It’s “hard to exaggerate the extent” of the government’s fixation on illegal boat crossings across the English Channel, says Matthew d’Ancona in Tortoise. The weekend newspapers reported that Rishi Sunak had “completely taken control” of the issue, sidelining Suella Braverman. The Home Secretary herself has tacitly endorsed a “hard-hitting” think tank report urging much tougher deterrence for asylum seekers. Underpinning all this heavy-handed rhetoric are fears the public won’t take kindly to annual net migration rising to a record 504,000. As one Downing Street source puts it: “That sort of figure goes down in Red Wall seats like a fart in a spacesuit.”

As India begins its year-long presidency of the G20 this week, says Mathias Peet in Handelsblatt, PM Narendra Modi has the opportunity to present his country “as a better alternative to China”. The image that the two powerful nations are projecting “could hardly be more different”. While the Chinese government arrests opponents of Xi Jinping’s insane zero-Covid policy, India boasts a “lively democratic discourse”. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi is currently on a five-month, 2,200-mile protest march across the country – an “unimaginable” act in Beijing. And while lockdowns continue to “strangle” China’s economy, disrupting vital Western supply chains, India offers an alternative base for international corporations like Apple to operate from. Its not-unrealistic aim is to establish itself as “the most important partner in Asia” for the EU and US.