An infographic titled “7.1-magnitude earthquake hits Japan” created in Ankara, Turkiye on July 28, 2026. (Photo by Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(TOKYO and LONDON) — A powerful earthquake rocked southern Japan on Tuesday, damaging building, causing injuries and prompting warnings from officials, according to local authorities and broadcasts.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured at a magnitude of 6.8 after initially releasing a preliminary magnitude of 7.1.
It struck Kyushu Island, in the Kumamoto Prefecture, shortly before 4:30 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, where a large shopping mall has been damaged.
The shopping mall was evacuated when the quake struck, Japan’s NHK News reported, adding that there appeared to have been an explosion in the aftermath of the earthquake and that injuries were reported in the area.
Aerials taken from above the shopping mall appeared to show that a number of walls, as well as the roof, partially collapsed. NHK reported that the fire department said the second floor of the building collapsed.
The quake struck about 6 miles below the island, which is the southernmost of the main Japanese islands, according to local and U.S. weather officials.
The quake prompted the Japan Meteorological Agency to issue and later lift a tsunami advisory for the coasts of the Ariake Sea and the Yatsushiro Sea.
The agency warned that further quakes may strike the area in the coming days, with an official saying, “As the place where the latest earthquake occurred is shallow, this shows that many earthquakes have occurred.”
The rumbling on Tuesday afternoon lasted for about a minute, according to Japan’s NHK News, which broadcast images of apparent smoke or fire nearby.
The prefecture’s airport, Kumamoto Airport, in Mashiki, suspended flights all flights shortly after the quake, according to a notice posted on its website.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said in an emergency update that it had not recorded “abnormalities” at nearby facilities in Ikata, Genkai and Satsumasendai City.
Several thousand homes were without power following the quake, NHK reported.
Officials urged people to stay away from the ocean and the sea shore. They also warned residents to watch for possible landslides.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said strong shaking could be felt in both city of Uki and the town of Hikawa. She warned of potential tsunamis of about a meter, or just over 3 feet, near the Ariake and Yatsushiro seas.
“I urge residents in areas that experienced strong shaking to remain vigilant against the possibility of further earthquakes of similar magnitude,” she said in a statement posted in Japanese on social media.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
German police stand near a white van that suspect Abdul B. allegedly used in last night’s vehicle crash during the Christopher Street Day Berlin pride parade on July 26, 2026 in Berlin, Germany. (Omer Messinger/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The man suspected of allegedly driving a vehicle into a crowd during Berlin’s LGBTQ+ celebrations on Saturday, killing one person and injuring several others, has been killed, police said.
“Around 6 p.m., the suspect in yesterday’s attack in the Großer Tiergarten was located in an allotment garden complex in Spandau,” according to a statement from Berlin police.
“According to current information, he reportedly ran toward our officers with a stabbing weapon, prompting our SEK Berlin unit to open fire,” the statement continued. “Despite immediate resuscitation efforts by the Berlin Fire Department, he died at the scene.”
Berlin police earlier Sunday released a photo of the man, whom they identified as Abdul B., using only an initial for his surname, as is common under German privacy law.
“Abdul B. is alleged to have injured several people with a moving vehicle in the Tiergarten area at approximately 10 p.m.,” according to a joint statement released by the Berlin Police and Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“Everything we are seeing here indicates that this was an Islamist terrorist attack,” German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said at a press conference Sunday.
Dobrindt also updated the number of injured from 17 to 29, “including several who sustained serious injuries.”
The suspect rammed into the crowd with a vehicle, Dobrindt said, after which “he then attacked other pedestrians with a bladed weapon, believed to have been a machete, seriously injuring them.”
Dobrindt confirmed earlier police reports that the suspect, whom he described as a “German citizen of Lebanese descent who was born in Germany,” had “an extensive criminal record, showed signs of radicalization, and was associated with the radical Islamist scene.”
