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1269 articles · page 18 of 27
Pacific defence ministers have signalled they will not rush to expand the remit of the Pacific Response Group (PRG), with Australia's Defence Chief Admiral Mark Hammond insisting there must be 'absolute consensus' about how it evolves. The declaration came as the South Pacific Defence Ministers' Meeting (SPDMM) wrapped up in Fiji on Thursday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Washington for a visit, with US President Donald Trump meeting him on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews rather than hosting a traditional White House reception — a decision observers say reflects how far Trump is going to honour his Chinese counterpart.
· 4 sourcesUkraine’s new generation of long-range drones, including the Fire Point FP-2 with a 6-metre wingspan and more than 100kg of explosive, is reshaping the battlefield as the war pivots from tanks and artillery to aerial strikes aimed at military, industrial and civilian targets deep inside occupied territory.
United Parcel Service (UPS) has disclosed to US authorities that it shipped sensitive F-35 fighter components from Australia that were diverted to Hong Kong and seized by China, according to a Bloomberg report. The Pentagon confirmed it is working to recover the parts, which include a cockpit canopy and weapons-bay door coated with radar-absorbing material.
· 7 sourcesThe upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping may temporarily ease anxiety over rare earth supplies, according to a report by The Diplomat, but it is unlikely to produce a lasting resolution to the underlying trade and strategic dispute over these critical minerals.
· 2 sourcesChinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington has yielded a two-month extension of the US-China trade truce, far short of the year-long pause Beijing had sought, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Wednesday. The limited extension – from November to January – underscores continued friction over tariffs, technology access and Taiwan as Xi began a three-day US visit marked by an elaborate military flyover and red-carpet welcome.
· 7 sourcesChinese President Xi Jinping has called for extensive cooperation with Washington to avoid what he termed the 'Thucydides trap' – the historical pattern of a rising power threatening an established one – as his summit with US President Donald Trump began at the White House on Thursday. The meeting covers artificial intelligence, trade, the Iran war and Taiwan, but experts say little in the way of grand bargains is expected.
· 7 sourcesThe head of Britain's Royal Air Force has warned of an unprecedented threat in space, as a defence source confirmed to the BBC that the UK has already used a ground-based system to jam or block the satellite communications of a hostile state. The revelation underscores a rapidly escalating arms race in orbit, with satellites essential for communication, internet, banking, and satnav increasingly at risk.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping sit down on Thursday with artificial intelligence at the centre of their talks, in what analysts describe as a contest for technological supremacy between the world's leading AI powers and a meeting whose outcome will matter to the whole world.
· 2 sourcesFighting has resumed in northern Ethiopia after Tigrayan rebels launched an offensive into the neighbouring states of Afar and Amhara and formed a new coalition aimed at overthrowing the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, raising fears of a return to the devastating civil war that killed an estimated 600,000 people between 2020 and 2022.
· 2 sourcesIran has issued a direct threat to countries that enforce United States sanctions targeting its airline industry, warning that such actions will be met with retaliation. The statement escalates tensions over Washington's efforts to isolate Iran's aviation sector amid ongoing geopolitical friction.
US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace has announced a $2.45bn Gaza recovery plan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, outlining 66 programmes over six months focused on housing, diesel generation, and waste removal. However, the board acknowledged a significant funding shortfall, with $18bn pledged but only $280m delivered so far, and the full reconstruction cost estimated at $71bn over the next decade.
· 4 sourcesThe UK has briefed foreign ministers from the EU, Kenya and other nations on a climate crisis national security report that was suppressed under former prime minister Keir Starmer, with Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband warning that the coming El Niño poses a critical threat to national defences.
The Trump administration has formally invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Group of 20 summit in Miami this December, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Wednesday, marking a significant reversal of Russia's diplomatic isolation since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
· 5 sourcesRussian attacks across Ukraine have killed at least 14 people in recent days, even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with former US President Donald Trump to discuss a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy-related targets, and US and Russian officials held urgent talks at the United Nations General Assembly aimed at limiting the conflict's impact on global energy supplies.
