Good Afternoon, Australia! – China plans to send Japan a message, loud and clear – A familiar face from Sydney could play a big role in redefining Greece’s relationship with Europe – Jewish community leaders snub Argentina’s President – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

China plans to hold a massive parade to showcase its vast military to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II – and to scare the crap out of Japan.  The official government newspaper People’s Daily reports a reason for mounting such a display in Hong Kong later this year is “to frighten Japan and declare to the world China’s determination to maintain the post-war world order” – a reference to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to amend the post-war pacifist constitution to allow for more military adventurism (btw, the English-language version is less scary, lulz).  Beijing and Tokyo have been at odds over China’s territorial claims over some uninhabited-but-resource-rich islands that have been under Japanese control for more than a century.

Meanwhile, Japan’s PM terms as “despicable” the latest video threat to the life of Kenji Goto, the Japanese man being held captive by Islamic State (likely) in Syria.  A voice believed to be Goto says IS will kill a Jordanian fighter pilot also being held hostage and then himself, if Jordan doesn’t release a convicted terrorist on death row.  Supporters of the pilot’s family are demanding Jordan’s PM meet the demands.  Back in Tokyo, it doesn’t seem like Shinzo Abe has any traction to get Goto released, and is relying on Jordan.  IS appears to have killed the other Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa, posting a grisley photo to militant websites as proof.

Greek-Australian economist Yanis Varoufakis is Greece’s new Finance Minister.  Appointed by firebrand Syriza party Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Mr. Varoufakis taught at University of Sydney during the 1990s and is a fierce critic of the terms of the EU-IMF bailout. Varoufakis is preparing for negotiations with Europe to ease its terms.  Greek voters flocked to Syriza in last weekend’s elections, agreeing with Syriza’s disgust with the failing German-backed austerity policies that have driven up poverty and left one in four Greek workers out of a job. 

One of the first things the new Syriza government did was to cancel the fire-sale of the country’s biggest port to China, which was one of the terms of the EU-IMF deal – Europe gave Greece a ton of cash, which it would have to pay back by stripping the country’s assets.  Several state-owned entities were due to be sold, and Syriza campaigned on putting a halt to that.

Some Jewish groups in Argentina boycotted the government’s official Holocaust Remembrance service, a week after the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman.  He accused the government of covering up Iran’s alleged role in a 1994 bombing at Jewish community center in which 85 people died – shortly before Nisman himself was found dead of apparent suicide.  The group leaders say President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK) showed little sympathy for Nisman or the victims of the terrorist attack 21 years ago.  CFK rejects accusations of a cover-up and suggests Nisman was being played by the country’s spy agency, which she moved to dissolve.

US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama paid a quick visit to Saudi Arabia to pay his respects to the late Saudi King Abdullah.  But it was Mrs. Obama’s clothing that got the most attention – the First Lady didn’t wear a headscarf.  Women are expected to wear one in the ultra- conservative oil kingdom, but exceptions are made for some foreigners, like the First Lady.  That didn’t stop Twitter from blowing up with more than 1,500 messages, many critical, some supporting Michelle Obama.  The visit comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is under international criticism for public beheadings and the flogging of a human rights activist with a blog.

Oh, and that thing you might have heard about Saudi TV blurring the image?  It didn’t happen.  That was a hoax.  Saudi TV showed the First Lady on TV without a headscarf.

The guy who crashed a toy helicopter on the White House lawn turns out to be a drunken National Geospatial Intelligence Agency employee.  No, I never heard of it either, but then America has more spy agencies than a millipede has legs.  His superiors are concerned about a guy who lost control of a toy that flew to the White House, and the fact that he initially went to sleep it off rather than report it.  The episode has set off a conversation about regulating toy drones and White House security.