Results from municipal and regional elections signaled major gains for the right-wing populist Reform U.K. and steep losses for Labour.

A voting system created when two parties dominated is being tested by the rise of newer competitors.

Opinion polls before the election suggested that the right-wing anti-immigration Reform U.K. party and the center-left Plaid Cymru would battle for the top spot in Wales.

The voting in England, Scotland and Wales is the biggest electoral test for Keir Starmer since he became prime minister in 2024.

Polls predict historic losses for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party on Thursday as anti-immigrant Reform U.K. makes gains, and a new era of multiparty politics takes shape.

Local elections in England, and parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales, take place on Thursday. The governing Labour Party is expected to do very badly.

The average wait for a test in England and Scotland has hit 22 weeks, up from five weeks before the pandemic, leading to frustration and attempts to jump the line.

At a military base outside Portsmouth, England, a 24-hour service monitors the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and part of the Indian Ocean, responding to distress calls.

An internal Pentagon email, reported by the Reuters news agency, suggested Washington was reviewing options to penalize the two nations for insufficiently supporting the war in Iran.

A small group in the House of Lords proposed hundreds of amendments that helped stymie a bill that was meant to legalize medically assisted death for the terminally ill.