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Shinzo Abe, Japan's former prime minister, shot and hospitalized
Japanese former prime minister Shinzo Abe was shot on Friday while campaigning in the city of Nara, a government spokesman said, with public broadcaster NHK saying he appeared to have been shot from behind by a man with a shotgun.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said he did not know Abe's condition. Kyodo news agency and NHK said Abe, 67, appeared to be in a state of cardiac arrest when taken to hospital.
See also: Former Japan PM Abe Unconscious After Shooting; Man in Custody
Live Updates: Shinzo Abe Is Unconscious After Apparently Being Shot
NHK, citing the police, said a suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, had been taken into custody. He was a Nara resident, the report said. Images shared on social media showed a man being tackled after the shooting.
Boris Johnson Agrees to Resign as Prime Minister
Boris Johnson said on Thursday that he would step down as Britain's prime minister, after a wholesale rebellion of his cabinet, a wave of government resignations and a devastating loss of party support prompted by his handling of the the latest scandal that has engulfed his leadership.
Mr. Johnson said he would stay on in his post until the Conservative Party chooses a new leader, which could take several months. He said he expected the timetable for his departure and the selection of a successor to be decided on Monday by a committee of senior Conservative lawmakers.
"It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader," Mr. Johnson said in remarks outside Downing Street. "The process of choosing that new leader should begin now."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday July 08 2022, @01:31PM (1 child)
The point I'm making here, which you seem to be missing: Power in a negotiation is largely determined by what happens if either side says "no deal, at all". Between the two of them, the EU is far less screwed than the UK if there's no deal. Hence, Brexiting with no deal really demonstrated how little power the UK actually has in this relationship, and it didn't matter what the PM said. But Boris had essentially promised that Brexit would give the UK all of the benefits of EU membership with none of the obligations, and that the only reason that it hadn't happened is that he wasn't in charge of it. And then the UK put him in charge of it, and he still couldn't make it happen, because the promises were ridiculous to begin with.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday July 08 2022, @02:12PM
I understand your point, and it is probably true. However, a clever UK negotiation can play on internal EU structural issues to put pressure on EU, which EU is more vulnerable to than UK (but Scotland). So the economic power is with EU, but UK has some political buttons it can press. It isn't only one way traffic. OTOH I don't think this government is "clever".
(An Irish colleague indicated Ireland might be forced to leave EU in the case of a no-deal Brexit, for example. I haven't checked whether that is true, but it is an example of the sort of buttons UK can try to press on.)