The world is arming itself at the fastest rate since near the end of the Cold War, according to a new report, as major wars rage in Ukraine and Gaza and military tensions spike from Europe to Asia.

The 9.4% year-on-year rise to $2.718 trillion in global military spending in 2024 is the highest figure ever recorded by the authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its annual report – which warned there’s no end in sight to the spiraling global arms race. That is the highest rise since 1988, the year before the Berlin Wall fell.

“Many countries have also committed to raising military spending, which will lead to further global increases in the coming years,” the report said.

The United States remains by far the world’s biggest military spender – almost a trillion dollars in 2024, the report said.

Big ticket items in the US budget included F-35 stealth fighters and their combat systems ($61.1 billion), new ships for the US Navy ($48.1 billion), modernizing the US nuclear arsenal ($37.7 billion) and missile defense ($29.8 billion).

The US budget included $48.4 billion in aid for Ukraine, almost three-quarters of Kyiv’s own defense budget of $64.8 billion.

China followed the US in overall military spending with an estimated $314 billion, just under a third of the US total, the report said.

It did not break down Beijing’s spending by weapons or command, but noted China “unveiled several improved capabilities in 2024, including new stealth combat aircraft, uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) and uncrewed underwater vehicles.”

“China also continued to rapidly expand its nuclear arsenal in 2024,” the report said.

Together, Washington and Beijing accounted for almost half of the world’s military spending in 2024, the report said.

But countries involved in – or wary of – regional conflicts showed the biggest increases in spending year over year.

Israel, which launched an invasion of the Palestinian territory of Gaza in 2023, showed a whopping 65% increase in military spending in 2024.

Meanwhile, Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, showed an estimated increase of at least 38%, but the SIPRI noted that figure was likely higher as Moscow augments military coffers with money from regional and other sources.

The more than three-year-long conflict in Ukraine has seen NATO countries significantly boost their military budgets in response to Russia’s belligerence and as US President Donald Trump presses Europe and the US-led alliance to be more responsible for their defense, saying they’ve been taking advantage of the United States for too long.

Germany, with the world’s fourth-largest defense budget, upped its spending by 28%. Romania (43%), the Netherlands (35%), Sweden (34%), the Czech Republic (32%), Poland (31%), Denmark (20%), Norway (17%), Finland (16%), Turkey (12%) and Greece (11%), were the other NATO members among the top 40 defense spenders worldwide who showed double-digit increases in 2024.

“The rapid spending increases among European NATO members were driven mainly by the ongoing Russian threat and concerns about possible US disengagement within the alliance,’ said Jade Guiberteau Ricard, researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.

But analysts said it may take more than money for US allies in Europe to become militarily self-sufficient.

“It is worth saying that boosting spending alone will not necessarily translate into significantly greater military capability or independence from the USA. Those are far more complex tasks,” SIRPI researcher Guiberteau Ricard said in a press release.

In the Indo-Pacific, the SIPRI said China’s 7% increase in 2024 marked the 30th consecutive year-over-year rise in spending for the People’s Liberation Army, “the largest unbroken streak recorded” in the institute’s database, the report said.

“China’s military build-up has also influenced the military policies of its neighbors, prompting many of them to increase spending,” it said.

Japan’s military budget rose 21% in 2024 – Tokyo’s largest increase since 1952. That brought military spending to 1.4% of gross domestic product, the biggest chunk of Japan’s economy devoted to the military since 1958.

The Philippines, embroiled with China in territorial disputes in the South China Sea, increased its defense spending 19%.

And though spending in South Korea went up only 1.4% in 2024, Seoul has the “highest military burden in East Asia,” at 2.6% of GDP, the institute said.

Taiwan, an island democracy of some 23 million people that the Chinese Communist Party claims as its own and has vowed to seize by force if necessary, increased its defense budget by only 1.8% last year, but Taipei’s military spending is up 48% since 2015, the report said.

India, meanwhile, had the world’s fifth-largest defense budget ($86.1 billion) in 2024. New Delhi’s increase over 2023 was only 1.6%, but the country’s defense spending is up 42% over the past decade, indicative of a troubling trend, researchers said.

“Major military spenders in the Asia–Pacific region are investing increasing resources into advanced military capabilities,” Nan Tian, director of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said. “With several unresolved disputes and mounting tensions, these investments risk sending the region into a dangerous arms-race spiral.”

Also in Asia, Myanmar, which has seen internal conflict since a military coup in 2021, increased spending by 66% in 2024. At 6.8% of its GDP, Myanmar maintains the largest military burden in the Asia-Pacific, the report said.

Military expenditures in Africa were up 3% overall in 2024. Algeria is the continent’s biggest spender, while ranking 20th worldwide.

In the Americas, Mexico showed a 39% surge in military spending in 2024, “reflecting the government’s increasingly militarized response to organized crime,” the report said.

Lawyers for an Australian woman accused of fatally poisoning three family members with deadly mushrooms have told the jury their deaths were a “terrible accident.”

Erin Patterson is standing trial for the 2023 deaths of her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson – who all died in hospital days after Patterson served them a meal that contained death cap mushrooms.

She is also charged with the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who was also at the lunch but survived.

Crown prosecutors allege Patterson deliberately served lethal mushrooms to kill her lunch guests; her defense counsel claims the deaths were a tragic accident.

During opening arguments on Wednesday, Patterson’s lawyers admitted that she initially lied to police when she said she hadn’t foraged for mushrooms and didn’t own a dehydrator. They said when she learned how ill her guests had become after eating her meal, she “panicked” and acted in ways that may seem suspicious.

The saga, which has gripped the nation for two years, began on a summer day in late July 2023 when Patterson hosted the four relatives of her estranged husband at her home, telling them she wanted to discuss a medical issue. Her ex-husband had also been invited but did not attend.

The court heard she told her guests she had cancer and asked them for advice on how she should break it to her two children. The prosecution alleges she did not have cancer, and had used the “medical issues” discussion to ensure the children would not be at the meal; the defense admitted she had lied about the diagnosis.

During the meal, Patterson served her guests individual beef wellingtons – a steak and pastry dish that incorporates mushrooms. Her guests fell ill hours later and were all admitted to hospital where doctors suspected mushroom poisoning, prompting a police investigation. Patterson was arrested and charged several months later.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC alleged that Patterson served the guests death cap mushrooms – a highly poisonous variety of wild fungus – that she had picked herself.

Patterson herself had gone to the hospital, claiming to feel unwell after the meal – but her tests did not show severe illness, and she voluntarily discharged herself against doctors’ advice, prosecutors said.

Patterson had told police she didn’t own a dehydrator, but surveillance footage after the deaths showed her disposing of a unit at a local trash dump, which was later found to contain traces of death cap mushrooms, the court heard.

Patterson insists she is innocent. Her defense lawyers told the jury they don’t dispute that the guests died from her meal – but argued she had not intentionally poisoned them.

“The defense case is that Erin Patterson did not deliberately serve poisoned food to her guests at that lunch on the 29th of July, 2023,” said defense lawyer Colin Mandy SC.

“She didn’t intend to cause anyone any harm on that day. The defense case is that what happened was a tragedy, a terrible accident.”

Mandy admitted that Patterson had lied about the dehydrator and about foraging for mushrooms, saying she had simply panicked in the moment.

“The defense case is that she panicked because she was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become so ill because of the food that she’d served to (them),” Mandy said. “Three people died because of the food that Erin Patterson served that day. So you’ll need to think about this issue – how Erin Patterson felt about that in the days that followed.”

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The case is expected to continue for up to six weeks.