How the world's media responded to Boris Johnson's Downing St party scandal
By Multimedia Producer Wedaeli Chibelushi
Consensus among the world's press is that the UK's Prime Minister is under serious pressure after ITV News obtained an email showing more than 100 people were invited to a garden party at 10 Downing Street during the first lockdown.
According to Spain's El Pais, Boris Johnson has acted as if he is "exempt from the rules that apply to other mortals". China's CCGTN thinks he's experiencing the "darkest days of his premiership", while Modern Ghana notes partygate is but one episode in a "round robin of scandals".
Prime Minister Johnson apologised for attending the party on Wednesday, claiming to be oblivious that it actually was a party.
However, Accra-based publication Modern Ghana notes that until yesterday, the prime minister and his close allies have "denied and dissembled" allegation after allegation of Westminster parties.
El Pais, a Spanish newspaper, labels Johnson's apology a "delicate", complex" albeit "humiliating" performance, while Russia's state-controlled channel RT calls it a "half-apology, half-defensive statement“.
The foreign press arguably isn't buying the PM's "I thought it was a work event" excuse, but why did he go to the party?
Dutch daily paper De Volkskrant thinks he might have been tempted by his need "to be loved, especially by the people in his vicinity".
Regardless, WION, which covers south Asia, believes the prime minister is categorically "toast". The channel went after Sir Keir Starmer in the same report, saying Mr Johnson fared "even" worse than the the Labour leader in recent opinion polls.
NBC News says that should opinion also be low within the Tory party, it would be "quite easy" by American standards for Conservatives to unseat their leader.
Reporter Matt Bradley explained: "Prime Minister Johnson is not a president - he doesn’t need to be impeached, he doesn’t need to wait until the end of his term in office".
But Mr Johnson has urged people not to cast judgement and instead wait for the outcome of an investigation into various party allegations by civil servant Sue Gray.
El Pais wrote that Ms Gray has “a reputation for being tough and rigorous”, but Modern Ghana thinks the probe's internal nature means "little will come of it, least of all any prosecutions and convictions".
De Volkskrant notes that if Mr Johnson does go, there will be some consolation for the man who led the UK amid a pandemic: "His hero and example Churchill also lost his premiership after winning a war".