The world is arming itself at the fastest rate since near the end of the Cold War, according to a new report, as major wars rage in Ukraine and Gaza and military tensions spike from Europe to Asia.

The 9.4% year-on-year rise to $2.718 trillion in global military spending in 2024 is the highest figure ever recorded by the authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its annual report – which warned there’s no end in sight to the spiraling global arms race. That is the highest rise since 1988, the year before the Berlin Wall fell.

“Many countries have also committed to raising military spending, which will lead to further global increases in the coming years,” the report said.

The United States remains by far the world’s biggest military spender – almost a trillion dollars in 2024, the report said.

Big ticket items in the US budget included F-35 stealth fighters and their combat systems ($61.1 billion), new ships for the US Navy ($48.1 billion), modernizing the US nuclear arsenal ($37.7 billion) and missile defense ($29.8 billion).

The US budget included $48.4 billion in aid for Ukraine, almost three-quarters of Kyiv’s own defense budget of $64.8 billion.

China followed the US in overall military spending with an estimated $314 billion, just under a third of the US total, the report said.

It did not break down Beijing’s spending by weapons or command, but noted China “unveiled several improved capabilities in 2024, including new stealth combat aircraft, uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) and uncrewed underwater vehicles.”

“China also continued to rapidly expand its nuclear arsenal in 2024,” the report said.

Together, Washington and Beijing accounted for almost half of the world’s military spending in 2024, the report said.

But countries involved in – or wary of – regional conflicts showed the biggest increases in spending year over year.

Israel, which launched an invasion of the Palestinian territory of Gaza in 2023, showed a whopping 65% increase in military spending in 2024.

Meanwhile, Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, showed an estimated increase of at least 38%, but the SIPRI noted that figure was likely higher as Moscow augments military coffers with money from regional and other sources.

The more than three-year-long conflict in Ukraine has seen NATO countries significantly boost their military budgets in response to Russia’s belligerence and as US President Donald Trump presses Europe and the US-led alliance to be more responsible for their defense, saying they’ve been taking advantage of the United States for too long.

Germany, with the world’s fourth-largest defense budget, upped its spending by 28%. Romania (43%), the Netherlands (35%), Sweden (34%), the Czech Republic (32%), Poland (31%), Denmark (20%), Norway (17%), Finland (16%), Turkey (12%) and Greece (11%), were the other NATO members among the top 40 defense spenders worldwide who showed double-digit increases in 2024.

“The rapid spending increases among European NATO members were driven mainly by the ongoing Russian threat and concerns about possible US disengagement within the alliance,’ said Jade Guiberteau Ricard, researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.

But analysts said it may take more than money for US allies in Europe to become militarily self-sufficient.

“It is worth saying that boosting spending alone will not necessarily translate into significantly greater military capability or independence from the USA. Those are far more complex tasks,” SIRPI researcher Guiberteau Ricard said in a press release.

In the Indo-Pacific, the SIPRI said China’s 7% increase in 2024 marked the 30th consecutive year-over-year rise in spending for the People’s Liberation Army, “the largest unbroken streak recorded” in the institute’s database, the report said.

“China’s military build-up has also influenced the military policies of its neighbors, prompting many of them to increase spending,” it said.

Japan’s military budget rose 21% in 2024 – Tokyo’s largest increase since 1952. That brought military spending to 1.4% of gross domestic product, the biggest chunk of Japan’s economy devoted to the military since 1958.

The Philippines, embroiled with China in territorial disputes in the South China Sea, increased its defense spending 19%.

And though spending in South Korea went up only 1.4% in 2024, Seoul has the “highest military burden in East Asia,” at 2.6% of GDP, the institute said.

Taiwan, an island democracy of some 23 million people that the Chinese Communist Party claims as its own and has vowed to seize by force if necessary, increased its defense budget by only 1.8% last year, but Taipei’s military spending is up 48% since 2015, the report said.

India, meanwhile, had the world’s fifth-largest defense budget ($86.1 billion) in 2024. New Delhi’s increase over 2023 was only 1.6%, but the country’s defense spending is up 42% over the past decade, indicative of a troubling trend, researchers said.

“Major military spenders in the Asia–Pacific region are investing increasing resources into advanced military capabilities,” Nan Tian, director of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said. “With several unresolved disputes and mounting tensions, these investments risk sending the region into a dangerous arms-race spiral.”

Also in Asia, Myanmar, which has seen internal conflict since a military coup in 2021, increased spending by 66% in 2024. At 6.8% of its GDP, Myanmar maintains the largest military burden in the Asia-Pacific, the report said.

Military expenditures in Africa were up 3% overall in 2024. Algeria is the continent’s biggest spender, while ranking 20th worldwide.

