This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and we're recording this at 14 hours GMT on Tuesday the 27th of

December. Taiwan increases military service in response to growing aggression from China.

After two years of civil war and as many as half a million dead, an Ethiopian government

delegation visits Tigray. But a rebel leader says more needs to be done to maintain peace.

And we hear about efforts to remove 400,000 landmines on the Lebanon-Israel border.

Also in the podcast.

A barba in the US offers food and shelter to people stranded by the winter storm.

Two days ago China staged one of its biggest incursions into the seas and skies around Taiwan,

sending in dozens of military planes and several ships. It was the latest show of aggression

towards the self-governing island which communist China claims as its own.

In response, the Taiwanese president, Saini Wen, has announced that military service there

will increase from four months to one year. She said Taiwanese forces needed to be more

agile, responsive and harder to attack.

The current military training service system cannot provide sufficient troops or frequency

of training to cope with the rapidly changing combat situation and satisfy the need for

combat readiness. After two years of complete assessment and review, we have decided to

restore the one-year compulsory military service from 2024, applicable to male draftees born

after January 1, 2005.

I got more details about the change from the BBC's Surajana to Wari.

The policy won't actually come into force until 2024 and we'll only see a real ramping

up of the number of troops in 2027. But the point is that this is really signalling a

...