British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces down Labour Party rebels amid demands he resign
British Prime Minister and Labour leader Keir Starmer speaks to members of the media following local elections at Kingsdown Methodist Church on May 08, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with his Cabinet on Tuesday amid pressure from scores of his own Labour Party lawmakers to resign, following the party’s poor performance in last week’s local elections in which it came in second to the right-wing populist Reform Party.
Starmer met with his Cabinet at the prime minister’s Downing Street residence in London, with BBC News reporting that the prime minister said during the meeting that he refused to step aside.
The turmoil comes ahead of the King’s Speech and official opening of Parliament on Wednesday, an annual ceremonial event, during which King Charles III will set out the incumbent Labour government’s legislative agenda for the coming term.
Scores of Labour members of parliament have written to Starmer asking him to step down following last week’s local elections — as of Tuesday morning, the number was reportedly more than 81 — representing about 20% of the party’s members of the House of Commons.
But those lawmakers have not publicly backed a single potential leadership challenger, which is required to trigger a leadership contest. Starmer has said he will stand again in the event of a new leadership contest.
On Tuesday, Miatta Fahnbulleh — the minister for devolution, faith and communities — became the first government minister to resign in protest of Starmer’s continued leadership. “I urge the Prime Minister to do the right thing for the country and the Party and set a timetable for an orderly transition,” she wrote in a post to X.
Starmer has long said he intends to see out his full five-year term, which began with his party’s 2024 landslide election victory that ended 14 years of Conservative Party government and delivered Labour a historic majority in the House of Commons.
When he came to office, Starmer promised a departure from the policies of his five consecutive Conservative predecessors. But frustration with the pace and scale of reform has grown among some factions of the party during his first two years in power.
In last week’s elections, voters in England chose the leaders of their local councils and — in some cases — mayors. In Scotland and Wales, voters selected members of their devolved national parliaments.
The results were widely interpreted as a repudiation of Labour’s performance to date by British voters. The elections saw Labour lose 1,498 councillors in England and lose control of both the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, prompting immediate demands for change in Downing Street.
Labour held 1,068 councillors but were leapfrogged by the populist, anti-immigration and right-wing Reform Party — led by Nigel Farage — which emerged with 1,452 councillors, the most of any party.
On Monday, Starmer said during a speech, “I know that people are frustrated by the state of Britain, frustrated by politics and some people are frustrated with me. I know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will.”
“We are not just facing dangerous times, but dangerous opponents, very dangerous opponents,” he said, framing Labour as the only was to prevent the country heading down a “very dark path.”
Defense Minister John Healey was among those who publicly backed the prime minister on Tuesday.
“People are worried about current conflicts and looming global crises. They expect their government to lead the country through, as the PM is doing,” he wrote on X.
“More instability is not in Britain’s interest. Our full focus now must be on dealing with immediate economic & security challenges,” Healey added.
Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s president, attends a hearing for his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(SEOUL)– The Seoul Central District Court sentenced former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison Thursday.
The court found him guilty of leading an insurrection linked to his declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024.
The court ruled that Yoon’s central offense was mobilizing military and police forces to seize control of the National Assembly and detain key political figures.
“The deployment of martial law troops to the National Assembly during the state of emergency constitutes ‘rioting,’ a key legal element required to establish the crime of insurrection,” presiding judge Ji Gui-yeon said Thursday. Ji said declaring martial law can constitute insurrection if intended to obstruct or paralyze constitutional institutions.
The court acknowledged political tensions between Yoon’s administration and the opposition-controlled legislature. However, it said those circumstances did not justify declaring martial law under the constitution.
Judges also said Yoon showed no remorse or acknowledgment of wrongdoing during the proceedings, which they considered in determining his sentence.
Yoon’s attorneys criticized the ruling as “a mere formality for a predetermined conclusion.”
“Watching the rule of law collapse in reality, I question whether I should even pursue an appeal or continue participating in these criminal proceedings,” Yoon’s attorney, Yoon Gab-geun, told reporters after the ruling. “The truth will be revealed in the court of history.”
Yoon was taken into custody immediately after the ruling and transferred to the Seoul Detention Center. He will remain there unless the court grants release pending appeal.
If Yoon appeals, the case will move to the Seoul High Court, which can review legal interpretations and factual findings. A final appeal could be filed with the Supreme Court.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, arguing Yoon’s actions posed a grave threat to the constitutional order.
Thursday’s ruling addressed only the insurrection charge. Other criminal cases tied to the December 2024 martial law declaration, including abuse of power and obstruction of official duty, remain pending.
In a separate case last month, Yoon was sentenced to five years in prison for obstructing his arrest, the first criminal conviction tied to the crisis.
“Yoon’s sentencing does not represent a national catharsis since most Koreans have already emotionally moved on from the former president,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told ABC News. “Nor does this televised verdict mark closure because many cases and appeals related to Yoon’s martial law debacle have yet to be fully adjudicated.”
The Pentagon, heaquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, is seen from the air. ((Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images))
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Southern Command said in a statement that it struck an alleged “narco-trafficking” boat in the Caribbean Sea on Monday, killing two people.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” SOUTHCOM wrote in a post to X.
“Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed,” it added. SOUTHCOM also published a video of the strike on X.
At least 189 people have now been killed by U.S. strikes in Operation Southern Spear.
Workers line up to disinfect their protective equipment at General Referral Hospital of Mongbwalu during the Ebola outbreak response in Mongbwalu, Ituri province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on May 20, 2026. (Michel Lunanga/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Doctors and public health workers at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) told ABC News that the deadly virus is still spreading at an alarming rate.
