. Picture: Jane Barlow/Pool/AFP

JUST IN: Liz Truss has officially taken over the reins as UK Prime Minister after meeting with Queen Elizabeth in Balmoral, Scotland on Tuesday.

This comes a day after Conservative Party members elected her the new leader and successor to Boris Johnson.

The 47-year-old politician will now head to Downing Street where she will address the nation.

She was in a tight race for the top job in the UK with former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak.

Truss was Foreign Secretary before she entered the race to succeed Johnson.

Johnson had earlier expressed his full support for Truss in her new role as British prime minister.

She is the third female prime minister from the Conservative Party after Margaret Thatcher and Therese May.

May was succeeded by Johnson a few years ago.

(Source: Current Affairs)

Japan to spend $12m on ex-PM Shinzo Abe's state funeral

Tokyo, Japan - Japan expects to spend around 1.7 billion yen ($12 million) on a state funeral for assassinated former premier Shinzo Abe, the government said Tuesday, despite controversy over the plan.

Abe was shot dead on the campaign trail in July, and the government expects dozens of current and former heads of state to pay condolences at the September 27 service in Tokyo.

But recent polls show about half of Japanese voters oppose the publicly funded event.

Security is expected to cost around 800 million yen, with another 600 million to be spent on hosting and 250 million for the ceremony, top government spokesman Hirozaku Matsuno said Tuesday.

"Delegates from more than 190 foreign (countries and regions) will likely participate," he told reporters at a regular briefing.

The funeral will be held at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan, a venue used for concerts and sports events that also hosted Japan's last state funeral for a former prime minister in 1967.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said the domestic and international accomplishments of Abe, the country's longest-serving prime minister, make a state ceremony appropriate.

But state funerals for former politicians are rare in Japan, and a weekend poll published Monday by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper found that 56 percent of voters oppose the event, against 38 percent in favour.

Other recent polls have shown similar levels of opposition, and Kishida has said he is ready to answer questions on the issue in parliament.

His government's approval ratings have taken a hit in recent weeks, in part due to the funeral decision.

Some opponents are against spending public money on an event honouring a politician, while others think a state funeral effectively forces public mourning or minimises Abe's nationalist views and alleged links to cronyism.

Abe's accused killer, Tetsuya Yamagami, who is in custody, targeted the former leader believing he was linked to the Unification Church.

Yamagami's mother reportedly made large donations to the church, which her son blamed for the family's financial difficulties.

A small private funeral for Abe was held at a temple in Tokyo shortly after his death, with thousands of people gathering outside to lay flowers and offer respects.

(Source: AFP)

US says Russia is buying artillery ammunition from N Korea - report

US intelligence has assessed that Moscow is buying millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea, the New York Times reported, on the heels of reports that the Russian military has begun using Iranian-made drones.

US officials said they could confirm that the New York Times reporting was accurate and that additional Russian purchases of North Korean military equipment were expected.

"The Russian Ministry of Defense is in the process of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea for use on the battlefield in Ukraine," an official said by email when asked about the paper's report.

The official said the purchases indicated that the Russian military "continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine, due in part to export controls and sanctions."

"We expect Russia could try to purchase additional North Korean military equipment going forward," said the official, who did not want to be identified by name.

The Times quoted U.S. government officials as saying that the purchases showed US-led sanctions had begun to bite and to reduce Russia's ability to sustain its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow has called a "special military operation".

The paper's report on Monday said the recently declassified intelligence provided no details about what was purchased, beyond saying that the items included artillery shells and rockets.

Last month, a US official told Reuters that Russia's Iranian-made drones had suffered "numerous failures". The official said Russia most likely planned to acquire hundreds of Mohajer-6 and Shahed-series unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Ukraine recently launched counteroffensives in several locations, including around Kherson, which Russia has occupied since early in the invasion. In preparation for those attacks, Ukrainian forces struck Russian supply areas, including those containing artillery and ammunition.

Officials have said Western sanctions are limiting Russia's ability to replace vehicles and weapons destroyed in Ukraine.

(Source: Reuters)

Boris Johnson bids farewell as UK PM

Outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday bade farewell in an address outside 10, Downing Street, just before his successor Liz Truss takes office.

He began his televised addressed to the nation by saying "this is it folks", reports the BBC.

Johnson said that in a couple of hours he will be in Balmoral to see the Queen and the torch will be passed to a new leader, in what he says was a relay race where they "changed the rules half way through".

The outgoing leader added that the Conservative Party leadership contest was an unexpected relay race and the rules were changed halfway through, "but never mind that for now".

Taking an aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin, the outgoing leader said that "he can't blackmail or bully the British people over the energy crisis", reports the BBC.

Putin is "utterly deluded" to think he can, Johnson says, adding that the "compassionate" Conservative government led by Truss will get people through the crisis.

"I'd be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific," the BBC quoted him as saying.

In conclusion, he said: "We are one whole and entire United Kingdom... (The) union is so strong that those that want to break it up will keep trying, but they will never, ever succeed."

(Source: Indo-Asian News Service)

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Wave of protests in Europe over high cost of living, energy prices

The European Union has seen a wave of protests across France, Germany and the Czech Republic as residents feel the pinch of soaring energy prices and high cost of living.

On Monday mass demonstrations erupted in Leipzig against the high energy prices organised by the Left party and Alternative for Germany (AfD).

According to Sputnik News, around 2 000 people have gathered at Augustusplatz in Leipzig city centre to begin what has been proclaimed as a “hot autumn” to protest.