US sailors conduct routine maintenance on a jet blast deflector on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz on July 9, 2025. (US Navy)
The Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) facility, which will house a compact fusion experiment device, undergoes its first exterior lighting test on September 9, 2026, in Hefei, China. (Getty Images)
United States Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy participate in a joint press conference after talks on September 6, 2026, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Getty Images)
Engineers work outside the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, on September 25, 2009. (Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes US Special Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner before their talks in Moscow on September 5, 2026. (Getty Images)
A woman walks in front of a billboard with a picture of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega at the Ministry of Family Economy on June 27, 2021, in Managua, Nicaragua. (Getty Images)
A Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35A Lightning II flies alongside two F-35A Lightning IIs and an F-16 Fighting Falcon of the US Air Force over the Pacific Ocean near Misawa Air Base in Japan on September 30, 2025. (US Air Force)
The Russian flag hangs outside the Russian Embassy in London on February 2, 2026, after the UK revoked a Russian diplomat’s accreditation in a tit-for-tat move. (Getty Images)
President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi talk during their summit meeting at the Akasaka Palace on October 28, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan. (Getty Images)
A Philippine Air Force Black Hawk helicopter lands on June 29, 2023, on Mavulis Island, which is the Philippines’ northernmost island and is roughly 88 miles from Taiwan. (Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
A China-Europe train prepares to depart from the China-Kazakhstan Logistics Cooperation Base in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, China, on January 16, 2026. (Getty Images)