Hull has been chosen to be the UK's city of culture in 2017, beating three other shortlisted cities for the title. The announcement was made in Westminster by the culture secretary, Maria Miller. "This is brilliant news for Hull and everyone involved in the bid there," she said. She added: "This year's UK city of culture, Derry-Londonderry, demonstrates the huge benefits that the title brings."

Last week, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Mexico City Mayor Miguel Mancera entered into a first-of-its-kind city-to-city agreement. This was not a typical Sister Cities cultural exchange pact. The Global Cities Economic Partnership instead plans a series of joint initiatives in trade, innovation, and education to increase employment, expand advanced industries, and strengthen overall global competitiveness.

Chicago continues to forge its way through the 21st century as a leader on the world stage, and over the past several years, we have seen the city’s global presence grow stronger than ever. Chicago’s commitment to expanding the city’s global influence has made positive impacts on the lives of Chicago residents, the residents of our sister cities, and all those who travel to Chicago to experience our city’s unparalleled offerings.

If such a thing is possible, Shanghai today beckons even more powerfully than it did in the past, playing a critical role among the great cities of the world beyond anything that could have been imagined. Shanghai’s future shines brilliantly, given its own dynamic economy and the larger Chinese economy of which it is a critical part. However, as China’s most prosperous city, Shanghai should not be afraid to strike out on its own or, more accurately, to define the terms of its development in its own way and according to its own history and understanding of its future.

London is set to abandon plans to bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the BBC has learned. Mayor Boris Johnson is said to be worried the event could cost as much as £1bn and that the city could not afford it. He had previously backed the plans. A final decision has not been made, but a source said a bid was "unlikely".

Last week, Rodrigo Tavares wrote in Foreign Affairs about Brazil’s recent involvement in paradiplomacy, or subnational foreign relations, by establishing formal bilateral relations between São Paulo and the UK. According to the article, the U.S. established a similar agreement with the world’s ninth largest city this past March - the first time that the State Department has forged direct relations with a subnational government in the southern hemisphere.

A reader who invested in .la domain names asked me this week if I knew how the domain name was doing since GoDaddy put some of its marketing weight behind the domain. Here’s your answer: GoDaddy customers have registered over 7,000 domain names since the company got involved in June. The registrar started promoting the domains in July.

According to a mailing from the offical site of the .NYC new gTLD domain name extension, mydotnyc.com the city expects that the .NYC extension will go live in the 1st half of 2014. “The City of New York will be one of the first cities in the world to be granted its own domain extension by ICANN, the nonprofit organization responsible for overseeing the domain names.