Following a stated aim of its leader Kim Jong Un to expand the country’s nuclear weapons program, North Korea was detected test-firing two ballistic missiles this week, the Associated Press reports. North Korea has intensified its weapons testing activities in the last two years in an apparent effort to expand its arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the US and South Korea.

Emphasizing that Iran is the primary source of conflict in the Middle East, Israel’s chief atomic energy commissioner warned this week that Israel cannot “tolerate” a nuclear-armed Iranian Islamic regime, Ynet News reports.

Authorities in Central and Eastern Europe say intense flooding that has swept parts of Central and Eastern Europe, including Austria, Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic, has killed at least 22 people.

In the third year of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and having sustained heavy losses, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the size of his army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active servicemen, Reuters reports.

Pope Francis has come under fire from US Christian leaders after telling a group of young people in Singapore last week that “all religions are a path to God,” the Christian Post (CP) reports. The pontiff made his statement while addressing an interreligious meeting at a Catholic junior college last week, at the end of an 11-day visit to Asia, CP reports.

The city of Shanghai in China on Monday was struck by the most powerful typhoon it has experienced since 1949, with hundreds of thousands of people having had to evacuate their homes, the Associated Press reports.

The UK and the US are reported to be concerned that Russia shared nuclear secrets with Iran in exchange for ballistic missiles to use against Ukraine in the ongoing invasion, the Independent UK reports. During a summit in Washington on Friday (September 13), Britain’s Prime minister Keir Starmer and US president Joe Biden specifically discussed the increased military cooperation between Iran and Russia.

Three years after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan the ruling Islamic extremist Taliban have passed an expansive new morality law that severely restricts Afghan freedoms, and targets women especially harshly.

Central and Eastern Europe’s death toll climbed to at least 14 on Monday as Storm Boris, accompanied by heavy rainfall and related flooding, ravaged the region. Romania and Poland were among the heaviest-hit nations.

Russia and Ukraine say they have exchanged 206 prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. The weekend exchange was welcomed by Ukraine’s embattled president, whose forces have struggled to halt the ongoing Russian invasion of his nation.

Making no mention of the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist group that the Israelis have been battling since October 8, the United States, Britain, EU, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others on Wednesday called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire between “Lebanon and Israel” for diplomats to find a solution to the crisis.

Hezbollah confirmed it fired “a ballistic missile” toward the Tel Aviv area Wednesday, targeting the headquarters of Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, but the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they intercepted the rocket.

Scientists have grown a 10 feet (3 meters) tall tree from a 1,000-year-old ancient seed which possibly belonged to a lineage that produced the healing balm referred to as ‘tsori’ in the Old Testament of the Bible, Live Science reports. The study of the tree dubbed ‘Sheba’ was published in the journal Communications Biology on September 10.

An Israeli airstrike targeted a Hezbollah commander in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, on Tuesday, reportedly killing six people, while Israel faced more than 100 rockets fired from Lebanon, several sources said.

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in southern Lebanon as massive Israeli airstrikes targeting the Islamic, Iran-backed Hezbollah group killed hundreds, witnesses and officials said.

The United States confirmed Monday that it is rushing additional troops to the Middle East as rapidly escalating violence between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon raised concern clashes could turn into a full-scale regional war.

Israel conducted two major waves of airstrikes on Monday, targeting over 300 Hezbollah sites. This came just a day after Israeli forces eliminated a senior Hezbollah leader and an entire class of top commanders from the terrorist organization’s elite Radwan force in Beirut.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz spent their first full day as running mates, vying for attention with ex-President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, who was also in the area.

In an important victory for federal authorities taking on Big Tech market control, a district judge in Washington DC has ruled that Google violated antitrust law by creating an illegal monopoly to become the world’s default search engine, Reuters reports.

Five states declared a state of emergency in response to Tropical Storm Debby, which brought record-setting rain to some of America’s most historic Southern cities. The storm was expected to cause prolonged downpours and flooding throughout Tuesday, prompting the rescue of hundreds from flooded homes.

Tensions rose Saturday after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin overrode a plea agreement reached earlier this week for the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks and two other defendants, reinstating them as death penalty cases.

Two illegal Jordanian migrants who were charged with illegally entering the Marine Corps Base in Quantico in May were released from federal custody after posting bail, according to the NY Post.

The United States Senate on Tuesday (July 30) voted overwhelmingly to approve bipartisan legislation intended to protect children from dangerous online content and hold tech companies to better account for harm suffered by minors on the internet, CBS News reports.

The US national debt has officially surpassed a massive $35 trillion, having increased by nearly $5 billion every day so far in 2025, Yahoo Finance reports.
The debt increased by nearly $8 trillion during the Republican administration of former President Donald Trump and is set to see a similar rise under the Democratic administration of current President Joe Biden.

Members of a thriving Baptist church in western Uzbekistan say local authorities have begun demolishing their worship facility as part of a broader crackdown on devoted Christians.

Around 60 people were baptized with 800-1,000 people in attendance at an Ohio State University Gospel event hosted by Ohio state football players on Sunday, The Lantern student newspaper reports. Those in attendance were treated to hearing the Word of God and personal testimonies, with the opportunity to give their lives to Christ.

There was concern Thursday about three Christian youngsters in Pakistan, including a 12-year-old girl who was forced to marry and convert to Islam while two 18-year-old brothers were charged with blasphemy, several sources said.

As predicted by Christian rights groups, Nicaragua’s authoritarian government is set to begin taxing tithes and offerings collected by churches in an effort to tighten its control over religious institutions, Christianity Today (CT) reports.

A group of Chicago street ministers shared the Gospel and the love of God outside the Democratic National Convention in the windy city last week, CBN News reports. The evangelists are members of “Chicago for Jesus,” a multi-denominational group based at the city’s Metro Praise International Church.

Yowabu Sebakaki, a Ugandan evangelist who led Muslims to Christ and discipled them, was brutally murdered for the Gospel by Islamic extremists in eastern Uganda earlier this month, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Christianity is legal in Uganda, but evangelists and Muslim converts are vulnerable to violent attacks and murder by Islamic extremist elements in the country.

Christians in Indonesia appealed for prayers Tuesday as security forces crushed nationwide protests against attempts by parliamentary allies of outgoing President Joko Widodo to change regional election legislation in their favor.