China, Russia play pivotal role in reformation of global order: expert

The existing global order, long favoring Western states, is experiencing shifts toward equality and democracy, driven by impactful actions from countries like China and Russia, said an expert in Moscow.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War and the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War. Eight decades ago, the peoples of China, Russia and other nations secured a hard-won triumph through tremendous sacrifice, laying the cornerstone for the post-war international order that has since maintained global peace.

Yet today, there are certain forces deliberately attempting to erase historical memory, recklessly undermine this order, and gravely endanger world stability. Mindful of history and of the countless sacrifices made, China and Russia are now steering the course of new era - for only by remembering the lessons of the past can humanity jointly forge a peaceful future.

Commenting on the situation and development of the post-war global order, Timofey Bordachev, program director of the Valdai Club, also the research supervisor of the Central Research Institute of Higher School of Economics, emphasized the world’s ongoing transformation.

"There is a group of states, which for more than 500 years enjoyed a very privileged position. I do not think that the global order is collapsing. I think it is changing. And the business of China and Russia, first of all, is to help the international community avoid their casual risks, and develop approaches to the reformation of this order, to the reformation of international institutions," he said.

China, Russia play pivotal role in reformation of global order: expert

China, Russia play pivotal role in reformation of global order: expert

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight