At least 14 people were killed and dozens injured in Nepal’s capital Monday as riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters trying to storm parliament over a sweeping social media shutdown and mounting corruption, state television said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned Russia’s largest overnight air assault of the war, which struck central Kyiv and other areas on Sunday, killing at least four people—including a newborn baby—and setting the Cabinet of Ministers building ablaze.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced his resignation Sunday after less than a year in office, following two crushing parliamentary defeats that cost his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) its coalition majority in both chambers.

As many as seven candidates for Germany’s anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have died in recent weeks ahead of local elections in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, prompting calls for investigation.

A drug-related standoff between Venezuela and the United States further escalated Saturday as U.S. Vice President JD Vance defended a strike on a suspected drug-trafficking speedboat that killed 11 people in the southern Caribbean.

Ukraine’s president has vowed to continue retaliating against Russian attacks on his country’s energy facilities and civilian sites, despite criticism from neighbors Slovakia and Hungary. Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the remarks after meeting Slovakia’s prime minister in the Ukrainian border city of Uzhhorod.

Europe faced fresh anxiety Friday after the White House confirmed the United States will end support for a program that helped prepare Eastern European armies to counter potential Russian aggression.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday that any foreign troops sent to Ukraine would be “legitimate targets for destruction” by Russia’s military. His comments came a day after European leaders met in Paris to discuss possible future security guarantees for Ukraine.

Afghan families are forced to make impossible choices after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, devastating the mountainous Kunar province, where entire villages collapsed.

Leaders from 26 nations have pledged to commit troops to Ukraine as part of “post-war security guarantees,” despite mounting concern that such a move could pave the way for a return to conscription and compel young people to serve in volatile territories. The initiative, spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron through the “Coalition of the Willing,” was discussed at a summit in Paris and envisions deployment of a “reassurance force” once fighting subsides.

Israel is committed to preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding in Lebanon and has stated that the Israel Defense Forces will remain in place until Hezbollah is fully dismantled, according to Brig.-Gen. Amir Avivi, founder and chairman of HaBithonistim.

The US State Department has notified Congress “informally” of an $8 billion proposed arms deal with the Jewish state, Axios reported exclusively on Friday, January 3.

Family members faced more agony on Sunday after fighters of Hamas released a video of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since its October 2023 attack.

Several Arab media outlets reported on Thursday evening that Israel conducted strikes on facilities associated with the Syrian Ministry of Defense, situated to the east of Aleppo.

A new report by the Israeli government’s Central Bureau of Statistics shows that in the year following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, nearly 60,000 Israelis left the country and did not return, i24News reports.

Triggering concerns for Israel’s already struggling tourism industry, the government has announced that, as of January 1, 2025, all foreign visitors must now apply online for digital authorization to enter the country, even those from countries such as the US and UK that were once visa-exempt, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

Israeli archaeologists digging in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) on Friday unearthed a rare collection of ancient coins they believe belonged to King Alexander Jannaeus, a Hasmonean high priest who ruled over Judea from around 103–76 BC, CBS News reports.

A community was left in “a state of shock” Saturday as a Catholic priest died in the U.S. state of Kansas after being shot at his church’s rectory, church sources said.

Millions of Americans faced more hardships Saturday as a new round of torrential rain and flash flooding hit parts of the South and Midwest, where numerous people had already died.

More stock market investors ran for the exit Friday, further erasing trillions in stock value, after China announced 34 percent across-the-board tariffs on imports from the United States.

The Pentagon’s acting inspector general announced Thursday that he would review U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging application to convey potentially classified plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen.

President Donald Trump and some Republicans were quick to shrug off stock losses Thursday as the market responds to a jolt from Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.

Roughly $1.7 trillion was erased from the S&P 500 Index of the 500 most influential companies at the start of trading at the New York Stock Exchange Thursday amid worries that President Donald J. Trump’s sweeping new round of tariffs could plunge the economy, and much of the world, into a recession.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced Wednesday he would sign “a historic executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world” ranging from 10 percent to 49 percent.

The bodies of three Christians, who were killed by Islamic fighters in northern Nigeria after being separated from other bus passengers, have been found, Christians said Thursday.

Journalists with the US-based Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) have reported that, despite opposition from Moscow, a “remarkable” revival is underway in Transnistria, a Russian-controlled part of Moldova in eastern Europe.

Eleven Christians in India’s Madhya Pradesh state have just been released from prison after being jailed in 2022 on baseless charges of forcing people to leave Hinduism for Christianity, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

A well-established in Indonesia has been threatened with eviction from its worship center because a new Islamic university has been opened in proximity to it, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. 

Islamic State-affiliated terrorists slaughtered 150 people, including 80 Christians, in the Democratic Republic of Congo this month, the Christian Post (CP) reports.

Christians confirmed Thursday that five Christian sanitation workers have died in accidents in Pakistan this week, highlighting concerns about the plight of non-Muslim workers.

A young Catholic man in Lahore, Pakistan was tortured and murdered by his Islamic former-employer earlier this month after he resigned to seek a better job, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.