“The loudest person in UK politics has suddenly gone quiet,” Bloomberg reports.

“Rather than exploiting the interregnum between Keir Starmer and his likely successor as prime minister, Andy Burnham, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage appears to have taken an unusual break from public appearances.”

“It follows a string of election bruises for Farage, and some unprecedented scrutiny of his personal finances. A year ago, the Brexit architect was hosting weekly press conferences in an effort to boost the profile of his upstart party and steal momentum from the Conservatives, who’ve traditionally dominated the right wing of UK politics. Now, he hasn’t held one of those since April.”

Wall Street Journal: “Now, Starmer is on his way out, and Burnham is set in coming weeks to become Labour leader and the U.K.’s 59th prime minister. He will likely be ushered into Downing Street without a formal leadership contest or detailed plan for power—on the strength of winning 24,927 votes in Makerfield.”

“In a matter of weeks, he will have gone from cheerleading a city to being in charge of the world’s fifth biggest economy and a nuclear-armed power, and from overseeing a budget of £3 billion to one of £1.4 trillion.”

“President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva maintained his advantage over Flávio Bolsonaro ahead of Brazil’s October election,” Bloomberg reports.

“Lula leads Bolsonaro by roughly 7 percentage points, 49%-42%, in a possible runoff vote, according to a survey by AtlasIntel.”

“Britons said Andy Burnham would make a better prime minister than Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage, according to a poll on Thursday that highlights how Labour’s likely new leader can provide the governing party with an electoral edge,” Bloomberg reports.

“Some 43% of people surveyed in a YouGov poll said Burnham would make a better premier, compared with 23% who preferred Farage. That 20-point advantage for Burnham is double the lead over the Reform leader enjoyed last month by Keir Starmer, who on Monday said he’s stepping down as prime minister.”

The Guardian: Starmer says he wants to ensure disruption during transition to Burnham government “absolutely minimised.”

Idrees Kahloom: “Andy Burnham will soon have a monumental task. If, as expected, he replaces Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister, he will not just be taking up an office that has chewed through six occupants in merely 10 years. He will also probably be the British establishment’s last chance to stave off a government controlled by Nigel Farage, the Brexit architect whose nationalist party, Reform UK, is currently leading in the polls.”

“Under British law, the ruling Labour Party can keep its current parliamentary majority without calling an election until 2029. That gives Burnham roughly three years to revive the moribund British economy before frustrated voters turn away from mainstream parties and opt for the radicals instead.”

Bloomberg: “For months, Delcy Rodríguez has been crisscrossing Venezuela atop a truck in what she describes as a pilgrimage. Motorcycles and cars follow her caravan in a scene that looks remarkably like the presidential campaign that opposition leader María Corina Machado ran less than two years ago.”

“It’s a carefully choreographed spectacle by Venezuela’s unlikely acting president as she attempts to shed the baggage of a deeply unpopular government and position herself as its standard-bearer since Nicolás Maduro’s ouster.”

“Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is weighing the possibility of holding Italy’s next general election as soon as April, months ahead of the legal deadline before the end of 2027,” Bloomberg reports.

“Meloni is worried that her approval rating could slide the longer she waits… She’s also concerned that a late election would leave the upcoming government little time to pass a new budget, which must be approved by year-end.”

“In Colombia’s tightest-ever presidential contest, half of voters registered a desire for change after four years of the country’s ambitious leftist experiment under President Gustavo Petro,” Bloomberg reports.

“Yesterday’s preliminary count showing victory for Abelardo de la Espriella, a MAGA-supporting lawyer with dual US citizenship who has never held elected office, is another leap into the unknown for Colombia.”

“More clearly, the result represents a win for President Donald Trump and his efforts to impose US control over the Western hemisphere.”

“Colombia’s voters on Sunday elected a Donald Trump-endorsed right-wing businessman in a presidential runoff, ending a period of left-wing rule that coincided with the country’s worst security crisis in decades,” Semafor reports.