“He was previously sentenced in Berlin to one year and ten months in prison. The sentence was commuted to parole, and prosecutors appealed the decision,” Dobrindt said. He did not provide details about why the suspect was sentenced to prison.
“The search for the suspect is currently the top priority,” according to Dobrindt.
Details about potential motives for the attack were not immediately released.
Hundreds of thousands of people had come to Berlin to celebrate Christopher Street Day, one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ celebrations, according to the city.
The two-day event was scheduled on Saturday to include a parade, which was to begin in Mitte, in central Berlin, wind its way south into Schöneberg, then turn back northward toward Brandenburg Gate.
The vehicle crashed into the crowd in Tiergarten Park, according to law enforcement, an area along a footpath within the park and near to the parade’s end.
“One or more people are believed to have subsequently fled the vehicle,” police initially said. “Furthermore, several people are reported to have been injured with stabbing weapons.”
Several of those who were injured had life-threatening injuries, the Berlin Police told ABC News.
The suspect was described by police as having a “slim build.” They said he was about 1.9 meters tall, or about 6 feet, 3 inches, with black hair. He was wearing a black hoodie and white pants, police said.
“If you encounter this person, under no circumstances should you approach them or have any direct contact with them,” police said. “They may be armed and dangerous! Immediately contact the police emergency number 110.”
The police on Saturday called off the rest of the celebrations for the night after the incident at the park.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Sunday described the vehicle crash as a “heinous act,” adding that “people from all over the world were peacefully celebrating” during Christopher Street Day.
“They wanted us to treat each other with kindness and tolerance,” he said on social media. “This is an attack on our society.”
ABC News’ Rashid Haddou, Felix Franz, Jamie Dorrington and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Iraq Ali al-Zaidi, in the Oval Office of the White House on July 14, 2026 in Washington, DC. . (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Trump has approved an agreement with Saudi Arabia to partner on developing the Kingdom’s civil nuclear energy program, according to two U.S. officials.
The deal leaves open the possibility that Saudi Arabia will enrich uranium domestically in the future, the officials said, a prospect that could raise concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation.
In the deal, the United States and Saudi Arabia have agreed to safeguards to inhibit any weaponization effort, the sources said. But that framework would be governed by the two countries themselves, instead of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which conventionally oversees nuclear pacts.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about the agreement on Wednesday. He declined to comment on the contours of the plan but said that the Trump administration would work with Congress to formalize the deal.
“Suffice it to say, the U.S. is not going to reach any agreement with any country in the world that leads to the risk of proliferation,” Rubio said.
The agreement, under which U.S. industry would help develop Iranian nuclear infrastructure, spans 30 years and is valued at tens of billions of dollars, the officials said.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia discussed details of the proposal during a visit to Washington, D.C. by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last fall. The administration is expected to submit the deal to Congress, which is required by federal law.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that the president had approved the deal.
Atop the Acropolis ancient hill with Parthenon temple during a heat wave on July 20, 2023 in Athens, Greece. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
(ATHENS, Greece) — Two Greek-American tourists were rushed to the hospital Tuesday morning after they were stabbed outside the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
The incident occurred at approximately 8:05 a.m., just after the Acropolis Museum’s opening, police said.
Prior to the incident, an individual brandishing a knife outside the museum’s entrance was threatening pedestrians, prompting a bystander to place an emergency call to authorities, according to eyewitnesses and authorities.
Before law enforcement arrived, the assailant stabbed a couple, a 53-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman. The male victim suffered severe blood loss, police said.
The male victim’s injuries required urgent care due to blood loss, but both victims are reported to be in stable condition. The female victim suffered minor injuries to her hands and legs.
Police have taken a 60-year-old suspect into custody.
The rapid-response unit within the Hellenic Police and the Athens Police Directorate immobilized and disarmed the suspect, detaining the individual on the scene.
King Charles III welcomes Andy Burnham, during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London, where he invited the leader of the Labour Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government, on July 20, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Aaron Chown – Pool/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Andy Burnham officially became British prime minister on Monday — the country’s seventh leader in 10 years — having already been elected as the leader of the country’s Labour Party last week.
