Portugal faced a political earthquake Monday after the leader of its center-right Democratic Alliance, Luis Montenegro, claimed victory and the far right surged in early parliamentary elections that could end nearly a decade of Socialist rule.

On Sunday, the U.S. military announced that it carried out an operation in Haiti to evacuate select staff from the country due to rising violence while also deploying extra forces to enhance the security around the U.S. Embassy in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

There was uncertainty Sunday about American forces believed to be in Yemen after the country’s Houthi rebels targeted U.S. vessels in the Red Sea, prompting an international response.

Dutch riot police clashed with protesters opposing Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s presence at the opening ceremony of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, which the Netherlands’ King Willem-Alexander inaugurated.

The European Central Bank (ECB) kept interest rates at the highest level in its two-and-a-half-decade history despite policymakers claiming progress in their battle against high inflation and other economic headwinds.

Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was to meet former U.S. President Donald J. Trump, who he views as a close ally in his battle against Western criticism over his perceived authoritarian style.

Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO on Thursday in a historic move that will see the military alliance increase its presence in the Nordic territory near Russia as a new Cold War re-emerges.

As China struggles to manage an economic downturn that includes slow growth and high youth unemployment, the ruling Chinese Communist Party announced Tuesday that it is increasing its defense budget by 7.2 percent, the Associated Press reports. 

Recently, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command reported to Congress that China is creating a new class of mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, signifying a substantial expansion of its nuclear weapon arsenal, the Washington Times reported.

The United States demanded Wednesday that Iran is diluting all of its enriched uranium to up to “60 percent purity” after warnings from United Nations experts that the Islamic Republic could enrich towards having nuclear weapons.

A new report on Iran’s use of the death penalty shows that the Islamic regime in Tehran executed a “staggering” 834 people last year, a 43% increase from 2022. Published on Mar. 5, the report was jointly compiled by the Iran Human Rights group (IHRNGO) and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty organization (ECPM).

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday he “fully stood behind” his remarks about sending Western ground troops to war-ravaged Ukraine and urged allies not to be “cowards.”

Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok has signed a bill allowing Sweden’s entry into NATO, but Budapest declined to endorse Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the next chief of the military alliance.

The government of Nicaragua has been engaged in human rights abuses against civilians that are “tantamount to crimes against humanity,” a panel of UN-backed human rights experts warned on Thursday. Commissioned by the Human Rights Council, the experts made their findings during an investigation into President Daniel Ortega’s violent crackdown on political dissidents, the Associated Press reports.

he UN’s nuclear watchdog has admitted it no longer knows how much uranium ore concentrate Iran has accumulated or how many centrifuges and other inventory required for multiple nuclear bombs it has now produced, the Jerusalem Post reports.