By JILL LAWLESS

LONDON (AP) — An emphatic election victory for Britain’s environmentalist Green Party is a nightmare for Prime Minister Keir Starmer that raises questions about how long he will continue as leader.

Less than two years after winning power in a landslide, Starmer’s center-left Labour Party not only lost a longtime stronghold in its northern England heartlands — it came third, finishing behind both the left-leaning Greens and the hard-right party Reform U.K.

Thursday’s election in the Gorton and Denton constituency of Greater Manchester was for just one seat out of 650 in the House of Commons. But it’s a glimpse into the messy new reality of British politics, and its consequences could be far-reaching.

Here are takeaways from the election.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets local party members, in London, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

Starmer is in trouble

The result is a heavy blow to Starmer, whose leadership has staggered through a series of crises and suffered a near-death experience earlier this month.

Since being elected in July 2024, Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living. His government has been sidetracked by missteps and U-turns over welfare cuts and other unpopular policies.

The next national election does not have to be held until 2029, meaning the main threat to Starmer comes from within his own party. Under British rules, the governing party can change prime minister without having to go to voters.

Three weeks ago it looked like that might happen, when indirect fallout from a trove of Jeffrey Epstein files released in the United States caused discontent to boil over.

Several Labour lawmakers and the party’s leader in Scotland called for Starmer to resign, his chief of staff and communications director quit, and his premiership teetered on the brink.

Starmer vowed to stay, and got a reprieve after potential leadership rivals publicly backed him. But his already precarious position is now even shakier, and he faces peril after May 7 local and regional elections, when Labour is expected to do badly.

Jon Trickett, a Labour lawmaker on the left of the party, said Friday that Starmer should “look in the mirror and make a decision about his own personal future.”

Britain has a fractured political system

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said the result shows that “Labour’s electoral stranglehold is over.”

For a century, U.K. national politics has been dominated by two parties: the Conservatives on the right and Labour on the left. Unlike many European countries, Britain does not have a system of proportional representation, meaning that smaller parties have struggled to break through.

But that is changing. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own distinct parties. And new parties on both left and right are snatching an increasing share of the vote.

Reform U.K., the latest party led by anti-immigration campaigner Nigel Farage, has just eight seats in the House of Commons but has topped opinion polls for months, ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives.

The Greens, under their new leader, the “eco-populist” Polanski, have broadened their message beyond environmental concerns to focus on issues including the cost of living, legalization of drugs and support for the Palestinian cause, positioning themselves as an alternative to Labour for left-liberal voters.

Newly elected lawmaker Hannah Spencer is a 34-year-old plumber who in her victory speech apologized to customers for having to cancel appointments so she could start her new job in Parliament.

The Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer speaks after winning the Gorton and Denton by-election, Manchester, England, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

She spoke of issues that should be Labour’s terrain: the cost of living, frayed public services and the erosion of opportunities in former industrial areas that traditionally voted Labour.

“For people here in Gorton and Denton who feel left behind and isolated: I see you and I will fight for you,” Spencer said.

Green Party newly elected Member of Parliament Hannah Spencer looks on as party leader Zack Polanski speaks at a press conference after her win in the Gorton and Denton by-election, in Manchester, England, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Labour is caught in the middle

The result drives home Labour’s predicament: It faces challenges from both left and right.

Thursday’s election was in a diverse area that has traditional working-class neighborhoods — once strongly Labour, now tilting toward Reform — as well as large numbers of university students and Muslim residents. Many of them feel disillusioned by Labour’s centrist shift under Starmer and the government’s perceived slowness at criticizing Israel’s conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza — fertile ground for the Green Party.

Rob Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said the result was “the nightmare scenario for the incumbent government.”

“They have fallen into the electoral Valley of Death,” Ford wrote on social media. “Rejected in the center. Rejected on the right. And now rejected on the left.”

In the wake of the defeat, many in Labour called for a change of direction, saying efforts to win over “Reform-curious” voters with policies aimed at curbing immigration had alienated many liberal electors.

“If the Labour Party thinks it can win an election by moving on to the territory which has been occupied by Mr. Farage and his party, they’ve made a big mistake,” Trickett told Times Radio. He said the party had made the mistake of assuming “that the progressive voters had nowhere else to go.”

