Critics were horrified from the start at the Starmer government dispatching the King to try to shore up transatlantic relations.
All a bit embarrassing and tawdry, they felt. Not to put too fine a point on it, they've worried the King was being pimped out like a royal escort in the knowledge that a narcissistic president would parade his trophy guest, hoping to bask in his royal limelight.
Follow the latest on the King's state visit
Trump says his love for the royal family goes back to his mother, but he also knows Americans go a bundle for a bit of royal bling, and none of this does any harm to his approval ratings, which are at a record low.
The suspicion that Trump would exploit his royal guest was rather borne out when he apparently tried to stick words into the King's mouth, saying Charles agrees with him over Iran getting the bomb.
Yes, the King delivered two very good speeches.
They appealed to Americans' better nature on NATO, security and Ukraine and gently corrected the record on Britain's commitment to the alliance.
They also sailed pretty close to the wind.
A descendant of the great tyrant King George III, as Americans remember him, King Charles schooled his hosts in the perils of excessive executive rule by one man.
It was quite a moment. Democrats got the point and erupted in appreciation. Donald Trump, who has ruled by executive fiat more than any other president, pretended not to notice.
Pointed oratory then, but two good speeches do not necessarily make a worthwhile royal visit.
The proof will be in the outcome.
King Charles was sent in the hope that his one-man soft power roadshow could improve transatlantic relations, despite the downside, which was potentially considerable.
He was, after all, hanging out with a man accused in the Epstein files of raping a woman when she was 13. The FBI took the allegations seriously enough to interview her a number of times. That is quite apart from the other tawdry tales surrounding this president, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
The fact that the King also did not meet any of the survivors of Epstein despite their invitation will rankle with many.
So was it worth it?
On past form no.
The last Trump visit to the UK cost the taxpayer a reported £14m. The unpopular president was given a lavish welcome in Windsor Castle, ringed in high-wall security. Like The Truman Show, it was put on all for the benefit of just one man.
Government supporters and pundits applauded the visit as a masterpiece of British soft power. The palace had played a blinder.
But that has since proven premature. Relations have since only disintegrated further.
In January, the president belittled the enormous sacrifices made by British soldiers in Afghanistan, saying they stayed "a little back, a little off the front lines".
In the same month, Trump ratcheted up tariffs on the UK, threatening to revoke them only if Britain supported his hare-brained scheme to buy Greenland.
And Britain's refusal to join in with Trump's illegal war on Iran has plunged relations to a new nadir.
Read more:
Best pictures so far from the King's US state visit
Unpacking the King's speech to Congress
King Charles is a past master at handling colourful characters and extracting the maximum soft power potential. But even he has had his work cut out salvaging anything from the steaming mess of transatlantic relations under Donald Trump.
The visit undoubtedly bolsters Britain's image and prestige among Americans generally, but was that ever in doubt? It also shores up support with the president's political opponents, useful should they ever get their acts together and their hands back on power.
But do not expect anything more than a passing sugar high in relations with the administration in Washington under this president.
Farringdon railway station was evacuated after a "small number" of passengers complained of feeling ill on Thursday morning.
British Transport Police were called to the scene along with paramedics and firefighters.
A spokesperson for the force said: "Officers were called to Farringdon station at 9.42am today (30 April) following reports of a suspected gas leak in the station, with a small number of passengers reporting feeling unwell.
"Officers are in attendance, alongside the ambulance service and the fire brigade, and the station has been evacuated while enquiries are conducted."
London Fire Brigade said it was responding to the incident. It wrote, in a posting on X: "Two fire engines, two fire rescue units and specialist officers are in attendance.
"The Brigade is working alongside partners at the scene. People are advised to avoid the area at this time."
National Rail said that "emergency services are dealing with an incident" and no Elizabeth line or Thameslink "trains will stop at this station". It added that disruption is expected until 5pm.
The disruption means Thameslink services between London St Pancras International and London Blackfriars are not running, trains are not stopping at Farringdon or City Thameslink and all other routes face "major delays and cancellations".
Passengers are being "strongly advised to delay travel until later this afternoon".
On the Elizabeth line, National Rail said trains will not be stopping at Farringdon and Tottenham Court Road and services may be diverted to London Paddington or London Liverpool Street.
Tickets can be used on alternative London Underground, rail and bus services.
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It comes as electric vehicle numbers in Britain hit a record high of two million yesterday, amid a worldwide buying spree.
Oil and gas prices have soared as the conflict in Iran chokes off about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies and spreads misery.
Simon Stiell, head of the UN's climate body (UNFCCC) said in a speech in Paris this morning: "From this tragedy, an immense irony is unfolding."
In a veiled reference to US President Donald Trump, who has pursued a policy of "energy dominance", he said: "Those who've fought to keep the world hooked on fossil fuels are inadvertently supercharging the global renewables boom."
Mr Steill was speaking at a meeting in Paris to prepare for the upcoming COP31 climate talks in Turkey in November, a process strained by the withdrawal of the US and a world preoccupied by conflicts.
He pointed to Spain and Pakistan, which have both come off relatively lightly from the energy crisis thanks to recent booms in clean energy.
In Britain, 27,000 solar power installations were added in March - the highest monthly deployment of solar in over a decade.
The Philippines is among those citing the unfolding crisis in new clean power announcements.
Its energy secretary Sharon Garin said in March: "Amid the Middle East conflict, accelerating the development of renewable energy and storage is both a strategic necessity and a national imperative."
France this week became the first major economy to publish a national plan to phase out fossil fuels, pledging to ditch coal entirely by 2030, oil by 2045 and gas by 2050.
