What The Hell America!

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at China’s pledge to grow its military budget, U.S. President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, and a threat to South Sudan’s fragile peace.

Big Spender

China’s military posturing reached new levels during its annual session of the National People’s Congress on Wednesday, with Premier Li Qiang announcing a 7.2 percent increase in defense spending for 2025. Beijing is the second-largest military spender after the United States, and it already has the world’s largest navy. But the increase (which brings China’s defense budget to roughly $246 billion) highlights Beijing’s geopolitical priorities.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at China’s pledge to grow its military budget, U.S. President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, and a threat to South Sudan’s fragile peace.

Big Spender

China’s military posturing reached new levels during its annual session of the National People’s Congress on Wednesday, with Premier Li Qiang announcing a 7.2 percent increase in defense spending for 2025. Beijing is the second-largest military spender after the United States, and it already has the world’s largest navy. But the increase (which brings China’s defense budget to roughly $246 billion) highlights Beijing’s geopolitical priorities.

For decades, China has maintained an unbroken record of annual increases to its defense spending; in 2024, the country’s military budget also grew by 7.2 percent. The ballooning budget has allowed Beijing to build up its arsenal of advanced missile systems, fighter jets, and maritime vessels—all of which the country has used to assert its dominance on the world stage, particularly in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.

“We will firmly advance the cause of China’s reunification and work with our fellow Chinese in Taiwan to realize the glorious cause of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Li said on Wednesday.

This week, Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Taipei is planning to raise its own military spending in the face of “escalating threats from adversaries.”

The increased military spending comes as Beijing struggles to right its economy. On Wednesday, Li announced that China aims to expand its economy by around 5 percent this year—the same target as last year. Beijing also greenlit more stimulus, allowing the budget deficit to hit 4 percent this year, up from an initial target of 3 percent. Li also placed a heavy emphasis in his speech on boosting consumer spending, mentioning “consumption” 31 times.

The ongoing deflation of the housing bubble continues to put pressure on the Chinese economy, but breakthroughs from tech companies, including artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek, have given leaders new hope in recent months.

“The underlying trend of long-term economic growth has not changed and will not change,” Li said. “The giant ship of China’s economy will continue to cleave the waves and sail steadily toward the future.”

A day before Beijing kicked off its rubber-stamp legislation session, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 10 percent duties on China—on top of 10 percent tariffs issued last month. Trump’s rationale: China has failed to adequately stop fentanyl from entering the United States despite a series of bilateral efforts to do so. (Trump also issued 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Tuesday due to similar drug trafficking concerns, though he issued a 30-day delay on a portion of those duties on Wednesday.)

Beijing has called the White House’s rationale “flimsy,” and it responded on Tuesday with its own retaliatory tariffs of up to 15 percent on certain products, among other trade measures. “[I]ntimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us. Pressuring, coercion, or threats are not the right way of dealing with China,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington had harsher words for the country: “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” the embassy posted on X late Tuesday.

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Trump’s big, long speech. Clocking in at nearly 100 minutes, Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night was the longest such address by any U.S. leader in at least 60 years, overtaking former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s 88-minute speech in 2000.

Trump weaved through many of the themes that animated his presidential campaign with his customary hyperbole and bluster—immigration and border security, free speech and censorship, and the dramatic slashing of the federal workforce spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk (who was in attendance). He also boasted about pulling the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Foreign-policy priorities have dominated much of Trump’s first six weeks in office and formed the bulk of the second half of his speech—including some of its newsiest portions. Trump set a date for reciprocal tariffs on the United States’ trading partners (April 2); announced the arrest of a man suspected of playing a key role in three terrorist attacks, including the 2021 Abbey Gate attack in Afghanistan, which killed more than a dozen U.S. service members; and reiterated now-familiar grievances about the ownership of Greenland and the Panama Canal.

One notable absence, though, was the announcement of a signed critical minerals deal with Ukraine amid rumors that Trump planned to do so during the speech. The U.S. president spent several minutes talking about Kyiv, speaking appreciatively of (and quoting from) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s message to him reiterating Ukraine’s desire for peace and his commitment to finalizing the minerals deal. However, the deal remains unsigned.

Trump also did not mention Zelensky’s suggested starting points for a peace deal: a mutual release of all prisoners and a ban on aerial and naval hostilities between Ukraine and Russia. Still, it appears that at least for the moment, that Trump and Zelensky are ready to put Friday’s contentious Oval Office meeting behind them.

Not all the way, though. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday that the United States has paused intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, including information that the country uses to target Russia, while negotiations on ending the war play out. —FP’s Rishi Iyengar

Threat to peace. South Sudanese soldiers targeted Vice President Riek Machar and his allies on Wednesday, jeopardizing a fragile peace deal that ended the country’s five-year civil war in 2020. Forces surrounded Machar’s home in the capital city of Juba on Wednesday; arrested Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol as well as several of his family members and bodyguards; and detained the deputy army chief, Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam. All other senior military officials allied with Machar have been placed on house arrest.

Military spokesperson Col. Lam Gabriel Paul told the BBC on Wednesday that the government has not given a reason for the arrests, but the operation appears to be in response to reports that the White Army militia, which has historically allied with Machar’s opposition party, clashed with government troops at a strategic town in Upper Nile state.

Information Minister Michael Makuei accused forces loyal to Machar of working with the White Army to attack a military garrison near the town. President Salva Kiir, a staunch rival of Machar’s, has vowed that the country will not go back to war.

Chaos hits Serbia’s parliament. For months, sweeping student-led anti-corruption protests have roiled Serbia as demonstrators demand justice for 15 people killed by a collapsing concrete canopy roof at a train station in November 2024. The protesters have pointed to government corruption as the culprit, and in January, Prime Minister Milos Vucevic—an ally of authoritarian President Aleksandar Vucic—resigned in a bid to quell their anger.

That’s done little to ease tensions, with many protesters seeing the move as the president’s effort to divert blame. The turmoil embroiled Serbia’s parliament on Tuesday when opposition lawmakers and the ruling majority clashed over the day’s agenda, prompting some opposition legislators to throw smoke grenades and use pepper spray inside the chamber. They also held a banner that read “Serbia has risen so the regime would fall!”

At least three lawmakers were injured in the chaos, one of whom was pregnant and another of whom suffered a stroke and is now hospitalized in serious condition. Afterward, Vucic condemned the events as “hooliganism” and said involved parliamentarians would be held accountable. —FP’s Christina Lu

Odds and Ends

Maybe it didn’t like its neighbors. Maybe it wanted a change of scenery. Whatever the reason, the world’s largest iceberg has finally found a new home. A23a, as the iceberg is called, ran aground off the island of South Georgia on Tuesday after years of drifting from its place of origin in Antarctica. The iceberg spans 1,418 square miles, making it slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Oceanographers believe that if A23a remains still, then it shouldn’t affect the local wildlife. But its presence will most certainly alter South Georgia’s view.