Adrian Blomfield

Still no condolences offered by President William Ruto to the man killed by his convoy. The president had the chance to act like a statesman. Instead he has behaved like an emperor.

The man run over and left to bleed to death on Ngong Road by President Ruto's convoy has now been identified as Edgar Charles Frederick. Not only did Mr Ruto laugh and joke with supporters moments later, he still has not issued a statement of condolence. https://t.co/6geQtrdGTs

This says it all really. The president’s convoy hits an elderly man and leaves him to die, the president laughs and jokes after his hit and run and sends no condolences. Kenyan politicians then defend this lack of decency and regard for human life thus:

Robert ALAI, HSC @RobertAlai

@adrianblomfield People die everyday. Wacheni!

Putin is clearly playing for time and looking for ways to manipulate the process, something Trump may aid him with. But it doesn't mean he doesn't have a point. A ceasefire arrangement has to have verification mechanisms and I have seen none in this half-baked US plan.

In most of the rest of the world if your convoy has just killed a man and left him to bleed to death on the road you cancel your schedule out of respect. You don’t go on to rallies and crack jokes as though nothing had happened.

Citizen TV Kenya @citizentvkenya

“Mtaniua na majina. Mlianza na hustler, mkaenda Zakayo alafu kasongo,” President Ruto jokes days after Kenyans gave him a new nickname, El Chapo https://t.co/lNwkDjm6vk

How can the rule of law apply in Kenya when the presidential convoy mows down a man and then flees the scene? Ruto may not have been driving but the optics of leaving a man to bleed to death are awful. The US has a smash-and-grab president and we have a hit-and-run president?

Citizen TV Kenya @citizentvkenya

Foreign national killed by speeding presidential convoy on Ngong Road https://t.co/11tkqI4d1e

We need to understand that all Donald Trump wants is a give-and-take relationship with world. It’s a simple message: “You give and I take.”

My fear is that Russia “accepts” a ceasefire, breaks it almost immediately and blames Ukraine. Trump sides with Russia and freezes military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine again and uses that to name even deeper territorial concessions and Zelensky’s removal.

By squandering its soft power through the destruction of USAID and focusing on pursuing a minerals strategy of dubious value, Trump risks strengthening China rather than weakening it. My piece. https://t.co/tirkrjRXzN

When it comes to defence spending, I suspect the UK will have to replicate the Dreadnought compromise of the early 20th century: "The Admiralty demanded six ships; the economists offered four; and we finally compromised on eight," in Churchill's words. https://t.co/LGB52MI3xx

Curious about the obsession that certain leaders have with the number 350. Boris Johnson claimed Britain gave the EU £350m a week before Brexit and Trump claims the US has given Ukraine $350bn. Neither number stacks up, but odd that they should both conjure up that figure.

I would suggest that one way leaders can make a quiet protest against Trump is that when they go to meet him they should be polite and keep saying thank you, but none of them should wear a suit (or the female equivalent). It would be an effective way of trolling the trolls.

The spectacle of King Charles welcoming Trump for a state visit is also potentially a debacle in the making.

I wonder whether Starmer’s chumminess with Trump, as understandable as it might have been diplomatically, might come back to haunt him. Given what has just happened with Zelensky the optics look pretty grim