Could a deal between the UK government and a small party with extremist links jeopardize two decades of peace in Northern Ireland?

After losing its majority in a general election, Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party can no longer govern without another party. A partnership with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has just 10 members in the UK parliament, would allow May to cling to power.

Former Prime Minister John Major, whose government laid the foundations for the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, is urging May to drop her deal with the Unionist Party, calling it a threat to a still “fragile” peace process.

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Shock polls show a massive surge in support for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in an election campaign interrupted by two terrorist attacks.

The UK’s elections will go ahead on June 8 despite a terrorist rampage in the heart of London on Saturday night. The attack followed upon a May 22 suicide bombing at a Manchester concert that killed 22 people.

Even if most UK polls still project a Conservative victory, they do so by a shrinking margin. One poll even suggests there could be a “hung parliament” — an outcome in which no party has a majority, giving Corbyn a chance at becoming prime minister of a coalition government.

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The people have had their say: The UK will quit the 28-nation European Union.

Push finally came to shove and voters decided the risk of leaving the EU was a risk worth taking.

Brexit’s Trump-like central message — “Put Our Own People First” — will resonate across Europe as mostly far-right politicians follow its lead.

Memorial for Jo Cox, MP, at Trafalgar Square, London. Photo credit: Garry Knight / Flickr (CC0 1.0)
Memorial for Jo Cox, MP, at Trafalgar Square, London. Photo credit: Garry Knight / Flickr (CC0 1.0)

 

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