“Abelardo de la Espriella proposed bombing gang-held territory and building 10 El Salvador-style megaprisons, while his opponent, the leftist ruling-party senator Iván Cepeda, had pledged to continue negotiating with armed groups under President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” strategy.”

Bloomberg: Trump-backed conservative leads in Colombia presidential runoff.

“A deeply divided electorate will choose Colombia’s next president in a runoff on Sunday that pits a progressive against a conservative outsider, with both candidates tapping into fears of a renewed internal conflict in the country as they represent ‘two very extreme sides,'” CBS News reports.

Bloomberg: Oil, drugs and US relations hang in the balance as Colombians vote for president.

“Days before securing his decisive by-election victory, Andy Burnham named George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier as the book that has most shaped his politics,” Bloomberg reports.

“Now, his own journey — from near Wigan in the north of England to Downing Street — has begun.”

“The Mayor of Greater Manchester, who’s long harbored ambitions for higher office, gained a parliamentary seat in a standalone contest. That allows him to mount a leadership challenge against Prime Minister Keir Starmer, paving the way for Britain’s fifth premier in less than four years.”

“Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester in northern England, won a seat in Parliament on Thursday, a pivotal step in his plans to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party and the country,” the New York Times reports.

Washington Post: “The victory returns Burnham to the House of Commons where he served 16 years and sets the stage for a leadership challenge in coming weeks that could make him the prime minister. Under the U.K.’s parliamentary system a new national election is not needed.”

“London Mayor Sadiq Khan declined to back Keir Starmer to stay as UK prime minister until the next general election, tempering his support for the premier after previously criticizing moves to oust him,” Bloomberg reports.

Bloomberg: “On Sunday, Switzerland will vote on whether to limit the number of residents to 10 million people in 2050, from 9.1 million currently. Polls predict a close outcome on the measure, which right-wing campaigners initiated to force the government to rein in immigration.”

Bloomberg: “President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva widened his lead over Senator Flávio Bolsonaro after the challenger was embroiled in a corruption scandal and the US increased pressure on Brazil ahead of October’s election, a new poll showed.”

“Lula would win 44% of the vote in a runoff against Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, compared with 38% for the senator, according to a Genial/Quaest survey published Wednesday.”

New York Times: “It would have seemed hard to imagine a few months ago that residents of Ashton-in-Makerfield, a former coal mining town in the north of England, might play a central role in toppling Britain’s prime minister.”

“Yet that possibility was on just about everyone’s mind last week at the town’s main coffee shop, down the road from a sports club where Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, had set up campaign headquarters for his shot at a seat in Parliament.”

“If he wins a June 18 special election, Mr. Burnham is expected to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the leadership of the governing Labour Party and the country. Mr. Starmer is so unpopular that many of the town’s residents believe Mr. Burnham would have little trouble defeating him in an intraparty contest, which would also transfer control of Downing Street.”

Jonathan Martin: “Donald Trump and Keir Starmer will never be linked in the same fashion as political tandems Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher or Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. But the two beleaguered leaders may be remembered for leaving the same legacy — demonstrating that their countries are both in desperate need of a cleansing.”

“Starmer is facing a revolt in his own party — he may be ousted by a man who’s not even in Parliament yet — and were Trump to submit to a secret confidence vote from his party’s senators, he’d likely confront a similar fate.”

New York Times: “For eight decades since World War II, members of neo-Nazi parties have never been directly elected mayor of any town in Germany, amid a postwar effort to shape its national identity around a rejection of the Nazi era.”

“On Sunday in a small town in eastern Germany, local residents came closer than ever to breaking with that consensus.”

“The runner-up in the mayoral election in the town, Aue-Bad Schlema, represents a fringe far-right party that Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has deemed an extremist group that poses a threat to the Constitution. The candidate, Stefan Hartung, says he is not a neo-Nazi, but acknowledges that he is also still a member of a larger party that Germany’s highest court has ruled is “similar in nature to National Socialism,” a formal term for Nazism.”