Burnham, who until recently was serving as the mayor of Greater Manchester, succeeded outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Speaking outside the prime minister’s official residence — 10 Downing Street — on Monday morning, Starmer said, “Today I am here to offer my resignation and close the book on my time as prime minister. My work is done.”
“I thank the British people for the opportunity to serve. I go with good grace, I go with a smile, and I go proud of everything that we have achieved. Thank you very much,” Starmer added.
Of his successor, the outgoing prime minister said, “I now pass the baton to Andy Burnham, I wish him every success. He has my full support.”
After his address, Starmer traveled the short distance to Buckingham Palace to formally inform King Charles III of his resignation. Burnham then also traveled to palace where the king asked him to form a government.
The new prime minister then traveled to Downing Street to give his first address, telling the assembled press that Britain must show “that we can regain our stability.”
Burnham said his appointment will serve as “a circuit-breaker” for the country, pledging to deliver a new political and economic model and a 10-year plan.
Among the new prime’s commitments were to address cost of living concerns, help young people into work, end homelessness, re-industrialize the country, put “life’s essentials back under public control” and push for more local powers.
Through the rest of Monday, Burnham is expected to begin appointing cabinet ministers from Number 10.
Starmer announced that he would step down in June, following months of domestic political turmoil. Despite leading Labour to a historic majority in parliament in the 2024 general election, Starmer faced persistent external and internal criticism over his perceived failure to deliver rapid change after 14 years of Conservative Party rule in Britain.
Many in Starmer’s party had written to the prime minister asking him to step down following local elections in May, which saw the party lose more than 1,000 seats on local councils, results that were widely interpreted as a repudiation by British voters of Labour’s performance under the prime minister’s leadership.
Starmer long said he intended to see out his full five-year. Announcing his resignation in June, Starmer said, “The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.”
Burnham was the only candidate in the subsequent leadership election, ultimately winning nominations from 379 of the 403 Labour members of parliament — of the 650 MPs in total — in the House of Commons.
In accepting the leadership of Labour last week, Burnham said his mission was “to bring back hope” and address decades of economic inequality plus falling living standards.
“We must recognize that this generation of politicians — myself included — have failed to challenge a political culture and an economic model that simply doesn’t work well enough for ordinary people,” he said.
Burnham will become the seventh leader to take the reins of the country in 10 years, a reflection of the political and economic turbulence that has beset the country since the Brexit vote in 2016.
The incoming prime minister said he would also make British politics “less toxic, adding, “I will work to build a new politics. The country is crying out for it.”
Burnham, 56, was born in the Lancashire region of northern England. Burnham started out as a journalist, writing for trade magazines, before transitioning to work as a Labour parliamentary researcher while in his early 20s.
Burnham rose through the party ranks before being elected as the MP for his hometown of Leigh, in Greater Manchester, in 2001. He held that seat for 16 years, during which time he was appointed to several cabinet positions under Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
During Labour’s years in opposition, Burnham bid to become Labour leader twice, but was defeated by — and then served in shadow cabinets of — Labour leaders Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn.
In 2017, Burnham left parliament to become the mayor of Greater Manchester. In his victory speech, Burnham heralded what he called “the dawn of a new era, not just for this city region but for politics in our country. It has been too London-centric for too long. The old political and party structures haven’t delivered for all people and for all places.”
Burnham is associated with the center left of the Labour Party, and has described himself as a socialist. Burnham’s time as Manchester mayor saw him emerge as a major proponent of shifting investment and political power out of London, and earned him the nickname “the King of the North.”
ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.
Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov attends a march in memory of Russian opposition leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov on March 1, 2015 in Moscow, Russia. (Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Once one of the most powerful men in Russia, Mikhail Kasyanov now lives in exile in Latvia, his name on a list of “extremists and terrorists” that the Kremlin alleges are trying to overthrow the state.
