Wicked: For Good debuts ‘dazzling’ and ‘intriguing’ first trailer

The trailer forWicked: For Good was screened exclusively at CinemaCon yesterday, and early reactions are calling it “dazzling” and “intriguing.”

The film is the much-anticipated sequel to last year’s blockbuster musical Wicked and is set to arrive in theaters on November 21 this year.

The first footage from the film was presented at the annual conference for theater owners and distributors in Las Vegas, presented by director Jon M Chu, producer Marc Platt, and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

According to multiple reports, the clip shown exclusively to the in-house audience introduced classic Wizard of Oz characters Dorothy, the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow to the story.

The trailer also included Erivo and Grande singing popular Wicked second-act songs “For Good” and “No Good Deed” but did not preview the two new songs reportedly written for the sequel by original Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz.

Variety described the first glimpses of the new film as “dazzling,” while The Hollywood Reporter wrote: “To say the Wicked footage bewitched the packed house is an understatement and received a rousing response.”

Gizmodo added that “it was a trailer filled with lots of very cool and intriguing moments.”

Deadline noted that while there were “no musical performances a la Erivo and Grande’s at the Oscars” during the presentation, “the trailer shown to theater owners inside the room was epic enough. And they went nuts for it.”

No release date has yet been announced for the trailer.

The first Wicked film, which was based on the first act of the hit Broadway musical, was a box office success but divided critics.

In a three-star review for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “Wicked looks like every other film now. That’s its problem. It may be the screen adaptation of the stage musical – itself based on a 1995 novel – but, within moments, it also tethers itself directly to the classic 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz.

“And while that film’s Emerald City and Land of Oz have been cemented in the public imagination as brilliant-hued dream worlds, and the most famous demonstration of the Technicolor process, Wicked is shot and lit like we’re being sold an Airbnb in Mykonos.”

Chu has previously said that the second part of the film is “eight times more relevant” because of where we are “in society right now.”

Asked last November how the filmmakers intended to keep the film’s momentum going during the year-long gap between installments, Chu replueed: “I don’t know, but ‘Part Two,’ I will say because I’ve cut ‘Part Two’ together, is a doozy.”

Asteroid that was headed towards with Earth is huge, Nasa finds

The asteroid that caused panic about potentially colliding with Earth is the size of a building, Nasa has found.

The Webb Space Telescope has captured more information and detailed pictures of asteroid 2024 YR4, which briefly appeared to be potentially smashing into Earth in 2032.

The asteroid caused global worry when it was found late last year, and initial observations showed that it could have a 3 per cent chance of hitting Earth.

Additional observations prompted scientists to reduce the threat to virtually zero, where it remains.

But there is a slight chance it could hit the Moon then.

The asteroid swings our way every four years.

Nasa and the European Space Agency released the photos – showing the asteroid as a fuzzy dot – on Wednesday.

Webb confirmed the asteroid is nearly 200ft (60 metres) across, or about the height of a 15-storey building, according to the two space agencies.

It is the smallest object ever observed by the observatory, the biggest and most powerful ever sent into space.

Johns Hopkins University astronomer Andrew Rivkin said the observations by Webb served as “invaluable” practice for other asteroids that may threaten us down the road.

Ground telescopes have also tracked this particular space rock over the past few months.

All this “gives us a window to understand what other objects the size of 2024 YR4 are like, including the next one that might be heading our way”, Mr Rivkin, who helped with the observations, said in a statement.

Additional reporting by agencies

How to cut your council tax with little-known trick helping thousands

As council tax bills rise for almost everyone across the UK, new figures show that many households could be unnecessarily overpaying on the monthly cost.

Thousands of people were able to challenge the government on their property’s council tax band last year, resulting in a lower council tax bill. Of the 43,820 people that asked for a revaluation last year, nearly 1,000 were able to lower their band by two places or more, official figures from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) show.

Since 2019, some 5,591 people have managed to get the council tax band of their property lowered. In 329 of these cases, this was even by four bands or more.

Recent analysis by money expert Martin Lewis has predicted that around 400,000 households are in the wrong band – and so paying too much in council tax – and should consider making a challenge. If successful, the household will not only be due a lower bill going forward, but possibly even a massive backdated payout for all the time they were paying the wrong level of tax.

The banding system is often criticised for being outdated, as the value of properties remains based on an assessment carried out in 1991. These values have changed dramatically in recent years, with some areas seeing massive spikes in property value, and others seeing drops.

