Washington’s nuclear weapons budget rose by $12.4 billion in a single year, according to ICAN
US spending on nuclear weapons surged by nearly a quarter in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to findings by an anti-nuclear watchdog.
In a report released on Tuesday, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said the world’s nine nuclear-armed states spent nearly $119 billion on their arsenals last year – the equivalent of $3,768 every second.
The US remained by far the biggest spender, pouring $69.2 billion into its nuclear arsenal – more than all other eight nations combined. Washington also recorded the largest annual increase, with spending rising 22% year-on-year, or $12.4 billion.
Combined spending by the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea jumped 19% year-on-year, or $16.8 billion, to a record high. China ranked second with spending of $13.5 billion, while the UK overtook Russia as the third-largest spender, allocating $12.6 billion compared to Moscow’s $9.5 billion.
ICAN, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group, said the increase reflects continued investment in modernizing and expanding nuclear arsenals amid mounting global tensions.
The nine nuclear powers have spent a combined $471 billion on their arsenals over the past five years, the group said. It added that a single day’s nuclear weapons spending in 2025 could have provided food for two million people for a year, while annual spending could have covered the UN’s regular budget for 32 years.
The report comes as the US is considering deploying its nuclear weapons to additional NATO member states in Europe, according to a Financial Times report last week. The outlet said US officials had discussed expanding the nuclear-sharing arrangement beyond its current participants.
Countries neighboring Russia, including Poland and the Baltic states, have reportedly expressed interest in hosting US nuclear weapons.
The US has stationed nuclear weapons in Europe under its nuclear-sharing program since the 1950s. B61 gravity bombs are currently believed to be deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Türkiye, while control of the weapons remains with Washington.
Moscow has warned that any further expansion of NATO’s nuclear infrastructure toward Russia’s borders would trigger a response. Earlier this month, Russian Ambassador-at-Large Andrey Belousov reiterated a demand that all US nuclear weapons be withdrawn from Europe and the infrastructure supporting their deployment be dismantled.
The live-fire drill comes as Taipei is expanding its missile arsenal despite repeated warnings from Beijing
Taiwan has launched approximately 36 US-supplied missiles into the water off the coast of mainland China, in a first-of-its-kind live-fire drill on the self-governing island’s west coast.
The exercise comes amid mounting tensions between Taipei and Beijing, which considers Taiwan sovereign Chinese territory.
The drills took place on Wednesday and involved the firing of reduced-range training rockets from US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) into the Taiwan Strait.
According to Taipei, the exercise was meant to simulate an attack on an invading Chinese force and demonstrate HIMARS’ ability to “shoot-and-scoot” by avoiding counter strikes.
HIMARS has a range of up to around 300 km, meaning it could potentially hit targets in China’s southeastern Fujian Province across the strait.
Taiwan has ordered 29 HIMARS launchers from the US and has also been building up anti-ship and air defense systems.
Chinese officials have repeatedly condemned US arms sales to Taipei as interference in China’s internal affairs and a violation of the decades-old One-China policy. While Washington does not officially recognize Taiwan as an independent state, it has maintained close unofficial ties with Taipei and remains its main arms supplier.
During his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Beijing last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping described Taiwan as the most important issue in China-US relations and warned that mishandling it could push the two countries into “a very dangerous situation.”
Beijing considers Taiwan part of China and has consistently warned against separatism on the island. Xi has repeatedly said Beijing seeks peaceful reunification, but has refused to rule out the use of force if provoked.
The country’s child population has hit a record low, as falling births, fewer marriages and deep social shifts reshape society
In May, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications released data showing that the number of children under the age of 15 in the Land of the Rising Sun had fallen to a new historic low: 13.29 million, which is 350,000 fewer than a year earlier.
To understand the scale and drama of what is happening, it is worth recalling that in 1950*, at the very beginning of Japan’s economic miracle, children under 15 made up 35.1% of Japan’s population. Half a century later, in 2000, the share of children had declined to 14.5%. Alarm bells rang in the country, measures were introduced, but the trend could not be reversed. And now, according to the results of 2025, the share of children in the total population has once again hit a new low, falling to just 10.8%.
