Cousin of prospective US health secretary shares disturbing tale involving blender for his Senate confirmation hearing

“Trying not to upset the French” could be a chapter in a Debrett’s guide to etiquette and manners, one that may have been taken to heart by the government this week with its decision to change the name of a new submarine. The Astute-class attack vessel is still being built, but on Sunday night, the Royal Navy announced that what was to become HMS Agincourt would, instead, be given the more Franco-friendly name of HMS Achilles. Up pops Grant Shapps, the former Conservative defence secretary, to dust off his opportunism and accuse the navy of bending to Labourite “woke nonsense”. It’s just like riding a bike!

The actress sobbed her way through a video about the president’s deportations. The right was furious – so were progressives

One certainty we can rely on in these distressing and turbulent times is that while every right-thinking person is looking with horror towards Donald Trump, many of us also reserve significant side-eye for each other. What is a political opposition without instant, feverish infighting, the pettier the better? I refer you to Selena Gomez’s now-deleted Instagram video on Monday in which the actor sniffled and wept about Trump’s immigration crackdown. The 32-year-old was instantly trolled by Trump-loving monsters, but there were plenty of sighs and tuts coming at her from Trump haters, too. Gomez had Done the Wrong Protest and would have to pay.

The difficulty of course is that Trump’s “flood the zone” approach in his first week of office has made organising a response to him incredibly hard, not just collectively but at the individual level. What is the right reaction to a president who, five minutes into his tenure, launches a crypto coin in his own name, appoints a TV host to run the US military and attempts to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding – and that’s before you get to his interesting take on the 14th amendment?

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.