The count begins after voting ends in the Gorton and Denton by-election, Manchester, England, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Politics is polarized

The contest was tinged by the increasing bitterness and polarization in British politics. Reform leader Farage said he had contacted the election regulator and police about reports by an observer group about cases of “family voting,” when more than one person enters a voting booth. It is illegal for one person to direct another how to vote.

Farage claimed the incidents were in “predominantly Muslim areas.”

Opponents accused Reform of echoing U.S. President Donald Trump by attempting to discredit the result of a free and fair election.

Jeffrey Epstein was a factor

Starmer has been tainted by fallout from scandals about Jeffrey Epstein, a man he never met and in whose crimes he’s not implicated.

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The leadership crisis earlier this month was sparked by revelations about the relationship between sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Mandelson, the veteran Labour politician appointed by Starmer in 2024 to be U.K. ambassador to Washington.

Police are investigating emails suggesting Mandelson passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago. Mandelson was arrested and questioned by detectives this week before being released on bail. He does not face any allegations of sexual misconduct.

Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that the ambassador had maintained a friendship with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor. But recent revelations have stirred up Labour lawmakers’ anger at Starmer’s poor judgment in appointing Mandelson to the Washington job in the first place.

On Friday Starmer acknowledged the result was disappointing, but vowed to “keep on fighting.”

“Incumbent governments quite often get results like that mid-term, but I do understand that voters are frustrated,” he said. “They’re impatient for change.”

By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN

NEW YORK (AP) — A blood-red moon will soon grace the skies for a total lunar eclipse — and there won’t be another until late 2028.

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The spectacle will be visible Tuesday morning from North America, Central America and the western part of South America. Australia and eastern Asia can catch it Tuesday night. Partial stages of the eclipse with small bites taken out of the moon can be seen from Central Asia and much of South America. Africa and Europe will be shut out.

Solar and lunar eclipses happen due to a precise alignment of the sun, moon and Earth. There are between four and seven a year, according to NASA.

The eclipses tend to follow each other, taking advantage of the sweet spot in the celestial bodies’ orbits. Tuesday’s total eclipse of the moon comes two weeks after a ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse that dazzled people and penguins in Antarctica.

During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth is between the sun and full moon, casting a shadow that covers the moon. The so-called blood moon looks red because of stray bits of sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere.

The show unfolds over several hours, with totality lasting about an hour.

Compared to a solar eclipse, “the lunar eclipse is a little more of a relaxed pace,” said Catherine Miller at Middlebury College’s Mittelman Observatory.

For those in the path, there’s no need for any special equipment to observe — just a clear, cloudless view of the sky.

Use a forecasting app or any online celestial calendar to look up the exact timing for your area. Venture outside a few times to see Earth’s shadow darken the moon, eventually revealing the reddish-orange orb.

“You don’t have to be out there the whole time to see the shadows moving,” said astronomer Bennett Maruca with the University of Delaware.

There’s a partial lunar eclipse on the docket for August, visible across the Americas, Europe, Africa and west Asia.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By MUNIR AHMED, ELENA BECATOROS and E. EDUARDO CASTILLO

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan is in an “open war” with Afghanistan, Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said Friday, with fighting escalating into the most serious armed confrontation between the two uneasy neighbors since a Qatari-mediated ceasefire in October.

The two countries share a long, complicated history harking back to Pakistan’s creation in 1947. Bound by traditional social, ethnic and economic ties, relations have nonetheless been volatile and have often descended into armed conflict.

Over the last few months, the two have occasionally skirmished along their winding, porous frontier as tension has escalated. The latest confrontation is by far the most serious.

Here are some key things to know about the two countries’ relations and why they are fighting.

Background to latest conflict

Afghanistan launched an extensive cross-border attack into Pakistan along six provinces on Thursday night, in what it said was retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes on Afghanistan on Sunday. Pakistan had said those airstrikes had targeted and killed dozens of militants in Afghanistan, but Kabul said only civilians, including women and children, had been killed.

In response, Pakistan carried out airstrikes in the early hours of Friday on the Afghan capital and two other areas, Kandahar and Paktia. The border fighting, which had ceased by then, restarted and was continuing Friday.