For instance, households in Greater London are now paying £444 less on average than those in the North East, despite the region having much higher average sale prices and household incomes. From this month, the average council tax bill is the lowest in the country at £1,981, while those in the North East are seeing £2,425, analysis by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has found.

However, revaluations are not based on today’s prices, but still based on 1991 market rates. This means that the VOA will take the physical characteristics of a property into account, rather than today’s value. Because of this, the agency can actually place the property into a higher tax band if it believes the value has become higher since it was last checked.

In very unlucky cases, a revaluation could also result in neighbouring properties being placed into a higher band. This is why Mr Lewis recommends households make a few easy checks before pressing ahead with their request.

The first step is to compare the band that you’re in with nearby homes with similar characteristics (size, number of bedrooms, garden area and so on). If many of these properties are in a lower band than you, it could be worth making a claim.

But this should not be done before the second step, which is to estimate your home’s value at the time it was assessed to ensure you haven’t got it wrong. This can be done by taking the price that you bought it for and using a free online calculator to see what it would have been worth in 1991. These are offered by Nationwide through its house price index and also by Mr Lewis’s Money Saving Expert service.

Mapping this value against council tax bands to property values in 1991 will give you the clearest indication of whether you have a claim. If your band appears much higher than the value you have landed on, it could be time for a check.

“My big warning: only do this if you pass both checks,” Mr Lewis told viewers of his ITV show last year. “The fact that you’re in a higher band than your neighbours may be because they are all in too low a band.”

There are two ways to challenge the band. The first is to make a formal request to the VOA, but generally, occupants must have lived within the property for six months or less to do this.

The other way is to request an ‘informal review’ from the VOA. However, the agency does not have an obligation to carry this out, so you must provide strong evidence to them that your property is in the wrong band.

A VOA spokesperson said: “There are a number of reasons why a property’s council tax band may change.

“This includes if a property has changed, for example, it is split to form more than one property or multiple properties are merged into one, part of a property is now used for business purposes, or the local area has significantly changed.

“A property’s band may also change when it is sold if it has been improved or extended.”

British couple found in French hamlet ‘died by murder-suicide’

French officials investigating the deaths of a married British couple in the south of France have said they are treating it as a murder-suicide, according to reports.

Andrew and Dawn Searle’s bodies were found dead in the hamlet of Les Pesquies in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Aveyron near Toulouse, in the early afternoon of February 6.

Mrs Searle, also known as Ms Kerr, was found in front of her house with severe wounds to her head, while her husband’s body was found hanged inside.

Police launched an investigation to establish whether the couple died as a result of a murder-suicide, or if a third party was involved.

The prosecutor in charge of the case said there is no evidence that anybody else was involved in the deaths, according to the BBC.

Ms Searle was the mother of Scottish actor and musician Callum Kerr, who played PC George Kiss in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, and appeared in Netflix’s Virgin River.

Mr Kerr shared a statement on his social media account following their deaths which said: “At this time, Callum Kerr and Amanda Kerr are grieving the loss of their mother, Dawn Searle (nee Smith, Kerr), while Tom Searle and Ella Searle are mourning the loss of their father, Andrew Searle.”

He then asked for family’s privacy to be respected during this “difficult period”.

Mr Kerr, 30, had walked his mother down the aisle when she married Mr Searle at a ceremony in France in 2023.

Mr Searle was a retired fraud investigator specialising in financial crime prevention who worked at companies including Standard Life and Barclays Bank, according to his LinkedIn.

French officials claimed they had been living in Aveyron for five years.

A statement issued by French prosecutors in February said: “The first victim, Ms Kerr, has a significant head injury.

“A box containing jewellery was found near to her, but no item or weapon which could have caused the injuries were located.

“Mr Searle, who was found hanged … did not show any visible defensive injuries.”

The Independent has contacted French police and prosecutors for comment.

Drought fuels demand for new coal power stations

A drought-fuelled energy crisis in Zambia and Zimbabwe led to growth in demand for new coal-fired power in 2024, reaching its highest annual total in eight years.

Both countries were gripped by energy shortages for much of the past year as the Kariba Dam hydroelectric plant, which supplies them with the majority of their electricity, faced record-low water levels due to a severe drought.

