Teflon Don has become Felon Don, but the US constitution has no objection to him holding the highest office

It was the moment America, or at least America’s politicians and media, had been waiting for. It was the day justice finally caught up with Donald Trump. The former president’s manipulation of the 2016 election, by hushing up a sex scandal that threatened his chances, and his attempts to discredit a criminal justice system intent on punishing him, was famously thwarted. It was an all-time presidential and judicial first, a historic result that transformed Teflon Don into Felon Don, thanks to a jury of 12 ordinary men and women and a brave prosecutor, Alvin Bragg.

Looked at another way, however, last week’s much anticipated dramatic denouement of the criminal trial of the New York playboy, billionaire and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential candidate may turn out to be less pivotal than anticipated. According to the US networks, most Americans tuned out weeks ago, not least because cameras were barred from the Manhattan courtroom. One not untypical public survey found that 67% of respondents said a conviction would make no difference to how they voted this autumn. The 34 guilty verdicts were an overnight sensation. But they may not significantly shift the political dial.

The green movement’s attempts to block the cultivation of a grain enhanced with vitamin A is misguided

For a crop that was designed to save the lives of children, Golden Rice has had a disturbing, volatile history. Developed more than 20 years ago using the techniques of genetic manipulation, it provides consumers with the ability to make vitamin A, which is missing from many diets in developing countries. This is a deficit that can have grim consequences. Without vitamin A, infections among the young soar and it is estimated that the lives of more than 100,000 children are lost every year as a result.

The production of a food that could counter this deadly scourge might be expected to be greeted with global relief and gratitude. Sadly, this has not been the case. Although field trials of Golden Rice have shown it to be an effective source of vitamin A that is safe to grow and consume, the crop has yet to be grown commercially – thanks, in the main, to the green movement’s vociferous opposition to its cultivation. Led by Greenpeace, campaigners have attempted to block the growing of any genetically modified crop, regardless of any potential benefit it might possess, and Golden Rice has been a particular target for their attention. The organisation claims there are other more practical solutions to improve vitamin-A deficiency and accuses corporations of overhyping its efficacy to pave the way for approval of more profitable GM crops.

The Conservatives are a spent force with an appalling track record. They deserve a resounding general election defeat

As the Commons held its pre-election valedictory debate last Friday, two more senior Conservatives announced that they would be stepping down: the communities secretary, Michael Gove, and the former cabinet minister Dame Andrea Leadsom. They join 15 other current or former Tory cabinet ministers who are resigning seats, bringing the total number of Conservative MPs standing down to 78, higher than in 1997 when the party stood on the brink of a historic defeat.

This is just the latest indicator of the lack of confidence Conservative MPs have in their own party and its leadership; a party that deserves to be dealt a resounding defeat by voters in the polls on 4 July. Its 14 years in government constitute an appalling track record: the Tories have left Britain a poorer country blighted by rising inequality and falling social mobility; a less confident nation with declining influence on the global stage; and a much tougher place in which to lose your job or to fall sick. Their political choices have worsened the impact of the tough global headwinds of a pandemic and rising energy prices.

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Even his defence minister knows that there can be no military solution to the war with Hamas

The emotional vow by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to “destroy” Hamas after it massacred about 1,200 people on 7 October 2023 was understandable. But in practice it was never a realisable aim. Eight months into the ensuing conflict, more than 35,000 Palestinians are dead, yet Hamas is still fighting in parts of Gaza that Israel’s army thought it controlled, a new humanitarian crisis looms around Rafah, 640,000 people have been displaced again, and the agony of Israeli hostages and their families is daily renewed. Three more bodies were recovered on Friday.

Defeating Hamas remains a vital objective for Israel and most western and Arab governments, as well as ordinary people appalled by its actions. But, from the very first, Netanyahu has failed, or rather refused, to articulate a “day after” strategy for administering (and rebuilding) Gaza once its terrorist rulers are supposedly “destroyed”. Despite the evidence, he refuses to accept that military force alone will not work. Hamas’s defeat, if it is to be permanent, must be political, legal, economic and psychological as much as physical.

Growing up in a poor household is one of the biggest barriers to opportunity, yet it affects millions of children

• Gordon Brown on the UK’s child poverty scandal
• Torsten Bell: We can easily end child poverty
• Archbishop urges Starmer to ditch ‘cruel’ benefit cap

Almost one in three British children now live in relative poverty. Former prime minister Gordon Brown last week referred to this generation as “austerity’s children”: children who have known nothing but what it is to grow up in families where money concerns are a constant toxic stress, where a lack of a financial cushion means one adverse event can trigger a downward debt spiral, and where parents have to make tough choices about essentials such as food and heating. Rising rates of child poverty are a product of political choices; that we have a government that has enabled them is a stain on our national conscience.

The headline rate of child poverty is underpinned by other alarming trends. Two-thirds of children living in relative poverty, defined as 60% of median income, after housing costs, are in families where at least one adult works, a product of the number of low-paid jobs in the economy that do not allow parents to adequately provide for their children. Unsurprisingly, child poverty rates are higher in families where someone has a disability, and 58% of children from Pakistani and 67% of Bangladeshi backgrounds live in relative child poverty. Child homelessness is at record levels – more than 140,000 children in England are homeless, many living for years on end in temporary accommodation that does not meet the most basic of standards. One in six children live in families experiencing food insecurity, and one in 40 in a family that has had to access a food bank in the past 30 days.