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President Donald Trump of the United States made Britain and other countries dance to his tune. Sir Keir Starmer, telephoning him about Greenland, said: ‘Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of Nato allies is wrong.’ Mr Trump had said he would impose tariffs on Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden until ‘such time as a Deal is reached for [the US’s] Complete and Total purchase of Greenland’. Then Mr Trump posted remarks on social media saying Britain’s gift to Mauritius of the Chagos Islands, including the base at Diego Garcia, was ‘an act of GREAT STUPIDITY’. He added: ‘China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness.’ The government approved plans for a huge Chinese embassy in London.

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, just had time to sack Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet and strip him of the party whip before he defected to Reform. A copy of his defection speech had been leaked. Standing beside Nigel Farage, he said: ‘Both Labour and the Conservatives broke Britain. And both are now dominated by those without the competence or backbone needed to fix it.’ Andrew Rosindell, 59, MP for Romford and shadow minister for foreign affairs, also joined Reform. The British economy grew by 0.3 per cent in November. Unemployment remained at 5.1 per cent. Annual public-sector pay growth rose to 7.9 per cent; in the private sector it fell to 3.6 per cent. Inflation rose from 3.2 to 3.4 per cent. Patrick Skene Catling, the writer and contributor to The Spectator, died aged 100.

Craig Guildford, the chief constable of West Midlands Police, retired with a full pension after Downing Street lost confidence in him over the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a football match in Birmingham. The jailed nurse Lucy Letby will face no new criminal charges over baby deaths because the Crown Prosecution Service found ‘the evidential test was not met’ in those cases. Eight nurses were subjected to a ‘hostile, humiliating and degrading environment’ after a transgender colleague was allowed to use female changing rooms at Darlington Memorial Hospital, an employment tribunal ruled. The government decided to consult about a ban on social media for under-16s, as in Australia. In the seven days to 19 January, 901 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats. Thousands of bags of potato chips washed up at Eastbourne, East Sussex.

Abroad

In a reply to a message about Greenland from Jonas Gahr Store, the Prime Minister of Norway, Mr Trump said: ‘Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.’ Emmanuel Macron of France wanted the EU to activate its never used anti-coercion instrument or ‘trade bazooka’ against America; he donned aviator sunglasses at Davos to rally resistance. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the Russian government paper, urged on Mr Trump. Maria Corina Machado, the exiled Venezuelan opposition leader, presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Mr Trump. Sir Tony Blair was appointed a member of a ‘founding executive board’ working with Mr Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ as part of a confused series of bodies supposed to implement a 20-point Gaza peace plan. Invitations also went out to 60 countries to join the ‘Board of Peace’ and to contribute $1 billion each. France declined; Russia said President Vladimir Putin had been invited.

In an air strike on Syria, the US killed Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, an al-Qaeda leader linked to an Islamic State terrorist who shot dead two US soldiers at Palmyra last month. The Syrian government announced a ceasefire with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces; Damascus assumed responsibility for camps holding tens of thousands of foreign Islamic State fighters and their families. French police arrested a group of suspected people-smugglers using an inflatable in a canal at Gravelines.

A high-speed train travelling from Malaga to Madrid derailed in southern Spain and collided with a train coming the other way, killing at least 42. Valentino Garavani, the fashion designer, died aged 93. President Yoweri Museveni, 81, won the Ugandan presidential election with 72 per cent of the vote; his main opponent, Bobi Wine, went into hiding. Xi Jinping, the ruler of China, and Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, met and announced lower tariffs on items such as rapeseed oil (which Canada calls canola oil). CSH