Rescue teams in eastern Indonesia recovered six more bodies Sunday following a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake, raising the death toll to at least 53 as Christians prayed for victims and rescuers struggled to reach isolated communities.

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten faced mounting pressure Sunday after two people died in a traffic accident linked to a farmers’ protest, while his government was drawn into a separate controversy over a prominent statesman’s comparison involving Israel and Nazi Germany.

Amid mounting military cooperation, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed deepening ties with Russia in a message to President Vladimir Putin as Pyongyang marked the anniversary of “independence from Japan’s colonial rule,” state media reported Sunday.

The Russia-Ukraine war rapidly escalated Sunday as more than 800 Ukrainian drones targeted Russia in Ukraine’s largest such attack this year, killing at least seven people, officials said.

Firefighters backed by Dutch military helicopters battled Belgium’s largest wildfire on record Sunday as flames swept through nearly 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of nature reserve and threatened areas near the German border, while deadly blazes raged elsewhere in Europe, including Greece.

Hungary’s former ruling Fidesz party suffered a legal setback Friday after the Constitutional Court rejected its challenge to the dismantling of controversial foundations holding vast amounts of state assets, while separate scrutiny intensified over billions of forints in public money spent on former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s social-media operation.

The United States is rapidly approaching another historic fiscal milestone, with the national debt now nearing $40 trillion as Washington continues running massive annual deficits and interest costs consume a growing share of federal spending.

France’s Constitutional Council has upheld the core provisions of a sweeping new law establishing a legal right to assisted dying, clearing one of the final major obstacles to euthanasia and assisted suicide in a nation long shaped by Catholic tradition.

Scores of people have been killed after a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Flores Island early Saturday, authorities said, as rescuers struggled to reach some of the hardest-hit areas, while a less powerful tremor was reported in North Sumatra province.

Romania and neighboring Hungary are facing an energy crisis linked to a record heat wave and the related low level of the Danube River, with Romania forced to shut down its last operating nuclear reactor while Hungary struggles to keep the only one of its four Paks reactors still operating online.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Damascus is seeking a security agreement with Israel that could eventually open the door to broader peace talks, declaring that his government has no interest in entering another military confrontation with the Jewish state.

Archaeologists excavating near Jerusalem’s Tower of David have uncovered a rare clay mold used to produce female figurines during the First Temple period, offering a striking glimpse into the religious struggle that unfolded in the Biblical city during the age of the prophets.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday as the two leaders confront critical decisions over Iran, Gaza and the broader security landscape across the Middle East.

Israel’s Security Cabinet approved in principle Sunday the deployment of an international stabilization force in parts of the Gaza Strip, clearing the way for an initial reconstruction and humanitarian project in Rafah.

Thousands of Jewish worshipers ascended the Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av, turning the solemn fast over the destruction of the biblical Temples into a striking display of renewed Jewish prayer at the contested holy site. The scenes underscored a profound shift now unfolding in Jerusalem, where mourning over the Temples’ destruction is increasingly joined by open calls for restored Jewish worship—and, among a growing number of activists, the rebuilding of the Temple itself.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that a landmark civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia will move forward only if the kingdom joins the Abraham Accords and formally normalizes relations with Israel.

Israel’s newly appointed Mossad director, Roman Gofman, quietly traveled to Washington earlier this month for high-level talks with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and White House officials focused on Iran’s nuclear program and the continuing regional war, according to an Axios report published Wednesday.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Monday rejected an emergency request from the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization to halt enforcement of a $655.5 million terrorism judgment while they pursue an appeal.

The U.S. Senate has released its version of the five-year farm bill and plans to mark it up in committee Thursday, finally making progress on the critical agricultural policy package.

Anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York City rose 53.3% in July compared with the same month last year, according to NYPD figures reported by JNS.

Motivational speaker Tony Robbins told Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that advances in nanotechnology could make it possible to connect the human brain directly to artificial intelligence as early as 2031 or 2032, opening the door to widespread human-AI integration within the next decade.

The Democratic National Committee is facing a deepening financial and leadership crisis ahead of the November midterm elections, prompting prominent voices on the Left to warn that the party’s national organization is becoming dangerously unprepared for the political battle ahead.

The Republican-led Senate narrowly rejected another attempt Thursday to force an end to unauthorized U.S. military operations against Iran, preserving President Donald Trump’s ability to continue the campaign without a new authorization from Congress.

President Donald Trump openly questioned whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune should remain in his leadership post as tensions intensified over the Senate’s failure to advance Trump’s election-integrity agenda.

Outspoken Christians and other government critics are expected to face mounting pressure after Nicaragua’s long-serving President Daniel Ortega said the Central American nation will no longer hold elections, eliminating any possibility of an electoral challenge when his current term ends next year and further consolidating the power he shares with his wife, Rosario Murillo.

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that could suspend American assistance to Nigeria unless its government takes measurable steps to protect Christians and prosecute those responsible for religiously motivated violence.

Powerful flash floods have swept away churches, damaged schools and homes, and severed vital transportation routes in a remote border region of northeastern India.

Pakistani Christian advocacy leaders have praised the European Union’s legislature for condemning the persecution of Christians and other violations of freedom of religion or belief in Pakistan and several other countries.

An American aid worker with the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has arrived in Germany for treatment, the health ministry in Berlin said Monday, amid warnings that the potentially deadly disease is spreading much faster than official figures suggest.

Anglican leaders have approved an ambitious initiative to plant or restore one million churches worldwide over the next decade, with the goal of bringing congregations closer to local communities and welcoming an estimated 20 million new believers.

A remarkable evangelical awakening is spreading through Brazil’s Amazon region, where missionaries traveling by canoe and riverboat are planting churches, baptizing thousands of new believers, and bringing the Gospel to communities once considered almost unreachable.