The reduction of the number of children in Japanese society to what was once unthinkable is linked to falling birth rates, which in Japan are declining even faster than in the developed countries of America and Europe. The total fertility rate has fallen below 1.2 nationwide, while in Tokyo the average number of children per woman has dropped to just 0.99.
In turn, the fall in fertility is connected with the continual decline in the number of marriages. Over 45 years of uninterrupted decline in the number of children, younger generations of Japanese have themselves become far smaller. More importantly, an increasing number of young Japanese do not want to start any family at all, or even maintain stable sexual relationships.
And here we arrive at the root cause: Japan is a country of triumphant individualism. With the participation of American social-engineering strategists, Japan created a model of accelerated modernization built around a hollowed-out national tradition and a high standard of living as the central meaning-forming pattern of mass culture.
The results of the Japanese case, and of other social experiments – including alternatives to it – can be assessed using RT’s global Social Well-Being Index (SWI). According to the RT Index methodology, social well-being is determined by the production and preservation of life, as well as the minimization of social oppression. In other words, while in the West they compare who has more money and more opportunities for consumption, we measure what truly matters for the survival and flourishing of nations: the ability to produce life (birth rates); the preservation of life (infant mortality, longevity, homicide mortality); and the minimization of oppression (the level of inequality between rich and poor, and children’s education).
Read more here about the high standards, inherent contradictions, and uncertain prospects of social well-being in westernized Japan.
Tehran said it attacked American-linked military sites in Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has published footage of missile launches it said were aimed at American military facilities in several Arab countries, describing the operation as retaliation for recent US attacks.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have surged in recent days alongside a parallel escalation between Iran and Israel. US Central Command said it carried out strikes inside Iran on Tuesday after a US Apache military helicopter was lost near the Strait of Hormuz, an incident Washington blamed on Tehran.
The IRGC claimed the American strikes damaged a telecommunications tower on Sirik Island and destroyed two water reservoirs in the Bemani district. It said its response included attacks on the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and four targets at Jordan’s al-Azraq air base, including hangars housing F-35 fighter jets.
Video released by Iran shows several missiles being launched at night. The IRGC said drones were also used in the operation and claimed that 21 targets were engaged in Kuwait, Jordan, and Bahrain, including a Reaper drone.
🔺 The IRGC released footage of long-range missile launches targeting U.S. positions in the region, in response to the U.S. strikes on southern Iran earlier in the day. The video showed claimed launches of Qadr, Emad, and Kheibar Shekan ballistic missiles — both solid and liquid… pic.twitter.com/6WWqiDavu7
The US has described its strikes on Iran as “defensive” and “proportional,” saying the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter was shot down over international waters in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi repeated Tehran’s position that no international waters exist in the strategic passage separating Iran from Oman.
Earlier, Iran hit targets in Israel, saying the strikes were retaliation for Israel’s continued invasion of southern Lebanon and attacks on Beirut. West Jerusalem later responded with strikes of its own, despite calls by US President Donald Trump not to escalate further.
Tehran considers Israel’s operation in Lebanon a breach of a ceasefire announced by the US and Iran in April, which was presented as part of an effort to reach a peace agreement. Trump has argued that “moderate” shooting does not amount to a violation of a Middle East truce.
The US tech giant has responded by accusing the European Commission of “regulatory overreach”
The European Commission has demanded that Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – give competitors’ AI assistants free access to its messaging and social media platforms.
The interim measure will remain in place until the conclusion of an antitrust investigation against the American tech giant, the EU’s main executive body said in a statement on Tuesday.
Meta could face a fine of up to 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of abusing its market power to undercut its rivals.
The probe into Meta was launched in December 2025 when artificial intelligence developers from the US, France and Spain complained about the California-based company’s decision to block access to its WhatsApp for Business application programming interface (API) to all competitors.
