Historical anniversaries often provide the backdrop for diplomacy to become spectacle. This week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin was deliberately staged ahead of China’s grand parade marking 80 years since the end of World War II. Beijing, the host, made sure the symbolism landed. The timing also underscored the contrast with Washington: Donald Trump, who has long admired military parades, is already planning a lavish one next July for America’s 250th anniversary, after his low-key attempt last summer fell flat.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Russia and China anchor a new world order where the West is optional
The SCO summit shows how the world is shifting away from the West

Activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday expressed her contempt for the international community for its continued inaction on ending the mass suffering being inflicted on Gaza by the Israeli government.

Thunberg, who is a passenger on the Global Sumud Flotilla attempting to break through the Israeli blockade of Gaza, told Middle East Eye that her decision to join the voyage was "the bare minimum" she could do as Palestinians are facing mass starvation.

Pope Leo XIV discussed the “tragic situation in Gaza” and urged a “permanent ceasefire” in the Palestinian territory during a private audience with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday, the Vatican said in a press release.

Pope Leo XIV Hosts Israeli President, Urges ‘Permanent’ Gaza Ceasefire

by Dave DeCamp | September 4, 2025 at 6:26 pm ET

Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, a callback to the department’s original name used from 1789 to 1947.

The directive will make Department of War the secondary title, and is a way to get around the need for congressional approval to formally rename a federal agency, an administration official said.

“We won the first world war, we won the second world war, we won everything before that and in between,” Trump said at the signing. “And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to the Department of Defense.”

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - European army chiefs have drawn up a plan to potentially deploy more than 10,000 troops to Ukraine, with some US generals providing their input, the Wall Street Journal newspaper reported on Friday, citing a European diplomat.

On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Europe's vision of security guarantees for Ukraine involves stationing troops away from the front lines for demonstration and training purposes.

According to the daily, European army chiefs produced a detailed deployment plan that would station an air component outside Ukraine to patrol its airspace. The diplomat said that the US head of NATO's Allied Command Operations was among the US top brass who contributed to the planning process.

Australian governments of all stripes have long maintained a commitment to secure borders and an orderly migration program.

Utilising the benefit of being an island nation-continent, our governments over the last 30 years have taken expensive steps to stop boatloads of asylum seekers reaching Australia and to remove those who do manage to arrive at our former colonies, Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Labor and Liberal are as good or as bad at it as each other, depending on your point of view.

Frank Brennan

The Ministry of Economy and Finance admits today: there has been no monitoring of the €211 billion of public money paid unconditionally and without compensation each year to companies. There has been no control, no monitoring of results, no traceability of the use of these astronomical sums. It is one of the greatest state scandals!

The French have reason to be angry!

Patrick CHAMPAGNAC

When Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on Friday, he issued a now-familiar warning: any foreign troops entering Ukraine during active fighting would be considered “legitimate targets.” Yet Western media ran with a drastically different narrative – suggesting he was threatening peacekeepers, not just combatants.

That framing missed a crucial distinction. In the same remarks, Putin separately addressed the idea of postwar peacekeeping forces, saying they would be unnecessary once a settlement was reached.

Within hours, Western headlines turned those words into something much starker – a supposed threat against European “peacekeepers.” By erasing the context that Putin had separated conflict intervention from postwar scenarios, much of the press presented a conditional statement as intimidating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYjooTz_1lA

Thejuicemedia

The Government of Norway made a new tourism ad and it's surprsingly honest and informative!

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

Exposing Why Farmers Can't Legally Replant Their Own Seeds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxVXvFOPIyQ&t=1s

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

GUS: ANY PACK OF LETTUCES, CARROTS OR WHATEVER NEEDS TO BE LABELLED GMO IF THE SEEDS ARE "PATENTED"... BUT THE GMO LOBBY REFUSES TO INDICATE SUCH SO, WE NEED TO LABEL NON-GMOs:

The SCO has condemned Israel and the US for their attack on Iran in June. In a joint statement, they said that such aggressive actions against civilian targets, including nuclear energy infrastructure, which resulted in civilian deaths, constitute a gross violation of the principles and norms of international law and infringe on Iran’s sovereignty.

The SCO’s condemnation of Israeli and US strikes on Iran marks a turning point, Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Tehran University professor and political analyst, told Sputnik. “This is what we should have seen from the United Nations. Instead, the SCO and BRICS are emerging as the real alternative.”

Key takeaways:

The West’s wars, sanctions, and support for apartheid regimes are pushing nations together and marginalizing the very institutions it built after WWII...

A meeting of Ukraine’s western European backers, known as the ‘coalition of the willing’, at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Thursday has brought together European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Vladimir Zelensky, and the leaders of Belgium, Poland, Finland and France.

Kiev has been pressing the West to provide security guarantees that could serve as a substitute for NATO’s collective defense since the US effectively blocked Ukraine’s bid to join the bloc.

Several European nations, including France and the UK, have voiced their readiness to deploy peacekeepers to Ukraine, while Germany recently said it has no such plans. Trump has ruled out sending US troops.

I am going to cover two different issues here today, but both pertain to Donald Trump. I am not a Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) person. I do not reflexively dislike President Trump, but I find myself more disturbed about his foreign policy and his military actions, which counter his professed claim to be seeking peace. Let’s start with the attack on an alleged Venezuelan boat on Monday by the US Navy… It was a criminal act by US forces in my view.

Did Donald Trump Authorize Murder?… and Why is He Disrespecting China’s Role in Defeating Japan?
by Larry C. Johnson

First, here is what the White House, the US State Department and the Department of Defense said about the US attack:

Use of the term grey-zone is widespread in national security circles, but there is no universal agreement on the definition of grey-zone, or even whether it is a useful term, with views about the term ranging from "faddish" or "vague", to "useful" or "brilliant".[1]

That’s one of the silliest things about the way rightists are always babbling about how we need to protect our way of life from immigrants or Islam or “the trans agenda” or whatever. They’re beginning with the assumption that this train wreck of a society is worth saving at all.

Western Civilization Is Not Worth Saving

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE

We don’t need to rescue western civilization from outside forces, we need to rescue ourselves from western civilization.

I am not saying that westerners should die. I am not saying that all the ideals and values that westerners purport to hold are worthless. I am saying that this civilization, as it actually exists, is an indefensible disaster. Clearly.