No Chinese city appears on the annual lists of the most liveable cities in the world. Is this due to ignorance or to a pervasive anti-China bias?

What does one look for in a liveable city? According to three main annual global city surveys, factors include stability, culture and the environment, infrastructure, education standards and healthcare.

Jocelyn Chey

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has proposed to lead a transitional administration in Gaza when Israel’s military campaign in the enclave ends, British media reported on Friday.

Blair is reportedly seeking to chair a body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA), which would oversee reconstruction and eventually transfer power to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA).

One of a dozen concepts proposed by various governments and think tanks, GITA would seek a UN mandate to be Gaza’s “supreme political and legal authority” for five years. If approved, Blair would have a secretariat of up to 25 people funded by Gulf states. The Economist described the plan “a distinct improvement” over US President Donald Trump’s earlier vision of an American-owned Gaza “riviera.”

The Pentagon issued an urgent, highly unusual directive calling hundreds of generals and admirals (1–4 star officers and their senior enlisted advisers) to assemble in Virginia; many senior officers reportedly don’t know the reason for the meeting.

Commentators describe the order as extraordinary because such large in-person gatherings of top commanders are rare and could signal something significant beyond routine video conferences.

There is speculation the meeting may be tied to military actions or planning related to recent moves in the Caribbean and threats involving Venezuela, and possibly coordination concerning Iran (snapback sanctions were mentioned as imminent in the discussion).

Leading German automotive supplier Bosch is set to slash a “five-digit number” of jobs as part of a major cost-cutting exercise, Handelsblatt reported on Thursday, citing anonymous industry sources.

Germany and other EU members have seen their industries lose ground globally after switching from inexpensive Russian oil and gas imports to costlier alternatives following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

Earlier this month, Bosch HR director Stefan Grosch revealed that the company’s mobility division, which produces fuel injectors and driver-assistance software among other items, was staring at an annual shortfall of approximately €2.5 billion ($2.95 billion).

In an email statement to the press, Bosch said it would be “cutting costs across the board – from materials and logistics to capital spending and jobs.”

The Ukrainian crisis was orchestrated by the West as a war on Russia, waged by Kiev, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

The top diplomat made the remarks on Thursday during a G20 ministerial meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The refusal to follow the UN Charter, which is a manifestation of “neo-colonial ambitions,” prompts regional wars and raises global tension, Lavrov stated, invoking decades-long unresolved conflicts in Africa and elsewhere.

“Another clear example is the Western-provoked crisis in Ukraine, through which NATO and the European Union want to declare – have already declared – an actual war on my country and are directly participating in it,” the top diplomat added.

There is no end in sight for the massacre in Gaza. Nearly two years after the start of Al Aqsa Flood, the United Nations Human Rights Council has — finally —  declared Israel’s war in Gaza genocide.

Seventy-two pages, with hundreds of footnotes, and a litany of atrocity stories catalogue the devastating human destruction. The details are gruesome. Extermination, torture, sexual violence and starvation are not outliers but the systematic instruments of genocide.

Ritual human sacrifice
How the West normalizes the crimes of Zionism

NICK ESTES

A joint statement by Ukraine and the EU condemning Russia has received the backing of only 36 out of the 193 UN member states. The US notably abstained.

Presented by EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga at the UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, the document describes Russia’s actions vis-a-vis Ukraine as a “blatant violation of the UN Charter.” It also calls on the global community to “maximize pressure” on Moscow, and to support Ukraine’s “territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.”

The joint statement was endorsed by the 26 EU member states, with the exception of Hungary, and also endorsed by Albania, Andorra, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK.

"The stakes could not be higher," a senior UN official told reporters ahead of the UN Climate Summit in New York. Heavy flooding, drought and ever longer heatwaves are just some of the extreme weather events that have battered communities over the past summer alone. 

Climate disasters are "wreaking havoc" on every continent, the UN official added. 

Scientists say human-caused global warming is driving the changes in Earth's climate and that rising temperatures will mean worse impacts in the long run.

Nations deliver new climate targets ahead of climate summit

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to act with greater responsibility on the world stage, warning that Washington should not see itself as “the emperor of the world.”

Speaking to PBS News ahead of his speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Lula said the United States must live up to its position as the world’s largest economy and military power by respecting sovereignty and avoiding interference in other nations’ internal affairs.

Another day, another act of left-wing violence. Another act of left-wing violence, another media cover-up for their left-wing terrorist foot soldiers.

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the corporate media put an enormous amount of effort into a psy-op to make Americans believe the assassin was actually a Trump supporter. 

While Media Denied Leftist Violence After Kirk Murder, Three More Left-Wing Attacks Happened

BY: BRECCAN F. THIES

Western praise of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky encouraged overconfidence and increasingly authoritarian behavior in Kiev, The Economist argued in a piece published on Tuesday.

In a “report card” assessing Ukraine’s deepening problems as its conflict with Russia drags on, the British magazine highlighted manpower shortages, a mounting budget deficit, and what it described as a growing loss of government legitimacy.

Kiev’s attempted crackdown on anti-corruption agencies in July, which sparked mass protests, marked a breaking point, according to a senior Ukrainian official, who said “trust has broken down between government and society.”

“[Zelensky’s] rise as a cult hero in the West has encouraged hubris,” the outlet wrote. The Ukrainian leader was lionized by foreign officials and media, some of whom compared him to Winston Churchill.

Russia responds to Trump’s ‘paper tiger’ criticism

The country is usually described as a “bear” rather than other animals, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has joked

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has rejected US President Donald Trump’s description of Russia as “a paper tiger,”joking that the country is more commonly compared to a bear.

On Tuesday, following his meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, Trump said he believes that Kiev is “in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back,” if the EU and NATO continue to support it.

He compared Russia to a “paper tiger,”claiming that the country is in “BIG Economic trouble” and that “this is the time for Ukraine to act.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday seemingly announced a major shift in the U.S. approach to the Russia–Ukraine war. “I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

He added that Ukraine could recapture all its territory “and, who knows, maybe even go further than that!” Previously, the Trump administration had said that Ukraine would need to give up some of its territory as part of a peace deal. While the White House has shown reluctance to continue funding the Ukraine war, Trump said in the post: “We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them."

Donald Trump has used a speech at the United Nations to criticise countries that have recognised Palestinian statehood, accusing them of encouraging the fighting to continue in the Middle East.

In a lengthy speech laden with characteristic hyperbole, the US president also chastised the UN for failing to stop international conflicts and leaving it up to him to end wars on his own.

He described climate change as a "con job" that would cause nations to fail.

Donald Trump uses United Nations speech to lay out the US's complaints with the world

By Brad Ryan in Washington DC

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – US President Donald Trump questioned on Tuesday the UN purpose, claiming that it had not helped him in resolving global conflicts during the first eight months of his second term.

Trump Questions Purpose of United Nations in UNGA Address

“I was too busy working to save millions of lives, that is the saving and stopping these [seven] wars. But later, I realized that the United Nations wasn't there for us. They weren't there. I thought of it really after the fact, not during these negotiations, which were not easy. That being the case, what is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said in his address to the United Nations General Assembly.