Senior officials in Iran have acknowledged the Islamic Republic has been “thrust into survival mode” as the country faces its largest and most violent wave of protests in three years, with unrest spreading across most provinces and mounting international pressure on the regime.

At least 41 young men have died in South Africa from complications linked to circumcision procedures performed during annual traditional initiation rites, authorities said, reigniting debate over the practice.

As Switzerland was plunged into mourning, Swiss prosecutors said Saturday they have placed under criminal investigation the two managers of a bar where a blaze on New Year’s Day killed at least 40 people.

Indonesian authorities have intensified the search for a Spanish father and his children missing after a traditional wooden tourist boat sank near Padar Island, off the coast of eastern Indonesia, close to the world-famous Komodo National Park.

Bulgaria has formally consigned its longtime national currency, the lev, to history after entering the euro zone on New Year’s Day, becoming the 21st member of the single-currency bloc despite lingering concerns among citizens that the move could fuel higher prices.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump said Saturday that the United States will temporarily “run” Venezuela after American forces carried out large-scale military strikes in the capital Caracas and detained Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, according to U.S. officials.

At least two people were killed and more than a dozen injured after a powerful earthquake struck southern and central Mexico, briefly halting President Claudia Sheinbaum’s first press conference of the year, officials said Saturday.

Two teenage asylum seekers were shot and killed on New Year’s Day in a park of the Dutch capital’s Nieuw-West (New West) district, raising concerns about tensions within migrant communities and public safety in Amsterdam and across the Netherlands, Dutch police said Friday.

Swiss investigators have begun the grimming process of identifying victims of a blaze that ripped through a bar in the Swiss Alps town of Crans-Montana, killing at least 40 people and injuring some 115 persons.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump confirmed early Saturday that the United States has “successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country.”

Iran threatened on Monday to target Israel’s undisclosed nuclear sites if its own nuclear infrastructure is attacked, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The warning marks a significant escalation amid faltering negotiations with the United States over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.

The Israeli military launched a rare naval strike early Tuesday against Houthi military infrastructure at the port of Hudaydah in western Yemen, marking the first time the Israeli navy have been used in direct strikes during the current war. The move comes in response to a series of missile and drone attacks launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels against Israeli territory.

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening amid escalating tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, urging caution as delicate negotiations with Tehran near a potential breaking point.

In a stunning archaeological breakthrough, Israeli researchers have unearthed a 1,700-year-old Roman marble sarcophagus in the ancient port city of Caesarea, depicting a rare and detailed mythological scene: a drinking contest between Dionysus, the Roman god of wine, and the legendary hero Hercules.

Israeli forces bringing water and sandwiches for the crew intercepted an aid boat bound for Gaza while carrying Greta Thunberg and other prominent activists.

The United Kingdom and France have decided not to recognize a Palestinian state at an upcoming international conference in New York, despite earlier indications that both countries were moving in that direction, according to diplomats cited in The Guardian and Middle East Eye.

Israel has assured President Donald Trump that it will not carry out a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities unless the White House concludes that negotiations with Tehran have failed, according to Israeli officials cited by Axios.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced Monday that the state is partnering with the Trump administration to open a new detention center for illegal immigrants in a remote corner of the state.

On the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act last week, President Donald J. Trump declared his administration’s sweeping effort to “Make Social Security Great Again,” celebrating both his new tax relief for seniors and an unprecedented fraud cleanup inside the system.

A federal appeals court on Monday overturned a ban on student-run drag shows at West Texas A&M University, ruling that the school’s president violated students’ constitutional rights to free expression.

S&P Global Ratings said Monday it expects federal revenue from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policies to help offset weaker revenues caused by his recently enacted tax-and-spending package, maintaining the United States’ long-term AA+ sovereign debt rating and short-term A-1+ rating.

Powerful Hurricane Erin, the first major storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, continues to churn across the Atlantic as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane, prompting local states of emergency and mandatory evacuations along North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

President Donald Trump announced Monday that he will spearhead a movement to eliminate mail-in ballots and certain voting machines from U.S. elections, declaring that only paper ballots with watermarks can restore honesty to the nation’s voting system.

National Guard troops deployed to the nation’s capital as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on violent crime will begin carrying weapons in the coming days, according to officials familiar with the planning.

Multiple ethnic Montagnard Christian leaders in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region were arrested on December 21 after they began preparing to celebrate Christmas and led congregations in unauthorized worship services, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

A Sudanese refugee and Christian mother whose husband stabbed her for leaving Islam and putting her faith in Christ is reported to be standing firm in her new faith despite her family’s ongoing hostility and the challenge of living in a camp for displaced people, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.

A Christian woman who was jailed in northern Nigeria’s Bauchi state in 2022 for allegedly insulting Islam was acquitted last week, Morning Star News (MSN) reported on December 20.

A leader of the Church of Iran, one of the Islamic Republic’s largest evangelical house church movements, was free Monday after being released from Minab prison in Hormozgan province in southern Iran, Christians told Worthy News.

Hundreds of displaced Christian residents will likely celebrate Christmas outside their homes in an area of Indonesia’s conflict-stricken easternmost Papua province unless Indonesian security forces withdraw there, a bishop says.

With Christmas approaching, Christians urged prayers for their community in war-stricken Sudan, saying they are in the crossfire as a bishop and a pastor were among those being attacked.

Christians expressed concern Thursday about the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Syria, a day after gunmen attacked an Orthodox church in the west-central city of Hama following other anti-Christian incidents.