Pakistan has witnessed a sharp rise in militant violence within the country in recent years, including suicide bombings and coordinated assaults targeting security forces. Pakistani authorities blame the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, for many of the attacks, and accuse Afghanistan of providing a safe haven for the group inside Afghanistan.

Kabul rejects the allegations, and says it does not allow anyone to use Afghan soil for attacks on any country, including Pakistan.

The Pakistani Taliban

Created in 2007, the TTP brought together different outlawed groups that agreed to work together against Pakistan and support the Afghan Taliban, who at the time were fighting U.S. and NATO forces. The United Nations and United States have designated it a terrorist organization.

The group seeks stricter enforcement of Islamic laws, the release of its members imprisoned in Pakistan, and a reduction in Pakistani military presence in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province bordering Afghanistan that it has long used as a base.

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Although separate, the group is closely allied with the Afghan Taliban that now runs Afghanistan. Many of its leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, further straining ties.

In 2022, Afghanistan brokered a short-lived ceasefire between the TTP and Pakistan. The truce collapsed when the TTP accused Pakistan’s military of violating the agreement.

Pakistan was one of only three countries — along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — to recognize the first Taliban government after it first seized power in 1996. However, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Islamabad aligned itself with Washington in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, a shift that angered Islamist militant groups at home.

The border area

Much of the tension is concentrated along the two countries’ 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) frontier known as the Durand Line. Named after British diplomat Mortimer Durand and established in 1893, the line cuts through the heartland of the tribal areas of the Pashtun, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group and also the group from which the Afghan Taliban stem.

Although the line is internationally recognized as Pakistan’s western border, Afghanistan does not recognize it as such.

Both countries often accuse each other of turning a blind eye to Islamic militants operating along it.

Simmering tensions

Tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been high for months. It reached a peak last year when dozens of civilians, security forces and militants were killed in the deadliest clashes between the countries in years.

On Oct. 8, militants ambushed an army convoy in Pakistan’s Orakzai district, killing 11 soldiers. The assault was part of a broader wave of violence that has killed hundreds of civilians and security personnel in recent years.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan could no longer tolerate the continued loss of life and announced the military had been granted full authority to respond. The following day, Pakistan’s military carried out strikes inside Afghanistan, prompting cross-border clashes.

A Qatari-mediated ceasefire in mid-October ended the fighting, although since then there have been repeated strikes and skirmishes in the frontier area, leading to dozens of deaths. The two sides differ widely on the casualty figures.

Peace talks held in Istanbul in November failed to reach a long-term solution.

Afghan refugee deportations

Tension has also escalated over Pakistan’s mass deportation of Afghan refugees.

In 2023, Pakistan launched a nationwide crackdown on foreigners living there without legal status. While officials said the campaign was not aimed at any single nationality, it has primarily affected Afghans.

Over the past four decades, millions of Afghans have sought refuge in Pakistan, fleeing war, political instability and economic hardship in their homeland. The crackdown is affecting more than two million Afghans in Pakistan, including some who were born there.

Iran, Afghanistan’s western neighbor, has also carried out expulsions, further straining resources in impoverished Afghanistan. The U.N.’s refugee agency says a total of 5.4 million people have returned to the country since October 2023, mostly from Pakistan and Iran.

International alarm

The fighting has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant groups, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.

In October, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia had facilitated talks between the sides. At the time, U.S. President Donald Trump had also weighed in, saying he intended to resolve the conflict “very quickly.” Whether he will do so again remains to be seen.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke with his Pakistani, Afghan, Qatari and Saudi counterparts, a Turkish official said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.

Russia has called for an immediate halt to the fighting and for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, while Iran said it was ready to assist in facilitating dialogue.

Becatoros contributed from Athens, Greece and Castillo from Beijing, China

Dan Monfre was searching for a way to match his skillset in marketing to the goal of fund raising for community members targeted and traumatized by the federal immigration raids this year.

Monfre and friend Brandon Long, two St. Paul residents and Minnesota United supporters, brainstormed an idea to replace the Target logo on the front of Loons fans’ jerseys with the rebel loon insignia, versions of which have proliferated in recent weeks. Variations of the Minnesota state bird are placed into a Rebel Alliance crest from “Star Wars” to represent resistance to the surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in Minnesota.

