A newly deployed U.S. drone squadron operating somewhere in the Middle East is based on a reverse-engineered copy of Iran’s Shahed-136 attack drone, according to a Wall Street Journal exclusive–an unusual move that underscores Washington’s accelerating push to field cheaper strike systems against Iranian-style threats.

A Pentecostal pastor on Indonesia’s Sumatra island has cried out for help, saying his community has been without food, safe water supplies, and fresh clothing for days following massive flooding that killed at least hundreds of people in the region.

President Donald Trump said on Dec. 2 that the United States will begin conducting military strikes inside Venezuela “very soon,” marking a significant escalation in Washington’s months-long campaign to dismantle narcotics networks that U.S. officials say are operating with the protection of the Maduro regime.

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued one of his starkest threats yet toward Europe on Tuesday, declaring that Moscow is “ready right now” for a war with the continent if attacked–an escalation made just hours before meeting White House special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin.

The Trump administration’s push to broker an end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine entered a volatile new phase Tuesday, as White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, warned Monday that upcoming talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff could pressure Kyiv into making concessions. The two men are expected to meet on Tuesday.

The Dutch government has launched a campaign to prepare citizens for 72 hours without power, water, and food amid concerns the Netherlands may be targeted by Russia and its allies.

Indonesian Christian volunteers are rushing aid to residents who say the government has been slow to help after floods and landslides on Indonesia’s Sumatra island killed at least hundreds of people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and the Syrian Ministry of Interior announced Sunday that a joint operation has located and destroyed more than 15 ISIS weapons-storage sites in southern Syria, marking one of the most extensive counter-terrorism strikes carried out in the region this year.

Sudan’s military rulers have quietly offered Russia its first-ever African naval base—an arrangement that would hand the Kremlin a powerful strategic foothold over the Red Sea, one of the world’s most critical and contested trade arteries—according to a Wall Street Journal exclusive.

Israel unleashed its most decisive and devastating blow in Lebanon since the 2024 ceasefire on Sunday, eliminating Hezbollah’s powerful military chief of staff, Haytham Ali Tabatabai, in a precise airstrike deep inside Beirut. The operation — code-named “Black Friday” — struck the third and fourth floors of a building in the Haret Hreik district, the very nerve center of the Iranian-backed terrorist organization.

Israel launched a series of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Saturday after its military said gunfire was directed at troops, in the latest test of the fragile ceasefire that began on October 10.

The Israel Defense Forces announced Thursday that it uncovered one of the most extensive and sophisticated Hamas tunnel systems discovered to date, a sprawling underground route running more than seven kilometers (4.3 miles) and plunging approximately 25 meters (82 feet) underground beneath Rafah.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump met Thursday with a group of freed Israeli hostages and their loved ones at the White House, praising the survivors as “heroes” and vowing continued support for efforts to return remaining captives held in Gaza.

The United States has begun a rapid diplomatic and operational drive to assemble the newly authorized International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza, launching the effort mere hours after the UN Security Council overwhelmingly approved its deployment.

Israeli intelligence revealed Wednesday that a sweeping joint investigation with European security agencies has uncovered a network of Hamas-linked terror cells operating across Europe, with recent plots traced back to Qatar and possibly Turkey, where senior Hamas officials maintain political offices.

Israel carried out large-scale strikes in both southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip as part of renewed operations against remnants of Hezbollah and Hamas, killing scores of people despite a cease-fire that was meant to be holding, authorities and investigators said Wednesday.

Shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire just blocks from the White House, an Afghan national evacuated to the United States in 2021 is accused of killing one West Virginia National Guard soldier and critically injuring another in a broad-daylight attack that federal authorities say was entirely unprovoked.

President Donald Trump said on Nov. 27 that the United States could “substantially” reduce — and potentially eliminate — federal income taxes within the next few years, citing what he described as unprecedented revenue generated from his tariff policies.

The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ended Sunday with welcome relief along the Gulf and East Coasts, standing in sharp contrast to last year’s string of landfalls. No hurricanes struck the United States this season—a respite for communities still in their 62nd week of recovery from Hurricane Helene, which devastated North Carolina after hitting Florida during a 66-day stretch of storms in 2024. Though rough surf and minor coastal impacts occurred, it marked the eighth season this century without a U.S. hurricane landfall.

A child’s birthday party in the U.S. state of California turned into tragedy late Saturday as gunfire broke out, killing four people and injuring at least 10 others, including children and adults, authorities said. No details were immediately available about any attacker following the shooting in the northern California city of Stockton.

The family of a West Virginia National Guardsman asked for prayers Saturday, saying he is “hanging on” after being shot near the White House along with a colleague who later passed away.

Two West Virginia National Guard members were critically wounded Wednesday afternoon in an ambush-style shooting just two blocks from the White House, triggering lockdowns, heavy police presence, and an immediate expansion of federal troop deployments in Washington, D.C.

A prominent U.S. senator who served as a Navy pilot and later as an astronaut faces a Pentagon investigation — and a possible court-martial — after joining a handful of lawmakers in a video urging U.S. troops to refuse “illegal orders” under President Donald J. Trump.

A Christian mission group has confirmed that its CEO and his daughter were killed when their small plane carrying humanitarian aid for hurricane-hit Jamaica crashed in a South Florida neighborhood, Worthy News established on Wednesday.

A high court in Pakistan has ordered the release “on bail” of a Christian woman who spent more than a year in prison on what rights activists say were false accusations of blasphemy against Islam.

A Hungarian Methodist pastor who faces prison on what he views as trumped-up charges and a government crackdown on dissent told thousands of supporters in Budapest that he would remain faithful to his Christian mission.

More than 50 prominent Christian leaders are calling on President Trump to directly confront Syria’s new president about the ongoing persecution of religious minorities when the two leaders meet Monday at the White House, marking a historic first for U.S.-Syria relations.

A Christian widow in Pakistan’s Punjab province is devastated after her married daughter went missing, while elsewhere in the region, a mother of four and a mother of six have also disappeared following alleged abductions by Muslim men, Worthy News learned Saturday.

South Korea, long seen as the democratic opposite of its authoritarian-ruled northern neighbor, faces growing scrutiny for what critics call a widening crackdown on Christian leaders and churches.

Hungarian prosecutors have requested a two-year suspended prison sentence for Gábor Iványi, a 76-year-old Methodist pastor, once a close confidant of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and several opposition politicians, in a case widely viewed as politically charged.