World News
Latest world news and updates
Total: 489
Beijing Courts Graduates: 2026 Recruitment Drive Offers Tuition Relief and Quotas to Attract University Recruits
China’s 2026 conscription drive explicitly targets university students and recent graduates with relaxed age limits, financial incentives, and preferential education and employment treatments. The measures aim to attract higher‑skilled recruits to support the PLA’s modernization and to offer veterans clearer career and educational pathways after service.
Cold Chains and 'Vegetable Factories' Keep Xinjiang Border Garrison Supplied Year‑Round
A remote Xinjiang border outpost that once relied on crude winter stores is now keeping troops supplied year‑round through local cold‑chain deliveries and a small indoor "vegetable factory." The combination of improved logistics and controlled‑environment cultivation has boosted morale, shortened supply lines and exemplifies broader military logistics modernization in China's frontier regions.
Japan’s Quiet Rearmament: How a Surge in ‘Security Aid’ Is Remaking Its Regional Role
Japan’s OSA security‑aid programme has expanded rapidly in scale and scope, with the 2026 budget jumping to 18.1 billion yen and recipient lists growing across the Indo‑Pacific. Originally framed as non‑lethal capacity‑building, OSA is being used to normalise overseas defence ties, create defence industrial linkages and potentially open the door to more offensive exports if legal constraints are loosened.
US Navy Puts First Hypersonic‑Armed Surface Warship to Sea, Signalling New Maritime Strike Capability
The US Navy has taken its Zumwalt-class destroyer to sea after refitting it to carry hypersonic missiles, a milestone that makes it the first US surface combatant to host such weapons. While the move advances the Navy’s long-range strike ambitions, true operational capability depends on further testing, production, and integration with targeting networks and other platforms such as Virginia-class Block V submarines.
NATO Plans Arctic Exercises in Coming Months, Says Greenland Will Be Excluded
NATO says it will hold several military exercises in the Arctic in the coming months but that these operations will not include Greenland. Political consultations between Greenland, Denmark and the United States are underway under a cooperative framework, while NATO continues to await formal directives on Arctic tasking.
Trump Signals Military Pressure on Iran as Carrier Group Sails West and Secondary Tariffs Loom
President Trump announced that a "large military force" is heading toward Iran while warning of imminent secondary tariffs on countries that trade with Tehran. The Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group has been redeployed from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean, and the administration is coupling military threats with economic measures to try to deter Tehran.
US Weighs Complete Syria Exit as Kurdish Forces Fray and IS Detainees Spark Security Fears
U.S. officials are considering a full withdrawal from Syria after the Damascus transitional government began reasserting control over Kurdish-held east and northeast areas. Security concerns about thousands of Islamic State detainees and the possible collapse of the Syrian Democratic Forces have prompted accelerated transfers of prisoners to Iraq and a reassessment of the American mission.
U.S. Moves Fighter Jets to Jordan as Washington Tightens Military Posture in the Middle East
The U.S. has moved around a dozen fighter jets and support aircraft from Europe to Jordan while a carrier strike group advances toward the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf, reinforcing American air and naval presence amid rising tensions with Iran. The deployments enhance rapid-response and sustained operations but also increase the risk of escalation with Tehran and its regional proxies.
Why Washington’s Greenland Gambit Collapsed — and Why It Still Matters
President Trump’s public retreat from paying to “buy” Greenland highlights the mismatch between strategic ambition and political, legal and fiscal reality. While Greenland’s location and mineral wealth make it strategically valuable, any change in its status would face steep constitutional hurdles, allied resistance and large, hard‑to‑define costs.
Beijing Signals 'Decapitation' as an Option for Taiwan — A New Escalation in Cross‑Strait Posturing
Beijing’s defence ministry has publicly framed targeted strikes against Taiwan’s leadership as an available option, an unprecedented rhetorical escalation that follows a US cross‑border special operations episode. The move aims to deter secessionist moves, complicate allied intervention calculus, and has prompted regional hedging such as Singapore’s proposed contingency troop withdrawal.
Attacks on UN Personnel Spike in 2025, Undermining Peacekeeping and Aid Operations
A UN report found at least 21 UN personnel were deliberately killed in 2025, a sharp rise from prior years and concentrated in hotspots such as Abyei, the DRC and the Central African Republic. The figure excludes at least 119 UNRWA staff killed in the Israel–Palestine conflict, underscoring a wider crisis in protection for humanitarian and peacekeeping personnel that threatens operations and humanitarian access.
When the Canteen Is Hit: A Chinese Correspondent’s Close Encounter with Kabul’s Violence
A blast outside a Chinese-run restaurant in Kabul killed at least one local employee and injured others, bringing the everyday risks of exile life into sharp relief for the small Chinese community in Afghanistan. The attack highlights the vulnerability of China’s expanding non-military presence in Kabul and raises questions about how Beijing will protect its citizens while maintaining engagement in a fragile, impoverished country.