World

In winning the race for UK Conservative leader on Monday, Rishi Sunak will become the first prime minister of colour to govern a country that once ruled India, much of Africa and a great deal beyond.

It happened at the start of Diwali. The Hindu festival of lights celebrates the triumph of good over evil — and for a few of the religiously minded, it was a congruence written in the stars.

India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, congratulated his co-religionist on Twitter, while extending Diwali wishes to the “living bridge” of UK Indians as a whole.

The success of the UK-born Sunak rippled across the Atlantic too. 

Ro Khanna, a Democratic member of Congress representing a slice of Silicon Valley in California, said his own grandfather spent years fighting British rule in India.

“It is remarkable to see @RishiSunak, an Indian British of Hindu faith become PM on Diwali. Regardless of politics, this is a symbolic step in moving beyond a colonizer’s world,” he tweeted.

But for many UK South Asians, as with the country at large, the arrival of Britain’s first prime minister of colour provoked as much debate about his economic credo as about the colour of his skin.

At the country’s biggest Hindu temple in the London district of Neasden, many Diwali revellers basked in Sunak’s ascent.

“It’s a great day for the Indian community… but more so it’s a time where we look back and think ‘how can we move forward from here?'” financial analyst Kirtan Patel told AFP at the temple.

– Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ –

Anand Menon, politics professor at King’s College London, said Sunak’s ethnicity was “a really, really big deal”. 

But he added on BBC television: “What reassures me most, actually, is how little comment there has been about it, in a sense that we seem to have normalised this.” 

If it feels “normalised” now, a brown or black prime minister would have felt unimaginable in Britain only a few years ago.

When Sunak was born in 1980, there had been no Asian or black MPs since World War II. 

A handful were then elected for the opposition Labour party. But the Conservatives still had none when Sunak graduated from the University of Oxford in 2001.

In the late 1960s, many were in thrall to the firebrand Tory Enoch Powell, who warned of racial civil war if mass immigration from the old Empire continued.

Polls at the time found a majority of white Britons agreed with Powell.

Today, according to Sunder Katwala, director of the demographics think tank British Future, “most people in Britain now rightly say the ethnicity and faith of the prime minister should not matter”. 

“They will judge Sunak on whether he can get a grip on the chaos in Westminster, sort out the public finances and restore integrity to politics,” he said.

“But we should not underestimate this important social change.” 

– Oxford still rules –

Sunak’s reception among South Asians was previewed by that given to Conservative politicians such as Priti Patel, who was Britain’s first ethnic-Indian interior minister.

Patel’s flagship policy of sending would-be migrants on a one-way ticket to Rwanda was met with incredulity by many, given her own family’s escape from persecution under the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

As Sunak’s elevation was announced, Patel tweeted pictures from a Diwali visit to a Hindu temple, declaring: “It is a time for self-reflection, family, friends and service to others.” 

“A period of self reflection would do you well,” was one of the more polite tweets in response.

The Conservatives have done better at cultivating ethnic-Indian — and female — politicians in their top ranks than Labour, and they often out-compete their white colleagues in appeals to the hardline right.

Patel’s short-lived successor Suella Braverman, whose family also came from India, was even more outspoken on migration. Her views helped to sink dwindling hopes for a UK-India free-trade deal by Diwali.

For many observers, the Tories still suffer a paucity of viewpoints, given the elite Oxford education afforded to Sunak and Truss — as well as to Boris Johnson and most other post-war prime ministers before them.

The appointment of Sunak, coinciding with a new king in Charles III, “tells an important story about our society, where we have come from and where we are going in the future”, Katwala said.

But he added: “I hope that Sunak will acknowledge that not everybody has enjoyed his advantages in life. Rishi Sunak reaching 10 Downing Street does not make Britain a perfect meritocracy.”

Britain’s incoming prime minister Rishi Sunak vowed Monday to bring “stability and unity” at a time of economic crisis, after he was named the beleaguered Conservatives’ new leader. 

Sunak, 42, a Hindu, will be the UK’s first prime minister of colour following the implosion of Liz Truss’s premiership after just 44 days.

Truss will hold a final cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning before submitting her resignation to King Charles III, who will then appoint Sunak, Downing Street said.

The new leader will make his first remarks to the nation from outside Number 10 around 11:35 am (1035 GMT).

Penny Mordaunt, the last rival left in the party’s leadership race after Boris Johnson dramatically pulled out, failed to secure the necessary 100 nominations from her fellow MPs.

“Rishi Sunak is therefore elected as leader of the Conservative party,” senior backbencher Graham Brady said, as Mordaunt and Truss pledged their full support for Sunak.

