The Evening Wrap: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns

Boris Johnson said on Thursday he was resigning as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, bowing to calls from ministerial colleagues and lawmakers in his Conservative Party. “The process of choosing that new leader should begin now,” Johnson said at the door of Number 10 Downing Street. “And today I have appointed a cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place.” Critics, however, say he should not be allowed to remain as caretaker Prime Minister and he should be removed from office as soon as possible. Earlier in the day, Johnson had agreed to resign, his office said, ending an unprecedented political crisis over his future that has paralysed Britain’s Government. An official in Johnson’s Downing Street office had confirmed the Prime Minister would announce his resignation later. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made. Johnson had rebuffed calls by his Cabinet to step down in the wake of ethics scandals. He gave in after more than 40 Ministers quit his government and told him to go. Minutes before the news broke, Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign just 36 hours after Johnson put him in the job, while another newly appointed Cabinet Minister quit her post. Zahawi said Johnson knew “the right thing to do” was to “go now.” Zahawi was appointed late Tuesday to replace Rishi Sunak, who resigned saying he could no longer support Johnson after a series of ethics scandals. Education Secretary Michelle Donelan, who was also appointed on Tuesday following the resignation of her predecessor, announced her resignation Thursday morning. Johnson had rejected clamours for his resignation, digging in his heels even as dozens of officials quit and previously loyal allies urge him to go after yet another scandal engulfed his leadership. A group of Johnson’s most trusted Cabinet Ministers visited him at his office in Downing Street Wednesday, telling him to stand down after losing the trust of his party. But Johnson instead opted to fight for his political career and fired one of the Cabinet officials, Michael Gove, British media reported. It is rare for a Prime Minister to cling on to office in the face of this much pressure from his Cabinet colleagues. The Guardian’s front page on Thursday called him “Desperate, deluded.” “He’s breached the trust that was put in him. He needs to recognise that he no longer has the moral authority to lead. And for him, it’s over,” Scottish National Party leader Ian Blackford told The Associated Press. Johnson (58) was known for his knack for wiggling out of tight spots. He remained in power despite allegations that he was too close to party donors, that he protected supporters from bullying and corruption allegations, and that he misled Parliament and was dishonest to the public about government office parties that broke pandemic lockdown rules. But recent disclosures that Johnson knew about sexual misconduct allegations against Chris Pincher, a Conservative lawmaker, before he promoted the man to a senior position turned out to be the last straw. Last week, Pincher resigned as deputy chief whip after complaints he groped two men at a private club. That triggered a series of reports about past allegations leveled against Pincher — and shifting explanations from the government about what Johnson knew when he tapped him for a senior job enforcing party discipline. Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Treasury chief Rishi Sunak resigned within minutes of each other Wednesday over the scandal. The two Cabinet heavyweights were responsible for tackling two of the biggest issues facing Britain — the cost-of-living crisis and COVID-19. Javid captured the mood of many lawmakers when he said Johnson’s actions threaten to undermine the integrity of the Conservative Party and the British government. “At some point we have to conclude that enough is enough,” he told fellow lawmakers Wednesday. “I believe that point is now.” Supreme Court to hear Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s bail plea on July 8 The Supreme Court on Thursday listed for July 8 an appeal filed by Mohammed Zubair, the jailed co-founder of fact-check website Alt News, for his liberty, right to free speech and protection from death threats. Taking the case on board and after noting the plea for urgency, a Vacation Bench led by Justice Indira Banerjee, on an oral mentioning made by Zubair’s lawyer, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, ordered the case to be “listed on July 8 before the appropriate Bench subject to assignment”. The Chief Justice of India has to formally assign the case to a Bench. On June 1, 2022, the Uttar Pradesh Police had registered a case against Zubair on the basis of a complaint that he tweeted “offensive words towards mahants of religious places symbolising our faith and thereby hurting our religious sentiments”. He was accused of offences under Section 295A (insulting religion) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material) of the Information Technology Act. Zubair was first arrested by the Delhi Police in a separate FIR, also accusing him of hurting religious sentiments. In his appeal, Mr. Zubair urged the apex court to stay the investigation into the “absurd” charges and ultimately quash the FIR registered at Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh. He