Iran’s ability to threaten Israel, America’s regional allies, and U.S. personnel across the Middle East has been dramatically reduced, according to Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, who told a Senate committee Thursday that Tehran’s military reach has been severely weakened after recent U.S. operations.

Japan’s prime minister confirmed Thursday that a Japanese supertanker emerged in the Gulf of Oman after apparently making a rare “dark transit” through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz without broadcasting its location.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, urged the United States to become “partners, not rivals” Thursday as he welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing for high-stakes talks overshadowed by tensions over trade, Taiwan, Iran, and technology competition.

Hungary’s new Prime Minister Péter Magyar has vowed to return luxury government buildings from the Orbán era to “the Hungarian people,” after revealing that he found a highlighted Bible passage in former premier Viktor Orbán’s office declaring that “the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth.”

Saudi Arabia launched covert airstrikes inside Iran during the recent Middle East war, according to a Reuters exclusive citing two Western officials and two Iranian officials — a move that, if confirmed, would mark the first known Saudi military action carried out directly on Iranian soil. The reported strikes came in late March after the kingdom suffered Iranian attacks, including missile and drone strikes that exposed vulnerabilities in the U.S.-backed security umbrella protecting Gulf Arab states.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and fellow Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Yitzhak Kroizer used Jerusalem Day to issue some of the strongest public calls yet from sitting Israeli officials for expanded Jewish control on the Temple Mount — and, in Kroizer’s case, the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple.

Israel and Lebanon are set to resume negotiations Thursday in Washington, with Israeli officials describing the talks as a potential turning point in the long and violent struggle between the Jewish state and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror organization.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has submitted legislation to dissolve the Knesset and send Israel to elections, moving to seize control of a fast-developing political crisis triggered by ultra-Orthodox anger over the government’s failure to pass a draft exemption law for yeshiva students.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said an agreement between Iran and the United States may be the best path to ending Israeli military operations in Lebanon, while defiantly rejecting any outside demand that the Iranian-backed terrorist group disarm.

More than two years after the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history, the Knesset has approved legislation establishing a special military tribunal to prosecute terrorists accused of participating in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

The U.S. Senate, in a 54-45 vote, confirmed Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

A CIA whistleblower told Congress on Wednesday that agency scientists repeatedly concluded COVID-19 most likely originated from a Chinese laboratory, only to have those findings softened, delayed, or suppressed by higher-level officials before the agency later acknowledged the lab-leak theory as its leading assessment.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday temporarily allowed the Trump administration to continue collecting its 10% global tariff, pausing a lower-court ruling that found the import duties unlawful for three plaintiffs who had won relief last week. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a short-term administrative stay while it considers whether to keep the tariffs in place during the government’s appeal.

U.S. federal prosecutors announced criminal charges Tuesday against the operator of the cargo ship that struck and destroyed Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2024, killing six construction workers.

Inflation increased 0.6% in April, with an overall rate of 3.8% over the last 12 months, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Hungary’s former state secretary responsible for aiding persecuted Christians expects the new government of Prime Minister Péter Magyar to continue a mission that he says helped save “tens of thousands of human lives” around the world.

More than 100 new evangelical churches have reportedly opened and thousands of people have been baptized in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, church leaders say.

Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court ordered a 15-year-old Christian girl to be moved to a government shelter after allegations that she was forcibly converted to Islam and married to an older Muslim man, a Christian advocate told Worthy News.

Suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed at least 13 Christians, including three pregnant women, in Nigeria’s central Plateau state days after a pastor and his family were slain in a separate attack, Christians told Worthy News on Monday.

Presidents of Christian colleges and seminaries are raising concerns over a provision tucked inside President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy package, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” warning it could severely impact students preparing for ministry and religious vocations.