[MUSIC PLAYING]
British Prime Minister Kear Starmer resigned after months of pressure from his own party. His likely successor is the popular mayor from Manchester. Will he fare any better than six previous leaders who didn't last long?
I'm Steven Skip with Michelle Martin,
and this is up first from NPR News.
US Iran talks almost fell apart in Switzerland over the weekend when President Trump threatened new strikes. The first round ended with a 60-day road map for a final deal, but Iran says the real test of the agreement is stopping the war in Lebanon.
An idea with Iran is facing scrutiny from the president's own party. Trump is struggling to sell it to his maga base and Republican Warhawk say the agreement is too weak. And Piers Mar Elias and breaks down the political stakes
as the midterm elections loom.
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“The latest Kyrs Stormer has just made this announcement.”
I will resign as leader of the Labour Party. I have spoken to his Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision. This means he eventually steps down as UK Prime Minister, though his party remains in power for the moment.
His likely successor is Andy Burnham, the outgoing mayor of Manchester, England. For more on how that transition happens and why, let's go to MPR's Lauren Freyer in London, Lauren Good Morning. Good morning, Michelle.
So why has Stormer resigned? Yeah, he was elected two years ago with a landslide majority in Parliament. And now he has the lowest approval ratings of any Prime Minister in UK history.
Part of it is scandals you may have heard about his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein as the UK Ambassador to Washington. But part of it is Stormer's failure to connect with people and to deliver real change that he promised
after 14 years of austerity under the previous conservative
“party rule, improvements on cost of living and such.”
His own labor party lawmakers, his parliamentary party, began turning on him in recent weeks.
And here's what he said from behind a lectern
at 10 Downing Street moments ago, at some point his voice cracking and breaking with tears and emotion. The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election.
I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question. And I accept that answer with good grace. - Stormer said he will stay on as a caretaker prime minister and then nominations for his successor
will open on the 9th of July. So it will be a summer of politics here. - To us about his likely successor. - Yeah, so labor MPs seem to be coalescing around Andy Burnham. He's the popular outgoing mayor of Manchester England.
He was an MP in the past, a member of Parliament. Then returned home to Northern England to serve as mayor in his home region. He brought economic development to post-industrial Manchester as mayor.
He won a special election to Parliament last week. He's actually being sworn into Parliament this afternoon after which he will be eligible to challenge Starmer. He seemed more as sort of folksy able to connect with voters in a way that Starmer did not,
perhaps slightly to the left of Starmer more likely to sort of robustly defend a welfare state. But he will face the same headwinds, you know, rising global energy prices, strained public finances.
So in a way, this is a change in personality at the top rather than policy, you know, both Burnham and Starmer are from the same party with roughly the same politics. - But Burnham would be the seventh British Prime Minister
in 10 years. Has that revolving door had an impact? - Yeah, I spoke this morning with a former political secretary to former Prime Minister Tony Blair. His name is John McTernan.
And even minded me, actually tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the Brexit vote. When Britain's voted to exit the European Union Prime Minister, then Prime Minister David Cameron resigned the very next day. Brexit ultimately hurt the British economy.
You know, triggered 10 years of political turmoil
That we are still experiencing now.
- That is, and here's Lauren Freyer in London. Lauren, thank you. - You're welcome. (gentle piano music)
- The US and Iran had a long first day of negotiations
in Switzerland with the goal of permanently ending the war. - President Trump was not there, but was close to his phone and made Bellicose remarks on social media that threatened to upend the talks just as they were starting. The two sides have agreed previously to a road map
and have 60 days to resolve a host of issues. - For details we're joined by Empires Greg Mayri who is in Tel Aviv, Greg Hello to you. Hi, Michelle.
“Have they given themselves 60 days how did day one go?”
- Well, it was pretty rocky. Vice President JD Vance led the US delegation in Switzerland and sound in an upbeat note, but President Trump threatened in social media posts and in interviews to again attack Iran.
At one point, the Iranian media said the country's delegation was walking out because of Trump's comments, though that didn't actually happen. The talks lasted into the early hours of Monday, the two countries mediating the talks, Pakistan and Qatar,
who had a statement saying there was encouraging progress in the US and Iran have agreed to a road map. This includes a working group on the war in Lebanon which will clearly be a key part of these talks. They also set up a line of communication
to deal with a straight-of-war moves and lower level working groups are now set to continue meetings all week. - Okay, I'm gonna ask you about all these things. I'll take them one by one.
First, what is happening with the war in Lebanon?
You know, yesterday was a good day. UN Peacekeeper said they did not record shooting by either sides on day.
“The first such day, since the fighting erupted on March 2nd,”
it's now midday here today and so far remains quiet. But it's still very combustible. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Iraqchi, said the first real test of this peace effort is the Lebanon war. There was very heavy fighting Friday and Saturday.
Israeli troops remain miles inside southern Lebanon. The Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will keep troops there for as long as it takes, he says, to protect northern Israel. His balat is also defiant saying the war will not be settled
until Israeli troops leave Lebanon. - Okay, let's turn to the straight-of-war moves. Is oil still flowing today? Yeah, Michelle, it's a hard one. It's kind of unclear at the moment.
