International

Ex-Senior UK Tory Defects To Fringe Right-Wing Party

Published

3 years ago

March 11, 2024

513 Views

Embattled UK leader Rishi Sunak suffered a fresh blow Monday when a former ally defected to a right-wing populist party that is worrying the ruling Conservatives ahead of this year’s general election.

Lee Anderson announced that he was joining Reform UK, weeks after he was suspended from Sunak’s Conservative party over comments widely condemned as racist and Islamophobic.

The 57-year-old former deputy chair of the Tories became the first MP to represent Reform, whose honorary president is arch-Eurosceptic and Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage.

The fringe party is currently polling at around 10 percent in opinion surveys, which if replicated at the election could split the right-wing vote in key constituencies.

That would make it even harder for the Tories, in power since 2010, to fend off a resurgent main opposition Labour party that is currently soaring ahead in national polls.

To blunt Reform’s impact, Sunak could take his party further rightward, continuing a trend in recent decades that has accelerated following the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union.

Doing so risks alienating more socially liberal voters, however.

Anderson is an MP in a so-called “Red Wall” seat of working-class voters in northern England that are crucial to both the Conservatives and Labour’s chances of winning the election.

The seats were former Labour strongholds before ex-prime minister Boris Johnson flipped them for the Conservatives during his landslide win at the last election in 2019 on a promise to “get Brexit done”.

The New Conservatives, a group of MPs on the right of the Tory party who have rebelled against Sunak, said the Conservative party was responsible for Anderson’s defection.

“We cannot pretend any longer that ‘the plan is working’. We need to change course urgently,” the group said in a statement.

– Populist –

Reform rails against immigration, net-zero energy policies and what it calls overbearing “nanny state” government regulations, and its members regularly heap praise on former US president Donald Trump.

“I want my country back,” Anderson told reporters in London as he announced his defection.

He had been widely tipped to join Reform after he was suspended from the parliamentary party of the Conservatives in February for refusing to apologise after saying London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan was controlled by Islamists.

“Anderson’s defection does highlight the ongoing electoral problem facing Rishi Sunak, with attacks coming from the left and right,” said Emma Levin of the polling firm Savanta.

But she cautioned that the move “will likely mean very little in national polling terms”.

“Lee Anderson’s name recognition among the wider public is low, and if voters are aware of him, it is probably because they saw (and disagreed) with his comments that led to his suspension from the Conservative party,” Levin said.

In the UK, a by-election is not automatically triggered if an MP changes party affiliation, though they may choose to stand down and seek re-election under their new allegiance or as an independent.

Sunak has yet to announce the date of the general election but has said it will be held in the second half of the year.

AFP

International

“Mother of all bombs,” Trump Plans To Hit Iran

The 21,600-pound airburst weapon is designed to affect surface targets over a wide area and has so far not been deployed by the U.S. in previous strikes on targets inside Iran. It was used in Afghanistan in 2017 during the previous Trump administration.

Published

1 day ago

October 15, 2026

OCHEFA

21 Views

The U.S. military is considering use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb if it resumes strikes inside Iran, CNN reported Thursday, citing U.S. officials.

Trump said Oct. 8 that he would not resume U.S. strikes on Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, while attacks on shipping near the Strait of Hormuz and deadly Houthi strikes in Saudi Arabia have raised regional tensions.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tehran will combine military capabilities and negotiations to press its demands.

International

Child marriage in southern Germany: Over 350 cases recorded, some brides as young as 11

The most recent entries in the overview relate to 2026. They include, among other things, marriages of 16- and 17-year-old girls to adult men.

Published

4 days ago

October 13, 2026

OCHEFA

58 Views

• Child marriage / UNICEF

In the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, a total of 358 so-called child marriages have been officially recorded since 2012.

Euro News reported that only eight of these forced marriages have so far been legally annulled.

According to authorities, the other 350 cases were brought to an end in other ways.

This alarming finding comes from a response by the Baden-Württemberg state government to a minor inquiry submitted by AfD state parliament members Nikolaos Boutakoglou and Emely Knorr.

The Tübingen regional authority is responsible for recording the data, the answer came from the Ministry of the Interior.

The eight final annulments took place between 2018 and 2024. Among the documented cases was the marriage of an 11-year-old girl from Iraq to a 17-year-old Iraqi, which was annulled in 2020.

As early as 2018, the marriage of a 14-year-old Afghan girl to a 30-year-old man had been ended.

In 2024 two further annulments were added: they concerned a 16-year-old German girl and a 25-year-old Pakistani man and a 16-year-old Syrian girl and a 27-year-old man from the same country.State parliament member Nikolaos Boutakoglou wrote on Facebook that the issue was “really awful” but was being treated as a taboo.

According to its own account, the ministry deals exclusively with such marriages entered into abroad.

Since summer 2017, the Act to Combat Child Marriages has been in force in Germany.

In 2024, the Bundestag adopted new rules to protect minors in marriages concluded abroad.

Hundreds of cases without state intervention

The significantly higher number of cases concluded in other ways raises questions about how these marriages continued.

For the period from 2015 to 2026, the regional authority lists a total of 350 proceedings under the heading “other disposals.”But what became of the other child marriages?

The state government cites, among other things, the death of a spouse, reaching adulthood, a decision not to seek annulment or a new marriage concluded abroad.

In these cases, there was therefore no legally binding annulment.

For 2023, the records include the case of a 12-year-old Afghan girl who was married to a 21-year-old Afghan man. Girls aged 13 and 14 also appear several times in the statistics.

The most recent entries in the overview relate to 2026. They include, among other things, marriages of 16- and 17-year-old girls to adult men.

The statistics record the age of the spouses at the time of marriage and their respective nationalities.

International

JUST IN: Pope Leo XIV to Undergo Surgery for Early-Stage Lung Nodule

Published

4 days ago

October 12, 2026

Charles Flames

54 Views

Pope Leo XIV has announced that he will undergo surgery in the coming days to remove a small, localized nodule found on his lung during a recent routine medical checkup.

The 71-year-old pontiff made the disclosure himself during his weekly Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square. “Doctors found a localized nodule in my lung,” he said. “It was detected at a very early stage and is well-contained.

The doctors believe it is advisable to intervene, so, following their advice, I have decided to undergo surgery to remove it.”

The Vatican confirmed the operation is scheduled for the first days of this week at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, which has a dedicated papal suite. Holy See spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Pope is expected to need about a week to recover. On Monday, the Vatican added that Leo will be admitted Tuesday morning.

The nodule’s nature—whether benign or malignant—has not been specified. Medical experts note that most lung nodules are non-cancerous, and early detection generally carries a favorable outlook.

This marks the first significant health issue of Leo’s papacy since his election in May 2025. The American-born pope, known for remaining physically active, has continued his full schedule of audiences and is still expected to proceed with a planned trip to Latin America next month.