Trump’s fatal flaw is about to be exposed on the world stage

When Donald Trump touches down in Beijing on Thursday, for his long-delayed summit with China’s leader Xi Jinping, he will be hoping to project an aura of US power.

Accompanying the US President’s long motorcade will be military personnel and an entourage of corporate titans, including Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook and Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg. But the optics of this state visit mask the major challenges awaiting the US delegation.

Trump arrives in a China that has spent years making itself more resilient to US influence and pressure, leaving Trump attempting to secure rapid, transactional victories with a weakened hand.

Shorts – Quick stories

politics

Which members of Government have gone so far?

Sir Keir Starmer has briefly met with presumed leadership rival Wes Streeting in No 10 as the Prime Minister continues to resist calls from within Labour for him to stand down.

The crisis at the top of Government has so far seen the resignations of 10 MPs from their frontline roles, including four junior ministers. Among the most prominent has been the departure of Home Office minister Jess Phillips.

What you need to know

• Six parliamentary private secretaries (PPS) – the eyes and ears of a minister in the House of Commons – have stepped down.
• They include Joe Morris, PPS to Streeting, and Melanie Ward, PPS to Justice Secretary David Lammy, a key ally of Starmer.
• The three ministers who have quit alongside Jess Phillips are Miatta Fahnbulleh, Alex Davies-Jones and Zubir Ahmed.
• In her resignation letter, Phillips criticised Starmer for his record on online protections.

OPINION

4 min read

Crisis in Downing Street

While the Prime Minister has suffered the loss of 10 members of his Government, to date the departures have been restricted to its junior ranks. Starmer is widely seen as having laid down the gauntlet to his Cabinet colleagues to either formally challenge him, or allow him to stay in office.

Some 11 Labour-supporting unions are expected to state publicly that Starmer will not lead the party into the next election. Ministers are being watched minute-by-minute for signs of a formal split.

HEALTH

Why weight-loss pill after jabs may help keep pounds off

People using anti-obesity jabs can maintain weight loss by moving to a daily pill at the end of their treatment, a study suggests.

Researchers found that using orforglipron – an anti-obesity pill developed by US pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly – could be an “effective approach” for avoiding regaining pounds after injections have stopped.

What you need to know

• While anti-obesity jabs are effective at promoting weight loss, patients have been found to regain the pounds after treatment stops.
• Researchers in the US found that switching to orforglipron allowed patients using jabs to retain about 75 to 80 per cent of their weight loss.
• Orforglipron is also a GLP-1 agonist, the same type of compound used in anti-obesity injections such as Mounjaro and Wegovy.

OPINION

3 min read

Weight-loss pill ‘cheaper’ than jabs

The US findings add to evidence that anti-obesity pills hold promise as a new method of promoting or maintaining weight loss, not least because they are significantly cheaper to manufacture than injections and easier to use.

Orforglipron, which is Eli Lilly’s hope for its next blockbuster drug, is taken as a once-a-day pill and was tested with 376 patients who had previously used jabs. The pill has been licensed in America but is still awaiting approval in the UK.

HEALTH

How children’s taste for vegetables ‘begins before birth’

Young children react more favourably to the smell of vegetables if they were regularly exposed to them while developing in the womb, researchers have found.

A study at Durham University found evidence that three-year-olds develop a memory of the flavour and odour of foods they were exposed to in late pregnancy.

Everything you need to know

Remembering tastes

The reactions of toddlers to the smell of carrots or kale was examined to see whether taste can be established in utero.

Powder capsules

Children were tested for their response to the smell of the vegetables after their mothers took capsules of carrot or kale while pregnant.

Flavour memory

Researchers found children reacted less negatively if their mothers were exposed to the vegetables while pregnant.

Mothers advised to eat varied diet

The scientists found an enduring favourable response in toddlers to the vegetable flavours they were exposed to in the later weeks of pregnancy.

The study recorded the facial expressions of 12 children when they were given wet cotton swabs dipped in the carrot or kale powder their mothers had taken.

PROPERTY AND MORTGAGES

4 min read

LIFESTYLE

4 min read

What the researchers said

• The researchers said the study suggested mothers-to-be should eat a varied diet rich in vegetables and fruits of different colours, with the added possibility it could influence the eating habits of their unborn child.

Analysis

3 min read

NEWS

Bodies of three women pulled from sea at Brighton beach

The bodies of three women were recovered from the sea in Brighton early today, Sussex Police said.

Here is everything we know about this incident so far.

What do we know so far?

• Emergency services were called at around 5.45am on Wednesday, and the women’s bodies were pulled from the water near Madeira Drive.
• Police are conducting enquiries to confirm the identities of the women.

