World News

Russia and China announced on Tuesday plans to develop a scientific research base on the moon.

To reboot the international travel industry, China has issued the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine passport, which shows a user’s vaccination status, recent coronavirus test results, and antibody test results, according to reports.

BGI Genomics—the Chinese Communist Party-linked genomics firm flagged by U.S. officials as “mining” the DNA of Americans—has collaborated extensively with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The National Pulse can reveal.

Rights groups have said Iran appears to be using internet shutdowns to hide government violations of human rights – and even extra-judicial killings, the Times of Israel reports.

Last week’s discovery of a massive new cyberattack that targeted flaws in Microsoft’s Exchange Server indicates the world has entered into the age of mass-scale cyberwar, Axios reports. The Microsoft hack affected some 30,000 small businesses and organizations in the US and many more globally, and follows the SolarWinds massive hack in December.

Pope Francis has visited Iraq to reassure the nation’s dwindling Christian community of his prayers after years of Islamic attacks and persecution.

In a further move away from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran has started enriching uranium with a third cascade, or cluster, of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its underground plant at Natanz, Reuters reported on March 8, citing a report by the UN nuclear watchdog.

The ruling Fidesz party of Hungary’s outspoken Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has left the largest center-right political group within the European Parliament after tensions over his perceived autocratic style.

At least 20 people were killed and more than 500 injured when explosions at a military base rocked Equatorial Guinea’s largest city, authorities said.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry said Sunday they married in secret three days before their highly publicized royal wedding, as they felt “trapped” in the royal family.

Indonesia has appointed an evangelical Christian as its new national police chief, thwarting opposition from Islamic groups in the predominantly Muslim country, the Christian Post reports. Commissioner General Listyo Sigit Prabowo was sworn in on January 27. and is the first Christian to hold this post in 50 years.

A standoff between the European signatories to the Iran nuclear deal and Tehran has been eased, at least temporarily, by the Iranian regime’s agreement to hold technical talks next month with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over questions about its nuclear program.

Pope Francis has addressed an interfaith gathering of Iraq’s religious and ethnic groups in Ur, said to be the birthplace of Abraham, the common patriarch for Jews, Christians and Muslims. He drove home the need for respect and unity, and he used the opportunity to condemn violent religious extremism.

Pope Francis was in northern Iraq Sunday where he prayed in the ruins of churches destroyed by the Islamic state and celebrated an open-air Mass.

The U.S. military on Sunday delivered a pair of clear warnings to Iran, with the Air Force dispatching two B-52H “Stratofortress” bombers to the Middle East while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed to “hold people accountable for their acts” if Americans are targeted.

China’s foreign minister warned the Biden administration on Sunday to roll back former President Donald Trump’s “dangerous practice” of showing support for Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by Beijing as its own territory.

The United States accused Syrian President Bashar Assad and his close ally Russia on Thursday of trying to block all efforts to hold Damascus accountable for using chemical weapons during attacks on civilians.

North Korea could be at it again. New activity has been detected at the Yonbyong nuclear site north of Pyongyang.

Officials in New Zealand on Friday downgraded a tsunami warning after multiple powerful earthquakes struck off the coast earlier in the day.

Pugs, Ferraris, mountains, brunches, beaches, and babies — Instagram is full of them. In fact, it’s become one of the largest image databases on the planet over the last decade and the company’s owner, Facebook, is using this treasure trove to teach machines what’s in a photo.