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Who could replace Peter Mandelson as US ambassador?

Sir Keir Starmer is scrambling to find a new US ambassador after sacking Lord Peter Mandelson over fresh revelations about his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News

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Vulnerable children in care being let down by ‘dysfunctional’ system, watchdog warns

The annual cost of children’s residential care has almost doubled to £3.1bn since 2019, putting pressure on local authority finances.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News

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British couple held in Iran ‘in conditions you can’t even imagine’, says son

“Mum is teaching yoga and English to her cellmates in Iranian prison.”The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News

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Two scandals and two allies gone in two weeks – serious questions remain about Starmer’s political judgement

Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Mandelson, the paedophile and the peer.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News

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‘They see it as a golden ticket’: Migrant hotel critics come face to face with asylum seekers

“It makes me sad. We left when our country had the troubles so we should have in this world… the humanity”.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News

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Brazil’s ex-president sentenced to 27 years in jail – as Trump warns conviction is ‘very bad’ for country

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup to stay in power after his 2022 election defeat.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News

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Prince Harry makes surprise visit to Ukraine

Prince Harry has made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, a spokesperson for the royal has said.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News

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A day of remembrance: Juneau pays tribute to 9/11 victims and first responders

By: Greg Knight, News of the North

9/11 Memorial ceremony at Glacier Valley Rotary Park, Photo by Greg Knight/NOTN

September 11, 2025, 24 years after the day the world changed forever. 9/11.

Across the State of Alaska, remembrances were held in many boroughs and communities. In Juneau, one of the largest remembrances in the state was held at Riverside Rotary Park in the Capital City.

Capital City Fire Rescue Chief Rich Etheridge spoke to why the day of remembrance is so important, even more than two decades later.

“So many people gave their lives, had lives taken, and it was the one moment in our history that I was aware of where we all came together, not just as a nation, but as a world, to stand up and look out for each other.” Ethridge said, “It was a moment in time that lasted for a little bit, and it started to fade. And so, you know, we’ve all promised never to forget that day and those events and really live up to what it was and celebrate the heroes that charged in, even though they knew that it was a one way trip.”

Alaska Representative Andi Story, whose District 3 seat ranges from Juneau north, attended the event.

“So many people lost their lives that day, and we need to let the families know that we care for them.” Story said, “We haven’t forgotten so many people went and served and tried to move our country more towards peace. And their efforts are admirable, and they suffered for it, and we need to stand with them.”

We remember. But what does it mean to remember now, after two decades, a new generation, and the scars that never fully heal? The story of 9/11 isn’t just about history; it’s a living question.

How do we keep honoring the past without being chained to it?

We never forget.

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Juneau assembly advances Burns Building purchase as new City Hall

NOTN- Juneau officials are moving forward with plans to buy two floors of the  Michael J. Burns building downtown, calling it the most financially responsible option for consolidating city staff after voters rejected a proposal for a new City Hall.

At a work session this week, the assembly voted to advance negotiations on the purchase to the full assembly for final approval. A decision could come within the next month.

Assembly member Christine Woll, head of the Finance Committee said the city’s current office spaces are aging and expensive to maintain. “The Burns building has emerged as the most financially responsible option, and makes the most sense to bring all our city employees into a single building that’s not leaking like our other locations right now. And so last night, we officially moved that decision to negotiate purchase to the full assembly, so we’ll ultimately make that final decision in about a month. But this was the last big stop to say, yes, this is what we’re interested in doing.”

If approved, the city would form a condominium association with the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, which owns part of the building. Renovations would be required to adapt the space for municipal use.

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Republican Bernadette Wilson announces Sen. Mike Shower as lieutenant governor running mate

By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon

Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, speaks Friday, April 12, 2024, on Senate Bill 187, the capital budget. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Wasilla Republican Sen. Mike Shower will run for lieutenant governor alongside Republican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson, the two announced Tuesday night in Big Lake.

Wilson is the first of Alaska’s 10 governor candidates to announce her running mate.

The other nine candidates include former Democratic Sen. Tom Begich of Anchorage and eight Republicans: former state Sen. Click Bishop of Fairbanks; former Alaska Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum; current state Sen. Shelley Hughes of Palmer, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom of Eagle River; Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries; podiatrist Matt Heilala of Anchorage; former teacher James William Parkin IV of Angoon; and Bruce Walden of Palmer. Former Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor is also expected to file for the office.

Current Rep. George Rauscher, R-Sutton, said he will run for Shower’s seat in the state Senate. Rauscher previously ran for Senate in 2018 and said he put his name in “one minute after Bernadette stated it was Shower.”

By phone, Wilson said the lieutenant governor has two jobs: taking care of the state seal, and taking care of elections. 

“The Division of Elections is incredibly important and too important to get passed off to who is the politically expedient candidate,” she said.

Bernadette Wilson and Mike Shower pose for a photo on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Big Lake, Alaska. (Bernadette Wilson photo)
Bernadette Wilson and Mike Shower pose for a photo on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Big Lake, Alaska. (Bernadette Wilson photo)

Wilson said she believes “election integrity and the ability to vote at the ballot box is the very foundation of the Republic” and said that Shower is the right person to fix problems with voting in rural Alaska, an unusually large voter roll, and slow-to-arrive results.

“I felt very confident that Sen. Mike Shower has the knowledge in that area. It is an area that he is passionate about, which is the first step in solving any problem, and he’s worked on that extensively. So I felt that that was incredibly important and made him the best choice for Alaska’s next lieutenant governor,” she said.

Shower served over 20 years as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and currently works as a commercial cargo pilot. 

Shower was originally appointed to the Senate in February 2018 to replace Mike Dunleavy, who held the seat until resigning to run for governor. Elected on his own merits later that year and re-elected in 2022, he has repeatedly introduced proposals to make changes to the state’s elections system.

His first proposal was introduced in 2019 related to election security protocols, before President Donald Trump began lying about fraud in the 2020 election. 

Currently the Senate’s minority leader, he has regularly re-introduced legislation related to the state’s elections system and has frequently been a key figure in end-of-session negotiations on the topic. Thus far, the Legislature has been unable to pass significant changes.

As a member of the Senate, Shower has consistently endorsed the idea of a large Permanent Fund dividend, going so far as to propose a statewide tax in order to pay for it. 

Wilson said that she and Shower are confident in their ability to win the governor’s race, but if they finish behind another Republican in the August primary, they will withdraw and throw their support behind the leading Republican.

Under Alaska’s current voting system, all candidates for the same office run in the same race, regardless of political party. The top four-vote getters advance to the general election, where Alaskans use ranked choice voting to pick the ultimate winner.

Wilson, one of the leaders of a campaign to repeal that system, said she believes “that when you’ve got multiple people on the ballot of any party, it leads to so much confusion, it leads to voters only ranking one at the end of the day. … I think it’s very arrogant to say, Well, I’m not the top vote getter, but I’m going to stay in anyways. I just don’t think that that’s appropriate.”