Friday newspaper round-up: Liz Truss, Taiwan, Russia

Ben Wallace has endorsed Liz Truss for the Tory leadership and said she is the “only candidate” with the experience to lead the nation from day one in the job. Writing in The Times, the defence secretary said that he was backing Truss because she is “straight and means what she says”. “Liz Truss is a winner not because she’s a slick salesperson but because she is authentic,” he adds. - The Times

President Xi has warned President Biden against “playing with fire” over Taiwan amid tension heightened by a planned visit to the self-governing island by Nancy Pelosi, the most senior Democrat in Congress. Chinese state media said Xi had told Biden that America should abide by the principle that Taiwan was a renegade province. Xi emphasised that China opposed Taiwanese independence and the interference of external forces. - The Times

Russia’s economy is being “catastrophically” crippled by Western sanctions according to experts, despite Vladimir Putin’s efforts to hide the damage. Analysts at Yale looking at “private Russian language and unconventional data sources” say imports have “collapsed” and domestic production “has come to a complete standstill”. Russia has lost companies representing around two-fifths of its GDP amid an exodus of Western businesses, they claim, undoing about three decades of foreign investment. - Daily Telegraph

West London faces a de facto ban on new homes for over a decade because the electricity grid has run out of capacity. Housebuilders have been told it could take until 2035 to get new developments in Hillingdon, Ealing and Hounslow hooked up to the electricity network because it lacks the capacity to serve them. Energy companies and regulators are scrambling to fix the problem while Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has ordered officials to monitor the situation. - Daily Telegraph