PHOTO: Aaron Chown/PA via AP. Newly elected leader of the Conservative party Boris Johnson arrives at Conservative party HQ in London, Tuesday, July 23, 2019.
Boris Johnson has been elected new Conservative leader in a ballot of party members and will become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He won 92,153 votes to 46,656 votes of his rival, Jeremy Hunt. Boris Johnson will take over from Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday.
In his victory speech, Mr. Johnson promised that he would “deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn”. “We are going to get Brexit done on 31 October and take advantage of all the opportunities it will bring with a new spirit of can do. We are once again going to believe in ourselves, and like some slumbering giant we are going to rise and ping off the guy robes of self-doubt and negativity.”
He thanked his predecessor, saying that it had been “a privilege to serve in her cabinet”. Mr. Johnson was PM May’s Foreign Secretary until he resigned over Brexit. PM May congratulated her successor, promising him her “full support from the backbenches”.
Almost 160,000 Conservative members were eligible to vote in the contest, and the turnout was 87.4%.
Mr Johnson will begin announcing his new cabinet on Wednesday, but it has already been confirmed that Mark Spencer, MP for Sherwood in Nottinghamshire, will become chief whip - the person responsible for enforcing party discipline in the Commons. A number of senior figures – Education Minister Anne Milton, Justice Secretary David Gauke, International Development Secretary Rory Stewart, and Chancellor Philip Hammond, among others – have said they will not serve under Mr. Johnson, citing their opposition to his stance on Brexit.
Earlier on July 19, after the upper house voted to ensure parliament must sit in the weeks leading up to the Brexit deadline, MPs followed suit, blocking any attempt to suspend parliament in order to force through a no-deal Brexit.
Mr. Johnson has campaigned on the idea that UK must EU with or without a deal by October 31 deadline, and insists that he can get the EU to renegotiate. The EU is adamant that the deal with May will stand, saying Britain has to take it or leave it.
https://www.apnews.com/6f533afc9bb14c29a1b9e013f270159e
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/22/senior-tories-warn-boris-johnson-over-no-deal-brexit
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/23/brexit-weekly-briefing-parliament-blocks-attempts-to-force-through-no-deal-exit
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49084605
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/brexit-dealt-blow-uk-parliament-190718134130984.html
PHOTO: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images. During a meeting in the White House with Imran Khan on July 22, Trump said he would be ‘willing’ to mediate on the Kashmir issue.
US President Donald Trump told reporters on July 22, 2019 that India’s Prime Minister Modi had asked him during the G20 meeting in Japan last month if he would like to be a mediator on the Kashmir issue.
He made this remark sitting alongside the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had asked for US mediation in his country’s dispute with India over Kashmir. President Trump responded that the Indian Prime Minister had made a similar request.
“If I can help, I would love to be a mediator,” Trump said. “It is impossible to believe that two incredible countries who are very, very smart with very smart leadership can’t solve a problem like that. If you would want me to mediate or arbitrate. I would be willing to do it.”
Trump’s suggestions were quickly rebutted by Delhi on Monday night by India’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Reveesh Kumar. He said, “We have seen [Trump’s] remarks to the press that he is ready to mediate, if requested by India & Pakistan, on Kashmir issue. No such request has been made by [Prime Minister Modi] to US president.”
Following heated exchanges in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the opposition demanded a clarification from the Prime Minister. The Foreign Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, issued a categorical denial. “It has been India’s consistent position that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally,” he said, amid jeering from MPs. Concluding his statement, Jaishankar said the Shimla agreement and the Lahore declaration provide the only basis to resolve all issues between India and Pakistan.
This response from the government has led to an uproar in both the Houses – the Rajya Sbaha faced an adjournment and all the opposition parties in the Lok Sabha walked out, demanding a response from PM Modi.
Kashmir, in the Himalayas, is claimed by India and Pakistan in full and ruled in part by both. An insurgency has waxed and waned on the Indian-administered side for three decades, and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/23/india-denies-asking-for-donald-trumps-mediation-in-kashmir
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/indian-fm-denies-modi-asked-trump-mediation-kashmir-190723143616609.html
https://www.newkerala.com/news/read/179987/opposition-uproar-in-parliament-government-denies-trump-claim.html
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
