Tens of thousands of Hungarians braved pouring rain Wednesday in a massive show of force for Hungary’s emerging TISZA Party, led by opposition politician Péter Magyar, who accused Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of betraying the ideals of 1989 when he once demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Hungary.

A riverside resort in western Serbia, once marketed as “a unique oasis for rest and recreation,” is at the center of allegations that Russia used the site for training citizens to incite unrest before Moldova’s recent parliamentary elections.

Serbian authorities said at least one man was injured Wednesday after gunfire and a fire erupted at a camp of government supporters outside the national parliament, prompting President Aleksandar Vučić to call the incident a “terrorist act.”

The Trump administration has quietly lifted a major restriction on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles supplied by Western allies, allowing Kyiv to expand its attacks on Russian territory, according to U.S. officials cited by The Wall Street Journal.

The European Union’s legislature has awarded its top human rights honor, the 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, to two imprisoned journalists — Andrzej Poczobut of Belarus and Mzia Amaghlobeli of Georgia — for what it called their “courage in defending press freedom under authoritarian pressure.”

Faced with relentless Russian attacks that threaten to destroy his nation’s energy infrastructure, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has voiced support for U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s proposal for Kyiv and Moscow to freeze their war at the current frontlines. Zelenskyy called it “a good compromise” while admitting that Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear he would not accept the arrangement.

A string of fires and explosions at oil refineries and natural gas-processing plants this month has underscored what experts describe as a growing global risk to critical energy infrastructure amid aging equipment, industrial stress, and ongoing geopolitical tensions.

Ukraine and its key European allies have declared that any negotiations to end the war with Russia must be based on the current line of contact, rejecting Moscow’s territorial demands, as doubts grow over a planned summit between U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Days after U.S. President Donald J. Trump oversaw renewed peace efforts in Israel and predicted a “new dawn” for the Middle East, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its 2025 economic growth forecast for the region but cautioned that global risks continue to weigh on the outlook.

Japan on Tuesday elected Sanae Takaichi as its first female prime minister, marking a historic political shift in the world’s third-largest economy.

Israel is urging the U.S. to keep Syria fragmented, including allowing Russia to maintain military bases to counter Turkey’s growing influence, Reuters reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that he has signed a declaration to expedite the delivery of roughly $4 billion in military aid to Israel, as concerns rise that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas may soon collapse and intense conflict could resume.

The Israeli government has agreed to a U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire during Ramadan and Passover. However, Hamas rejected Israel’s terms for extending the first phase of the hostage-ceasefire deal, which would involve maintaining the ceasefire and releasing more hostages in exchange for Palestinian detainees and terrorists.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Middle East leaders have a “strong desire” to see expansion of the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords that led to the normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Israel and Bahrain.

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire began in Cairo Thursday amid mounting concerns the truce will collapse.

Israeli Military Intelligence and the Southern Command ignored more than five warnings, such as new SIM activations in Gaza and unusual Hamas activities. Dismissing these as routine, they overlooked signs of the impending October 7 attack. On this day in 2023, Hamas and other terrorists groups launched an unprecedented invasion from Gaza into southern Israel, coinciding with Simchat Torah and marking the start of the ongoing Gaza war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed a negotiation team to “travel to Cairo for talks Thursday evening.” Israeli officials are hopeful to secure the release of additional hostages by as early as Saturday, although “discussions have not yet commenced” and the timeline is still uncertain.

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a sweeping new presidential proclamation reinstating and expanding a travel ban on foreign nationals from a dozen countries, citing national security threats and visa overstay risks.

The Trump administration has officially rescinded a controversial 2022 directive from the Biden administration that threatened to force emergency room physicians in pro-life states to perform abortions against their medical judgment and in defiance of state laws.

The U.S. Justice Department has launched a sweeping investigation into thousands of controversial last-minute pardons issued by former President Joe Biden, many of which were reportedly signed using an autopen device rather than by Biden himself.

In a decision with broad national implications, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has vetoed a bill that would have banned the Chinese government and its affiliates from purchasing land in the state–particularly near U.S. military installations. The move has ignited fierce criticism from Republicans and national security advocates who argue the veto undermines U.S. defense readiness and emboldens America’s top geopolitical rival.

Senate Republicans are scrambling to trim more federal spending from President Donald Trump’s signature economic legislation than their House colleagues, after the bill–once praised by Trump as “big” and “beautiful”–came under fire for its ballooning deficit impact.

After more than two years of legal battles, the FBI has released over 100 pages of disturbing writings and personal documents belonging to Audrey Hale, the perpetrator of the March 2023 Covenant School shooting that left six people dead — including three children.

In a clear departure from the progressive movement, President Donald Trump’s White House confirmed Tuesday there will be no proclamation recognizing June as “Pride Month.” Instead, a growing coalition of conservative lawmakers is working to reclaim June for traditional values by introducing a resolution to officially designate it as “Family Month.”

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.