Donald Trump arrived at Windsor Castle this morning for the first day of his second state visit. The US president took part in a carriage procession through the royal estate with the King, and will later be treated to a military flypast and a lavish state banquet. Last night, Britain and America announced a “tech prosperity deal” that will see Microsoft, Nvidia, Google and OpenAI invest billions of pounds in UK computing infrastructure. Utah is seeking the death penalty for Tyler Robinson, who was charged yesterday with the murder of Charlie Kirk. State prosecutors released text messages in which the 22-year-old’s partner asked him if he “did it”, to which he responded: “I am, I’m sorry.” More than a quarter of driving tests in Great Britain are being taken in automatic cars, up from just over 5% less than 10 years ago. Insurer AA says the shift is largely due to the forthcoming ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030, which is pushing new learners towards electric vehicles.

The “quiet triumph” of King Charles

Donald Trump’s unprecedented second state visit isn’t just an opportunity for Keir Starmer to curry favour with the US president and secure new investment deals, says Tina Brown in The New York Times. It’s also a showcase for the “deft international statesmanship” of the King. Critics long wondered if the “opinionated, emotional” Charles – a man obsessed with the then-unfashionable issues of climate change and “hokey homeopathy” – could ever attain the “royal mystique” of his mother. Many assumed the septuagenarian’s reign would be merely transitional ahead of William, that his ambitions would essentially be limited to: “keep buggering on”. Instead, Charles’s first three years on the throne have been a “quiet triumph”.

It’s not just that many of the King’s previously mocked views have become mainstream. He helped ease some of the hurt feelings over Brexit, first by “buttering up the Bundestag” in fluent German and then by addressing the French Senate in “perfect French”. He signalled “official British disgust” with Trump’s claims that Canada would become the 51st US state by taking a swift trip to open parliament in Ottawa. Perhaps most striking was when he changed his schedule to host Volodymyr Zelensky for tea at Sandringham shortly after the Ukrainian president underwent his “shameful pummelling” in the Oval Office – a fundamentally decent gesture that Elizabeth II, with her “strict adherence to diplomatic diaries”, would never have countenanced. In this social media age, when the “mask of monarchy” is no longer possible, Charles is redefining how we expect a modern sovereign to behave. In doing so, he is becoming “the last man standing who can exude global gravitas”.

👑 🙄 Charles, I’m told, is tiring of William’s “self-righteous intractability” in the feud with Harry. He wants to “re-embrace” his younger son – if only he can keep his mouth shut. But Harry’s interview with The Guardian after their long-postponed reunion last week – in which the “imperturbably cocky” prince insisted “My conscience is clear” – suggests “the futility of expecting Harry Hotspur to play the old royal game”.