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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits a children’s activity center in Essex, England, on Thursday.

WORLD / Politics

May 24, 2026

Starmer’s lame duck status risks policymaking paralysis in U.K.

Starmer’s political support has collapsed in the wake of a devastating round of local elections for his governing Labour Party this month.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets construction apprentices during a visit to London South Bank Technical College in London on Tuesday.

WORLD / Politics

May 13, 2026

U.K.’s Starmer clings on as rivals try to build coup momentum

About 90 Labour Party lawmakers called for U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to stand down, saying they believed the governing party needs new leadership.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer steps outside No. 10 Downing Street in London on Wednesday.

WORLD / Politics

Apr 25, 2026

Starmer’s rivals need everything to go wrong for him all at once

Labour members of Parliament say a series of events need to take place in quick succession to make the prime minister’s position untenable.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives for a reception at the British Museum to view the final design for the Queen Elizabeth Memorial, on the 100th anniversary of the late queen's birth, in London on Tuesday.

WORLD / Politics

Apr 22, 2026

Mandelson vetting fiasco leaves Starmer looking like lame duck

The chances of a leadership challenge against the British prime minister after local elections in May have increased.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street in central London on Monday.

WORLD / Politics

Apr 21, 2026

Starmer’s political fate rests with top U.K. official he fired

The fate of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s premiership may rest with Olly Robbins, whom Starmer last week fired as the Foreign Office’s top civil servant.

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor leaves Aylsham Police Station after he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, after the U.S. Justice Department released more records tied to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in Aylsham, Britain, on Thursday.

WORLD

Feb 20, 2026

U.K. royals face biggest challenge in decades with Andrew’s arrest

The investigation will unpick years of lurid allegations about Andrew’s ties to the disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to stay on as leader on Monday, as another top aide quit and he prepared to face lawmakers furious that his government has become embroiled in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

WORLD / Politics

Feb 10, 2026

Starmer shores up position for now as U.K. rivals bide time

None of the British prime minister’s potential challengers is said to be ready to launch a bid to replace him.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons in London

WORLD / Politics

Jan 15, 2026

Starmer faces own TACO problem after latest policy reversal

Labour’s policy reversal woes highlight the difficult transition the party has made from opposition, which is in part down to the shallow support that took it to power.

Nigel Farage in Oxford, U.K., on Tuesday. His Reform party would carry out the mass deportations of asylum-seekers and remove Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights while also scrapping the country’s Human Rights Act, he said.

WORLD / Politics

Aug 27, 2025

Farage floats Trump-style deportation push in bid to lead U.K.

The Reform party leader’s approach is the most draconian policy yet advanced by any of the U.K.’s major parties to crack down on a record level of irregular migration.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement on defense spending on Tuesday.

WORLD / Politics

Feb 26, 2025

Trump’s threats push U.K.’s Starmer into a more global, military agenda

U.S. President Donald Trump’s apparent refusal for the U.S. to be the final guarantor of security in Europe has prompted the prime minister to act.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer

WORLD / Politics

Dec 17, 2024

Starmer’s China reset plans get undercut by royal access scandal

It has emerged in court documents that a Chinese man who acted as a business adviser to the Duke of York was banned from Britain on national security grounds in 2023.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shake hands at a news conference in Rome on Monday.

WORLD / Politics

Sep 17, 2024

Starmer courts Meloni in Rome with eye on risk from U.K. right

The British prime minister said he’s looking to his Italian counterpart for lessons on tackling what is known as irregular migration.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks in Widnes, England, on Thursday.

WORLD / Politics

Jul 28, 2024

Keir Starmer’s clash with Labour left sets up wider fight on tax rises

Making the numbers add up while keeping her tax promises is the unenviable task that’s been top of U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ mind.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, soaked in rain, pauses as he delivers a speech to announce July 4 as the date of the U.K.'s next general election, at 10 Downing Street in London on Wednesday.

WORLD / Politics

May 23, 2024

Sunak gambles on July 4 election as Tories struggle in polls

The leading opposition party holds a poll lead of about 20 points that Sunak has been unable to shift since he took over from Liz Truss in late 2022.

U.K. prime minister Rishi Sunak speaks at a Conservative Party election campaign event in London on Wednesday.

WORLD / Politics

May 23, 2024

Sunak blindsided his own chancellor with early U.K. election call

Some ministers backed the election decision, but disappointment was a common sentiment among Tory members of Parliament as the vote could cost scores of them seats.

People hold pictures of victims of the contaminated blood scandal, at a vigil to remember those that lost their lives, ahead of the release of the final report of the Infected Blood Inquiry, in London on Sunday.

WORLD / Science & Health

May 21, 2024

Probe into infected blood scandal slams U.K. state over ‘chilling’ cover-up

More than 30,000 people were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C in the U.K. in the 1970s and 1980s after receiving treatments with contaminated blood products.

The Russian Embassy in London. Britain's deportation of Russia's defense attache is a response to a suspected arson attack against Ukrainian-linked properties in East London and other espionage activities, the U.K. Home Secretary said.

WORLD / Politics

May 9, 2024

U.K. expels Russian envoy in pushback against spying surge

The action is a response to a suspected arson attack against Ukrainian-linked properties in East London and espionage activities across the U.K and Europe.

Japan Times

WORLD

Jun 16, 2023

Sunak puts Boris Johnson’s legacy to a vote in bid to end chaos

The House of Commons will vote Monday on whether to accept a parliamentary probe that found Johnson repeatedly misled politicians about the rule-breaking parties during the pandemic.

Japan Times

WORLD

Mar 23, 2023

U.K.’s Sunak survives day of drama as Boris Johnson grilled by MPs

The prime minister’s position at the head of the governing Conservative Party has been bolstered after months of speculation in Westminster that Johnson could return to power.

Japan Times

BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS

Nov 7, 2022

What to expect in the plan to fix Britain’s fiscal hole

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s finance minister is trying to identify u00a350 billion ($56 billion) of spending cuts and tax increases.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.

What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency

New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency

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