内容摘要：Mr Ahddoud's military training has always informed his approach to cybersecurity. He recalls being told by an officer, that it's not so important how deep a solider can dig. "When you're being fired on, you'll have the motivation to dig a really big hole."

Mr Ahddoud's military training has always informed his approach to cybersecurity. He recalls being told by an officer, that it's not so important how deep a solider can dig. "When you're being fired on, you'll have the motivation to dig a really big hole."

But the deployment also highlights the challenges of trying to do more with less. Britain can only afford to have an episodic appearance in the Indo-Pacific. And the Trump administration has warned UK and other European allies to focus on their own doorstep, rather than faraway adventures. The carrier deployment is another strain on finite resources.Of course, ministers maintain that their soon-to-be published defence review really could reset the dial and restore the UK to military readiness. But so far no government has really been willing to tackle the greatest dilemma for UK defence: do less or spend a lot more.

There is no doubt that Reform performed well in Thursday's local council elections. The party won most votes, most seats and overall control of most councils.True, the party's share of the votes cast across all 23 councils where elections took place on Thursday was no more than 31%. So despite doing well, it secured far from a majority of those voting.However, its performance was enough to put Reform well ahead of the Conservatives – who traditionally dominate county councils - on 23%, the Liberal Democrats on 17% and Labour on 14% when you tally up the votes in those parts of England that went to the polls on Thursday.

At the 2024 general election Reform secured 14% of the vote but just 5 out of 650 seats at Westminster. But crucially, being ahead of everyone else in 2025 ensured the first-past-the-post election system helped Reform.Its tally of 677 council seats represented 41% of all those being contested on Thursday, 10 points above its share of the vote, a nod to both the nature of the voting system and Reform's ability to cluster votes. That boost helped the party win control of as many as 10 councils, something that Reform's predecessor, UKIP, never managed at the height of its popularity in the run up to the 2015 general election.

In Staffordshire, Reform won 72% of the seats on 41% of the vote. In Kent, 37% of the vote delivered it 70% of the seats, while in Derbyshire the same share was rewarded with 66% of all the councillors.

Instead of insulating Conservative and Labour from the impact of a third-party challenge, as it has done so often before, first past the post exacerbated their losses. In both cases Reform took nearly half of all the seats those parties were defending.While Ramaphosa did sign a controversial bill allowing land seizures without compensation earlier this year, the law has not been implemented. And the South African distanced himself publicly from the language in the political speeches shown.

But the top ally of South Africa's Nelson Mandela and negotiator who helped bring an end to the apartheid regime of white-minority rule came to this meeting prepared.Trump sometimes appears unaware of transparent efforts made by foreign leaders to flatter and that was clearly part of the South African strategy.

True, Donald Trump is a golf fanatic, but Ramaphosa's gambit of bringing two top golfers - Ernie Els and Retief Goosen - to a meeting about diplomatic problems and trade policy is not taken from any textbook on international relations I've ever read.However, the US president's pleasure at having the two white South African golfers there was on show for all to see.