Only its own Meta AI remained connected to the messaging app, which has over 3.3 billion active users worldwide. It’s also integrated into Meta’s social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram.
In March, the company allowed external AI chatbots to access WhatsApp for a fee, but Brussels argued that it was too high and not economically sustainable for rivals.
Meta now has five working days to make the use of WhatsApp for Business API free, like it used to be before October 2025, according to the European Commission.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said that the body acted to “preserve choice for citizens across Europe on the AI assistants they want to use with WhatsApp, without that decision being made for them.”
The measure will also “safeguard competition in the growing market for AI assistants, by preserving a key entry point to reach consumers in Europe – WhatsApp – and allowing AI companies to innovate, scale up and reach their full potential,” Ribera added.
A Meta spokesperson said in an-email to Reuters that the company disagrees with the order and is planning to appeal against it.
“The European Commission has decided that OpenAI and some of the largest companies in the world can use the paid-for WhatsApp Business product for free. This is regulatory overreach subsidized by the many European companies that pay,” the spokesman stressed.
CNBC reported in April that Meta, Google and Apple have been ordered to pay around $7 billion in fines by the EU for antitrust and privacy breaches since the start of 2024. This prompted the administration of US President Donald Trump to accuse Brussels of unfairly targeting the US tech firms, with the European Commission insisting that it’s only protecting the bloc’s consumers.
President Donald Trump’s explanation for the latest escalation “doesn’t make sense,” Larry Johnson has told RT
The US and Israel carried out their latest strikes on Iran and Lebanon in a deliberate effort to sabotage the ongoing peace talks, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson has told RT.
On Wednesday local time, the US struck Qeshm Island and targets in southern Iran in response to the crash of a US AH-64 Apache attack helicopter off the coast of Oman – an incident US President Donald Trump blamed on Iran. Tehran, however, has refused to confirm that it was responsible for the crash.
Johnson argued that Trump’s rationale for the latest escalation “doesn’t make sense,” especially since both pilots of the helicopter survived.
“If they are alive, why does Donald Trump launch strikes on Iran when they are supposedly in the midst of peace talks? The only reason I can come up with is that he did it deliberately to sabotage the talks,” he said.
Trump has been pressured by “the Zionist crowd” and pro-Israel politicians such as US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Johnson said.
“They are insistent on destroying Iran. They don’t want a deal with Iran,” he stated.
Johnson said Israel’s airstrikes on Beirut on Sunday were also aimed at provoking a conflict with Iran.
“Too much progress was being made during the peace talks for the neocons and for Israel, so they did everything in their power to sabotage it. I think this is going to lead to a new round of escalation that can go on for a week or two,” he said.
The sanctions imposed on the island nation by Washington are incompatible with international human rights law, according to Volker Turk
Children in Cuba are dying amid acute shortages of essential medical supplies caused by US-imposed economic sanctions, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.
The island nation has endured daily blackouts and severe fuel deficits in recent months after Venezuela, once Havana’s main oil supplier, stopped crude shipments under pressure from the US in early 2026. This was preceded by the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by American commandos in January.
US President Donald Trump has since repeatedly stated that he intends to “take” Cuba “one way or another.”
Turk described the plight of ordinary Cubans as “unacceptable,” warning that “children are dying because doctors lack access to essential medical supplies and medicines,” as quoted in a statement issued on Monday. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), infant mortality in Cuba has doubled to 9.9 per 1,000 births, with childhood cancer survival rates down from 85% to 65% since the US imposed a fuel blockade on the Caribbean country.
“Critical medical services such as oncology, dialysis, and maternal health are under severe strain,” with essential medicines in “critical short supply,” the report warned.
International humanitarian efforts to alleviate the situation are being hampered by US extraterritorial sanctions, with private companies refusing to deliver such shipments for fear of running afoul of them, OHCHR stated.
“Such severe sanctions packages that target entire sectors of an economy and produce broad, indiscriminate and harsh effects on populations are incompatible with basic principles of international human rights law,” Turk charged.
