Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched the largest conscription campaign in 14 years, ordering the draft of 160,000 men into the military as of April 1. This surge marks a significant escalation amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and comes at a time when the Kremlin is facing mounting casualties and battlefield stagnation. According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, the conscripts will serve one year, and officials claim they won’t be deployed to combat zones, though such promises have been repeatedly broken in the past. This massive draft underscores the unsustainable toll of Putin’s war and the regime’s reliance on coercion to maintain manpower. Despite Kremlin assurances, past conscripts have been deployed to the front lines, often poorly trained and ill-equipped. The draft also highlights the authoritarian nature of Putin’s rule: rather than seeking public support or diplomatic solutions, the regime continues to expand its war effort at home through forced conscription, deepening domestic repression and risking further unrest.

China has launched large-scale military exercises around Taiwan, just hours after Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te returned from a foreign trip. The drills, involving the navy, air force, and missile units, were described by Beijing as a "strong punishment" for what it called Lai’s “separatist acts,” with a Chinese military spokesperson labeling the democratically elected president a “parasite.” The exercises include simulated strikes on key Taiwanese infrastructure and have raised immediate concerns of escalation across the Taiwan Strait. These drills serve as both psychological warfare and a rehearsal for a potential blockade or military assault, showcasing China’s growing readiness to project force beyond the first island chain. The intensity and timing signal Beijing’s intent to deter foreign support for Taiwan, especially from the U.S. and Japan. With cross-strait tensions at a boiling point, such exercises raise the risk of miscalculation, and demonstrate how China is using its military as a tool of coercion to challenge the regional security order.

Georgia’s democracy is in freefall as the ruling Georgian Dream party tightens its authoritarian grip, cracking down on civil society, media, and political opposition. Since the disputed October 2024 elections, which opposition parties and international observers condemned as fraudulent, GD has unleashed a wave of repression—including mass arrests, surveillance, censorship, and violence. Protesters demanding EU integration and democratic reforms have faced tear gas, mass fines, and targeted beatings. The judiciary is widely seen as compromised, and civil society organizations are being targeted with “foreign agent” laws designed to silence dissent. Democratic backsliding has reached alarming levels, with watchdogs downgrading Georgia to “electoral autocracy.” Press freedom is under siege, with independent journalists jailed or attacked, and opposition politicians beaten or exiled. President Salome Zourabichvili and other critics blame oligarch and GD founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, calling him the true power behind the regime. With EU hopes shelved and relations with Western allies deteriorating, Georgia’s authoritarian trajectory risks isolating it entirely. The country’s resistance movement remains defiant, but the regime’s tactics have left it bruised, fractured, and increasingly under threat.

China’s economic footprint in Uzbekistan has grown dramatically in recent years, spurred by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s post-2016 reforms and Uzbekistan’s 2035 development strategy. Chinese investments have soared to $25 billion, and the number of joint ventures has tripled, focusing on key sectors like energy, textiles, and agriculture. While these projects promise modernization and infrastructure growth, they also embed China deeper into the country’s economic fabric—raising alarms about growing dependence and a creeping erosion of national sovereignty. Critics argue that Beijing’s influence comes with strings attached, particularly for countries with fragile or hybrid democracies like Uzbekistan. As the government cracks down on dissent and limits political pluralism, Chinese support, offered with no human rights preconditions, risks reinforcing authoritarian tendencies. Infrastructure projects like the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway may boost trade but also symbolize China’s growing strategic leverage across Central Asia. The lack of democratic oversight and transparency in many of these deals fuels concerns that Beijing is exporting not only capital, but its model of autocratic governance under the guise of development.

While both China and Russia seek to expand their influence across Africa, their authoritarian agendas and sharply divergent strategies are setting the stage for potential rivalry and conflict. China promotes long-term economic development, infrastructure investment, and regime stability to safeguard its commercial interests. In contrast, Russia—often acting through proxies like the Wagner Group and other paramilitary networks—feeds off instability, offering security assistance and regime protection in exchange for political and economic leverage. This divergence is growing more evident in hotspots like the Sahel, Central African Republic, and Sudan, where Chinese companies are increasingly alarmed by the insecurity tied to Russia’s shadowy interventions. Beijing favors predictable, state-centric partnerships that align with its global investment ambitions, while Moscow thrives in disorder, using mercenaries and military influence to carve out spheres of control. As Russian-backed violence escalates in fragile states, it poses a growing risk to Chinese assets and personnel, especially in regions where both powers are present. If left unchecked, this collision of authoritarian models—one strategic and institutional, the other predatory and militarized—could destabilize Africa further and ignite tensions between China and Russia, even as both continue to oppose Western democratic influence on the continent.

President Trump has threatened to use secondary tariffs to pressure Iran into abandoning its nuclear program and other activities. While direct U.S.-Iran trade is negligible, secondary tariffs could severely impact Iran’s economy by targeting countries that trade with Iran, penalizing their exports to the U.S. if they continue doing business with Tehran. Since about 83% of Iran’s non-oil exports go to countries like China, Turkey, the UAE, and India—all major U.S. trade partners—this strategy could be highly disruptive. The risk for Iran is twofold: a potential collapse in its sanctioned exports and the unraveling of its rebranding and re-exporting schemes via partner nations. Trump’s approach could successfully leverage global economic interdependence to isolate Iran further, especially given the discrepancies in trade data that reveal widespread efforts to disguise Iranian origin goods. With most of Iran’s exports tied up in petrochemicals, metals, and LPG, the U.S. could strategically target a narrow band of products to inflict maximum damage with minimal global disruption

Independent Nicaraguan journalists, under siege by the authoritarian Ortega-Murillo regime, are calling for urgent international support to survive amid dwindling funding and relentless repression. In the absence of democratic institutions, journalists have become the de facto watchdogs of power, documenting widespread abuses, exposing corruption, and giving voice to civil society silenced at home. Exiled reporters now juggle logistical, emotional, and financial challenges, especially after U.S. aid cuts that threaten to dismantle one of the last bastions of resistance to dictatorship in Nicaragua. Despite over 280 journalists being exiled, newsrooms shuttered, and the country now devoid of a printed press, outlets like Divergentes continue to publish, investigate, and resist. The regime has criminalized journalism, weaponized exile, and manipulated narratives to paint independent reporters as foreign agents. The U.S. and Europe, distracted by other crises, risk abandoning a frontline struggle against authoritarianism in the Western Hemisphere. Journalists urge allies to recognize this battle not just as a local tragedy, but a geopolitical fault line where press freedom, democracy, and Western values hang in the balance.