Is China stepping up its ambition to supplant US as top superpower?

Analysis: Joe Biden has cleared the decks to focus on China. But how imminent is the danger?It may have been an inelegantly, even ineptly, executed pivot, gratuitously alienating key allies, but by leaving Afghanistan and forming the Australian, US and…

Chris Whitty warns MPs it is ‘inevitable’ unvaccinated children will catch Covid

Chief medical officer says transmission in England highest among 12- to 15-year-oldsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe rapid spread of Covid makes it “inevitable” that children will be infected and have their education disr…

Joe’s reality check: sure you’re World King, Boris – but only of England

Prime minister’s bluster meets real world as promised post-Brexit trade deal fails to materialiseWhen the highlight of your first trip to the US as prime minister is an awkward minute-long conversation with the president about a shared interest in trai…

Can Boris Johnson expect UK-US trade deal to go ahead?

His closeness to Trump has not helped and if agreement were struck by 2024 it would be considered rapid progressThree reasons. First, Britain exports more to the US than to any other country. When added together, the countries of the European Union cou…

Britain faces a triple crunch – and the political cost for the Tories could be huge | Larry Elliott

The combined challenges of an economic slowdown, rising energy costs and the transition to net zero loom over this governmentLong before there was talk of an energy crisis, the government had been looking vulnerable. Economic growth is slowing and infl…