A show of strength and a shifting world order

There was an extraordinary demonstration of power in Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, as the world was given a glimpse of China’s military strength in a week that witnessed a dramatic eastwards shift on the global axis of influence. Xi Jinping, backed by Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, soaked in the spectacle: an act of diplomatic grandstanding that provided a clear message to the west.

It started on Sunday, with more than 20 heads of state attending the opening of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin. Among them were strongmen from across Europe and Asia including Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev and Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko. The summit was also Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in seven years and came soon after Donald Trump’s “tariff tantrum” had pushed the Indian prime minister straight into the hands of Xi.

Wednesday’s parade was to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in the second world war, but as Justin McCurry explained, the event, and the appearance of Putin and Kim alongside Xi, said far more about China’s future than its past.

There was a great deal for our global team of reporters to try to decipher about this vaguely defined new anti-western alliance. Senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins spoke with Nosheen Iqbal for Today in Focus to discuss what this gathering tells us about China’s global ambitions. Helen Davidson, in Taipei, looked at the meaning behind Xi’s speech, in which he said the world was facing a choice between peace or war, while Justin considered the symbolism of the international debut of the North Korean leader’s daughter. Russian affairs correspondent Pjotr Sauer also looked at Putin’s obsession with living forever, after being caught on a hot mic musing with Xi about how organ transplants might lead to immortality – a fleeting, unguarded moment that told us much about how these so-called strongmen see themselves.

The Guardian’s coverage of this diplomatic shift is helped, like every subject we cover – from the climate crisis to the impact of AI – by our multilateral global approach. This allows us to report in depth from Europe and Washington on the reaction in the west, and on what it means for China’s Asia-Pacific neighbours, including Australia, where former Victoria premier Daniel Andrews has faced big criticism for attending the parade. Our coverage is also enhanced by the experience of expert commentators such as Simon Tisdall, who blamed this new grouping on Donald Trump’s extraordinary belligerence.

As dramatic as the images from China were, there is as yet nothing simple or certain about this new “axis of upheaval”. As our editorial put it: “It would be folly to ignore Beijing’s statement of intent. But it would also be foolish to confuse it with a statement of fact. The future is still being written. Governments in Asia, Europe and elsewhere still have choices to make; and those will be shaped by US actions as much as Chinese.”

In UK politics, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner resigned after the prime minister’s ethics adviser found she had breached the ministerial code over her underpayment of tax on her £800,000 seaside flat. Rayner’s departure led to a major cabinet reshuffle, with foreign secretary David Lammy becoming the new deputy prime minister and home secretary Yvette Cooper replacing him in the Foreign Office. Political editor Pippa Crerar analysed the impact of Rayner’s resignation on an already beleaguered prime minister, while Kiran Stacey profiled a politician whose plain-speaking criticism of Conservatives facing financial scandals made her a clear target. Media editor Michael Savage called the resignation an “old-fashioned scalp for the rightwing press” which has been “poring over her finances and living arrangements for more than a year”.

Sam Jones, Patrick Wintour and Jamie Wilson sat down in Madrid with Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister. Sánchez warned that Europe and the west’s double standards over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza threaten to undermine its global standing, which has already been exacerbated by Donald Trump’s attempts to end the rules-based global order. He also defended the benefits of migration and blamed traditional rightwing parties for breaking the consensus over the response to the climate emergency by copying the policies of their populist rivals.

Chief Middle East correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison, in a joint investigation with Israel-based magazines +972 and Local Call, revealed that classified data indicates only one in four detainees from Gaza are identified as fighters by Israel’s military intelligence, with civilians making up the vast majority of Palestinians held without charge or trial in abusive prisons.

Ten years after a migration crisis that rocked Europe, Lorenzo Tondo spoke to Somar Kreker, a Syrian refugee who fled to Germany in 2015, about his epic, 44-day journey, and the hardening of European asylum policies since. This was accompanied by beautiful photography by Alessio Mamo. Reporting from inside post-Assad Syria, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad used an unlikely friendship to follow the horrific events over a March weekend when sectarian enmities were revived and Alawite communities were targeted.

After neo-Nazis appeared front and centre at an anti-immigration rally in Melbourne last weekend, reporters Ariel Bogle, Nino Bucci and Stephanie Convery investigated how far-right groups have used the shield of “ordinary mums and dads” to sell white supremacy. Elsewhere, columnist Nesrine Malik laid out why appeasing anti-immigration voices never works: because the goalposts keep shifting, and no number of migrants will ever be low enough to appease them. Nesrine will be one of the regular columnists featuring in our new Matters of Opinion newsletter, which launches today. Sign up here.

Kalyeena Makortoff and Sarah Butler revealed how low-paid workers are being offered high-interest loans by the self-described “financial wellbeing” app, Wagestream. Workers described the app, which allows workers to access their salary before payday, as being “like eye candy”.

We had a strong set of stories examining the recruitment tactics of the US Department of Homeland Security as it aggressively works to expand its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency. Sam Levin highlighted the concern from other law enforcement agencies, as Ice lowers its hiring standards to hit its target of 10,000 immigration officers. And Johanna Bhuiyan profiled the military-style patriotism of its social media campaigns. Anna Betts secured the first interview with the Palestinian student and activist Moshen Mahdawi as he returned to Columbia University after being detained by the Trump administration for his activism.

Neelam Tailor and Ryan Baxter made a powerful and alarming video on what happens when a teenager signs up for TikTok. Recreating recent studies, they found that within minutes of setting up a new account, harmful content about issues including eating disorders, self-harm and misogynistic subcultures were served up, all while TikTok profited from the ads.

We had some positive environment stories this week. Helena Horton covered a heartwarming tale about two 13-year-old best friends who have led an audacious project to save the threatened harvest mice in south-west England. Eelemarni Close-Brown wrote about South Australia’s world-first ban on fish-shaped plastic soy sauce dispensers, part of a wider crackdown on single use plastic, while professor Tim Lenton explained how the climate protest group Fridays for Future challenged climate inaction to reach a positive tipping point.

Our popular transfer interactives for both the men’s and women’s football transfer windows have covered every move in the biggest leagues across Europe. Louise Taylor explained how Liverpool’s new £125m man Alexander Isak got his way in the end after agitating for a transfer all summer. Our in-depth previews of the Women’s Super League season that starts this weekend included the rollout of our club-by-club guides and exclusive interviews with Naomi Girma, Khadija Shaw and Beth Mead by Suzanne Wrack. Jonathan Liew was thoughtful on the relationship of England’s football team to the St George’s flag in the current political climate.

We ran a jaw-dropping piece of memoir writing from Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert about leaving her marriage for her dying friend, and Simon Hattenstone wrote a sensitive interview with Kathleen Richards who found herself living with – and ultimately escaping – Britain’s worst serial killers.

Elif Shafak and Lea Ypi discussed the rise of populism, literature and resistance in a fascinating conversation; architecture critic Oliver Wainwright was perceptive and funny when writing about the transformation of the former US embassy in London into a luxury hotel or, as he put it, “a gilded temple to the new world order” and Iman Amrani took on a very brave cultural challenge: singlehandedly taking her one-year-old twins to two of the UK’s best music festivals. Michael Rosen brought joy to many readers with this piece about how to have a happier day even when things feel bleak. Could be one to bookmark.

Finally, Monday marks the 70th anniversary of our chess writer