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President Donald Trump said the US is considering “very strong options,” including possible military action, over the deaths of protesters during unrest in Iran. Nationwide protests over economic hardship have been met with mass arrests and a security crackdown.

Jan. 12 (UPI) — Britain on Sunday announced it was developing a new ground-launched tactical missile with a range of more than 300 miles to bolster Ukraine‘s defense against Russia’s invasion.

Under Project Nightfall, London seeks to provide Ukraine with what London is describing as “a powerful, cost-effective long-range strike option, with minimal foreign export controls.”

According to Britain’s Ministry of Defense, the missiles will be capable of being launched from a range of vehicles in rapid succession in high-threat battlefields with heavy electromagnetic interference.

The missiles will give Ukraine the ability to rapidly hit key military targets and withdraw within minutes before Russia can retaliate, it said.

“A secure Europe needs a strong Ukraine,” MP Luke Pollard, the minister for Defense Readiness and Industry, said in a statement.

“These new long-range British missiles will keep Ukraine in the fight and give [Russian President Vladimir] Putin another thing to worry about.”

Defense Secretary John Healey announced Project Nightfall after visiting Ukraine on Thursday, when overnight Russia launched large-scale strikes against Kyiv and across Ukraine, including with the reported use of a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile, one of the few reported uses of such a weapon.

At least four people were killed and 16 injured.

On Sunday, Healey said the attack was proof Putin thinks he can act with impunity.

“We were close enough to hear the air raid sires around Livi on our journey to Kyiv. It was a serious moment and a stark reminder of the barrage of drones and missiles hitting Ukrainians in sub-zero conditions,” he said.

“We won’t stand for this, which is why we are determined to put leading-edge weapons into the hands of Ukrainians as they fight back.”

Ukraine has long called on allies to supply it with long-range missiles in order to strike Russia within its borders.

During Healey’s visit to Kyiv last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he briefed Britain’s defense minister on Moscow’s attempt to “use cold weather as a tool of terror, which is why work on additional air defense capabilities for Ukraine is now an urgent priority.”

“We know which partners have the relevant missiles and equipment, and I am sincerely grateful to the United Kingdom for its readiness to help,” Zelensky said in a statement.

London on Sunday said the new missiles will be able to carry a 440-pound conventional warhead. It will have a high-precision production rate of 10 systems a month and at a maximum cost of about $1 million per missile.

Three companies will each be awarded about $12 million to design, develop and deliver their first three missiles for test firings in 12 months.

The United Nations’s top court is set to open a landmark case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against its mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.

The trial on Monday is the first genocide case that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will take up in full in more than a decade, and its outcome will have repercussions beyond Myanmar, likely affecting South Africa’s petition against Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza.

The hearings will start at 09:00 GMT on Monday and span three weeks.

The Gambia filed the case against Myanmar at the ICJ, also known as the World Court, in 2019, two years after the country’s military launched an offensive that forced some 750,000 Rohingya from their homes and into neighbouring Bangladesh.

The refugees recounted mass killings, rape and arson attacks.

A UN fact-finding mission at the time concluded that the 2017 offensive had included “genocidal acts”. But authorities in Myanmar rejected the report, saying its military offensive was a legitimate counterterrorism campaign in response to attacks by alleged Rohingya armed groups.

“The case is likely to ‍set critical precedents for how genocide is defined and how it can be proven, and how violations can be remedied,” Nicholas Koumjian, head of the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, told the Reuters news agency.

‘Renewed hope’

In Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, Rohingya refugees said they hoped the genocide case would help bring justice.

“We want justice and peace,” said 37-year-old Janifa Begum, a mother of two. “Our women lost their dignity when the military junta launched the eviction. They burned villages, killed men, and women became victims of widespread violence.”

Others said they hoped the case would bring them real change, even though the ICJ has no way to enforce any judgement it might make.

“I hope the ICJ will bring some solace to the deep wounds we are still carrying,” said Mohammad Sayed Ullah, 33, a former teacher and now a member of the United Council of Rohingya, a refugee organisation.

“The perpetrators must be held accountable and punished,” he said. “The sooner and fairer the trial is, the better the outcome will be… then the repatriation process may begin.”

Wai Wai Nu, the head of Myanmar’s Women’s Peace Network, said the start of the trial “delivers renewed hope to Rohingya that our decades-long suffering may finally end”.

“Amid ongoing violations against the Rohingya, the world must stand firm in the pursuit of justice and a path toward ending impunity in Myanmar and restoring our rights.”

The hearings at the ICJ will mark the first time that Rohingya victims of the alleged atrocities will be heard by an international court, although those sessions will be closed to the public and the media for sensitivity and privacy reasons.

“If the ICJ finds Myanmar responsible under the Genocide Convention, it would mark a historic step in holding a state legally accountable for genocide,” said Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), a group that advocates for Rohingya rights.

Separate ICC case

During the preliminary hearings in the ICJ case in 2019, Myanmar’s then-leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, rejected The Gambia’s accusations of genocide as “incomplete and misleading”. She was later toppled by the military in a coup in 2021.

The power grab plunged Myanmar into chaos, with the military’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests sparking a nationwide armed rebellion.

While Myanmar’s military continues to deny the accusations of genocide, the opposition National Unity Government (NUG), established by elected lawmakers after the 2021 coup, said it has “accepted and welcomed” the jurisdiction of the ICJ, adding that it has “withdrawn all preliminary objections” previously submitted on the case.

In a statement ahead of the hearing, the NUG acknowledged the government’s failures, which it said “enabled grave atrocities” to take place against minority groups. It also acknowledged the name Rohingya, which the previous elected government, including Aung San Suu Kyi, had refused to do.

“We are committed to ensuring such crimes are never repeated,” the NUG said.

Myanmar’s military leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, is facing a separate arrest warrant before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his role in the persecution of the Rohingya.

The ICC prosecution said the general “bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya, committed in Myanmar, and in part in Bangladesh.”

Additionally, the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) has accused the military government of “intensifying genocide” against the Rohingya since taking power in 2021.

Myanmar is currently holding phased elections that have been criticised by the UN, some Western countries and human rights groups as not free or fair.

Jan. 11 (UPI) — A “suspicious object” was found by U.S. Secret Service agents during an inspection of Palm Beach International Airport on Sunday, the White House said, as President Donald Trump was to depart from his Florida estate for Washington.

The unidentified object was discovered by the Secret Service during an advanced sweep of the airport prior to Trump’s arrival, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a statement.

“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly,” she said.

Trump had been in Palm Beach since Friday night and departed for Washington on Sunday evening, arriving on the South Lawn of the White House at 9:12 p.m. EST via Joint Base Andrews, Md.

Asked by reporters about the object aboard Air Force One, Trump replied: “I know nothing about it.”

This is a developing story.

Jan. 11 (Asia Today) — South Korean tenants who pay monthly maintenance fees in studio apartments and multi-family homes are increasingly disputing who must cover repair costs when in-unit equipment breaks, as housing lease mediation applications have surged in recent years.

Park Geon-ho, 28, said a washing machine in his one-room unit in Seoul’s Dongjak district broke less than two weeks after he moved in last January. When he asked the landlord to fix it, Park said he was told the cost could not be covered until an official service center confirmed the cause.

Needing laundry service immediately, Park said he hired a private repair company. He later split the 400,000 won ($310) repair bill with the landlord. Park said tenants often pay first even though they pay monthly maintenance fees and he said he was never told what those fees include.

A tenant in an officetel in Seoul’s Gwanak district said an air conditioner was heavily contaminated before he moved in last December. The tenant said a cleaning company warned it could be harmful and advised against using it but he said the unit was not replaced after he notified the landlord. He said he has since dealt with recurring throat and skin problems and installed a ventilation filter on his own.

Critics say the disputes are fueled by vague definitions of what maintenance fees cover in studio apartments and multi-family housing, where monthly charges may be fixed but management responsibilities are unclear.

According to the Housing and Commercial Building Lease Dispute Mediation Committee, housing lease dispute mediation applications rose from 44 cases in 2020 to 665 cases in 2023 and 709 cases in 2024.

The report said an institutional gap affects studios and multi-family homes because they are not covered by the Apartment Management Act. As a result, there are no standardized rules for fee items, calculation criteria, a requirement to provide statements or clear boundaries for what management includes. While maintenance fees are often explained as covering shared utilities such as electricity and water, responsibility for repairs to in-unit facilities such as washing machines or boilers is often left to a landlord’s discretion.

President Lee Jae-myung ordered a review last September of broader measures to address maintenance fee disputes in studios and multi-family homes, calling for improvements to collective building management and fact-finding, the report said.

Lawmakers are also reviewing revisions. A proposed amendment to the Housing Lease Protection Act submitted Dec. 9 would require landlords to specify total maintenance fees and calculation standards for each item in lease contracts, including for multi-unit housing outside mandatory management rules, according to the report.

Real estate industry officials said collecting maintenance fees implies a level of management responsibility and urged tenants to report defects immediately upon move-in to help clarify liability. They also called for maintenance scope to be spelled out at the contract stage to prevent repeat disputes.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Jan. 11 (Asia Today) — Asia Today interviewed Sejong University business administration professor Kim Dae-jong on Tuesday about the 2026 economic outlook and strategies for coping with rising foreign exchange risks and fiscal pressures. Below are highlights in a question-and-answer format.

Q: Do you believe there is a real possibility of another foreign exchange crisis like the one in 1997?

A: “South Korea’s current foreign exchange defense capabilities are extremely vulnerable. The country’s foreign exchange reserves relative to GDP stand at around 22%. This is woefully inadequate compared to Taiwan, which holds reserves equivalent to 80% of its GDP. Meanwhile, the Korean won’s share of international payments is a mere 0.1%, making it a currency that no one will accept during a crisis. With an 84% probability of an upward trend in the exchange rate, the won is projected to surge to between 1,550 and 1,600 won per dollar by 2026. Without government preparedness, the likelihood of a foreign exchange crisis approaches 30%. We must significantly increase foreign exchange reserves to Taiwan’s level and establish safety nets through measures like Korea-Japan currency swaps. The interest losses from holding reserves are a cost we must bear given the potential losses from a crisis.”

Q: The government claims its finances are robust. What do the actual indicators show from your perspective?

A: “The government reassures us with a debt ratio of 52%, but this is merely an illusion. Broad national debt, including public enterprise debt and unfunded pension liabilities, has already surpassed 130% of GDP. The 2026 budget proposal shows an 8.1% increase to 728 trillion won ($560 billion), more than four times the inflation rate, pursuing loose expansionary fiscal policy. The IMF classifies countries with non-reserve currencies as risky when their debt ratio exceeds 60%. South Korea is expected to cross this threshold by 2029. Securing fiscal soundness is crucial for national survival.”

Q: What are the fundamental causes and solutions for the youth employment rate being only 45%?

A: “Companies are fleeing overseas to avoid high taxes and regulations. Korea’s corporate tax rate of 26% is higher than the global average of 21% and higher than places like Singapore and Ireland. The United States encourages innovation through negative regulation, but Korea is stifled by positive regulation. Allowing Uber alone could create more than 300,000 jobs, yet we are cutting off the buds of new industries. We need concrete action to create a business-friendly environment. Instead, the government raised the corporate tax rate by 1 percentage point.”

Q: In this situation, how can individuals protect their assets and become wealthy?

A: “I recommend a top-ranked stock strategy: invest 90% of your assets in the top U.S. market cap companies and 10% in the top Korean company. As dollar-denominated assets, they protect wealth when the exchange rate rises. Apartment subscription accounts should never be canceled and should be maintained. Statistically, the net asset threshold for the top 1% of wealthy Koreans is 3 billion won. By building expertise at work and consistently investing 25% of your salary into top-tier stocks, you can join that group.”

Interviewer: Kim Lee-seok, Editorial Advisor

Compiled by: Lee Jung-ho, Staff Reporter

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Denmark is ready to defend its values, Mette Frederiksen says, as Trump renews threats to seize the Danish territory.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said her country faces a “decisive moment” over the future of Greenland after US President Donald Trump renewed his threats to seize the Arctic territory by force.

Ahead of meetings in Washington, DC, from Monday, on the global scramble for key raw materials, Frederiksen said that “there is a conflict over Greenland”.

“This is a decisive moment”, with stakes that go beyond the immediate issue of Greenland’s future, Frederiksen added in a debate with other Danish political leaders.

“We are ready to defend our values – wherever it is necessary  – also in the Arctic. We believe in international law and in peoples’ right to self-determination,” the prime minister posted on Facebook.

Germany and Sweden backed Denmark against Trump’s latest claims to the self-governing Danish territory.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned the US’s “threatening rhetoric” after Trump repeated that Washington was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not”.

“Sweden, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, and several major European countries stand together with our Danish friends,” Kristersson told a defence conference in Salen, in which the US general in charge of NATO took part.

Kristersson said a US takeover of mineral-rich Greenland would be “a violation of international law, and risks encouraging other countries to act in exactly the same way”.

Germany reiterated its support for Denmark and Greenland ahead of the Washington discussions.

Before meeting his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, on Monday, German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadehpul held talks in Iceland to address the “strategic challenges of the Far North”, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

“Security in the Arctic is becoming more and more important”, and “is part of our common interest in NATO”, he said at a joint news conference with Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir.

The United Kingdom’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday that military chiefs from the UK and other European countries were drawing up plans for a possible NATO mission in Greenland.

The newspaper said that UK officials had begun early-stage talks with Germany, France and others on plans that could involve deploying UK troops, warships and aircraft to protect Greenland from Russia and China.

UK Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander told Sky News that talks on how to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Arctic were “business as usual”.

“It’s becoming an increasingly contested geopolitical region, with Russia and China… you would expect us to be talking to all our allies in NATO about what we can do to deter Russian aggression in the Arctic Circle,” Alexander said.

In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Belgian Minister of Defence Theo Francken said that NATO should launch an operation in the Arctic to address US security concerns.

“We have to collaborate, work together and show strength and unity,” Francken said, adding that there is a need for “a NATO operation in the high north”.

Francken suggested NATO’s Baltic Sentry and Eastern Sentry operations, which combine forces from different countries with drones, sensors and other technology to monitor land and sea, as possible models for an “Arctic Sentry”.

Trump claims that controlling Greenland is crucial for US national security because of the rising Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic.

A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.

Polls indicate that Greenland’s population strongly oppose a US takeover.

Jan. 11 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that Cuba must strike a deal with the United States or face deeper economic hardship as its access to Venezuelan oil diminishes.

On Truth Social, Trump posted: “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

Trump’s comments followed remarks he made on Jan. 4, when he said the Cuban government could collapse without direct U.S. intervention following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by American forces.

In addition, Trump reposted a Truth Social user’s message suggesting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, should serve as Cuba’s president, responding, “Sounds good to me.”

Rubio has been vocal about Cuba’s political and economic situation in the wake of changes in Venezuela and has said Havana is in “serious trouble” and that its leaders have reason to be concerned.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel posted on X Sunday, “Cuba is a free, independent, and sovereign nation. No one dictates what we do. Cuba does not aggress; it is aggressed upon by the United States for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the Homeland to the last drop of blood.”

On Friday, the United States seized another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea, the Olina, as part of efforts to control Venezuelan oil that had been bound for the region, including Cuba.

U.S. Southern Command wrote on X that it’s “unwavering in its mission to defend our homeland by ending illicit activity and restoring security in the Western Hemisphere.”

Jan. 11 (UPI) — Police arrested and charged a suspect in the arson fire of a synagogue in Jackson, Miss., Beth Israel Congregation, which torched the facility’s library, spread smoke damage throughout the building and destroyed two Torahs.

The fire was reported around 3:00 a.m. Saturday — overnight Shabbat, the weekly Jewish day of rest — and the temple has suspended services indefinitely due to the damage, according to Mississippi Today.

The library and administrative offices were damaged in the fire, in addition to the two destroyed Torahs and five others that were damaged when the blaze erupted. A Torah that survived the Holocaust and is stored in a glass case was undamaged, according to reports.

“Acts of antisemitism, racism and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole and will be treated as acts of terror against residents’ safety and feedom to worship,” Jackson Mayor John Horn said in a statement on Sunday, WAPT-16 reported.

The synagogue, which was founded in 1960, was the first to be founded in the state, and has been the subject of attacks several times in its history, The New York Times reported.

In 1874, the temple, then built as a wood frame building, was lit on fire.

In 1967, Beth Israel was also bombed by members of the local Ku Klux Klan after its rabbi had spoken out against racism and segregation. His support for civil rights resulted in his home being bombed by the same Klan group months later.

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., on Sunday morning denounced the arson in a post on X, quoting the bible passage Isaiah 40:1, saying “comfort Ye my people, saith your God.”

“Our hearts are with the members of Beth Israel Congregation,” Wicker and his wife, Gayle, said in the post.

“We stand with them as we do all the caring people of Mississippi,” they said. “We denounce violence and find attacks on places of worship especially despicable.”

America First foreign policy means that the United States is becoming a country that opposes the rule of law, free trade and collective security, argues Ian Bremmer, president of the risk analysis firm Eurasia Group.

Bremmer tells host Steve Clemons that the international system built by the US over decades “was going to reach a geopolitical bust” regardless of the advent of President Donald Trump.

Washington’s decision to project power in Venezuela, coupled with rhetoric threatening Greenland, “makes the US more unreliable for its allies”, according to Bremmer, “and a much bigger driver of geopolitical risk on the global stage”.

Satellite images show Israeli forces repositioning yellow cement blocks hundreds of metres inside Gaza’s yellow withdrawal line in violation of the October 10 ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

Jan. 11 (UPI) — Wing and Walmart on Sunday announced plans to expand the retailer’s drone delivery service to more major metropolitan areas and more than 150 additional stores this year.

The expansion plans doubles the number of cities that where drone delivery service is available from Walmart, which the top 25% of customers have used three times a week as overall deliveries tripled in a six month period last year.

The new service areas include Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Miami, while service is already up and running in northwest Arkansas, the Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta metropolitan areas, is set to start in Houston on Jan. 15 and has already been announced for Charlotte, Orlando and Tampa, according to a press release.

“Drone delivery plays an important role in our ability to deliver what customers want, exactly when they want it it,” Greg Cathey, senior vice president of digital fulfillment transformation at Walmart, said in a press release.

“The strong adoption we’ve seen confirms that this is the future of convenience,” he said.

Walmart started experimenting with Wing’s drone delivery service in Bentonville in 2021, making about 150,000 drone deliveries, before announcing in June 2025 that service would be expanded to Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa over the course of the next 12 months.

Initially, the service was available from 100 stores in northwest Arkansas and Dallas-Fort Worth to customers within a 6-mile radius of the store. Service launched from six Walmart stores in Atlanta at the beginning of December.

The June announcement included plans to offer drone service in all five metro areas from 100 stores by some time this year, with the four-city expansion adding another 150 locations.

In 2027, Wing said in the release, drone delivery will be available from more than 270 Walmart locations in cities coast-to-coast in the United States and be available to roughly 40 million people.

Jan. 11 (UPI) — SpaceX early Sunday morning launched its first Twilight rideshare flight from California, launching satellites for NASA, an Internet-of-Things services company and an experiment to 3-D print a boom in space.

The company’s first rideshare launch of the year, which also is the start of a new series of dedicated smallsat rideshare missions, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 5:44 a.m. PST from Space Launch Complex 4E.

SpaceX sent 40 payloads to a dusk-dawn sun-synchronous orbit atop a Falcon 9 first stage booster that previously has launched Sentinel-6B and three Starlink missions. The orbital position is the separating line of night and day on Earth.

After launch, the booster returned to land at Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg about an hour later as satellite deployment sequences started around the same time, SpaceX said in posts on X and on its website.

The 40 payloads SpaceX carried to space were scheduled to be deployed into orbit over the course of about 90 minutes.

NASA’s Pandora small satellite is planned to study at least 20 exoplanets and the activity of their host stars as it passes over the same spot on Earth each day, where the Sun will be behind it to prevent light from affecting its image and data collection, the agency said.

Although they are not NASA projects, the agency also is involved with two cubesat small satellite missions — the Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat, or SPARCS, for Arizona State University, and the Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope, or BlackCat, which will be operated by researchers at Penn State University.

Dcubed, a company developing deployable space structures and in-space manufacturing systems, sent its ARAQYS-D1 mission, which will 3-D print and manufacture a 60-centimeter ISM boom in free space as a proof of concept.

The 3D-printing mission is one of more than 22 payloads on the SpaceX mission being supported by Exolaunch, which has worked with many space agencies and private companies to send missions into orbit on SpaceX rideshares.

Among the other payloads are satellites to provide Internet of Things connectivity for the Turkish company Plan-S Satellite and Space Technologies and Spire Global’s Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder 16U CubeSat, which will study the Earth’s internal atmosphere, NASA Spacelight reported.

Follow our live build-up with team news coverage before our live text commentary stream of Spain’s Super Cup final.

Iranian president calls for unity as protests triggered by an economic crisis escalate into the worst unrest in years.

New Delhi, India – Joint naval drills involving several members of the BRICS bloc, including China, Russia and Iran, have kicked off near South Africa’s coast with South Africa describing the manoeuvres as a vital response to rising maritime tensions globally.

The weeklong Will for Peace 2026 exercises, which started on Saturday, are being led by China in Simon’s Town, where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean. They will include drills on rescue and maritime strike operations and technical exchanges, China’s Ministry of National Defence said.

The drills involving warships from the participating countries come amid frayed ties between South Africa and the United States. Washington sees the bloc as an economic threat.

The BRICS acronym is derived from the initial letters of the founding member countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – with South Africa serving as the current chair. India and Brazil, however, opted out of the drills.

So why do the drills matter, and what is their aim? And why are some founding members not participating?

Who is participating in the drills?

China and Iran sent destroyers, Russia and the United Arab Emirates sent corvettes and South Africa deployed a mid-sized frigate.

Chinese officials leading the opening ceremony on Saturday south of Cape Town said Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia and Ethiopia were joining the drills as observers.

Speaking at the ceremony, South Africa’s joint task force commander, Captain Nndwakhulu Thomas Thamaha, said the drills were more than a military exercise and a statement of intent among the BRICS group of nations.

The host country described this as a BRICS Plus operation aimed at ensuring “the safety of shipping and maritime economic activities”. BRICS Plus is an expansion that enables the geopolitical bloc to engage with and court additional countries beyond its core members.

South African officials said all members of the bloc were invited to the drills.

Iran joined the group in 2024. The bloc was simultaneously expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Why do the drills matter?

South Africa has previously carried out naval drills with China and Russia.

“It is a demonstration of our collective resolve to work together,” Thamaha said. “In an increasingly complex maritime environment, cooperation such as this is not an option. It is essential.”

The South African Department of Defence said in a statement that this year’s exercise “reflects the collective commitment of all participating navies to safeguard maritime trade routes, enhance shared operational procedures and deepen cooperation in support of peaceful maritime security initiatives”.

The ongoing exercises come amid heightened geopolitical tensions. They started just three days after the United States seized a Venezuela-linked Russian oil tanker in the North Atlantic, saying it had violated Western sanctions.

The seizure followed a US military operation that abducted President Nicolas Maduro from the capital, Caracas, with his wife, Cilia Flores and a pledge from US President Donald Trump to “run” Venezuela and exploit its vast oil reserves.

The Trump administration has also threatened military action against countries such as Cuba, Colombia and Iran and the semiautonomous Danish territory Greenland.

How does Trump see BRICS?

Trump has accused some BRICS members of pursuing “anti-American” policies.

While Washington’s relations continue to be sour with China and Russia, Trump has attacked Iran and imposed punishing tariffs on India, which it has accused of funding Russia’s war against Ukraine by buying Russian oil.

After taking office in January 2025, Trump had threatened all the BRICS members with an additional 10 percent tariff.

“When I heard about this group from BRICS, six countries, basically, I hit them very, very hard. And if they ever really form in a meaningful way, it will end very quickly,” Trump said in July before the annual summit of the developing nations. “We can never let anyone play games with us.”

In their joint statement from July, the BRICS leaders took a defiant tone and called out global concern over a “rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures” without naming the US and condemned the military strikes on Iran.

Who opted out of the joint drills and why?

Two of the founding members of the BRICS alliance, India and Brazil, are not participating in the naval drills.

While Brasilia joined the exercises as an observer, New Delhi stayed away.

