It was “bliss” to read Michael Gove’s searing critique of Liz Truss this weekend, says Clare Foges in The Times. Her economic plans, he wrote, are a “holiday from reality” that will safeguard the stock options of FTSE 100 executives rather than support the poorest in society. As the former levelling up secretary acknowledged, he’ll have no role in a Truss government – and that’s a big loss for the Conservatives and the country as a whole. In my decade or so working at the heart of the Tory party, he was by far the most impressive politician I encountered. “Need gags for a speech? Policy ideas? A tricky parliamentary issue ironed out? Send for Gove!” Crucially, he had a sense of urgency about getting things done “regardless of applecarts upset”. He doesn’t see politics as a “parlour game”; he genuinely cares. That there’ll be no place in government for such a formidable talent bodes ill for what’s to come.

Europe is facing a conundrum, says Tom McTague in The Atlantic. Many Europeans have long believed that the US is in “terminal decline”, plagued with “relentless mass shootings”, social division and populism. This spurred the continent’s leaders to embark on a “grand strategy” of autonomy from America, which involved seeking out trade and energy deals with China and Russia. But the Ukrainian invasion has left that approach “in tatters”. To reduce its reliance on Moscow, Europe has had to start importing American gas. And to the continent’s “eternal shame”, the US has sent “drastically more lethal aid to save a European democracy than any other NATO power”.