Taiwan said Thursday that China sent a record number of warplanes across a U.S.-drawn boundary in the Taiwan Strait as military tensions mount in the strategic region.

U.S. President Joe Biden, physically and politically frail, has presided over what his supporters fear could be his final NATO Summit at a moment when diplomats say the military alliance needs to remain strong to tackle the war in Ukraine and other challenges. Delegates used the summit to celebrate the alliance’s 75th anniversary, announce more aid for Ukraine, and commit to the most significant overhaul in defense measures since what was believed to be the end of the Cold War.

China and Belarus continued joint military exercises Thursday near the border of Poland, a member of NATO, while the military alliance gathered for its 75th anniversary summit.

The United States Director of National Intelligence has warned that Iran’s Islamic regime has been encouraging and funding anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests in the US in an effort to divide America and stoke hatred against Israel, Ynet News reports. Vehemently anti-semitic, the Iranian regime has publicly declared its desire for the Jewish state to be annihilated.

Despite concerns about a subsequent direct confrontation with Russia, member states are expected to declare that Ukraine has an “irreversible” path to joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance that obligates members to protect each other from any threat, Politico reports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the United States and its allies to take decisive action against Russia as his nation plunged into mourning following a suspected Russian strike at Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital in Kyiv and other sites that authorities said killed at least 42 people and injured more than 100 others. Zelenskyy’s appeal came at the start of a NATO military alliance summit in Washington, although Moscow denied responsibility for the deaths.

Recent satellite images show that major expansions are underway at two key missile facilities in Iran, suggesting Tehran is working to boost its conventional ballistic missile production, Reuters and Algemeiner report.

A Christian government minister in Malaysia is suing a top police official who accused her of evangelizing Malay Muslims in order to turn the country into a Christian nation, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. 

Hungary’s prime minister defended his controversial trip to communist-run China to talk about peace in Ukraine, where officials said scores of people were killed and injured Monday in Russian attacks on a children’s hospital and other sites.

U.S.-based Boeing, one of the world’s largest aerospace manufacturers, agreed late Sunday to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud the government in a case linked to crashes of its 737 Max jets in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.

Israel said Saturday it targeted the Hamas leadership in an attack in southern Gaza that killed at least 90 people, including children, according to Hamas-linked officials.

Israel was anxiously anticipating the arrival of desperately needed American ammunition on Thursday after U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration ordered the release of around half the heavy bombs it held up due to worries over civilian casualties during Israel’s military action in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.

The U.S. military’s humanitarian pier off the coast of wartorn Gaza will close, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration confirmed Thursday, following an outcry over the $230 million project.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that most fighters of Hamas have been killed or injured since the “terrorist group” invaded the Jewish nation last year, massacring some 1,200 people and injuring many others.

Two people were killed when Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at the Golan Heights on Tuesday in retaliation for the killing of the ex-bodyguard of its leader in an Israeli strike, Israeli police said.

Top US officials are in Cairo with senior Israeli and Egyptian security officials to discuss a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the release of around 120 hostages taken by Hamas from Israel to Gaza during the October 7 massacre, Axios reports.

Israel’s military announced Tuesday that it had “eliminated dozens of terrorists” and found “numerous weapons” after the reinvasion of Gaza City after it entered Shejaia, a neighborhood in the eastern portion of the area, where it also killed “numerous terrorists and located weapons such as “sniper gear, grenades, and AK-47 assault rifles” in tunnels and above ground.

Statistics published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday show that job openings in April were at their lowest level since 2021, Newsweek reports.

The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bipartisan bill to impose sanctions on International Criminal Court officials who target American or Israeli citizens for investigation or prosecution, the Washington Times reports.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced what he dubbed a border security plan – five months ahead of the November election and after at least 11 million foreign nationals illegally entered the country since his inauguration.

More people died in Western countries than expected for three consecutive years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, despite containment measures and vaccines, according to a new study.

President Joe Biden’s new executive action on immigration sparked fresh criticism from Republicans.

California’s Democratic-led Senate last week passed a controversial bill that would prohibit public school teachers and officials from notifying parents if trans-identifying K-12 school children ask to change their name or access programs designed for the opposite gender.

A prominent Russian politician recently stated that the imprisonment of Donald Trump, following his guilty verdict in the criminal hush money trial, could lead to a “civil war” in the United States, Newsweek reported.

The bodies of three Christians, who were killed by Islamic fighters in northern Nigeria after being separated from other bus passengers, have been found, Christians said Thursday.

Journalists with the US-based Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) have reported that, despite opposition from Moscow, a “remarkable” revival is underway in Transnistria, a Russian-controlled part of Moldova in eastern Europe.

Eleven Christians in India’s Madhya Pradesh state have just been released from prison after being jailed in 2022 on baseless charges of forcing people to leave Hinduism for Christianity, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

A well-established in Indonesia has been threatened with eviction from its worship center because a new Islamic university has been opened in proximity to it, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. 

Islamic State-affiliated terrorists slaughtered 150 people, including 80 Christians, in the Democratic Republic of Congo this month, the Christian Post (CP) reports.

Christians confirmed Thursday that five Christian sanitation workers have died in accidents in Pakistan this week, highlighting concerns about the plight of non-Muslim workers.

A young Catholic man in Lahore, Pakistan was tortured and murdered by his Islamic former-employer earlier this month after he resigned to seek a better job, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.