Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. military support for Taiwan, the European Union considering the use of frozen Russian funds to aid Ukraine, and Australia’s new penalties on hate speech.
Asymmetric Warfare
Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump have tried to stabilize relations between their two countries during the latter’s second term in office, culminating in Trump’s upcoming visit to Beijing in April. But a new U.S. arms deal with Taiwan could jeopardize those efforts—and exacerbate an already dangerous flash point in the Indo-Pacific.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. military support for Taiwan, the European Union considering the use of frozen Russian funds to aid Ukraine, and Australia’s new penalties on hate speech.
Asymmetric Warfare
Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump have tried to stabilize relations between their two countries during the latter’s second term in office, culminating in Trump’s upcoming visit to Beijing in April. But a new U.S. arms deal with Taiwan could jeopardize those efforts—and exacerbate an already dangerous flash point in the Indo-Pacific.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced the United States’ largest-ever arms package for Taipei. Worth $11.1 billion, the deal includes more than $4 billion each for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (known as HIMARS) and M109 self-propelled howitzers, as well as more than $700 million for Javelin and TOW anti-tank missiles and Altius loitering munitions.
This is the second U.S. arms sale to Taiwan in Trump’s second term, and if approved by the U.S. Congress, as is likely, then it will exceed the $8.4 billion in weapons sold to Taipei during the Biden administration.
According to the U.S. National Security Strategy unveiled this month, Washington aims to deter conflict over Taiwan by “preserving military overmatch” against China in the region. To achieve this, the United States has encouraged Taipei to spend more on self-defense and to shift toward developing asymmetric warfare capabilities, using mobile, smaller, and cheaper weapons (such as drones). Similar tactics have proved successful in other conflicts—namely, in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te appears to have heeded the Trump team’s message. Last month, Lai announced a $40 billion supplementary defense spending proposal that would focus on those smaller weapons. There is “no room for compromise on national security,” Lai said at the time. A few weeks later, Lai sent Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung to Washington for an unannounced visit with U.S. officials.
The United States “continues to assist Taiwan in maintaining sufficient self-defense capabilities and in rapidly building strong deterrent power and leveraging asymmetric warfare advantages, which form the foundation for maintaining regional peace and stability,” Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a statement this week.
As expected, Beijing has denounced the U.S. arms deal with Taiwan, arguing that it “severely undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” where China has significantly ramped up military pressure in recent weeks. “By aiding ‘Taiwan independence’ with weapons, the U.S. side will only bring fire upon itself,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun added. “Using Taiwan to contain China is absolutely doomed to fail.”
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What We’re Following
Frozen Russian funds. European Union leaders convened in Brussels on Thursday to determine whether the bloc should use around $247 billion worth of frozen Russian assets held in Europe to help fund Ukraine’s war effort. The 27-nation group is considering using these immobilized funds to support Ukraine’s reconstruction and to back a $105 billion loan to Kyiv. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, if that loan is not provided, then Ukraine will run out of funding by spring and be forced to slash drone production—ultimately undermining its bargaining position with Russia.
Several European nations have also argued that financing Ukraine’s fight is vital to protect their own borders from future Russian aggression. “Now we have a simple choice: either money today or blood tomorrow,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday.
However, the decision to use this money to aid Ukraine may come down to one country: Belgium, which holds nearly all of the Europe-based frozen Russian funds. On Thursday, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said he has yet to see sufficient guarantees protecting Brussels from legal and financial risks. This comes after Moscow’s central bank announced last week that it would sue Belgian financial group Euroclear over the threatened use of its frozen assets.
Penalties for hate speech. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced new measures on Thursday aimed at penalizing those who “spread hate, division, and radicalization,” including antisemitism. The proposed legislation is in response to a mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, during which two gunmen opened fire on worshippers at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more.
Under the draft text, penalties would be imposed on preachers and organizations whose leaders promote violence and racial hatred. A new federal offense of “aggravated hate speech” would be introduced, with “hate” being made an aggravating factor in sentencing crimes for online threats and harassment. And Australia’s home affairs minister would be granted the ability to cancel or reject the visas of those deemed likely to spread hate and division in the country.
Albanese has faced intense scrutiny in recent months over whether his administration has done enough to combat antisemitism, which has risen around the world since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. In February, Canberra expanded the list of what it considers hate speech to include threatening to damage places of worship, and it increased penalties for displaying terrorism or Nazi symbols. In the immediate aftermath of the Bondi Beach shooting, Albanese also vowed to tighten the country’s already strict gun control laws.
Strikes on Hezbollah. Israeli forces launched airstrikes on alleged Hezbollah infrastructure in southern and northeastern Lebanon on Thursday. According to Israeli military officials, the strikes targeted a Hezbollah compound used for training as well as several suspected weapons facilities.
Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a cease-fire in November 2024. However, from January to late November of this year, Israeli forces carried out nearly 1,600 strikes across Lebanon, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, killing at least 127 civilians. Hezbollah has refused to disarm while Israel bombards the group’s territory, but Israel maintains that strikes are necessary to force Hezbollah to surrender long-range missiles, precision-guided munitions, and drones believed to be held deeper inside Lebanon.
On Friday, representatives from France, Israel, Lebanon, the United States, and the United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Lebanon will discuss enforcement of the 2024 cease-fire agreement—including securing international recognition that the Lebanese military can oversee the area south of the Litani River, the de facto line for both Israel and Hezbollah to withdraw from, as well as pressuring Israel to comply with the truce.
Odds and Ends
It may not be Isla Nublar, but the Italian Alps were certainly a home for dinosaurs. Nature photographer Elio Della Ferrera was trekking through Italy’s Lombardy region in September when he stumbled upon thousands of fossilized dinosaur footprints in the mountains’ steep slopes. Scientists publicly unveiled the findings on Tuesday, which were so well preserved that individual toe and claw marks are visible. Experts believe that the footprints date back more than 200 million years and came from long-necked, plant-eating prosauropods. Time to rewatch Jurassic Park for the thousandth time.
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