The world reacts to Liz Truss’s resignation
Liz Truss has resigned as prime minister after just 44 days in the post – here’s how the news was received around the world.
Russia: Liz Truss will be remembered for her ‘catastrophic illiteracy’
Russia’s foreign ministry welcomed the resignation of Liz Truss – saying she was a “disgrace” of a leader who will be remembered for her “catastrophic illiteracy”.
Sunak favourite to be new PM as Truss resigns – live politics updates
“Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
The claim of illiteracy appears to refer to Ms Truss’ visit to Moscow shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine while she was foreign minister.
In a meeting with Russia’s veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, she appeared to confuse two regions of Russia with Ukraine, triggering mockery by the Russian diplomat and across talk shows on Russian state TV.
Senior Russian politician Dmitry Medvedev tweeted: “Bye, bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce,” referring to the UK Daily Star’s joke about whether a lettuce would last longer than Ms Truss’s prime ministership.
France: We wish for stability for the UK
French President Emmanuel Macron said: “I won’t comment on this issue which relates to British politics, but what I want to say is that we always had very constructive meetings and exchanges over the phone, no later than a few days ago in Prague.
“I also want to say that France, as a friend of the British people, wishes for stability and in this context of war and tensions over the energy crisis, it is important that Great Britain sets out again on the path of political stability and that’s all I wish for.
“On a personal level, I am always sad to see a colleague leave and I hope that stability will come back.”
US: We’ll continue to have a close relationship
US President Joe Biden said: “The United States and the United Kingdom are strong allies and enduring friends – and that fact will never change.
“I thank prime minister Liz Truss for her partnership on a range of issues including holding Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine.
“We will continue our close co-operation with the UK government as we work together to meet the global challenges our nations face.”
Ireland: New PM should be appointed as ‘quickly as possible’
Britain must appoint a new prime minister to succeed Liz Truss as “quickly as possible” to ensure political and economic stability, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said.
“I think stability is very important and we would like to see the UK system within its capacity to have a successor selected as quickly as possible and that stability would be brought to the situation given the fairly significant geopolitical issues facing Europe, not least the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis,” he said.
Read more:
Who could replace Liz Truss?
The divided Tories won’t find it easy choosing a new PM
Australia: ‘Voters want a say in what happens next’
Rebecca Armitage wrote for the Australian Broadcasting Corp: “Voters are the ones who have endured a devastating pandemic, Putin’s cold and costly winter, and now a looming recession.
“After their government descended into chaos, in-fighting and betrayal, they want a say in what happens next.”
In The Sydney Morning Herald, columnist Waleed Aly wrote that Ms Truss’s downfall held lessons for Australia’s Liberal Party.
He said: “In a certain sense, this Tory nightmare really began with a loss: specifically David Cameron’s lost gamble that he could put Brexit to bed. But Australia’s Coalition found civil war in victory, especially on issues like climate change.
“Which explains probably the key similarity we’re now seeing.
“There’s a certain Tory who feels the extremists are now in charge of their party, and who hopes that this crash landing might be the chance to remove them and restore a traditional Tory balance.
“There, as here, victor’s remorse must inevitably become reduced to a loser’s hope.”
United Arab Emirates: The market won the argument
The National’s columnist and assistant editor-in-chief Mustafa Alrawi wrote: “People are dealing with a cost-of-living crisis and governments must respond – which will mean spending more or taxing less.
“The UK wanted to do both to stimulate growth and the market was highly sceptical it would work.
“The market won the argument.”
Netherlands: ‘I’m annoyed for her personally’
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: “I had a good contact with her… so I’m annoyed for her personally.
“We agreed on a whole range of views and I’m looking forward to work with who will be my next colleague.
“It will be the fifth one, I believe.”
Ms Truss with Dutch PM Mark Rutte
Canada: Government by lettuce leads only to the compost heap
Tom Rachman, columnist at Canada’s Globe And Mail, blamed Britain’s political “disgrace” on “the culmination of six woeful years sparked by the vote for Brexit, which hastened the decline of a major power while thrusting dunces and charlatans into command”.
“Sadly, Britain cannot simply vote this mess off the island.
“Besides the ongoing costs of Brexit, this latest loss of credibility means billions more frittered on higher borrowing costs.”
He says public service cuts, inflation and soaring energy prices make for a “frightening” winter, adding: “One economic boost is obvious, yet few dare speak its name: re-joining the EU”.
“Britain must summon courage now, and view itself honestly. Government by lettuce, it turns out, leads only to the compost heap.
“A humbling was due. A humbling is here.”
India: Failed promises and dashed hopes
India Today’s Nandini Singh wrote that the British prime minister’s short tenure was “marred by failed promises and dashed hopes”.
She notes the possibility that Boris Johnson could make a return to power “as he still has a core of supporters who feel a departure forced by a string of scandals inside Downing Street was unfair, and that number has surely grown as Tory MPs and members grasp for anything that could rescue the party from electoral oblivion”.
Thousands of troops are taking part in a joint military exercise between Russia and Belarus, as tensions with the EU run high following a Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace earlier this week.
The Zapad joint military exercise which began on Friday will involve drills in both Russia and Belarus as well as in the Baltic and Barents seas, the Russian defence ministry said.
Belarusian defence officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the drill, but in May, its defence ministry said that would be cut nearly in half.
