Andy Burnham returns to the Commons as Zimbabwe lengthens the presidency

Former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was elected to the House of Commons in a Makerfield by-election. The win set up a leadership challenge to prime minister Keir Starmer. It returned him to Parliament from a mayoral post.

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood, energy secretary Ed Miliband, and transport secretary Heidi Alexander met Starmer and were reported to have urged him to set a timetable for his departure after the by-election. The meeting was a cabinet conversation about the leadership, not a resignation. Starmer was still prime minister at the end of the week.

Starmer had announced a ban on social media for children under 16. Hungary's parliament approved a constitutional change limiting prime ministers to eight years and removed a provision tied to dissolving the Sovereignty Protection Office created under Viktor Orban. Those were separate European institutional moves.

Zimbabwe's National Assembly approved a bill extending presidential terms from five years to seven. The change would let president Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose second term had been due to end in 2028, stay until 2030. It also scraps direct presidential elections and has parliament choose future presidents.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree setting legislative elections for November, the first since 2006, and presidential elections for early 2027, the first since 2005. The 52nd G7 summit met at Evian-les-Bains, the first place to host a G7 or G8 summit twice after the 2003 meeting. Bolivia's president Rodrigo Paz and the workers' confederation reached an agreement after 50 days of protests, while other groups still demanded his resignation.

Polish president Karol Nawrocki stripped Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle over the naming of a unit for the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Philippine president Bongbong Marcos said 24 Filipinos detained in Russia would be released after he met Vladimir Putin in Kazan. Equatorial Guinea's entire cabinet, led by prime minister Manuel Osa Nsue Nsua, resigned after missing targets on economic diversification, reported as under 10 percent of those targets.