Politics
UK’s Starmer reshuffles top team to restore authority after Rayner blow
- Starmer appoints new deputy, foreign, interior ministers.
- Reshuffle sparked by resignation of Rayner.
- Starmer sad to lose ‘trusted colleague.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer brought in a new deputy and foreign and interior ministers on Friday in a sweeping reshuffle intended to restore his authority after the resignation of his deputy, Angela Rayner.
Starmer moved foreign minister David Lammy to become deputy prime minister and replaced him with interior minister Yvette Cooper. She was, in turn, replaced by justice secretary Shabana Mahmood. All are loyal, trusted hands.
After reshaping his Downing Street team last week to bolster his economic advice, a ministerial reshuffle had been expected. Rayner’s departure meant it was much deeper than widely predicted, forcing Starmer to draw a line under more than a week of distracting speculation over her tax affairs.
Starmer could do little to protect Rayner after Britain’s independent adviser ruled that she had breached the ministerial code by failing to pay the correct tax.
“Angela is a ‘big beast’ and hard to replace,” said one Labour lawmaker, adding that the three new appointments were “sound” if not overly exciting.
While Lammy has been given the position of deputy prime minister, he has also been forced to hand over the much sought-after role of foreign secretary and replace Mahmood at justice.
Cooper is one of Labour’s most senior figures after serving former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Her appointment will be seen as a promotion of sorts after overseeing the government’s often criticised policy to tackle illegal migration.
Mahmood, 44, is also seen as a “safe pair of hands” in Labour, a no-nonsense politician who has not been scared to take bold action while running the justice system.
Loyalty is seen as vital by Starmer, who has suffered the most ministerial resignations – outside government reshuffles – of any prime minister early in their tenure in almost 50 years.
“There is a sense at the moment that they don’t know what they are doing and what they stand for,” Chris Hopkins, political research director at polling firm Savanta, told Reuters.
Regrets
Rayner, 45, was the eighth, and the most senior, ministerial departure from Starmer’s team, and the most damaging yet after the British leader offered her his support when she was first accused of avoiding 40,000 pounds ($54,000) in tax.
Rayner apologised to Starmer in her resignation letter. “I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice,” she said.
She also stepped down as a minister and as deputy party leader, a position that Lammy will now be in pole position for.
The independent adviser on ministerial standards ruled Rayner had broken the ministerial code – rules to ensure the conduct of politicians meets the standards of public service – because she failed to heed a warning within legal advice, which she said she had relied on to seek expert advice on her complicated financial situation.
Rayner’s resignation has put more pressure on Starmer, with Labour trailing Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK in the polls.
Starmer faces difficult state spending and tax choices as he seeks to repair the centre-left party’s image after they also came under fire for accepting expensive items, including clothing and concert tickets from donors, before they were forced to water down cuts to the welfare budget.
On the first day of Reform’s party conference in the central English city of Birmingham, Farage brought forward his speech by three hours to address Rayner’s resignation.
He said the Labour government was in “deep crisis” and the next election may take place in 2027, implying that Labour, which has a big majority and does not need to call an election until 2029, may find itself unable to govern.
“Despite all the promises that this would be a new, different type of politics, is as bad, if not worse, than the one that went before,” he told the audience to loud applause.
Rayner had registered a new home in the southern English seaside resort of Hove as her primary residence, after she sold her share of her family home in northern England to a trust that was set up for one of her sons, who has lifelong disabilities.
Rayner said she had believed she would not have to pay the higher rate of tax charged when buying a second home. But after media reports drew attention to the fact she may have avoided 40,000 pounds, she took further legal advice and said she had made a mistake and would pay the additional tax.
DUBAI: The city of superlatives is preparing to add another landmark to its skyline — one that will quite literally float.
The Dubai Arts Museum (DUMA), announced by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, is set to rise on an island in the heart of Dubai Creek.
Unlike conventional museums anchored on land, DUMA’s design incorporates the waters of the creek into its architectural identity. The museum, conceived by world-renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando, aims to merge minimalist modernism with Dubai’s vibrant cultural narrative.
Sheikh Mohammed described the project as “a mirror of Dubai’s artistic identity and cultural spirit,” emphasising its role in shaping the city’s creative ecosystem.
By floating on the creek, DUMA is not just a museum, but a symbolic statement of Dubai’s ambition to redefine how art interacts with urban space.
The project is being delivered in partnership with Emirati businessman Abdullah Al Futtaim and his son Omar Al Futtaim, highlighting a collaboration between the public and private sectors.
