World leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un of North Korea, watched China display its most recent military equipment in a massive parade in Beijing.
The capital’s Tiananmen Square, the entrance to the historically Forbidden City and the heart of President Xi Jinping’s show of force to the world, was a gathering place from dawn on Wednesday.
With their parade invitations posed with eager faces in front of Tiananmen, a backdrop adorned with Chinese national flags and thousands of red and green seats set up for the occasion.
The square’s giant, golden numerals “1945” and “2025” serve as reminders of the 80 years since Japan’s surrender and World War II ended.
As soldiers marched in the square, military bands blared their trumpets in concert.
Kim and Putin were pictured greeting Xi and the other foreign leaders as they crossed paths for a group photo in a rarely seen moment.
As Xi passed troops waiting for attention along Chang’an Avenue while wearing a dark gray Mao suit, he waited in an open-topped black limousine.
“Comrades, you are working hard,” yelled the soldiers! Before joining his guests in a grandstand above the famed Mao Zedong portrait on Tiananmen, including Putin and Kim, he repeatedly yelled into four microphones.
The ceremony took place in mid-to-mid-90s Fahrenheit, which was challenging for many spectators who had to sweat profusely outside the unshaded stands. Some staff members helped those who felt unwell to leave.
As emergency services struggle to reach remote villages, survivors are finding themselves in the rubble of homes that were devastated by a violent earthquake over the weekend that killed more than 1,400 people in eastern Afghanistan.
Local official Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad told the AFP news agency on Wednesday that victims in Kunar’s Nurgal district were still confined to their homes and were difficult to save. He claimed that there are some villages that haven’t received aid yet.
Residents of the mountainous region near Pakistan were huddled in the open air for fear of strong aftershocks and desperately trying to rescue people from submerged buildings on Sunday as a result of a magnitude 6 earthquake.
According to the ruling Taliban government, the earthquake was one of the deadliest to hit the impoverished nation in decades and claimed the lives of at least 1, 411 people and 3, 124 others.
In nearby Nangarhar and Laghman provinces, hundreds of people were killed and hundreds of others were hurt, with the majority of the casualties occurring in Kunar province.
Gul Bibi, an 80-year-old survivor from Kunar, told the Reuters news agency that “I lost everything,” adding that her family was buried beneath the mud and debris of their home.
When Bibi gestured to the tiny child in her arms, “Just this grandson survived,” she said.
Access to already-distant villages has been obstructed by the earthquake’s landslides.
One of its aid teams “had to walk for 20 kilometers [12 miles] to villages cut off by rock falls, carrying medical equipment on their backs with the aid of community members,” according to Save the Children, a humanitarian organization.
The World Health Organization warned that the number of people who were killed by the earthquake was likely to rise because many were “still trapped in destroyed buildings.”
The Ministry of Defense of the Taliban government announced in two days that it had organized 155 helicopter flights to transport about 2, 000 injured and their families to regional hospitals.
No tents were constructed to house survivors in Mazar Dara, despite the fact that a small mobile clinic was stationed there to provide emergency care to the injured, according to AFP.
Without providing further details, a commission of the Defence Ministry announced on Tuesday that it had instructed “the relevant institutions to take measures in all areas to normalize the lives of the earthquake victims.”
A camp was established in Khas Kunar district, according to deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, to coordinate emergency aid, while two additional centers were opened close to the epicentre “to oversee the transfer of the injured, the burial of the dead, and the rescue of survivors.”
The disaster could have an impact on hundreds of thousands of people, according to the UN.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric stated on Tuesday that the UN’s humanitarian office raised $5 million from its emergency fund to help with the UN response, and that amount will be matched by $5 million from the Afghan Humanitarian Fund.
Numerous nations have also pledged assistance, despite concerns raised by NGOs and the UN over funding shortfalls brought on by severe aid cuts.
Instead of going to the Taliban government, which the United Kingdom does not acknowledge, it has pledged to split 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) between humanitarian organizations.
