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Group photo taken after Beijing military parade raised eyebrows in Australia for featuring former Victorian premier alongside other leaders. Here’s who else is in the frame

A number of at a second world war commemoration parade on Wednesday, in a display designed to show off China’s military strength and geopolitical might. The presence of leaders such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un at the event has led to some western political and economic analysts describing it as a meeting of the “axis of upheaval”.
After the parade, Russian state agency Sputnik released a group photo, featuring some expected – . Here’s who’s who.
1: Prabowo Subianto, the president of Indonesia. Prabowo travelled to China over perks for lawmakers. Critics say the former general is , echoing the country’s authoritarian past.
2: , the president of the Russian Federation. Putin has hailed Russia’s level of ties with China, with booming trade between the two countries an economic lifeline for Moscow since the start of the war in Ukraine.
3: , the president of China. Before the parade, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin this week, in a push to elevate groups dominated by the global south over EU and US-led groups such as Nato.
4: Peng Liyuan, the first lady of China.
5: , the supreme leader of North Korea. Kim’s is only his second reported trip abroad in six years, and the first time he has been seen with Xi and Putin at the same event.
6: Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the president of Kazakhstan. In 2022 Tokayev said he had personally ordered security forces and the army to “open ” against protesters .

Ah Gan, who asked to use a pseudonym for his protection, is one of more than 67,000 Chinese migrants who flowed across America’s southern border between 2022 and 2024. A small number were genuine ...

In today’s newsletter: In hosting anti-western leaders at its largest ever military parade, Beijing sent a defiant message that will be heard loud and clear across the world

Good morning. All eyes have been on China this week as the second biggest global economy flexed its muscles.
Dozens of world leaders, including from the global south, authoritarian pariah states and the EU, attended China’s largest ever military parade on Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war, which China calls the war of resistance against Japanese aggression.
UK news | Deputy PM Angela Rayner has admitted she on her £800,000 seaside flat, after coming under intense pressure to be more transparent about her property arrangements.
Russia | Vladimir Putin has to visit Russia during a lengthy meeting in Beijing on the sidelines of China’s biggest military parade, as Kim promised to do “everything I can to assist” Moscow.
Police | The Metropolitan police have into the comedy writer Graham Linehan for tweets about trans issues, and said that the law used by officers to detain him needs reviewing.
Israel | Israeli drones near UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon, the agency’s force said on Wednesday, in what it described as “one of the most serious attacks” on its personnel since a November ceasefire.
Portugal | A day of national mourning has been declared in Portugal after at least when Lisbon’s well-known Gloria funicular railway car derailed and crashed on Wednesday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s liaison to China is the daughter of a computer scientist building a genealogical database for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who has considerable ties to Chinese intelligence and military personnel,

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s liaison to China is the daughter of a computer scientist building a genealogical database for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who has considerable ties to Chinese ...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s liaison to China is the daughter of a computer scientist building a genealogical database for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who has considerable ties to Chinese intelligence and military personnel,

Isotope analysis finds copper ore came from Yangtze River basin while statue could be a repurposed Tang Dynasty tomb guardian
The great bronze statue of a winged lion perched atop one of two granite columns in Venice’s St Mark’s Square has watched over the city for centuries.
But Italian scientists have now found evidence to suggest the iconic statue was at least in part made in China, and possibly ended up in Venice via the Silk Road after being brought back by the father and uncle of the merchant and explorer Marco Polo.

The parade, attended by the leaders of Russia and North Korea, had a defiant message. President Trump fired back, accusing Xi Jinping of ignoring America’s role in the war.

A government can’t half care about human rights. And Australia’s ‘disagree where we must’ approach with China enables abuse and undermines our national interest

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A alongside the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, during a military parade in Beijing raised troubling questions. Earlier, former New South Wales premier Bob Carr sought to pre-emptively justify his possible attendance at the event (although he didn’t in the end) in an .
While it is difficult for the Australian government to control the actions of former officials, the photo still raises the question how the two former premiers found themselves in a situation where they were either in a photo or contemplated attending an event with all these known grave violators of human rights. Perhaps it is because the Australian government sends mixed messages about responding to human rights abuses when committed by some governments.

U.S. farmers need to sell their incoming crop, and China needs to buy it in case its main alternative, Brazil, has a flood or drought. But their trade war prevents a deal.

Senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins discusses a historic week in China – including a 20-plus country summit and an unprecedented military parade – and analyses what it tells us about the country’s attempt to remake the world
It has been a historic week of diplomacy in China.
As senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins explains, it started on Sunday, with more than 20 heads of state attending the opening of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Among them were strongmen from across Europe and Asia: presidents Putin of Russia, Erdoğan of Turkey, Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Lukashenko of Belarus and many others.

Information collected during the yearslong Salt Typhoon attack could allow Beijing’s intelligence services to track targets from the United States and dozens of other countries.