Meanwhile, new electric vehicle sales in March were up 66% in Germany and 69% in France - and even by 72% in Italy, where drivers have been slower on the uptake.
If geopolitical instability becomes a defining feature over the coming years, oil demand could end up 20% lower and gas 10%, according to new modelling by Wood Mackenzie.
The crisis also invigorated the world's first-ever conference dedicated to ditching fossil fuels, held in Colombia this week and attended by 56 countries, including the UK and fossil fuel majors like Australia, Canada and Nigeria.
Adam Bell, partner at consultancy Stonehaven, said: "The crisis has accelerated trends that were already underway.
"China is the world leader in all-economy electrification as a function of its lack of fossil fuels, except coal. Its strategy to emphasise this has been endorsed by events."
But many consumers are yet to feel the benefit of cheaper cleaner power due to problems in the grid and the fact their prices are skewed by fossil fuels, a link the UK is working to break.
And the trend is "not universal", added Mr Bell.
Even some of the world's greenest countries that attended the Colombia summit, like the Netherlands, Denmark and Britain, are eyeing up more oil and gas extraction on home soil.
Meanwhile Italy, Germany, Pakistan and parts of China are among those likely to replace missing gas with more coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, in the short term.
And the US is committed to its path of maximising oil and gas in a bid to lower energy prices for consumers.
Mr Bell said the "universal theme" is "turning away from global energy markets and into regional ones where nations feel they can better guarantee their security.
"This is of course a disaster for the Gulf States, which likely explains the UAE's move to quit OPEC in order to maximise remaining fossil fuel demand."
Brenton Tarrant, an Australian national, was sentenced to life behind bars without parole over the attack in Christchurch in 2019, the country's deadliest mass shooting.
On Thursday, three judges at the Court of Appeal dismissed his claims that harsh prison conditions allegedly affected his mental state and his admission of terrorism, murder and attempted murder charges was not voluntary.
His attempt to withdraw his guilty pleas and seek a trial was "utterly devoid of merit", they wrote.
The terrorist, who is now 35, drove to two Christchurch mosques and opened fire with semi-automatic weapons during Friday prayers.
His guilty pleas in March 2020 brought relief to bereaved families and survivors of the attack, who feared he would use a public trial to air his hateful views.
Tarrant "was not coerced or pressured in any way" to plead guilty, the judges said in their ruling.
In fact, they added, he rejected his lawyers' offer to attempt to negotiate away the terrorism charge because he wanted to be known as a terrorist.
What the judges said
At the appeal court's five-day hearing in February, Tarrant argued his admissions of guilt were provoked by "irrationality" induced by poor mental health, which led him to desert his racist views for a time.
But the judges concluded that his claims of mental illness were not supported by evidence, and he had been fit to plead guilty.
"He endeavoured to mislead us about his state of mind in a weak attempt to advance an appeal in circumstances where all other evidence demonstrated that he made an informed and totally rational decision to plead guilty," the judges wrote in Thursday's ruling.
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The court's decision also revealed that Tarrant attempted to abandon his appeal shortly after making his case.
The judges rejected that bid too, writing that the case was "of significant public interest and should be finally determined".
The court allowed him to abandon the appeal of his prison sentence, which was scheduled to be heard later this year.
Tarrant's lawyers, who he has since fired, said he had wanted to argue during a trial that he had been defending New Zealand from immigrants.
Such a defence is not allowed under New Zealand law, a fact that the judges suggested had influenced his decision to plead guilty.
They wrote that Tarrant hadn't disputed the facts of the case against him, which they described as "overwhelming" and "beyond dispute", including footage of the attack, which he had filmed himself and livestreamed on the internet.
An announcement is set for Thursday by LIV announcing a new strategy going forward to try to keep the rebel series going without being reliant on the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is overseen by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
It is understood captains of the teams were informed earlier this week.
Doubts have grown about the future willingness of Saudi Arabia to bankroll the sports soft-power project during two weeks without any denial from PIF that it is no longer willing to keep losing money on LIV.
It coincided with PIF not referencing sport its a new 2026-2030 strategy - unlike a previous long-term plan announcement - and indicating a need to refocus investment within Saudi and "maximising financial returns".
LIV plans to sell stakes in the teams, which PIF built the series around in 2022 after attracting some of the world's best players to defect with lucrative signing-on fees running into hundreds of millions of dollars.
It is chaired by PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who is also chairman of Premier League club Newcastle United - another strand of the Saudi sports portfolio which has rapidly expanded in an attempt to reposition the image of the Gulf nation.
A source says there will be new leadership of LIV, which attempted to merge with the established PGA and DP World tours in 2023, but talks collapsed despite an intervention last year by US President Donald Trump.
Those who defected to LIV in 2022 included major winners Bryson DeChambeau and Sergio Garcia, along with English duo Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.
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But LIV has lost more than £1bn in five years. While starting to attract more crowds to its events, it has never garnered media coverage and interest on a par with the long-established prestigious events on existing series.
LIV used the Roman numerals to highlight its 54-hole events, but it has since expanded to a traditional 72-hole, four-round format.
Senate hearings were held in Washington in 2023 into concerns the Saudi government would have been running an American sporting institution if LIV merged with the PGA Tour.
For the Saudis, it is about diversifying the economy away from oil. But human rights groups viewed it as the Saudis bolstering their influence and status in sport as a means of cleansing the kingdom's image.
The PGA Tour deplored that rights record when it went to court to thwart LIV a year ago, before backtracking and attempting unsuccessfully to link up.