As of midday Thursday EST at least four people have been killed, nearly 100 injured, and five million ordered to evacuate in southwestern Japan as Typhoon Shanshan made landfall on the island of Kyushu, the Independent UK reports. Bringing torrential rain and extremely high winds of up to 123 mph, Shanshan is one of the strongest typhoons to hit Japan in decades.

The deputy director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) revealed late Wednesday that Ukraine’s military is planning to retain the Russian territory it captured for “some period of time.”

Telegram suffered another setback late Wednesday when French authorities prevented the CEO of the social media platform and messaging service from leaving France pending a criminal investigation.

French prosecutors on Wednesday freed Telegram CEO Pavel Durov from police custody after four days of questioning over allegations that his social media platform and messaging application is being used for illegal activities in a case that high-profile critics said was about censoring content.

More than 31.8 million Nigerians, including Christians, are acutely short of food due to attacks by Islamic fighters and the removal of fuel subsidies, while deadly flooding also contributed to the crisis, Nigeria’s government and others said Tuesday.

U.S. President Joe Biden has expressed hope that a recent visit by India’s leader to Ukraine and Poland will help bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war as new attacks killed more people on Tuesday. The peace message by the White House came as rescue workers searched for survivors beneath the rubble in central Ukraine.

Investigations were underway in Pakistan Mondy after at least 37 people, including a dozen who were returning from a religious pilgrimage in Iraq, died Sunday in two unrelated bus crashes in Pakistan, officials said.

Much of Ukraine plunged into darkness Monday after its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his nation suffered “one of the biggest combined strikes” of the war waged by Russia on Ukraine, killing and injuring numerous people.

Dozens of people were killed in southwestern Pakistan, where separatists and other Islamic terrorists attacked targets before the military responded.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday there was no political motive behind the arrest of Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of the social media platform and messaging application Telegram.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a meeting with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and other defense officials, announced his intention to “expand the goals of the war” to include the safe return of residents who had evacuated from the north back to their homes.

Archaeologists excavating in the Old City of Jerusalem have uncovered an exceedingly rare, highly artistic 2,700 stone seal that was probably made by a local Judahite craftsman, World Israel News (WIN) reports.

While still engaged in a war with Hamas in Gaza, and battling Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday carried out a targeted drone strike in Syria and killed Firas Qasem, a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organization, who was reportedly on his way to attack Israel, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

The administration of outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden still believes it can broker a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia before the November U.S. presidential election.

Israel carried out a major military operation in Northern Samaria on Wednesday, targeting the city of Jenin and adjacent areas. The operation, which involved both ground troops and airstrikes, led to the deaths of at least nine Palestinians.

In a possible response to the global outbreak of antisemtism that followed Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel last year, almost 30,000 Jews have immigrated to the Jewish state since the massacre, the Times of Israel reports. This surge in ‘Aliyah’ is the largest since 2022 when, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 73,000 Ukrainian and Russian immigrated to Israel.

In a daring operation amid ongoing clashes, Israeli forces rescued a Bedouin man during an operation in wartorn Gaza, more than 10 months after Hamas abducted him in Israel, officials confirmed late Tuesday.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday he had “made a lot of mistakes” in his career but added, “I gave my best to you,” as he addressed the Democratic National Convention in an emotional farewell speech for which he received a minutes-long standing ovation.

Protesters clashed with police on Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention Monday with more demonstrations expected.

Family members of eight American hostages were to attend the U.S. Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, which Israeli media called “an arena of pro-Palestinian protestors and disruptions.”

Donald J. Trump has pledged to support Israel’s “war on terror” and to deport foreign Jihad and Hamas supporters if he is re-elected U.S. president in November.

Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the term “unborn human being” can be used in place of “fetus” on an informational pamphlet for voters who will decide whether to add the right to abortion to the state’s constitution in November, the Associated Press reports.

Consumer prices rose again last month after dipping in June, according to newly released federal inflation data.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating suspected hacking attempts by Iran targeting the presidential campaigns of Donald J. Trump and the Biden- Harris campaign, Worthy News learned.

One year after the devastating Islamic riot against Christians in Jaranwala, Pakistan in August last year, just 12 of the more than 300 people arrested are facing trials, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Islamic-majority Pakistan ranks 7 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

Prominent Yemeni Christian activist Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo has started a hunger strike from prison in Egypt in protest at how the Egyptian government has treated him, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. 

A judge in Punjab Province, Pakistan has allowed three young Christian sisters to return to their parents after their employers held them captive and tried to forcibly convert them to Islam, Morning Star News reports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia turned hundreds of churches and other religious sites into rubble since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The fate of a Protestant pastor and his 13-year-old daughter who were abducted in Gusau, northwestern Nigeria last month is not known, despite a ransom having been paid for their release, Christian Daily International (CDI) reports.

In a move seen as punishment for not aligning with Nicaragua’s authoritarian communist regime, Nicaraguan authorities have revoked the legal status of hundreds of evangelical NGOs and transferred their assets to the state, CBN News reports. 

In the last four years, authorities in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state arrested 1,682, people under an extreme anti-conversion law designed to suppress non-Hindu religious freedom, the International Christian Concern (ICC) advocacy organization reports.