contended that the police were following a “new strategy” for registering hate crime cases, that is, to “register FIRs against those engaging in hate speech and communal crimes, as well as to rope in all secular elements monitoring such crimes and protesting police inaction against the wrongdoers”. He argued that “those who engage in hate speech are numerous and well-organised”. “They operate as a group identifying secular persons who speak out against hate speech and then contact one another to file multiple FIRs against innocent people who are speaking out bravely against hate speech,” his petition said. Zubair’s work at the website has attracted “unwarranted hostile attention by those engaging in hate speech”, it claimed. “The only way forward for him is to go to the courts or to shut down his organisation completely. The latter is what the hate speech organisations supported by political parties want to force him to do. However, he has chosen the path of fighting legally for his rights under Article 19(1)(a) (right to free speech and expression) of the Constitution,” the petition submitted. During the mentioning, Gonsalves said they had first approached the Allahabad High Court for anticipatory bail in the Sitapur case. The High Court had however found it “premature”. Gonsalves, who initially sought a hearing at 2 p.m. on Thursday itself, said there was a rising concern about Zubair’s safety. The senior advocate even sought bail for his client. “There are death threats against him. People on the other side doing hate speeches are very anxious... They have said on the internet that they will try to kill him. We are very worried,” the senior advocate pleaded. He said “prima facie reading of the FIR reveals no crime”. Vivo remitted almost 50% of turnover to China to avoid getting taxed in India, says ED The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said the Indian arm of Chinese smartphone maker Vivo “remitted” almost 50% of its turnover, which is ₹62,476 crore, mainly to China in order to avoid paying taxes in India. The federal probe agency also said it has seized funds worth ₹465 crore kept in 119 bank accounts by various entities, ₹73 lakh cash and 2 kg gold bars after its pan-India raids that were launched early this week on July 5 against Vivo Mobile India Pvt. Ltd. and its 23 associated companies. It said an ex-director of Vivo, Bin Lou, left India in 2018 after incorporating a number of companies that are now under its scanner. It alleged that “employees of Vivo India, including some Chinese nationals, did not cooperate with the search proceedings and tried to abscond, remove and hide digital devices which were retrieved by the search teams.” Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann gets married to doctor from Kurukshetra The regular ‘band, bajaa, baraat’ were missing but the festivities seemed intact as Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann turned groom for his wedding with a doctor from Kurukshetra at his home on Thursday. It was a private ceremony without the usual crowds, so much a part of the big, fat Punjabi wedding. Though few details were available, visuals on television and Twitter showed Mann and his bride at the Anand Karaj ceremony. Aam Aadmi Party colleague Raghav Chadha also shared some images on Twitter showing Mann, in his yellow turban with ‘kalgi’ and a gold coloured kurta-pyjama while Kaur donned a red coloured dress. Kejriwal played the role of an elder from Mann’s family and actively participated in the wedding rituals. Later in a tweet, Kejriwal congratulated the couple. Mann (48), the first Chief Minister of the State to get married while in office, is tying the knot with Dr. Gurpreet Kaur from Pehowa in Kurukshetra in Haryana. This is Mann’s second marriage. He separated from his first wife in 2015 — they have two children, daughter Seerat Kaur (21) and son Dilshan (17). U.K. warship seizes advanced Iranian missiles bound for Yemen A British Royal Navy vessel seized a sophisticated shipment of Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Oman earlier this year, officials said Thursday, pointing to the interdiction as proof of Tehran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the embattled country. The British government’s statement was striking in that it provided some of the strongest findings to date that Tehran is arming the Houthis against the Saudi-led military coalition with advanced weapons smuggled through the Persian Gulf. The U.K. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates described the seizure of surface-to-air-missiles and engines for land attack cruise missiles as “the first time a British naval warship has interdicted a vessel carrying such sophisticated weapons from Iran.” “The U.K. will continue to work in support of an enduring peace in Yemen and is committed to international maritime security so that commercial shipping can transit safely without threat of disruption,” said James Heappey, Minister for the Armed Forces. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. The announcement signals an escalation as Western officials have in the past shied away from public statements that definitively blame Iran for arming Yemen’s Houthis with military contraband. The route of the smuggled shipments through the Arabian Sea or Gulf of Aden, however, has strongly suggested their destination. Despite a United Nations Security Council arms embargo on Yemen, Iran has long been suspected of transferring rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, missiles and other weaponry to the Houthis since the disastrous war began in 2015. Although Iran denies arming the Houthis, independent experts, Western nations and U.N. experts have traced components back to Iran. Citing a forensic analysis last month, the British navy linked the batch of rocket engines seized earlier this year to an Iranian-made cruise missile with a 1,000-kilometer range that it said the rebels have used against Saudi Arabia. The Houthis also used the cruise missile to attack an oil facility in Abu Dhabi in January of this year, the British navy said, an assault that killed three people and threatened the key U.S. ally’s reputation as a haven of stability. The U.S. military launched interceptor missiles during the attack, signaling a widening of Yemen’s war. The HMS Montrose’s helicopter had been scanning for illicit goods in the Gulf of Oman on January 28 and February 25 when it spotted small vessels speeding away from the Iranian coast with “suspicious cargo on deck.” A team of Royal Marines then halted and searched the boats, confiscating the weapons in international waters south of Iran. A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer supported the British warship’s February operation. Fifth Fleet Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said the seizure reflected the Navy’s “strong commitment to regional security and stability.” In Brief Former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant will be the new Sherpa of G-20, replacing Union Minister Piyush Goyal, as full-time sherpa is required for India’s presidency, sources said on Thursday. India assumes the G-20 presidency later this year. “With the G-20 presidency coming to India this year, the Sherpa would need to devote a lot of time to numerous meetings that will be held in different parts of the country. “Union Minister Goyal holds the charge of multiple portfolios in the Modi cabinet which consumes a lot of his time,” a source said. Three months after they met in Delhi, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi held talks on the sidelines of the G-20 Foreign Minister’s meeting in Bali on Thursday. Jaishankar said the meeting was his first engagement after reaching the Indonesian resort city where the G-20 summit will be held in November, and that the two sides discussed resolving the boundary standoff that began in April 2020. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 07 JULY 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns  [Boris Johnson said on Thursday he was resigning]( as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, bowing to calls from ministerial colleagues and lawmakers in his Conservative Party. “The process of choosing that new leader should begin now,” Johnson said at the door of Number 10 Downing Street. “And today I have appointed a cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place.” [Prime Minister Boris Johnson reads a statement outside 10, Downing Street, formally resigning as Conservative Party leader on July 7, 2022. ] Critics, however, say he should not be allowed to remain as caretaker Prime Minister and he should be removed from office as soon as possible. Earlier in the day, Johnson had agreed to resign, his office said, ending an unprecedented political crisis over his future that has paralysed Britain’s Government. An official in Johnson’s Downing Street office had confirmed the Prime Minister would announce his resignation later. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made. Johnson had rebuffed calls by his Cabinet to step down in the wake of ethics scandals. He gave in after more than 40 Ministers quit his government and told him to go. Minutes before the news broke, Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign just 36 hours after Johnson put him in the job, while another newly appointed Cabinet Minister quit her post. Zahawi said Johnson knew “the right thing to do” was to “go now.” Zahawi was appointed late Tuesday to replace Rishi Sunak, who resigned saying he could no longer support Johnson after a series of ethics scandals. Education Secretary Michelle Donelan, who was also appointed on Tuesday following the resignation of her predecessor, announced her resignation Thursday morning. Johnson had rejected clamours for his resignation, digging in his heels even as dozens of officials quit and previously loyal allies urge him to go after yet another scandal engulfed his leadership. A group of Johnson’s most trusted Cabinet Ministers visited him at his office in Downing Street Wednesday, telling him to stand down after losing the trust of his party. But Johnson instead opted to fight for his political career and fired one of the Cabinet officials, Michael Gove, British media reported. It is rare for a Prime Minister to cling on to office in the face of this much pressure from his Cabinet colleagues. The Guardian’s front page on Thursday called him “Desperate, deluded.” “He’s breached the trust that was put in him. He needs to recognise that he no longer has the moral authority to lead. And for him, it’s over,” Scottish National Party leader Ian Blackford told The Associated Press. Johnson (58) was known for his knack for wiggling out of tight spots. He [remained in power]( despite allegations that he was too close to party donors, that he protected supporters from bullying and corruption allegations, and that he misled Parliament and was dishonest to the public about government office parties that broke pandemic lockdown rules. But recent disclosures that Johnson knew about sexual misconduct allegations against Chris Pincher, a Conservative lawmaker, before he promoted the man to a senior position turned out to be the last straw. Last week, Pincher resigned as deputy chief whip after complaints he groped two men at a private club. That triggered a series of reports about past allegations leveled against Pincher — and shifting explanations from the government about what Johnson knew when he tapped him for a senior job enforcing party discipline. Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Treasury chief Rishi Sunak resigned within minutes of each other Wednesday over the scandal. The two Cabinet heavyweights were responsible for tackling two of the biggest issues facing Britain — the cost-of-living crisis and COVID-19. Javid captured the mood of many lawmakers when he said Johnson’s actions threaten to undermine the integrity of the Conservative Party and the British government. “At some point we have to conclude that enough is enough,” he told fellow lawmakers Wednesday. “I believe that point is now.” Supreme Court to hear Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s bail plea on July 8 The Supreme Court on Thursday [listed for July 8 an appeal filed by Mohammed Zubair]( the jailed co-founder of fact-check website Alt News, for his liberty, right to free speech and protection from death threats. Taking the case on board and after noting the plea for urgency, a Vacation Bench led by Justice Indira Banerjee, on an oral mentioning made by Zubair’s lawyer, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, ordered the case to be “listed on July 8 before the appropriate Bench subject to assignment”. The Chief Justice of India has to formally assign the case to a Bench. On June 1, 2022, the Uttar Pradesh Police had registered a case against Zubair on the basis of a complaint that he tweeted “offensive words towards mahants of religious places symbolising our faith and thereby hurting our religious sentiments”. He was accused of offences under Section 295A (insulting religion) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material) of the Information Technology Act. Zubair was first arrested by the Delhi Police in a separate FIR, also accusing him of hurting religious sentiments. In his appeal, Mr. Zubair urged the apex court to stay the investigation into the “absurd” charges and ultimately quash the FIR registered at Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh. He contended that the police were following a “new strategy” for registering hate crime cases, that is, to “register FIRs against those engaging in hate speech and communal crimes, as well as to rope in all secular elements monitoring such crimes and protesting police inaction against the wrongdoers”. He argued that “those who engage in hate speech are numerous and well-organised”. “They operate as a group identifying secular persons who speak out against hate speech and then contact one another to file multiple FIRs against innocent people who are speaking out bravely against hate speech,” his petition said. Zubair’s work at the website has attracted “unwarranted hostile attention by those engaging in hate speech”, it claimed. “The only way forward for him is to go to the courts or to shut down his organisation completely. The latter is what the hate speech organisations supported by political parties want to force him to do. However, he has chosen the path of fighting legally for his rights under Article 19(1)(a) (right to free speech and expression) of the Constitution,” the petition submitted. During the mentioning, Gonsalves said they had first approached the Allahabad High Court for anticipatory bail in the Sitapur case. The High Court had however found it “premature”. Gonsalves, who initially sought a hearing at 2 p.m. on Thursday itself, said there was a rising concern about Zubair’s safety. The senior advocate even sought bail for his client. “There are death threats against him. People on the other side doing hate speeches are very anxious... They have said on the internet that they will try to kill him. We are very worried,” the senior advocate pleaded. He said “prima facie reading of the FIR reveals no crime”. Vivo remitted almost 50% of turnover to China to avoid getting taxed in India, says ED The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said the Indian arm of Chinese smartphone maker Vivo “remitted” almost 50% of its turnover, which is ₹62,476 crore, mainly to China in order [to avoid paying taxes in India](. The federal probe agency also said it has seized funds worth ₹465 crore kept in 119 bank accounts by various entities, ₹73 lakh cash and 2 kg gold bars after its pan-India raids that were launched early this week on July 5 against Vivo Mobile India Pvt. Ltd. and its 23 associated companies. It said an ex-director of Vivo, Bin Lou, left India in 2018 after incorporating a number of companies that are now under its scanner. It alleged that “employees of Vivo India, including some Chinese nationals, did not cooperate with the search proceedings and tried to abscond, remove and hide digital devices which were retrieved by the search teams.” Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann gets married to doctor from Kurukshetra The regular ‘band, bajaa, baraat’ were missing but the festivities seemed intact as [Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann turned groom for his wedding with a doctor from Kurukshetra]( at his home on Thursday. It was a private ceremony without the usual crowds, so much a part of the big, fat Punjabi wedding. Though few details were available, visuals on television and Twitter showed Mann and his bride at the Anand Karaj ceremony. [Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Gurpreet Kaur during their wedding ceremony in Chandigarh. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is seen on the right. ] Aam Aadmi Party colleague Raghav Chadha also shared some images on Twitter showing Mann, in his yellow turban with ‘kalgi’ and a gold coloured kurta-pyjama while Kaur donned a red coloured dress. Kejriwal played the role of an elder from Mann’s family and actively participated in the wedding rituals. Later in a tweet, Kejriwal congratulated the couple. Mann (48), the first Chief Minister of the State to get married while in office, is tying the knot with Dr. Gurpreet Kaur from Pehowa in Kurukshetra in Haryana. This is Mann’s second marriage. He separated from his first wife in 2015 — they have two children, daughter Seerat Kaur (21) and son Dilshan (17). U.K. warship seizes advanced Iranian missiles bound for Yemen A [British Royal Navy vessel seized a sophisticated shipment of Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Oman]( earlier this year, officials said Thursday, pointing to the interdiction as proof of Tehran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the embattled country. The British government’s statement was striking in that it provided some of the strongest findings to date that Tehran is arming the Houthis against the Saudi-led military coalition with advanced weapons smuggled through the Persian Gulf. The U.K. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates described the seizure of surface-to-air-missiles and engines for land attack cruise missiles as “the first time a British naval warship has interdicted a vessel carrying such sophisticated weapons from Iran.” “The U.K. will continue to work in support of an enduring peace in Yemen and is committed to international maritime security so that commercial shipping can transit safely without threat of disruption,” said James Heappey, Minister for the Armed Forces. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. The announcement signals an escalation as Western officials have in the past shied away from public statements that definitively blame Iran for arming Yemen’s Houthis with military contraband. The route of the smuggled shipments through the Arabian Sea or Gulf of Aden, however, has strongly suggested their destination. Despite a United Nations Security Council arms embargo on Yemen, Iran has long been suspected of transferring rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, missiles and other weaponry to the Houthis since the disastrous war began in 2015. Although Iran denies arming the Houthis, independent experts, Western nations and U.N. experts have traced components back to Iran. Citing a forensic analysis last month, the British navy linked the batch of rocket engines seized earlier this year to an Iranian-made cruise missile with a 1,000-kilometer range that it said the rebels have used against Saudi Arabia. The Houthis also used the cruise missile to attack an oil facility in Abu Dhabi in January of this year, the British navy said, an assault that killed three people and threatened the key U.S. ally’s reputation as a haven of stability. The U.S. military launched interceptor missiles during the attack, signaling a widening of Yemen’s war. The HMS Montrose’s helicopter had been scanning for illicit goods in the Gulf of Oman on January 28 and February 25 when it spotted small vessels speeding away from the Iranian coast with “suspicious cargo on deck.” A team of Royal Marines then halted and searched the boats, confiscating the weapons in international waters south of Iran. A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer supported the British warship’s February operation. Fifth Fleet Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said the seizure reflected the Navy’s “strong commitment to regional security and stability.” In Brief Former NITI Aayog CEO [Amitabh Kant will be the new Sherpa of G-20]( replacing Union Minister Piyush Goyal, as full-time sherpa is required for India’s presidency, sources said on Thursday. India assumes the G-20 presidency later this year. “With the G-20 presidency coming to India this year, the Sherpa would need to devote a lot of time to numerous meetings that will be held in different parts of the country. “Union Minister Goyal holds the charge of multiple portfolios in the Modi cabinet which consumes a lot of his time,” a source said. Three months after they met in Delhi, External Affairs Minister (EAM) [S. Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi held talks]( on the sidelines of the G-20 Foreign Minister’s meeting in Bali on Thursday. Jaishankar said the meeting was his first engagement after reaching the Indonesian resort city where the G-20 summit will be held in November, and that the two sides discussed resolving the boundary standoff that began in April 2020. 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