However, some five hours after Brady’s announcement, there was still no word from Johnson — even as Sunak urged his warring party to “unite or die”, according to Tory MPs present in a closed-doors meeting.

Addressing the public for the first time, Sunak said: “The United Kingdom is a great country, but there is no doubt we face a profound economic challenge.

“We now need stability and unity and I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together,” he said, rebuffing calls from opposition parties for an early general election.

Just seven weeks after he lost out to Truss following Johnson’s own removal from office, Sunak pulled off a stunning reversal in fortunes, and is vowing to do the same for Britain on a platform of fiscal responsibility.

But 62 percent of voters want a national election before the end of the year, pollster Ipsos said.

Another poll by YouGov said Labour leader Keir Starmer was favoured as the “best prime minister” in parliamentary 389 constituencies — while Sunak was favoured in 127.

Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon, whose nationalist government in Edinburgh wants to hold an independence referendum next year, was among the first to congratulate Sunak.

“I wish him well… notwithstanding our political differences,” she said.

“That he becomes the first British Asian — indeed the first from any minority ethnic background — to become PM is a genuinely significant moment.”

– Abrupt end to contest –

The contest, triggered by Truss’s resignation on Thursday, had required candidates to secure the support of at least 100 Conservative MPs by 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Monday.

Only Sunak made the threshold, Brady announced.

Sunak, a wealthy descendant of immigrants from India and East Africa, had crossed that threshold by Friday night, and amassed nearly 200 public nominations — more than half the parliamentary Tory party.

Johnson’s withdrawal from the race — before he had even formally announced his candidacy — left cabinet member Mordaunt the only other declared contender.

However she failed to garner the necessary support, putting an abrupt end to the contest.

Sunak’s victory came on the day Hindus worldwide mark the start of the five-day festival of Diwali — a celebration of the victory of good over evil.

When he was chancellor of the exchequer, in November 2020, Sunak marked the occasion by lighting oil lamps on the front step of the chancellor’s official residence at 11 Downing Street.

The Tories were forced into their second leadership contest since the summer due to Truss’s resignation following a disastrous market response to her tax-slashing budget plans.

Johnson’s attempt to make an immediate return to Downing Street had raised the prospect of months of disarray and disunity within the ruling Conservatives.

Critical backbench Tory MPs warned there could have been a wave of resignations under Johnson’s renewed leadership, which might have led to a general election. One is not due for at least two years.

– ‘Not the right time’ –

Johnson cut short a Caribbean holiday to return to Britain on Saturday.

But in a sign of his diminished political standing, he swiftly conceded late Sunday, admitting “you can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament”. 

“I believe I have much to offer but I am afraid that this is simply not the right time,” he said, while insisting he had secured the 100 nominations needed to progress.

Sunak was quick to pay tribute to Johnson, tweeting: “I truly hope he continues to contribute to public life at home and abroad.”

Labour leaders said Sunak must face the country.

“The Tories have crowned Rishi Sunak without him saying a word about what he would do as PM. He has no mandate, no answers and no ideas,” tweeted Angela Rayner, deputy Labour leader.

Russia must not escalate the conflict in Ukraine with false claims that Kyiv is planning to unleash a so-called “dirty bomb”, the head of NATO has warned.

Jens Stoltenberg weighed in following Moscow’s repeated allegations that Ukraine could deploy such a weapon, sparking fears Russia could use one and blame Kyiv.

The head of the US-led military alliance said he had spoken with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace “about Russia’s false claim that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory.”

“NATO Allies reject this allegation. Russia must not use it as a pretext for escalation. We remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Kremlin has alleged that Ukraine is in the “final stages” of developing a dirty bomb. 

But a senior military official said the United States has no indication Russia has decided to use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.

“The Ukrainians are not building a dirty bomb, nor do we have indications that the Russians have made a decision to employ nuclear, chem, bio” weapons, the US official told journalists on condition of anonymity.

The head of the Russian army Valery Gerasimov repeated Moscow’s claims in a telephone call with his US counterpart earlier on Monday, the defence ministry said. 

The call was the latest in a string of conversations between Russian defence officials and counterparts from NATO countries, during which Moscow said, without providing evidence, that Kyiv was planning to deploy the weapon.

Earlier, a statement from Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said: “According to the information we have, two organisations in Ukraine have specific instructions to create a so-called ‘dirty bomb’. This work is in its final stage”. 

At its most basic, a dirty bomb is a conventional bomb laced with radioactive, biological or chemical materials which are disseminated in an explosion.

It follows weeks of military defeats for Russia in southern and eastern Ukraine, with observers and Kyiv saying the Kremlin is becoming increasingly desperate.

