britain

Rishi Sunak is the United Kingdom’s newest prime minister making history as the first person of color to hold the position in a race triggered by the dramatic resignation of Liz Truss.

Rishi Sunak won the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership contest on Monday and is poised to steer the government after Truss’ disastrous mini-budget plunged the markets into chaos. He must now unite the Tory party which seems to be in disarray ahead of the next general election. 

• He becomes UK’s 5th PM in six years.
• He is Hindu, born in South England to Indian parents.
• At 42 years old, he is the youngest prime minister in 200 years.
• He was believed to be one of the richest parliamentarians. 
• Sunak was chancellor in 2020 and was responsible for steering the UK economy at the beginning of the pandemic and its lockdowns.
• In April, he and former PM Boris Johnson were fined for attending parties during lockdowns.
• He was also embroiled in a scandal when his multi-millionaire wife was accused of avoiding tax by claiming ‘non-domicile status’ which permitted her to save millions of pounds in tax on dividends collected from her family’s IT business empire.

According to her death certificate, Queen Elizabeth II died of “old age.”

No other contributing factor was listed.

The death record revealed that she died at 3:10 pm, approximately three hours before it was officially announced to the public.

Her death was registered in Aberdeenshire by her daughter Princess Anne who spent the last 24 hours with the Queen.

The  96-year-old had been experiencing sporadic mobility problems during the final stages of her life and used a walking stick to attend to duties in public.

On the day of her death, Buckingham Palace released a statement just after 12.30 p.m. stating that doctors were “concerned for her health” and she was resting “comfortably” at Balmoral Castle.

Her death was officially announced at 6:30 pm.

Elizabeth II was the longest-serving monarchy, spending 70 years on the throne.

Photo credit: Forbes and Town & Home Magazine

Queen Elizabeth is still alive despite rumours that she died.

Posters falsely flooded social media, stating that the frail, 95-year-old “passed away” before she could attend the wedding of British Vogue Editor Edward Enniful.

Reputed British media have not confirmed the reports which would be the first news agencies to announce her death.

The Queen, who recently celebrated 70 years on her ascension to the throne and has suffered health challenges, contracted COVID-19 as announced by the Buckingham Palace on Sunday, and was suffering from “mild cold-like symptoms.”

It is not known if her condition worsened or improved.

She has since been relegated to light duties.

Her frailty deepened concerns that her reign is coming to an end.

She is believed to have contracted the virus from her son, 73-year-old Prince Charles who tested positive on Feb. 10. His wife, Camilla, also tested positive.

A growing number of European countries have stopped travel from Britain after a new virus strain was discovered in that country. At least six European countries have announced flights will no longer fly there, while France and Belgium have banned train travel.

Why it matters

Health officials in the U.S and the UK said the strain apparently infects more easily than others. But they are still examining if it is more deadly. It is believed to be 70% more transmissible.

What’s driving the news

The British government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said the strain “moves fast and is becoming the dominant variant,” causing over 60% of infections in London by December, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The new strain is said to have nearly two dozen mutations and some are on the spiky protein that the virus uses to attach to and infect cells. That spike is what current vaccines target.

“I’m worried about this, for sure,” but it’s too soon to know how important it ultimately will prove to be, said Dr. Ravi Gupta, who studies viruses at the University of Cambridge in England.

U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that the new strain of the coronavirus is “out of control.”