U.K News
WikiLeaks’ Founder Julian Assange Freed From UK Prison
Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, has left Belmarsh prison in the United Kingdom and had flew out of the United Kingdom on Monday.
Wikileaks revealed Assange’s whereabouts immediately after court documents revealed he was scheduled to plead guilty later this week to violating US espionage legislation, in a deal that would allow him to return to Australia.
According to an unsubstantiated rumor, the jet would land at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport on Tuesday to refuel before continuing on to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the western Pacific.
Julian Assange was given permission on Monday to appeal against extradition to the United States after arguing at London’s High Court that he might not be able to rely on his right to free speech in a US court.
The Australian-born Julian Assange, 52, was wanted in the US on 18 charges, nearly all under the Espionage Act, relating to WikiLeaks’ mass release of secret US documents – the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history.
The London High Court had in March granted him provisional permission to appeal on grounds that he might be discriminated against as a foreign national, but invited the US to submit assurances. After Monday’s hearing, two senior judges said Assange’s argument that he might not be able to rely on the US First Amendment right to free speech deserved a full appeal – which is unlikely to be held for months.
“Free, free Julian Assange”
The news prompted cheering and singing from hundreds of supporters who had massed outside the court tying yellow ribbons to the iron railings, holding placards and chanting “Free, free Julian Assange”. Assange himself was not present, which his lawyer said was for health reasons. But his wife Stella, who spoke to him after the ruling, said he was “obviously relieved”, having not been able to sleep at all.
“We don’t know how long this will go on for and it takes an enormous toll on him,” Stella, who had been in court with Assange’s brother and father, told Reuters. She said the decision marked a turning point. “I hope that the US administration looks at this case and now… considers it should just be dropped,” she said. “The signals should be clear that it’s time to drop it.”
The US Justice Department declined to comment on a pending judicial matter. Had Monday’s ruling gone against him, Assange’s team said he could have been on a plane to the US within 24 hours, ending more than 13 years of legal battles in Britain. It could be many months until the appeal is heard, and then that decision could be taken to the UK Supreme Court.
UK Judges sceptical of US Justice department assurances
US prosecutors had told the court Julian Assange could “seek to rely” upon the First Amendment protections granted to US citizens, and would not be discriminated against because of his nationality. But his legal team said a US court would not be bound by this.
“We say this is a blatantly inadequate assurance,” Assange’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told the judges. The court also concluded that Assange’s appeal should apply to all 18 counts, not only three, as lawyers for the US had argued. Fitzgerald did, however, accept a separate US assurance that Assange would not face the death penalty.
WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq along with swathes of diplomatic cables. In April 2010 it published a classified video showing a 2007 US helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.
US authorities say Assange’s actions with WikiLeaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents. His many global supporters call the prosecution a travesty, an assault on journalism and free speech, and revenge for causing embarrassment. Calls for the case to be dropped have come from human rights groups, media bodies and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, along with other political leaders.
Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 on a Swedish warrant over sex crime allegations that were later dropped. Since then, he has been variously under house arrest, holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London for seven years and, since 2019, held in the Belmarsh top security jail. He married Stella there in 2022 and the couple have two young children.
Source: Reuters
An exit poll indicated that, following 14 years of political and economic turmoil, voters would punish the governing Conservatives by handily electing the UK’s Labour Party to a landslide victory in Friday’s parliamentary election.
Moments after the polls closed, the results of the survey showed that Keir Starmer, the head of the center-left Labour party, will become the next prime minister of the nation. He will confront a jaded public that is eager for change in the face of a depressing economy, growing institutional mistrust, and a deteriorating social cohesion.
The Conservatives were in shock by their historic setback, which would leave the party in disarray and probably lead to a leadership contest against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Thousands of election workers were tallying millions of ballot papers at counting stations across the nation.
In the last hours before voting closed, London voter James Erskine expressed optimism for change, saying, “Nothing has gone well in the last 14 years.” “I just think there could be a huge change here, and that’s what I’m hoping for.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage stokes controversy
Though many of the same populist undercurrents flow in Britain, the proposed result seems to defy recent rightward electoral changes in Europe, especially in France and Italy.
With his party’s anti-immigrant “take our country back” stance, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has stoked controversy and undermined support for the Conservatives, who already faced bleak chances.
The exit poll indicates that Labour will take around 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, while the Conservatives will hold 131 seats. The Tories would have the fewest seats in their almost 200-year history, which would leave the party in chaos.
Some smaller parties, such as the moderate Liberal Democrats and Reform UK, seemed to have done well, which may be an indication of the unstable public mood and dissatisfaction with the system. One significant unanswered question was whether Farage’s hard-right party would be able to leverage its popularity to win more than a few seats in Parliament.
