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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Masoud Pezeshkian on his election as the new president of Iran, the Kremlin said on Saturday.     "I hope that your activities as president will contribute to further building up constructive bilateral cooperation in all areas for the benefit of our friendly peoples, in the interests of simplifying regional security and stability," the statement said.  Pezeshkian has pledged to open Iran to the world and deliver freedoms that its people have said they want for decades.  

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DHARAMSALA, India — In a monastery beneath snow-capped mountains in northern India, the Buddhist monk entrusted with protecting the Dalai Lama and foretelling his people's future is concerned. The Dalai Lama turns 89 on Saturday and China insists it will choose his successor as Tibet's chief spiritual leader. That has the Medium of Tibet's Chief State Oracle contemplating what might come next. "His Holiness is the fourteenth Dalai Lama, then there will be a fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth," the medium, known as the Nechung, said. "In countries, leaders change, and then that story is over. But in Tibet it works differently." Tibetan Buddhists believe that learned monastics are reincarnated after death as newborns. The Dalai Lama, who is currently recuperating in the United States from a medical procedure, has said he will clarify questions about succession - including if and where he will be reincarnated - around his ninetieth birthday. As part of a reincarnation identification process, the medium will enter a trance to consult the oracle. The incumbent Dalai Lama is a charismatic figure who popularized Buddhism internationally and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause in exile. Beijing sees him as a dangerous separatist, though he has embraced what he calls a "Middle Way" of peacefully seeking genuine autonomy and religious freedom within China. Any successor will be inexperienced and unknown on the global stage. That has sparked concerns about whether the movement will lose momentum or grow more radical amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington, long a source of bipartisan support for the Central Tibetan Administration, or CTA, Tibet's government-in-exile. The CTA and its partners in the West, as well as India, which has hosted the Dalai Lama in the Himalayan foothills for more than six decades, are preparing for a future without his influential presence. U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to soon sign a bill that requires the State Department to counter what it calls Chinese "disinformation" that Tibet, which was annexed by the People's Republic of China in 1951, has been part of China since ancient times. "China wants recognition that Tibet has been part of China ... throughout history, and this bill is suggesting that it would be relatively easy for Tibet supporters to get a western government to refuse to give recognition for such an extensive claim," said Tibet specialist Robert Barnett of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. U.S. lawmakers, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, visited the Dalai Lama in June to celebrate Congress passing the legislation, which Sikyong Penpa Tsering, who heads the CTA, called a "breakthrough." The bill is part of a strategic shift away from emphasizing Chinese rights violations such as forced assimilation, the Sikyong, or political leader, told Reuters. Since 2021, CTA has lobbied two dozen countries including the U.S., to publicly undermine Beijing's narrative that Tibet has always been part of China, he said. With U.S. weight behind this strategy, the exiles hope to push China to the negotiating table, he said. "If every country keeps saying that Tibet is part of the People's Republic of China, then where is the reason for China to come and talk to us?" The Chinese foreign ministry said in response to Reuters' questions that it would be open to discussions with the Dalai Lama about his "personal future" if he "truly gives up his position of splitting the motherland" and recognized Tibet as an unalienable part of China. Beijing, which has not held official talks with the Dalai Lama's representatives since 2010, has also urged Biden not to sign the bill. The office of the Dalai Lama, who has in recent years apologized for remarks he made about women and to a young child, referred an interview request to the Sikyong. Succession questions Most historians say Tibet was assimilated into the Mongol empire during the 13th-14th century Yuan dynasty, which also covered large parts of present day China. Beijing says that established its sovereign claim, though scholars believe the relationship varied greatly over the centuries and remote Tibet largely governed itself for much of the time. The People's Liberation Army marched into Tibet in 1950 and announced its "peaceful liberation." After a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, a young Dalai Lama fled into exile in India. In 1995, atheist China and the Dalai Lama separately identified two boys as the Panchen Lama, the second-most-important Tibetan Buddhist leader. The Dalai Lama's pick was taken away by Chinese authorities and has not been seen since. Many Buddhists consider Beijing's choice illegitimate, though most expect a similar parallel selection for the next Dalai Lama, given the Chinese government's stance that he must reincarnate, and it must approve the successor. Chinese authorities have "tried to insert themselves into the succession of the Dalai Lama but we will not let that happen," said Michael McCaul, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee during his Dharamsala visit.

