After the Brexit vote, Christmas was always going to be the British consumer’s last hurrah. Official data today makes it look like the party never even got started. The volume of goods sold in December fell 1.9 percent from November, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday, the biggest drop since April 2012. This bad news is at ...

  Posterity will pass fuller and fairer judgment on the presidency of Barack Obama than is possible today, but on one issue the verdict is already clear: personal integrity. In an especially hostile political environment, Obama was civil and decent, and he served with honor and dignity. Partisanship should not prevent Republicans from acknowledging these truths. Like his predecessor, George ...

  And finally Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States on Friday, becoming commander-in- chief of a riven nation facing uncertainty under a leader who had never held before any political office or high military rank. In his inaugural speech, which lasted for about 16 minutes, Trump painted a bleak picture of America, which ...