Tens of thousands of Hungarians carrying toys and torches rallied in Budapest, demanding the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán over child abuse scandals at state-run youth detention centers.

Australian authorities said at least 12 people, including one suspected gunman, were killed and dozens wounded in a shooting attack linked to a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, an incident condemned by leaders in Australia, Britain, and Israel as antisemitic terrorism.

German authorities have detained five men in southern Germany over an alleged plot to carry out a “possibly Islamist-motivated attack” on a Christmas market, officials confirmed late Friday.

Russia escalated its war rhetoric Friday, stating that any ceasefire with Ukraine is conditional on Kyiv’s complete withdrawal from the Donbas region, as Ukrainian forces claimed new gains near the strategic northeastern hub of Kupiansk.

Bulgaria plunged into renewed political turmoil Friday after Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov resigned following mass protests accusing his minority government of corruption, just weeks before the Balkan nation is due to adopt the euro.

Hungary’s embattled Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, widely viewed as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally within the European Union, has accused the EU’s executive arm of “systematically raping European law” over plans to lock up Russia’s frozen assets until Moscow ends its war in Ukraine and compensates for the devastation it has inflicted.

Germany on Friday summoned the Russian ambassador amid allegations that Moscow is conducting a coordinated campaign to destabilize the country, the European Union’s largest economy, according to government officials.

A leading human rights group has condemned Hungary’s decision to place state-run youth detention centers under police oversight after abuse scandals triggered calls for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s resignation.

Growing frictions between the United States and its European allies emerged Thursday after tense conversations over how to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two, the ongoing war in Ukraine.

European Union health authorities have warned that “changing diets and an aging population” may contribute to a rise in serious and sometimes deadly Listeria infections across the continent.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly advanced the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), approving nearly $900 billion in defense spending and a broad slate of U.S.-Israel security initiatives. The bipartisan vote was 312-112, sending the legislation to the Senate, where it is expected to pass.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the long-anticipated announcement of the Gaza “Board of Peace” will take place early next year, marking a delay from earlier expectations that the rollout would occur before Christmas.

Evangelical Christian backing for Israel is “more vital than ever” as the Jewish state confronts a surge of antisemitism and anti-Israel activism worldwide, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told a visiting delegation of Christian leaders this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Dec. 29 to determine the next steps of the Gaza ceasefire plan, Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said Monday during an online briefing.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of airstrikes in southern Lebanon late Monday targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, including a training site used by the group’s elite Radwan Force, the military said in a statement Tuesday.

Archaeologists have uncovered one of the longest and best-preserved sections of Jerusalem’s Hasmonean-period city wall, a massive fortification dating to the Maccabean era, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet on Sunday unveiled what they say is a sophisticated, Iran-directed Hamas financial network operating from inside Turkey, funneling vast sums to the terrorist group as it seeks to rebuild and expand its capabilities.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 8 declined to hear the case of a California Christian baker who was prosecuted for refusing, on religious grounds, to create a custom wedding cake celebrating a same-sex marriage. The unsigned order in Miller v. Civil Rights Department came without comment or recorded dissent, leaving in place a California ruling against the baker.

Students, staff and anxious parents faced an uncertain Sunday and several leaders urged prayers after a shooter killed at least two people and wounded nine others at Brown University in the U.S. state of Rhode Island.

The Trump administration has prevented more than $1 billion in attempted federal student-loan fraud this year after reinstating strict identity-verification requirements that officials say were weakened under the Biden administration.

The man accused of assassinating born-again Christian activist Charlie Kirk, the founder of the Turning Point USA movement, was to make his first in-person court appearance Thursday, nearly three months after he was taken into custody.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved its third consecutive interest rate cut, lowering the benchmark federal-funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 3.5% to 3.75%, the lowest level since early 2022. But the decision—passed in a 9–3 vote, the most divided in six years—exposed unusually sharp disagreements over the path forward as policymakers wrestle with a slowing labor market and stubborn inflation.

In a major victory for religious liberty and parental rights, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reversed a lower court ruling that had upheld New York State’s strict vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, directing the appeals court to reconsider the case under newly strengthened constitutional protections.

A Hindu nonprofit organization is moving forward with plans to construct a massive 155-foot Hindu idol of Lord Murugan in rural Chatham County—an enormous structure that, once completed, would stand taller than the Statue of Liberty’s figure.

Joly “Yonyon” Germine, the former leader of Haiti’s notorious 400 Mawozo gang, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to life in prison without the possibility of supervised release for orchestrating the 2021 kidnapping of 16 American missionaries–five of them children–from Christian Aid Ministries.

Hundreds of evangelical Latinos and their pastors have launched a Zionist non-profit group in California targeting Spanish speakers in the U.S. state and beyond.

Sudanese Christians faced new challenges Tuesday after two of Sudan’s oldest churches were reportedly attacked by suspected Islamic vandals in the Sunni Muslim–majority nation.

A case involving a Mississippi street preacher–arrested for sharing the Gospel outside a concert venue–has now reached the U.S. Supreme Court, setting the stage for a ruling that could reshape how Americans defend their constitutional rights against local restrictions.

A Christian farmer and evangelist in Nigeria said Monday he had fled to Lagos with his family after an Anglican priest kidnapped in the northwest last month was killed in captivity.

Chinese authorities have released Pastor Zhang Shaojie after he completed a 12-year prison sentence on what his supporters viewed as false charges related to his faith in Christ and his growing church.

A young Christian woman who was allegedly abducted and forced to marry and convert to Islam appeared before a Pakistani court after her parents raised urgent concerns, Christians told Worthy News on Sunday.