One million euros ($1.16 million) will be sent by the European Union, along with 130 tonnes of emergency supplies. The United Arab Emirates and India are two of the nations that have pledged assistance for disaster relief.
On Wednesday, the Chinese embassy in Kabul announced that it had provided Afghanistan with earthquake relief assistance.
In the years since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, the country has experienced severe drought, endemic poverty, and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back into the country by neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
In a statement released late on Tuesday, Jagan Chapagain, the Red Cross’ secretary-general, said, “This earthquake couldn’t have come at a worse time.”
The Indonesian Women’s Alliance (API) has organized a rally outside the capital Jakarta’s parliament demanding that the military be removed from civilian security responsibilities.
A motorcycle taxi driver was killed on August 28 after being run over by an armoured police vehicle in Jakarta, which has caused at least 10 people to attend the demonstration on Wednesday.
The incident sparked a lot of outcry, which has since morphed into protests all over the country over rising taxes, lower wages, and higher salaries for politicians.
President Prabowo Subianto was forced to reverse plans to increase benefits for members of parliament during the rallies, and he also gave orders to the military and police to intervene against rioters and looters after political party members’ state buildings and homes were seized or set on fire.
According to student groups and authorities, police in Bandung continued to obstruct students on Tuesday as they fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters near two universities. At least 10 people were killed in the clashes as a result of the demonstrations.
At the rally on Wednesday in Jakarta, API leaders demanded that Prabowo be ordered to resign from security forces and stop using the military and police against civilians.
They urged the president, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, the president’s defense minister, and Agus Subiyanto, the commander of the National Armed Forces, to withdraw troops from the police force. Additionally, the group demanded that all detainees held without charge be released and that National Police Chief Listyo Sigit resign.
The coalition called for the arrest of all those who were detained to end the practice of dissent and demand that all detained be freed.
They pressed the government to grant Indonesians the right to organize, associate, and protest peacefully without fear of intimidation or violence, and said troops should return to the barracks.
The most renowned genocide scholars in the world have concluded that Israel’s occupation of Gaza qualifies as genocide.
A resolution added to the chorus of nations, human rights organizations, and other organizations that support Israel’s claim to be a genocider in Gaza, which was approved by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS).
In its war against Gaza, Israel has killed more than 63,500 people and injured more than 160,000. On October 7, 2023, a Hamas-led attack on Israel claimed the lives of 1,139 people and about 200 were taken as prisoners.
What is the only thing you need to know about the declaration and how it was made.
Who made the announcement and what was it?
The world’s leading association of genocide scholars is the IAGS, a 500-member body of academics established in 1994.
According to 86 percent of IAGS members, a resolution states that Israel’s actions and policies in Gaza fall under the 1948 UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
What is happening in Gaza on the ground is genocide, according to Melanie O’Brien, IAGS president and professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, in a statement that is unwavering.
What is the definition of genocide in international law?
Genocide is defined as “any of the following acts committed with the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group” according to the 1948 Genocide Convention:
Killing group members, inflicting severe bodily or mental harm on other members, purposefully causing the group’s entire or partially to be physically destroyed, imposing laws to stop group births, forcing the group to transfer their children to another group, etc.
Since October 2023, Israel has destroyed 90% of Gaza’s housing infrastructure.
What served as the foundation for IAGS’ decision?
In essence, IAGS cited the UN Genocide Convention as the basis for its decision.
Additionally, it added that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity as defined by international humanitarian law and the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute.”
“indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against the civilians and civilian infrastructure (hospitals, homes, commercial buildings, etc.)” was one of the Israeli crimes that the resolution cited. of Gaza”.
IAGS recognized several Palestinian-related crimes committed by Israel, including:
torture,
arbitrary detention
sexual and reproductive violence
attacks on journalists, medical professionals, and members of the humanitarian organization, with intent,
deliberately denying people access to food, water, and medicine
2.3 million Palestinians are being driven out of the Gaza Strip.
destroying more than 90% of the housing infrastructure
killing entire multi-generational families,
more than 50 000 children have been harmed or injured.
