That the US, Russia and China are developing space weapons is an “open secret” but to admit it officially is “extraordinary”, said The Guardian. US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink this week confirmed that the US has “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action”.

What are the weapons?
Meink declined to give any details on the capabilities of the weapons, but said they were “important from a deterrence perspective”. There is a “broad range of possibilities” for what they could be, said Clayton Swope from the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. They could be “satellites capable of jamming enemy communications”, Swope told CNN, or weapons that could “target and destroy ground-based equipment”. There might also be anti-satellite weapons that could “seek out and physically destroy” enemy satellites in orbit.

In its “war-fighting framework”, said the Financial Times, the US military’s Space Force has acknowledged that threats of orbital strikes on the country can include “both kinetic – or physically destructive – weapons and non-kinetic ones”, implying weapons would need to be capable of nullifying them. A budget of $71.3 billion has been proposed for the department next year. 

New space weapons form a part of the wider “Golden Dome” missile defence shield, protecting the US from foreign attack. Donald Trump has “championed” the “$185 billion” programme, which “would potentially involve deploying interceptors to space”.

Could this escalate?
The Space Force claims that China already “operates space and counterspace capabilities”, while Russia “views space as a war-fighting domain and believes space supremacy will be a decisive factor in future conflicts”. A Kremlin spokesperson told reporters that Russia believed “space must be free of any weapon” and called for “the complete demilitarisation” of space.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun urged the US to “stop expanding military build-up in outer space”. China “stands for peaceful use of outer space and keeping it safe”, he told a press briefing, and “opposes any arms race in outer space or any attempt to weaponise it and turn it into a war zone”. But Chinese military analyst Song Zhongping told the state-owned Global Times that “if the US continues down this path, other countries may be forced to respond”.

Brics has been described as a “motley collection of emerging markets that agree on little and achieve even less”, said the Financial Times. The group represents 49.5% of the global population, 40% of global GDP and 26% of global trade, yet many of its members are at odds with their supposed allies.

But at a recent summit in India, its leaders united to sign a 45-page declaration calling for a “multipolar” world: a global system where power is spread across several major countries or power blocs rather than being controlled by just one or two.

‘Source of tension’
The “historically unruly bloc” – which started as Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and now includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the UAE – agreed a statement “blasting protectionism and economic sanctions and calling for peace in the Gulf”, said the FT. 

The declaration also raises concerns about the “unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures” that distort trade. It urges cooperation to protect global trade, supply chains, energy flows and maritime security as wars disrupt international commerce.

The Ukraine war is a “source of tension” within Brics, of which Russia is a founding member, said Al Jazeera. The declaration says that international disputes should be resolved through “dialogue, consultation, and diplomacy”, but makes no mention of Ukraine.

‘Space for rivals to talk’
For Iran, this month’s summit in New Delhi was “a chance to show that it does not stand alone amid the US and Israel’s military attacks and economic pressure”, said the BBC. In the face of Washington’s sanctions, Iran “pressed for deeper economic ties” with Brics members, including India and Ethiopia. This was Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s first visit to India in seven years, showing that Brics can “create space for rivals to talk and manoeuvre outside Western-dominated institutions”.

But “key members and partners of the bloc are at serious loggerheads”, said political scientist Stefan Wolff on The Conversation. Iran is “effectively in a state of war” with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, while the Saudis and the UAE “have been at odds for years” over Yemen, Sudan and Somalia. A group “whose sole remaining source of unanimity is opposition to the US and its allies” is “hardly likely to become a pole of a multipolar order”.

Models parade in outfits inspired by insects amid outsize foliage and a giant chrysalis on a grass-clad runway. Thom Browne’s spring/summer 2027 collection show at The Shed performing arts centre brought New York Fashion Week to a colourful close.

Taylor Hill / Getty Images

As Julia Donaldson returns with a third instalment in her Gruffalo series, here are some of her other enchanting children’s books.

Stick Man
This tale about a stick who is torn away from his family and must make an “Odyssean journey” home is “just about as epic as picture books get”, said The Guardian. At one point, he approaches “what seems like certain death” – an “impressive” moment “in any story” but “doubly so” in a book for toddlers.

The Snail and the Whale
It’s “impossible” to separate Donaldson’s rhyming text about a tiny snail who hitches a ride on the tail of a whale from Axel Scheffler’s incredible pictures, said The Guardian. “Quite frankly, the whole thing reads like a love letter between them.” It’s one of their “very best” collaborations.

The Highway Rat
A “greedy rat” rides along the highway, terrorising other animals and stealing their food, in this “swaggeringly illustrated” book, said Marianne Levy in The i Paper. “Nuts, milk, clover – nothing is safe from his dastardly paws.” That is, until he crosses paths with a “devious duck who lures him into an echoing trap”.

The Paper Dolls
No Scheffler artwork in this book, but Rebecca Cobb’s “gentle illustrations” are the perfect accompaniment for this “exquisitely subtle” story, said The i Paper. A chain of paper dolls “dance through the house and garden, singing”, until a boy “snips them into confetti”. He thinks they’re “gone forever”, but he’s wrong: the dolls “have flown into the little girl’s memory”, where they dance on.

The four horsemen of the apocalypse are coming for the global economy
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Telegraph
“Four powerful shocks are hitting the world economy” at once, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. The first two “are the twin wars in Iran and Ukraine”, which are “convulsing the world’s interlinked petroleum, gas and grain markets”. The third “is the super El Niño”, which could precipitate a “domino chain” of climate disasters. And the fourth is the inflationary “investment blitz in AI”. These four horsemen are “riding knee-to-knee and we seem to be in no fit state to handle the challenge”.

Dressed in Crusader chainmail and Reform footy kits, Farage’s faithful couldn’t care less about his scandals
John Sweeney on The Nerve
“You might have expected” the vibes at Reform UK’s recent conference to “have been soured by” Nigel Farage’s “failure to register” a £5 million gift and Channel 4’s foreign-donations “sting”, writes John Sweeney. “Not a bit of it.” Everyone I spoke to there “snorted derision at the media” and “cheered” their leader. Reform “feels like a cult”, attracting “people who see politics through the prism of hatred for the other”. It’s “foolish to think” they’ll give up on Farage.

Are you outraged by Sydney Sweeney – again? More fool you
Marina Hyde in The Guardian
“Yet another” Sydney Sweeney “firestorm has been ignited” by a sports-betting ad campaign that shows her naked with just “footballs over her breasts”, writes Marina Hyde. Female athletes say it demeans women’s sport. “Come on.” Women’s sport is “bigger and stronger” than Sweeney getting “her tits out for a gambling ad”. That she’s such a “culture wars punching bag” says more about the “playable nature of her serial detractors than it does about her”. Face it, “Sydney’s gonna Sweeney”; it’s not that big a deal.