An Air Force Global Strike Command unarmed Minuteman III ICBM launches during an operation test on February 23, 2021, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (US Space Force)
A protester flashes victory signs as traffic slows during demonstrations in Hamedan, Iran, on January 1, 2026. The demonstrations erupted after shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar shut their businesses to protest the sharp fall of Iran’s currency and worsening economic conditions. (Getty Images)
An Air Force Global Strike Command unarmed Minuteman III ICBM launches during an operation test on February 23, 2021, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (US Space Force)
EU Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen speaks to the press in the Berlaymont, the European Union Commission headquarters on April 27, 2022, in Brussels, Belgium. (Getty Images)
Leaders representing Russia, Pakistan, China, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Kyrgyzstan attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State in Bishek in 2019. (Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images)
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is applauded by members of his government as he arrives for the closing session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People on March 11, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
A U.S.-made F-16V fighter jet with its armaments is on display during an exercise at a military base in Chiayi, southern Taiwan on January 15, 2020. (Photo by Sam Yeh / AFP via Getty Images)
Members of the Portuguese chapter of Falun Gong demonstrate outside Belem Palace on July 12, 2017 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty Images)