#emily-thornberry

#emily-thornberry

The uncomfortable truth is that Britain is not being ignored by accident. It is being bypassed because it no longer carries the weight it once did.

The war in Iran must now become a line in the sand, because how we emerge from this crisis will define all of us for a generation. Instead of hoping to return to the world of 2008, we will forge a new path for Britain that strengthens our energy, our defence and our economic security in a new age.

Since cutting the overseas aid budget to fund higher defence spending losing the excellent Anneliese Dodds in the process Labour has had little to say on the subject, aside from the fact that 0.3% of national income is the new normal. But despite the cuts, Foreign Office sources insist that behind the scenes there is a renewed commitment to winning the argument for the impact and benefits of international development.

What I was not prepared to do on Saturday was for the UK to join a war, unless I was satisfied there was a lawful basis and a viable thought-through plan.

Keir Starmer has travelled to China with a vow to bring stability and clarity to the UK's approach to Beijing after years of what he described as inconsistency under the Tories, but a series of issues may get in the way of his efforts to improve relations with the economic powerhouse. Human rights One of the thorniest issues on the agenda is the case of Jimmy Lai, the jailed former media tycoon and one of Hong Kong's most famous pro-democracy voices.

I don't want to get involved in UK politics, but I can say that it has been disappointing. It has been very disappointing... we would have expected the UK to do much more.

An unfinished website claiming to launch Angela Rayner's Labour leadership campaign was published temporarily in January, prompting further speculation that the former deputy prime minister could be gearing up for a contest to replace Keir Starmer. The Guardian was alerted to the website, which appeared to be under construction, by a source in the IT industry before the US Department of Justice's latest release of documents on Jeffrey Epstein threw the UK government into disarray.

It has been clear for many years that China's status as a second global superpower poses challenges to the world's democracies. Donald Trump's marauding behaviour as president of the first-placed superpower makes those challenges more acute. In the past, the UK's relationship with Beijing has been anchored, and sometimes dictated, by the alliance with Washington. Mr Trump's contempt for former allies, expressed as sabotage of Nato and a scattergun imposition of tariffs, scrambles the old strategic calculus.