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1253 articles · page 2 of 27
Estonia plans to build about 150 bunkers along its border with Russia as part of efforts to strengthen its defensive readiness, Defense Minister Martin Herem told reporters on Oct. 28, as the Baltic states bolster their defenses amid Russian threats to NATO's eastern flank.
Speaking at the EU-Canada summit in Montreal, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reiterated her proposal for Canada to become the EU's first 'associate member', even as the label was dropped from the summit's joint declaration after objections from Germany, France, Italy and Greece, with Germany the most vocal opponent.
· 14 sourcesNorth Korea fired about 10 short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on Thursday, South Korea's military said, a day after Seoul renewed calls for talks to ease tensions along their heavily fortified border.
· 4 sourcesThe Pentagon’s inspector general has declined a bipartisan request from U.S. senators to investigate recent disruptions to Ukraine’s Starlink and Starshield services, instead directing lawmakers to take their concerns to the U.S. Air Force, according to the Associated Press, which reported on Oct. 28.
· 3 sourcesIndia approved 2.12 trillion rupees ($22 billion) in military procurement on Monday, following an Indian military official’s statement that confrontations with Chinese soldiers were ongoing along its north-eastern border. The plans seek to modernise equipment as India seeks to counter China’s technological advancements, with experts citing Sino-Pakistan military ties as part of New Delhi’s view of Beijing as a threat.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran 'continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed' as US officials warned Middle East allies to prepare for possible renewed military action against Iran after next week's midterm elections, according to diplomats briefed on the matter.
· 4 sourcesThe European Union plans to create the first subsea internet cable directly connecting Europe to Greenland, a project that could eventually extend to Canada and link with Japan and South Korea while notably bypassing the United States. The Pan-Arctic Cable is described as an EU flagship project in a European Commission joint communication published on October 20, 2026, that outlines a new European strategy for the Arctic.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made a surprise visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong on Saturday, crossing the newly opened New Yalu River Bridge and lauding its “historic mission” to unite the two countries, a trip that signals Pyongyang wants to strengthen ties with Beijing.
· 3 sourcesUS Vice President JD Vance has sent a letter to Iran's top security official proposing direct talks that would address Iran's nuclear program, marking the highest-level US outreach to Tehran in months, as President Donald Trump warns Gulf allies to prepare for a possible renewed military campaign after next week's midterm elections. Trump denied reports that he directed the initiative, saying the contact was about helping Iran obtain medical supplies.
· 9 sourcesEthiopia has taken delivery of 12 Russian Su-35 fighter jets and will acquire four S-400 air defence systems, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced during the Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow. The aircraft arrived a year ahead of schedule under an earlier agreement with Russia, Abiy said, thanking President Vladimir Putin for expediting delivery.
· 4 sourcesThe evacuation of residents from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky began on Friday, with a convoy of 25 buses and ambulances entering the devastated town to offer civilians a rare, if fraught, escape route. The operation is being overseen jointly by Ukrainian and Russian human rights officials under a localized ceasefire that has held for four days.
· 10 sourcesRussian President Vladimir Putin has praised Elon Musk as a "genius" and revealed the two are in "close contact" about satellite technology, as Moscow builds its own low-Earth orbit internet constellation. The comments came as Zelenskyy said Starlink and Starshield operations had been restored after restrictions earlier this month, and preparations were underway for a possible trilateral meeting involving Ukraine, Russia and the US.
· 8 sourcesThe Russian military has proposed moving the ceasefire in Russian-occupied Oleshky forward by two days and widening it beyond the city into other parts of Kherson Oblast, and Ukraine has agreed, Marc Beckman, the senior adviser to US First Lady Melania Trump, told the Kyiv Independent. Beckman also said Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote a formal letter explaining that the first lady would be recognised as the exclusive intermediary from Russia.
Russian government projections show China paying roughly 56 percent less than other foreign customers for Russian natural gas in 2026, according to The Moscow Times, which cited Russian Duma documentation. The reporting, carried by Eurasianet, says the steep discount reflects the Kremlin's fiscal dependence on Beijing and comes as China expands investment in mining, ports, energy and digital infrastructure across Central Asia.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will lead the Russian delegation at the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Atlanta this week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Oct. 28, in the latest sign of a thaw in ties between Moscow and Washington.
