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Hysterics at What Pet Ditches $100 Cat Tree To Nap in Instead

The TikTok video has over 770,000 views, with many users complimenting the cat’s unique spot. One complimented: “What a lovely center piece you have.”
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Giorgio Armani Dies Aged 91: Latest Updates

Giorgio Armani, famed for redefining fashion with relaxed tailoring, has died at 91.
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Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara’s rare red carpet date at Venice Film Festival

Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix attended the “The Voice Of Hind Rajab” red carpet during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy. The rarely seen couple, who executive produced the film, looked glamorous as they posed for photos before the screening of the film. The notoriously private couple share two kids together.
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Raiders Owner Mark Davis Makes Shocking Tom Brady Admission

In a new admission, Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis has made a shocking revelation about Tom Brady joining the organization.
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Fury as Woman Asks Friend To Pay for Broken Chair As She’s the ‘Biggest’

Newsweek discussed the viral Reddit post with a psychotherapist who said: “The poster should not be liable to pay anything.”
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Angela Rayner used family conveyancing firm to buy tax row flat

Exclusive: Experts say small firms offering general legal services may not be equipped to deal with ownership of properties held in trust

Angela Rayner used a small conveyancing firm for the purchase of an £800,000 flat which has put her at the centre of a damaging tax row, the Guardian has learned.

The deputy prime minister employed Verrico & Associates, a family firm based in Herne Bay, Kent, to complete the transaction, according to legal documents seen by this newspaper.

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How China Is Broadcasting Its Might

APTOPIX China Parade

China broadcast its might on Wednesday. Tens of thousands of spectators in Beijing looked on as the People’s Republic unveiled laser weapons, nuclear ballistic missiles, and giant underwater drones alongside armored vehicles, tanks, and parading soldiers whose marching prowess put the rest of the world to shame. Some 26 world leaders, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, joined Xi Jinping as onlookers.

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The highly choreographed spectacle comes two days after Xi convened the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin, joined not only by leaders ill-favored in the West but also India’s Narendra Modi and traditional U.S. allies.

The SCO has come a long way. A quarter of a century ago, around when Putin took power and long before Xi and Modi entered the world stage, the SCO was a quiet backstage where China and a few Central Asian countries tried to demonstrate a modicum of relevance. But today the SCO is the world’s largest regional bloc, and accounts for 30% of global GDP.

The countries that make up the SCO resist set alignments. But if one issue links them it is grievances against the U.S.-led international order. China is in the second round of a trade war started six years ago by President Donald Trump during his first term. Russia is still reeling from longrunning U.S. support for Ukraine in the wake of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion. India is now grappling with 50% tariffs for not toeing the Trump trade line.

That Kim attended the parade, a first for a North Korean leader since 1959, underscores that this is a collection of disaffected powers—and China is happy to marshal them. After all, Pyongyang has been the most consistent, long-term antagonist to Washington. China and even Russia have had far longer and deeper periods of alignment with the U.S.

APTOPIX China Parade

But there are still profound differences among these nations. They are not joined by trust, common values, and a common vision. The main attendees at the SCO and the military parade may dislike a world order still dominated by the U.S. But there are major and in some cases mutually incompatible differences on what they want from the future.

The stakes are highest for China. For all the warm words and photos, Xi does not regard any of the other SCO members as being economically or geopolitically in the same league. China’s economy is eight times the size of Russia’s, and three times India’s. Beijing is still exploring the possibility of a favorable trade deal with Trump, and unlike other nations may get one.

Read More: Why Trump Will Blink First on China

What Russia and India feel about China’s rise is clear from their recent histories. Modi is as nationalistic as Xi, and is no doubt irritated at the confidence and pushiness of its great eastern neighbor. New Delhi has never bought into the Belt and Road Initiative, and notably banned TikTok and other China-related apps. India has a competing vision of itself as a great power and nurtures the hope it will one day stand as an equal to China and the U.S. Tellingly, it is China not other P5 members that resists India’s bid to permanently join the U.N. Security Council.

For Russia, the issue is one of dealing with a power that it depends on, but still harbors major differences with. Any one visiting Russia in the past will know when the subject of China comes up, there are perpetual suspicions toward its territorial intentions in the far east of the country. Putin is also a strong nationalist. It is interesting to speculate what he might really feel about looking increasingly, these days, like the junior partner of Beijing.

If there is any message from the SCO, it is how many of these very different powers are finding it necessary to work together because of the inconsistency and challenges thrown at them by the Trump Administration. But Wednesday’s military parade, the largest ever held by China, also shows that whatever the emerging world order is, it is governed by harsh realism, self-interest, and opportunism.

China may well find that leading a rival bloc is far more difficult than being part of the old system that now seems to be eroding.

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Yankees’ Will Warren sends 2-Word Message After Astros ‘Gifted’ Win by Umpires

The New York Yankees gave up four runs in the eighth inning, leading to a loss against the Houston Astros on Wednesday night.
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Applications for US jobless benefits rise but remain in a healthy range

Applications for US jobless benefits rise but remain in a healthy range
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Kennedy to appear before Senate committee amid CDC turmoil

Kennedy to appear before Senate committee amid CDC turmoil