· 3 sourcesThe decades-old US policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ toward Taiwan is under unprecedented strain as a growing chorus of analysts argue that President Donald Trump’s repeated statements have shattered the credibility of possible American military intervention. Polling suggests Taiwanese confidence in a US defence guarantee has fallen since 2025. Yet proponents insist the policy is not dead—only evolving.
US President Donald Trump will personally greet Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Andrews Air Force Base this week for a three-day state visit featuring a White House state dinner and military flyover — an unusually lavish welcome for a nation Washington regards as a strategic rival — even as pre-visit trade talks failed to make meaningful progress.
· 9 sourcesIran has reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz will not be used to 'impose insecurity on us,' a statement that coincided with a US envoy walking out of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's UN speech in protest over its 'war on Iran' rhetoric.
· 2 sourcesIranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has delivered an unyielding address to the UN General Assembly, declaring Iran will never "bend the knee" to US and Israeli pressure, a day after President Donald Trump threatened to "annihilate" the Islamic Republic. In what reports describe as the first time in UN history a leader at war with the host country has addressed the body, the US delegation walked out as Pezeshkian spoke.
· 10 sourcesPoland said a Russian military Mi-8 helicopter violated its airspace on Wednesday morning, crossing from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to a depth of about 300 metres and remaining inside Polish territory for 42 seconds north of Braniewo. Warsaw scrambled fighter jets and kept ground forces on alert, with the military stating the incident indicates Russia is "once again testing the readiness of our air defence."
· 2 sourcesSyrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has declared that the occupied Golan Heights will remain Syrian territory, responding to questions about Israeli violations in Syria in a video newsfeed published by Al Jazeera.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has pardoned French national Martin Ryan, jailed on spying charges, hours after the European Union agreed to lift sanctions on two Russian billionaires — a move France is understood to have supported and that Ukraine has condemned as a blow to European unity.
President Donald Trump has held talks with Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodríguez on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly—their first meeting since the White House backed her government following the seizure of Nicolás Maduro by US forces. The discussion focused on strategic cooperation in energy, mining and security, according to Rodríguez.
Top Iranian and US officials have held their first direct talks since June at the United Nations in New York, mediated by Qatar, as President Donald Trump threatened to 'annihilate' Iran if no deal is reached. No breakthrough has been reported, but both sides described the discussions as constructive.
· 5 sourcesUS President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham met face-to-face for the first time in New York on Tuesday, with Trump signalling he could work with the British leader while sharply criticising the UK's "terrible" Chagos deal.
· 2 sourcesIran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has warned it will ‘change the geography of war’ if the United States escalates the conflict, following the US president’s suggestion in an interview that he is considering ‘wiping Iran out’ before the United Nations General Assembly.
US President Donald Trump said a meeting with Iranian officials at the United Nations was "very good," according to a report published Tuesday, marking the latest sign of possible rapprochement between the two long-time adversaries.
· 2 sourcesQatar has called for diplomatic solutions to tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and rejected any form of 'bargaining' over the strategic waterway, according to a report from Al Jazeera. No further details or official statements were included in the brief item.
The United States, Denmark and Greenland have signed a defence deal that allows Washington to build two new military bases in the Arctic territory, while reaffirming Copenhagen's sovereignty over Greenland, leaders announced at the UN General Assembly in New York.
The United Kingdom has agreed to deploy a military aircraft to refuel Saudi Arabian fighter jets involved in 'purely defensive' missions, following a Saudi request amid Houthi advances along Yemen's Red Sea coastline, including near the strategically vital Bab al-Mandab Strait.
President Donald Trump has rejected a peace proposal put forward by Iran to end the Middle East war, less than a week after warning at the United Nations that he would “annihilate” the Islamic Republic if no deal was reached.
· 8 sourcesBritish banks have been warned by MPs to avoid investing in Israel’s planned E1 settlement in the West Bank, even though new UK legislation banning trade with illegal settlements is not expected to take effect for months.
· 2 sourcesVladimir Putin has won the Russian presidential election in a result described as predictable for a country ruled for so long by an autocrat whose critics have met suspicious deaths.
