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    A New Trend in Global Elections: The Anti-Trump Bump

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    In voting in Canada and Australia, right-wing parties that borrowed from the MAGA playbook were punished. Elsewhere, President Trump is having a more complex impact.The Trump factor is shaping global politics, one election at a time — just not necessarily to the president’s taste.In major votes in Canada and Australia over the past two weeks, centrists saw their fortunes revived, while parties that had borrowed from the MAGA playbook lost out.President Trump has been back in power for only three months, but already his policies, including imposing tariffs and upending alliances, have rippled into domestic political battles around the world.While it is too soon to say that anti-Trump forces are on the rise globally, it is clear that voters have Mr. Trump somewhere on their mind as they make decisions.Political cousinsCanada and Australia share a lot in common: a political system, a major mining industry, a sovereign in King Charles. Now they also share a remarkable political story.In both countries, before Mr. Trump was inaugurated, the center-left ruling parties had been in poor shape and appeared poised to lose power. The front-runners in polls were the conservative parties, whose leaders flirted with Trumpian politics both in style and in substance.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Reform UK Surges as Conservatives Lose Seats: 4 Local Elections Takeaways

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      Britain’s two main parties suffered significant losses in municipal and mayoral votes as Reform U.K., a right-wing populist party, surged ahead.While the votes in England’s local elections were still being counted on Friday, Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K. party emerged as the biggest winner of the first major polls since Labour swept into government last summer.Voters have been selecting councilors for about 1,600 municipal seats in 23 areas, as well as six regional mayors.Here are four takeaways from a night that saw Britain’s two major political parties suffer significant losses.Reform U.K. is a serious force in British politics.The right-wing populist party headed by Mr. Farage won a special election in Runcorn and Helsby, in northwestern England, giving it five lawmakers in Parliament. The party also won the mayoralty in Greater Lincolnshire, a new position, and is gaining council seats across the country.The party was initially called the Brexit Party but rebranded itself after Britain formally withdrew from the European Union.Results on Friday indicated that Reform’s efforts to shed its image as a single-issue party and appeal to a broader range of voters were bearing fruit. Brexit is now rarely discussed by its politicians, who have been focusing on a hard line on immigration.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Overlooked Clue Sheds Light on Shakespeare’s Marriage

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      New research undermines the traditional view that Shakespeare was a distant, neglectful husband to his wife, Anne.Any clue about William Shakespeare’s life usually excites scholars, but one piece of evidence had been neglected for decades. Now, a new analysis of that overlooked document seems to shatter a longstanding narrative about the Bard’s bad marriage.Shakespeare was 18 in 1582 when he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a family friend in Stratford-upon-Avon who was in her mid-20s and pregnant. For centuries, it was thought that the writer left his wife and children behind to lead a literary life in London, seeking to avoid “the humiliation of domestic feuds,” as one influential 19th-century essayist put it.This view of Shakespeare’s wife as a “distant encumbrance” suited scholars who thought “Shakespeare was far too interesting to be a married guy,” Matthew Steggle, a literature professor at the University of Bristol in England, said in an interview. The perception was bolstered by the fact that Shakespeare had famously bequeathed her his “second best bed” in his will.But Mr. Steggle’s new research, expected to be published this week in the journal Shakespeare, suggests that the writer was not detached from his marriage after all.The hint lies in a fragment of a 17th-century letter addressing a “Mrs Shakspaire,” found in the binding of a book published in 1608. The letter’s existence was noted in 1978 by an amateur historian, but it got minimal attention, even after the book was unbound in 2016, revealing what appeared to be part of a reply from Shakespeare’s wife, Mr. Steggle said.He was working on a Shakespeare biography when he learned of the 1978 find, and was surprised it wasn’t better known. Technological advances allowed him to track down people mentioned in the long-ago correspondence, along with other evidence indicating that it included the playwright’s wife, he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      UK Laws Are Not ‘Fit for Social Media Age,’ Says Report Into Summer Riots

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      Outdated legislation prevented the police from rapidly correcting misinformation after a stabbing attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last summer, lawmakers said.British laws restricting what the police can say about criminal cases are “not fit for the social media age,” a government committee said in a report released Monday in Britain that highlighted how unchecked misinformation stoked riots last summer.Violent disorder, fueled by the far right, affected several towns and cities for days after a teenager killed three girls on July 29 at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England. In the hours after the stabbings, false claims that the attacker was an undocumented Muslim immigrant spread rapidly online.In a report looking into the riots, a parliamentary committee said a lack of information from the authorities after the attack “created a vacuum where misinformation was able to grow.” The report blamed decades-old British laws, aimed at preventing jury bias, that stopped the police from correcting false claims.By the time the police announced the suspect was British-born, those false claims had reached millions.The Home Affairs Committee, which brings together lawmakers from across the political spectrum, published its report after questioning police chiefs, government officials and emergency workers over four months of hearings.Axel Rudakubana, who was sentenced to life in prison for the attack, was born and raised in Britain by a Christian family from Rwanda. A judge later found there was no evidence he was driven by a single political or religious ideology, but was obsessed with violence.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Manchester Arena Bomber’s Brother Is Accused of Attack on Prison Guards

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      Hashem Abedi allegedly stabbed the officers with homemade weapons inside a high-security prison.The brother of the terrorist who bombed an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, in 2017 was accused on Saturday of launching a violent attack inside a high-security jail where he was serving time for his own role in the concert bombing.The Prison Officers’ Association, a body representing prison staff across Britain, said the man, Hashem Abedi, 28, attacked three guards at Frankland Prison, a jail in County Durham in northeast England. The officers received “burns, scalds and stab wounds” during the attack, the association said.A statement from the organization said that Mr. Abedi “threw hot cooking oil over them then produced homemade weapons and proceeded to stab the officers.”A spokesperson for the country’s prison service said that, as of 4 p.m. on Saturday, one officer, a woman, had been treated for her injuries at a hospital and then had been discharged. Two male officers remained in the hospital.In 2020, Mr. Abedi was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 55 years for his part in the 2017 attack in Manchester. The Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the bombing, which was the deadliest terror attack in Britain since a series of bombings that struck public transport across London in 2005.Mr. Abedi was convicted of murdering the 22 victims who died in the blast after prosecutors said he was “just as responsible” as his brother, Salman Abedi, who died in the attack. British law did not permit a judge to give Mr. Abedi a life sentence without parole, because he was under the age of 21 at the time of the attack.In a statement about Saturday’s attack, the prison service said: “Police are now investigating, so it would be inappropriate to comment further. Violence in prison will not be tolerated, and we will always push for the strongest punishment for attacks on our hardworking staff.”The attack is being investigated by the Durham Constabulary, which said its inquiries were ongoing.Police officers on guard in 2017, a few days after 22 people were killed and dozens more injured in a bombing at Britain’s Manchester Arena during an Ariana Grande concert.Andrew Testa for The New York Times More

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      Sledgehammer-wielding Musk critics smash up Tesla in London art project

