Watching Gingrich and fellow Trump backer Rudy Giuliani differ over their man's performance suggests that something is coming to an end; the question is whether it is Trump's unedifying campaign or the Republican Party as we know it.

Elsewhere, it would seem that new eras are in the offing wherever we look:

• The Chinese sending a manned space flight to dock with an orbiting laboratory shows us that there is more to their manoeuvres in the South China Sea and elsewhere than mere bluster.
• In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has finally declared an offensive to liberate the country's second-largest city from the grip of Islamic State, though the shape of this battle and its aftermath remain far from clear.
• Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is young and determined to make his mark, championing austerity at home and a bloody war in Yemen as part of a more robust foreign policy. But can he turn the ailing kingdom around or does his approach increase the odds of a backlash from within the royal family itself?

Other important stories developing in the world:

• Crown employees held in China after late-night raids on their homes;
• Thousands displaced as typhoon Sarika causes death and destruction in the Philippines.