Newly proposed coal production would create an extra 2.8 gigawatts (GW) of power, according to data produced by research organisation Global Energy Monitor (GEM). A power plant with a capacity of 1 GW can provide the energy needs for around one million US homes.

The 40 per cent of Zambians with grid electricity suffered their “worst blackouts in memory” as the country’s six hydroelectric turbines generated less than 10 per cent of normal electricity output in the latter part of last year.

In Zimbabwe, meanwhile, blackouts became so severe that finance minister Mthuli Ncube was plunged into darkness in the middle of his budget speech in November, in which he also warned that the agricultural sector would contract by 15 per cent due to the country’s low rainfall.

Though seasonal rainfall has now returned, last year’s drought was caused by a particularly severe El Niño weather pattern, which was exacerbated by climate change, experts have suggested.

In response to the crisis, Zambia has proposed building a $900m, 0.6 GW coal-fired power plant, with support from the Wonderful Group, a Chinese-owned company that manufactures ceramics and fertiliser.

In Zimbabwe, some 1.8 GW of new coal capacity was announced at the Hwange power station, the country’s largest power plant, which was backed by the China-based Shandong Dingneng New Energy, and the India-based Jindal Steel.

A number of other new plants were also proposed in Zimbabwe with the backing of Chinese money, according to GEM, taking the total to 2.2 GW of power.

“The situation unfolding in Zimbabwe is a tragic example of the vicious cycle created by fossil fuel dependency,” Farai Maguwu, executive director at the Zimbabwe-based Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG), told The Independent.

“The country’s decision to expand coal at a time when the climate crisis – exacerbated by fossil fuel use – is already wreaking havoc through extreme droughts is both counterproductive and deeply concerning,” he said.

Zimbabwe should be “prioritising a just transition towards renewable energy” rather than “locking in” more coal, Maguwu added.

There is also a new proposal for a coal mine in the country’s Hwange National Park, a biodiversity and tourist hotspot, which is backed by another Chinese company Sunny Yi Feng, and which CNRG has been lobbying against.

“A full cost accounting of any coal development must be cognisant of the rights of future generations,” the CNRG wrote in a recent letter to the Mining Affairs Board, seen by The Independent.

“It appears the considerations above in relation to damaging aspects of the Sunny Yi Feng are not yet being considered.”

Lucy Hummer, senior analyst on GEM’s coal plant tracker team, added that coal-fired power itself requires “significant water supplies” to function, and therefore is not a smart solution for drought-stricken countries.

“Instead, investments are needed in resilient, renewable energy sources rather than the refurbishment of ageing coal infrastructure,” she told the Independent.

“Rich countries that emit the most must step up with climate finance to support a just transition for Southern African countries that seek to alleviate acute energy crises with short-term solutions.”

“While coal projects are often promoted as drivers of economic growth and energy security, their environmental and social costs are significant,” added Marina Agortimevor, coordinator at the Africa Just Transition Network.

“Their impacts not only exacerbate the ongoing climate crisis but also contribute to the severe droughts currently affecting Southern African countries.”

Beyond newly proposed power plants, last year was also a bumper year for coal plant construction starts in Zambia and Zimbabwe, with some 1.5 GW of new capacity breaking ground, according to GEM.

The majority of that total was due to the 1.2 GW Prestige power station breaking ground in Zimbabwe, which is being built by China’s Xintai Resources at a cost of £1.2bn in order to power a new metal processing special economic zone.

China’s support for these facilities comes despite a high-profile pledge at the 2021 UN General Assembly from President Xi Jinping to stop financing overseas coal.

Many of the new China-backed proposals exploit an apparent loophole in the pledge, which allows for “captive power plants” – or power stations built to power specific industrial facilities. However, not all of the new proposals appear to fall into that category, according to GEM.

China has for many years been the biggest global financier of coal under its Belt and Road Initiative, which supports large infrastructure with international aid as well as foreign direct investment.

Despite coal’s resurgence in Zambia and Zimbabwe, prospects for the fuel remain broadly negative across the rest of Africa, with 16 countries reducing or eliminating their pipeline of proposed coal over the past decade, with only three countries marginally breaking that trend.

Globally, the 44 GW of new coal that came online last year was the lowest level in 20 years, reported GEM.

However, while retirements of coal plants in the EU increased fourfold in 2023, and the UK phased out coal for good, China recorded its highest year for construction starts since 2015, with 94 GW of capacity breaking ground.