In Kyiv’s first recent announcement of territorial gains, the Ukrainian military claims to have pushed Russian forces from several villages in the northeast of the country.

“Due to successful actions, our troops pushed the enemy out of the settlements of Karmazynivka, Myasozharivka and Nevske in the Lugansk region and Novosadove in Donetsk region,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement.

– Inspection mission –

Since Russia’s allegations and thinly veiled threat of potential nuclear escalation, both Kyiv and its allies have fiercely rejected the claim.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the head of the United Nations nuclear agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, accepted his request to “urgently send experts to peaceful facilities in Ukraine, which Russia deceitfully claims to be developing a dirty bomb.”

The United Kingdom, the United States and France issued a joint statement dismissing the claim earlier on Monday.

“Our countries made clear that we all reject Russia’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory,” according to the statement.

With the help of Western-supplied heavy weapons, Ukraine has managed to claw back swathes of its territory from Russia in the east and south, while its power grid has been pummelled ahead of winter.

As momentum has swung toward Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has faced fissures in domestic support for his campaign, as a messy troop draft and battlefield losses challenged the prospect of a quick conclusion.

Meanwhile the Kremlin said on Monday that France and Germany were showing “no desire” to participate in mediation on the conflict and praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offer to organise talks.

Turkey helped broker the deal that allowed grain exports to resume under the UN’s aegis in July, and played a role in a prisoner swap in September, one of the largest exchanges.

The trial of Donald Trump’s family business on fraud and tax evasion charges began in New York on Monday, with the former US president immediately dismissing as it as a political stunt.

Manhattan prosecutors have charged the Trump Organization, currently run by Trump’s two adult sons, Donald Jr and Eric Trump, with hiding compensation it paid to top executives between 2005 and 2021.

Trump, who is not named in the case, slammed the charges as a “witch hunt” by rivals, weeks ahead of congressional elections on November 8.

“The highly partisan Democrat Witch Hunt goes on, this time in New York… right during the important Mid-Term Elections, of course,” he said on social media.

The company faces potential fines of over $1.5 million if found guilty.

One of the implicated executives, longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg, has already pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax fraud, and is expected to testify against his former company as part of a plea bargain.

A close friend of the Trump family, the 75-year-old Weisselberg admitted he schemed with the company to receive undeclared benefits such as a rent-free apartment in a posh Manhattan neighborhood, luxury cars for him and his wife and private school tuition for his grandchildren.

According to his plea deal, Weisselberg has agreed to pay nearly $2 million in fines and penalties and complete a five-month prison sentence in exchange for testimony during the trial, for which jury selection began Monday.

“This plea agreement directly implicates the Trump Organization in a wide range of criminal activity and requires Weisselberg to provide invaluable testimony in the upcoming trial against the corporation,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in August.

Weisselberg has so far refused to give testimony directly implicating the former president in the scheme.

– Multiple legal cases –

Two subsidiaries of the Trump family’s sprawling real estate, golf and hospitality business are targeted by the suits.

While Donald Trump is not named in this case, he is facing charges along with three of his eldest children in a civil investigation led by New York’s attorney general, Leticia James.

James, a Democrat, has accused the family of purposefully inflating and deflating the value of their properties to avoid tax liabilities and to get more favorable loan and insurance deals.

Her office is seeking $250 million in fines against the former president, and that his family be barred from conducting business in the state.

The suit also calls for three of Trump’s children — Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka — to be barred from purchasing real estate in New York for five years.

The 76-year-old Trump, who has heavily hinted but not yet announced a 2024 White House run, is also facing legal action on several other fronts.

He is at the center of a Justice Department investigation into the handling of highly classified documents, which the FBI seized from his Florida home in a raid, as well as multiple state and federal probes into his involvement in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

The congressional committee investigating the Capitol riot has issued a subpoena requiring him to submit documents by November 4 and give sworn testimony by mid-November.

Without confirming that Trump had received the subpoena, his lawyer David Warrington has said his team would “review and analyze” the document and “respond as appropriate to this unprecedented action.”

Trump’s compliance would mean testifying under oath.

If he refuses, the House of Representatives can hold him in criminal contempt in a vote recommending him for prosecution. 

A 12-year-old girl whose murder shocked France and sparked political controversy was laid to rest on Monday, after a mentally disturbed Algerian woman already targeted by an expulsion order was charged with the killing.

The brutal assault and murder of the girl known as Lola was branded as “evil” by President Emmanuel Macron after her body was found earlier this month in a trunk in Paris.

