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Rishi Sunak Calls UK National Election for July 4

]British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers a speech outside Number 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain, May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville Purchase Licensing Rights
]British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers a speech outside Number 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain, May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville Purchase Licensing Rights
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Rishi Sunak Calls UK National Election for July 4

]British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers a speech outside Number 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain, May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville Purchase Licensing Rights
]British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers a speech outside Number 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain, May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville Purchase Licensing Rights

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a national election on Wednesday for July 4, saying Britons would be able to choose their future in a vote his Conservatives are widely expected to lose to the opposition Labour Party after 14 years in power.
Ending months of speculation as to when he would call a new vote, Sunak, 44, stood outside his Downing Street office in pouring rain and called the election several months earlier than expected - a risky strategy with his party far behind Labour in the opinion polls.
Almost shouting to be heard above an anthem of Labour's election victory in 1997 under former prime minister Tony Blair being played by protesters outside Downing Street's gates, Sunak listed what he said were his achievements in government, not only as prime minister but also as a former finance minister, Reuters reported.
"Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future and decide whether it wants to build on the progress we have made or risk going back to square one and no certainty," he said.
"Over the next few weeks, I will fight for every vote, I will earn your trust and I will prove to you that only a Conservative government led by me will not put our hard earned economic stability at risk."
He accused Labor leader Keir Starmer, conversely, of always taking the "easy way out" and of having no plan. "As a result, the future can only be uncertain with them," he said.
Starmer, who has pulled Labor to the political center ground after it had veered leftwards, responded with a statement that focused on one word: "change".

"On July 4 you (voters) have the choice and together we can stop the chaos, we can turn the page, we can start to rebuild Britain and change our country," he said, in front of two Union Jack flags.

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Ukraine Claims Three Oil Refinery Strikes inside Russia as Moscow Says Naval Attack Thwarted

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a glide bomb attack on a private building in Vilkhivka village near Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 19 June 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a glide bomb attack on a private building in Vilkhivka village near Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 19 June 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Ukraine Claims Three Oil Refinery Strikes inside Russia as Moscow Says Naval Attack Thwarted

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a glide bomb attack on a private building in Vilkhivka village near Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 19 June 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a glide bomb attack on a private building in Vilkhivka village near Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 19 June 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)

The Ukrainian military launched a wave of drones that struck three oil refineries inside southern Russia overnight, a security official said Friday, as Ukraine tries to disrupt the infrastructure that supplies the Russian military.

Russia said its air defenses shot down scores of drones, including a half dozen it said were launching a naval attack in the Black Sea.

The Ukrainian security official said his country's forces also struck a drone-launching facility within Russia, but declined to say how that target was attacked. The operations involved the armed forces and the Ukrainian Security Service, SBU, the official said. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to announce the information publicly.

SBU drones struck oil refineries in the Russian locations of Afipsky, Ilsky, and Krasnodar, which supply fuel for ships in Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the official said.

Ukranian forces also struck a drone facility in the southern Russia town of Yeysk where Iranian-designed Shahed drones were stored and launched, the official said. A “series of explosions” were recorded there, the official said.

Russian regional authorities in the Krasnodar region said four people were injured, including oil refinery workers, as a result of drone strikes.

Despite improvements in Russia’s air defenses, Ukraine has continued its campaign to strike oil infrastructure across the border, hitting multiple sites in 2024, as part of a wider effort to disrupt Russia’s military supplies.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that its air defenses had downed 114 Ukrainian drones It said that 70 drones were shot down in Crimea and the Black Sea, 43 in the Krasnodar region and one in the Volgograd region, further east.

Russian warplanes also destroyed six Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea early Friday, the ministry said, responding to an incident that appeared to be one of the largest drone attacks of its type in recent months.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, said that Ukrainian drones also damaged a boiler room near a bus station in the city of Krasnodar, killing a worker.