Republican senator Susan Collins says move is ‘clear violation of the law’ as Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren called president ‘wannabe king’

A visit to Taiwan by two US senators has drawn criticism from China, which claims the island as its own and objects to any contact between officials of the two sides.

The chair of the Senate armed services committee, Roger Wicker, and the Nebraska senator Deb Fischer arrived in Taipei on Friday for a series of high-level meetings with senior Taiwanese leaders to discuss US-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, according to the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s de facto embassy in lieu of formal diplomatic relations with the self-governing island democracy.

A thriving democracy is never fully assured … and we’re here to talk to our friends and allies in Taiwan about what we’re doing to enhance worldwide peace.

Step comes when France is leading a push to recognise Palestinian state after Israel’s unyielding bombing of Gaza

The US has begun denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in advance of the UN general assembly meeting in September, the state department said on Friday.

“The Trump administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” it said in a statement.

Three seasons of work from the head coach on the same host body have led in a straight line to Anfield where Arteta can shape his destiny

After tea and cake and Declan Rices. After Ebe Eze and Viktor Gyökeres. Should I, after three straight second places, have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? Hmm. Maybe not. With all due apologies to the living descendants of TS Eliot, the love song of Mikel Arteta still doesn’t really scan or rhyme or have a clear endnote as yet, even as the six-year anniversary of his appointment as Arsenal manager approaches.

This is normal enough. It is obviously incorrect to conclude, as many have, that Arsenal’s manager has to win a trophy this season or be remembered not just as a fraud, but as a Lego-haired billion-pound-spend fraud, the worst kind of fraud there is. Sport doesn’t work in simple metre. Uncertainty is key to its fascination.

The championship leader reveals his secret to being ‘calm yet intense’, and why he and his McLaren teammate won’t fall out in their race for the title

Still what might be considered a stripling with features soft as yet unweathered by age and competition yet with an undoubted inner steel, Oscar Piastri presents a fascinating dichotomy. The young Australian is in a two-horse race to be Formula One world champion this year and his youth, personable nature and easy, dry wit belie a driver possessed of exceptional maturity and the clinical execution familiar in the sport’s greats.

Piastri has given every indication he could join them and the resolute determination of the man who would be king is palpable.

Russian airstrikes on Kyiv, mourning in Gaza, wildfires in California, and the Notting Hill Carnival: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing