Overview

• China staged its largest‑ever parade at Tiananmen Square to mark 80 years since Japan’s defeat, featuring massed troops, flyovers and newly revealed hypersonic missiles, drones and precision‑strike systems.
• Xi inspected PLA formations and called for faster military modernization, telling spectators the world faces a choice between peace or war.
• Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un flanked Xi in a rare joint appearance with roughly two dozen mostly non‑Western leaders in attendance, while major Western leaders stayed away.
• South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers it assesses North Korea has sent about 15,000 troops to Russia with roughly 2,000 killed, and that the first 1,000 additional construction workers and deminers are already in Russia.
• U.S. President Donald Trump posted that Xi, Putin and Kim were “conspiring against the United States,” as the gathering was widely described as a show of unity challenging U.S. influence.