‘Wes, prime minister?’ and ‘My flare lady’

Published

5 minutes ago

May 14, 2026

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Health Secretary Wes Streeting dominates the front pages, as Sir Keir Starmer continues to try and retain his premiership. “Wes, prime minister?” asks the Metro, reporting that Streeting has told his allies he will challenge Sir Keir on Thursday. It comes following what the paper describes as a “bombshell 16-minute face-to-face confrontation” in Downing Street on Wednesday, just hours before the King’s Speech.

The headline on the front page of the Metro reads: “Wes, prime minister?”. — Health Secretary Wes Streeting dominates the front pages, as Sir Keir Starmer continues to try and retain his premiership. “Wes, prime minister?” asks the Metro, reporting that Streeting has told his allies he will challenge Sir Keir on Thursday. It comes following what the paper describes as a “bombshell 16-minute face-to-face confrontation” in Downing Street on Wednesday, just hours before the King’s Speech.

The Sun says the Labour Party is in “civil war”, and Streeting is planning to “fire the starting gun” on a “bloody” leadership contest. Catherine, Princess of Wales, is pictured front and centre of the paper in a fitted blue suit with flared trousers. “My flare lady” is visiting Italy on her first overseas trip following treatment for cancer.

The headline on the front page of the Sun reads: “Street fighter”. — The Sun says the Labour Party is in “civil war”, and Streeting is planning to “fire the starting gun” on a “bloody” leadership contest. Catherine, Princess of Wales, is pictured front and centre of the paper in a fitted blue suit with flared trousers. “My flare lady” is visiting Italy on her first overseas trip following treatment for cancer.

“Streeting prepares to quit ahead of No 10 challenge” reads the Times, which says the health secretary is expected to quit the government on Thursday morning to formally launch his campaign for No 10. The paper says this will trigger a three-way fight between Streeting, Sir Keir and a soft-left candidate, which it predicts will be Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham or Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. A government source has told the Times that a leadership contest would “essentially shut down” the government for months.

The headline on the front page of the Times reads: “Streeting prepares to quit ahead of No 10 challenge”. — “Streeting prepares to quit ahead of No 10 challenge” reads the Times, which says the health secretary is expected to quit the government on Thursday morning to formally launch his campaign for No 10. The paper says this will trigger a three-way fight between Streeting, Sir Keir and a soft-left candidate, which it predicts will be Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham or Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. A government source has told the Times that a leadership contest would “essentially shut down” the government for months.

Streeting’s move to force a race has prompted a “frantic scramble”, the Guardian says, as the left of Labour looks for a candidate to oppose him. The paper suggests that Miliband and former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner are their key contenders, noting that while Burnham is a “favoured replacement” for Sir Keir, he does not have a Commons seat.

The headline on the front page of the Guardian reads: “Streeting on manoeuvres ready to launch leadership challenge today”. — Streeting’s move to force a race has prompted a “frantic scramble”, the Guardian says, as the left of Labour looks for a candidate to oppose him. The paper suggests that Miliband and former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner are their key contenders, noting that while Burnham is a “favoured replacement” for Sir Keir, he does not have a Commons seat.

The Daily Telegraph is leading on Miliband’s possible bid for leadership, and says Sir Keir is expecting the energy secretary to “throw his hat in the ring” shortly after Streeting’s anticipated resignation. Sources told the paper that Miliband was the most likely proposition for the soft-Left faction of the Labour party, as Rayner was still dealing with unresolved tax issues. Much like the Times, the Telegraph has been warned that the leadership contest is likely to “plunge the country into chaos” by “paralysing” government and spooking the bond markets.

The headline on the front page of the Daily Telegraph reads: “Miliband to fight Streeting for No 10”. — The Daily Telegraph is leading on Miliband’s possible bid for leadership, and says Sir Keir is expecting the energy secretary to “throw his hat in the ring” shortly after Streeting’s anticipated resignation. Sources told the paper that Miliband was the most likely proposition for the soft-Left faction of the Labour party, as Rayner was still dealing with unresolved tax issues. Much like the Times, the Telegraph has been warned that the leadership contest is likely to “plunge the country into chaos” by “paralysing” government and spooking the bond markets.

