Global military spending hits $3.4 trillion record as wars rage

News Snapshot:

The new estimates of growing global military budgets coincide with repeated remarks by former president Donald Trump on the levels of US allies’ defence spending. He said at one weekend campaign rally that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO members who didn’t spend the alliance’s target of 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence. Ukraine war pushes Europe While the United States still accounts for the bulk of NATO defence spending, the IISS found that non-US members have collectively increased their military spending by 32 per cent in the decade since...