In the Americas, Mexico showed a 39% surge in military spending in 2024, “reflecting the government’s increasingly militarized response to organized crime,” the report said.

Lawyers for an Australian woman accused of fatally poisoning three family members with deadly mushrooms have told the jury their deaths were a “terrible accident.”

Erin Patterson is standing trial for the 2023 deaths of her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson – who all died in hospital days after Patterson served them a meal that contained death cap mushrooms.

She is also charged with the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who was also at the lunch but survived.

Crown prosecutors allege Patterson deliberately served lethal mushrooms to kill her lunch guests; her defense counsel claims the deaths were a tragic accident.

During opening arguments on Wednesday, Patterson’s lawyers admitted that she initially lied to police when she said she hadn’t foraged for mushrooms and didn’t own a dehydrator. They said when she learned how ill her guests had become after eating her meal, she “panicked” and acted in ways that may seem suspicious.

The saga, which has gripped the nation for two years, began on a summer day in late July 2023 when Patterson hosted the four relatives of her estranged husband at her home, telling them she wanted to discuss a medical issue. Her ex-husband had also been invited but did not attend.

The court heard she told her guests she had cancer and asked them for advice on how she should break it to her two children. The prosecution alleges she did not have cancer, and had used the “medical issues” discussion to ensure the children would not be at the meal; the defense admitted she had lied about the diagnosis.

During the meal, Patterson served her guests individual beef wellingtons – a steak and pastry dish that incorporates mushrooms. Her guests fell ill hours later and were all admitted to hospital where doctors suspected mushroom poisoning, prompting a police investigation. Patterson was arrested and charged several months later.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC alleged that Patterson served the guests death cap mushrooms – a highly poisonous variety of wild fungus – that she had picked herself.

Patterson herself had gone to the hospital, claiming to feel unwell after the meal – but her tests did not show severe illness, and she voluntarily discharged herself against doctors’ advice, prosecutors said.

Patterson had told police she didn’t own a dehydrator, but surveillance footage after the deaths showed her disposing of a unit at a local trash dump, which was later found to contain traces of death cap mushrooms, the court heard.

Patterson insists she is innocent. Her defense lawyers told the jury they don’t dispute that the guests died from her meal – but argued she had not intentionally poisoned them.

“The defense case is that Erin Patterson did not deliberately serve poisoned food to her guests at that lunch on the 29th of July, 2023,” said defense lawyer Colin Mandy SC.

“She didn’t intend to cause anyone any harm on that day. The defense case is that what happened was a tragedy, a terrible accident.”

Mandy admitted that Patterson had lied about the dehydrator and about foraging for mushrooms, saying she had simply panicked in the moment.

“The defense case is that she panicked because she was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become so ill because of the food that she’d served to (them),” Mandy said. “Three people died because of the food that Erin Patterson served that day. So you’ll need to think about this issue – how Erin Patterson felt about that in the days that followed.”

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The case is expected to continue for up to six weeks.

Gangs have attacked another town in Haiti’s central region, killing at least four people, including an 11-year-old child, a human rights activist told The Associated Press on Monday.

At least 15 other people were injured by gunfire, and more than a dozen homes were burned in Petite Rivière, said Bertide Horace, spokesperson for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite.

The attack began Thursday, but police were still battling gang members on Monday, she said in a phone interview.

Horace shared grisly videos that showed people receiving treatment for serious wounds at a local hospital.

Before she could provide further details, Horace warned that the town being attacked was without power. Her cellphone was then cut off.

A spokesperson for Haiti’s National Police did not immediately return a request for comment.

Petite Rivière is the latest community in the once peaceful Artibonite region that gangs have targeted.

In late March, gangs struck the city of Mirebalais and stormed a local prison, freeing more than 500 inmates. They also attacked the nearby town of Saut d’Eau, considered a sacred place that attracts thousands of Haitians annually for a Vodou-Catholic pilgrimage.

While gangs control at least 85% of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, they have launched attacks in the country’s central region in recent years.

On Monday, Chrisla, the powerful leader of the Ti Bois gang, announced a three-day strike in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Carrefour, which has been bereft of any government presence since gangs seized control of it in recent years.

He ordered public transportation and private businesses to close, saying only hospitals and firefighters were authorized to operate.

Chrisla also said he wanted a new Haiti “so that we can all sit at the same table to reconcile this nation.”

Haiti’s government leaders have repeatedly said they would not negotiate with gangs or include them in any discussions aimed at helping stabilize the troubled country.

A UN-backed mission led by Kenyan police that began last year to help Haitian police quell violence has struggled in its fight against gangs.