“The outbreak is completely out of control,” said Dr. Richard Kojan in an interview from the city of Bunia in Ituri province, which is the hardest hit.
Kojan, who has been involved in fighting previous Ebola outbreaks in central and western Africa and is president of the Alliance for International Medical Action, said deep mistrust within some local communities is hampering efforts to contain the virus.
Another clinician, Dr. Richard Lokudi, who is the director of the main hospital in Mongbwalu, the hardest hit area, told ABC News that the disease was spreading “at an exponential speed.”
Dr. Lokudi said seven symptomatic patients suspected of having Ebola had recently “escaped” from Mongbwalu Hospital.
This was creating “chains and chains of contamination,” Dr. Lokudi said, adding that this was making the virus “difficult to fight.”
According to the World Health Organization, more than 1,000 suspected cases of a rare strain of Ebola, known as Bundibugyo, have been identified in the eastern DRC and more than 230 suspected deaths from the virus have been recorded.
There is currently no vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain. Seven confirmed cases have also been identified in neighboring Uganda, the WHO said.
Last week, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
Jeremy Konyndyk, who worked as a senior official at USAID under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and is now president of Refugees International, said that the outbreak had already reached an “explosive” level of transmission.
Konyndyk, who is based in Maryland, described the situation in central Africa as“about as urgent as any Ebola response has ever been” and said the 1,000 suspected cases were “almost certainly the tip of the iceberg” and “perhaps even an undercount by a factor of two or three.”
Health officials believe the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola had been circulating, undetected, in the Ituri province for up to three months before it was officially identified. The unusual strain was harder to identify via testing.
However, levels of mistrust within local communities toward measures to contain the virus, as well as skepticism that the virus even exists, are now hampering efforts to stem the outbreak, health officials say.
Kojan said there is currently a lack of laboratory testing capacity in the region, which is needed for accurate diagnosis and effective contact tracing.
The lack of lab capacity means symptomatic patients suspected of having the virus can wait for days for test results, increasing the risk of them leaving isolation prematurely, Kojan said.
“People don’t trust that, you know, Ebola is a reality,” he said.
The Congolese clinician said he was on “the front line” without access to a laboratory, meaning he was struggling to build trust with patients.
New cases every day
Both Both Dr. Lokudi and Dr. Kojan said their healthcare facilities were receiving new suspected cases of Ebola every day.
Amidst the high levels of mistrust, there has also been growing anger towards strict healthcare procedures, which are necessary to safely bury the dead and stop the virus from spreading.
The two Congolese doctors confirmed reports that on two occasions, isolation tents and healthcare facilities had been set on fire by angry crowds in recent days.
In an exchange of messages with ABC News on Tuesday, Lokudi said the police and military were now protecting his hospital, but he said angry groups of youths had still been gathering nearby.
He said that in some cases, amid “resistance” from local populations, officials were unable to safely access remote areas of Ituri province to investigate suspected deaths from the virus.
Lokudi described the situation as “really concerning,” saying that if teams do not go to such areas, then family members face a high risk of catching the virus if they themselves bury their loved ones.
Ebola is transmitted via bodily fluids, so treating sick patients and handling the deceased should only be done by healthcare teams in protective suits. Ideally, a victim’s home should also be sprayed down with disinfectant.
In the remote rural communities affected, these vital protective measures can run contrary to local burial practices and reports suggest this, mixed with a level of misunderstanding, has been the source of many people’s anger.
Kojan described a lack of masks and protective clothing as another “really big problem,” and both doctors said more adequately trained healthcare professionals were needed on the ground to raise awareness and implement barriers to stop the spread of the virus.
Cuts to U.S. programs created difficulties
Konyndyk said significant cuts to U.S, humanitarian aid in the DRC had made things harder.
“We’re kind of fighting this one with several hands tied behind our back,” Konyndyk told ABC News.
“When we have fought Ebola in the past on this scale, it has been a combination of the Ministry of Health, WHO, USAID, CDC,” he said.
“USAID is fully gone, CDC is badly weakened. WHO has been badly weakened, the U.S., of course, withdrew from WHO and cut off all funding,” Konyndyk added.
The former USAID official said in an interview that they were “almost certain” that if USAID were still in place, this outbreak would have been caught earlier.
Konyndyk said he believed earlier reports of “an unknown viral hemorrhagic fever outbreak” in the region “would have been brought to the attention of the U.S. mission” in the DRC.
“I’ve talked with some of the members who worked on that team, who were forced out of the government, who would say things like, look, I would be on the phone every week with health leaders in this part of the country,” Konyndyk told ABC News.
“I think the U.S. visibility on that diminished badly and that contributed certainly to the US being slow to wake up to this, but also to the world being slow to wake up to it,” the humanitarian leader said.
A White House official in response said the claim that cuts to U.S. aid have affected the response to the Ebola outbreak in the DRC was “ridiculous.”
“You could just as easily say people died because England didn’t give enough money or Canada didn’t give more or China didn’t. Why not blame the other countries who don’t do any foreign aid?” the official added.
The Trump administration has argued that its “America First Foreign Assistance programs” are intertwined with broader foreign policy goals and the national interest.
“The United States has saved more lives, and continues to save more lives, than any other country in the world, and we’re going to continue to do it,” the White House official said in a statement. “We’re not going to continue to pour billions of dollars out the door of American taxpayer funds for programs that don’t work and in some cases were flat-out corrupt.”
Back in the affected area of the DRC, both doctors interviewed by ABC said they had messages for the US and the world.
International support is needed urgently “on all levels,” according to Lokudi.
Kojan said he is appealing to the world to realize that this is about people’s “humanity.”
“People are really scared. It’s our humanity … so my message is, you know, we need attention.”
