3rd

Feb. 27 (UPI) — Britain’s Green Party won the Gorton and Denton byelection in southeast Manchester with a more than 4,000-seat majority, beating the ruling Labour Party into third place, and 12 points clear of Reform UK.

The Greens’ new Member of Parliament, Hannah Spencer, a plumber from a neighboring suburb of Manchester, produced a convincing win in Thursday’s poll, overturning the 13,000-seat majority won in the 2024 general election by the previous Labour holder of the seat who is standing down due to ill-health.

Spencer won 14,980 seats, or 40.7% of the vote, Reform’s Matt Goodwin, 10,578 and Labour’s Angeliki Stogia trailing in third place with 9,364. The Conservative Party’s candidate came in a distant fourth with just 706 votes. Turnout was 47.6%.

The win, a first for the Green Party in a byelection, takes the party’s contingent in the House of Commons to five.

Speaking in the early hours of Friday after the results were announced, 34-year-old Spencer vowed to “fight” for the people of Gorton and Denton “who feel left behind and isolated.”

“There is an appetite here for change, and there are people across this constituency and much further beyond who are rejecting the old political parties and who are coming together to fight for something better, but who are doing it positively and in a really hopeful way.”

Spencer said her victory proved there was “no longer any such thing as a safe seat” and that there was “no part of the country where the Green Party cannot win.”

Asked if the Greens’ intention was to “eviscerate” Labour, Party leader Zack Polanski said that taking a seat Labour had held for more than 100 years showed it was “beginning already.”

“If we see a swing like this at the next general election, there will be a tidal wave of new Green MPs. This is an existential crisis for the Labour Party,” he said.

Labour’s second-straight loss of a byelection with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the helm, and with local elections just around the corner in May, could prove highly consequential for his future.

Speaking to reporters Friday, a defiant Starmer rejected any suggestion he might be considering his position, saying he would never quit.

“I came into politics late in life to fight for change for those people who need it. I will keep on fighting for those people for as long as I’ve got breath in my body,” he said.

Starmer played down the loss saying that while it was “very disappointing,” voters often took out frustrations on sitting administrations in mid way through their terms.

However, Strathclyde University Politics Professor John Curtice said the Green Party was now challenging Labour’s stranglehold on the left of British politics in a way that would cause the parliamentary wing of the party to seriously question whether Starmer was still the right person to lead the country.

Reform UK chairman David Bull, telling the BBC he was “absolutely thrilled” with his party’s performance,” echoed that analysis.

“Keir Starmer is in big trouble now — it is not a matter of if he leaves office, it’s when he leaves.”

Party leader, MP Nigel Farage, warned the Greens’ win would embolden the radical left and said opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch should apologize for leading the party to the worst result in its history.

“Roll on the elections on May 7. It will be goodbye Starmer and goodbye to the Tory [Conservative] party,” he wrote on X.

Badenoch, who is Black, called on Starmer to quit immediately.

“Our country is not broken, but this byelection showed that Labour, Reform and the Greens are trying very hard to break it. Labour trying to buy people off with more and more benefits spending, Reform telling people you can’t be British if you’re not white. The Greens running a nasty, sectarian campaign while simultaneously wanting to legalize crack-cocaine,” she wrote in a statement.

“The result shows Keir Starmer’s premiership is finished. He lost authority a long time ago, a mere hostage at the mercy of a divided Labour Party that cannot decide who to replace him with. He has lost the support of his MPs and the country. He is in office but not in power. If had any integrity he would go,” said Badenoch.

Feb. 26 (UPI) — The third round of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks concluded Thursday in Geneva with signs of progress and plans for further negotiations, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington as President Donald Trump threatens military action if a deal is not reached.

Oman said after the day-long talks that progress had been made and more talks are needed.

“We have finished the day after significant progress in the negotiation between the United States and Iran,” Minister Badr bin Hamad Albusaidi of Oman said in a statement.

“We will resume soon after consultation in the respective capitals.”

Minister Abbas Araghchi of Iran concurred with his Omani counterpart. Further progress had been made, he said.

“This round of talks was the most intense so far,” he said in a statement.

“It concluded with the mutual understanding that we will continue to engage in a more detailed manner on matters that are essential to any deal — including sanctions termination and nuclear-related steps.”

Technical-level discussions are scheduled to start in Vienna on Monday, officials said.

Representatives from the United States did not immediately comment.

The negotiations were indirect, with Iran and the United States communicating through Omani mediators.

There was a four-hour meeting in the morning followed by more than two hours of discussions in the afternoon, according to Araghchi, who said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi’s involvement “was valuable for the technical discussions.”

“Regarding some issues, there is no understanding, and on others, it’s natural that we have differences,” Iran’s top diplomat said.