Coal plant retirements in the US also fell to 4.7 GW in 2024.

While nearly half of the remaining US coal power capacity is due to retire by 2035, power utilities including PacifiCorp, Duke Energy, and Georgia Power have more recently said that they are planning to withdraw or delay retirements, according to GEM.

“Last year was a harbinger of things to come for coal as the clean energy transition moves full speed ahead,” said Christine Shearer, senior analyst on GEM’s coal plant tracker team.

“But work is still needed to ensure coal power is phased out in line with the Paris climate agreement, particularly in the world’s wealthiest nations.”

This story is part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project

Celebration destination: Enjoy life’s biggest moments in the Caribbean

With its turquoise-coloured waters, reliably blue skies, and unparalleled natural beauty, the Caribbean is one of the most desirable destinations for a special getaway. From Antigua to Saint Vincent, St Lucia and Barbados, each island offers something a little different – whether you’re looking for a romantic honeymoon retreat, the perfect place to celebrate a milestone birthday, or a fun spot to enjoy a week (or two) of active pursuits with family and friends.

Sandals’ all-inclusive, adult-only resorts are the perfect way to enjoy the islands in luxurious surroundings. Dotted across the Caribbean, each resort has its own unique identity while staying true to the five-star Sandals ethos. But which one do you choose for your own personal celebration?

Here we look at a range of celebrations worthy of an unforgettable holiday and the perfect Sandals resorts to enjoy them in.

If you like your holidays to be as adventurous as they are relaxing, you’re sure to love the many activities offered at Sandals Grande Antigua and Sandals Saint Vincent. Explore the ocean bed with Sandals’s very own comprehensive PADI® Certified scuba diving programmes, and see beautiful reefs and shipwrecks up close alongside the professional supervision of PADI® certified staff and Newton dive boats. There’s also a wealth of water sports available including kayaking and paddleboarding or, if dry land is more your thing, why not spend your days playing beach volleyball, croquet, and tennis? All activities are included at either resort making your trip hassle free and flexible.

If you’re looking for somewhere to make a real occasion of a celebration or simply hide away on a romantic getaway, the Royal Barbados resort is one of Sandals’s most elegant options. The resort offers an extra level of extravagance that makes every day an unforgettable experience – from swim-up suites, Rolls Royce transfers from the airport when you stay in select suites, to a rooftop pool and restaurant, and catamaran cruises. There’s even a bowling alley if you fancy some good old-fashioned fun, or an alternative option for a date night.

On the beautiful island of Curaçao, lies the Sandals Royal Curaçao resort nestled within the heart of Leeward Antilles. The resort has plenty of opportunity for more intimate stays in its seaside butler bungalows complete with private pools and soaking tubs, while private cabanas and local tours leave you plenty of options for making an anniversary or birthday feel extra special. The parties around the pool or on the beach also make this a fun destination for celebrating a loved one.

Jamaica plays host to a number of Sandals resorts that make the perfect destination for honeymoons and group trips alike. The Sandals Royal Caribbean, for instance, offers over-the-water private villas complete with glass floors, hammocks and butler service, on the resort’s own private island. Ocean-view and swim-up rooms also offer a first-class experience for groups and friends spending time together. Alternatively, it’s hard to imagine a more romantic stay than at Sandals South Coast, where you can stay in spectacular, luxurious overwater villas arranged in the shape of a heart, offering an unmatched connection to the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea and rich marine life below.

Meanwhile, the Sandals Ochi resort in Jamaica offers the best of both worlds for honeymooners and party goers (or those wanting to enjoy both) with private butler villas, white sand beach, and 11 unique bars. Its vibrant atmosphere is ideal for those wanting to relax and party during their stay.

While every Sandals resort offers a luxurious experience, if you’re really looking to splurge and treat yourself, the re-imagined Sandals Royal Bahamian should be on your wishlist. Located in Nassau in the Bahamas, it has everything you could dream of from a holiday destination. Swim-up suites with butler service will help you leave the stresses and strains of everyday life behind, while pristine-white beaches, an award-winning Red Lane spa and 10 specialty restaurants will make your stay as enjoyable as it is relaxing. A short trip by boat will also take you to the Sandals private island with its own bar, restaurant and pool. Luxury adventure tours around the island will also make exploring the rest of the island easy and convenient.

St Lucia is one of the most beautiful and picturesque islands of the Caribbean, and our top destination for visiting with parents. Resorts such as the Grande St Lucian sit on their own peninsula with 360 degrees of volcanic mountains and crystal-clear ocean views to enjoy. As such, it’s the perfect place for making mum or dad feel truly appreciated. In addition to five grande pools, there’s also a Cap Estate Golf & Country Club for serious parental bonding time, not to mention a range of outdoor activities including reading road trips where guests meet children from the island, Catamaran sunset cruises, and carnival experiences.

Discover Sandals’s full range of Caribbean resorts here

What is the Chagos Islands deal with the UK that Trump has approved?

According to No 10, Donald Trump has “signed off” on the highly controversial Chagos Islands deal, drawing to a close the tortuous process of securing the future of the UK-US military base that has been operating on Diego Garcia since 1965.

It means formal sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) will be ceded to Mauritius, and comes as something of a shock to opponents who fully expected Mr Trump to reject the change. The long saga may be coming to a close…

Some of the basics are still unknown, especially as regards money, but the position will be that the BIOT – comprising the Chagos Islands and the military base – will be transferred to Mauritian sovereignty. In return, the UK has been promised a 99-year lease on the islands, with military use by the US part of the deal, in return for an annual fee. The fee has not yet been disclosed, but is thought to be some £90m per annum, inflation-linked.

The small matter of international law. Successive appeals by Mauritius to the UN and the International Court of Justice have left the status of the BIOT in doubt, generally favouring the Mauritian position.

The islands are plainly a colonial possession, acquired from France in 1814 after the Napoleonic Wars. As such they are subject to UN resolutions and decolonisation. The islands were carved out of what was then the crown colony of Mauritius as part of its 1968 granting of independence, but such coercion also violated international law. The UK could carry on ignoring the situation, but this would leave the legal status of the joint base in doubt and thus at risk. In a worst-case scenario, Mauritius could transfer sovereignty of “their” islands to, say, China or India. Generally, civilised nations are expected to abide by international law.

They’ve been shabbily treated for decades, having been forcibly evicted to make way for the base in the 1960s. The diaspora principally lives in Mauritius, the Seychelles and near Gatwick Airport, and have had no vote on the deal. Foreign secretary David Lammy insists they have been consulted throughout.

Not quite. Trump has approved it but the formality of Mauritius and the UK signing the agreement has yet to take place, after which the treaty will need to be approved by parliament and all the costs and clauses will be made public. Given the government’s majority and the backing of the White House, the deal is bound to be ratified.

The Conservatives and Reform UK describe it as such, and object to public money needed for vital services being transferred to Mauritius – but that seems to be the price for settling this long-running dispute. What financial contribution, if any, the US will make is not known. In the current wider context of defence and economic tensions between the UK and the US, the Chagos leasing costs might be considered a useful sweetener in the national interest.

No. Those few empire loyalists who feel passionately about the issue are a minority and would never vote Labour anyway, some because they haven’t forgiven Clement Attlee for giving up India. The often exaggerated cost of the lease (adding inflation over a century to invent a bogus cost in today’s money) is no more than a right-wing debating point. The Conservatives are compromised on this argument because they were in talks to “surrender” the BIOT for years, and no one thinks the deal can be reversed unless the Americans demand it.

It doesn’t feel like it, and the government says not. Nonetheless, there are parallels in their disputed colonial status. Before the 1982 Falklands War, a transfer and leaseback arrangement was freely raised by Britain as a way of ending the arguments in the South Atlantic.

The big shift in both these cases has been Brexit, with one EU member, Spain, having a vital interest in steering EU diplomacy towards regaining Gibraltar and a friendlier stance towards the Argentinian claim on the Falklands. The UK can no longer rely on the EU to back it up at the UN and elsewhere; indeed, the Brexit treaty gives Spain a special role with regard to Gibraltar, and the territory’s land and air border arrangements still haven’t been finally sorted out.

Like it or not, the sun has not fully set on the British empire.

Starmer is right to maintain dignity – and avoid upsetting Trump

The prime minister’s insistence that, in framing the UK’s response to the Trump tariffs, “We will always act in the national interest” was wise and reassuring. The mood at the moment is to “keep calm and carry on negotiating”, and if there is to be a response, it needs to be weighed, and to represent a fully informed choice. Hence the meeting of business leaders convened in Downing Street in the immediate aftermath of the US president’s announcements.

