Local Christians and other sources say rescuers have found more bodies in the search for dozens of people buried under landslides or swept away after torrential rains unleashed flash floods and triggered landslides on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, increasing the death toll to 23 and leaving more than two dozen people missing.

Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki says his country “will not succumb to the terror of rainbow rulings” after the European Union’s highest court ruled that Poland and other member states that ban same-sex marriages must recognize such partnerships if they were “lawfully concluded in another member state.”

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is widely expected to travel to Moscow on Friday for high-stakes talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine, according to several Ukrainian, European, and Hungarian sources.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump claims Russia is “making concessions” in talks to end the Ukraine war and says Kyiv is “happy” about progress toward a possible peace agreement after nearly four years of fighting.

A deadly crash has raised fresh concerns within the government and industry over India’s ambition to export its Tejas fighter jet and to reduce reliance on older foreign-built fighters at a time when tensions remain high with neighboring Pakistan, like India, a nuclear-armed nation.

Thailand has put its military in charge of tackling the worst flood crisis in years, after some areas reported the heaviest recorded rainfall in centuries, killing more than a dozen people.

The Trump administration on Monday escalated its pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, formally designating the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization—a move that adds new terrorism-based sanctions and intensifies concerns of potential U.S. military action.

Authorities say Russia has launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 20 others in strikes that hit residential buildings and energy infrastructure, despite peace talks.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order Monday directing the State and Treasury Departments to move toward formally designating chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations — a policy shift that would mark one of the most significant counterterror actions taken by his administration in the Middle East.

Footage has emerged of evangelical Christians praying and singing between their destroyed homes in Ukraine as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he welcomed proposed changes to a controversial U.S.-backed peace plan for ending the war with Russia.

A ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck near Terminal 3 of Ben Gurion International Airport on Sunday morning, marking a dramatic escalation in the regional conflict and prompting a wave of injuries, international flight cancellations, and a firm declaration from Israeli leaders: retaliation is imminent.

Israel launched a warning airstrike near the Syrian presidential palace in Damascus overnight, responding to attacks on Druze villages in southern Syria. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike, which targeted an open area, was a message to Damascus not to threaten the Druze community.

As Israel marked its 77th Independence Day amid war and grief, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir issued a stern warning to Hamas and emphasized the military’s readiness to escalate operations in Gaza if hostages are not released.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignited a firestorm of criticism during Israel’s Independence Day celebrations after declaring that winning the war against Hamas is a “superior objective” to retrieving the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Israel carried out an airstrike near Damascus on Wednesday, targeting what it called an extremist group plotting an attack on Syria’s Druze community. Describing it as a “warning operation,” Israel said the strike aimed to prevent further sectarian violence amid rising tensions in the region.

A wave of massive wildfires has triggered a national emergency across central and northern Israel, prompting evacuations, the deployment of emergency response teams, and the cancellation of Independence Day events in multiple cities.

As Israel prepares to celebrate its 77th Independence Day, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported Tuesday that the nation’s population has reached nearly 10.1 million — a twelvefold increase since its founding in 1948.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Tuesday that the United States is on track to collect more than $300 billion in tariff revenue this year, a major milestone in President Trump’s America First trade agenda.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) facilitated the transfer of nearly 11,000 virus samples from Yunnan Province to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) over a 10-year period, despite having no formal agreement in place with the controversial lab, according to newly released documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

In a landmark shift with far-reaching implications for the intersection of religion and politics, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has formally stated that churches and other houses of worship may endorse political candidates during religious services without jeopardizing their tax-exempt nonprofit status.

The Trump administration’s Department of Justice and FBI have officially concluded there is no evidence that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was murdered, blackmailed powerful elites, or kept a hidden “client list,” according to a two-page memo obtained by Axios. The findings, based on a years-long federal investigation, aim to silence long-standing conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s 2019 death in federal custody.

Some 27 campers and counsellors are dead after flooding at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp in the U.S. state of Texas that had encouraged young people to maintain faith in Christ.

The yearlong countdown towards America’s 250th birthday has begun with First Lady Melania Trump affectionately joining her husband, President Donald J. Trump, on the White House balcony.

A sudden and violent flash flood in the Texas Hill Country has left at least 24 people dead and dozens more missing–many of them young girls attending Camp Mystic, a beloved Christian summer camp–after relentless storms swelled the Guadalupe River early Friday morning, washing away cabins, homes, and vehicles in its path.

Christian rights investigators confirmed Monday that Sudan’s military struck a mosque in the country’s east-central Gezira State, killing up to 31 people, after churches were also attacked.

In a rare move for a Pakistani court, a trial judge in Punjab Province, Pakistan, last month granted bail to a Christian mother falsely accused of blasphemy, Christian Daily International (CDI) reports.

A pastor and his wife and two young daughters were burned to death in eastern Uganda earlier this month by Islamic extremists enraged that he had led three Muslims to Christ, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.

The leader of an underground Christian movement for former Muslims in Indonesia expressed concern Monday about the recent arrest of two Christians for “blasphemy” against Islam.

The Unite US evangelistic outreach to American college students has reported that the University of Florida saw more than 1,000 students answer the call to follow Jesus during a campus event last week.

Police in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia, recently arrested two Christian men in separate incidents of alleged blasphemy against Islam, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Although Christianity is constitutionally legal in Indonesia, the Muslim-majority country ranks 42 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

The persecution of Christians worldwide is intensifying, a new report by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) shows. Based in Germany, ACN issues a bi-yearly report titled “The Persecuted and Forgotten?” on the conditions facing Christians in 18 countries where believers in Jesus are understood to be particularly vulnerable.