“However, there was perhaps more seriousness on both sides than before, with the aim of reaching a negotiated solution.”

Trump is seeking to secure a long-term deal aimed at preventing Iran from securing a nuclear weapon, a decades-long fear of Washington and Israel, and has threatened military action if negotiations falter.

The removal of sanctions appears to be Iran’s most pressing issue for Iran, as its economy has been under severe strain from years of sanctions imposed amid the years-long impasse over its nuclear program.

Ahead of the Thursday talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei of Iran told reporters that Tehran’s delegation had come fully prepared.

“Right now, the relevant experts in the fields of sanctions relief and economic issues, as well as nuclear and legal matters, are with us, and we are prepared to continue these talks as long as necessary,” he said, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Fars News Agency reported.

“As far as we are concerned, we are here with full preparedness and seriousness in order to realize the country’s national interests.”

He added that they will be watching for “contradictory statements” between what U.S. officials say in the meetings and what they tell the press.

“These contradictions do not help advance this diplomatic process and increase doubts and suspicions about their purpose and intentions,” he said.

Grossi and Oman’s Albusaidi held a meeting Thursday before the talks officially kicked off on technical matters related to Iran’s nuclear dossier.

The second round of talks was held earlier this month, with Araghchi stating that an agreement had been reached “on general guiding principles.”

However, significant gaps remained between the United States and Iran.

Though it officially began Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Araghchi met with Albusaidi on Wednesday night and conveyed Tehran’s views on nuclear-related issues and the lifting of sanctions.

Araghchi stressed to the representative of Oman that “the success of the negotiations depends on the seriousness of the other side and its avoidance of contradictory behavior and positions.”

Trump has pursued a new nuclear deal with Iran since early in his first term, when in 2018 he unilaterally withdrew the United States from a landmark Obama-era multinational accord aimed at preventing Tehran from securing a nuclear weapon.

The first Trump administration applied a maximum pressure campaign of sanctions and economic pressure to coerce Tehran back to the negotiating table. Under the economic coercion, Iran began breaching its nuclear commitments and advanced its enrichment program.

Then, under the Biden administration, the United States attempted to revive negotiations with Iran — an effort that stalled by the fall of 2022 and was shelved when Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Last June, after Trump was elected to a second term, he ordered strikes on three known nuclear sites as the United States joined Israel’s military campaign against Tehran. The White House later claimed Iran’s facilities had been “obliterated,” though international inspectors have not been able to gain access to them to verify the extent of the damage.

Despite the assertion, Trump has expanded the United States’ military presence in the Middle East in recent weeks ahead of the talks, sparking worries it may precede another attack if negotiations falter.

During his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Trump said Iran is seeking to restart its program but also wants to make a deal with the United States.

“They are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions,” he said without providing proof. “My preference — my preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror — which they are by far — to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let it happen.”

STACEY Solomon has shared an insight into her daughter Belle’s third birthday celebrations.

Marking her youngest’s special day, mum-of-five Stacey, 36, pulled out all of the stops with plenty of sweet treats and decorations.

Hosting a home party for the youngster, there was a three-tiered pink castle birthday cake, a mini donut wall, a stacked fruit cake, an afternoon tea spread of fancies and smaller cakes and a selection of sweet and savoury snacks.

Belle, who Stacey shares with husband Joe Swash, also had a giant balloon in the shape of the number 3, a giant teddy bear balloon and a number of pastel decorations.

Sharing pictures from the celebrations, Stacey gushed on her Instagram page: “Birthday Belle. And just like that our littlest pickle is THREE. Time is a thief.

“Happy birthday darling girl. The most confident, hilarious, sweet, strong, happy little pickle. “

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She continued: “The smallest but definitely the most mighty! If you ever wondered who the boss of pickle cottage is, she’s right here.

“To the moon and back beautiful Belle. And here’s to 3 years of me not being pregnant”.

Following the celebrations, Stacey’s husband Joe took Belle and her sister Rose, four, on a day out to further mark the big day.

Alongside their youngest girls, Stacey and Joe are parents to six-year-old son Rex.

Their blended family of six also includes Stacey’s sons Zach and Leighton, from previous relationships, and Joe’s son Harry, whom he shares with ex Emma Sophocleous.

Stacey and Joe gave fans a much closer look into family life last year with their eponymous TV show, a fly-on-the-wall look into their family life with their five kids. 

The series followed Stacey as she battled being a mum with her busy working life.

It also highlighted the spats Joe and Stacey have, which didn’t go unnoticed with fans. 

And following its popularity, the show is set to return for a third series, which is thought to air in late 2026.

It’s not known whether filming has begun yet, or whether fans will get to see milestones such as Belle’s birthday in the upcoming episodes.