#military-drills

#military-drills

Iran on Tuesday announced it would partially close the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, a critical waterway for the world's oil trade. Iranian state television framed the closure as a "security" measure due to military drills by the country's Revolutionary Guards, which began a day earlier. It was unclear how long the partial closure would last. The Associated Press reported that the curbs would last several hours.

People on the island have grown so accustomed to Chinese displays of power that life continues as usual. As China carried out live-fire drills and rehearsed a military blockade in the waters surrounding Taiwan this week, 70-year-old Liao said she wasn't worried about war. She was enjoying life as a retiree, playing mahjong with her friends and keeping an eye on the stock market.

China has announced a series of measures against Japan as the two countries engage in a tense standoff over Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing sees as a Chinese province. The spat erupted on November 7, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said a Chinese military attack on Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its legal right to collective self-defense.

"The exercise was conducted to consolidate the security of the borders based on the shared interests of the two countries," according to Iranian state media.