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Voters in the West Yorkshire constituency of Batley and Spen are going to the polls in a by-election touted as a fundamental test of Sir Keir Starmer's leadership of the Labour Party. Labour is defending a majority of more than 3,000 in the seat but the bookies have the Conservatives as odds-on favourites to follow up their victory in Hartlepool in May and heap further pressure on Sir Keir. Sir Keir's spokesman has insisted he will not resign if Labour loses but new polling this week suggested that as many as four in 10 party members would want him to stand down and make way for new leadership in the wake of a loss. Supporters of deputy leader Angela Rayner have been preparing for her to challenge Sir Keir's leadership if he loses the by-election today, according to reports in The Times. Residents are voting amid accusations of racism and foul play in an area with a multi-cultural population. Earlier this week, Labour lashed out over a fake leaflet which purported to have b

A California high school basketball team has been stripped of its championship title after some of its players threw tortillas at the opposing team, which was from a predominantly Latino school. Coronado High School will lose its boys Division 4-A regional championship because of the 'degrading and demeaning behavior' following the June 19 division championship game, according to a statement from the California Interscholastic Federation. At least two students from mostly white Coronado High were captured on video throwing tortillas into the air toward the other team after a 60-57 victory over Orange Glen High School of Escondido. The incident followed a squabble between coaching staff from both schools. It received national attention and prompted several investigations. The Coronado Unified School Board voted unanimously to fire coach JD Laaperi following the incident, and district Superintendent Karl Mueller issued a public apology. Chris Featherly, Orange Glen's head coa

38-year-old Dane Kallungi A Colorado Springs man who was arrested for his missing wife's murder was caught after police recorded him detailing the alleged killing over the phone to his ex-wife. Dane Kallungi, 38, was arrested last month trying to get onto the Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and charged with first-degree murder of his wife, Jepsy Amaga Kallungi. Jepsy, who moved to Colorado Springs from the Philippines in 2017 to marry Kallungi after they met on a dating website, has not been seen since 2019, when she was 26 years old.  Kallungi later moved to California, but had returned to Colorado Springs on March 26 and had lunch with his wife Alaine Kallungi, and allegedly confessed to killing Jepsy, according to an affidavit.  Alaine informed the police of their conversation later the same day and agreed to have a phone call with Kallungi on April 3 which would be recorded by police. In that call, Kallungi allegedly confessed to Alaine that he killed Jepsy in March 2019

America's Surgeon General has issued a grim warning on the COVID Indian Delta variant, saying: 'If you are not vaccinated, you're in trouble.' Dr Vivek Murthy pulled no punches while chatting with CNN host Erica Hill on Wednesday morning, and even raised the specter of a future strain of COVID that could beat all vaccines currently available to tackle it.  Asked about the latest variant, which is the most transmissible strain of COVID so far discovered, Murthy told Hill: 'The good news is that if you're vaccinated, and fully vaccinated, that means two weeks after your last shot, then there is good evidence that you have a high degree of protection against this virus. 'But if you are not vaccinated then you are in trouble. This is a serious threat and we're seeing it spread among unvaccinated people.' Murthy added: 'If you are fully vaccinated your chances of getting sick and transmitting the infection is low.  'The key message from Delta is g

New York Mayoral frontrunner Eric Adams has retained a narrow margin over rivals Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley - hours after election officials admitted they'd accidentally added 135,000 test ballots to the total. Corrected figures released on Friday showed Adams, a former NYPD captain, was just 14,755 votes ahead of his closest rival Kathryn Garcia in the primary run-off.  Those numbers also put left-wing candidate Maya Wiley back in the running, after they showed that she sat just 347 votes behind Garcia.  PIX11 reported that Garcia is in a better position than Wiley was after picking up votes from former favorite Andrew Yang, who has since withdrawn from the campaign.  Almost 125,000 absentee ballots have yet to be counted, meaning that Garcia or Wiley could both catch up with Adams. Those ballots will be counted from July 6, with the final primary result likely to be weeks away.  The largest chunk of those uncounted votes - around 39,000 - come from Manhattan, where Adams finis

This is the moment a playful cat made himself at home in a baby's bouncer - leaving the little girl to play on the carpet.  Oliver the tabby cat was filmed at his owner's home in Algona, Iowa, after he clambered into the bouncer just as the baby's parents were about to put her in there.  Oliver then amused himself by clawing at the toys dangling over the play center, which is designed to stimulate infants rather than pets. This is the hilarious moment a cat invaded a baby bouncer in the living room of a house in Algona, Iowa, on June 27 The cat managed to climb into the baby's bouncer and pawed at the child's toys hanging above the play center The footage, shared online on June 30, shows the cat clearly enjoying the noises the different toys made as he swiped his paws at them.   One delighted viewer said: 'Now the baby needs to chase a laser light and they will be even.' Another described the play center as the cat's own 'kitty Disney park'.   A

Most of the board members of the condominium that collapsed last week resigned in 2019, with the president of the board slamming inaction and bickering over an engineer's report calling for urgent repairs. Board president Anette Goldstein was among five members of the seven-person board who resigned in a two-week period in the fall of 2019, according to meeting minutes reported by the Washington Post. Goldstein's resignation letter shows that the board of the condo in Surfside was consumed with infighting over an October 2018 report by engineering firm Morabito Consultants, which identified key issues with weakening concrete and called for drastic renovations costing some $15 million. 'We work for months to go in one direction and at the very last minute objections are raised that should have been discussed and resolved right in the beginning,' Goldstein wrote in a September 2019 resignation letter obtained by the Post. 'This pattern has repeated itself over and ove