Explained

4 min read

This is a tragic incident and fast-moving enquiries are ongoing to confirm the identities of these three women and understand exactly what has happened. I know this is concerning for the community, but I would ask the public to stay away from the scene at this time while emergency services continue their work.

Chief Superintendent Adam Hays

Is napping an invaluable part of the day or an unproductive hour?

To find out how to feel better, brighter and bushy-tailed, we asked Russell Foster, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Oxford, everything you need to know about napping.

LABEL – CATEGORY

How long should we nap for?

For Professor Foster, the ideal length of a time for a nap is just 20 minutes and certainly no longer than 30. 

“You don’t want to do is fall into deeper sleep, because then recovery from that can leave you groggy,” he says.

Is there an optimum time of day to nap?

Napping too late in the day is warned against.

• An early-afternoon nap of around 20 minutes can improve your cognition during the second half of the day.
• If you have a nap later on, you can push back your sleep pressure, which means the longer you’ve been awake the greater need for sleep, at night.
• As long as you’re getting the sleep that you need to function optimally, that’s the main thing.

LOREM IPSUM

How much sleep does a person need?

Sleep is like a shoe: one size doesn’t fit all.

Oversleeping on days-off or sustaining your waking day with caffeine and other stimulants are signs of tiredness.

Not everybody needs eight hours of sleep; it’s variable, dynamic and individual. And will vary over a lifetime depending on the season.

Other things to know

It doesn’t matter where you physically nap as long as it feels right and you’re comfortable.

You can create the right environment by making it dark, calm or using a smell like lavender.

Generally speaking, napping is probably a metric that you’re not getting the sleep you need at night, says Professor Foster. “But don’t beat yourself up over it. A short nap, if it improves the second half of the day, is fine”.

How would Andy Burnham become prime minister?

Andy Burnham is one of the frontrunners to replace Sir Keir Starmer if he resigns as Prime Minister. The Manchester Mayor has previously indicated he would be willing to overthrow the current Labour leader.

First step – find a vacant seat

A vacant parliamentary seat would need to be available and finding one may not be easy.

There are two by-elections coming up in Scotland, but Burnham is unlikely to stand in these.

MPs have indicated in the past they would step aside for Burnham, including Clive Lewis, but these suggestions have since been quashed.

Step two – Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee

If a seat were to become vacant, Burnham would need to win over the National Executive Committee (NEC), who is responsible for choosing Labour’s candidates. In January, the NEC blocked Burnham from running in Gorton and Denton. A 10-strong group, including the PM, voted to deny Burnham permission.

Exclusive

3 min read

Step three – a leadership ballot

If Burnham were to be elected to Parliament, only then could he make a Labour leadership bid. According to the Labour Party rule book, candidates seeking to enter the ballot must be an MP.

This is because the Labour leader is the Prime Minister, therefore they would need to be a Member of Parliament. The current rules state a candidate must receive nominations from 20 per cent of their Labour colleagues in Parliament to be in the running.

A summary of necessary steps

What is standing in Burnham’s way?

• Vacant seat
• NEC permission
• Win election, become an MP
• Meet nominations threshold
• Win leadership competition, become Labour leader and prime minister

FOOD AND DRINK

Greggs to open international shop at Tenerife South airport

The British chain will bring its beloved range of baked goods to the Canary Islands.

Greggs last operated shops abroad in Belgium in 2008, but said Tenerife was “the ideal location to test spreading our wings in an overseas setting”.

What you need to know

• Greggs will open a branch in Tenerife South airport later this month.
• The usual range of sausage rolls, pasties and sweet treats will be on offer.
• A ‘Spanish omelette roll’ will also be on the menu.
• Around half of Tenerife’s 13 million visitors go to and from the UK each year.

OPINION

2 min read

What Greggs is saying

It’s an exciting milestone for Greggs as we bring a slice of home to the Canaries, and we’re confident our great-value offering will resonate just as well under the Spanish sun as it does on the UK high street.

Greggs chief executive Roisin Currie

GO DEEPER ON THIS TOPIC

Greggs has made me ashamed to be British

Emily Watkins

Freelance writer

Spain – a land of excellent food, rich cultural identity and a beautiful language.
Of course, if you’re a British tourist there, odds are you won’t have noticed.

Why do the British insist on exporting their culture when they travel?

Read more here.

Why driving test booking is set to
change for learners

Changes begin on 12 May to reduce wait times and prevent bots and touts from exploiting the system.

Driving test reforms

What you need to know

• Under new laws, it’ll be illegal for driving instructors or anyone else to book tests for pupils.
• They will not be able to change, swap or cancel a test for someone else either.
• Learners will still need a reference from their instructor.
• Only two changes to a booked slot are allowed; previously, it was up to six.
• From 9 June, tests can only be moved to three locations nearest to where the original test was booked.

