World News

Israel is facing a shortage of Arrow missile interceptors, raising concerns over its capacity to counter long-range ballistic attacks from Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a senior US official.

The Jerusalem Post has reached out to the IDF and other sources for comment, but cannot verify this report at this time.

According to the report, the US has been aware of the issue for several months and has taken steps to bolster Israel’s missile defense systems by deploying additional US assets across multiple domains – land, sea, and air.

A day after Israel attacked Iran on Friday, a cargo plane took off from China. The next day, a second plane departed from a coastal city. Then on Monday, yet another departed, this time from Shanghai – three flights in three days.

Data showed that on each flight, the plane flew westward along northern China, crossing into Kazakhstan, then south into Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan – and then falling off the radar as it neared Iran.

To add to the mystery, flight plans indicated a final destination of Luxembourg, but the aircraft appeared to have never flown near European skies.

Aviation experts have noted that the type of plane used, Boeing 747 freighters, are commonly used for transporting military equipment and weapons, and hired to fly government contract orders.

Archived

A protester allegedly assaulted during the visit of Chinese Premier Li to Auckland in 2024 may have seemed a cut and dried case, given the whole event was captured on video. But on the very same day it featured in a global report on tactics deployed by China to silence protesters abroad, police told the victim they were closing the case. Were police hamstrung by a gap in the law? Or did they not consider the possibility of foreign interference?

In Guatemala, it can be easy to let the trees hide the forest. They include convoluted legal procedures, ever-fracturing and multiplying political parties, baseless criminal accusations, and the labyrinthine connections between politicians.

The big picture, however, is this: the same actors who tried to prevent President Bernardo Arévalo from taking office in 2023 are ramping up efforts to oust him. The risk to democracy and human rights in Guatemala needs to be taken seriously.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36925749

Archived

Something interesting is happening in how Australians think about their own country’s influence in the Pacific. According to the Lowy Institute’s 2025 poll, 39 per cent of Australians now see Australia as the most influential power in the Pacific Islands, a notable increase from last year’s result of 31 per cent.

Australia has overtaken China, previously seen by Australians as the dominant player, which holds steady at 34 per cent.

These figures suggest a shifting perception domestically, perhaps reflecting Canberra’s energetic “listening” diplomacy, through which Australia has ramped up diplomatic effort and significantly increased financial assistance to the Pacific over the past three years. Canberra’s approach of marrying generous aid packages with not-so-subtle diplomatic leverage on security matters appears to have resonated at home.

[...]

While Australia is undeniably the largest aid donor in the region, and uniquely maintains a diplomatic presence in every PIF member state, Beijing’s bare-faced influence-building is plain as day.

The China-Pacific Island countries Foreign Ministers’ meeting last month foreshadowed increased Chinese presence in security and policing, development, and stronger economic ties with those Pacific countries that recognise China over Taiwan. Beijing’s blend of visa-waivers, economic incentives, infrastructure financing, and diplomatic duchessing, ensures its presence is both felt and appreciated across island capitals.

In 2024, China registered 26 Coastguard vessels with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, signalling a more assertive regional maritime presence. It is not clear how China intends to deploy its more than two-dozen vessels, but if the dynamics in the South China Sea are any indication, it will likely result in Chinese vessels harassing other countries, while protecting its own fishing fleet – widely understood as often responsible for illegal fishing in the Pacific Ocean.

[...]

To Canberra’s chagrin, plenty of Pacific countries are evidently happy to buy what China is selling, even while some countries including PNG and Fiji are aligning more closely to Australia’s worldview.

Therein lies the rub: while perceptions do matter, it is Pacific countries’ own strategic choices that will ultimately be the deciding factor in who has influence and how the regional balance of power is shaped for decades to come.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti says the Houthis will come to the aid of any Arab or Muslim nation under attack.

“We will intervene to support Tehran against Zionist aggressions as we supported our brothers in Gaza,” al-Bukhaiti said.

The Houthis have been carrying out drone and missile attacks against Israel in a campaign that they say aims to pressure the country to end its war on Gaza.

Over the past days, Houthi missiles have coincided with Iranian launches against Israel.