The American military continues to ramp up its attacks on Iran, 10 days into Operation Epic Fury.

Australia has granted humanitarian visas to five Iranian women’s soccer players who sought asylum amid fears for their safety if they returned to the Islamic Republic, authorities confirmed.

NATO-linked air defenses intercepted a second Iranian ballistic missile threatening alliance member Turkey on Monday as the United States and Israel rejected Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, amid escalating tensions across the Middle East.

An international law-enforcement operation has led to the arrest of 60 suspects and the rescue of 65 child victims following a year-long investigation across Central America, North America, and the Caribbean.

President Donald Trump unveiled a sweeping new strategy to combat drug cartels across the Western Hemisphere, declaring that powerful trafficking networks should be treated as national security threats rather than ordinary criminal organizations.

G7 finance ministers said Monday they will take “necessary measures” to stabilize energy supplies but added there is no plan yet to release strategic oil stockpiles after prices for the vital commodity surged over the weekend to a 45-month high.

President Donald Trump said Monday that the joint U.S.-Israel military campaign against Iran is “very far ahead of schedule,” declaring that the Islamic Republic’s military infrastructure has been largely destroyed and the conflict could soon come to an end.

Authorities on the Indonesian island of Bali are investigating the kidnapping and brutal killing of a Ukrainian man believed to be linked to organized crime in a case that has shocked residents of the resort island, a popular international tourist destination.

Hungary accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of threatening to kill Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as frictions between the neighbors intensified Friday, deepening disputes over energy supplies, financial aid and the war in Ukraine.

Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts announced Sunday that Mojtaba Khamenei has been selected as the country’s new supreme leader, replacing his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the opening phase of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he believes a ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement in Gaza could be reached “very soon,” while issuing what he called a final ultimatum to Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intensified operations in Gaza City over the weekend, targeting Hamas command infrastructure, demolishing underground tunnels, and striking multiple high-rise buildings the military said were being used for terrorist activity.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put on hold a controversial plan to apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, after receiving sharp warnings from both regional allies and Western nations. The issue was slated for a ministerial discussion on Thursday but has been replaced by a session focused on the mounting security challenges in the area.

Israel is expanding and upgrading its secretive Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona, raising new questions about the country’s widely believed status as the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state, according to an in-depth Associated Press report released Wednesday.

Israel’s military says it now controls roughly 40% of Gaza City and is “nearing control of half its territory,” as preparations intensify for a wider push to seize the rest of the enclave’s largest urban center.

Israel successfully launched the Ofek 19 reconnaissance satellite into orbit Tuesday night, marking a significant leap forward in the nation’s military space program and strengthening its intelligence and surveillance capabilities across the Middle East.

President Donald Trump warned that Israel is losing its once-dominant influence in Washington and urged Jerusalem to wrap up its military campaign in Gaza before sustaining further damage in global public opinion.

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.

The U.S. Space Force has quietly awarded roughly half a dozen “Golden Dome” contracts to build competing space-based missile-defense prototypes, kicking off an industry race for future production deals worth tens of billions of dollars, according to multiple sources briefed on the awards.

The Trump administration late on Nov. 25 filed a notice of appeal challenging a federal district court ruling that ordered the government to halt its months-long deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C.

Concerns remained Tuesday about detained Christians in China after police raided a Bible study group for children, while elsewhere, unregistered church members selling Bibles received long prison terms and fines, Worthy News established.

A 74-year-old grandmother arrested under Scotland’s newly enacted abortion “buffer zone” law is pushing back against proposed expansions, warning the legislation is being used to “crack down harshly and unfairly” on peaceful pro-life voices.

Thousands of Hungarians rallied Sunday against new proposed legislation that they fear will lead to a Russian-style crackdown on independent media and other organizations.

The body of a murdered Christian man was dumped at a hospital in Pakistan’s Punjab province amid ongoing killings of Christians in the region by Muslim extremists, investigators said Friday.

There was concern Friday about the detained wife of Pastor Joseph Shahbazian, who was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for his Christian work in Iran.

Authorities in autocratically-ruled Belarus have banned an organization that united leaders of several denominations to highlight reported persecution of devoted Christians in the country, sources confirmed Friday.

Islamic militants have targeted Christian communities in several states of Nigeria in recent days, killing and injuring numerous believers, Christians told Worthy News early Friday.