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World
Military Spending Hits $2.9 Trillion
Global military spending reached a record $2.9 trillion in 2025, the 11th consecutive year of growth. Despite remaining the world’s largest military spender, the United States saw a 7.5% decline to $954 billion, largely due to a halt in new military aid to Ukraine. However, spending is expected to rebound in 2026, with U.S. Congress approving more than $1 trillion in defense outlays. The overall 2.9% increase from 2024 was driven primarily by Europe, where military spending surged 14% to $864 billion as NATO allies accelerated rearmament in response to the war in Ukraine. Ukraine increased spending by 20% to $84.1 billion, about 40% of its GDP, while Russia’s rose 5.9% to $190 billion. Despite ongoing tensions in the Middle East, military expenditure didn’t grow notably in the region. In Asia, spending rose 8.1%, the fastest pace since 2009. Globally, the U.S., China, and Russia accounted for roughly half of total military expenditure. Military spending now represents about 2.5% of global GDP and has increased more than 40% over the past decade.
This map depicts military spending as a share of gross domestic product, by country, in 2025. Click on the map to learn more.
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Indonesia
Train Collision Toll Rises to 15
The death toll from a train collision near the Indonesian capital Jakarta has risen to 15 with another 88 injured, a senior minister said on Tuesday, as emergency teams completed work to rescue passengers trapped in the wreckage. The collision between a commuter train and a long-distance train happened late on Monday in Bekasi, just outside Jakarta, with a carriage reserved for women bearing the brunt of the crash. All the victims were women and most of them had been pinned inside by crushed metal. Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said the crash took place after a taxi stopped on a crossing near the Bekasi Timur station. The commuter train was held on the platform where it was then hit by the long-distance train. Commuter line trains are some of the busiest in Jakarta, the world’s most populous city. Adriansyah Yasin Sulaeman, an executive director of the think tank Forum Transport for Jakarta, said the government needed to improve the aging railway network, including separating tracks for express long-distance trains and commuter trains.
This map shows the location, with imagery, of the train collision in Bekasi, Indonesia. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Anadolu Agency
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Africa
East Africa’s Continental Breakup
A study in Nature Communications found the crust beneath the Turkana Rift in Kenya and Ethiopia has thinned past the point of irreversible continental breakup—called “necking”—a stage never before observed in an active rift. The Turkana Rift, a 310-mile-wide (500 km) depression within the East African Rift System, shows crust thinning from over 21.7 miles (35 km) at its flanks to 7.9 miles (12.7 km) at its axis. In the first phase of continental breakup, “stretching,” tectonic strain spreads across a broad zone of faults with limited thinning. In necking, deformation focuses along the axis, or floor, of the rift valley, sharply thinning and weakening the crust as it narrows. Researchers date the Turkana Rift’s transition from stretching to necking to about 4 million years ago. The Turkana Rift has produced over 1,200 hominin fossils covering the past 4 million years. It has long been viewed as a cradle of human evolution where our ancestors concentrated and diversified. The region may instead reflect where tectonic forces created ideal conditions to preserve evidence, rather than where early humans preferentially lived.
This map depicts the global active and failed intracontinental rifts and the tectonic setting of the study. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: Which sea is the only sea in the world to have no shores?
A: Sargasso Sea
The Sargasso Sea, located within the Atlantic Ocean, is the only sea with no land boundary. It’s a large patch of ocean named after the free-floating seaweed that collects there, Sargassum. While algae is found free-floating all over the world’s oceans, most reproduce and begin life on the ocean floors. However, in the Sargasso Sea, the algae reproduces on high seas. Sargasso is also unique in that its boundaries are defined by ocean currents, not land. It lies within the Northern Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, with the Gulf Stream to the west, the North Atlantic current to the north, the Canary Current to the east, and the North Atlantic Equatorial Current to the south. Because of its dynamic borders, the boundaries of Sargasso Sea slightly change with the seasons.
Source
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Q: Covering 143,244 square miles (371,000 km sq), which landlocked body of water is bordered by the most countries?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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