Iran’s leadership has flatly refused to abandon uranium enrichment or scale back its ballistic missile program, even as President Donald Trump intensifies a dual-track strategy of diplomacy and military pressure aimed at forcing a broader agreement with Tehran.

Far over budget but still less costly than some recent Games, Italy’s Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics opened over the weekend, with athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus competing only under a “neutral” designation amid continuing fallout from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Portuguese voters headed to the polls Sunday in a high-stakes presidential runoff despite deadly storms that have battered parts of the country, with left-leaning former Socialist leader António José Seguro projected to defeat nationalist challenger André Ventura, according to exit polls.

U.S. forces carried out five sets of precision strikes against Islamic State targets across Syria between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2, the U.S. military’s U.S. Central Command announced Wednesday.

U.S. forces carried out five sets of precision strikes against Islamic State targets across Syria between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2, the U.S. military’s U.S. Central Command announced Wednesday.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announced on Feb. 5 that Ukraine and Russia have agreed to exchange 314 prisoners, marking the first such swap in five months and the most tangible outcome yet from U.S.-brokered talks held in Abu Dhabi. The exchange followed multiple days of trilateral negotiations involving delegations from Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran has entered negotiations with the United States because it fears potential military action, as both sides prepare for high-stakes talks expected to take place in Oman. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Trump said Tehran “doesn’t want us to hit them,” adding that a U.S. naval fleet is in the region as pressure increases.

Ukraine has signaled readiness to reach an acceptable agreement with Russia during renewed talks in Abu Dhabi, but Russian missile and drone attacks have cast doubt on Moscow’s intentions, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and other officials said.

A provincial leader in eastern Indonesia on Wednesday acknowledged deep government failures after a 10-year-old boy apparently took his own life when his family could not afford a pen and a notebook he needed for school.

The last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow expired Thursday, ending more than a decade of legally binding limits and verification measures that offered rare transparency into the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals. The lapse of New START marks the first time in over half a century that the United States and Russia are operating without any active treaty governing their strategic nuclear forces.

Israel has launched a forceful military intervention in southern Syria aimed at protecting the embattled Druze minority, after more than 500 people were killed in four days of bloody conflict in the province of As-Suwayda. The fighting, sparked by sectarian tensions between Druze militias, Bedouin tribal fighters, and Syrian regime forces, was intensified by alleged atrocities against Druze civilians–prompting Israel to act.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition plunged into deeper crisis Wednesday as the ultra-Orthodox Shas party announced its ministers were resigning from the government in protest of the failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service. The move, while not an official departure from the coalition, further weakens Netanyahu’s grip on power, reducing his effective support in the Knesset to just 60 out of 120 members.

U.S. President Donald Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday following a deadly Israeli military strike that hit Gaza’s only Roman Catholic church, killing three civilians and wounding several others.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has issued a sharply worded letter to Israel’s Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, accusing his office of systematically denying visas to Christian groups seeking to visit the Holy Land. The letter, first reported by Channel 12, conveys Huckabee’s “profound disappointment” and warns of diplomatic fallout if the issue is not resolved swiftly.

In a diplomatically unorthodox move, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee attended a court hearing on Wednesday in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, making headlines both in Israel and abroad.

Israel launched an extensive wave of airstrikes this week against Syrian regime forces in and around Sweida, a southern Syrian city with a large Druze population, after reports surfaced of mass killings and executions of Druze civilians by regime-linked militias.

President Donald Trump is set to host Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at the White House on Wednesday, as the United States intensifies efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

The U.S. Supreme Court opened its 2025-2026 term Monday with one of its most consequential dockets in years — a lineup that will test the limits of presidential power, reshape key civil rights laws, and weigh fundamental questions about faith, speech, guns, and life itself.

The state of Illinois is seeking a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration for plans to deploy the Illinois and Texas National Guard to the Chicago area.

President Donald Trump sharply criticized a federal judge’s decision to block his plan to deploy National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, calling the ruling “a disgrace” and accusing the court of undermining presidential authority amid ongoing protests against federal immigration enforcement.

The U.S. government shutdown entered its sixth day Monday, with little sign of progress as Democrats and Republicans remained entrenched in a bitter standoff over health care subsidies and immigration-related provisions tied to government funding.

As the government shutdown enters its second day, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended Republican leaders’ refusal to concede to Democrats’ health care policy demands in exchange for their votes on federal funding.

President Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday that the National Guard is now deployed in Portland, Oregon, to protect federal immigration enforcement operations as protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continue to roil the city.

The federal government will officially enter a shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday after both Senate Republicans and Democrats blocked competing short-term funding bills, failing to prevent the first lapse in federal funding since President Donald Trump’s first term. The standoff capped days of failed negotiations between the White House and congressional leaders, with neither side willing to concede on core demands.

The family of a young Christian man who has been jailed in Pakistan for nearly eight months and almost died of torture on alleged false charges of “blasphemy” against Islam appeal for his release.

Five Muslim men, aged 21 to 25, were sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a 10-year-old Christian girl in September 2024 in Nigeria, in September 2024, according to International Christian Concern.

Preparations are underway for what organizers view as the world’s most expansive global church gathering since the Biblical Pentecost when people from many nations heard the Gospel.

The body of a young missing Christian medical doctor who was “murdered” in southeastern Pakistan amid rising Islamic extremism has been found, Christians confirmed Sunday.

A Presbyterian church pastor was recovering from his injuries Friday after being shot in Pakistan’s Punjab province, church sources told Worthy News.

Two Christians in their 60s, who were “pardoned” and released after serving a combined six years in prison for leading house churches in Iran, have been re-arrested, a non-profit organization advocating for persecuted Christians reported.

There was concern Thursday that Christians publicly expressing their faith in Britain could face a ‘thought police’ after a Christian woman was forced to leave an area near an abortion clinic for silently praying there.