Briefly

UNITED STATES

Trump ousts top security official

US President Donald Trump ousted his national security adviser Mike Waltz on Thursday and named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as his interim replacement in the first major Cabinet shake-up of Trump's new term. Trump, in a social media post, said he would nominate Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations. Trump did not give a reason for the move but Waltz had been under pressure over the "Signalgate" scandal since late March. The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine revealed at the time that Waltz had mistakenly added him to a group chat about an imminent US bombing campaign in Yemen on the commercial messaging app Signal.

UNITED NATIONS

UN eyes overhaul amid funding crisis

The United Nations is considering a massive overhaul that would merge major departments and shift resources across the globe, according to an internal memo prepared by senior officials tasked with reforming the world body. The six-page document reviewed by Reuters contains a list of "suggestions" that would consolidate dozens of UN agencies into four primary departments: peace and security, humanitarian affairs, sustainable development, and human rights. Under one option, for example, operational aspects of the World Food Programme, the UN children's agency, the World Health Organization and the UN refugee agency would be merged into a single humanitarian entity, it said.

UNITED KINGDOM

Hard right win in local polls blow to Starmer

Nigel Farage's right-wing Reform UK party snatched a parliamentary seat from Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party on Friday in local elections that dealt a blow to Britain's two establishment parties. Reform, led by Brexit campaigner Farage, won the byelection in Runcorn and Helsby in England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group's strong showing appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multiparty politics. "It's been a huge night for Reform," Farage told reporters.

Agencies Via Xinhua