Disease, the rich-poor gap, climate change and conflicts within and among nations will pose greater challenges in coming decades, with the Covid-19 pandemic already worsening some of those problems, a US intelligence report said on Thursday.

The rivalry between China and a US-led coalition of Western nations likely will intensify, fuelled by military power shifts, demographics, technology and “hardening divisions over governance models,” said Global Trends 2040: A More Contested World, produced by the US National Intelligence Council (NIC).