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      Protective helmets were donned and sledgehammers wielded as Elon Musk critics vented their frustration at the Tesla boss and billionaire by smashing up a disused Tesla bound for the scrap heap.The public art project was organised by the social media campaign group Everyone Hates Elon. A 2014 Tesla Model S was provided by an anonymous donor “to create a debate about wealth inequality”, a spokesperson for the group said.The participants gathered at Hardess studios in south London on Thursday to take it in turns to swing at the car with sledgehammers and baseball bats. The destroyed electric vehicle, which retails for about £14,000, will be auctioned in the next few weeks, with all proceeds going to food bank charities.“We’re giving Londoners a chance to stand up to far-right hatred and billionaires and express how they feel about the current state of the world,” said the group. “Therapy is expensive, but this is free.”Talia Denisenko, a 32-year-old writer, wore a Ukrainian flag as she took a hammer to the car’s bonnet as Britney Spears’s Hit Me Baby One More Time blared from a speaker. “My family is Ukrainian and Elon Musk wants to keep us occupied,” she said. “Things feel very disempowering at the moment. This is a little bit of therapy.”Alice Rogers, a 24-year-old University of Cambridge researcher from Illinois, said: “Musk is acting in ways which violates our constitution. I’m very concerned by what I’m seeing – he’s gutting agencies and cutting USAID. This felt really cathartic. I’m not normally a smasher, but that felt really good.”View image in fullscreenEveryone Hates Elon, which garnered attention this year for distributing stickers with the slogan “Don’t buy a Swasticar”, said it had made clear that the stunt, called London vs Musk, should not be replicated outside the event.“This is a private event with a used Tesla that was destined for the scrapyard – it’s a supervised, controlled art piece and there are proper safety measures in place,” said a spokesperson. “We urge people not to damage other Teslas or any other cars.”The battery of the scrap car had been removed and recycled.“I’m just aghast at what I see going on in America at the moment,” said Lee Woods, a 45-year-old university lecturer who had travelled two hours from Hampshire for the event. “I think Musk is using his obscene wealth to promote the far right.”Musk, the world’s richest person, leads the Trump administration’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge), which the president tasked with drastically reducing US government jobs and cutting national debt.View image in fullscreenTesla’s shares dropped 13% in the first three months of 2025 – an indication of buyer backlash as a result of Musk’s rightwing politics. Protests calling for a boycott of the electric vehicle company have been taking place on both sides of the Atlantic in recent months, including a global day of action where hundreds of Tesla branches were targeted by protesters from the US group Tesla Takedown.“My opinion [on Musk] has changed hugely,” said Giles Pearson, 32, who dealt the first blow on Thursday. “Since buying Twitter he’s become seriously rightwing and alienated a lot of people by doing so. I would never normally do something like this … but I’ve always wanted to smash a car.”Tesla was approached for comment. More

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      U.K. Labour Lawmaker Suspended From Party After Arrest

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      Dan Norris, a lawmaker who won a seat in Parliament last year, was swiftly suspended from Britain’s governing party.Britain’s governing Labour Party on Saturday said it had suspended Dan Norris, one of its lawmakers in Parliament, after he was arrested by the police.Mr. Morris “was immediately suspended by the Labour Party upon being informed of his arrest,” the party said in a statement, adding that it “cannot comment further while the police investigation is ongoing.”The party did not specify why Mr. Norris, 65, had been arrested, and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. In Britain, the police typically do not disclose the name of suspects unless they are charged. The BBC said that Mr. Norris was arrested on suspicion of rape, child sex offenses, child abduction and misconduct in a public office.In a statement that did not give any names, the Avon and Somerset Police said that a man in his 60s was arrested on Friday on suspicion of sexual offenses against a girl, rape, child abduction and misconduct in a public office. The police said he had been released on conditional bail.“In December 2024, we received a referral from another police force relating to alleged non-recent child sex offenses having been committed against a girl,” the police statement said.“Most of the offenses are alleged to have occurred in the 2000s, but we’re also investigating an alleged offense of rape from the 2020s,” it added. The police said that the investigation was “ongoing and at an early stage.”The Labour Party’s move is expected to mean that Mr. Norris will, pending the investigation, be effectively suspended from representing the party in the House of Commons.Last year Mr. Norris won a seat in Parliament representing North East Somerset and Hanham, near the city of Bristol, defeating a former Conservative cabinet minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg.Mr. Norris is also the mayor of the West of England, responsible for the administration of several cities in a western region, a position he has held since 2021, though he is not running for re-election when that post is contested on May 1.His political career goes back more than two decades. Mr. Norris was a lawmaker from 1997 to 2010, representing the seat of Wansdyke, in the west of England. He was an assistant whip in the government of Tony Blair from 2001 to 2003, and a junior minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2009 to 2010, under Prime Minister Gordon Brown. More

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      Prince Harry Expresses ‘Relief’ Over Charity Commission’s Sentebale Investigation