One of the few front pages not to feature a photograph of Streeting, the Mirror’s, instead focuses on an inquiry launched into a £5m gift received by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Political opponents have said that the gift, which was from billionaire Reform backer Christopher Harborne, should have been declared in the MPs’ register of interests. Farage has said he was under “no obligation” to declare the gift because it was given before he was an MP.

The headline on the front page of the Mirror reads: “Farage in £5m sleaze probe”. — One of the few front pages not to feature a photograph of Streeting, the Mirror’s, instead focuses on an inquiry launched into a £5m gift received by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Political opponents have said that the gift, which was from billionaire Reform backer Christopher Harborne, should have been declared in the MPs’ register of interests. Farage has said he was under “no obligation” to declare the gift because it was given before he was an MP.

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Trump-Xi summit live: US president preparing to meet China’s leader with trade, Taiwan and the Iran war set to dominate talks | Donald Trump

Published

1 hour ago

May 14, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

Key events

Xi Jinping has walked down stairs in Tinanman Square as a US motorcade drives towards the area.

US officials including secretary of state Marco Rubio and defence secretary Pete Hegseth are also gathering.

From Beijing we’re seeing live images of an honour guard marching into position before a welcome ceremony for Donald Trump at the Great Hall of the People – due to start in minutes .

The honour guard in Tiananmen Square.
Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

During the summit, Donald Trump also intends to raise the idea of the US, China and Russia signing a pact that would set limits on the nuclear weapons each nation keeps in its arsenal, according to a senior Trump administration official who spoke anonymously in briefing reporters ahead of the trip.

China has previously been cool to entering such a pact. Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the US and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads.

The last nuclear arms pact between Russia and the US – known as the New Start treaty – expired in February. As it was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved and modernised” deal that includes China.

China’s liquid-fueled intercontinental strategic nuclear missiles DongFeng-5C, which have a global strike range, pass through Tiananmen Square during a V-Day military parade last year. Photograph: China News Service/Getty Images

Rubio says US will urge Beijing to be more ‘active’ in resolving Iran war – report

Marco Rubio says American officials will try to persuade China to take a more “active role” in resolving the conflict in Iran, Fox News is reporting.

The US secretary of state told the network from aboard Air Force One while en route to China that the US had made its case to Beijing on why it should engage in efforts to settle simmering tensions with Iran.

“It’s in their interest to resolve this,” Rubio said.

We hope to convince them to play a more active role in getting Iran to walk away from what they’re doing now and trying to do now in the Persian Gulf.”

Among the big tech leaders who (eventually) flew to China with Trump on Air Force One is Jensen Huang, the president and CEO of Nvidia.

Trump was reportedly picked up Huang in Alaska en route to the Beijing summit, while the presidential plane was refuelling. Trump asked Huang at the last minute to join the trip, Reuters quoted a source as saying. Huang had not figured on an initial list of travelling executives provided by the White House.

Various media outlets had reported on Huang’s apparent omission after the plane had departed for Alaska and Beijing. Trump later posted from Air Force One saying Huang was onboard and he denied the CEO had not been invited.

The Nvidia boss is close to Trump, but in April Huang criticised the US’s limitations on chip sales to China, saying he didn’t want a “loser mentality” to cost the US its edge in AI. The sale of US semiconductors to China is believed to be a key agenda item for the summit.

Donald Trump and Jensen Huang speak at an Invest in America event last year. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Here are some photos of US snipers and other security forces watching over Air Force One while it refuelled on Tuesday at Joint Base Elmendorf in Anchorage, Alaska.

Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Amy Hawkins

Donald Trump will drive through a Chinese capital that is smoggier than it was on his last visit in 2017, when the authorities launched emergency measures to clear the skies of pollution days before his first state visit to Beijing.

