Theresa May to resign as UK Prime Minister - live updates - CNN International

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Here's the full text of May's emotional address.

Ever since I first stepped through the door behind me as Prime Minister, I have striven to make the United Kingdom a country that works not just for a privileged few, but for everyone. And to honor the result of the EU referendum.
Back in 2016, we gave the British people a choice. Against all predictions, the British people voted to leave the European Union. I feel as certain today as I did three years ago that in a democracy, if you give people a choice you have a duty to implement what they decide. I have done my best to do that.
I negotiated the terms of our exit and a new relationship with our closest neighbors that protects jobs, our security and our Union. I have done everything I can to convince MPs to back that deal. Sadly, I have not been able to do so.
I tried three times.
I believe it was right to persevere, even when the odds against success seemed high. But it is now clear to me that it is in the best interests of the country for a new Prime Minister to lead that effort.
So I am today announcing that I will resign as leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party on Friday 7 June so that a successor can be chosen.
I have agreed with the Party Chairman and with the Chairman of the 1922 Committee that the process for electing a new leader should begin in the following week.
I have kept Her Majesty the Queen fully informed of my intentions, and I will continue to serve as her Prime Minister until the process has concluded.
It is, and will always remain, a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit. It will be for my successor to seek a way forward that honors the result of the referendum.
To succeed, he or she will have to find consensus in Parliament where I have not. Such a consensus can only be reached if those on all sides of the debate are willing to compromise.
For many years the great humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton – who saved the lives of hundreds of children by arranging their evacuation from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia through the Kindertransport – was my constituent in Maidenhead.
At another time of political controversy, a few years before his death, he took me to one side at a local event and gave me a piece of advice. He said, ‘Never forget that compromise is not a dirty word. Life depends on compromise.’ He was right.
As we strive to find the compromises we need in our politics – whether to deliver Brexit, or to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland – we must remember what brought us here.
Because the referendum was not just a call to leave the EU but for profound change in our country. A call to make the United Kingdom a country that truly works for everyone. I am proud of the progress we have made over the last three years.
We have completed the work that David Cameron and George Osborne started: the deficit is almost eliminated, our national debt is falling and we are bringing an end to austerity.
My focus has been on ensuring that the good jobs of the future will be created in communities across the whole country, not just in London and the South East, through our Modern Industrial Strategy.
We have helped more people than ever enjoy the security of a job.
We are building more homes and helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder - so young people can enjoy the opportunities their parents did.
And we are protecting the environment, eliminating plastic waste, tackling climate change and improving air quality.
This is what a decent, moderate and patriotic Conservative Government, on the common ground of British politics, can achieve - even as we tackle the biggest peacetime challenge any government has faced.
I know that the Conservative Party can renew itself in the years ahead. That we can deliver Brexit and serve the British people with policies inspired by our values. Security; freedom; opportunity. Those values have guided me throughout my career.
But the unique privilege of this office is to use this platform to give a voice to the voiceless, to fight the burning injustices that still scar our society.
That is why I put proper funding for mental health at the heart of our NHS long-term plan.
It is why I am ending the postcode lottery for survivors of domestic abuse. It is why the Race Disparity Audit and gender pay reporting are shining a light on inequality, so it has nowhere to hide.
And that is why I set up the independent public inquiry into the tragedy at Grenfell Tower – to search for the truth, so nothing like it can ever happen again, and so the people who lost their lives that night are never forgotten.
Because this country is a Union. Not just a family of four nations. But a union of people – all of us.
Whatever our background, the color of our skin, or who we love. We stand together. And together we have a great future.
Our politics may be under strain, but there is so much that is good about this country. So much to be proud of. So much to be optimistic about.
I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honor of my life to hold – the second female Prime Minister but certainly not the last.
I do so with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love.

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2019-05-24 09:51:00Z
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Theresa May to resign as UK Prime Minister - live updates - CNN International

“I have done everything I can to convince MPs to back this deal,” May said of her attempts to pass a Brexit plan through Parliament.

“Sadly, I have not been able to do so -- I tried three times,” she added. Her failure to do so will be her lasting legacy as prime minister. 

