World News
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned Monday after just 27 days in office, marking the shortest premiership in France since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958. His departure has thrown President Emmanuel Macron’s already fragile government into deeper turmoil amid widening divisions in parliament.
Tensions remained high in Tbilisi on Monday after Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze pledged to crack down on dissent following the attempted storming of the presidential palace in a protest sparked by his ruling party’s claimed victory in disputed local elections. Numerous people remained detained, and scores were recovering from injuries following the unrest.
At least hundreds of thousands of people marched through European cities Sunday in anti-Israel protests ahead of the second anniversary of the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust, but some rallies expressed support for the Jewish nation.
Aftershocks continued to shake parts of the central Philippines Sunday following last week’s massive earthquake, as Christian aid workers struggled to reach survivors amid growing humanitarian needs.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced a sweeping crackdown on dissent after protesters attempted to storm the presidential palace during local elections. Riot police repelled demonstrators with water cannon and pepper spray in central Tbilisi.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the West of showing “zero real reaction” to Russia’s escalating bombing campaign after a massive assault Sunday killed at least six and injured 18 amid allegations that China assists Moscow in its attacks on Ukraine.
Czechs have voted in a two-day general election that could steer the country away from supporting Ukraine and closer to the policies of Hungary and Slovakia, threatening to deepen divisions within the European Union and NATO.
German authorities, working closely with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, arrested three men accused of belonging to a Hamas-linked terrorist cell plotting attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned a car and stabbing attack at a synagogue in Manchester, northwest of London, that left two people dead and three others seriously injured. The suspect was shot dead by police.
Two people were killed and three others seriously injured Thursday morning after a stabbing and car-ramming attack outside a synagogue in Manchester, before police shot dead the suspect amid fears of a marauding terror assault.
Israel News
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Tuesday that if Hamas does not release the hostages by Saturday at noon, the ceasefire deal will end, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will resume “intense fighting until Hamas is defeated.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday condemned Hamas as an “evil” organization that must be “eradicated,” urging leaders to “step up” with a plan for Gaza if they do not support President Trump’s vision for the region.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree Monday “to end” a system of payments to families of Palestinians imprisoned or killed after carrying out attacks against Israel, but critics called it window dressing as disbursements would continue under a new scheme.
Tensions were rising in the Middle East on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald J. Trump warned Jordan and Egypt he could “conceivably” withhold aid to them if they don’t take Palestinian refugees he seeks to relocate from the Gaza Strip, which was partly destroyed in the Israel-Hamas war.
With the ceasefire at risk due to Hamas’ refusal to release hostages, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have raised readiness levels in the Southern Command and postponed leave for combat soldiers and operational units, the Israeli military announced Monday night.
President Donald Trump warned Hamas on Monday, demanding the release of all hostages in Gaza by noon Saturday. “If all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock — I think it’s an appropriate time — I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” Trump stated, threatening to cancel the ceasefire deal.
In a warning to Israel, Egypt announced Sunday that it would host “an emergency Arab summit” this month to discuss what it called “serious” developments for Palestinians.
U.S. News
The U.S. Department of Education has formally revoked a $37.7 million fine issued to Grand Canyon University (GCU), bringing an end to a months-long legal battle over alleged misleading pricing practices related to the university’s doctoral programs. The case has been closed with prejudice, barring any future legal action on the matter.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has taken delivery of the most advanced AN/TPY-2 radar system to date, built by Raytheon and designed specifically to detect and track next-generation missile threats, including hypersonics.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday introduced a federal Universal School Choice Act.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the official launch of the “Golden Dome,” a next-generation missile defense initiative designed to protect the United States from advanced threats, including hypersonic and space-launched weapons.
In a pivotal decision Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a lower court injunction that had blocked President Donald Trump’s move to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for roughly 300,000 Venezuelan migrants. The unsigned two-paragraph order represents a major victory for the administration as it aggressively pursues its hard-line immigration enforcement agenda.
President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan “Take It Down Act” into law Monday during a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, calling the effort “one of the greatest moments of bipartisanship I have seen.” The law makes it a federal crime to share or threaten to share nonconsensual intimate images — including AI-generated deepfakes — and requires social media platforms to remove such content within 48 hours of notification.
The Republican multitrillion-dollar budget reconciliation package may undergo significant edits before reaching the House floor after party leaders conceded to holdouts’ demands.
Christian News
Christians in Iran are not expecting the country’s new president to improve the harsh persecution they face at the hands of the Iranian Islamic extremist regime, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
In a rare move of encouragement for Christians in India, the High Court of the south Indian state of Kerala ruled that two young adults can have the religion cited on their official documents changed from Hindu to Christian, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
American evangelist Greg Laurie, who came to faith in Christ during the American “Jesus Revolution” of the late 1960s-early 1970s, is again seeing thousands of people respond to the Gospel message and be baptized.
Officials in Laos are continuing to harass Christians by arresting them and then imprisoning them without charge for several weeks before releasing them. Amid intensifying persecution of Christians, the communist-led Buddhist-majority nation now ranks 21 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
Members of a house church congregation in India’s Uttarakhand state were violently attacked by a mob of around 150 Hindu extremists on July 14, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
An evangelical pastor in Laos who had been told to cease his “Christian activities” was murdered execution-style at his home last week, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
Fulani Islamic terrorists massacred a further 18 Christians in central Nigeria on Friday (July 19), Morning Star News (MSN) reports. With Islamic extremism taking root in Nigeria since 2009, tens of thousands of Christians have been murdered with impunity by jihadist terrorists including Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, and Islamic State West Africa Province.