A rare “Blood Moon” lunar eclipse will darken the skies over much of the world this week, closing out a striking season of celestial events that began near the opening of Elul, the Hebrew month of repentance and preparation before the Biblical fall feasts.

People in southern France tried to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives Wednesday after a rare tornado ripped through a small village, injuring dozens of people and damaging hundreds of homes, including many considered potentially uninhabitable.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Moscow on Tuesday for meetings with Russian officials, according to U.S. media reports, marking one of the most sensitive known contacts between Washington and Moscow since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

President Donald Trump sharply escalated his trade battle with Canada on Monday, threatening to raise tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, auto parts and steel to 50% beginning Jan. 1, 2027, after trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa collapsed late last week.

China pushed back Tuesday against the Trump administration’s expanding sanctions campaign on Iran, signaling that Beijing will not submit to Washington’s effort to isolate Tehran through what U.S. officials have described as a sweeping economic offensive.

Evangelical Christians in Tehran fear they will become further isolated after Iran’s parliament advanced legislation that would increase punishments for Iranians who interact with foreign media outlets, organizations, or individuals.

The Trump administration on Monday launched what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called an unprecedented global economic offensive against Iran, unveiling a sweeping sanctions campaign designed to sever Tehran from the international financial system and choke off revenue flowing to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian regime.

European leaders rallied around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Monday as Ukraine marked 35 years of independence and its fifth Independence Day since Russia’s full-scale invasion, while senior representatives of the administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump were notably absent.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that holding elections in wartime, as suggested by his former defense minister, would “destroy” the country.

The European Union marked Ukraine’s Independence Day by pledging to provide the war-torn nation with 6.1 billion euros ($7.1 billion) for “air and missile defense systems” as well as other “missiles, ammunition and radars.”

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham accused Russia on Monday of “outrageous threats” against the United Kingdom after Moscow warned that his decision to provide Ukraine with newly declassified blueprints for the production of long-range missiles would escalate the war.

Iran flexed its muscles Monday, saying it had blacklisted 45 tankers that had “broken its rules” for crossing the Strait of Hormuz, ahead of the United States launching what it called its “greatest financial offensive ever” against the Islamic Republic.

The American-Chinese race for global dominance in Artificial Intelligence (AI) escalated further Monday, with Taiwan announcing the indictment of nine people over the alleged illegal export of advanced AI servers to China as Beijing showcased increasingly capable humanoid robots.

Iran’s parliament speaker has issued a rare public warning that military power alone cannot preserve the Islamic Republic as hunger, inflation, and sanctions tighten around the country.

A Russian mother and son who fled to Finland after opposing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine have won a court battle against their deportation, but their future remains uncertain as Finnish authorities reconsider their asylum claim amid fears they could face imprisonment, torture and even death if returned to Russia.