The United States military has intercepted and seized an Iranian-flagged container ship that attempted to bypass an American blockade near the Strait of Hormuz, marking the first such incident since restrictions on Iranian ports began last week.

Rumen Radev claimed victory after exit polls showed his Progressive Bulgaria movement won Sunday’s parliamentary election in the Balkan nation, its eighth general vote in five years.

The United States is preparing to significantly expand its maritime pressure campaign against Iran, with plans underway to board and seize Iran-linked oil tankers and commercial vessels in international waters, U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal.

Military planning for a potential U.S. intervention in Cuba is quietly accelerating, according to a USA TODAY exclusive, as the Pentagon prepares contingency options should President Donald Trump authorize action against the communist-led island.

At least six people were killed after a gunman opened fire in a district of Kyiv before barricading himself inside a supermarket, where he later died in a confrontation with police, officials said.

The administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump has renewed a waiver allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil at sea for about a month, despite critics fearing it could help Moscow finance its war against Ukraine.

Bulgarians were heading for elections that a pro-Russia former president was expected to win.

Iran has announced the reopening of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz following a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, prompting a strong response from global markets and cautious optimism from world leaders.

The United States and Iran are considering a two-week extension of their ceasefire to allow more time for negotiations on a broader peace deal, easing immediate fears of renewed fighting despite an intensifying standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, officials said, prompting a global stock rally.

Turkey plunged into mourning Thursday as funerals were held for nine people killed when a 14-year-old opened fire at a school, one of the deadliest such shootings in the nation’s recent history.

A revised draft of a UN Security Council resolution outlining the “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” is set to be circulated by the United States for review among Security Council members, according to an exclusive report by The Jerusalem Post.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has declined to immediately pursue membership in the Abraham Accords, citing Israel’s control of the Golan Heights as a primary obstacle, though he suggested the Trump administration could eventually facilitate such negotiations.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a sweeping series of airstrikes across southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley on Monday, targeting what it described as Hezbollah sites used for rocket launches and the production and storage of strategic weapons. The attacks marked one of the most extensive Israeli operations in Lebanon in months, killing at least three Hezbollah operatives in the past 24 hours, according to the military.

A group of Hamas fighters trapped inside tunnels on the Israeli-controlled side of the Rafah ceasefire line have vowed not to surrender to Israeli forces, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced Sunday, in a move that could jeopardize the fragile month-old ceasefire in Gaza.

Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered an extraordinary 2,700-year-old pottery fragment inscribed with Assyrian cuneiform near the Temple Mount — the first written evidence of direct contact between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah ever discovered in the city. The find, announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), offers striking confirmation of the biblical narrative of King Hezekiah’s resistance to Assyrian domination recorded in II Kings 18.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday carried out a sweeping wave of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and its terror infrastructure across southern Lebanon, marking one of the largest military operations since the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

Israeli forces eliminated two Hamas terrorists attempting to cross the Gaza ceasefire line on Wednesday — the fourth such violation in as many days along the IDF’s “Yellow Line.”

U.S. lawmakers face a rocky path forward as they begin negotiations over the last remaining appropriations bill for fiscal year 2026.

The first month of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has been marked by a troubling surge in antisemitic hate crimes across New York City, even as overall gun violence fell to historic lows, according to newly released data from the New York City Police Department.

Washington, D.C., has recorded its lowest homicide levels in a decade following President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to the nation’s capital, according to local and federal officials.

The Trump administration announced Monday that all federal immigration and homeland security officers operating in Minneapolis will now be equipped with body-worn cameras, a move officials say will increase transparency and protect law enforcement amid rising tensions and political scrutiny.

President Donald Trump demanded Monday that House lawmakers swiftly approve the bipartisan spending package passed by the Senate, urging both parties to set aside additional policy demands to bring a partial government shutdown to a rapid end.

President Donald Trump announced Feb. 2 the creation of a new strategic private-sector critical minerals stockpile, a move the White House says will shield U.S. industry from supply shocks and reduce reliance on Beijing’s dominance of rare earths and key metals.

A network of left-wing activist groups working to obstruct federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota has received millions of dollars from a nonprofit tied to the Soros family, according to an investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A U.S.-based Christian mission says it works to rescue “thousands of orphaned teenagers” across the former Soviet Union from a “race against evil” — a fight to keep them from “being sucked into prostitution, slavery, and organized crime.”

A new report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) warns that Nigeria has become the headquarters for 22 Islamic terrorist groups operating across Africa. According to the organization, these groups are working in concert to eradicate Christianity and indigenous cultural traditions within the country, with the long-term goal of imposing a sultanate–a form of Islamic rule led by a sultan, in which political authority and religious leadership are fused under Islamic law.

The Family Research Council’s latest annual analysis reveals that while the number of hostile incidents targeting U.S. churches dipped in 2024–down from a record high in 2023–it remains alarmingly elevated compared to pre-2022 levels.

Christian charity Mission Eurasia says it will help 30,000 often traumatized children in 14 nations this summer, most of them in Ukraine, as their “lives have been upended by Russia’s full-scale invasion.”

A Christian laborer forced to work in Pakistan’s harsh brick kiln industry is recovering after falling victim to an organ trafficking scheme “that ignited outrage” across the nation, according to an investigation shared with Worthy News.

Church leaders in Haiti expressed concern Sunday about the kidnapping of nine people, including an Irish missionary and a child with disabilities, as violence spreads throughout the Caribbean nation.

Evangelical missions are surging through Brazil’s Amazon, bringing medical aid, education, and the gospel to remote villages, reshaping the region’s spiritual identity and accelerating the nation’s shift away from Catholicism. Project Amazon’s Missionary boat alone treats 100,000 patients a year, fueling rapid church growth among indigenous communities.