More than 5,600 people were killed across Haiti last year, with gang violence leaving more than one million people homeless.

Canada’s Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, is on course to win the country’s federal election, Canadian media projects, following a campaign overshadowed by provocations and tariffs from US President Donald Trump.

With votes still being counted, CBC News said it is too soon to say whether it will be a minority or majority government – a party needs 172 seats to form a majority.

Canada’s uneasy relationship with the United States deeply influenced the tenor of this year’s campaign. Trump’s tariffs against Canadian exports pose a grave threat to the country’s economy, and his threats to annex Canada as “the 51st state” have enraged Canadians of every political persuasion.

“I reject any attempts to weaken Canada, to wear us down, to break us so that America can own us,” Carney told reporters in late March. “We are masters in our own home.”

Though Canadians have a diverse array of parties to choose from on their federal ballots, the main contest is between the incumbent Liberals, led by Carney since March, and the Conservative opposition, led by longtime parliamentarian Pierre Poilievre.

Carney, a former banker, became prime minister in March after his predecessor Justin Trudeau resigned from office in the wake of dire polls that suggested a stunning loss to come in a federal election.

Trudeau announced his plan to resign in January while facing grim polling figures, a serious cost of living crisis and an internal revolt in his cabinet.

The numbers began to shift in the Liberals’ favor as Trudeau hit back against US tariffs during his last days in office. After winning the party leadership contest in a landslide, Carney continued to spearhead Canada’s opposition to Trump’s annexation threats and trade war.

Carney had never held political office before becoming prime minister. The former central banker touted his experience shepherding Canada’s economy through the 2008 financial crisis and Britain through Brexit, to appeal to Canadians seeking solace from the gloomy economic headwinds caused by the storm of tariffs announced by the White House.

The idea that Canada needs to forge its own path outside of US influence has been central to the prime minister’s messaging since he took office.

Carney pitched himself throughout the campaign as an experienced professional from the political center who can steward Canada’s economy through a period of profound turbulence.

“I understand how the world works,” Carney told podcaster Nate Erskine-Smith in October. “I know people who run some of the world’s largest companies and understand how they work. I know how financial institutions work. I know how markets work … I’m trying to apply that to the benefit of Canada.”

Carney has pledged to “build things in this country again” to make Canada less reliant on the US: new homes, new factories, and new sources of “clean and conventional energy.”

“My solemn promise is to stand up for Canadian workers, to stand up for Canadian businesses,” Carney said in March. “We will stand up for our history, our values and our sovereignty.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The first batch of individuals jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of “47 democrats” accused of conspiracy to commit subversion was freed on Tuesday after being behind bars for more than four years.

Four former pro-democracy lawmakers, including Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam and Gary Fan were driven away from three separate prisons across Hong Kong around dawn. Security was tight with patrols of police officers, and access to some roads to the prisons restricted for hours beforehand.

A Reuters witness outside the maximum security Stanley Prison, where Kwok and Tam were held, was told by a police officer they had left.

Vehicles were also seen leaving the more remote Shek Pik Prison on Lantau Island and a women’s correctional institution at Lo Wu close to the border with mainland China.

Police blocked access to two roads leading to the entrance of Shek Kip Prison, so media could only stand on a bridge next to a reservoir overlooking the ocean-facing facility.

Fan, speaking to the press when he arrived at his home early on Tuesday, said: “I will go back home and reunite with family. Thank you Hong Kongers.”

Philip Bowring, Mo’s husband, said she was calm on her return home and needed time to rest, local media reported.

Since large and sustained pro-democracy protests erupted in Hong Kong for most of 2019, China has cracked down on the democratic opposition as well as liberal civil society and media outlets under sweeping national security laws.

The 47 pro-democracy campaigners were arrested and charged in early 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion under a Beijing-imposed national law which carried sentences of up to life in prison.

Forty-five of these were convicted following a marathon trial, with sentences of up to 10 years. Only two were acquitted.

All four had been denied bail since being charged and were remanded in custody for nearly two years before the trial kicked off in early 2023. All four had pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to four years and two months imprisonment.

Mo, Kwok and Tam were former members of the Civic Party, once one of Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy parties, which was disbanded in early 2024 amid the national security crackdown.

Mo resigned from the Civic Party in 2016 and founded the localist group HK First with Fan of the Neo Democrats.

The democrats were found guilty of organizing an unofficial “primary election” in 2020 to select candidates for a legislative election. Prosecutors accused the activists of plotting to paralyze the government by engaging in potentially disruptive acts had they been elected.

Western governments including the US called the trial politically motivated and had demanded the democrats be freed.

Hong Kong and Beijing, however, say all are equal under the national security laws and the democrats received a fair trial.