Since Trump returned to the White House, New Delhi has seen its stock crash in Washington.

India’s purchase of Russian oil is among the biggest flashpoints in their bilateral ties with a trade deal hanging in the balance.

For New Delhi, opting out of the drills is “about balancing ties with the US”, said Harsh Pant, a geopolitical analyst at the New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation. “But these so-called wargames are also not the BRICS mandate.”

BRICS essentially is not a military alliance but an intergovernmental partnership of developing nations focused on economic cooperation and trade aimed at breaking an overreliance on the West.

Pant told Al Jazeera that for China, Russia, Iran and to some extent South Africa, the joint military exercise “helps [a narrative] about positioning themselves vis-a-vis the US at this juncture”.

“India would prefer not to be tagged in the BRICS wargames,” Pant said, adding that New Delhi would also not be comfortable with the gradual evolution of BRICS’s foundational nature. “This is not really something that India can take forward, both pragmatically and normatively.”

On top of that, Pant argued, there are key differences between countries in BRICS Plus – like the UAE and Iran, or Egypt and Iran – for the bloc to become a formidable military alliance.

When did South Africa last host joint drills?

South Africa conducted Exercise Mosi, as it was previously called, twice with Russia and China.

The first Exercise Mosi, which means “smoke” in the Sesotho language, took place in November 2019. The second iteration, Exercise Mosi II, was held in February 2023, coinciding with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

South Africa had faced heat from the West for hosting the joint drills then.

A third edition was scheduled for late 2025, but it overlapped with a Group of 20 summit that was held in South Africa in November. Washington did not send any delegates. The ongoing Will for Peace 2026, now rebranded, is the third edition of the drills.

What’s at stake for South Africa?

The exercises in South African waters will likely further raise tensions with Washington.

Since Trump took office again, South Africa-US ties have deteriorated over a range of issues, and Trump has imposed 30 percent tariffs on South African goods.

A part of the fallout is also rooted in the South African government’s decision to bring a genocide case against Israel, a top US ally, before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. It accuses the Israeli government of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. In a preliminary ruling, the world court found it plausible that Israeli actions amounted to genocide.

When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the White House in May, hoping to mend ties, Trump falsely claimed that white South African farmers were facing systematic killings.

Ramaphosa rejected the claims. None of South Africa’s political parties says there is a “white genocide” happening in the country as the Trump administration claims.

Hosting the wargames at a time of global geopolitical upheaval has its own risks, given that the US sees some of the participants as a military threat.

Ramaphosa’s government also faces criticism from one of its largest coalition partners, the liberal Democratic Alliance (DA). A DA spokesperson, Chris Hattingh, said in a statement that the bloc has no defensive role or shared military plans to warrant such exercises.

The party said BRICS had “rendered South Africa a pawn in the power games being waged by rogue states on the international stage”.

North Korea claimed Saturday that South Korea infringed on its sovereignty with drone incursions in September last year and earlier this week, saying that Seoul should be ready to “pay a high price” for what it called a provocation.

But South Korea’s defense ministry rejected Pyongyang’s claim, saying the South’s military did not operate drones on the dates asserted by the North.

A spokesperson of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army issued a statement denouncing South Korea as “the most hostile” enemy, insisting that Seoul has continued to stage provocative acts, contradicting its overtures for dialogue with Pyongyang, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“The Republic of Korea (ROK) should be ready to pay a high price for having committed another provocation of infringing on the sovereignty of the DPRK with a drone,” the spokesperson said, referring to South Korea by its official name. DPRK is short for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

On Jan. 4, North Korea’s military captured and tracked an air target moving northward from the sky over South Korea’s Ganghwa County, Incheon, and struck the drone with special electronic warfare assets, forcing it to fall in Muksan-ri near the North’s border city of Kaesong, the KCNA said.

It also said that on Sept. 27, a drone, which took off from the South’s border city of Paju, fell into Jangphung County, Kaesong, after being struck down by the North’s electronic means. The drone was returning after infiltrating the sky above Phyongsan County, North Hwanghae Province, it said.

The spokesperson said that the drone, which crashed this week, was equipped with surveillance devices, while citing the North’s analysis that the drone was set to record the North’s major objects while flying a distance of 156 kilometers for more than three hours.

