China to hike defense spending by 6.6% China set its 2020 defense budget growth target at 6.6 percent, resulting in a draft budget of 1.268 trillion yuan ($178.2 billion), lower than the 7.5 percent growth in 2019.

Beijing’s cyber offensive against the Free World is only part of what appears China’s effort to achieve global leadership in critical future technologies such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy systems, robotics, rare earth element exploitation, biotechnologies, as well as medical and agricultural advances.

The civil war in Libya is in danger of intensifying as foreign intervention grows and the spectre of the COVID-19 pandemic adds to a deepening sense of insecurity, the head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) told the Security Council on Tuesday.