U.S. presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump differ sharply on immigration. Both sparred over immigration at their first presidential debate. VOA’s immigration correspondent Aline Barros has the story.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

TAIPEI — Taiwan prosecutors said on Saturday they were investigating a senior official and member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who deals with China on suspicion of bribery. He said he had done nothing wrong.  Cheng Wen-tsan is head of the Straits Exchange Foundation under the China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council that deals with day-to-day issues like accidents involving Taiwanese in China. The foundation is technically private because the governments in Beijing and Taipei do not recognize each other or have any official relations.  Prosecutors in the northern Taiwanese city of Taoyuan, where Cheng was mayor from 2014-2022, said he had been summoned for questioning on Friday on bribery suspicions and that they had applied to a court to detain him.  It did not give details of the allegations against him.  Cheng, in a statement issued via his lawyer and released by the foundation, denied wrongdoing.  "I have not committed any illegal acts, and I will cooperate with the judicial investigation. I hope to clarify the truth and prove my innocence as soon as possible," he said.  Taiwan's presidential office said it respects the judiciary and hopes investigators will clarify the matter as soon as possible.

MANILA — The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said Saturday that China's largest coastguard vessel has anchored in Manila's exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, in the South China Sea, and it is meant to intimidate its smaller Asian neighbor.  The China coastguard's 165-meter “monster ship” entered Manila's 200-nautical mile EEZ on July 2, spokesperson for the PCG Jay Tarriela told a news forum.  The PCG warned the Chinese vessel it was in the Philippine's EEZ and asked about their intentions, he said.  "It's an intimidation on the part of the China Coast Guard," Tarriela said. "We're not going to pull out and we're not going to be intimidated."  China's embassy in Manila and the Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China's coast guard has no publicly available contact information.  The Chinese ship, which has also deployed a small boat, was anchored 731 meters away from the PCG's vessel, Tarriela said. In May, the PCG deployed a ship to the Sabina shoal to deter small-scale reclamation by China, which denied the claim.  China has carried out extensive land reclamation on some islands in the South China Sea, building air force and other military facilities, causing concern in Washington and around the region.  China claims most of the South China Sea, a key conduit for $3 trillion of annual ship-borne trade, as its own territory.  Beijing rejects the 2016 ruling by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration which said its expansive maritime claims had no legal basis.  Following a high-level dialog, the Philippines and China agreed on Tuesday for the need to "restore trust" and "rebuild confidence" to better manage maritime disputes.  The Philippines has turned down offers from the United States, its treaty ally, to assist operations in the South China Sea, despite a flare-up with China over routing resupply missions to Filipino troops on a contested shoal. 

SHENZHEN, China — Rescue personnel began sealing a breached dam at China's second-largest freshwater lake in the south of the country on Saturday afternoon after water levels stabilized on both side of the burst, Chinese state media said.  A day earlier the 226-meter stretch of dam breached at Dongting Lake in Hunan province, with 5,700 residents relocated, China Central Television reported.  More than 2,300 rescue personnel were working to build a second line of defense, with footage showing excavators piling boulders into barriers and being resupplied by trucks.  No one had been harmed as of early Saturday, reports said.  Earlier footage showed a wave of water surging through a breach in the dike past several overturned lorries, along with large stretches of half-submerged houses and fields in the surrounding area.  On Saturday afternoon the Ministry of Water Resources said it would also inspect dams on Poyang lake, China's largest freshwater lake, in southeastern China, as well as embankments along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.  Heavy rainfall pounded parts Hunan province earlier this week, causing the Miluo River in Pingjiang county to swell to its highest in 70 years.  Local authorities responded by activating the maximum emergency response level. State media showed large parts of towns waterlogged and stranded people being rescued on boats. 

