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)
President Donald Trump holds up a copy of a 2025 National Trade Estimate Report as he speaks at an event at the White House on April 2, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
A man walks past Taiwanese flags on Democracy Boulevard at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei on October 15, 2024. (I-Hwa Cheng via Getty Images)
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)
A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan Island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in Fujian Province, China, on October 15, 2024. (Adek Berry via Getty Images)
Chinese President Xi Jinping waves during a meeting with Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary To Lam at the Office of the Party Central Committee in Hanoi on April 14, 2025. (Nhac Nguyen via Getty Images)
The Japan Air Self-Defense Force held an F-35 aircraft delivery ceremony at Komatsu Air Base in Japan on April 26, 2025. (F-35 Joint Program Office via JASDF and DVIDS)
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during the Twenty-second IISS Shangri-La Dialogue on May 31, 2025, in Singapore. (Yong Teck Lim via Getty Images