Labour Party politicians wary
The survey revealed “a catastrophic result in historic terms for the Conservative Party,” according to former Conservative leader William Hague. Nevertheless, Labour Party politicians were wary due to years of disillusionment.
Deputy leader Angela Rayner told AP News, “The exit poll is encouraging, but obviously we don’t have any of the results yet.”
Ipsos, a pollster, asks participants at a number of polling places to complete a duplicate ballot that represents their voting behavior. Typically, it offers a trustworthy but imprecise forecast of the result.
British voters cast paper votes, writing their selections in pencil, which are subsequently tallied by hand. We anticipate having final results by Friday morning.
A series of stormy years in Britain, some of which the Conservatives created and some of which they did not, have left many voters with doubts about the future of their nation.
The COVID-19 epidemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union all hurt the economy, yet lockdown parties hosted by then-prime minister Boris Johnson and his staff infuriated the public.
Source: AP
U.K News
Former Top Northern Irish Politician Jeffrey Donaldson To Stand Trial Over Alleged Sex Offenses
Jeffrey Donaldson, the former head of Northern Ireland’s most famous pro-union party, will face trial on charges of previous sex offenses, including one of rape.
Donaldson went before a preliminary inquiry on Wednesday, which agreed to proceed with a trial set for September 10, according to a statement issued to CNN by the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS).
Donaldson | CNN image
Former Top Northern Irish Politician Jeffrey Donaldson To Stand Trial Over Alleged Sex Offenses
The lawmaker has since been charged with an additional seven counts. The 18 alleged acts include one allegation of rape, 13 charges of indecent assault on a female youngster, and four counts of gross indecency toward a kid.
Donaldson was asked in court whether he wanted to speak about the charges, according to PA Media. “Not at this stage,” he said, according to the news agency.
Eleanor Donaldson, his wife, is also scheduled to stand trial in September. She has been charged with one count of helping and abetting rape, three counts of aiding and abetting assault on a female child, and one count of cruelty to a person under 16.
Donaldson led the DUP from 2019 through much of the contentious Brexit process, frequently expressing his opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol, a vital component of the Brexit withdrawal agreement that ensured there would be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Donaldson and his wife have already denied all claims, according to Irish national network RTÉ on Wednesday.
Jeffery Donaldson | CNN Image
Former Top Northern Irish Politician Jeffrey Donaldson To Stand Trial Over Alleged Sex Offenses
Donaldson’s trial was announced as Northern Ireland residents prepared to vote in the UK general election. Northern Ireland, one of the UK’s four devolved nations, has 18 members in the Westminster parliament. Northern Irish politicians can run for a seat in Westminster or the devolved legislature, the Northern Ireland Assembly. Sinn Féin, the leading nationalist party, does not take up their seats in Westminster if elected.
Donaldson was set to run again in the Lagan Valley constituency, but former DUP party colleague Jonathan Buckley has replaced him.
SOURCE – (CNN)
Prince Harry discussed sorrow and grief with the founder of a charity that helps children who have lost a parent while serving in the British military forces.
“You convince yourself that the person you’ve lost wants you, or you need to be sad for as long as possible to prove to them that they are missed,” said the Duke of Sussex, who lost his mother, Princess Diana, when he was 12 years old.
Prince Harry | CNN Image
Prince Harry Opens Up About Grief And Bereavement
“But then there’s this realization of, no, they must want me to be happy,” he told Nikki Scott, founder of Scotty’s Little Soldiers, in a charity video posted Thursday.
Diana died in a vehicle incident in Paris on August 31, 1997. She was 36 years old.
Harry emphasized the necessity of discussing feelings during the grieving process.
“That’s the hardest thing, especially for kids, I think, which is, ‘I don’t want to talk about it because it will make me sad, but once realizing that if I do talk about it, and I’m celebrating their life, then actually, things become easier,'” according to him.
Harry, a global ambassador for Scotty’s Little Soldiers, spoke with Scott ahead of Armed Forces Day on June 29.
Scott told the Duke about the moment she had to inform her son, Kai, that his father, Cpl. Lee Scott had been murdered in Afghanistan.
It was the worst. “How do you tell a 5-year-old this?” she asked, recalling the emotion of having “shattered his world” in July 2009.
Scotty’s Little Soldiers estimates that 2,100 children lose a parent who served in the UK military each year.
The nonprofit now serves over 680 members and hopes to serve over 1,000 persons annually by 2030.
Prince Harry | CNN Image
Prince Harry Opens Up About Grief And Bereavement
Harry complimented Scott for her “incredible” efforts in establishing the foundation.
“It’s incredibly inspirational. I’m incredibly honored and privileged to be a part of Scotty’s now, and I’m looking forward to doing everything we can to bring in more people, generate more interest, collect more cash, and get the message out there to get more kids the help they so urgently need,” he said in a news statement.
A video of their entire talk can be viewed on the charity’s website.
SOURCE – CNN
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