Activists and doctors said Tuesday Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests could be as high as 36,500, far more than at least 6,159 people, reported earlier, as a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group arrived in the Middle East amid rising tensions and warnings of possible further unrest.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned Tuesday that Europe remains incapable of defending itself without American military support, saying European nations would need to more than double current defense spending to stand on their own.

TikTok has agreed to settle a landmark U.S. lawsuit accusing social-media companies of deliberately addicting and harming children, just days before the case was due to go to trial, attorneys for the plaintiffs confirmed Tuesday.

India and the European Union have finalized a historic free trade agreement after nearly two decades of negotiations, leaders said Tuesday, in a pact set to reshape global commerce amid rising economic uncertainty and strained ties with the United States.

Bangladeshi migrant workers say they were deceived into traveling to Russia for civilian jobs, only to be forced into military service and sent to fight in Ukraine, according to an investigation published Tuesday.

The U.S. dollar is coming under pressure in the early weeks of 2026 as investors reassess long-held assumptions about the stability of the world’s dominant currency amid rising geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, financial markets and analysts say.

The United States on Tuesday announced the launch of a large, multi-day aerial military readiness exercise across the Middle East, underscoring heightened alertness as tensions continue to rise with Iran amid a deadly regime crackdown on nationwide protests.

Already frosty relations between Budapest and Kyiv further cooled Tuesday after Hungary’s pro-Russia prime minister accused Ukraine of election interference to overthrow him and ordered the Ukrainian ambassador to be summoned to the foreign ministry.

China’s military leadership is facing major upheaval after its most senior general — a close ally of President Xi Jinping — was accused of leaking information about the Communist country’s nuclear-weapons program to the United States and committing other “serious violations of discipline and law.”

The United States has formally completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, citing the organization’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, failure to implement meaningful reforms, and what U.S. officials described as undue political influence by member states.

The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying warships have entered the Middle East, according to U.S. officials, significantly expanding President Donald Trump’s military options as tensions with Iran continue to escalate.

Mexico was mourning Monday after gunmen opened fire at a soccer field in the central city of Salamanca, killing at least 11 people and wounding a dozen others in the latest mass attack linked to organized crime violence.

Authorities in Pakistan have detained two prominent human rights lawyers known for defending people accused of blasphemy against Islam and exposing what supporters describe as a “blasphemy business” network, sources told Worthy News.

Indonesian emergency workers on Sunday resumed search-and-rescue efforts for scores of people missing after a landslide killed more than two dozen villagers in the country’s West Java province.

Officials say Ukraine and Russia ended U.S.-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi without a deal, though more negotiations are expected next weekend despite ongoing attacks.