Kasyanov first served as Russia’s finance minister before being elevated to prime minister under President Vladimir Putin from May 2000 to February 2004 — the early years of Putin’s time in office when the future strongman was embedding his control and beginning to formulate his vision of a revitalized Russia.
Putin’s decades-long project culminated in the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a gambit now in its fifth year. Kasyanov told ABC News last week that the campaign has achieved none of Putin’s goals and could yet prove an existential challenge to the Kremlin regime.
In recent months, Kasyanov told ABC News on the sidelines of the Chatham House think tank conference in London, “the overall sentiment, overall attitude, to Putin started to change.”
Among the factors applying more pressure to the Kremlin are expanding Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russia’s oil production, refining and export facilities — plus on the capital Moscow and the so-called “second capital” St. Petersburg — apparent public concern about spreading fuel shortages, troubling macro-economic indicators and new restrictions on internet usage, Kasyanov said.
Putin, Kasyanov said, built his image around providing both stability and security. “There is nothing on this — no stability and no security,” he said, adding, “The situation now has started to change in the minds of people — not only the ruling group, but also just the middle class, who in fact, could in any country be a driving force for any changes.”
That middle class is a key constituency for the Kremlin. Concentrated in Russia’s largest cities, analysts have watched keenly for any hint of dissent from this social strata.
Putin’s continued refusal to order a general mobilization despite Russia’s enormous battlefield losses and reported manpower strains have been interpreted by some analysts as a tacit acknowledgement that the Kremlin does not want to risk urban, middle class ire. “Putin is very much concerned about this,” Kasyanov suggested.
In cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, Kasyanov said, it had until recently been possible to continue as if “nothing is happening.”
“But, in the spring and now, of course, Ukraine changed their attitude. They have an advantage in long-range missiles and they have an advantage in drones,” Kasyanov said.
“Gradually, they moved the war from being an ‘accident’ somewhere, an emergency case somewhere in the corner of Russia, to Russia — even to Moscow. And that is quite a significant change.”
‘He needs pressure’
Kayanov said Western powers should seek to exploit the growing pressure on Putin and force him back to the negotiating table with genuine concessions, not the same maximalist demands the Kremlin has long made of Ukraine.
“It could happen by the end of the year if consistent pressure continues,” Kasyanov said. Russia’s growing budget deficit — which as of last month reached 2.5% of GDP, according to preliminary Finance Ministry data — could prove a particular pain point, he added.
So too might international sanctions on — and long-range Ukrainian drone attacks on — Russia’s vital oil industry, Kasyanov added. “By the end of the year, he will face a big problem,” Kasyanov said of Putin.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov this week acknowledged some economic strains, telling reporters that Russia’s rate of growth is currently “insufficient.” But Peskov said the problems facing the country were not critical, but rather a reflection of the “rather dire state” of the global economy.
On the diplomatic front, Kasyanov said Moscow has largely failed to convert apparent diplomatic openings with Washington — for example its success at Putin’s summit with President Donald Trump in Anchorage in August 2025.
“What Putin wanted was to divide the transatlantic unity, dreaming of what they call the ‘Anchorage spirit,'” Kasyanov said, referring to the U.S.-Russian understanding that Moscow said was reached at the Alaska summit, which was widely interpreted as a diplomatic coup for the Kremlin.
Broadly, Kasyanov suggested that Washington had a “wrong understanding of the whole problem.” He added, “All those years, it was a useless undertaking trying to give a carrot to Putin. Because they don’t understand what the Putin regime is about.”
The negotiations, Kasyanov suggested, were interpreted by the Kremlin “as a demonstration of weakness.” Nonetheless, both Moscow and Kyiv have acknowledged that the current conflict can only end with a diplomatic settlement.
Trump has repeatedly said he is the only Western leader capable of pressuring Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree a deal to end the fighting. This week, Trump told Fox News he believes that Putin is “ready to make a deal,” possibly “soon.”
