Globalsecurity.org

Nearly half of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh have fled the enclave in fear of reprisal from Azerbaijan, Armenia says, as part of an exodus caused by a military operation that brought the mountainous region back under Azerbaijan's control.

A UN-appointed independent human rights expert on Wednesday called on Azerbaijan to "guarantee the rights of ethnic Armenians" in the Karabakh region and ensure that civilians who remain "are respected and protected in line with its international obligations."

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process on Wednesday expressed deep concern over the relentless expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

France's ambassador to Niger left the country early on Wednesday morning, around one month after the military government ordered his expulsion and days after President Emmanuel Macron said the diplomat would be pulled out and French troops withdrawn.

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who declined to attend a United States-Pacific islands summit earlier this week, said Washington should show respect to the region's leaders rather than lecturing them.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Japan National Police Agency (NPA), and Japan National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC) published a Joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) today about malicious activity by People's Republic of China (PRC)-linked cyber actors known as BlackTech, which have demonstrated capabilities to modify router firmware without detection

Countries up and down the Western Hemisphere are looking to eliminate weaknesses in their cyber infrastructure that could give potential adversaries, including China and Russia, the ability to do extensive damage by exploiting a single vulnerability.

Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas, in consultation with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, announced the designation of Israel into the Visa Waiver Program (VWP).

The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the elite force will use the newly-launched Nour-3 imaging satellite for military intelligence purposes.

The Noor-3 (lit. 'Light-3') space satellite was blasted off into orbit aboard a Qased ('lit. Messenger') carrier rocket on Wednesday. Previous satellites in the series were met with mockery and derision from Pentagon officials, but the ridicule soon stopped after Iran showed off the spacecraft's impressive capabilities.

The United States has imposed sanctions on entities in Iran, Hong Kong, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates that the U.S. Treasury Department says comprise a network for the procurement of parts for Iran's drone program.

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned five entities and two individuals based in Iran, the People's Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) involved in the procurement of sensitive parts for Iran's one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program.

Army Pvt. Travis T. King has been released to U.S. custody after a multiweek diplomatic effort to secure his return from North Korea, senior U.S. officials announced today.

The Pentagon says an American soldier who illegally crossed into North Korea in July is now in U.S. custody.

Travis King, the American soldier who suddenly sprinted into North Korea from a border area in South Korea, is on his way home and "appears to be in good health and spirits," U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

Kim Jong Un , general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, made an important speech at the 9th Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) of the DPRK.

A comprehensive solution to the Syrian conflict remains elusive, the UN Special Envoy for the country said on Wednesday, calling for "concrete moves" and confidence-building measures to break the impasse.

Taiwan's minister of national defense and military analysts are calling recent Chinese military drills "abnormal" and "out of control" amid reports that civilian ferries are being harnessed to carry out beach landing drills on the Chinese side of the Taiwan Strait.

The Philippines' claim about having removed blocking nets set by the China Coast Guard (CCG) at Huangyan Dao (Huangyan Island) in the South China Sea is purely fabricated, said a CCG spokesperson.

The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee convened a meeting on Wednesday to deliberate a report on the first round of disciplinary inspections launched at the end of March by the 20th CPC Central Committee.