The Sunday Subject – October 30, 2022

Rishi Sunak has become the third prime minister of Britain this year.

Suank won the Conservative Party leadership race to replace Liz Truss after his only competitor, Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons, withdrew from the contest after failing to get sufficient backing from fellow MPs. Sunak is the country’s first non-white leader. 

Assembly members in Northern Ireland have failed in last-ditch efforts to restore devolved government ahead of the legal deadline, triggering an election.

Sinn Féin, which won the largest number of seats in the last assembly election in May, called for the Democratic Unionist Party to end its protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol. As part of the 1997 Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland’s executive is made up of ministers from the largest parties, designed to ensure unionists and nationalists govern together. The DUP argues that the NI Protocol undermines Northern Ireland’s position in the UK, and had been blocking the restoration of power-sharing until a resolution be found. Efforts failed, and the assembly has now been dissolved and another election will be held. As the DUP has stated it will continue its protest against the NI Protocol, another election is unlikely to break the stalemate.

America, Japan and South Korea warned there would be an “unparalleled scale of response” if North Korea conducts another nuclear test.

North Korea last conducted a nuclear weapons test in 2017, and neighboring countries worry it is preparing for another. It has launched an unprecedented number of missiles this year.