“I tell him the same thing all the time. I don’t want to go into great detail, but I say: ‘Vladimir, it’s time for you to stop. It’s time for this war to end,'” Trump said. “It takes two to tango. But I think he’s ready to make a deal,” Trump added.
Earlier this month, Trump told ABC News of a potential deal, “We’re getting much closer than people realize, and President Putin wants it to end.”
But for all the Russian maneuvers and White House criticism directed toward Kyiv, Western funds and weapons have continued to flow into Ukrainian hands.
Last week, during a warm face-to-face meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump said Ukraine would be allowed to produce key Patriot surface-to-air system interceptors.
“That is, I think, creating a shock in Moscow,” Kasyanov said of the resolute Western backing of Ukraine.
Life after Putin
Putin dismissed Kasyanov and his cabinet in early 2004, weeks before that year’s presidential election. In the years that followed, Kasyanov became a prominent opposition figure, faced fraud charges — which he denied — and was blocked from standing as a candidate in Russia’s 2008 presidential election.
After Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine In 2022, Kasyanov left Russia. He now leads the People’s Freedom Party from Riga — “temporarily,” according to his business card.
Kasyanov, 68, said he has no concrete political ambitions in a post-Putin Russia. Rather, he suggested that the best case scenario would be a “long process” of political normalization and eventual democratization.
A years-long “gray period,” he said, could see Putin’s successors allow “imitation” or “quasi” elections and the return of a true political opposition, which Kasyanov hopes will eventually give way to a genuine vote that draws real legitimacy from the population.
“If Putin stays in power, it means there will be another period in which Russia will represent a threat and there will continue to be some kind of negotiations and preparations for some kind of revanche, as we saw in previous years,” Kasyanov said.
For the time being, Kasyanov said he expects Putin to simultaneously seek to “destroy unity” within Europe and within the transatlantic system and seek negotiations.
On the domestic front, Putin will continue to keep a tight grip on the narrative, Kasyanov said, lionizing Russian achievements in the war like the retention of Crimea, further territorial gains in southern and eastern Ukraine and a supposed defeat of NATO.
In the long term, Kasyanov said he still hopes for Putin to leave the scene, one way or another. But he doubts Putin will be overthrown from the inside.
“I don’t think there will be a coup, because there are no such people. All those people inside who were capable, with strength, disappeared,” Kasyanov said. There are, he added, people in Russia who are “ready for changes, but they are not ready to fight, because they immediately will be in jail.”
“When the situation starts to change, some of us could come back to participate in quasi-elections, which will happen not in two years after Putin, maybe in three years, maybe in four years. And at that time, real change could start,” he said.
“I hope my country will be a normal European state,” Kasyanov said. “We’ll see.”
Illustration of the Ebola virus, a deadly pathogen that causes severe hemorrhagic fever. )RUSLANAS BARANAUSKAS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Americans will no longer be able to fly directly home from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) under a new process outlined by U.S. officials amid the ongoing Ebola outbreak
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security are working together on a “Do Not Board” process for Americans in the DRC, the CDC said in a social media post Wednesday.
“The Do Not Board list prevents a person from obtaining a boarding pass for any flight into, out of, or within the United States,” the CDC website reads.
Previously, only non-citizens had been barred from traveling back to the U.S. from the Ebola outbreak regions, and American travelers were being screened at select airports for any signs of the virus.
Now, under the new measure, Americans departing from the DRC will only be able to return to the U.S. 21 days after leaving that country.
The moves comes as the DRC has seen over 2,000 cases and 750 deaths from Ebola, making it the third largest outbreak on record.
Earlier this week, the CDC announced a second American infected with Ebola in the DR had been transferred to Germany for care. The CDC said the unnamed patient works for a humanitarian aid organization.
The first American infected with Ebola was a doctor who contracted the disease while treating patients in the DRC. Dr. Peter Stafford was evacuated to Germany at the time to receive specialty care.
Stafford was discharged from the hospital in June, and the family has since returned to the United States.