Factories were ordered to halt production and heavily polluting cars were banned from the roads in the days ahead of the US president’s trip nearly a decade ago, an era in which China had declared war on air pollution and made special efforts to clear the skies ahead of important political events such as visiting dignitaries and the Beijing Olympics.

Members of the military rehearse before Donald Trump is greeted by Xi Jinping. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

No such efforts have been made this year. The air quality index in the capital is over 150 today, well over the World Health Organization’s guidelines for healthy air, shrouding the city in a greyish smog full of pollutants that are harmful to human health.

In recent years China’s fight against air pollution has slowed. That is partly because huge improvements have already been made: last year average levels of PM2.5 in Beijing – the most harmful particulate in air pollution – dropped to below 30 for the first time since records began more than a decade ago.

But heavily polluted skies remain a fairly common occurrence. And a visit from the US president is no longer a reason to clear them.

Trump is soon to kick off the busiest part of his China trip.

He arrived in Beijing late on Wednesday but on Thursday the summit begins in earnest.

Xi Jinping will officially welcome the US president during a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People reportedly beginning at 10am local time – just under 45 minutes away – followed by bilateral talks.

Then there’s some cultural programming – a visit to the Temple of Heaven – before a state banquet capping the day.

This trip is expected to be long on pageantry and symbolism, as the Associated Press reports, but neither side has yet offered concrete details on what Trump or Xi will come away with.

David Smith

I’m now sitting in the press filing centre at the China World Hotel in Beijing. Two American flags and a wooden lectern bearing a “United States embassy Beijing” seal stand on a black podium against a black curtain beneath a giant crystal chandelier.

There are TVs on either side of the podium: one showing CNN, the other Fox News. Sadly, that is as close as many reporters will get to seeing Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in action today.

And there is no guarantee that anyone will appear at the lectern to brief the media, who are sitting on 10 rows of desks covered with blue tablecloths.

The busiest man here today is an IT consultant from the phone and internet company AT&T, who is fielding queries from hapless journalists about VPNs trying to circumvent China’s Great Firewall.

But for western media there are creature comforts nearby. The hotel connects to a luxury mall that includes Peet’s Coffee, Starbucks, Chanel, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Burberry, Armani, Givenchy and Hugo Boss.

David Smith

Greetings from Beijing, where I awoke to CNN coverage of Chinese social media mocking Donald Trump and America as a fading superpower.

CNN noted that China’s tough internet censors had evidently allowed these comments to appear. But then my TV suddenly “lost signal”, which felt suspicious, though the coverage soon resumed.

Motor unit police officers ride around the perimeter of the hotel where Donald Trump is staying in Beijing. Photograph: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images

Outside a lift on the 10th floor of the press hotel I bumped into Jacqui Heinrich, senior White House correspondent of the conservative Fox News channel. She had travelled with Trump on the long Air Force One flight but noted that, unusually, he did not come to the press cabin to “gaggle” with reporters.

Perhaps he was having too much fun with Elon Musk? Or maybe White House chief of staff Susie Wiles had intervened to make sure he didn’t make flip comment about Taiwan?

Trump’s arrival in Beijing – in pictures

Here are some images of Donald Trump’s welcome in China after touching down aboard Air Force One at Beijing capital international airport on Wednesday night.

Trump exits Air Force One – the US president’s plane – to kick off his landmark state visit to China, during which he is expected to discuss trade and tariffs, the Iran war, Taiwan and AI. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Trump receives a flower bouquet from a young girl beside Chinese vice-president Han Zheng on the red carpet. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

The honour guard moving into place for Trump’s arrival. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Trump (L) greets Chinese vice-president Han Zheng (R) as Space X chief Elon Musk (C) looks on. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Trump with Han on the red carpet. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

People gather to see Trump’s motorcade outside the Four Seasons hotel in Beijing. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

The president is also travelling with a large contingent of business leaders that reportedly includes:

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and Space X CTO
Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO
Tim Cook, Apple CEO
Kelly Ortberg, Boeing CEO
Dina Powell McCormick, Meta president and vice chairman
Larry Fink, Blackrock chairman and CEO
Other banking, finance and tech executives

Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the Oval Office in May last year. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

So who else travelled with Trump on Air Force One to China? According to a partial list provided by the White House: US secretary of state Marco Rubio, defence secretary Pete Hegseth and senior adviser Stephen Miller.