· 3 sourcesRussia’s parliamentary election has yielded the widely expected outcome, with the Kremlin-backed United Russia party set to retain its constitutional majority in the State Duma, according to preliminary results published on 21 September 2026. The vote took place after more than four-and-a-half years of war in Ukraine, which has brought heavy military losses, economic difficulties and petrol shortages from Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil facilities.
Lithuania's main airport in Vilnius was forced to halt flights late Monday night in what officials called a 'hybrid attack carried out by Belarus,' as Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius told the BBC the country has evacuation plans but will 'fight back' if Russia attacks. Separately, President Gitanas Nausėda confirmed a new US troop rotation is on its way to the Baltic state.
· 2 sourcesIntelligence chiefs have warned that Russia's appetite for risk is growing as a wave of sabotage and covert attacks against European states supporting Ukraine intensifies. The operations form part of a deliberate hybrid or 'shadow war' designed to disrupt support for Kyiv while remaining below the threshold for a military response from NATO, according to a briefing released as the UN General Assembly convenes in New York.
The foreign ministers of the G7 nations on Tuesday demanded that Iran end its arming and support of Yemen's Houthi rebels, and called on the group to halt all military actions and attacks on civilian shipping, warning that recent escalation threatens international trade and global economic stability.
· 3 sourcesThe United States has escalated pressure on Iran by threatening to ground Iranian airlines worldwide starting Wednesday, warning that any airport or company servicing Iranian carriers could be cut off from the US dollar system.
· 2 sourcesThe United Nations is working to assert its relevance in the governance of artificial intelligence, even as foreign policy experts argue the technology's development is a race largely restricted to the United States and China, leaving the rest of the world on the sidelines.
· 2 sourcesPrime Minister Andy Burnham has agreed to a Saudi request for the UK to provide air-to-air refuelling of Saudi fighter jets in a defensive effort to counter Houthi attacks on energy infrastructure, a move he says is intended to help restore Middle East stability and reduce the cost of living at home.
· 2 sourcesBritain and the United States have test-fired a torpedo from an uncrewed undersea vessel for the first time, a move the British government hailed as a major advance for submarine technology under the AUKUS alliance with Australia. The launch took place in UK waters last week from the 12-metre drone XV Excalibur, with the vessel remotely controlled from an operating centre in Australia more than 16,000 kilometres away.
In what naval analysts describe as the world's first clash between uncrewed surface vessels, a Ukrainian naval drone sank a Russian explosive-laden drone boat using a remote-controlled machine gun turret, marking a new milestone in drone warfare.
As many as 169 people have been killed in three days of intense fighting in Yemen as Houthi fighters battle Saudi-backed government forces for control of strategic heights along the Red Sea coast, displacing thousands of civilians. The clashes come after US President Donald Trump reportedly called off planned American airstrikes on the Houthis at the last minute on Sunday, as bombs were being loaded onto aircraft, according to reports.
· 4 sourcesAl Jazeera has published an article titled “Why is the US trying ‘regime change’ again?” that curates a series of short video analyses under its Project Force banner, covering conflicts ranging from Houthi threats to Saudi shipping to Ukraine’s strikes on Russian vessels and Iran’s ability to withstand US pressure.
Israeli forces have arrested at least 53 young men in the occupied West Bank town of Biddu, placing the town under lockdown with schools and businesses closed, while in a seperate incident a Palestinian man was killed near Jenin and an Israeli setter was fatally shot.
· 2 sourcesThe US and China have agreed to establish a formal AI dialogue and are proposing a notification mechanism for artificial intelligence incidents that could affect national security, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday, following talks in New York that he described as a 'very successful engagement' ahead of President Trump's summit with President Xi Jinping later this week.
· 7 sourcesFrench President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met in the French overseas territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon off Canada's Atlantic coast on Sunday, pledging deeper cooperation on geopolitical tensions, climate change and democratic values. The meeting comes as Ottawa seeks stronger ties with the European Union while embroiled in a trade war with the United States under Donald Trump.
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on September 20, with South Korea's military reporting flight distances of about 450 and 600 kilometers. The launches, the second in eight days, came just days before a scheduled U.S.-China summit and amid escalating rhetoric from Pyongyang over allied military exercises.
· 2 sources