World
UK PM Keir Starmer in hot water for accepting freebies, insists he’s done nothing wrong
Despite being in office less than three months, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has already raised eyebrows for accepting donations in the form of clothes and other gifts from a wealthy businessman.
The Labour Party leader, who won power in a landslide victory on a promise to restore trust in politics, has denied any wrongdoing over thousands of pounds worth of clothes and eyeglasses paid for by Waheed Alli, a media entrepreneur and longtime donor to the party.
The headache for Starmer was compounded after a BBC report disclosed his chief of staff, Sue Gray, is paid 170,000 pounds, or $225,000, a year, which is about 3,000 pounds more than the prime minister’s salary.
A former senior civil servant, Gray is best known for leading an investigation into lockdown-breaching parties in government buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
UK GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF CRACKING DOWN ON FREE SPEECH: ‘THINK BEFORE YOU POST’
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer listens to the speech of Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, England, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Gray’s findings helped take down Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and her subsequent move to work for Starmer led the Conservatives to claim the “partygate” probe was politically biased – something Gray has denied.
The Labour Party, meanwhile, has accused the Conservatives of whipping up a controversy to tarnish the government.
Lawmakers can accept gifts but must declare donations and extra-parliamentary income within 28 days — a deadline Starmer missed. He blamed the delay on his staff seeking advice on exactly what needed to be declared.
“I’m very consistent with following the rules,” Starmer said this week, rejecting suggestions that prime ministers should get a wardrobe budget.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers’ Questions session in parliament in London, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Starmer dismissed claims of dissent among his staff about Gray and her salary, insisting he’s “completely in control.”
“I’m focused and every day the message from me to the team is exactly the same, which is we have to deliver,” he told the BBC on Thursday. “We were elected on a big mandate to deliver change, I am determined that we are going to do that.”
The scale of the freebies accepted by Starmer and his wife, Victoria, has perplexed even his supporters. Sky News reported that Starmer has declared “gifts, benefits and hospitality” worth more than 100,000 pounds since December 2019, more than any other lawmaker.
PARLIAMENT FOR NEW UK LABOUR GOVERNMENT OPENS WITH KING’S SPEECH, PLANS FOR ‘NATIONAL RENEWAL’
The donations include thousands of pounds’ worth of tickets for Premier League games involving the prime minister’s beloved soccer team, Arsenal.
After controversy erupted, the Labour Party said Starmer won’t accept any more free outfits.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, second right, during a meeting with President Biden, centre left, in the Blue Room at the White House in Washington, Friday Sept. 13, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP)
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who also accepted donations to pay for clothing, told the BBC: “I get that people are angry [but] donations for gifts and hospitality and monetary donations have been a feature of our politics for a very long time.”
“People can look it up and see what people have had donations for, and the transparency is really important,” Rayner said.
Labour leaders are hoping that an annual four-day conference, which started on Sunday, will inject some badly needed morale for the party.
Fox News Digital has reached out to 10 Downing St. and Alli for further comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
new video loaded: Ebola Comes for Congo’s Most Vulnerable Children
transcript
transcript
Ebola Comes for Congo’s Most Vulnerable Children
The arrival of a sick newborn at Saint Nicholas Orphanage in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo set off an Ebola outbreak that quickly spread among the country’s most vulnerable. Local health authorities are now monitoring the children’s home, but at least two babies have already died.
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These Congolese children are re-entering the world after five days of isolation. It’s the first year of their lives, and they’re at the center of a deadly Ebola outbreak. The babies are all orphans who were brought to this hospital after showing symptoms of the virus. They’ve just tested negative and are being taken to a temporary home. But at least two other babies from the same orphanage have died. What happened to them has been a worst-case scenario for health officials trying to stop Ebola from spreading to young children. The alarms went off in late May here at Saint Nicholas children’s home after the arrival of a newborn girl, Patience, who quickly developed a fever. We were given a tour of the orphanage, where nearly 70 children plus their caretakers live. A pediatrician tracked baby Patience’s mother’s case and learned that she had Ebola when she died. Days later, Patience died, too. She was 9 days old. This was one of the last photos taken of her while she was still alive. It’s unclear whether the family knew she could be infected. The relative who brought her to Saint Nicholas declined to talk to us when we reached him by phone. By the time anyone at the orphanage understood the danger, some of the staff had already held and cared for Patience. Soon, more children were showing symptoms of the virus. When we visited the Ebola treatment ward, this 10-month-old seemed to be getting better. Baby Elysée was being cared for by Sister Cecile Nube, one of three staff members at the orphanage who also tested positive. Even while sick herself, Sister Nube stayed by Elysée’s side, feeding her, giving her medicine and watching over her. Elisée died 24 hours after we met her. A reminder of how quickly the disease can turn, especially for babies. Now Saint Nicholas is under quarantine. Every day, contact tracers visit the orphanage, checking the children and their caretakers for fevers. “Some of them today are presenting a little bit higher temperature, but they are OK at the moment.” The concern is that one infection here could quickly become many. “It could have been a recipe of disaster. It’s a very classic situation where Ebola can very fastly devastate the community. They are playing together and they are spending the whole day together. So it’s spreading from one person to the next. And for zero time you’ll see the entire community being infected.” For now, the orphanage remains under watch. It’s still a refuge for children who need shelter and care even as every new symptom raises the fear that the virus could still be spreading.