“I believe it was right to persevere….it is now clear to me that it is in the best interest of the country for a new PM to lead that effort,” May said.

She held back tears throughout the speech, but her voice croaked and May was visibly tearful as she came to her conclusion.

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2019-05-24 09:39:00Z
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Theresa May to resign as UK Prime Minister - live updates - CNN International

“I have done everything I can to convince MPs to back this deal,” May said of her attempts to pass a Brexit plan through Parliament.

“Sadly, I have not been able to do so -- I tried three times,” she added. Her failure to do so will be her lasting legacy as prime minister. 

“I believe it was right to persevere….it is now clear to me that it is in the best interest of the country for a new PM to lead that effort,” May said.

She held back tears throughout the speech, but her voice croaked and May was visibly tearful as she came to her conclusion.

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2019-05-24 09:14:00Z
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Theresa May to resign as UK Prime Minister - live updates - CNN International

It's not exactly the big resignation that we're all waiting for, but a Conservative MP has left her post and called for new leadership of the party.

Helen Grant quit as the party's Vice Chair for Communities, saying she wants "actively and openly" to support one of the candidates for the Conservative leadership. She didn't confirm whom she will be endorsing.

"The PM has, of course, said she will be leaving, a decision that I respect and believe to be right," she added in her letter.

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2019-05-24 09:10:00Z
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Modi declares victory in India elections as opposition Congress Party concedes - CNN

In a victory speech at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters in New Delhi, Narendra Modi said his win was a "guarantee of a bright future for the common people of this country."

"I want to bow my head before the 1.3 billion people of this country," he told throngs of cheering supporters on Thursday night. "This election is being fought by the people. If anyone has won, it is India. We dedicate this victory to the people of India."

At a press conference in New Delhi, the leader of the principal opposition Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, conceded that "the people of India have decided that Narendra Modi will be the next Prime Minister."

Although final results are still outstanding, data from India's election commission showed that Modi's ruling alliance, which needs 272 seats in the next parliament to form a government, was leading in 327 constituencies, giving his coalition a clear path to victory.

Full results are expected in the coming hours.

The results follows a polarizing election during which Modi and the BJP portrayed the incumbent less as an economic reformer -- the main message in the 2014 elections that first brought Modi to national office -- and more as a muscular nationalist firmly rooted in the Hindu right wing movement, a turn that made many liberals and minority Indians nervous.

The Congress, led by the scion of India's Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, struggled to make headway with voters.

The key challenge for Rahul Gandhi was to capitalize on the subdued economic mood to rebuild what was once a formidable national party machine that occupied the center-ground in Indian politics.

Trends show that this approach has failed.

Hindu-led campaign

India has a long history of sectarian violence, with members of the Hindu community, which accounts for some 80% of all Indians, often clashing with minority groups, among them the roughly 200 million Muslims who call the country home.

As a lifelong member of the Hindu rightwing movement, many members of which see India as an exclusively Hindu nation, Modi's rise has long fanned concerns about the erosion of India's secular foundations -- concerns that were front and center during the election.

A military standoff with Muslim majority Pakistan just weeks before polling was seen as boosting the BJP's campaign.

The trigger was a devastating terrorist attack on Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region in February. The bombing was followed by the first aerial confrontation between the countries in several decades, something that was held up by Modi's allies as proof that he was only leader who could effectively respond to terror threats that Delhi says emanate from Pakistani soil, a claim refuted by Islamabad.

In the charged electoral atmosphere, one of Modi's most prominent Hindu nationalist allies, the controversial Hindu ascetic turned chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, suggested that the Indian armed forces were in fact Modi's forces -- a remark that invited censure from India's electoral authorities, but which also underlined the thrust of the BJP campaign.

Meanwhile, the BJP named another controversial Hindu ascetic as one of its candidates in central India. Pragya Singh Thakur, who is currently facing terrorism charges connected to a bombing attack on Muslims several years ago, won the backing of the highest echelons of the BJP despite an uproar at her nomination. Thakur denies the charges, while the BJP has portrayed the case against her as a conspiracy by its opponents to tar the country's Hindu community.

Modi's victory

Above all, the BJP campaign presented the election as a binary choice for voters: Whether they were for or against Modi.

