Politics today is defined by sharp turns in power and identity. In Britain, Andy Burnham has been elected Labour leader after Keir Starmer’s ouster and is now poised to become prime minister within days, promising stronger public control of essential services, more power for local government and a response to the populist surge of Reform UK. In the US, Donald Trump has revived disputed claims that China interfered in the 2020 election, saying he will declassify voter-data intelligence despite earlier findings that Beijing did not alter the result. In Japan, lawmakers have made two consequential decisions: revising imperial succession rules to widen the pool of male heirs while still barring women from the throne, and enacting a new ban on desecrating the national flag, a move supporters call patriotic but critics warn could chill free expression.