The Taliban are “losing their grip on Afghanistan”, says Lynne O’Donnell in Foreign Policy. Relations with long-time partner Pakistan have almost completely broken down: Islamabad has effectively withdrawn its ambassador after he was attacked at the Pakistani embassy. Clashes have erupted on the border with Iran. Most damaging of all was a recent siege by gunmen on a Kabul hotel used by Chinese businessmen. The assault, which left five Chinese injured, prompted Beijing to order all its nationals to leave the country – a devastating blow to Afghanistan’s push for economic development. In a further sign of diminishing confidence, the UN is “consolidating its presence” in Kabul, scaling down multiple locations to one fortified compound.

Rishi Sunak’s alumni profile from Stanford Business School lists his interests as “Star Wars, sports and the history of Coca-Cola”, says James Marriott in The Times, and this Christmas the PM tells us he will be watching Love Actually. Nothing wrong with any of that. But compare it to William Gladstone, that “pre-eminent Victorian”, whose turbulent psychology was fed by a vast and eclectic mix of literature, ideas and poetry. He wrote books on theology and Homer. “He chopped down trees. He collected china.” He spent part of his first year as chancellor studying a book about pistols called On the Application of Machining to the Manufacture of Rotating Chambered-Breech Fire Arms and their Peculiarities. “Nobody knows why.”