Why are there changes?

A backlog of driving tests built up as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Instructors were being offered kickbacks of up to £250 to sell their login credentials to touts.

Slots were being bought up in bulk and offered via social media for up to £500.

The standard cost is £62 on weekdays and £75 on evenings and weekends.

OPINION

2 min read

One challenge for the White House is its diminishing economic leverage. For the past year, Trump’s administration has pushed its sweeping tariff measures, including global duties and triple-digit levies on Chinese goods. These were seen as the ultimate tool to force Beijing’s co-operation. Yet this strategy is unravelling at home.

A string of US court rulings, culminating on 7 May, has dismantled the legal architecture of Trump’s approach, striking down his unprecedented use of Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. The US delegation arrives in Beijing with its primary economic weapon heavily restricted.

China, by contrast, has demonstrated its willingness to deploy its own economic arsenal, notably its near-monopoly on critical minerals. In response to US technology restrictions, Beijing has already squeezed the export of rare earth elements and permanent magnets.

This raises a critical question for Washington: who is hurting more? While China has undoubtedly felt the sting of restrictions placed on US semiconductor exports, America’s defence industry and technology sector are feeling the squeeze of China’s mineral chokehold. Those materials are critical to modern munitions and advanced manufacturing.

The make-up of Trump’s delegation illustrates the possible limits of this summit.

While the presence of executives like Musk, Cook and Ortberg suggests a desire to strike headline-grabbing deals – potentially large commercial aircraft orders or agricultural purchases to appease Trump’s rural voter base – the absences are equally telling.

Crucially, Jensen Huang, the Taiwanese-American chief executive of chipmaker Nvidia, is not part of the trip. As the head of the world’s most valuable company, and the lynchpin of the global chip and AI race, Huang was a key part of Trump’s recent entourages to the Middle East and the UK. His absence in Beijing highlights the reality of the ongoing US-China technology war.

Supply chains and the Taiwanese semiconductor industry sit at the heart of this contest.

However, perhaps the most visible challenge constraining Trump is the US-Israeli conflict with Iran. The war has dragged on far longer than the Trump White House anticipated, generating a global energy shock that has sent domestic US fuel prices soaring and has seen the President’s approval rating drop markedly.

With US naval forces tied down in Iran, Washington’s diplomatic and military bandwidth in the Indo-Pacific, where China is increasingly pushing its influence, is more and more stretched. The Iran crisis has also allowed Xi to project a calm and methodical leadership style that contrasts sharply with Trump’s own.

While US forces manage a Middle Eastern blockade, Beijing has exploited its non-aligned stance. China recently hosted Iran’s foreign minister, backed a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire, signed a new trade deal with Nato member Spain and secured 24 investment and trade agreements with the UAE.

The contrast in demeanour and strategy between Xi and Trump affects US structural power, which China has done its best to weaken. While the West cannot claim to be unaware of China’s domestic censorship and repression, Trump’s mercurial and transactional foreign policy style makes it easier for China’s leadership to make them look the other way.

Trump’s controversial moves since returning to office, including snatching the president of Venezuela in a military raid, threatening to annex Greenland from Denmark and persistent trade frictions with traditional allies like Canada and Europe, have often caught the US’s international partners off guard. Xi has capitalised on this by hosting multiple European leaders seeking economic stability, while dispatching his commerce minister to solidify trade ties with India, further insulating China’s supply chains from future US disruptions.

Nowhere is the danger of diminished US leverage more acute than across the Taiwan Strait. And sensing American distraction, Beijing is pressing its advantage.

During a recent meeting with Cheng Li-wun, Taiwan’s opposition leader, Xi explicitly weaponised the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, pointing to the fragility of distant maritime lifelines to imply that US security guarantees are an illusion.

Trump has, in the past, voiced ambivalence about defending Taiwan. The greatest risk of this summit in Beijing is that the US President, eager for a political win to reverse sagging poll numbers, might agree to alter Washington’s long-standing diplomatic language on Taiwan in exchange for superficial economic deals.

This week’s summit is about playing the long game, which isn’t Trump’s strength. Trump desires quick victories, ones that can be used to boost his domestic position, while Xi will look to secure control over the supply chains, minerals and diplomatic relationships that will define the mid-21st century.

If the White House trades long-term economic statecraft for short-term political gains, it will validate the exact narrative that China is attempting to project around the world: that US leverage is quietly but steadily waning, as its own grows.

James Rogers is a co-founder and director of research at the Council on Geostrategy