World News

Russian ambassador to Cairo Georgy Borisenko on Wednesday announced that Egypt has applied to join BRICS.

The US announced Friday that it will be providing a further $2.1 billion to Ukraine for long-term weapons in its fight against Russia’s invasion, the Associated Press reports. The US has supported Ukraine with extensive military aid and other forms of assistance but has repeatedly asserted it will not send American soldiers to fight this war.

Local Christians asked for prayers as coastal areas in India and Pakistan prepare for the arrival of Cyclone Biparjoy after an earthquake struck the region.

Authorities in Greece said Wednesday that at least 59 migrants drowned, and more were feared missing after their overloaded boat capsized and sank off Greece in the country’s deadliest shipwreck this year. More than 100 have been rescued, but search and recovery operations continued.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Friday that he will deploy short-range tactical nuclear weapons to neighboring ally Belarus next month, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

U.S. investigators suspect that COVID was the product of Chinese military bioweapon research, according to a new report.

While official talks on reviving the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran nuclear deal have apparently stalled, US and Iranian officials held indirect talks in Oman last month, Axios reports.

Kyiv said Tuesday that Russia had carried out a “massive missile attack” on several civilian buildings in the home city of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, killing at least ten people and injuring 28 others.

Suspected Islamic gunmen have abducted a Catholic priest in northwest Nigeria, his church said after several other abductions and deadly attacks.

Kyiv says Ukraine’s counter-offensive has already liberated four villages from Russian occupation, but the advance is overshadowed by devastating flooding in the southern Kherson region. Rescue and relocation efforts continue for civilians driven from their homes by the flooding from the breach of the Kakhovka dam last week.

Indicating the end of a 30-year trend toward reducing stockpiles of nuclear warheads, a new report shows that China took the lead among several countries which actively expanded their arsenals in the last year, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s flamboyant media mogul and politician who led the country three times as prime minister has died aged 86 after suffering from blood cancer, officials confirmed.

The United States is imposing sanctions on a network of individuals and entities from Iran and China for supporting Iran’s missile and military programs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a “global digital health certification network” backed by the European Union, but critics fear it will restrict the freedoms of billions of people.

“There is nothing wrong with the agreement (with the West), but the infrastructure of our nuclear industry should not be touched,” he said, adding that Tehran should continue working with The International Atomic Energy Agency under the framework of safeguards.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that his country’s long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia has begun. The comments come after an escalation of fighting in the south and east of Ukraine and Moscow expressing doubts about Kyiv’s progress of the widely anticipated push.

The former leader of Scotland’s ruling, Nicola Sturgeon, said Sunday her arrest was “both a shock and deeply distressing” and that she is “innocent of any wrongdoing.”

The founder of the website WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has lost his latest attempt to fight extradition from Britain to the United States, where he is wanted on spying charges. However, he will renew his appeal next week, representatives said.

Kyiv says Russia has unleashed new air strikes on Ukraine overnight, killing at least one person in a combined assault of cruise missiles and attack drones. Friday’s confirmed attacks come as Ukrainian troops reportedly target Russian forces in the east and south of the war-torn nation. The fighting overshadowed ongoing evacuations of people from Ukraine’s southern areas, where officials say at least five people were killed in flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

The United Nations has reported that insufficient aid has reached parts of Myanmar affected by the massive Cyclone Mocha slammed into the western state of Rakhine last month, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Dealing with the aftermath of the cyclone is especially difficult for Christians who are already struggling under violent persecution by Myanmar’s military government.