20/06/2026

SATURDAY | JUNE 20, 2026

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Veteran UK politician wins poll, opens door to challenge PM

Venezuela holds talks on democratic transition CARACAS: Members of Venezuela’s interim government met with the country’s opposition party on Thursday to discuss a “roadmap for a dialogue on a democratic transition”, the US State Department said. The meeting between National Assembly chief Jorge Rodriguez and former opposition lawmaker Dinorah Figuera, who returned to Caracas on Thursday after eight years of exile, “is a first step in what will be a thoughtful process to secure a free and open Venezuelan society”, said State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott. A doctor by training who became president of the National Assembly in 2015, Figuera, 65, went into exile in 2018, fleeing after receiving “threats and harassment” for serving as spokesperson for her fellow Justice First party member Fernando Alban, who died in prison that October. Ex-president Nicolas Maduro was captured in January during a US military raid and arrested on drug trafficking charges. The Venezuelan government has since been led by his Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez on an interim basis. Upon her return in Venezuela, Figuera sought to distance herself from opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, who has launched her own initiative to negotiate a Venezuelan democratic transition. The US embassy in Caracas issued a statement that Figuera had met in April with a State Department official “to discuss the ways towards a stable, orderly and consolidated democratic transition”. US State Secretary Marco Rubio earlier this month addressed Washington’s desire for Venezuelan elections and said: “Clearly, we need to have a new electoral committee. Ultimately, Venezuela’s future is free and fair multi-party elections.” – AFP MEXICO CITY: A Mexican mayor allegedly faked her own kidnapping to embezzle US$2 million (RM8 million) worth of government funds, local authorities said on Thursday. Tenancingo Municipal president Nancy Napoles has called the accusations “politicised”. Napoles belongs to the ruling Morena party of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has made combatting corruption one of the pillars of her administration. Prosecutors said they requested Napoles give testimony on July 9 for the “simulation of a kidnapping”. There are no arrest warrants against her, unlike her husband and brother-in-law, who are on the run. Armed men forced Napoles out of her car at gunpoint, according to the prosecutors office, basing the case on the testimony of three now-arrested “kidnappers”.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was among the advocates calling for Sarsour’s release, welcomed the ruling. The Trump administration has cracked down on pro-Palestinian voices by attempting to deport foreign protesters, threatening funding freezes for universities where protests were held and ordering the screening of immigrants’ online comments. The measures have faced judicial obstacles. Trump alleges that pro-Palestinian voices are antisemitic and support extremists. Advocates, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly conflates criticism of Israel’s assault in Gaza with antisemitism and advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism. – Reuters the spotlight, handing its electorate of roughly 77,000 people an outsized say in influencing Starmer’s fate. Surveys show that Burnham, nicknamed “King of the North” for winning three consecutive mayoral terms, is Labour’s most popular politician and would likely win a direct vote against Starmer among the party membership. Thursday’s vote for the Makerfield seat, where Labour had held a majority of just 5,300 votes, was seen as a test of whether Burnham can defeat Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage. Local plumber Kenyon’s campaign was dogged by past offensive remarks about women, while the fringe hard-right Restore Britain party dented Reform’s vote by snagging nearly 7% of returns. Starmer has vowed to fight any leadership challenge but the resounding nature of Burnham’s win is likely to heighten pressure from Labour MPs to step down instead. Before the Makerfield result was declared, ex-minister Louise Haigh told the BBC that Starmer should consider “an orderly and managed transition” of power. Burnham, an MP from 2001 to 2017, hails from Labour’s so-called soft-left wing and has been a critic of Starmer’s more-centrist rule. Attention now turns to when he will make his move against Starmer. Burnham is due to be sworn in as an MP on Monday. Under Labour party rules, leadership candidates must be an MP. He would be able to easily muster the support of 81 of Labour’s 400-plus MPs, the minimum needed to kickstart a contest. Ex-Health minister Wes Streeting, from Labour’s right wing, has said Starmer should be given “space over the weekend” to consider his future. Streeting has also vowed to join any race, but could end up striking a deal with Burnham to avoid a divisive fight. – AFP