The killing prompted conservative and far-right critics to accuse his government of not doing enough to prevent illegal migration, while ministers shot back that such rebukes were inappropriate.

Lola’s family had called for political mudslinging to be set aside and for the young girl to be laid to rest in “respect and dignity” in the town of Lillers, in her home region in northern France.

Her parents, her brothers, other family members and a crowd — including Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, a Macron ally — were present when her white coffin, adorned with white flowers, was carried into the local church.

– ‘Didn’t have time’ –

“You left us much too soon,” Thibault, one of Lola’s older brothers, said at the ceremony. “I didn’t have time to tell you how much I love you.”

Bishop Olivier Leborgne, who presided over the ceremony, said: “Lola, who was 12, not only died too young, but under unbearable circumstances.”

Dozens of mourners followed the ceremony via loudspeakers set up outside the church.

“My grandchildren, who are the same age as Lola, wanted us to be here,” said Sabine Vizenski, one of the mourners gathered near the church.

“There are no words to describe what was done to that young girl,” said another, Thomas Maillot, who drove half an hour to pay his respects. 

“It’s very important for me to be here,” he said.

The funeral mass was open to the public but the family wanted the actual burial in the cemetery to be strictly private.

– ‘Extreme evil’ –

Macron had on Friday spoken of the “atrociousness of the crime” which he described as an act of “extreme evil”.

He praised the “dignified” behaviour of Lola’s family, who he said deserved “first and foremost the respect and affection of the nation”.

But the profile of the suspect — an Algerian woman named only as Dahbia B. who was the subject of an expulsion order — has prompted stinging criticism from the right and one of the most bitter political debates since Macron’s re-election in May.

She had overstayed a student visa and had failed to comply with a notice issued in August to leave France within 30 days.

On Monday, the 24-year-old was charged with the rape and murder of a minor aged under 15, along with torture and abuse.

In an at times rambling interview, the woman confessed that she had “committed harm of a sexual nature and other violent acts against (Lola) that caused her death, and hid her body in the trunk”, prosecutors said.

According to the autopsy, the young girl died due to “cardio-respiratory failure with signs of asphyxia and cervical compression”.

The investigation will now focus on whether the suspect was suffering from a psychiatric disorder at the time of the killing and if she can face criminal responsibility for the murder.

– ‘Honour the memory’ –

Eric Ciotti, MP from the right-wing Republicans (LR) party, had accused the government of “criminal… laxism” over migration, while extreme-right figure Eric Zemmour, an unsuccessful presidential candidate in May, had even described Lola’s killing as “Francocide”.

The far-right National Rally (RN) observed a minute of silence in parliament on Monday and the leader of its MPs, Marine Le Pen, insisted on the need for “answers” from the government.

In a statement sent to AFP on Friday, Lola’s parents called for an immediate end to “any use of the name and image of their child for political ends” so they could “honour the memory of their child in peace, respect and dignity”.

Separately, police have launched an investigation after one of their officers gave graphic details of the case in an interview with television channel BFMTV. 

The interview, filmed in a way that concealed the officer’s identity, was broadcast on Friday.

burs/jh/tgb/rox

The United States imposed sanctions on a Nicaraguan state gold mining operation Monday, saying it finances the regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife Vice President Rosario Murillo.

The sanctions focused on the Nicaraguan General Directorate of Mines as well as Lenin Cerna, a close advisor and former security chief for Ortega.

The US Treasury said the directorate manages most mining across the country, and that proceeds from gold mining benefit Ortega’s regime directly.

“Ortega and his cronies continue to use proceeds derived from the production and sale of gold to line their own pockets and to pay off those who keep the regime in power,” the Treasury said in a statement.

By placing the directorate on the sanctions blacklist, the United States “aims to cut off the Ortega-Murillo regime from its ability to use gold proceeds to oppress the Nicaraguan people.”

Nicaraguan Minister of Energy and Mines Salvador Mansell Castrillo was placed on the sanctions list last year.

Lenin Cerna, who was head of state security under Ortega’s presidency in the 1970s and 1980s “was reportedly involved in numerous incidents of violence, murder, and torture and admitted to associating with known terrorist groups,” the Treasury said.

“The Ortega-Murillo regime’s continued attacks on democratic actors and members of civil society and unjust detention of political prisoners demonstrate that the regime feels it is not bound by the rule of law,” said Treasury Under Secretary Brian Nelson.

US sanctions aim to freeze any assets those designated have under US jurisdiction and forbid any US individuals or companies — including international banks with US operations — to do business with them, effectively limiting their access to global financial networks.

The Treasury said the sanctions can also be used to block US investment in Nicaragua and block some imports from the country.