Chinese military personnel take part in a rehearsal ahead of a parade commemorating the eightieth anniversary of victory in World War II in Beijing on August 20, 2025. (Pedro Pardo via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
US Commerce Secretary Howard William Lutnick and Japanese Minister for Economic Revitalization Ryosei Akazawa shake hands on on September 4, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
Arleigh Burke–class guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) sails in formation during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise on July 28, 2022. (DVIDS)
A formation of Dongfeng-41 nuclear missiles takes part in a military parade celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 2019. (Xia Yifang via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
A microchip and Taiwanese flag displayed on a phone screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration photo on April 10, 2023. (Jakub Porzycki via Getty Images)
People walk past a video screen showing a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing on March 3, 2023. (Greg Baker via Getty Images)
An aerial view shows a mass funeral ceremony being held at the Holy Cross Church in the Al-Qassaa neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, on June 24, 2025. (Izettin Kasim via Getty Images)
Puntland Maritime Police Forces are patrolling against the recently increasing pirate attacks off the coast in Puntland, Somalia on January 29, 2024. (Abuukar Mohamed via Getty Images)
The Crimean Tatar flag flies on a flagpole in front of the Lviv Oblast Military Administration on May 17, 2024, in Lviv, Ukraine. (Stanislav Ivanov via Getty Images)
Pakistani Christian Perveen Bibi weeps outside the torched Saint John Church in Jaranwala on the outskirts of Faisalabad on August 17, 2023. (Aamir Qureshi via Getty Images)
Ethnic Uyghur demonstrators take part in a protest against China near the Chinese consulate in Istanbul on October 1, 2023. (Yasin Akgul via Getty Images)
Coptic Orthodox Christians gather for an Easter service at the Monastery of Saint Simon the Tanner, located in the Mokattam Mountain area of Cairo, on April 19, 2025. (Ahmed Sayed via Getty Images)
Mourners carry the coffins of slain Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala, during a funeral procession on January 4, 2020. (Mohammed Sawaf via Getty Images)