Also onboard were Eric and Lara Trump, plus an array of White House advisers, strategists, speech writers and communications executives.

(From left) Eric and Lara Trump, Oval Office operations director Walt Nauta and Marco Rubio in Washington DC as they prepared to leave for China. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Iran war and the other big questions hanging over Trump-Xi summit

One of Trump’s pressing concerns as he visits Beijing is how to find a way to reopen the strait of Hormuz, through which half of China’s crude oil passes.

China has been more insulated from the energy shock than other Asian countries, thanks to its diversified energy mix and large stockpiles. But the risk of a global recession – which the International Monetary Fund has warned is a possible outcome of the Iran war – is a bigger threat to China’s economy.

About a fifth of China’s GDP comes from exports. If the rest of the world is no longer able to spend money on goods, China will suffer.

There’s speculation Trump could use the summit to seek Beijing’s help to end the war with China-allied Iran. But the US president told reporters before departing the White House on Tuesday:

I don’t think we need any help with Iran. We’ll win it one way or the other – peacefully or otherwise.”

Trump also sought to play down divisions with Beijing, saying Xi had been “relatively good” during the crisis.

The Guardian’s senior China correspondent, Amy Hawkins, has examined the biggest questions hanging over the Trump-Xi talks, which begin later today.

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UK News

Harry warns of 'deeply troubling' rise in antisemitism in UK

Published

2 hours ago

May 14, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

The Duke of Sussex says “legitimate protest” is important but people must be more “clear” about where they are aiming their anger.

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UK News

Remains of second US soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco have been recovered | Morocco

Published

3 hours ago

May 14, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

The remains of the second US army soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco have been recovered, the army said on Wednesday, ending a multinational search operation that deployed air, naval and artificial intelligence assets.

The soldier was identified as Spc Mariyah Symone Collington of Taveres, Florida, the US Army Europe and Africa said in a statement. She was 19 years old.

“Royal Moroccan Armed Forces transported the soldier’s remains by a Moroccan helicopter to the morgue of Moulay El Hassan military hospital in Guelmim, Morocco,” the statement said.

Collington served as an air and missile defense crew member and was assigned to Charlie battery, fifth battalion, fourth air defense artillery regiment, 10th army air and missile defense command, US Army Europe and Africa said.

Collington entered the Regular Army’s Delayed Entry Program in 2023 before beginning active-duty service in 2024. She completed basic combat training and advanced individual training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as a 14P air and missile defense crew member. She reported to Charlie battery, fifth battalion, fourth air defense artillery regiment, in Ansbach, Germany, in February 2025 and was promoted to specialist on 1 May 2026.

Her awards and decorations include the army service ribbon.

The announcement came days after the military said the remains of another soldier, 1st Lt Kendrick Lamont Key Jr, a 14A air defense artillery officer, had been recovered. The two soldiers fell off a cliff during an off-duty recreational hike in Morocco. Their remains are en route to the United States.

A spokesperson for the US Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) told the Associated Press that the circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation.

The two soldiers were reported missing on 2 May after participating in African Lion, an annual multinational military exercise held in Morocco. Their disappearance triggered a search operation involving more than 1,000 US and Moroccan military and civilian personnel, the SETAF-AF spokesperson added.

African Lion 26 is a US-led exercise launched in April across four countries – Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal – with more than 7,000 personnel from more than 30 nations. Since 2004, it has been the largest US joint military exercise in Africa.

In 2012, two US marines were killed and two others injured during a helicopter crash in Morocco’s southern city of Agadir while taking part in the exercises.

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