Iran said over the weekend it was closing the straight because of the fighting in Lebanon. But that was before the fighting died down in the last day and a half. Now, U.S. Central Command says the straight remains open. A quote, Iran does not control the straight of our moves.
Traffic continues to flow. Now, according to group's monitoring shipping traffic, dozens of ships pass through the straight Saturday, this was one of the busiest days.
“Maybe the busiest day since the waterway was closed”
nearly four months ago. But the traffic slowed down sharply on Sunday or keeping watch today trying to see what's happening. And of course, the big issue remains Iran's nuclear program.
Was there any movement on that front? - So a U.S. diplomat who's not authorized to speak publicly said there were, quote, "robust discussions on all elements of the nuclear deal." Now, the statement by the Pakistan and Qatar mediators
mentioned the nuclear issue as one of several discussed but gave no details. It seems the immediate focus is these urgent questions, like the war and Lebanon and the straight of our moves. The U.S. certainly expects to address Iran's nuclear program
in depth and once a deal. But it may not be the top of the agenda right now. - Interesting, since that was the stated reason for starting all of us. So that is NPR's Greg Myri and Tel Aviv.
Greg, thank you. - Sure thing, Michelle. - As Greg mentioned Vice President JD Vance, flew to a Swiss resort over the weekend, working out the details of a tentative peace plan
between the U.S. and Iran. Here is the Vice President before talks began. - The question before us now is how much more can we accomplish together? Can we turn over a new leaf?
Can we change relations in the Middle East? - Currently, raising those questions, Vance sounded tentative about the answers, which is also true of the memorandum of understanding that the two sides signed last week.
It leaves a lot to negotiate. - With Congress coming back to Washington this week and PR senior National Political correspondent Mara Lieson is with us now to tell us more about the political stakes for Trump in this moment.
Good morning Mara. - Good morning. - How is this memorandum of understanding playing in the U.S. so far? - Well, Trump is struggling to sell it.
He's getting criticism from both wings of his own party. There are some in the Make America great again, MAGA base, who are angry that he went to war
in the first place, many of them voted for him
because he promised not to get involved in any more foreign wars. And they don't feel like the U.S. has achieved anything of value so far. Then there are conservative Iran hawks in the GOP
who feel the deal is weak that it doesn't do any better
Than a deal made by former President Barack Obama,
which Trump has criticized bitterly.
“And they also say that Trump stated goals”
in the war haven't been met. There's certainly been no unconditional surrender. No regime change. Iran gets hundreds of millions of dollars in unfrozen assets. And so far, there's nothing to stop Iran
from enriching uranium or building a nuclear weapon. Has Trump responded to this criticism? How is he taking this? Well, he's not very happy about it. He called his critics stupid and bad people.
He was particularly angry about a New York Times headline that he actually reposted on social media. The headline said, quote, what changed after almost four months of war analysts say not much. And Trump went on to say that the Iranian air forces gone.
Its military is decimated. Its leaders were killed, and all that is true. But it also appears that Iran took a beating, but the regime is still in place. Arguably, more hard line than the previous one,
and Iran has been able to deploy a powerful new weapon
they never used before, closing the state of Hormuz,
and that's given them leverage over the world economy. So why make a deal now?
“I mean, what is its stake for President Trump and his party?”
The short answer is the U.S. economy. The economic pressure, once the state of Hormuz was closed and prices went up, seems to have pushed Trump to make this deal. And when he signed it last week in France,
he said he didn't want to be like former President Herbert Hoover. Here's what he said. So rather than possibly going into a depression, rather than having your favorite President be Herbert Hoover, who's always the one I didn't want to be.
So Trump is being very transparent. He doesn't want to be seen as responsible for inflation rising. He's basically telling the world and his opponents, what his pain point is, which is $4 a gallon gasoline.
So just in the compliments we have left here, Mara, what greeted Trump back in Washington when he returned from signing that tentative deal when Iran? Well, one thing he found was the reflecting pool
at the Lincoln Memorial was full of green, slimy algae and peeling blue paint. That happened maybe because the pool is now absorbing more sunlight. And he, after Trump had its bottom painted dark blue.
So you could see that green algae and peeling blue paint as a metaphor for Trump's troubles getting the world to follow his orders. Or you could see it as just a temporary blip as he makes Washington DC more beautiful.
At least in his eyes. In his eyes. - That is, and here's Mara, Mara, thank you. - You're welcome. - Before you go, don't forget to listen
to the Sunday story from up first.
Cyberscams cost Americans more than $20 billion last year.
But who are the people doing the scamming? - I never knew. Did you get that I was going to be doing? - On the Sunday story, an exclusive two-part series on Cambodia scam industry from the point of view
of the scammers themselves. Listen to it, wherever you get NPR's out first podcast. (upbeat music) - And that's up first part Monday, June 22nd. I'm Michelle Martin.
- And I'm Steven Skip today's episode of our first was edited by Tina Crya and a Yukonanov, James Dupack, Muhammad Elbar D.C. and John Stolenas. It was produced by Ziyad Bunch,
our directorist Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hindus and our technical director is currently strange. Join us tomorrow. (upbeat music)
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