King Charles has stripped his brother Andrew of the title of prince and ordered him to leave Royal Lodge. The disgraced former Duke of York will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and live in a property on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, where he will be privately funded by the King. Rachel Reeves has admitted to misleading Keir Starmer over her failure to secure a licence to rent out her home in Dulwich, southeast London. The chancellor backtracked on claims that she and her husband were unaware that they needed the licence but said their lettings agency had promised to obtain one. The agents have admitted it was their fault and apologised. The Royal Collection has recalled a statue of Hercules and Achelous that has stood in front of Kew Gardens’ Victorian Palm House for 62 years. The bronze artwork, which was lent to the gardens by the late Queen in 1963, was removed last week without explanation and will be returned to Windsor.

Trump has “bungled” his trade war

Don’t be fooled by Donald Trump’s crowing over his meeting with Xi Jinping yesterday, says Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times. The US president has “bungled” this trade war from the moment he started it. When he announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, he thought China was vulnerable because it exported far more to the US than it purchased. What he didn’t seem to realise was that much of what China purchased from the US, such as soybeans, could be bought from elsewhere, whereas rare earth minerals – the “essential ingredients of modern industry” – aren’t easily sourced from anywhere bar China. So when Xi responded by curbing rare earth exports, Trump had to make concessions: dialling back tariffs, easing restrictions on exporting chips to China, and so on. “The trade bully unexpectedly found himself bullied.”

It won’t be the last time, says The Wall Street Journal. Xi has lifted the suspension of rare earth exports for only a year, meaning he’ll be able to exploit this crucial leverage again in 2026. As for his promise to crack down on the production of fentanyl ingredients, that’s “unenforceable” and unlikely to be fulfilled. Trump extracted no concessions from Beijing over its continued purchases of Russian oil or its support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine. And while it’s true that China’s economy is less resilient than America’s, Trump and his party have to face voters whereas Xi doesn’t. That makes it easier for the Chinese premier, in a long trade war that hurts both sides, to stick it out. The best that can be said about this week’s deal is that it averted more economic damage and bought Trump some time. Because if he wants to take on China over trade, “he needs a new strategy”.

All doctoral theses are a bit ridiculous, says Arabella Byrne in The Spectator. But some of the research funded – at taxpayer expense – by the Arts and Humanities Research Council is plain “bizarre”. Current projects include:

Lesbian? ‘She no Lebanese. She Punjabi!’: Tracing the experiences of working-class, queer British South Asian women, 1970s to 1990s

Menstruation at the Movies: A History of Stigma and Shame from 2000 to 2022

Animals as builders: Exploring animal buildings as sites of agency, rights, and politics

and the unimprovable Rub rub rub rub rub rub brush brush quiver oh hello, you: Queer Captioning as Material

As young trick-or-treaters make their rounds this Halloween, they’ll likely be expecting the usual “cornucopia of candy”, says Charles Passy in The Wall Street Journal. But for many in America, the “true treat” is scoring a plain old potato. The bizarre trend has grown in recent years, and getting a spud is now seen by many kids as “the find of the night”. One LA resident who started doling out tatties last year said the response was beyond enthusiastic: “I’m talking high-fives and cheers and even some squeals.”

Do you like exclamation marks? No worries if not!

Oh dear, says Carol Midgley in The Times. New research has found that women use exclamation marks in emails nearly three times more often than men. “Can you literally believe it?!!” It goes without saying that overusing exclamation marks is irritating, moronic and, as F Scott Fitzgerald said, “like laughing at your own joke”. It’s a plain admission that you can’t be funny with words, so instead you must signpost your frivolity with a “grammatical whoopee cushion”. But do I sometimes commit this heinous crime, even though it marks you out as an “office tit”? Of course I do. “I’m a woman.”

Like many other women, I live in fear of seeming too brusque or demanding, or worse: “not being liked”. So I invoke the apologetic “!” to round off the rough edges and prove I’m easy-going, even if all I’m doing is asking for a restaurant tip or advice about a windy dog. Sometimes, I’ll even add the dependable nebuliser “No worries if not!!!” I’m the same when it comes to kisses. Many years ago I vowed never to finish a work email with an “x”, for the very good reason that it’s unprofessional and “girlie”. But when people started sending them to me, it suddenly felt rude and frosty not to respond in kind. Still, I do have some standards. I’ll never write “best” because I’m too damned busy to add “wishes” or tell people I’m “super excited”. I won’t “loop in” colleagues, or “circle back”, and I will never “escalate your inquiry upwards going forward”. Is that ok with you? “No worries if not!”

The Spanish tennis player Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has just passed the $10m mark for career prize money, says Lev Akabas in Sportico. Which is impressive, given he has never won a top-tier singles event. The 26-year-old, currently ranked 15th in the world, has played in 138 ATP tournaments without winning a single one. He has an unfortunate habit of choking at big moments, squandering at least four championship points across two finals. Still, he does at least have a doubles title to his name, from the 2020 Chile Open. His prize money for that? A measly $17,080.

Reform UK has a big problem, says Sam Ashworth-Hayes in The Daily Telegraph. Nigel Farage’s party is promising to slash public spending, including major cuts to welfare. But there are 38 seats in Britain where more than half the population receive benefits, and 355 where 40% do. Which constituency is most reliant on handouts? Farage’s own Clacton, where almost 60% of adults claim at least one benefit. Great Yarmouth, won by Reform’s Rupert Lowe (now independent) is in seventh. Richard Tice’s Boston and Skegness is eighth. In other words, to fix public finances, Reform must “take from its own voters”.

They’re the Delevingne sisters, says Clare Nicholls in The Caterer, who have been sent a cease-and-desist letter by the champagne industry body for exploiting the reputation of the regional sparkling wine in adverts for their, presumably revolting, vegan prosecco. Model Cara and her siblings Chloe and Poppy founded Della Vite in 2020, and recently ran a promotional campaign which included the slogan: “Cheat on champagne”. They subsequently received a letter from the Comité Champagne, demanding they stop referring to the French fizz in their marketing. The Delevingnes sensibly refused and instead posted the letter on social media for a little extra free publicity. Santé.