Backed by a ground campaign operation and publicity machine that has been years in the making, overseen by BJP president and Modi's closest political ally Amit Shah, Modi has successfully built a cult of personality that opposition parties, including the principal opposition Congress led by Gandhi, have struggled to counter.

Congress focused its campaign on what the party said were Modi's failures to deliver on the promises he made in 2014, principally on the economy. Instead, as an alternative, it promised minimum income guarantee for poor Indians, while also saying that it would work to protect India's diversity in the face of threats from divisive right wing Hindus.

Attempts were also made to cobble together a broad opposition alliance, bringing together regional parties opposed to the BJP, to take on the Modi juggernaut.

Yet these efforts seemed to have failed. Attention now turns to the priorities of the next Modi government, as the Indian economy, while still growing at relatively robust rates, faces a cocktail of issues: From a continuing youth jobs crisis, to indications of growing distress among India's farmers.

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2019-05-23 15:16:00Z
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John Walker Lindh: Anger as 'American Taliban' freed - BBC News

John Walker Lindh - the so-called "American Taliban" - has been released from prison, a move Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared "unconscionable".

Lindh served 17 years of a 20-year sentence after he was captured in 2001 fighting in Afghanistan.

His early release has sparked fierce criticism, with many believing he still harbours extremist views.

In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Mr Pompeo said it was "deeply troubling and wrong".

• What happens when you release a 'traitor'?
• The American Taliban, 10 years on

Mr Lindh "still is threatening the United States of America" and was "still committed to the very jihad that he engaged in", he said.

His lawyer Bill Cummings told CNN Lindh would now move to Virginia and live under the direction of his probation officer.

Who is John Walker Lindh?

Born in Washington DC in 1981 and named after John Lennon, Lindh was raised a Catholic.

He dropped out of school and converted to Islam at the age of 16, moving to Yemen the next year to learn Arabic.

In 2000 he went to study in Pakistan and eventually travelled to Afghanistan in May 2001 to join the Taliban.

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US forces captured and arrested Lindh shortly after the invasion of the country in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.

"Had I realised then what I know now about the Taliban, I would never have joined them," Lindh said during his sentencing in 2002.

Is Lindh still an extremist?

There are concerns that Lindh has not abandoned his extremism.

Foreign Policy magazine published US government documents in 2017 stating that the prisoner "continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts".

And in March last year, Lindh "told a television news producer that he would continue to spread violent extremist Islam upon his release", the documents allege.

More recently, The Atlantic magazine's journalist Graeme Wood wrote letters to Lindh while he was behind bars and describes him as "unrepentant".

"His more than 17 years in captivity seem, on the basis of this correspondence, to have converted Lindh from an al-Qaeda supporter to an Islamic State supporter," Mr Wood wrote.

Released into a world unprepared for his arrival

By Tara McKelvey, BBC News, Washington

After his release John Walker Lindh, now 38, will not be allowed to go online unless he has special permission, and he cannot travel freely.

He will discover a world that has changed dramatically since his incarceration and face a society that has done little to prepare for his arrival.

The US government does not have an official programme or set of procedures to help people convicted of terrorism find their way in the world after their release.

Many experts, including the Federation of American Scientists' Steven Aftergood, who specialises in national security, say the US should do more to help.

"In the justice system, we say 'You, the criminal, are not like us'. But there is also a responsibility for society to say at the end 'There is a place for you in our world'. We're very bad at that."

• What happens when you release a 'traitor'?

Can Lindh reintegrate into US society?

Senators Richard Shelby and Maggie Hassan - a Republican and a Democrat, respectively - wrote a letter on Friday to the Federal Bureau of Prisons asking how to handle such cases.

Obtained by the Washington Post, the letter urges the group to consider "the security and safety implications for our citizens and communities who will receive individuals like John Walker Lindh".

But others are less concerned. Investigative journalist Trevor Aaronson says Lindh is the 476th person convicted of terrorism after the September 11 terror attacks who has now been released.

"To be clear, the federal government has no program to monitor released terrorists - suggesting that convicted terrorists can be rehabilitated completely after relatively brief sentences or that many of these people weren't particularly dangerous in the first place," Mr Aaronson tweeted.