This handout photograph taken and released by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on July 16, 2026, shows Ukrainian firefighters working to extinguish a fire at the site of a Russian air attack in Kyiv. (Handout/State Emergency Service of Ukrai)
(LONDON) — At least 200 Ukrainian drones were launched toward Moscow overnight into Thursday morning, the city’s Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, as Kyiv continued its nightly long-range strike campaign deep into Russia.
From Wednesday evening until 9 a.m. local time on Thursday, “More than 200 drones were flying towards the Moscow region. Most of them were neutralized by air defense systems at a distance,” Sobyanin wrote in a post to Telegram. Ten drones “were destroyed as they approached Moscow,” the mayor said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces downed at least 375 Ukrainian drones overnight. The ministry said in a post to Telegram that drones were intercepted over 18 Russian regions — including Moscow — as well as Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
Ukraine has been significantly expanding its drone campaign — referred to in Kyiv as “long-range sanctions” — in recent months, targeting major Russian cities, Russian oil infrastructure, military and logistics targets.
Ukraine has been significantly expanding its drone campaign — referred to in Kyiv as “long-range sanctions” — in recent months, targeting major Russian cities, Russian oil infrastructure, military and logistics targets.
The Russian Defense Ministry publishes only the number of Ukrainian drones and other projectiles it claims to have intercepted. Sobyanin releases real time statements when Ukrainian drones are reported shot down while heading toward the capital.
ABC News cannot independently verify the figures from either the ministry or the mayor. But the increasing scale and rate of such reports could be seen as indicative of Ukraine’s growing ability and willingness to target sites within Russia.
So far this year, Sobyanin has reported the downing of 1,420 Ukrainian drones on approach to Moscow, according to his Telegram posts, collated and analyzed by ABC News. Across all of 2025, Sobyanin only reported the downing of 734 Ukrainian drones near the city.
More than four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made clear Kyiv’s intentions to return the war back to Russian soil. Key targets have included Moscow and the so-called “second capital” St. Petersburg.
“Our responses to Russia’s prolonging of the war and strikes on our cities and communities are completely fair,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram in May. “The Moscow region has Russia’s densest concentration of air defenses. But we are getting through,” he added.
Ukraine’s Wednesday night attacks also reportedly targeted the Engels-2 airbase in Saratov — a key hub for Russian long-range aviation, including strategic bombers. Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a post to Telegram, “Engels is on fire.”
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, meanwhile, announced that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at Saratov airport during the overnight attacks. Restrictions were also put in place at airports in Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Samara, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, Cherepovets and Gelendzhik.
Flights operating from all four of Moscow’s international airports were also put under temporary flight restrictions overnight, Rosaviatsiya said.
Russia continued its own long-range strike campaign against Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 18 missiles and 146 drones into the country overnight into Thursday morning, of which 12 missiles and 129 drones were intercepted, suppressed or failed to reach their targets.
Six missiles and 16 drones impacted across 15 locations, the air force said.
Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram that at least two people were killed by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, with five other people injured. Other targeted regions included Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv and Donetsk, Zelenskyy said.
“Moscow is relying on terror through ballistic missiles and continues its attacks,” Zelenskyy wrote.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands at a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House on February 27, 2025 in Washington, DC (Photo by Carl Court – Pool/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — As Britain prepares for yet another prime ministerial change, a former holder of the office — Theresa May, who led the country from 2016 to 2019 — urged the country’s next leader to focus on shared U.S.-U.K. interests, rather than falling prey to potential personal or political clashes with President Donald Trump.
The U.K. Parliament is expected to anoint the Labour Party’s Andy Burnham as prime minister later this month. Burnham will become the seventh leader to take the reins of the country in 10 years, a reflection of the political and economic turbulence that has beset the country since the Brexit vote in 2016.
Burnham will replace current Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who last month said he would vacate his post following a collapse in support among Labour members of parliament, exacerbated by disastrous local election results in May. Starmer delivered Labour a historic majority in parliament in the 2024 general election, but saw his authority and approval rapidly deteriorate.