Last month, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla accused the US of meting out “collective punishment” in that Cubans are being subjected to conditions “that violate their human rights and cause pain, suffering, and anguish.”
Axios, citing several anonymous US officials, reported in late May that the White House was looking to further ramp up the pressure on Cuba in the hope that worsening economic conditions would eventually lead to regime change.
Russia, China, Mexico, and several other countries have been supplying Cuba with humanitarian aid. Moscow sent a shipment of around 700,000 barrels of crude oil in late March.
The White House has said the surcharge was meant to curb abuse of the program and protect American jobs
A US federal judge has struck down President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee on new skilled-worker visas, ruling that the White House could not impose the charge without approval from Congress.
The fee applied to new H-1B visa petitions filed on behalf of foreign workers outside the US. The program allows American employers to hire specialists from abroad for up to six years, and is capped at 65,000 new visas a year, with another 20,000 available for applicants with advanced degrees. It is widely used by major technology companies.
Trump has argued that the system has been abused by companies seeking to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign labor. In September, he ordered a $100,000 surcharge on new applications, saying the measure would protect US jobs and national security.
On Monday, US District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled in favor of 20 states that challenged the policy. He said the $100,000 payment was effectively a tax, “regardless of what the payment is called,” and that the administration had no authority to impose it.
The Department of Homeland Security has denounced the ruling as “blatant judicial activism,” insisting the fee was meant to protect US workers and prevent abuse of employment-based visa programs.
The lawsuit was led by California and joined by other states that argued the fee was unlawful and would harm schools, universities, hospitals and other public institutions that rely on skilled foreign workers.
The H-1B program has long divided US policymakers. Supporters say it helps companies fill specialized roles, while critics have argued that it allows corporations and staffing firms to undercut American workers and suppress wages.
US entry bans, outrageous ticket prices, and organizational problems have overshadowed football’s biggest spectacle
The 2026 FIFA World Cup, set to kick off this week, has already been overshadowed by political disputes and concerns over the tournament’s organization. Immigration rows, travel restrictions, and ticketing complaints have emerged as major flashpoints ahead of the opening match. Here is what we know so far.
When does the World Cup start?
The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins on June 11 and concludes on July 19. A record 48 teams will take part, with the top two sides from each of the 12 groups and the eight best third-placed teams advancing to the knockout stage.
Where is the World Cup taking place?
The tournament is being co-hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico, marking the first World Cup to be staged across three countries. Matches will be held in 16 cities across North America, with the final set to be played at New York-New Jersey Stadium.
How have US entry policies affected participants?
The World Cup is taking place against a backdrop of tighter US immigration controls and travel restrictions that have affected some participants.
Award-winning referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan, the first Somali national selected to officiate at a World Cup, was denied entry to the US despite holding a valid visa. FIFA later confirmed that Artan would not be able to officiate at the tournament. The incident came amid broader restrictions affecting Somali nationals under the Trump administration.
Iraq’s national team also encountered entry difficulties. While all players were ultimately admitted, captain Aymen Hussein was reportedly detained and questioned for nearly seven hours after arriving in Chicago. The team’s official photographer, Talal Salah, was denied entry.
Footage circulating online shows members of Senegal’s squad undergoing extensive security checks upon arrival in the US, including pat-downs and metal detector screening. Senegal is among the countries affected by Washington’s latest travel restrictions.
Separate video appeared to show former Italy captain and Ballon d’Or winner Fabio Cannavaro undergoing lengthy security screening after landing in the country.
Fabio Cannavaro, World Cup winner, former Italy captain and ballon d’or winner being searched like a suspected drug mule in the US. pic.twitter.com/rK7brpFama
How has the Middle East war affected Iran’s participation?
Iran’s World Cup campaign has been complicated by heightened tensions with Washington and the broad US sanctions regime imposed on the country.
Visas for the Iranian squad were reportedly approved only days before the tournament after months of uncertainty, while some members of the delegation are still said to be awaiting travel documents. The team has since moved its tournament base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico.
