The inevitable has happened. Biden has quit the race cold turkey, calling off his re-election campaign, and quickly offering his blessing to his Vice President. Now all eyes are on Kamala Harris to ward off the Trump menace. She will need a ton of luck and political smarts to become the first woman of color to occupy the Oval Office.

Things have come full circle. The powerful American newspaper Wall Street Journal, touted as a defender of the rights of journalists has just delivered a one-two punch to one of its haloed Hong Kong employees, Selina Cheng, who covered the car and energy sectors in mainland China. Cheng was fired, not for incompetence or conduct unbecoming a reporter, but for, of all things, being elected chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA). In an instant, her star power fizzled out.

As the shots rang out at Trump's rally, he faltered but did not fall. And now, with his nine lives, Trump claims his victory is divinely pre-ordained. No sooner had the bullets hit the wrong targets than US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene took to her megaphone to tell the world that it is God's hand that has saved Trump's life.

The assassin's bullet failed to neutralize America's curse. Instead, it has all but sealed his electoral victory.

Yes, no-drama Starmer has retaken No. 10 for Labor. But from day one, his plate is piled high with problems. He has lost no time in promising a reset to get Britain out of the mess.

Things are looking downright ugly in the US. But when America asks for a savior, all it gets is a Satan. A self-seeking man-child who idle-boasts about Making America Great Again is about to hurl it into the ninth layer of hell.

America is staring at a horrendous Hobson's choice. In November, it must pick either a convicted felon or a cognitively impaired doddering 81-year-old as leader. In the presidential debate, it was painful to watch Biden's struggling incoherence. Alarmed by Biden's obvious mental decline, some Democrats are openly calling for him to drop out of the race. Biden and Trump are running neck and neck in the polls. At this point it is a toss-up. But Biden has another worry.

Throughout history, China's merchant class had sat at the bottom of the totem pole—disrespected and marginalized. Scholars ranked first, followed by farmers, and then artisans. This social hierarchy has stood unchanged for more than two millennia.

There is a disturbing difference between human beings and the untamed animal kingdom. In the human world, one man may cause the death of millions. Among animals in the wild, a rogue beast may endanger a herd, if that. There are no massacres among brutish animals. We thought, wrongly, that Hitler was a once-in-a-millennium monster. Now we know that he has been reincarnated as Bibi Netanyahu.

In less than ten days, the President of Columbia U Minouche Shafik has released no fewer than four statements to calm a campus in crisis—all to no avail. She has lost the plot, the more empty words she speaks, the more she stirs the pot.

As the Palestinian crisis spirals out of control, all parties are committing a big tactical blunder.

America is in turmoil. Pro-Palestinian protests are spreading like wildfire across US campuses. To the outside world, something else is even more upsetting: US politicians' reactions to the unrest. One, incredibly, compares the outbursts of demonstrations to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, calling them a textbook case of a plot to "overthrow a democracy", without mentioning that the only weapons in the hands of students are tents and banners. Opportunistically, Trump blames Biden for the anti-Israeli campaigns.

Disparaging China has not only become an American disease, but an American epidemic. This hopelessly polarized country now has only one thing in common: antipathy towards China. Even for a Russia at war, it still boasts apologists in America, of which Donald Trump is the most prominent. But China haters, alarmingly, are becoming the fastest growing demographic in the US.

Not since Hitler's Germany has a country so blatantly crossed every red line and flouted every norm of human decency. World-wide protests have failed to curtail Israel's genocidal savagery. Nurses, doctors, and journalists are indiscriminately killed and UN aid workers are deliberately harassed, beaten and murdered. Hospitals, schools and mosques in Gaza are reduced to rubble.

In the history of world politics, never has so much been owed to something so small. Justin Trudeau did not just ride on his famous father's coattails. He rode it on the outcome of a minor amateur boxing match. In March 2012, he went toe- to-toe with a Conservative senator in the ring and emerged as the winner. That victory transformed him from a political lightweight into a heavyweight, profusely praised as a symbol of toughness and courage. That bout costs Canada dearly. From that point on, the style has trumped substance, launching the 8-year reign of the "Paris Hilton of Canadian politics".