North Korea released photos of debris from the drones, recording devices and images presumed to have been filmed by the unmanned aerial vehicles. It described South Korea as a “perfect copy of Kiev’s lunatics,” likening the South to Ukraine fighting against Russia.

Pyongyang accused the South Korean military of being behind the drone infiltrations, saying those drones freely passed over areas where the South Korean Army’s radar systems for detecting low-altitude targets and anti-drone equipment are located.

“The ROK is the enemy most hostile towards us that can never be changed in nature, and the object to be certainly collapsed by us if it attacks,” the spokesperson said. “The ROK military warmongers will be surely forced to pay a dear price for their unpardonable hysteria.”

In response to an inquiry by Yonhap News Agency, Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back rejected North Korea’s claim as “absolutely not true,” noting the drones shown in the photos released by the North are not models owned by the South Korean military.

The defense ministry said President Lee Jae Myung ordered a “thorough” investigation into the matter and relevant government agencies are verifying it.

Experts assessed the drones disclosed by the North do not appear to be aerial vehicles operated by the military, noting they are likely made up of cheap parts not fit for military purposes.

In October 2024, North Korea said South Korean drones carrying anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets were detected over Pyongyang three times that month, threatening to respond if such flights occur again.

The South Korean military is suspected of having sent drones over Pyongyang during former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration in an apparent bid to provoke North Korea and use it as a pretext for his martial law bid in December 2024.

North Korea’s claims of drone infiltrations came as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has declared inter-Korean ties as those between “two states hostile to each other.”

Since taking office in June, the administration of President Lee has been seeking to mend ties with North Korea and resume dialogue with it.

Expert said North Korea is apparently cementing its hard-line stance toward Seoul ahead of an upcoming key party congress set for January or February. The North is expected to formulate a five-year policy line covering diplomacy, the economy, the military and other areas.

“North Korea is expected to reflect the ‘two hostile states’ stance in the ruling party’s rules and regulations at the party congress and seek to revise the constitution to codify it at a key parliamentary meeting in the first half,” Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said.

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Elections take place weeks after foiled coup attempt that shook the country.

Voters in Benin are casting ballots to select members of parliament and local representatives, just weeks after a failed coup attempt by army mutineers.

President Patrice Talon’s governing coalition is projected to strengthen its already powerful position in Sunday’s elections, with the main opposition Democrats party barred from the local polls.

The streets of economic capital Cotonou were calm as polling stations opened at 7am local time (06:00 GMT) on Sunday, according to the AFP news agency. Polls are scheduled to close at 5pm (16:00 GMT).

“I’m coming to vote early so I don’t have to deal with the midday crowds after church,” restaurateur Adeline Sonon, 32, told AFP after casting her ballot.

The single-round legislative polls will elect 109 members of the National Assembly, where Talon’s three-party bloc hopes to strengthen its majority.

The Democrats, contesting only the parliamentary races, risk ceding ground to the ruling coalition, which currently holds 81 seats.

Some observers say the opposition may lose all 28 seats, given the current electoral law requiring parties to gather support from 20 percent of registered voters in each of the country’s 24 voting districts to stand for parliament.

The elections come weeks after a deadly coup attempt by soldiers on December 7, which was thwarted in a matter of hours by the military, with support from neighbouring Nigeria.

The campaign unfolded without large rallies, with most parties opting for grassroots strategies like door-to-door canvassing.

“All measures have been taken to guarantee a free, transparent and secure vote. No political ambition can justify violence or endanger national unity,” head of the electoral commission, Sacca Lafia, said on Saturday.

The legislative elections are set to define the political landscape ahead of April’s presidential poll, with the opposition struck off the ballot.

While Talon, 67, who is nearing the end of his second five-year term, is barred from running in April’s elections, his hand-picked successor, Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, is a strong favourite to win.

Talon has presided over strong economic development across his nearly a decade in power, but critics accuse him of restricting political opposition and basic rights.

From an Israeli strike on a displacement camp in Gaza City that killed at least three people and deadly battles in the Syrian city of Aleppo to Orthodox Christmas celebrations and pro-government demonstrations in Venezuela, here is a look at the week in photos.