There have been no air raid sirens in Moldova, no explosions and no casualties, but already some of the turbulence and anxiety of war is starting to build.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recognized the Kurdistan Region on Thursday, with a top Kurdish official saying this will pave the way for the birth of the Kurdistan flag emoji.

As it overturned precedent to follow the U.S. and Europe in imposing harsh sanctions to punish Russia for invading Ukraine, Japan said it scrambled fighter jets to intercept a helicopter—thought to be Russian—that entered its airspace. That fueled more sniping between Japan and Russia, which have been at odds over four small islands that lie between them since the end of World War II, preventing them from formally ending hostilities.

Many in Taiwan see parallels with Ukraine. “We must use this time of peace to prepare for the worst,” says a nonprofit working to promote civil defense.

Moldova’s envoy to the United States says that his country is closely monitoring Russian soldiers already deployed to Moldavian territory, which is also claimed by Moscow-aligned rebels who carved out their own breakaway state along the Ukrainian border three decades ago.

The Moldovan authorities commemorated those who fought and died in the war with Russian-backed separatist forces that seized control over the eastern region of Transnistria in 1992.

A look at the implications for the wider crisis in which the US says Russia may be poised to invade Ukraine.

The former president of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, is returning to politics again – he is nominated as a presidential candidate for the upcoming elections. Despite the fact that, according to the law, he cannot be registered as a candidate – due to the fact that he has not lived in his homeland for many years. Presidential elections in South Ossetia will be held on 10 April.

After a five-day journey across the ocean, this week, a small delegation of Chagos Islanders made an emotional return to their homeland. They were there to symbolically lay claim to the islands for Mauritius, in hopes of eventually resettling there.

Internationally recognized as part of Moldova, Transnistria is home to Russian troops and lies on Ukraine’s border.

A survey ship carrying Chagos Islanders exiled from their homeland by the UK government 50 years ago has left Seychelles bound for the British Indian Ocean Territory. The 1,130-mile voyage marks the first time Chagossians have been allowed to enter the remote archipelago without being under close British military escort.

The Japanese embassy in Seoul returned a holiday gift box from South Korea’s presidential Blue House on Friday because it contained an image of islands claimed by both countries.

The British overseas territory, Gibraltar, that was once perceived as a tax haven, might be be making history soon by becoming the world’s first global hub for cryptocurrency trading.

A video feed of a Taiwanese minister was cut during U.S. President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy last week after a map in her slide presentation showed Taiwan in a different color to China, which claims the island as its own.

The Russian-backed breakaway region re-elected its existing leader, Vadim Krasnoselsky, in a poll that few countries – except Russia – bothered to observe and which Moldova declared illegitimate.

A threat actor has hacked the website of the Principality of Sealand, a micronation in the North Sea, and planted malicious code on its web store, which the government is using to sell baron, count, duke, and other nobility titles.

India’s anti-terrorism agency arrested Khurram Parvez, a prominent human rights activist in Kashmir. Parvez is the program coordinator for the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, that for decades has monitored and investigated human rights violations in Kashmir, a Muslim-majority enclave claimed by India and Pakistan.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has announced a state of emergency and deployed troops to two southern regions where clashes have broken out between Mapuche indigenous people and security forces. The Mapuche are demanding the restoration of their ancestral lands and self-determination.

Tsai Ing-wen condemns China’s plans for Taiwan and says island will continue to build its defences.

Former Catalan separatist leader says he is ‘very happy’ after walking free from Sardinian court.

The UAE deputy foreign minister’s address to the United Nations stirred up the territorial dispute, which has long been at the very core of tensions between the Arab state and the Islamic Republic.

One year after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, there is nothing that would carry even a faint promise of reconciliation and co-existence.

Kosovo deployed special police units as Serbs blocked roads near border crossing points with Serbia after the Pristina government imposed new rules forcing them to switch to temporary Kosovo licence plates when entering the country. “This is a direct threat to our people”, local protesters say.

Washington has strategic, economic, and normative reasons for safeguarding the island from Chinese coercion.

Varosha, once a chic resort, is being rebuilt in the latest move of Turkey’s power play in the eastern Mediterranean.

The fugitive leader of a prominent Biafra secessionist group has been arrested and extradited to Nigeria, in a move likely to inflame separatist unrest in south-east Nigeria. Nnamdi Kanu had been wanted by Nigerian authorities since 2015, when he was charged with terrorism offences and incitement, after broadcasts aired on Radio Biafra, a digital station he founded and ran from his home in Peckham (UK).

If you’re looking to find a safe haven from lockdowns, you might be in the market for an entire micronation.

These stories of life in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic are told by journalist Diana Gasparyan who went there to meet local residents and learn first-hand what is happening there after the second Karabakh war. During the trip, she kept a travel diary for JAMnews.

A new kit for Ukraine’s football team, showing a map including Russian-annexed Crimea, has provoked anger in Moscow.

The South Korean government and activists alike expressed deep regret toward a map marking disputed islets as Japanese territory.