Standard Issue.

Elsewhere in the news items.

1. Xi Jinping finally has something that eluded him for almost a decade: a trusted confidante at the top of China’s police ministry. Wang Xiaohong’s appointment as public security minister in June marked another breakthrough for Xi in his relentless consolidation of power since being appointed head of the Chinese Communist party and its Central Military Commission in 2012. Over the past week, China’s president has wielded his authority over the latter to historic effect, launching unprecedented military exercises that have irrevocably altered the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. He is expected to retain both those posts for an unprecedented third term in power at a party congress this year, followed by his reappointment as state president at next year’s annual session of China’s parliament. Xi and Wang have known each other since at least the mid-1990s, when the former was rising through the ranks in south-eastern Fujian province and Wang was a senior policeman in the provincial capital, Fuzhou. Wang’s predecessors at the public security ministry, Zhao Kezhi and Guo Shengkun, were not considered to be particularly close to Xi. (Source: ft.com)