LONDON A handout photograph released by the UK Parliament shows Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer addressing MPs as they meet for the first time since Britain’s general election at the House of Commons in London on July 9, 2024 Britain’s new lawmakers excitedly squeezed into parliament Tuesday with Labour sitting on the government‘s side of the chamber...
Tag: U.K.
Post
Post
U.K.’s overflowing prisons present PM Starmer with early crisis
LONDON – The scale of the challenge facing Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s new government is writ large in Britain’s prisons, which are within weeks of being too full to accept new inmates, leaving the government with unpalatable and costly choices. Britain has western Europe’s highest rate of incarceration, according to the World Prison Brief database...
Post
Labour win in U.K. election would likely mean continuity for Asia
Despite its strong campaign focus on domestic issues, Britain’s opposition Labour Party is unlikely to turn its back on the Indo-Pacific region should it win Thursday’s general election. If polls are correct, the party will win the vote by a thumping margin, putting an end to 14 years of successive Conservative-led governments as the country...
Post
U.K.’s Rwanda migrant plan may never get off ground
LONDON – The controversial plan to fly thousands of asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda may never get off the ground, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Thursday that there would be no deportations before a national election in July. After taking office in October 2022, Sunak made the plan to send migrants who...
Post
Ukraine refugees face dwindling job opportunities in the U.K.
Merely weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the British government mobilized to offer asylum to people fleeing the conflict. Now refugees are struggling to find the high-quality jobs that their qualifications deserve. As the Russo-Ukrainian war grinds into its third year, visas issued to first arrivals are approaching expiry just as the U.K. labor...
Post
Big Tech is pouring billions into British AI investments—but the U.K. risks becoming a sidekick to U.S. tech giants
Microsoft’s plan to open a new AI hub in London is a huge endorsement for the U.K. as a world leader in AI. But I do question whether it is wholly good news for the long-term. The U.K. has shown time and again that some of the very best AI expertise in the world lies here. The pool of talent...