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.

Senior Israeli and Syrian officials are set to resume high-level negotiations this week in talks mediated by the United States, marking a renewed diplomatic push after months of stalled progress, according to reports by i24NEWS and Axios.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that U.S. President Donald Trump has been “unequivocal” that Hamas must fully disarm as a non-negotiable condition for advancing Trump’s proposed 20-point peace plan.

U.S. President Donald Trump has given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approval to take action against Hezbollah if the Lebanese state fails to disarm the Iran-backed terror group, according to a Jerusalem Post exclusive citing a source familiar with the talks.

Israel absorbed approximately 21,900 new immigrants in 2025, marking a sharp decline of about one-third from the previous year, according to data released Monday by the Immigration and Absorption Ministry. The drop was driven largely by a steep fall in arrivals from Russia, following the surge that accompanied Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Israel said Tuesday it has begun enforcing new registration regulations for international nongovernmental organizations, moving to bar 37 groups from operating in Gaza and the West Bank after they failed to comply with requirements introduced earlier this year.

Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani took the reins of the nation’s most populous city in a midnight ceremony Thursday.

President Donald Trump announced Dec. 31 that he will withdraw federally controlled National Guard troops from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland, ending months of contentious deployments tied to civil unrest and immigration enforcement.

Federal authorities are launching what the Department of Homeland Security described as a “massive operation” in Minnesota aimed at identifying, arresting, and removing criminals accused of defrauding American taxpayers.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Department of Justice will continue investigating what she described as widespread “government weaponization” by officials who served under the Obama and Biden administrations, even after courts dismissed charges against several high-profile figures.

One person was killed and another critically injured Sunday after two helicopters collided midair in southern New Jersey, U.S. authorities said, adding to heightened concern over aviation safety following an earlier deadly air disaster near the nation’s capital.

Tens of thousands of Christians have been celebrating Christmas and the New Year in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, defying concerns about rising Islamic extremism in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.

A 14-year-old Christian girl is recovering after being abducted and raped in Pakistan’s Punjab province, according to family members and police.

The murder of a Pakistani pastor has taken a dramatic turn, with police saying his wife and her alleged lover were the “masterminds” behind the killing, which investigators say was carried out by hired assassins.

Christians in Indonesia’s West Java province were weighing their options Sunday after Muslims reportedly formed a human wall to block members of a Protestant church from reaching their Christmas worship service, in an incident that has underscored concerns about Islamic extremism in the Asian country.

Nigeria says it has provided intelligence support to the United States ahead of Christmas Day airstrikes targeting militants linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) group in the country’s northwest, where Christians had been among those suffering from Islamic extremism.