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      A British regulator said it would examine concerns about Sentebale, the charity Harry co-founded, looking at its chair as well as its trustees.Following days of silence after he was accused of bullying and harassment, Prince Harry said on Thursday that he welcomed an announcement that the bitter dispute at the charity he co-founded is to be examined by the Charity Commission, an independent watchdog that regulates charities in England and Wales.The charity, Sentebale, has been engulfed in a public relations crisis since last week, when Harry and his co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, announced they were resigning as patrons in solidarity with five trustees over a damaging rift with the chair of the board, Sophie Chandauka.Ms. Chandauka has since gone on television in Britain to level a series of incendiary claims against the former trustees and Prince Harry, including allegations of sexism, harassment and bullying, which they have strongly denied.“On behalf of the former trustees and patrons, we share in the relief that the Charity Commission confirmed they will be conducting a robust inquiry,” Harry said in a statement issued with Prince Seeiso. He added: “We fully expect it will unveil the truth that collectively forced us to resign.”The dispute between Ms. Chandauka and the prince has spiraled into an ugly spectacle, with her claiming that she was targeted by the publicity machine of Harry and his wife, Meghan, after an awkward encounter with Meghan at a polo match in Miami to raise funds for the charity. The former trustees, in turn, said they had lost confidence in Ms. Chandauka’s leadership.The Charity Commission said it had opened a compliance case to examine concerns about Sentebale, and said its focus would include determining whether trustees, including Ms. Chandauka, had fulfilled their legal duties.“The regulator’s focus, in line with its statutory remit, will be to determine whether the charity’s current and former trustees, including its chair, have fulfilled their duties and responsibilities under charity law,” the commission said in its statement.The commission said it was now “in direct contact with parties who have raised concerns to gather evidence and assess the compliance of the charity and trustees past and present.”Ms. Chandauka said in a statement that she also welcomed the watchdog’s decision to proceed with a compliance case. “We hope that, together, these actions will give the general public, our colleagues, partners, supporters, donors and the communities we serve comfort that Sentebale and its new board of trustees are acting appropriately to demonstrate and ensure good governance,” she added. More

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      More Than 150 World War II Bombs Found Under Playground in England

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      The devices found during construction work were practice bombs, which can be harmful. Officials said there could be more.More than 150 bombs from World War II have been found under a children’s playground in northern England, with concerns that more may remain, officials said.The bombs were discovered as a construction project was underway to renovate the Scotts Park playground in Wooler, a small town in Northumberland, England, that is near the border with Scotland. BBC reported that workers had found a “suspicious object” on Jan. 14 while digging foundations. It turned out to be a practice bomb, or a nonexplosive bomb that is used for training but can still be harmful.The Wooler Parish Council enlisted Brimstone Site Investigations, a company that specializes in unexploded ordnance, to investigate the site, council officials said in a news release.Brimstone arrived on Jan. 23 for what was supposed to be a two-day survey, “but it soon became apparent that the scale of the problem was far greater than anyone had anticipated,” the parish council wrote.On the first day, Brimstone identified an additional 65 practice bombs, each weighing 10 pounds, as well as smoke cartridges.On the second day of work at the site, Brimstone recovered an additional 90 practice bombs and safely removed them to a designated storage area, the council wrote.Practice bombs that were discovered at Scotts Park playground.Mark MatherThe BBC reported that the Ministry of Defense had ordered a full survey of the site.Though the bombs are practice bombs, “they do still carry a charge” and require removal by specialists, the parish council’s release said, adding, “These have been found with their fuse and contents still intact — and the detonator burster and smoke filling in particular can still be potentially hazardous.”A spokesperson for the Northumberland County Council called the discovery “unexpected.”Mark Mather, an official in Wooler, told the BBC that about a third of the park had been cleared and it was possible there were more bombs.“It’s quite something to think the children have been playing on bombs,” Mr. Mather said.Mr. Mather said that Wooler had been a training center for the Home Guard, a volunteer citizen militia considered the last line of defense against the Germans during World War II.“After the war, it looked like they just buried all the ordnance in one of the pits,” Mr. Mather said.The Ministry of Defense said that a team had visited the site twice in January, the BBC reported, but it did not offer further details.The Wooler Parish Council said it hoped contractors could resume work in April once the site had been declared safe.Brimstone, the Ministry of Defense, Mr. Mather, the Wooler Parish Council and the Northumberland County Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment. More