Adding to the controversy, Iran’s football federation said this week that its official allocation of World Cup tickets had been revoked just days before the opening match. The federation accused organizers of breaching the principle of equal treatment for participating nations.
FIFA said it remained in contact with the Iranian federation following the team’s arrival in Mexico.
Travel difficulties have not been limited to teams and officials. Supporters’ groups from several countries have reported problems entering the US, citing visa delays, enhanced screening procedures, and high rejection rates.
Fan organizations across Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America have voiced particular concern. Supporters from Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, and Tunisia have reported difficulties navigating US entry requirements, while citizens of Iran and Haiti face some of the strictest restrictions. Some Scottish supporters have also reported issues with previously approved travel authorizations.
Human rights groups have also voiced concern over immigration enforcement during the tournament. Amnesty International has called on FIFA to ensure supporters can attend matches without fear of discrimination or arbitrary restrictions. Some Haitian fans have told reporters they are reluctant to travel to the US due to concerns about possible detention or deportation, even as Haiti prepares for its first World Cup appearance since 1974.
Outrageous ticket prices
FIFA is facing scrutiny from the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey over allegations of “impossibly high” prices, artificial scarcity, and misleading information about ticket availability and seat locations. Its use of demand-based pricing and resale fees has also drawn criticism.
While FIFA has promoted the expanded 48-team tournament as its most accessible World Cup yet, consumer advocates and supporters’ groups argue that soaring prices are putting many matches out of reach for ordinary fans.
Fans seeking tickets for the 2026 tournament have reported prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Some group-stage tickets have been listed for more than $4,000, while seats for the final have appeared on resale platforms for significantly higher amounts.
By comparison, group-stage tickets at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar generally cost between $70 and $220. At the 2018 tournament in Russia, the cheapest group-stage tickets available to foreign supporters started at around $105.
Could the controversies affect the tournament?
FIFA has largely distanced itself from disputes over visas and immigration, saying such matters fall under the authority of host-country governments and maintaining that preparations remain on schedule.
US President Donald Trump has described the event as being on course to become “the most successful World Cup” ever, while the White House World Cup Task Force has pledged to deliver “the largest, safest and most welcoming sporting event in history.”
Human rights organizations and supporters’ groups, however, have questioned whether those commitments can be met, arguing that travel restrictions, immigration concerns, and ticketing controversies risk undermining the tournament’s goal of bringing together football fans from around the world.
The unrest erupted after a Sudanese asylum seeker allegedly attempted to behead a man in the street
Anti-immigration riots broke out in Belfast on Tuesday night after a knife-wielding Sudanese asylum seeker allegedly attacked a man in the Northern Irish capital.
The incident occurred amid a heated debate over migration policies, fueled by a string of crimes involving foreign nationals across the UK.
Buses and cars were set ablaze as police urged the public to remain calm.
Videos from the scene showed vehicles engulfed in flames.
🚨 BREAKING: A bus has been set on fire in Belfast amid protests over the attempted beheading of a man pic.twitter.com/FX8maCMalK
— RTI OSINT (real time intelligence) (@RTI_imtel) June 9, 2026
Other footage shows a burning car rolling down the street.
Angry mobs set several homes on fire and vandalized bus stops with anti-Islam graffiti.
According to reports, crowds roamed the streets in parts of the city, attempting to break into homes of suspected migrants.
Groups of men are going ‘door to door’ “hunting migrants” setting fire to known HMO’s in Belfast… pic.twitter.com/jxr0Rczctm
— Pippa B 🇬🇧🏴 🚜 ❤️ 🇺🇸 (@pippaisright) June 9, 2026
The unrest followed a viral video from Monday showing a knife-wielding assailant pinning another man to the ground in the middle of a street. Several bystanders intervened, saving the victim, who suffered multiple stab wounds.
According to police, the suspect flew from Paris to Dublin before traveling by bus to Belfast in 2023, where he claimed asylum.
The UK has seen major anti-immigration protests and riots in recent years, with right-wing politicians and activists accusing authorities of failing to control illegal migration and adequately address crimes committed by migrants and other ethnic minorities.
