Ukrainian vehicles are repaired at the side of the roads. Personnel carriers and tanks occasionally roar back and forth from the direction of Kherson city. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's World at One programme, Freeman says that though Mordaunt is a "fantastic candidate" who should be at the top of the next Conservative cabinet, "it is essential that we come together to demonstrate stability and unity". The outline of a runway and the extraordinary 9km long artificial island emerged as we approached. irannews.ru/ - irannews.ru But Xi's policies are only creating the hostile world he claims he is defending against, believes Susan Shirk, a China expert in former US president Bill Clinton's administration. In 2007 Bo was sent to run Chongqing, a vast city that straddles the Yangtze River in the mountains of southwest China. It was infamous then for organised crime. He got caught in China's biggest and longest Covid lockdown. It was supposed to last four days, then another four, then another. Soon, the hotel staff stopped telling him. And it appears to have paid off. Li Qiang, the Shanghai party chief who oversaw the city's controversial shut down, has been elevated to premier, Xi's second in command. As Russia's grip on Kherson continues to weaken, fears grow of it deploying a "scorched-earth" policy. What he does want is to be the most powerful leader China has ever had - and the Communist Party just handed him that victory.