Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
ACCORDING to Walt Rostow’s infamous 1960s work, A Non-Communist Manifesto, society passes through five stages of development with technology, entrepreneurialism, individualism and competition as the key drivers.
China would appear now to be transitioning through Stage 4: the drive to maturity — a long period of sustained growth and structural change with modern technology extending across the economy, poverty falling, and an increasingly urbanised workforce. “Infrastructure and communications, education and the media, professionalism, progress to high levels with more effective leadership of a population realising new opportunities as they strive to make the most of their lives.”
Stage 5: the age of mass consumption then reaches the wealth levels of the West — citizens, hardly remembering the subsistence struggles of previous stages, live in comfort, and spend their days enjoying the arts and music.
JENNY CLEGG reports from a Chinese peace conference bringing together defence ministers, US think tanks and global South leaders, where speakers warned that the erosion of multilateralism risks regional hotspots exploding into wider war



