Will World War 3 happen soon?

It is possible that China and India will kick off, but they already did in a small part of the Himalayas recently and it was fairly carefully contained - yes, they are competing, but they also both have an interest in not letting their competition go insane.

I feel that several other disputes are more plausible - one is India/Pakistan - that might kick off seriously again and if so, draw in Russia, China and the US. I suppose that might be a variant on the India/China fallout though.

The other one that feels more ultimately likely to me is not Taiwan but North Korea. I feel that the regime will grow more and more scared, bellicose and risk taking. I suspect that one day they will suddenly go nuts and attack S. Korea or perhaps Japan. That might well precipitate a global conflict with China, if Xi or his next successor is deluded enough to want to defend them.

It's often said that China could not accept Western forces at its land border, therefore even though they might view Kim's crazed performative dictatorship as irritating, they would join him in war. Anyway, I'm sure Kim hopes this - although perhaps now he's depending on his new bestie Vladimir.

I really believe by the end of this decade a world war will start