The IAGS cited comments made by Israeli officials as additional proof that the criteria for genocide have been met, as well as a plan that was first proposed by US President Donald Trump and supported by the Israeli government to expel Palestinians from Gaza.
The entire resolution can be found here (PDF).
What significance does this resolution have?
The decision may not directly lead to action, but it adds to the chorus of organizations that call Israel’s occupation of Gaza a genocide, including human rights organizations and experts.
The IAGS resolution has already attracted a lot of media attention as the world’s foremost organization for genocide researchers.
However, the UN and many Western nations claim that they will only declare genocide upon its completion if a court rules otherwise.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court, is currently hearing a case involving South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing genocide, but it is not anticipated until 2027.
Although South Africa has filed a lawsuit with the ICJ, a decision is not anticipated until 2027.
What is Israel’s response to the announcement?
The Israeli government described the action as “disgraceful.”
Despite Hamas’s attempted genocide against the Jewish people, the IAGS set a historic precedent, according to a statement from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Genocide Scholars” accuse the victim of genocide for the first time.
At the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on September 2, 2025, a Palestinian youth mourns by the body of a relative who was killed [Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP]
What position on this subject has the UN adopted?
Israel’s actions in Gaza have been repeatedly denounced by the UN, but they have not yet officially declared it a genocide.
UN staffers wrote to High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk last week to demand that he declare it a genocide.
Turk has not yet done so.
According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, “a competent legal authority is responsible for labeling an event as a genocide.”
Despite the Turk, the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Regarding the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs in Occupied Territories discovered “Israel’s war methods consistent with genocide” as far back as November 2024.
UN experts warned the world community to “examine their relationships and avoid being complicit in this crime being committed by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza” a month earlier.
What’s happening in Gaza right now?
Dire.
Since October 2023, Israel has accounted for more than 63 000 fatalities and displaced about 2 million Palestinians.
Israel has now dispatched thousands of reserve soldiers for a new offensive on Gaza City, and a large portion of the Gaza Strip is in disrepair as a result of numerous bombings by the Israeli military.
The UN reported on August 29 that Gaza’s “massive famine” had begun.
Following the recent Thai court ruling to remove Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office, acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai has filed a petition to dissolve the country’s parliament. The largest opposition party supported a rival candidate.
According to party secretary-general Sorawong Thienthong, the ruling Pheu Thai party submitted its “house dissolution decree” on Wednesday and is currently awaiting royal approval.
The People’s Party, a significant opposition party in Thailand’s parliament, announced it would support a Pheu Thai rival, the Bhumjaithai Party, informing the next government with a swift decision to dissolve parliament.
Following the resignation of Prime Minister Paetongtarn, Pheu Thai had to rally with a slender majority to bolster its fragile coalition government.
Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, the leader of the People’s Party, stated to reporters on Wednesday that the 143 lawmakers in his party “agreed support” conservative business magnate Anutin Charnvirakul’s election as the next prime minister, likely giving him the majority of the support in parliament.
Anutin Charnvirakul, the leader of the Bhumjaithai Party and candidate for prime minister, leaves after a press conference at Bangkok’s parliament on September 3, 2025 [Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters]
Natthaphong claimed that his party’s support for Anutin was necessary to “avoid any further elections that may be held within the next four months” so that power can be re-established as soon as possible.”
He claimed that his party would support Bhumjaithai in order to stop a Pheu Thai-led coalition government from regaining power.
He added that a new prime minister’s election could be scheduled for this Friday.
Anutin stated to reporters that he had received the approval of 146 lawmakers in his campaign to become prime minister and that the People’s Party had put restrictions on his support.
Anutin, a heiress to a career in construction engineering, formerly served as deputy prime minister, interior minister, and health minister, fulfilling his commitment to legalizing marijuana for recreational use in 2022.
As the Serbian star fought hard to win the record-breaking 25th Grand Slam by winning a titanic US Open semifinal against Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Alcázar continued their winning ways.
