First Thing: Labour win landslide UK election victory

Conservative party records its worst general election performance ever. Plus, Democratic backers pause donations

Good morning.

Labour has won a landslide UK election victory, bringing a crushing end to 14 years of rule by the Conservatives, who recorded the worst general election result in their near 200-year history. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, will officially become prime minister later today after Rishi Sunak conceded.

Starmer promised an “age of national renewal” in which Labour would “start to rebuild our country”, but acknowledged that change would not be easy.

A record number of cabinet ministers lost their seats, and big names such as Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Penny Mordaunt and Grant Shapps were ousted.

Labour was on course to win more than 410 seats, while the Conservatives were on just 121 with two left to declare. Labour’s likely majority is expected to be about 170 seats. The party dominated in Scotland, with the Scottish National party reduced to nine seats so far, while the Liberal Democrats won at least 71 seats across the UK.

A vote for Palestine. There were shock victories for several pro-Palestine independent candidates, with Jonathan Ashworth, one of Labour’s election chiefs, voted out in Leicester South, while the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn won in Islington North.

Disney heir joins other Democrat backers to pause donations until Joe Biden steps aside

Abigail Disney, the heir to the Disney family fortune and a major Democratic party donor, has announced she will withhold donations unless Joe Biden drops out of the presidential race. “This is realism, not disrespect,” Disney told CNBC, adding that “if Biden does not step down, the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire.”

Disney said the vice-president, Kamala Harris, could be an alternative candidate to beat Donald Trump. “If Democrats would tolerate any of her perceived shortcomings even one-tenth as much as they have tolerated Biden’s … we can win this election by a lot,” she said.

The screenwriter Damon Lindelof, who has been a significant contributor to the party, proposed a “DEMbargo” – withholding funding until Biden stands aside. According to CNBC, the philanthropist Gideon Stein will pause almost all of a planned $3m in planned donations. “Virtually every major donor I’ve talked to believes that we need a new candidate in order to defeat Donald Trump,” Stein said.

‘Will we get our money back?’ According to Reuters and the Associated Press, a call with about 40 top donors over the weekend turned tense after Biden’s campaign manager was asked whether the campaign would offer a refund if Biden does not run.

Don’t blame me, its just my brain. Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, is reported to have asked Biden about his health yesterday. “It’s just my brain,” Biden said, in what some heard as a joke but at least one person found odd.

Israel has approved ‘largest West Bank land grab in 30 years’, watchdog says

Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in more than 30 years, according to a report released by an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, a move that will exacerbate the escalating tensions surrounding the conflict in Gaza.

Peace Now said authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 sq km (4.9 sq miles) of land in the Jordan Valley, indicating it was “the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords”, referring to the start of the peace process. Settlement monitors say the recent land acquisition links Israeli settlements along a crucial corridor adjacent to Jordan, a development they say threatens the formation of a future Palestinian state.

Two-state solution undermined, again. The UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric called the seizure “a step in the wrong direction”, adding that “the direction we want to be heading is to find a negotiated two-state solution” after land confiscations in 2024 surpassed previous years’ averages by approximately tenfold.

In other news …

Iranians vote today in the runoff round of a presidential election offering a choice between a veteran hardliner and a reformist who has backed pragmatic cooperation with the west – but against the backdrop of an expected low turnout that critics say reflects opposition to the Islamic Republic.

Narendra Modi will visit Russia next week to hold talks with Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has said, in the Indian prime minister’s first trip to the country since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Modi and Putin will discuss “prospects for further development of traditionally friendly Russian-Indian relations”.

The rapper and business mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing another sexual assault lawsuit, the eighth in a series filed against him since November 2023. Adria English, a former adult film actor, alleges that Combs groomed and then coerced her into sexual intercourse with guests at parties he hosted, as well as making her consume alcohol and ecstasy.

Don’t miss this: After nine years in office, is it time for Justin Trudeau to go?

A Canadian prime minister who has outstayed his welcome, persistent inflation, a government bumped and bruised by scandal. It was against this backdrop, 40 years ago, that Pierre Trudeau took his apocryphal “walk in the snow” and decided not to contest the next federal election. After a shocking upset in a “safe” electoral district, Justin Trudeau’s predicament closely mirrors that of his father. But the incumbent prime minister says he has no intention of stepping down.

… or this: The Afghan women rebuilding shattered dreams in Iran

Relief set in the moment Hasina crossed the border into Iran. For two years, the Taliban had barred the 24-year-old medical student from continuing her studies. Now, as part of a growing exodus of Afghan women who desperately want an education, Hasina is pursuing her degree in Tehran. “I was terrified the Taliban would prevent me from leaving,” she says. Last year they stopped 100 female Afghan students from boarding a flight to take up places at university in the United Arab Emirates where they had won scholarships. As a precaution, Hasina – whose full name has not been given to protect her identity – left Afghanistan with a tourist visa for Iran.

Climate check: Can the climate survive the insatiable energy demands of the AI arms race?

The artificial intelligence boom has driven big tech share prices to fresh highs, but at the cost of the sector’s climate aspirations. Google has admitted that the technology is threatening its environmental targets after revealing that datacentres, a key piece of AI infrastructure, had helped increase its greenhouse gas emissions by 48% since 2019.

Last Thing: Hail caesar! At 100 years old, the world’s best salad is having a renaissance

This week, prominent chefs from across the world are converging on Tijuana for a four-day festival celebrating 100 years of the caesar salad, a global staple created in the glamorous Prohibition-era Tijuana of the 1920s. For purists, it’s still possible to order the original caesar salad – romaine lettuce with a dressing made from raw egg, olive oil, lime, garlic, parmesan and other flavorings – prepared at the table by a formally dressed waiter at the Tijuana restaurant founded by Caesar Cardini, the Italian immigrant widely credited with having created the dish.

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