Headlines
Keir Starmer Officially Assumes Duty As UK Prime Minister
Britain’s Head of State, King Charles III, officially appointed Labour leader Keir Starmer as Prime Minister during an audience at Buckingham Palace on Friday.
A photograph released by the Buckingham Palace showed the monarch shaking hands with Starmer, whose party won a landslide election victory. The king earlier accepted the resignation of Conservative leader, Rishi Sunak.
“The King received in audience The Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer MP today and requested him to form a new Administration,” a palace statement read.
“Sir Keir accepted His Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon his appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.”
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak has apologised to the public after his Conservatives were trounced by Labour in the UK general election, and said he would step down as party leader.
The 44-year-old former financier gambled on going to the country six months before he had to, hoping that better economic data would swing public support back towards the Tories.
But Thursday’s vote indicated that Britons wanted to send a clear message to the party by kicking them out of power after 14 years of economic hardships, Brexit upheaval and Tory infighting.
“To the country, I would like to say first and foremost, I am sorry,” he said outside the Prime Minister’s residence at Downing Street, before heading to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation as prime minister to King Charles III.
“I have given this job my all, but you have sent a clear signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change. And yours is the only judgment that matters.”
“I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss.”
The scale of the defeat made it inevitable that Sunak — the conservative party’s fifth leader since 2010 — would have to step down as Tory head as well.
But he said that he would stay on in the role until the arrangements are made for an internal leadership contest, which is expected to be a fight for the ideological soul of the party.
Sunak saw a record number of his top ministerial team lose their seats, including defence secretary Grant Shapps and House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt.
His immediate predecessor as Prime Minister, Liz Truss, also lost her seat.
Sunak, an observant Hindu who is Britain’s first Prime Minister of colour — wished his successor Keir Starmer well, calling him “a decent, public-spirited man who I respect”.
“One of the most remarkable things about Britain is just how unremarkable it is that two generations after my grandparents came here with little, I could become prime minister,” he added.
“And that I could watch my two young daughters light Diwali candles on the steps in Downing Street. We must hold true to that idea of who we are,” he added.
Nigerian sprint star, Favour Ofili, made history on Saturday by breaking the world record in the women’s 150 metres at the 2025 Adidas Atlanta City Games, clocking an astonishing 15.85 seconds (2.0m/s) at Piedmont Park.
At just 22 years old, Ofili became the first woman to ever run the 150m in under 16 seconds, smashing the previous record of 16.23 seconds set by Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas in 2018.
Her performance headlined a strong Nigerian showing at the prestigious street meet, which brought together elite global athletes in a vibrant, open-air setting designed to engage fans up close.
Reacting to her historic moment, she wrote on X: “For the lord is Good.”
Also shining on the day was world record holder and 100m hurdles champion Tobi Amusan, who finished second in her heat with a time of 12.53 seconds behind American Keni Harrison (12.44s), securing a place in the final. Amusan’s run continues her steady build-up for the upcoming championship season, having already posted 12.74s and 12.66s in previous meets in Xiamen and Keqiao.
Meanwhile, Nigerian sprinter Udodi Onwuzurike clocked a season’s best of 10.20 seconds in his 100m heat, finishing second to South Africa’s Akani Simbine (10.13s). The performance was enough to book Onwuzurike a spot in the final, signalling a strong resurgence in his 2025 campaign.
Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was diagnosed on Friday with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, his office said in a statement on Sunday.
The diagnosis came after Mr. Biden reported urinary symptoms, which led doctors to find a “small nodule” on his prostate. Mr. Biden’s cancer is “characterized by a Gleason score of 9” with “metastasis to the bone,” the statement said.
The Gleason score is used to describe how prostate cancers look under a microscope; 9 and 10 are the most aggressive. The cancer is Stage 4, which means it has spread.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” according to the statement from Mr. Biden’s office, which was unsigned. “The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
Mr. Biden, 82, left office in January as the oldest-serving president in American history. Throughout his presidency, Mr. Biden faced questions about his age and his health, ultimately leading him to abandon his re-election campaign under pressure from his own party.
Prostate cancer experts say that Mr. Biden’s diagnosis is serious, and that once the cancer has spread to the bones — where it tends to go — it cannot be cured. But Dr. Judd Moul, a prostate cancer expert at Duke University, said men whose prostate cancer has spread “can live five, seven, 10 or more years.”
The first line of attack is to cut off the testosterone that feeds prostate cancer. Dr. Moul said that when he started out as a urologist in the 1980s, this was done by removing a man’s testicles. Today, men have a choice of two drugs given by injection that block the testicles from making testosterone or a pill that does the same thing. In addition, men take drugs that block any testosterone that manages to be made despite the drugs that inhibit its production.
Dr. Moul said he sees men Mr. Biden’s age with similar prostate cancer diagnoses on a regular basis. “Survival rates have almost tripled in the last decade,” he said.
On Monday, Mr. Biden posted a picture on social media with his wife, Jill Biden, along with a statement saying: “Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”
President Bola Tinubu on Sunday met with Pope Leo XIV in Vatican City in Rome, Italy.
Their meeting has sparked a possible significant moment in diplomatic and interfaith relations between Nigeria and the Holy See.
Tinubu had arrived the Vatican City on Saturday following an invitation from the Pope.
He was in Rome to witness the official installation of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican City in Rome.
The president is also expected to join other world leaders and dignitaries at a solemn mass marking the beginning of the pontificate of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Bishop of Rome and the newly elected leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
Upon his arrival, His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State to the Vatican had hosted Tinubu to a dinner.
Pope Leo XIV was elected by a college of Cardinals following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday.