With a four-set victory over fourth seed Taylor Fritz, the 38-year-old Djokovic defeated the last American in the men’s draw, the 38-year-old advanced to a record-equalling 14th US Open semifinal on Tuesday.
Djokovic improved to 16-0 against US opponents in New York with 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 victories, making it his 53rd major championship championship championship run.
“It was a very close match,” he said. Djokovic, who also made the most US Open semifinal appearances, said it was really anyone’s match.
“I believed I had a really good chance of surviving some important breakpoints in the second set.” He was, in my opinion, the better player for the majority of the second and third sets.
In a close fourth set, Fritz saved two match points before making a double mistake to seal his own fate.
“That last game was nerve-wracking,” said one player. Taylor didn’t deserve that, according to Djokovic, and it was a difficult assignment to finish with a double fault.
For the first time since the Australian Open quarterfinals in January, Djokovic and Alcaraz will square off in four sets to level off on a 5-3 score.
Their fifth Grand Slam appearance on Friday is their first at Flushing Meadows. In previous hard-court victories, Djokovic has won all three of his matches.
When Carlos Alcaraz takes on Djokovic in his 14th US Open semifinal on Friday [Clive Brunskill/Getty Images via AFP]
Djokovic fights with the crowd, downs Fritz, and so does.
In the eighth game, Djokovic brought up set point on his opponent’s serve as he zipped into a 3-0 lead inside Arthur Ashe Stadium right away.
In the following game, Fritz resisted and put on more pressure, collecting five break points.
However, Djokovic couldn’t convert because he relied on his signature grit to thwart Fritz, including during an incredible 25-stroke rally.
In the fourth and sixth games of the second set, Djokovic eventually held on to win the set, but Fritz created more chances.
Djokovic took the lead when he broke for a 4-3 advantage before failing to capitalize on it. Fritz reacted by giving Djokovic a two-set lead before tamingly reversing his own serve with a double fault in the subsequent match.
This time, Djokovic stomped on the set and mockingly kissed the audience as he sat down.
However, as he began to get agitated, Djokovic pleaded with the umpire to do more to quieten the crowd as the pro-Fritz supporters welcomed their man back into the game.
Fritz broke to nudge 3-1 ahead and force a fourth set before his attention dipped for a moment. Before Djokovic and Fritz fought it out, they were awarded two match points.
Fritz fought valiantly to save both, but Djokovic won the match and scored the winning goal in the final four.
[Clive Brunskill/Getty Images via AFP] Djokovic, left, shakes hands after losing to Fritz in their quarterfinal match.
Alcaraz demolates Lehecka.
On Arthur Ashe Stadium earlier on Tuesday, Alcaraz defeated Czech Jiri Lehecka 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the semifinals. Alcaraz has not dropped a set at Flushing Meadows in 2025.
Alcaraz delivered yet another almost flawless performance, firing off 28 winners with the palm of his hand.
Alcaraz broke in the opening game, which was assisted by two Lehecka double faults, and the Spaniard won the game with a backhand winner that slammed past the Czech in a thrilling cat-and-mouse game.
Lehecka became apparent agitated as he went down another break with a double fault in the seventh game, but the 2022 champion kept the momentum going in the second set when he converted a break point at the net in the first game.
Alcaraz  grinned in disbelief as he drilled a number of precise shots to set the break point in the seventh game of the final set, but Lehecka held on.
Alcaraz used his golf swing to delight fellow Spaniard and 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia, who was present, as he rallied 12-shots to win the ninth game.
He said, “I just played a really, almost, perfect match.” “I’m just feeling great and determined to make it.”
The five-time major champion, who hasn’t broken one record so far in the tournament, may try to avoid thinking about it while he regains the top spot in the world over Jannik Sinner from Italy.
He said, “I don’t want to put pressure on myself if I think about the number one spot too much, and that’s what I don’t want to do.”
Alcaraz, age 22, is the ninth time in the semifinals to reach the grand slam. Before turning 23, only Rafael Nadal had 10 or more.
