In today’s newsletter: The new Conservative party leader was announced on Saturday – and must build a credible opposition from a small pool of colleagues in the House of Commons• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. Kemi Badenoch was elected as Conservative leader over the weekend, and now has a window of about two minutes of mainstream attention before the US election devours the entire news agenda. That is not time to plot the next five years in any detail. But it doesn’t take long to observe just how stiff the challenge she faces will be.The contest was billed as a postmortem of the election defeat – but as it played out, we don’t even know in any detail why Badenoch thinks the Tories lost. She said yesterday that the threat of Reform UK was a symptom of her party not being “consistent enough about values” – without being specific about what that would mean in practice. Meanwhile she starts with a reputation as an abrasive media performer who is firmly on the right of her party, and will soon have to decide whether to oppose public spending increases just four months after a landslide defeat.US election | In the final stretch of the presidential race, Donald Trump has said he should never have left the White House after his defeat in 2020 and joked darkly he would be fine with reporters getting shot. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris promised to work to end the war in Gaza as she attempted to appeal to Arab American and Muslim American voters in Michigan.Europe | The pro-western incumbent Maia Sandu has won a second term in office in the Moldovan presidential election, preliminary results have shown, marking a significant boost for the country’s EU aspirations and a clear rebuke to Moscow.Labour | Rachel Reeves has admitted she was wrong to say before the election that no major tax rises would be needed, but promised there was “no need to increase taxes further” after last week’s budget raised £40bn.Spain | Hundreds of people have heckled Spain’s King Felipe and prime minister Pedro Sánchez – throwing mud and shouting “murderers” – as they visited an area in Valencia devastated by last week’s floods. The scenes laid bare the degree of anger among residents who feel abandoned by the authorities.Work | One thousand workers in the UK will get extra time off with no loss of pay in the first official pilot by the four-day week campaign under the Labour government. Amid growing momentum for a shorter working week, the campaign will present its findings in the summer. Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/04/monday-briefing-can-kemi-badenoch-face-the-past-and-plot-a-path-for-the-future
Author : Archie Bland
Publish date : 2024-11-04 06:51:02
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
Monday briefing: Can Kemi Badenoch face the past and plot a path for the future?
