Politics

May forced to delay China trade mission because of Trump clash Theresa May has been forced to delay a long-awaited trade mission to China after Beijing chose to prioritise a visit by Donald Trump, the US President. Sky News has learnt that Downing Street officials had been co-ordinating plans for a trip to take place next month, with dozens of business leaders alerted to the possibility of joining her as she attempts to forge crucial post-Brexit trade ties with the world's second-largest economy. Sources said the visit had been pencilled in for several days during the week of November 6th, with parliament scheduled to be in recess from the 7th to the 13th. They added, however, that it was postponed earlier this week because Downing Street officials were informed by China's government that it would not be able to accommodate her in such close proximity to an Asian tour by President Trump. The US President is due to visit five countries in the Far East, including China ...

Forgive me if this triggers awful memories, but on election night last November, as we watched the returns come in showing Donald Trump winning Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, something just didn’t feel right. In most polling and punditry circles, there had been literally zero chatter about Trump potentially sweeping these three states — a feat that no Republican candidate had accomplished since Ronald Reagan in 1984.  How had such an unlikely thing happened? After the election, we heard a wide array of theories, including the ones about how previous Obama voters in the Rust Belt didn’t believe the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party spoke to their economic grievances, so they flipped to Trump — a whiplash-inducing switchover given the chasmic differences between number 44 and 45. There may be some threads of validity to that analysis, but was it enough of a messaging oversight by Team Hillary to flip states that hadn’t gone red in more than three decades? Insti...

Two people are dead and 24 injured — at least 12 critically — after a shooting Sunday night near a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, police said. After reporting that one suspect was “down,” police later said in a tweet: “At this time we do not believe there are any more shooters.” Witnesses told the Associated Press that they could see muzzle flashes coming from the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino’s high floors and described the sound of automatic gunfire. The shooting appeared to take place near the Route 91 Harvest Festival, a three-day country music concert held over the weekend that reportedly drew 30,000 attendees. The concert grounds are adjacent to Mandalay Bay. The shots began as Jason Aldean, one of the final performers, was playing. One witness, Ivetta Saldana, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Aldean was rushed off stage when the shots rang out. “It was a horror show,” she said. “People were standing around, then they hit the floor.” Videos posted to ...