Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a high-level security consultation in Jerusalem on Thursday amid escalating international tension over a possible U.S. military strike on Iran, according to an official familiar with the meeting.

A partial government shutdown was narrowly avoided Thursday after Senate Democrats extracted concessions from the White House and congressional Republicans, forcing a last-minute restructuring of a major funding package just hours before the Jan. 30 deadline.

The administration will announce its pick for a new Federal Reserve chair next week. Coal-powered energy saved lives during Winter Storm Fern. An impending Russia-Ukraine peace deal is coming. A million people have signed their babies up for new $1,000 accounts. President Donald Trump held a shorter-than-usual cabinet meeting Thursday, the first of the new year, and these are some of the highlights that were shared.

The European Union on Thursday formally designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, marking a historic shift in the bloc’s Iran policy following years of internal debate and mounting pressure over Tehran’s violent repression of dissent.

A Pakistani Christian laborer is recovering from his injuries after he was allegedly nearly burned alive by a suspected Muslim extremist for his faith in Christ in Pakistan’s Punjab province, highlighting ongoing threats faced by Christians and other minorities in the Islamic nation.

President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Iran on Wednesday, declaring that “time is running out” for Tehran to negotiate over its nuclear program as a major U.S. naval armada moves into the Middle East. At the same time, key American allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announced they would not support or facilitate any U.S. military strikes against Iran from their territory or airspace.

The progressive mayor of Budapest has condemned Hungarian prosecutors for seeking to fine him after hundreds of thousands of people joined a Pride march in the Hungarian capital despite a government-backed ban.

The United States has formally completed its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, the State Department confirmed Tuesday, marking President Donald Trump’s second exit from the global climate pact and fulfilling a key pledge of his administration’s “America First” agenda.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that “America is back” after the S&P 500 Index, which tracks the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the United States, surpassed the 7,000-point mark for the first time in its history.

Amid congressional outcry over the Trump administration’s military actions in Venezuela, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the moves Wednesday and outlined future plans to U.S. lawmakers.