New UK prime minister Keir Starmer vows to heal wounds of distrust

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, says he will lead a “government of service” on a mission of national renewal. The comment came in Starmer’s first official remarks after his Labour Party swept to power in a landslide victory after more than a decade in opposition. Starmer led his party back to government less than five years after it suffered its worst defeat in almost a century. But Labour also faces a mammoth task of reinvigorating a stagnant economy and dispirited nation. Conservative leader Rishi Sunak in a farewell address said he understood voters’ anger and took responsibility for the loss. He then went to Buckingham Palace and offered his resignation to King Charles III.

Beryl batters Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula

TULUM, Mexico (AP) — Beryl was battering Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula while officials in Texas urged coastal residents to prepare as the storm moves toward the Gulf of Mexico. Beryl hit Mexico near the resort town of Tulum as a Category 2 hurricane but weakened to a tropical storm as it moved across the peninsula. The U.S. National Hurricane Center expects Beryl to regain hurricane strength once it reemerges into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where it is forecast to head toward northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. Some Texas counties have already issued voluntary evacuation orders in low-lying areas.

7 Palestinians killed in West Bank by an Israeli raid and airstrike in the Jenin area

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian authorities say seven people have been killed during an Israeli military operation in the area of the West Bank city of Jenin. That’s where the Israeli military said it had been carrying out “counterterrorism activity” that included an airstrike. The military said Israeli soldiers had “encircled a building where terrorists have barricaded themselves in” and the soldiers exchanged fire with those inside, while an airstrike had “struck several armed terrorists” in the area. The Palestinian Health Ministry said a total of seven people had been killed Friday. The Islamic Jihad militant group named four of the dead as its members.

Land routes across Africa are twice as deadly for migrants as Mediterranean voyages, UN estimates

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. and partners say more migrants and refugees in Africa are heading north toward the Mediterranean and Europe, crossing dangerous land routes in the Sahara where criminal gangs roam subject them to enslavement, organ removal, rape, kidnapping for ransom and other abuses. A report from the U.N. refugee and migration agencies and the Mixed Migration Centre research group estimates the land routes in Africa are twice as deadly as the sea lanes across the Mediterranean. They say international protection services haven’t kept pace with needs.