Sheikh Mohammed described their involvement as “a bright example of how private enterprise can contribute meaningfully to the city’s cultural and creative economy.”
Officials indicate that DUMA will host a mix of contemporary and classical art, while its architecture will allow the museum to function as a public space, promenade, and cultural hub, providing residents and visitors with a unique vantage point of Dubai Creek.
Construction is expected to begin later this year, with completion projected within three years.
- Early voting to continue until November 2.
- Mamdani has 47% New Yorkers’ support.
- Lawmaker top Democrat endorses Mamdani.
Early voting for New York’s next mayor begins Saturday with an outsider Democratic Party candidate the favorite to upend the city’s politics and face down President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly attacked him.
The twisting race has seen state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani, a self-described socialist, surge from the political wilderness to become the frontrunner in a campaign in which the current mayor bowed out and the onetime Democratic favorite lost his own primary.
The 34-year-old Mamdani’s once unlikely campaign has been turbo-charged by eager campaigning by young New Yorkers in particular.
An emphasise on the soaring cost of living has also resonated, with the Queens-based lawmaker promising to freeze rent for two million New Yorkers in rent-stabilised properties.
In the latest twist, scandal-tainted current mayor Eric Adams backed the second-place candidate, 67-year-old former state governor Andrew Cuomo — after previously calling him a “snake and a liar.”
Early voting allows New Yorkers to cast a ballot from Saturday until November 2, with Election Day on November 4 and the winner taking office in the New Year.
Mamdani had 47% support and led Cuomo by 18 points in the latest citywide poll, conducted by Victory Insights between October 22 and 23. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, 71, was at 16%.
Adams, who has been mired in corruption allegations linked to his term in office, dropped out of the race on September 28 but did not initially endorse a rival.
“You can’t freeze rent, but you are lying and telling people you could — we’re fighting against a snake oil salesman,” Adams said Thursday with Cuomo at his side.
“Gentrifiers have raised the rent in the city… and (Mamdani’s) the king of the gentrifiers.”
It is unclear what impact Adams’s endorsement will have on the race.
“It is possible, but extremely unlikely, Cuomo can catch Mamdani,” said Lincoln Mitchell, a political science professor at Columbia University, saying the former governor’s “tough guy persona” dates from another era.
‘Affordability crisis’
The race has been dominated by the issue of cost of living, as well as by how each candidate would handle Trump, who has threatened to withhold federal funds from the city where he made his name as a property developer and reality TV star.
Trump has branded Mamdani, who wants to make bus travel and childcare in the city of 8.5 million people free, a “communist.”
“I was always very generous with New York, even when you had opposition there,” Trump said this month.
“I wouldn’t be generous to a communist guy that’s going to take the money and throw it out the window.”
Mamdani has said he would cooperate with Trump if it brought down the cost of living in the city, while Sliwa has said he would seek to “negotiate” with the president and Cuomo has said he would “confront” the commander-in-chief.
“I’ve lived in New York for 10 years almost. I’ve always been… not necessarily always struggling, but trying to hustle and get things together,” Mamdani supporter and tenant organiser Lex Rountree, 27, told AFP.
“It feels strange to kind of think about what it would look like to have some of that ease” under Mamdani, Rountree added.
Mamdani’s campaign received a lift on Friday when Hakeem Jeffries, a New York lawmaker and the top Democrat in the US House of Representatives, endorsed him.
“Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” the leading Democrat said.
Mamdani will bring star firepower to the table Sunday when he appears alongside leftist Senator Bernie Sanders and lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio Cortez at a “get out the vote” rally in Forest Hills Stadium in Queens.
The Louvre has transferred some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France, according to French radio RTL, after an audacious daylight heist last week exposed the famed museum’s security vulnerability.
The transfer of some precious items from the museum’s Apollo gallery, home to the French crown jewels, was carried out on Friday under secret police escort, RTL said, citing unnamed sources.
The Bank of France, which stores the country’s gold reserves in a massive vault 27 meters (88 feet) below ground, is just 500 meters away from the Louvre, on the Right Bank of the River Seine.
The Louvre and the Bank of France did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The thieves stole eight precious pieces worth an estimated $102 million from the Louvre’s collection on October 19, exposing security lapses as they broke into the world’s most-visited museum using a crane to smash an upstairs window during opening hours. They escaped on motorbikes.
News of the robbery reverberated around the world, prompting soul-searching in France over what some viewed as a national humiliation.
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