Budgets expected to increase further amid ‘deteriorating security landscape’ triggered by invasion of Ukraine Global defence spending increased by 9% to a record $2.2tn during 2023 driven by heightened geopolitical tensions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to an annual assessment by a military thinktank. The International Institute of Strategic Studies added that it expected…
KINSHASA, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Police in Democratic Republic of Congo fired tear gas on Monday to disperse protesters who burned tyres and U.S. and Belgian flags near Western embassies and U.N. offices in the capital Kinshasa, angry about insecurity in eastern Congo. The protesters, seizing on a new tactic by targeting embassies, say the…
JAKARTA, Feb 08 (Reuters) – Fika Juliana Putri, a 19-year-old shopkeeper in East Jakarta, plans to vote in Indonesia’s presidential election next week for a once-feared former special forces commander. She likes him, she says, because he’s cuddly. A doe-eyed cartoon version of Gen. Prabowo Subianto – produced using generative AI – is emblazoned on…
Video reportedly from Ukrainian intelligence shows captured Russian saying he is from Wagner group Ukrainian special forces are reportedly operating in Sudan in support of the country’s army against Russian Wagner mercenaries aligned with the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to a video released on Monday. The Kyiv Post released a short film which it said…
A finance worker in Hong Kong was tricked into paying £20 million of his company’s money to fraudsters because of an elaborate deepfake pretending to be his boss. The employee joined a video call with who he thought was the business’s chief financial officer. He was initially suspicious after a message from the CFO mentioned…
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, declared himself the winner of a second five-year term in office on Sunday with an overwhelming 85 percent of the vote, declaring the nation’s opposition “pulverized” and El Salvador the world’s first democratic one-party system. Bukele was first elected the presidency in 2019 under the New Ideas party,…
Hong Kong CNN — Nearly three dozen countries are seeking entry into the China and Russia-backed BRICS economic group, member state South Africa said Wednesday, weeks after the body expanded its membership for the first time in more than a decade. Thirty-four countries have submitted an expression of interest in joining the bloc of major emerging economies, South African…
THE HAGUE, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Judges at the top U.N. court on Wednesday found that Russia violated elements of a U.N. anti-terrorism treaty, but declined to rule on allegations brought by Kyiv that Moscow was responsible for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. In the same ruling,…
LONDON/WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) – The aviation industry will press regulators this week for urgent action to help tackle GPS “spoofing” amid a surge in such activity, which can send commercial airliners off-course, due to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. International trade body IATA and European regulator EASA have organised a meeting in…
Major South African banks are providing funding for the Palestinian Hamas terrorist group, according to an investigative report Wednesday in the Jerusalem Post that also names a former Muslim community leader as a key figure in the financing operation. The Post reports: Research conducted by The Jerusalem Post staff and several sources uncovered what appears to be…