In 2024, large-scale riots broke out in Southport, northwest England, after a man of Rwandan origin fatally stabbed three girls at a dance studio. The incident resulted in a rash of arrests for social media posts which allegedly stirred up racial hatred.
Earlier this month, demonstrations were held in memory of Henry Nowak, a university student killed by a British Sikh man in 2025. Public outrage intensified after police body-camera footage was released showing officers at the scene handcuffing the mortally wounded Nowak rather than his attacker, Vickrum Digwa.
Digwa was sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole after 21 years for the murder.
CENTCOM described the attacks as “a proportional response” to the alleged downing of an AH-64 Apache
The US said it has launched strikes in Iran in response to what it described as the downing of an American AH-64 Apache attack helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said US President Donald Trump had ordered “self-defense strikes… in response to yesterday’s downing of a US Army Apache helicopter.”
“The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,” CENTCOM said in a statement on X.
Iranian broadcaster Press TV reported that several projectiles struck the strategic island of Qeshm near the narrowest part of the Strait of Hormuz, which hosts a military base and a key oil terminal. Strikes were also reported in other parts of Iran’s southern Hormozgan Province.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5 p.m. ET today at the Commander in Chief’s direction, in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian…
Earlier on Tuesday, CENTCOM said the helicopter had crashed off the coast of Oman while patrolling the area and that its two pilots had been rescued.
Tehran has not directly confirmed the US claim that the helicopter was shot down, with Al Jazeera citing a senior Iranian diplomat as saying “there was no deliberate attack” on the aircraft.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that US forces operating near Iranian territory “are at constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents, or potentially being caught in crossfire.”
Shortly after the latest US strikes, Araghchi warned that Iran “will leave no attack or threat unanswered.”
“Leave our region if you want to be safe,” he wrote on X.
Despite its defeats on the battlefield, the U.S. opted to test our determination.
Our Powerful Armed Forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered.
Leave our region if you want to be safe.
History of the Persian Gulf has many chapters on dire fates of intruding outsiders. pic.twitter.com/O17GGtklxA
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later said it had targeted the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, as well as a US airbase in Jordan.
The latest escalation comes as Trump again claimed that his administration was close to reaching a deal with Iran and said the US would achieve a “total victory” within days or weeks.
A US official told CNN that the new strikes were intended as a “warning shot” and that Washington believed they would not derail the talks.
Iran threatened to suspend negotiations last week after Israel carried out airstrikes in Lebanon, where nearly 3,700 people have been killed since the IDF resumed its military operation in response to attacks by Hezbollah. Tehran’s peace terms with the US include the cessation of fighting “on all fronts,” including Lebanon.
Trump has since held several heated phone conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him to hold off on further strikes in Lebanon.
Sixty-five were recorded in 2025, according to the Peace Research Institute Oslo
The number of armed conflicts underway around the globe reached its highest level since World War II in 2025, according to a study published on Tuesday by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
Researchers found there were 65 state-based conflicts – involving at least one government actor – the highest number since systematic records began in 1946. The report estimates that about 245,000 people were killed in battle-related violence last year, making it one of the deadliest years in recent decades.
“The world today is … far more fragmented,” the researchers said, describing an “unprecedented” number of simultaneous wars fueled by both long-running crises and new outbreaks of large-scale fighting. They cited the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Israel’s war in Gaza and the civil war in Sudan.
The number of interstate conflicts doubled from the previous year to a record eight in 2025, including clashes between India and Pakistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as Cambodia and Thailand.
PRIO said the 65 conflicts recorded were spread across 35 countries, with several states involved in multiple wars simultaneously. Israel, for example, was embroiled in conflicts linked to Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Yemen, while Myanmar, Pakistan, and Nigeria also faced more than one armed conflict.
Africa was the region most affected by state-based violence, followed by Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, and Europe. According to PRIO, more than 930,000 people have been killed in state-based conflicts since 2021 – roughly matching the total recorded during the previous two decades.
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