The Netherlands will provide Ukraine with a new military aid package worth 500 million euros ($557 million), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after visiting The Hague on Oct. 28.
Malaysian customs have seized more than $12 million (49.5 million Malaysian ringgit) worth of advanced AI chips hidden in 30 servers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, in what officials describe as a suspected smuggling operation using Malaysia as a transit point.
· 3 sourcesThe European Commission has approved Hungary's €5.4 billion Security Action For Europe (SAFE) defence loan, completing the first round of the EU's military readiness financing programme and leaving just over €21 billion available for a fresh round.
Poland and the United Kingdom have signed the Warsaw Defence Plan, a defence agreement that the British Ministry of Defence says is intended to "deter Russian threats", covering joint development of air-defence missiles and drones, and military exercises in the Baltic Sea.
Russia is shifting its recruitment focus for its war in Ukraine to people from countries including Burundi and Zimbabwe, according to Ukrainian intelligence findings reported by Bloomberg, as it seeks to replace soldiers lost in the fighting.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 28 he expects trilateral peace talks with Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi to take place between Nov. 6 and 10, but both Washington and Moscow have yet to confirm a date. The Kremlin ruled out European participation in the talks, contradicting Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Zelensky himself, who said Europe must be involved because security guarantees cannot be discussed without it.
· 4 sourcesIraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi arrived in Damascus on Wednesday for the first visit by an Iraqi premier to Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, meeting President Ahmed al-Sharaa to discuss strengthening economic cooperation, reviving Iraqi oil exports through the Baniyas pipeline, and expanding security coordination.
New UBS data shows Russian crude exports are only about 10% below pre-war levels, with an estimated 61% now moving on shadow fleet tankers outside Western insurance, undercutting assumptions that sanctions and Ukrainian strikes had crippled Moscow's energy trade. The findings come as a team of around four dozen US Marines joins a NATO-led operation in the Baltic Sea to protect undersea cables, a mission driven in part by concerns over that same shadow fleet.
· 2 sourcesPresident Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the Netherlands on Oct. 28 for talks with Dutch officials on defense cooperation and air defense, as the Dutch government confirmed a 1.2-billion-euro ($1.3 billion) non-military aid package for Ukraine to be disbursed over the next three years. Dutch Foreign Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, visiting Kyiv on the same day, urged European countries to increase support before winter sets in, saying 'there cannot be business as usual with Russia'.
· 3 sources
A new report to the US Congress warns that undersea cable projects owned by American companies such as Google and Meta face some of the greatest risks from deep-sea sabotage in the Pacific Ocean, as Chinese research ships spend extraordinary time surveying cables and Chinese commercial ships face investigation for cutting cables in European and Asian waters.
Taiwan's Ocean Affairs Council is developing an autonomous system to let drone fleets coordinate and carry out maritime missions without human intervention, in response to "grey-zone" activities by China around the island, according to a report from Tom's Hardware citing the South China Morning Post.
Elon Musk's throttling of Ukraine's Starlink service for offensive drone strikes has spurred European and Ukrainian officials to accelerate efforts to find non-U.S. alternatives, with Finnish firms ICEYE and Nokia last week announcing a deal with Ukraine's defense ministry to explore sovereign satellite communications.
A Russian jet-powered drone struck Kharkiv's Osnovianskyi district late on Tuesday, 27 October, injuring five people, including a four-year-old boy, and setting residential and industrial buildings ablaze, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said.
· 2 sources
Gulf states are working on a multipronged peace deal designed to prevent a renewal of war between Iran and the United States, according to reports. The proposal centres on reopening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief and the withdrawal of Houthi forces in Yemen, with European powers pushing for the readmission of UN weapons inspectors to Iran as a minimum condition for US approval.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has launched more than 100 ballistic missiles against Kyiv and the surrounding region since Oct. 14, as Moscow steps up its assault on the Ukrainian capital and Ukraine's air defenses run short of interceptors.
Explosions and fires were reported in the Russian city of Lipetsk late on Oct. 27 following a strike by Ukrainian forces, with a fire breaking out in the area of the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant, according to Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova Plus. The plant has previously been identified as a supplier to Russian defense companies producing air defense systems, drones, missiles, and other weapons, and is owned by sanctioned Russian billionaire Vladimir Lisin.
