US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the long-anticipated announcement of the Gaza “Board of Peace” will take place early next year, marking a delay from earlier expectations that the rollout would occur before Christmas.

Thailand and Cambodia rushed reinforcements to their shared frontier Wednesday as artillery exchanges and air strikes shattered a fragile ceasefire, forcing thousands of residents on both sides of the border to flee. The crisis raised fears of a widening conflict in one of Southeast Asia’s most volatile regions and impacted churches.

The Czech Republic, regarded as one of Europe’s most atheist nations, was preparing for a new government Wednesday after a Trump-style billionaire was appointed as its new prime minister amid ongoing scrutiny from the European Union.

The United States has seized a large crude tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from both Venezuela and Iran, a dramatic enforcement action that immediately raised oil prices and heightened tensions with the Maduro regime.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved its third consecutive interest rate cut, lowering the benchmark federal-funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 3.5% to 3.75%, the lowest level since early 2022. But the decision—passed in a 9–3 vote, the most divided in six years—exposed unusually sharp disagreements over the path forward as policymakers wrestle with a slowing labor market and stubborn inflation.

South Africa’s authorities have released new details about a mass shooting that killed 12 people, including children, at an unlicensed bar near the administrative capital Pretoria.

Despite Christmas approaching, many Christians in Syria aren’t in a celebratory mood one year after the toppling of longtime autocratic President Bashar al-Assad, investigations reveal.

Evangelical Christian backing for Israel is “more vital than ever” as the Jewish state confronts a surge of antisemitism and anti-Israel activism worldwide, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told a visiting delegation of Christian leaders this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Dec. 29 to determine the next steps of the Gaza ceasefire plan, Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said Monday during an online briefing.

Some 100 students have been rescued, and about 50 others escaped following Nigeria’s largest Christian school kidnappings in recent years, several sources confirmed Wednesday.