Burnham clears first Trump hurdle but Chagos deal remains flashpoint

When two leaders meet for the first time, the encounter often reveals as much about the distance between them as the ground they share. Andy Burnham's inaugural meeting with Donald Trump as British Prime Minister offered precisely this kind of double exposure: genuine personal warmth on one side, and a pointed public rebuke of British foreign policy on the other. The Chagos Islands deal, which Trump called 'terrible' without diplomatic softening, reminded observers that personal rapport and policy alignment are not the same currency, and that the UK-US relationship will be tested not by how we