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HAMBURG, Germany — He has a broken nose that requires him to wear a vision-limiting face mask. He is managing fitness issues stemming from the end of the club season. He has scored only one goal — from the penalty spot.  The European Championship is hardly going as planned for Kylian Mbappé, and he knows it.  “These are the vagaries of the footballer,” the France captain said after his latest below-par par performance at Euro 2024.  He doesn't really care, though, as long as he is lifting the Henri Delaunay Cup in Berlin on July 14.  Mbappé was so fatigued, so knocked out of his stride after a couple of bashes to his protective mask, that he asked to come off at halftime of extra time against Portugal in the quarterfinals in Hamburg on Friday.  It meant giving up a likely penalty in the impending shootout — which France won 5-3 because of Joao Felix's miss — but Mbappé simply couldn't continue.  France coach Didier Deschamps confirmed his captain asked to be replaced, for the good of the team.  “He is always very honest with me and the team. When he feels he doesn't have the capacity to accelerate then we can't risk it, even a player like Kylian,” Deschamps said.  “With all that has happened to him — the issues he has had, the trauma with his nose — he is hanging in there. He is not in his top form. He felt very tired indeed.”  Mbappé accepted before the Portugal game that he wasn't in prime shape and needed a “good pre-season to be at 100%.” That will come at Real Madrid, which he has joined after running down his contract at Paris Saint-Germain.  Getting his nose broken in France's opening group game at Euro 2024 threw him off kilter, too, restricting a part of his game because of his lack of peripheral vision.  His best performances so far might have come in France's news conferences, where he has been vocal in urging French people to vote in the snap elections while warning about the dangers of the far right getting into power.  On the field, Mbappé is part of a France team that heads into a semifinal match against Spain on Tuesday having scored three goals this tournament — two own-goals and his penalty against Austria. No France player has scored a goal from open play yet.  Like Greece in 2004, France is looking to reach the final pretty much entirely based on its mean defense and team structure. Except the talent in this France squad far outweighs what was at Greece's disposal 20 years ago.  “In the locker room, we weren’t thinking that we still hadn’t scored a goal in the game,” said Mbappé, who netted a hat trick in the 2022 World Cup final. “But yes, we will look into the question [of France's lack of efficiency in attack] while maintaining this defensive solidity.  "I've only scored one goal, but we’re in the semifinals and I’m very happy.”  Mbappé didn't much like watching the penalty shootout from afar, either.  “It’s worse than shooting,” he said, laughing. 

GENEVA  — A prominent human rights expert is calling on governments to end the billion-dollar arms trade with Myanmar’s military, which is “helping sustain the junta’s brutal campaign of violence against civilians across Myanmar.”    In a report to the U.N. human rights council Thursday, Thomas Andrews, special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, accused international finance systems of helping Myanmar procure the weapons that have “enabled attacks on civilians” and have killed, maimed and displaced thousands of people.    Since the military junta toppled the country’s democratically elected government in February 2021, the U.N. human rights office reports at least 5,280 civilians, including 1,022 women and 667 children, “have been killed at the hands of the military.”     Additionally, the agency reports at least 3 million people have been displaced — “the vast majority still without proper shelter,” and more than 20,000 political prisoners remain in detention.    Andrews told the council that in the two years ending March 2024, the Myanmar military has purchased $630 million in weapons, dual-use technologies, manufacturing equipment, and raw materials through the international finance system.    The special rapporteur identified 16 foreign banks that have facilitated transactions related to military procurement by the junta, noting that the junta and its cronies have worked to obscure the specific nature of the transactions “including by setting up military front companies.”    He referenced a report he issued last year, “The Billion Dollar Death Trade,” in which he identified Singapore as the junta’s third largest source of weapons and related materials.    Because of that report, he told the council that “to its credit, the government took immediate action and launched an investigation of my findings. I am very pleased to report that the junta’s purchase of military supplies from Singapore dropped by nearly 90 percent since the publication of that report.”    “Unfortunately, military procurement through Thailand has moved in the opposite direction,” he said, underscoring the junta imported nearly $130 million in weapons and military from Thailand-registered suppliers, “more than double the total from the previous year.”    He observed, however, “It is important to note that as was the case with Singapore last year, I found no evidence that the government of Thailand was involved or even aware of these transactions,” adding that he was hopeful Thailand based entities, including its banks “will no longer be facilitating the transfer of weapons and weapons materials to the military junta.”    Andrews called on financial institutions to stop facilitating transactions with banks that are controlled by the military junta and for governments to sanction those junta-controlled banks, including Myanmar Economic Bank.    The special rapporteur garnered support from member states, including the United States, for his appeal.      “We applaud Singapore for taking action to cut arms supplies to the military and call on others to follow suit,” Michele Taylor, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council, said during the council’s interactive dialogue.    “We urge the Security Council to use all the tools at its disposal to prevent future atrocities, including by reinforcing this body’s call to cut off the military’s access to jet fuel, and to support efforts to find a peaceful and just resolution to the crisis,” she said.    Andrews said the people of Myanmar need and deserve the support of the council and governments. He emphasized they also need international action, “not only because of the military junta’s relentless attacks on the people of Myanmar, but because there are opportunities available to your governments right now that would make an enormous difference in how and when this crisis comes to an end.”    “The tide is turning in Myanmar, the junta is on its heels, and the opportunity to take decisive action is now,” he said, pointing out that civilian resistance forces are gaining ground.   He said the government’s military bases are falling, tens of thousands of troops “have been lost to casualties, surrender, or defections,” and the economy is being squeezed.  “In response, the junta is doubling down on its brutal attacks on civilian populations,” he said. “Junta leaders appear committed to destroying the country that they cannot control.”    He said the world must not allow that to happen.    “We now have clear evidence that actions taken by the international community to isolate the junta and degrade its capacity to attack the people of Myanmar are working.      “But more must be done and done now to build on this progress including strategic coordination between all governments who support human rights to stop the flow of sophisticated weapons of war that are being used to attack innocent Myanmar civilians,” he said. 

LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that he is scrapping a controversial Conservative policy to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda as he vowed to deliver on voters' mandate for change, though he warned it will not happen quickly. “The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started,” Starmer said in his first news conference. “It’s never acted as a deterrent. Almost the opposite.” Starmer told reporters in a wood-paneled room at 10 Downing St. that he was “restless for change,” but would not commit to how soon Britons would feel improvements in their standards of living or public services. His Labour Party delivered the biggest blow to the Conservatives in their two-century history Friday in a landslide victory on a platform of change. The 30-minute question-and-answer session followed his first Cabinet meeting as his new government takes on the massive challenge of fixing a heap of domestic woes and winning over a public weary from years of austerity, political chaos and a battered economy. “We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work,” Starmer said as he welcomed the new ministers around the table at 10 Downing St. He said it had been the honor of his life to be asked by King Charles III to form a government in a ceremony that officially elevated him to prime minister. Among a raft of problems they face are boosting a sluggish economy, fixing a broken health care system, and restoring trust in government. “Just because Labour won a big landslide doesn’t mean all the problems that the Conservative government has faced has gone away,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. In his first remarks as prime minister Friday after the "kissing of hands” ceremony with Charles at Buckingham Palace, Starmer said he would get to work immediately, though he cautioned it would take some time to show results. “Changing a country is not like flicking a switch,” he said as enthusiastic supporters cheered him outside his new official residence at 10 Downing. “This will take a while. But have no doubt that the work of change begins — immediately.” He will have a busy schedule following the six-week campaign, heading out Sunday to visit each of the four nations of the U.K. — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — that he said had each voted in favor of Labour. He will then travel to Washington for a NATO meeting Tuesday and will host the European Political Community summit July 18, the day after the state opening of Parliament and the King's Speech, which sets out the new government's agenda. Starmer singled out several of the big items Friday, such as fixing the revered but hobbled National Health Service and securing its borders, a reference to a larger global problem of absorbing an influx of migrants fleeing war, poverty as well as drought, heat waves and floods attributed to climate change. Conservatives struggled to stem the flow of migrants arriving across the English Channel, failing to live up to ex-Prime Minister’s Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats” that led to the controversial Rwanda plan. Starmer’s decision on what he called the Rwanda “gimmick” was widely expected because he had said he wouldn’t follow through with the plan that has cost hundreds of millions of dollars and never taken flight. It's unclear what Starmer will do differently to tackle the same crisis with a record number of people coming ashore in the first six months of this year. “Labour is going to need to find a solution to the small boats coming across the channel,” Bale said. “It’s going to have to come up with other solutions to deal with that particular problem.” Suella Braverman, a Conservative hard liner on immigration who is a possible contender to replace Sunak as party leader, criticized Starmer's plan to end the Rwanda pact. “Years of hard work, acts of Parliament, millions of pounds been spent on a scheme which had it been delivered properly would have worked," she said Saturday. "There are big problems on the horizon which will be I’m afraid caused by Keir Starmer.” Starmer's Cabinet is also getting to work. Foreign Secretary David Lammy was to begin his first international trip Saturday to meet counterparts in Germany, Poland and Sweden to reinforce the importance of their relationship. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he would open new negotiations next week with NHS doctors at the start of their career who have staged a series of multi-day strikes. The pay dispute has exacerbated the long wait for appointments that have become a hallmark of the NHS's problems.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Tulum, Mexico — Beryl weakened to a tropical storm Friday after hitting Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane, with fierce winds causing material damage but no injuries along the touristic Yucatan Peninsula. Now headed for the Gulf of Mexico, Beryl is expected to intensify as it moves toward northeastern Mexico and the U.S. state of Texas by the end of the weekend, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC). After tearing through the Caribbean and coastal Venezuela leaving seven people dead, the storm hit southeast Mexico early Friday with winds of up to 175 kph. It flattened trees and lampposts and ripped off roof tiles, according to Mexico's civil protection authority. Electricity was lost in at least three municipalities in the southeastern Quintana Roo state as Beryl moved deeper inland and weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm. "On the initial reports, there appears to be no loss of life, and that is what matters most to us," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in his daily press briefing. Mexico's emergency authorities later told reporters there were no injuries or deaths, nor damage to critical infrastructure such as roads and the water system. Electricity had been 70% restored and would be fully recovered by Sunday, civil protection chief Laura Velazquez said. About 2,200 people had sought cover at temporary shelters and more than 25,600 security force members and employees of the CFE electricity agency were deployed to help residents and repair damage. As a precaution, 348 flights were canceled at Cancun airport, the largest terminal in the Mexican Caribbean. By Friday afternoon, state governor Mara Lezama said the airport had resumed service. Re-intensification The NHC said Beryl weakened from a Category 2 hurricane to Category 1 by the time it hit Yucatan -- milder than earlier in the week when it left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean and parts of Venezuela. It added on Friday that a hurricane watch -- signaling a forecast re-intensification from tropical storm status -- had been issued for much of the Texas coast ahead of Beryl's anticipated arrival there late on Sunday. By late Friday, the NHC tracked Beryl 995 kilometers southeast of Corpus Christi in Texas, while the storm's maximum sustained winds had slowed to 95 kph. In Mexico, hundreds of tourists were evacuated from hotels along the coast before the storm's arrival. The army, which deployed some 8,000 troops to Tulum, said it had food supplies and 34,000 liters of purified water to distribute to the population. The army also set up a soup kitchen in Tulum for people who could return home due to flooding or blocked roads. Alvaro Rueda, a 51-year-old bricklayer, told AFP his neighborhood had already started clearing up after the storm's passage. "Most of the stores are already open... we have purchased food, even if it is canned, there is food," he said. Beryl is the first hurricane since NHC records began to reach the Category 4 level in June, and the earliest to hit the highest Category 5 in July. It is extremely rare for such a powerful storm to form this early in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November. Scientists say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of storms like Beryl, since there is more energy in a warmer ocean for them to feed on. North Atlantic waters are currently between one- and three-degrees Celsius warmer than normal, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

DUBAI/CAIRO — Hamas has accepted a U.S. proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday. The militant Islamist group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent cease-fire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private. A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts had said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel and would end the nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. A source in Israel's negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was now a real chance of achieving agreement. That was in sharp contrast to past instances in the nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were unacceptable. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. On Friday his office said talks would continue next week and emphasized that gaps between the sides still remained. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, since Hamas attacked southern Israeli cities on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to official Israeli figures. The new proposal ensures that mediators would guarantee a temporary cease-fire, aid delivery and the withdrawal of Israeli troops as long as indirect talks continue to implement the second phase of the agreement, the Hamas source said. Efforts to secure a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza have intensified over the past few days with active shuttle diplomacy among Washington, Israel and Qatar, which is leading mediation efforts from Doha, where the exiled Hamas leadership is based. A regional source said the U.S. administration was trying hard to secure a deal before the presidential election in November. Netanyahu said on Friday that the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency had returned from an initial meeting with mediators in Qatar and that negotiations would continue next week.

LONDON — Newly elected British prime minister Keir Starmer on Saturday began his first full day in charge with a meeting of his Cabinet after his Labour party's landslide election win ended 14 years of Conservative rule. Starmer held his first Cabinet meeting at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT), with Britain's first woman finance minister Rachel Reeves and new foreign minister David Lammy in attendance. The Labour leader spent his first hours in Downing Street on Friday appointing his ministerial team, hours after securing his center-left party's return to power with a whopping 174-seat majority in the UK parliament. "The work of change begins immediately," Starmer said Friday shortly after being confirmed as prime minister by King Charles III and flag-waving crowds of cheering Labour activists welcomed him to Downing Street. "But have no doubt, we will rebuild Britain," he added. Reiterating his five key "missions" for government in his maiden speech, the 61-year-old vowed to get the state-run National Health Service "back on its feet," ensure "secure borders" and safer streets. But daunting challenges await his government, including a stagnating economy, creaking public services and households suffering from a years-long cost-of-living crisis. "Changing a country is not like flicking a switch. The world is now a more volatile place. This will take a while," Starmer said. 'Historic' result World leaders lined up to congratulate the new British leader. Starmer spoke by phone with U.S. President Joe Biden and "discussed their shared commitment to the special relationship between the UK and US and their aligned ambitions for greater economic growth," according to London. He also spoke to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. However, former -- and potentially future – U.S. president Donald Trump ignored Starmer, instead hailing the electoral breakthrough of his ally Nigel Farage's far-right Reform UK party. Its capture of five seats and around 14% of the vote, alongside Farage becoming an MP on his eighth attempt, was one of the stories of the election. But it paled in comparison to Labour's triumphs, after the party neared its record of 418 seats under ex-leader Tony Blair in 1997 by winning 412. The Conservatives suffered their worst-ever defeat, capturing just 121 constituencies, prompting Rishi Sunak to apologize to the nation and confirm that he will resign as Tory leader once a successor is selected. Former leader William Hague, a Sunak mentor who represented the same northern English constituency until 2015, conceded it was "a catastrophic result in historic terms." A record 12 senior ex-government ministers lost their seats, alongside former prime minister Liz Truss, whose economically calamitous short-lived tenure in 2022 wounded the party irreparably ahead of the election. It is now poised for another period of infighting between a moderate wing eager for a centrist leader and those who may be willing to court Farage as a new leader. 'Challenges' The election also saw the centrist Liberal Democrats make their biggest gains in around a century, claiming more than 70 seats to become the third largest party in parliament. But it was a dismal contest for the pro-independence Scottish National Party, which was virtually obliterated in Scotland. It dropped from 48 seats to just nine, with one still to declare early Saturday. The Green Party had its best general election, quadrupling its MPs count to four. Meanwhile an unprecedented six independent lawmakers were elected -- four of them defeating Labour candidates in districts with large Muslim populations and campaigns centered around the Israel-Hamas conflict. Delight within Labour at its seats landslide will be restrained by recognition that it only secured around 34% of the vote -- a drop on 2019 and the lowest ever to secure a majority. Meanwhile turnout, at just below 60%, was the lowest since 2001, suggesting widespread apathy. "While this shouldn't overshadow Labour's victory today, it may point to some challenges Labour may face," Chris Hopkins, political research director at the pollster Savanta, said of those factors. "Simply put, they likely won't be able to return 400-plus MPs (in the) next election with less than 40% of the vote."