A Russian military satellite moved dangerously close to a US-registered satellite earlier this month, the latest in what the Defense Intelligence Agency describes as a sustained pattern of harassment of US national security space satellites, according to a new DIA report.
The U.S. military anticipates needing hundreds of thousands of drones of various sizes and capabilities to prepare for a potential war with China, a conflict the department hopes never to fight, according to a report.
Egypt's parliament has authorised President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to provide military assistance to Saudi Arabia if the kingdom requests it, approving the measure after closed-door sessions as Houthi attacks on the kingdom continued and Saudi officials held talks in Tehran.
Russia has intensified drone attacks on western Ukraine in recent weeks, striking cities such as Lutsk and Rivne that had been considered relatively safe havens, according to residents and emergency workers who spoke to the Kyiv Independent. The escalation, driven by expanded production of faster Geran jet-powered drones, has killed civilians, damaged infrastructure and forced schools to alter their schedules.
The Ballon d'Or ceremony in London on Monday was dedicated to French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence in Algeria on charges of supporting terrorism. Presenters Kate Scott and Thierry Henry opened the event by highlighting his case, with the hashtag #FreeGleize displayed behind them.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will travel to Manila this week for the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus, joining counterparts from India, South Korea and Japan as Washington seeks to shore up ties with the Asia-Pacific region after a year of fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran and rising maritime tensions with China.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has met Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Moscow on the sidelines of an energy forum, where the two leaders discussed expanding bilateral cooperation, Iranian state media reported.
The Philippines' push to finalize a long-stalled Code of Conduct for the South China Sea during its ASEAN chairmanship faces a fresh obstacle, with a Western source saying Laos is being leaned on by China to scuttle the agreement. The revelation comes weeks before the 49th ASEAN Summit in Manila.
China Merchants Port Holdings has withdrawn from a $392 million logistics hub project at Colombo Port, with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority agreeing to pay $21.9 million to settle investments, citing irreconcilable differences over the concession agreement and objections from the International Monetary Fund.
Myanmar’s military junta has imported hundreds of thousands of barrels of jet fuel from Iran using 'sham paperwork' designed to circumvent US sanctions, according to a Reuters investigation and a report from the activist group Justice for Myanmar published on October 26.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Monday that the United States had told Venezuelan officials 'weeks and weeks ago' that opposition leader María Corina Machado should be allowed to return to her country, as the Trump administration sharpens its focus on Venezuela's transition after the arrest of former dictator Nicolás Maduro.
· 3 sourcesFinnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held a rare 90-minute phone call with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to push for an end to the war in Ukraine, drawing criticism from Denmark and reservations from Sweden over the diplomatic initiative.
· 21 sourcesAs European tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles fail to slow their market share growth, Beijing is quietly building an integrated EV supply chain in Morocco that could eventually bypass those barriers entirely, according to a new analysis by researchers Aaron Glasserman and Jessie Jiexi Lin.
Two British nationals appeared in court on Tuesday charged with national security offences over an incident at RAF Fairford last month, with police saying they believe one man was assisting Iran's intelligence service and the other conducted a reconnaissance mission at the base weeks earlier, according to prosecutors and counter-terrorism officials.
· 12 sourcesBusiness Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has confirmed that UK and EU officials will begin discussions about future options for the relationship, including the possible return of free movement, ahead of the EU summit on 20 November. Reynolds said no assumptions had been made but that the government needed to resolve long-term uncertainties.
· 6 sourcesA new report from the Washington-based nonprofit C4ADS has documented extensive Russian assistance to China's military drone programs, including the transfer of design documents, use of Russian wind tunnels for testing, and a surge in joint academic research on autonomous swarm technology, suggesting a deepening of defense industry cooperation that goes beyond previously reported component supplies.
The US military has banned all vehicles manufactured by Chinese company BYD from Kadena airbase on the Japanese island of Okinawa, citing an “unacceptable and unmitigable risk” to personnel and operations. The restriction, which took effect this week, applies to privately owned cars, taxis and delivery vehicles.