Some of the first U.S. combat operations against al Qaeda and the Taliban following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 were launched from a former Soviet air base in southeastern Uzbekistan called Karshi-Khanabad, also known as K2. Between 2001 and 2005, about 16,000 U.S. military and Defense Department personnel served at the base.

It turns out the terrorists were not the only danger the troops faced at a site some U.S. personnel have described as a toxic wasteland. At K2, there were reports of “black goo” oozing out of the soil — an apparent mixture of oil, solvents and other chemicals. Noxious odors filled the air, while a pond on the 1-square-mile base appeared to give off a greenish glow. Tents were often flooded by rainwater runoff mixed with various chemicals.

At least 2,500 K2 veterans have reported rare cancers or other illnesses they believe are linked to their deployment, according to Rep. Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican who survived two forms of cancer, likely from burn pit exposure, during his military service as an Army flight surgeon. Mr. Glenn goes inside the plight of these veterans, who’ve fought for years to get better support from the Veterans Affairs health care system.

Free college tuition. New cars. Complimentary passes to government gyms. And cold, hard cash. Militaries all over the world are at war right now, and they are getting creative with pay and benefits to lure recruits and keep battle-hardened veterans in their uniforms for another round.

National Security Correspondent Ben Wolfgang offers a detailed look at the trend, examining how Ukraine, Russia, Israel and even Iran-backed militant outfits such as Hamas and the Houthi rebels are boosting pay and crafting other, sometimes nontraditional, incentives to replenish their ranks. One universal truth seems to apply everywhere: Money talks.

It isn’t easy to compare the pay and benefits offered to service members from one country to another. America’s GI Bill and other military benefits that help troops pay for higher education do not have direct equivalents in Russia, where most citizens get tuition-free college. Up-front enlistment bonuses or other financial incentives may not translate in the same way in Israel, where all young men and women must join the military for at least two years.

China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press.

The news agency reports that researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California made the finding while investigating a mountain site outside the city of Leshan in the southwest Chinese province of Sichuan, where they suspected China was building a reactor to produce plutonium or tritium for weapons.

The Chinese navy is already the world’s largest in terms of total number of vessels. Adding nuclear-powered carriers would be a major step toward realizing Beijing’s goal of creating a naval force capable of operating in seas far from China.

The Justice Department has announced criminal charges against an alleged Iranian operative accused of plotting to assassinate Mr. Trump. A criminal complaint filed Friday in federal court in New York alleges that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind an effort to surveil and kill Mr. Trump.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry “categorically dismissed the allegations” over the weekend. U.S. officials say Tehran-based IRGC asset Farhad Shakeri used a network of criminal associates he met in U.S. prisons to supply the Iranian government with operatives needed to carry out assassinations. Shakeri was deported from the U.S. more than 15 years ago after serving 14 years for a robbery conviction.

The complaint filed Friday said Shakeri has participated in “voluntary telephonic interviews with FBI agents,” during which he maintained that the Iranian government had tasked him in September with organizing an effort to kill Mr. Trump. According to the complaint, Shakeri said the IRGC indicated it had already spent a “lot of money” trying to kill Mr. Trump and was willing to spend far more to assassinate the president-elect, in retaliation for a Trump-ordered airstrike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in early 2020.

Joseph R. DeTrani, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and opinion contributor to Threat Status, takes issue with The New York Times’ assertion that “relative stability on domestic and international affairs during the past four years is about to be gone, replaced by a volatile president who often operates without regard to national precedent.”

“I must be missing something — relative stability in international affairs?” writes Mr. DeTrani, who notes that Russia’s war in Ukraine is heading into its third year as China continues trying to intimidate Taiwan, while the Mideast is gripped by war involving Iran, its proxies and Israel, and North Korea is now aligned with Russia, even reportedly sending special forces troops to aid Moscow’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

“Russia, China, Iran and North Korea pose an immediate threat to the world order,” Mr. DeTrani writes, adding that the incoming Trump administration will, in fact, “inherit a multitude of foreign policy challenges that will require his immediate attention. And based on his first term as president, it’s likely Mr. Trump will personally interact with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-Un in an effort to resolve some or all of these issues.”

• Nov. 11 — Veterans Day Ceremony & Wreath Presentation, Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation

• Nov. 12 — What Happened on Nov. 5: A Deep Dive into the Results of the Presidential and Congressional Races, Brookings Institution

• Nov. 12 — America’s Foreign Policy Future: A Post-Election Analysis, Stimson Center

• Nov. 13 — Event: Countering China’s Military Buildup: A Conversation with Sen. Eric Schmitt, American Enterprise Institute

• Nov. 13 — Competing with China on Critical Minerals, Hudson Institute

• Nov. 14 — What to Expect from Trump 2.0 for Korea? Center for Strategic and International Studies

• Nov. 22-24 — Halifax International Security Forum

• Dec. 7 — 2024 Reagan National Defense Forum, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute