• Andy Burnham / Euro News

Andy Burnham is set to be announced as the Labour Party’s new leader on Friday.

Euro News reports that the Makerfield MP is scheduled to be unveiled at a special press conference before taking over as the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade on Monday.

Burnham is expected to deliver a speech during the conference where he will reportedly pledge to be “unashamedly Labour” and vow that his government will have the “courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected.”

Burnham was left with a clear path to Downing Street after his last potential leadership rival ruled out challenging last week.

He received 379 nominations from Labour MPs for the party leadership out of a possible 403.

His uncontested run has sparked concern from some analysts and government insiders, however, and opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Labour of “running scared” of scrutiny.

It comes after Keir Starmer announced he was stepping down as PM last month, as pressure continued to build in the wake of Labour’s disastrous local election results in May.

Who is Andy Burnham?

Born on Merseyside in the northwest of England and raised in the village of Culcheth in Cheshire, Burnham has said he was first inspired to enter politics after watching “Boys From The Blackstuff,” an acclaimed 1982 TV show about five unemployed men in Liverpool navigating life in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.

He went on to study English at the University of Cambridge before starting out in journalism, working for a number of trade publications.

He soon made the jump into politics, taking a job as a researcher for the late Tessa Jowell, a former MP for Dulwich, while in his early 20s.

He eventually became MP for Leigh in 2001, a position he held until 2017, and served in a number of senior ministerial positions, including as secretary of state for health and chief secretary to the Treasury. He unsuccessfully ran for the Labour leadership in 2010 and 2015, losing to Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, respectively.

In 2017, he took over as mayor of Greater Manchester, overseeing a period of huge growth and development and gaining a reputation for his loyal defence of the region during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

Burnham, who has since become known as the “king of the North,” returned to Westminster in June after securing a huge majority in the Makerfield by-election, comfortably beating out challengers from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party and Rupert Lowe’s hard-right Restore Britain.

The Food And Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has agreed to adopt new international guidelines on the use of precautionary allergen labelling (PAL), marking an important step towards making “may contain” statements more meaningful, science-based and consistent for consumers with food allergies around the world.

The new science-based recommendations promote more consistent use of precautionary allergen labelling, helping consumers make more informed food choices.

This was disclosed in a statement issued by the Food And Agriculture Organisation (FAO) noting that for millions of consumers, precautionary allergen statements can play an essential role in deciding whether a food is safe to eat.

This is as food allergies affect an estimated 4.3 percent of the global population, with reactions ranging from mild symptoms to life-threatening anaphylaxis.

The guidelines were adopted as part of the 49th session of the codex alimentarius commission, held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 6th to 10th July 2026.

FAO noted that the use of labels such as “may contain” varies widely across products and countries and remains unregulated in many parts of the world.

A huge fire tore through a bar in Thailand’s capital Bangkok late on Sunday, killing at least 28 people and leaving 25 critically injured, according to BBC.

The blaze started near the stage of the bar in the popular Chatuchak district, then spread rapidly, cutting power and engulfing the room with smoke, eyewitnesses say.

Footage posted online shows panicked customers screaming as they fled – some with their clothes on fire – through the flame-enveloped front door of Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao.

Firefighters, who arrived at the scene just after midnight, quickly extinguished the fire. They found the bodies of most of the victims in a bathroom, where they had apparently sought shelter.

“Most of the people who died were found in the toilets. When the fire broke out, they panicked.

There were no lights,” national police chief Kitrat Panphet said.

Kaew-udon Poungppany, 24, from Laos, fought back tears as he described trying to reach his younger brother, who did not survive.

“I grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed it at the door… but I couldn’t go any further. I heard people screaming,” he told journalists.