He has been rocked by several policy U-turns and a scandal over his appointment of ex-Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington. Dozens of Labour MPs have called on Starmer to quit and several ministers have resigned, as national surveys suggest that Reform is set to win the next general election, expected in 2029. But the 63-year-old ex-lawyer has refused to quit, insisting that his landslide election victory over the Conservatives 23 months ago gave him a five-year mandate to govern. Amid growing impatience within the ruling party, now-former Labour MP Josh Simons stood down in Makerfield so that Burnham could try to return to Parliament and run for leader. The unprecedented move thrust the little-known political district into

o Starmer should consider orderly and managed transition of power, says ex-minister

WIGAN: Veteran UK Labour politician Andy Burnham emphatically won a by-election yesterday, securing a parliamentary seat and clearing the way for a widely expected leadership challenge against beleaguered Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Burnham, a former government minister who has been Greater Manchester mayor since 2017, ensured his return to Parliament by easily beating the hard-right Reform UK party’s candidate in Makerfield, northwest England. The 56-year-old longtime figure in centre-left Labour wants to replace Starmer as party leader and prime minister, and needed to win the

high-stakes vote to be in a position to trigger such a contest. If Starmer does leave office this year, Britain will get its seventh prime minister in 10 years. “I do say to my own party, this is a final chance to change,” said Burnham in his acceptance speech after securing nearly 55% of the vote, beating Reform’s Robert Kenyon by more than 9,000 ballots. “We must get it right,” he added, saying his victory could be a “turning point” for the country. Starmer has been clinging to power since Labour suffered a drubbing in polls in England, Scotland and Wales last month.

Burnham addressesing supporters outside the Labour party campaign office in Ashton, Makerfield on Thursday. – AFPPIC

Mosque head released from ICE detention WASHINGTON: Islamic Society of Milwaukee (ISM) president extremists. Hanlon said Sarsour should remain in Wisconsin as the case against him continues.

Mexican mayor accused of faking kidnapping to embezzle govt funds

am,” said Sarsour after his release. Sarsour, who has type-2 diabetes, lost more than 13.6kg in detention, his legal team said. He has no criminal record in the United States but was convicted as a teenager in an Israeli military court before he came to the United States. Israeli rights group B’Tselem says military courts in the West Bank, where Palestinians are tried for alleged crimes, have a 96% conviction rate and a history of extracting confessions through torture. Noting his past conviction, the Homeland Security Department, of which ICE is a part, said Sarsour was convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces. Sarsour denies committing such crimes. “There is no First Amendment right to fund terror organisations and lie on immigration forms,” the department said on Thursday. Sarsour has denied supporting

Authorities that during her captivity her captors threatened to kill Napoles and her family if they did not pay “40 million pesos (RM9 million) in exchange for her freedom”, advising her that if they could not pay the ransom, she would need “to take resources from the local government”. But a witness who saw Napoles being forced into a car tipped off police, who started a search and forced Napoles to abandon the plan. A probe revealed inconsistencies in her story, suggesting that her husband and brother-in-law planned the “false kidnapping” to claim public money that “was already embezzled, creating a justification for the money”. Napoles denies the accusation and said she is willing to cooperate with authorities so that “the guilty actors are punished”. – AFP suggested

Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian American detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March, was released from detention on Thursday after an order by a federal judge. “Sarsour has raised a ‘substantial’ First Amendment (free speech) retaliation claim, which could render his detention unlawful,” said US District Court Judge James Patrick Hanlon in the ruling. ISM, Wisconsin’s largest mosque, said Sarsour, 53, is a legal permanent resident who has lived in the United States for over three decades. He grew up in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The mosque said Sarsour was “being targeted on the basis of his Palestinian and Muslim background, and his advocacy for Palestinian rights”. “I will never stop speaking for Palestine and humanity, wherever I