Like his predecessors, Burnham will need to juggle domestic discord while navigating a raft of foreign policy demands — among them the cultivation of the so-called “special relationship” between the U.K. and the U.S., which during President Donald Trump’s two terms in the White House has been subject to strategic, ideological and economic headwinds.
Trump has already described Burnham — who until recently was serving as the mayor of Greater Manchester — as “extremely liberal.” During Starmer’s time in office, the president has been scathing toward the prime minister’s policies in areas including energy, immigration, crime and foreign policy. May, whose time in office overlapped with Trump’s first term, told ABC News last week that institutional transatlantic relationships and shared interests can help Starmer’s successors ease possible interpersonal tensions.
“Keir Starmer, actually, on the foreign policy field, by and large, played a good hand,” May told ABC News on the sidelines of the Chatham House think tank’s conference in London. The outgoing prime minister has been broadly praised for his deft handling of the transatlantic relationship, which included hosting a state visit for Trump to the U.K. in 2025.
Of the special relationship, May said, “We talk about it perhaps slightly more than the U.S. does. But that relationship is built on a whole set of different levels of relationships. So, it’s not just about the prime minister and the president. It’s also about our security relationships, our defense relationships … It’s not just about the two people at the top.”
The same is true of the U.K.’s own political issues, May said, as the nation prepares for the coronation of its next prime minister. “It’s not about individuals. Politics today generally across the globe has become more about individuals and personalities and I think that’s problematic,” she said.
“What matters to people is not the personality at the top. What matters to the people is what they’re doing, what their policies are,” May said.
The recent joint U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has again prompted Trump to strike out at America’s European allies, who refused to join the campaign in support of Washington though expressed willingness to aid security and minesweeping missions in the Strait of Hormuz once the conflict is over.
The U.K. was among the American allies who refusal to assist the U.S. against Iran “greatly disappointed me,” Trump said in March. Starmer’s response in particular, the president said, was “very disappointing.”
Asked whether the Iran war would prove to be a long-lasting blot on U.K.-U.S. relations, May said she was hesitant to comment as the conflict “is not finished.”
Still, she — like many other current and former European leaders — noted that European nations have previously shown their “commitment to the United States,” not least in rallying to the U.S. side after the 9/11 attacks; the only time in NATO history that an ally invoked the Article 5 collective defense clause.
When asked about Trump’s repeated suggestions that the U.S. should be less involved in European security, May replied, “There have been other times when there’s been more of that sense of isolationism,” specifically noting the later American entry into the Second World War in support of the U.K. and its allies.
“But I think, again, the interests that we have together are what combines us,” May said.
Expedition 75 Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina (top), NASA astronaut Anil Menon (C) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov wave farewell prior to boarding the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft for launch on July 14, 2026, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A NASA astronaut blasted off from a launch site in Kazakhstan Tuesday along with two Russian cosmonauts as part of a mission to the International Space Station.
Anil Menon launched aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome site around 10:47 a.m. ET along with cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina.
This marks Menon’s first space flight, and the second flight for the Russian cosmonauts, according to NASA.
The space craft is scheduled to dock with the station around 1:56 p.m. ET, according to NASA.
Once aboard the station, they will join up with the members of Expedition 74 crew, three NASA astronauts, one European Space Agency astronauts and three cosmonauts, who have been on the station conducting scientific experiments.
Menon, Dubrov and Kikina’s mission will last about eight months and they are scheduled to return to Earth in April 2027.
Menon will “conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth,” according to NASA.
That includes research into production of semiconductor crystals in space, and testing augmented reality and artificial intelligence tools for medical support in space, NASA said.
“He will be a test subject helping researchers understand how blood flow is affected in space to protect future astronauts. He also will test bioprinting vascular constructs in microgravity to improve understanding of the aging process to advance therapeutic developments,” the agency added.