It comes just two days after Poland, with support from its NATO allies, shot down Russian drones over its airspace.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday morning hit back at a suggestion by US President Donald Trump on Thursday that the incursion may have been a “mistake”.
He said in a post on X: “We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it.”
Russia said its forces had been attacking Ukraine at the time of the incursions and that it had not intended to hit any targets in Poland.
Friday also saw Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper travelling to Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv on the same day the UK announced fresh sanctions against Moscow.
Prince Harry was also in Kyiv for a surprise visit to help with the recovery of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war with Russia.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Prince Harry arrives in Kyiv
Ms Cooper, who was appointed foreign secretary last week, posted about her visit on X saying: “The UK’s support for Ukraine is steadfast. I am pleased to be in Kyiv on my first visit as Foreign Secretary.”
The UK’s new sanctions include bans on 70 vessels that Britain says are part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” that transports Russian oil in defiance of sanctions already in place.
Yvette Cooper with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Pic: Valentyn Ogirenko/PA
Some 30 individuals and companies – including Chinese and Turkey-based firms – have also been sanctioned for their part in supplying Russia with electronics, chemicals, explosives and other weapons components.
Read more from Sky News:
Maps and videos show seconds before Charlie Kirk was shot
Ireland will not participate in Eurovision if Israel takes part
Meanwhile on the frontline, Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s oil-loading Primorsk port overnight, an SBU official said.
The attack caused fires and suspended oil-loading operations, the official added.
Russian defence systems also intercepted and destroyed 221 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Prince Harry has made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, a spokesperson for the royal has said.
Harry, who served 10 years in the British Army, visited the city at the invitation of the Ukrainian government.
The Duke of Sussex travelled to the capital to help with the recovery of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war with Russia.
Pic: Railway of Ukraine Ukrzaliznytsia/AP
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will also be travelling to Kyiv on Friday in what will be her first foreign trip since being appointed to the job last week.
Her visit coincides with the UK launching a new package of Russia-related sanctions targeting ships carrying Russian oil as well as companies and individuals supplying electronics, chemicals and explosives used to make Russian weapons.
It comes as Russia and Belarus began a major joint military exercise on on NATO’s doorstep on Friday, just two days after Poland, with support from its NATO allies, shot down suspected Russian drones over its airspace.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Drones shot down in Poland
The Zapad-2025 exercise – a show of force by Russia and its close ally – will involve drills in both countries and in the Baltic and Barents seas, the Russian defence ministry said.
Meanwhile on the frontline, Russian defence systems intercepted and destroyed 221 Ukrainian drones overnight,
including nine over the Moscow region, the ministry said on Friday.
The duke told the Guardian while on an overnight train to Kyiv: “We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.
“We can continue to humanise the people involved in this war and what they are going through.
“We have to keep it in the forefront of people’s minds. I hope this trip will help to bring it home to people because it’s easy to become desensitised to what has been going on.”
Read more from Sky News:
Brazil’s ex-president jailed for 27 years
Migrant hotel critics meet asylum seekers
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan, previously travelled to Ukraine in April, when he visited war victims as part of his work with wounded veterans.
The prince visited the Superhumans Center, an orthopaedic clinic in Lviv that treats and rehabilitates wounded military personnel and civilians.
Earlier this week, Harry said the King is “great” after he reunited with him at Clarence House for a private tea.
It was their first meeting in 19 months and lasted just 54 minutes.
The last time the father and son saw each other was in February 2024 when the prince flew to the UK after the monarch announced his cancer diagnosis.
Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have lived in California since they quit roles as senior working royals in March 2020.
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup to stay in power after his 2022 election defeat.
The far-right politician, who ruled Brazil between 2019 and 2022, is currently under house arrest in the capital, Brasilia.
A panel of five Supreme Court justices handed down the sentence several hours after they found the 70-year-old guilty on five counts.
The counts were trying to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organisation, attempting violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, being implicated in violence, and posing a serious threat to the state’s assets and listed heritage.
Bolsonaro‘s lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict.
Pic: AP
The ruling will deepen political divisions in Brazil and is also likely to prompt a backlash from the United States government – with Donald Trump already sharing his thoughts on the vote.
President Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro, has said he was surprised and “very unhappy” with the decision.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, he said he always found Bolsonaro “outstanding” and said the conviction is “very bad for Brazil”.
Mr Trump previously called the case a “witch hunt”, slapped Brazil with tariff hikes, and revoked US visas for most members of Brazil’s high court.
Bolsonaro is the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup.
He has not attended the court proceedings, and on Thursday, he was seen at the garage of his property, but did not talk to the media.
Read more from Sky News:
What we know about how Charlie Kirk was killed
Read Mandelson’s letter to US embassy staff after being sacked
Justice Carmen Lucia. Pic: AP
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has been overseeing the case, said on Tuesday that Bolsonaro was the leader of a coup plot and of a criminal organisation, and voted in favour of convicting him. Justices Flavio Dino, Carmen Lucia, and Cristiano Zanin sided with Justice Moraes in the trial.
On Wednesday, another justice, Luiz Fux, disagreed and voted to acquit the ex-president of all charges.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Justice Lucia said she was convinced by the evidence the attorney general’s office put forward against Bolsonaro, saying: “He is the instigator, the leader of an organisation that orchestrated every possible move to maintain or seize power.”
Bolsonaro had been previously banned from running for office until 2030 in a different case.
He is expected to choose an heir who is likely to challenge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva next year.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment11 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024