Within days of her confirmation by the US Senate as Donald Trump’s new education secretary, Linda McMahon was promising to dissolve her own department.

Private infrastructure investors are poised to acquire NHS landlord Assura in a £1.6bn deal, marking the latest potential exit of a London-listed group from the UK market.

Global stocks fell on Monday, with Wall Street headed for further losses after investor worries over the health of the US economy dragged the S&P 500 to its worst week in six months.

That’s not an aim that can be met by increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP and having a vague plan to get to 3 per cent at some point in the future. (Yes, output targets are stupid in a ...