Once dismissed as “cannon fodder,” North Korean soldiers deployed in the Russian offensive against Ukraine are now being described by their Ukrainian adversaries as disciplined and formidable fighters.

Less than a week after imposing the broadest package of sanctions on Russia it had ever imposed, the US Biden administration on Wednesday added hundreds of fresh sanctions to intensify pressure on Moscow and assist Ukraine in defending against the ongoing Russian invasion, Reuters reports.

Russia launched missiles and drones at Ukrainian energy facilities on Wednesday, one day after Kyiv claimed it carried out its most significant aerial attack of the war on Russian army factories and energy hubs hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the frontline.

In its biggest aerial strike against Russia to date, Ukraine fired six US-made ATACMS ballistic missiles and UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, and launched one of its largest drone attacks on Russian territory overnight on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

An Islamist gang in Pakistan has targeted and trapped more than 450 people, including Christians, into being wrongfully charged with blasphemy, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.

Moscow has confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will sign “a long-awaited comprehensive strategic partnership pact” amid growing ties between the two nations.

The chief of the NATO military alliance has warned that Ukraine is not in a strong enough position for peace talks with Russia after U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump vowed to end the war between the two nations.

China is reportedly building “D-Day style” landing barges specifically designed to deploy People’s Liberation Army (PLA) vehicles onto Taiwanese beaches, suggesting preparations for a potential full-scale invasion, according to the UK Telegraph.

The leader of a major European Jewish organization urged governments across Europe on Monday to take immediate action against the sharp rise in antisemitism, which is prompting thousands of Jews to leave the continent.

Hungary’s Jewish community has remembered Ágnes Keleti, the world’s oldest living and one of the most successful Olympians, until she passed away at age 103 this month.

Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a hostage deal on Friday, where 33 Hamas captives will be released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds serving life sentences.

Responding to Wednesday’s announcement that the Israeli government has reached a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, the Iran-aligned Yemeni Houthi and Iraqi Nujaba Islamic jihadist movements announced they would suspend their attacks against Israel, Newsweek reports.

Negotiators from Israel and Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza, officials said on Wednesday, in the hope of ending the 15-month-war that has killed thousands.

After 15 long months of bloodshed in Gaza sparked by the Hamas massacre of 1,200 people in Israel, a hostage and ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel was reached Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said.

Iran’s Vice-President for Strategic Affairs, Mohammad Javad ZarMif, has accused Israel of planting explosives in Iranian centrifuge equipment, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

Determined to ensure that the Holocaust is not forgotten or denied, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany on Monday launched a digital campaign featuring 80 survivors of Auschwitz, the most notoriously brutal death camp in history, i24News reports. The German Nazis murdered more than 1.1 million Jews at Auschwitz in occupied Poland during World War II.

With much of the U.S. state of California resembling a war zone due to deadly wildfire, a “wildfire defense system” may be on the way from Israel.

Border-focused Republicans are eagerly awaiting the next Trump administration, and with it, the return of Remain in Mexico, an immigration policy that makes migrants who illegally cross the border to claim asylum wait in Mexico for their court date, rather than being released into the U.S. under parole.

Republican lawmakers are set to introduce legislation requiring doctors to provide the same medical assistance to babies born alive following an abortion as they would to a baby of the same gestational age in other circumstances.

Congressional Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation allowing people with state-issued concealed carry licenses or permits to carry a concealed handgun in any other state in the US, The Center Square (TCS) reports.

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Meta Platforms (which owns Facebook and Instagram) has publicly criticized the US Biden administration for demanding that Facebook restrict content deemed misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, Axios reports. Indeed, Meta announced on January 7 that it will cease working with third-party fact-checking organizations.

The US Supreme Court agreed on Friday to consider reinstating certain preventative care coverage requirements under the Affordable Care Act that were struck down by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

At least 16 people have been killed as massive wind-fed fires swept through 37,000 acres in the greater Los Angeles area, impacting entire communities ranging from the rich and famous to the poor.

Fires in Los Angeles, America’s second-largest city, and other areas in the U.S. state of California have killed at least 10 people while hundreds of homes were destroyed, officials said.

A new Islamic terror group that is considered even more dangerous than Boko Haram, ISWAP and the radicalized Fulani militants has begun murdering Christians in northern Nigeria, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Islamic terror groups intent on imposing their extreme version of Sharia law and governance have murdered tens of thousands of Christians in northern Nigeria since jihadism took hold in the region in 2009.

Christians in Sudan say believers displaced by war have been prevented from celebrating Christmas in a park where they had taken refuge.

At least 380 million Christians — one in seven worldwide — faced high levels of persecution and discrimination in 2024, an increase of 15 million from the year before, investigators said Wednesday.

Africa remains the deadliest region for Christians, with Nigeria ranking as the country where a Christian is most likely to be killed for his or her faith, according to a new report by the Global Christian Relief (GCR) charity and advocacy group.

The hugely popular YouVersion Bible App was installed nearly 800,000 times on January 5 this year alone, the Christian Post reports. Launched in 2008 by the US-based Life.Church ministry, YouVersion is available in 2,100 languages and has been installed on 850 million devices worldwide.

Two protestant Christian church leaders and three Christian family members were recently assassinated in two premeditated incidents in Colombia, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports.

While Christians in northern Nigeria remain extremely vulnerable to killings and kidnapping by Islamic terrorists, especially Fulani militant herdsmen, two abducted pastors were released from captivity on January 5, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.