By Bethlehem Feleke, Michael Anthony Adams, Yasu Tsuji and Jon Hazell
June 13, 2026
World
Mexican authorities discover body in trunk near Iranian soccer team’s World Cup training grounds: report
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Mexican authorities discovered a decomposing corpse with “signs of violence” near Tijuana’s Caliente Stadium, where the Iranian national soccer team is training during the World Cup, according to a New York Post report.
Authorities responded to complaints about a bad smell wafting from a gray Toyota SUV with California plates parked in a grocery store parking lot near the stadium, the Post reported.
“Upon inspecting the vehicle, they found a person wrapped in a black bag in the trunk, showing signs of violence,” a spokesperson for the Tijuana prosecutor’s office told the Post.
According to the report, the car had a damaged back end and was equipped with a license plate holder from a Tijuana car dealership.
HIDDEN TUNNEL DISCOVERED IN TIJUANA MAY HAVE SUPPORTED CROSS-BORDER TRAFFICKING OPERATIONS
Forensic workers inspect a car where a body was allegedly found at a parking lot close to Caliente stadium, where Iran’s national football team trains, in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico on June 12, 2026. (Guillermo Arias / AFP via Getty Images)
Mexican officials could be seen wearing white jumpsuits while collecting evidence from the car in photos taken from the scene.
Forensic workers inspect a car where a body was allegedly found at a parking lot close to Caliente stadium, where Iran’s national football team trains, in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico on June 12, 2026. (Guillermo Arias / AFP via Getty Images)
TSUNAMI OF SEWAGE FROM MEXICO BARRELS TOWARD US COASTLINE, OFFICIALS WARN
Tijuana, located just across the U.S.-Mexico border from San Diego, California, is frequently rated as one of the most violent cities in the world.
Iran soccer players pose for a team photo before a friendly match against Costa Rica in Antalya, Turkey, on March 31, 2026. (Riza Ozel/AP)
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Iran’s national team is training at Caliente Stadium in preparation for their upcoming World Cup game against New Zealand in Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium on Monday.
Ahead of attending the long-awaited G7 summit in Évian, US President Donald Trump has announced a peace deal with Iran could be finalised on Sunday, paving the way for the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
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“The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
Donald Trump also says the US will take Iran’s enriched uranium ‘dust’ when ‘all is calm’.
Trump’s statement, however, ran counter to Iran’s foreign ministry which indicated earlier in the day that the deal would not be signed on Sunday, according to state media reports.
Earlier, Pakistan’s prime minister said on Saturday that a peace deal between the United States and Iran is likely to be finalised within the next 24 hours.
Writing on X, Shehbaz Sharif said: “We are closer to a peace deal than ever before”.
But Trump’s post also contained a warning to the Islamic Republic to fully implement the plan or face serious consequences.
“Hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly,” the US president wrote. “If it doesn’t, we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!”
Throughout the negotiations Iran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium.
Trump’s post does not mention Israel and the war in Lebanon, nor the US blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz which so far have been the Iranian leadership’s two key demands for any peace agreement.
Trump appears to offer an olive branch to the Iranian leadership by saying that the “relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous administrations had,” and that “we look forward to working with Iran, and the entire Middle East, long into the future,” signalling a significant change in the US messaging after the prior threatening statements.
Trump mentions “hopefully” when he expresses his wish for the process to “work out quickly, easily and smoothly,” given how complicated the peace negotiations have been, and he states that military options remain on the table, calling it “the ultimate alternative,” which he hopes “never to be used again.” Another key Iranian demand has been the assurance that the US and Israel will never attack Iran again.
The status of US-Iran talks aimed at ending the Middle East war will be a dominant concern at the G7 summit, as will the be the war in Ukraine.
Trump to work with Zelenskyy, says official
Trump will take part in a G7 working session with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in France on Tuesday, but no bilateral meeting between the two is scheduled, a senior administration official said.
“On Tuesday morning, President Trump will participate in a working session with G7 leaders and President Zelensky of Ukraine,” the official told reporters Saturday on condition of anonymity.
The G7 summit will take place in Evian on June 15-17, and Trump is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings on its sidelines with French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as the leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and India, the official said.
Trump is also scheduled to dine at the Versailles palace west of Paris with Macron on Wednesday evening, after the summit wraps up.
The dinner is a way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence in a “landmark of Franco-American friendship where the treaty establishing the independence of the United States was signed in 1783,” according to Macron’s office.
Trump has shifted his attention away from efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February.
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