In the coming days, the full scale and nature of international retaliation will become clearer; so too will Donald Trump’s thinking. From his rambling presentation of the new tariff schedules in the White House Rose Garden, it is not obvious whether these punitive import taxes are designed to kickstart a more benign process involving a global relaxation of trade restrictions, or if they are part of a permanent policy shift aimed at restoring American manufacturing and providing trillions of dollars for the US Treasury. There is, in other words, no need for a rush to action.

Sir Keir Starmer is right to try to maintain the dignity of the nation, as well as to avoid upsetting the combustible Mr Trump, by limiting himself to vague remarks about having “levers at his disposal”. Businesses are being consulted on possible retaliatory actions, but that is all – at least for the time being.

However, with the US economy approximately seven times as large as that of the UK – and Britain still heavily reliant on America for its defence – those levers are not especially powerful ones. Unlike, say, China (in concert with Japan and South Korea), the European Union, Mexico or Canada, the UK lacks the necessary heft to inflict much material damage on American producers and exporters. Any effort to join in with an international assault on Mr Trump’s policy would risk attracting the imposition of even higher tariffs on UK exports, with the corresponding harm to British jobs and economic growth – and to European security and the Ukraine peace talks.

Far better, then, for the British government to keep a “cool head”, as Sir Keir suggests: not only does it suit the prime minister’s general demeanour, but it will help to preserve his unusually warm relationship with a man almost precisely his ideological opposite. Britain is set to watch how things develop, and will continue to engage with American officials on trade, investment, and wider economic relations. If an old and valued friend unexpectedly decides to have a spat, the most rational response is not to hit them back and escalate an argument into a violent rift.

Fanciful as it may seem, this crisis can be turned into an opportunity. As the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told the Commons, a trade deal of some sort could be mutually beneficial, even if that isn’t immediately apparent to President Trump, who is more “zero sum” in his approach to life (as might be expected from his time in real estate).

Sir Keir says that talks are continuing. He should be encouraged by the fact that the UK is to be subjected only to the lower “baseline” tariff of 10 per cent, albeit with the higher charges on cars, steel and aluminium bringing the trade-weighted average up to 13 per cent. When the two leaders met in the White House, Mr Trump expressed the hope that a deal could be done. Despite intense activity, such an agreement couldn’t be reached in time to avoid the new tariffs, but the process – which has been in train since Theresa May launched post-Brexit talks with the US – has begun.

The outlines of such a deal can already be discerned. Negotiables could include a radical cut in the tariffs on US goods, such as cars and agricultural produce, and easier access for qualified, skilled workers through mutual recognition. The UK might have to compromise on its high standards of animal welfare, hygiene, and environmental protection, but that is a tough choice that could be made, in the expectation that consumers would exercise their right to choose.

More difficult, if not impossible, would be meeting the usual demands for improved – inflated – prices to be paid by the NHS to the US pharmaceutical giants. The American negotiators would also have to be properly briefed on the reality of free speech in the UK, which is protected as a human right by law, save for incitement to hatred against specified vulnerable groups.

The real question is whether the achievement of some sort of economic agreement with America – an outcome that would certainly yield benefits – is worth the sacrifices and concessions that are likely to be demanded by Mr Trump. That includes the effect that any such pact would have on our relationship with the EU, in light of the “reset” promised by Labour at the general election.

Even the possibility of such an agreement with the United States is being touted as a “Brexit bonus”, as is the “favourable” 10 per cent tariff. Needless to say, this is highly debatable. Were it still part of the EU, the UK would probably have been treated more harshly, but it would have had the full weight of the largest single market in the world behind it, along with better access to the EU markets that it has lost since Brexit.

As a member state, the UK would also have been able, ironically, to control its own laws on free speech, as well as to protect the NHS and farmers. In other words, a trade deal with America would have to be radically better than currently envisaged in order to make Brexit remotely worthwhile, even in purely financial terms.

And there remains the terrible truth that the US has downgraded its commitment to Nato, and “switched sides” to align with Russia on the matters of Ukraine and European security.

On balance, Sir Keir can best serve the British national interest by pursuing closer relations with Europe, while declining to enact futile retaliatory measures against America and salvaging as much as possible of the US-UK special relationship. The hope is that the Trump era might ultimately pass more smoothly. In any case, balancing and nurturing Britain’s most crucial relationships won’t be easy.