The leaders of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea – a quartet described by Western policy analysts as the "axis of upheaval" – met in public for the first time today at a huge military parade in Beijing.

The parade followed the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, where President Xi Jinping outlined his vision for "a more just and reasonable global governance system" as a challenger to the US-led world order.

What did the commentators say?
The sight of the leaders of the most powerful countries not aligned with the West "smiling and laughing" at the summit "like good friends" was "almost certainly intended" for a US audience, said The New York Times. It showed how "geopolitical disruption" caused by Donald Trump's trade war has given China and Russia "a platform to rally" other countries.

This was "a carefully choreographed summit", designed to showcase Xi's "vision of a new world order", said CNN. With the US "shaking up its alliances and causing economic pain" for friends and foes alike, Xi sees "an opportune moment". And, by capping off the summit with a parade of China's "cutting-edge" weapons and "thousands of goose-stepping soldiers", he is sending a message that his country is "a force that wants to reset global rules".

But China is grappling with its own domestic issues, with "a sluggish economy, youth unemployment and plummeting house prices", said the BBC. Even at Xi's big "moment in the spotlight", there is "discontent, even disillusionment".

What next?
Optics was "a key part of this summit, and the White House should grasp that its policies will result in other countries looking for alternatives to meet their interests", analyst Manoj Kewalramani, from the Takshashila Institution in Bangalore, told The New York Times. But "optics do little to alleviate the fault lines that exist in the troika of India, China and Russia".

Despite "warm ties with Moscow", India cannot replace the West's economic support with sanction-battered Russia, said the newspaper. And even China has been "looking warily at Moscow's growing influence over North Korea".

"If it sometimes feels as if there is a Costa Coffee in every town and city in the UK," said The Observier, "that is because there almost is." Britain's biggest high-street coffee chain has more than 2,000 outlets and at least 14,000 self-service machines, selling "millions of cups a week". Yet despite this apparent "market dominance", Coca-Cola, which bought Costa in 2018, is reportedly "considering offloading" it amid a decline in sales.

In hot water
Costa was founded in 1971 and bought by hospitality company Whitbread in 1995, by which time it was a chain with nearly 40 shops "dedicated to actual coffee", said The Telegraph. But today it is a "dowdy brand", a "proliferator of unnecessary volumes of milky liquid" and "obesity-inducing horrors".

Drought, crop failures and global supply shortages have hiked the price of coffee, while rises in inflation, energy bills, wages and National Insurance have further pushed up costs for UK employers. At the same time, the cost-of-living crisis has squeezed consumer budgets.

"You know there's a problem when the world's biggest coffee chain, Starbucks, is suffering," said The Grocer. Last year the chain recorded a £35 million loss in the UK and a 4% decline in revenue.

'TikTok appeal'
It's an "undeniably tough market" for hospitality in general, said The Grocer. But the key difference in such a "competitive and overcrowded" market? Unlike Starbucks, Caffè Nero and Pret A Manger, Costa "missed out on one of the biggest trends in recent years: the viral matcha iced latte".

Costa's high-street rivals, as well as premium chain Gail's and smaller ones like Blank Street Coffee, "jumped on the trend" when colourful matcha drinks first hit the market, said the BBC. Blank Street reported a 27% growth in 35 outlets last year, "driven by its TikTok appeal in the form of "minty-fresh decorated cafes" and "pastel-hued drinks".

A luxury drink is an "affordable treat", but "when a coffee can cost you the best part of £5, you expect something you can't make yourself". So a "straight-up latte isn't a treat", independent retail analyst Clare Bailey told the broadcaster.

A firefighter joins fellow members of Madrid's forestry brigades at a rally outside the Finance Ministry to demand better wages and rights from their state-controlled employer. The specialised firefighting units have been on the front line of the battle to contain Spain's devastating wildfires.

Ricardo Rubio / Europa Press / Getty Images

It's been over a decade since "Educating Yorkshire" first "melted the nation's hearts", as we watched English teacher Matthew Burton help his stammering pupil, Musharaf Asghar, to "find his voice", said Helen Brown in The Telegraph. Now, Channel 4 has returned to Thornhill Community Academy where Burton – "jovial and dedicated, if a little wearier" – has been promoted to headteacher.

The revival is "perfectly timed", said Phil Harrison in The Guardian. Earlier this year, Netflix's "Adolescence" prompted a "national orgy of hand-wringing" about the state of education. It is comforting that "plenty" has stayed the same at Thornhill since season one.

We're introduced to characters including Amy, a "thoroughly eccentric and entirely charming kid grappling with Tourette syndrome", and the "very clever and very disruptive" Riley, who keeps "clowning" in class. Great care has been taken with the editing "to make these children hilarious, but never the butt of the joke; to show their vulnerability, but also their strength".

The streamlining of footage into "simple, uplifting narratives" is part of the show's appeal, said Louis Chilton in The Independent. But its inability to "scrutinise the institution it depicts" is also what leaves it "ultimately superficial as a work of documentary filmmaking".

The show isn't particularly inventive, said Emily Baker in The i Paper. However, when generational divisions are so "fraught", and "new moral panics" about the world our kids are growing up in crop up constantly, "this understated, quietly groundbreaking documentary is a tonic. Its message is clear and undeniable: the kids are all right."

Can a machine be just?
Sarah O'Connor in the Financial Times
"How would employers and employees feel about AI settling their disputes?" writes Sarah O'Connor. There's an "intuitive appeal to the idea of turning over responsibility for complex decisions to consistent and emotionless machines", but recruitment has already shown that using AI in this way carries a "number of problems, from biased algorithms to opacity". A key "aspect of 'fairness' is feeling that you have really been heard", but "can a machine give this sense of closure"?

The Green Party has finally picked a side
Adam Ramsay on Novara Media
Zack Polanski's election as Green Party leader reflects a "generational shift in the country", writes Adam Ramsay. Millennials and Gen Z tend to be "sceptical of, and angry about, the system", and Polanski represents "a politic that is much more serious about power", instead of "naively hoping just to ask things of it politely". His new leadership team is "united by a desire to remake their country", making it "hard not to feel just a little bit of hope".

The case of the disputed Vermeer proves that authenticity is fake
Stephen Bayley in The Telegraph
"A gathering storm" is looming over Kenwood House, "home to one of the finest small collections of paintings in London", writes Stephen Bayley. The authenticity of "one of its most enjoyed masterpieces", Johannes Vermeer's "Guitar Player", has been called into question by the discovery of an "almost identical" version in the US that "looks convincingly like an authentic" too. But "does it really matter"? "Surely beauty is something that transcends the actuarial banalities of authenticity."