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2019-05-23 14:25:59Z
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'American Taliban' militant John Walker Lindh released from prison - Fox News

John Walker Lindh, the captured Islamic militant who at age 20 journeyed to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and fought alongside the terrorists in the days after 9/11,  was released from a U.S. federal prison in Indiana on Thursday, his lawyer confirmed to the Washington Post -- despite lawmakers' concerns about the “security and safety implications” of freeing an unrepentant terrorist who officials say continues to “openly call for extremist violence."

Lindh, dubbed the "American Taliban," had been serving his sentence at the Terre Haute, Indiana facility. He was discharged several years before completing the 20-year prison sentence he received for joining and supporting the Taliban, with officials citing "good behavior" for the early release. The former Islamist fighter and enemy combatant, named “Detainee 001 in the war on terror,” was captured alongside a group of Taliban fighters in 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks and the start of the war in Afghanistan.

DAUGHTER OF AMERICAN KILLED AFTER SPEAKING WITH LINDH SLAMS UPCOMING EARLY RELEASE

As he reintegrates into American society, Lindh will have a set of heavy restrictions placed on him. Some lawmakers, however, question whether the safeguards are stringent enough.

“We must consider the security and safety implications for our citizens and communities who will receive individuals like John Walker Lindh, who continue to openly call for extremist violence,” Sens. Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., wrote in a letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons late last week and that was obtained by the Washington Post.

In the letter, the lawmakers reportedly sought details on how the agency is working to prevent prisoners such as Lindh from committing additional crimes after their release. They also asked which other “terrorist offenders” are next in line to be freed and how the Federal Bureau of Prisons determines whether or not someone is an “ongoing public threat.”

Lindh has been blamed for playing a role in the death of Johnny “Mike” Spann, a U.S Marine turned CIA paramilitary operative who became the first American to be killed in combat in Afghanistan. Spann’s daughter, Allison, told Fox News in March that Lindh’s early release “feels like such a slap in the face.”

LINDH IS SET TO BE RELEASED – SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?

In November 2001, U.S forces learned that an American – Lindh – was among the cluster of Taliban fighters left in limbo after their leader surrendered to the Northern Alliance in the northern Afghanistan province of Mazar-i-Sharif. Spann was the first to go into a compound there, serving as a prison, to interview Lindh, peppering him with questions about where he was from and what he was doing. But Lindh refused to respond.

“In those moments, when he chose to stay silent, he sealed his fate as a traitor to the United States,” Allison Spann said. “At any point, he could have warned him that something was being planned.”

Hours later, Lindh’s fellow detainees erupted in a violent revolt that left Mike Spann dead.

The initial charges leveled against the then 20-year-old Lindh in 2002 included one for murder conspiracy due to the role he played in the deadly prison rebellion.

However, nine of the ten counts in an indictment were then dropped and Lindh ended up pleading guilty to disobeying an executive order outlawing support to the Taliban and for possessing a weapon in Afghanistan.

Lindh at the time told a U.S. district judge he never intended to kill Americans.

“I did not go to fight against America, and I never did,” Lindh said, according to The Washington Post. “I have never supported terrorism in any form, and I never will … I made a mistake by joining the Taliban. Had I realized then what I know now, I would never have joined them.”

Sentencing reports have indicated that “good behavior” may serve as justification for Lindh’s early release.

A convert to Islam hailing from northern California’s Marin County, Lindh made the journey to Afghanistan after journeying through Yemen and Pakistan as a 19-year-old shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks. He underwent training in Kandahar and met with Al Qaeda chief Usama bin Laden on at least one occasion.

In 2017, the National Counterterrorism Center, according to documents obtained by Foreign Policy, underscored that Lindh continued to "advocate for global jihad and write and translate violent extremist texts."

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Furthermore, he is alleged to have told a TV producer last March that he would “continue to spread violent extremism Islam upon his release.”

When he leaves lockup, Lindh, according to court records viewed by the Washington Post, will need permission to obtain Internet-connected devices, will not be allowed to talk online in any language but English and will be barred from having a passport, among other restrictions.

Fox News' Greg Norman and Hollie McKay contributed to this report.

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2019-05-23 13:48:20Z
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