The Rebel Loon Project was born and promoted on Reddit in a call for a one-day event to alter fans’ jerseys. Demand generated an initial email list of more than 500, and Monfre knew it was going to take a series of get-togethers.

Latino-owned Calisota Boys Customs, a print and retail shop in West St. Paul, and a group volunteers alter the jerseys for $20-30 a piece with a requested donation for the Immigrant Defense Network. The goal is to raise at least $10,000 for IDN, which supports the constitutional rights of immigrants in Minnesota.

Their first event — which was chock full of RSVPs within an hour — converted more than 100 jerseys and gathered $2,000 for IDN at Inbound BrewCo in Minneapolis on Feb. 21, Monfre said.

A second event, now also full, plans to alter 200 jerseys and raise more money at BauHaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis on Saturday. It will start before the Loons’ home opener against FC Cincinnati at Allianz Field at 3:30 p.m.

A third event is scheduled for BlackStack Brewing in St. Paul on March 7; that one will coincide with a watch party for the Loons’ night game at Nashville SC.

The fan-led initiative germinated strictly out of support those affected in the community.

“There’s a misconception with our organization that we’re sort of trying to stick it to Target or stick it to (Minnesota) United, and that’s really not the case,” Monfre said. “… It was more about the pride that we have for how Minnesota has responded to the federal actions here.”

Minnesota United fans Dan Monfre and Brandon Long, who live in St. Paul, have organized an initiative to turn the Target logo on the Loons’ jersey into the Rebel Loon logo in support of the community during the federal immigration raids in Minnesota. The work is done by Calisota Boys Customs in West St. Paul and donations are directed to Immigrant Defense Network. A second event to change jerseys will be at BauHaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (Courtesy of Dan Monfre)

Monfre emphasized the organization is just conduit between Loons fans and Calisota Boys Customs and the Immigrant Defense Network. Compensation for the jersey changes and donations go directly to those two groups, he said.

Marcela Vega, who owns Calisota Boys Customs, said her small shop saw fewer customers during the height of the raids. With ICE agents in her complex’s parking lot at times, she felt the need to lock the door until she felt comfortable those outside were actual costumers.

Vega’s business received $2,000 and $500 in tips from the first event last weekend, she said, and it helped cover ent.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do before this,” Vega told the Pioneer Press. “It came at the perfect time.”

Last Saturday’s event preceded MNUFC’s season opener at Austin FC. And down in Texas, Austin FC’s Los Verdes supporters group caught wind of the Rebel Loon Project. Monfre said they took collections during its pre-match festivities and sent $500 to Minnesota for the Immigrant Defense Network.

“As a group of volunteers, we were kind of sitting there doing this work and steaming off logos on jerseys, so getting that email was a pretty cool way to remember why we were doing it,” Monfre said. “All it takes is for the right person to be in inspired about the project and you’re raising awareness.”

The Rebel Loon Project, which uses a rebel loon logo shared online as available for free use, has heard from supporters of other MLS teams.

“Some people asked if we could replace the logo on their D.C. United kit or another team,” Monfre said. He and Vega are working to fulfill those orders for delivery.

Monfre expects demand for the Rebel Loon Project will grow as the season progresses and MNUFC fans see the jersey conversions in person at home matches.

Monfre became a season ticket holder when Minnesota’s pro soccer team was known the Stars in the early 2010s. One of his favorite things about Allianz Field is the collection of flags that hang over the Wonderwall section in the stadium’s south end. They represent the countries the Loons players are from.

“One of the things I like about soccer is the diversity of our fan base, and when you look at the supporter section from the stadium, you see flags from different countries flying (and) you have that sort of sense of pride,” said Monfre, whose wife is a Filipino immigrant. “And I think wearing the rebel loon logo on jerseys is sort of another way of showing pride in that community and saying that every type of person is welcome in the supporters community and at the stadium.”

Vega, who said she is a U.S. citizen of Mexican heritage, has been to a couple of Loons games but has grown tighter to that broader community through this effort.

“It was an eye-opener about how united Minnesota can become,” she said. “It’s ironic their name is Minnesota United. It shows their fans are definitely united. That’s awesome. The ongoing support from people online. (I’m) grateful for the work we are doing.”

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