Witness statements published last night in the “China spying” case appear to bolster claims that charges against two alleged spies were dropped because the government didn’t want to upset Beijing. While the statements – which were needed to support the prosecution – stated that China was a threat to Britain’s “economic security”, they also repeatedly emphasised the UK’s desire for positive relations. Donald Trump says he has authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, in an escalation of his administration’s pressure on the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro. Following five recent US attacks on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, Trump said: “We are certainly looking at land now.” The number of penalty points issued to UK drivers is rising rapidly. Some 9.6 million points were given out in 2024, up 12% on the previous year, with speeding the most common offence. In 2023, motorists received more than 216,000 fines for breaking 20mph speed limits, four times more than in 2018.

America just can’t quit the Middle East

In temperament and worldview, says Janan Ganesh in the FT, there may never have been a presidential transition as sharp as that from Barack Obama to Donald Trump. Yet both were elected promising to extract America from the Middle East: the occupation of Iraq had been botched and the US shale bonanza was lessening the need for oil. “Besides, there was China to worry about.” How’s that working out? In June, the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. Trump has agreed the first phase of a delicate Israel-Palestine peace deal, guaranteeing America’s role as the region’s chief “convener and arm-twister” indefinitely. And there are still some 40,000 US troops in the region. “What are the lessons of this bipartisan failure to shake off the Middle East?”

For one thing, you can “pivot to Asia” (or whatever) all you like, but external events are always going to dictate where an administration’s attention goes. Once Hamas attacked Israel, there was no hope of the US remaining aloof – at least not without losing face. And for all that’s made of Trump’s personal quest for a Nobel peace prize, “nations have egos too”. Perhaps the US chooses to move mountains in the Middle East because it is “one of the few places where it still can”. Almost all the countries there need something from America, whether it’s existential security or sanctions relief or the tech required to transition to a post-oil business model. Knowing it has such unusual clout in the region – note the absence of a “Beijing-brokered deal for Gaza” – Washington would have to be “almost inhumanly self-effacing” to resist asserting itself there. All 14 presidents since Harry Truman have done so. “When the 15th promises a change, don’t listen.”