Kim ups the ante as McCain trumps the president and Reince folds hand

US President Donald Trump must be regretting the day he chose to pick a fight with Republican Senator John McCain, 80, who got off his hospital bed after being diagnosed with a brain tumour to join two other Republican rebels in shooting down Trump’s health bill.

The unfolding mess at the White House got even worse later in the week when Republican grandee Reince Priebus quit as chief of staff — not surprising, given new communications director Anthony Scaramucci’s rant against him for “leaking” dirt to the media.

The enfant terrible of world affairs, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, launched another intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korea’s state TV broadcast pictures of the launch, showing the missile lifting off in a fiery blast in darkness and Kim cheering with military aides.

The UK government issued a death notice for the humble internal combustion engine, unveiling a plan to ban the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2040 to encourage people to buy electric vehicles.