United Kingdom

18 October 2022; MEMO: Sanaa Seif, the sister of the detained Egyptian political activist, Alaa Abdelfattah, confirmed that she witnessed detainees being tortured during her detention in Egypt.

LONDON (AP) — Powerless, humiliated, labeled a “ghost” prime minister and compared unfavorably to a head of lettuce — this is not a good week for Liz Truss.

Britain’s prime minister was scrambling to recover her grasp on power Tuesday after her economic plans were ripped up and repudiated by a Treasury chief whom she was forced to appoint to avoid meltdown on the financial markets.

Truss remains in office, for now, largely because her Conservative Party is divided over how to replace her.

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has set Russia on a path towards turmoil that could unseat the Kremlin chief, trigger civil war or even ultimately break the country apart, said a Russian diplomat who resigned over the war.

Boris Bondarev, a counsellor at Russia's permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva, resigned in May because he felt the war had shown how repressive and warped his homeland had become.

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Liz Truss did not appear in parliament on Monday to answer a question about why the former finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked last week, drawing accusations from the opposition Labour Party that she was "scared of her own shadow".

Such was the taunting from opposition parties that at one point Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons standing in for Truss, insisted that: "The prime minister is not under a desk."

Mordaunt said the reason for the PM's absence was "very genuine" but she did not elaborate.

Oct 16 (Reuters) - British lawmakers will try to oust Prime Minister Liz Truss this week despite Downing Street's warning that it could trigger a general election, the Daily Mail reported.

More than 100 members of parliament (MPs) belonging to the governing Conservative Party are ready to submit letters of no confidence in Truss to Graham Brady, the head of the Conservative Party's committee which organises the leadership contest, the tabloid reported, quoting unnamed sources.

LONDON (AP) — The U.K.’s new Treasury chief ripped up the government’s economic plan on Monday, dramatically reversing most of the tax cuts and spending plans that new Prime Minister Liz Truss announced less than a month ago. The move raises more questions about how long the beleaguered British leader can stay in office.

In a televised address, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said he was scrapping “almost all” of Truss’ tax cuts, along with her flagship energy policy and her promise — repeated just last week — that there will be no public spending cuts.

Oct 16 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs analysts have downgraded Britain's economic outlook after Prime Minister Liz Truss removed Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and reversed a freeze in corporation tax, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.

"Folding in weaker growth momentum, significantly tighter financial conditions, and the higher corporation tax from next April, we downgrade our UK growth outlook further and now expect a more significant recession," Bloomberg cited the investment bank's report as saying.

LONDON (AP) — The new U.K. Treasury chief on Sunday insisted Prime Minister Liz Truss retains control of her government despite having to roll back her signature economic policies weeks into her premiership.

Jeremy Hunt was drafted in to lead the Treasury after Truss sacked Kwasi Kwarteng amid rising pressure following the turbulent market reaction to the new administration’s “mini-budget.”

“The prime minister’s in charge,” Hunt, a former foreign and health secretary, told the BBC when he was asked whether he now held all the power at Downing Street.

LONDON (AP) — When Liz Truss was running to lead Britain this summer, an ally predicted her first weeks in office would be turbulent.

But few were prepared for the scale of the sound and fury -– least of all Truss herself. In just six weeks, the prime minister’s libertarian economic policies have triggered a financial crisis, emergency central bank intervention, multiple U-turns and the firing of her Treasury chief.

Now Truss faces a mutiny inside the governing Conservative Party that leaves her leadership hanging by a thread.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s new Treasury chief on Saturday acknowledged mistakes made by his predecessor and suggested that he may reverse much of Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss’ tax-cutting plans in order to bring stability to the country after weeks of economic and political turbulence.

Jeremy Hunt, who was brought in Friday to replace Kwasi Kwarteng as Treasury chief and restore order in Truss’ administration, warned of “difficult decisions” to come. He said taxes could rise and public spending budgets would likely be squeezed further in the coming months.