Russia declared Friday it is in “a state of war” against Ukraine and, indirectly, the West after calling its invasion of the country “a special military operation” for nearly two years.

A top-ranking U.S. Navy officer in Asia warns that China may invade Taiwan within three years, though Beijing’s military threats suggested it could occur earlier.

Much of the world’s commerce appeared to be dependent on ships from Russia and China on Friday as Yemen-based Houthi rebels agreed to give them safe passage while attacking vessels of Israel’s allies, including the United States.

A strong earthquake shook Indonesia’s East Java province Friday, Christians in the area told Worthy News.

Scores of Chinese warplanes flew around Taiwan shortly after officials confirmed that U.S. troops had been stationed permanently on the democratically-ruled island, local authorities said Friday.

Vandals in Dordogne, France heavily defaced a village cemetery and war memorial on Sunday night, spraying Islamic graffiti, including the phrase ‘France is already Allah’s’ on 58 graves among other consecrated sites, the Daily Mail reports.

Ukrainian officials say Russia’s military has launched missile attacks on the capital, Kyiv, for the first time in 44 days, injuring 10 people, including a child, while in the north, at least five people died in a separate Russian air raid. The attacks came as Ukraine struck areas inside Russia to push back an ongoing Russian invasion of the country, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of children from battle zones.

Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has unexpectedly resigned on the day that Irish legislators took a first step toward legalizing assisted dying in what is one of Europe’s most Catholic nations.

The world was moving towards another potentially massive armed conflict Thursday, with Taiwan officially confirming the permanent stationing of U.S. troops on its territory in the Taiwan Strait.

Iran, accused of developing nuclear weapons, has come under international criticism after taking over the presidency of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament.

Marking the eighth anniversary of the 2016 determination by the United States that ISIS carried out a genocide against northern Iraq’s Yazidis, Christians, and Shi’a Muslims two years earlier, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called on the US government to do more to support survivors of the 2014 jihadist campaign that involved mass murders, systematic abductions, rape and sexual slavery, forced labor, and forced religious conversion to Sunni Islam.

Critics feared losing more civil liberties in Hong Kong on Wednesday after local lawmakers unanimously approved a new national security that grants the government more power to quash dissent.

If re-elected, former President Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that the U.S. would stay in NATO as long as European countries pay their ‘fair share’ and ‘play fair.’

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Monday that a direct confrontation between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would be “one step away from a full-scale World War III.”

Having declared its alliance with Hamas in the ongoing Palestinian jihadist war against Israel, the Iran-backed Houthi terror group in Yemen now has a new hypersonic missile and has upgraded its current arsenal with warheads, the Jerusalem Post reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed victory in a presidential vote, while thousands protested against his “authoritarian rule,” polling stations were set ablaze, and neighboring Ukraine carried out deadly drone strikes.

A tense calm returned to the streets of Hungary’s capital, Budapest, after the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny accused Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of being an accomplice in the death of her husband and the war in Ukraine.

Thousands of people rallied over the weekend in Slovakia against media plans by the new government of Prime Minister Robert Fico following similar demonstrations in neighboring Hungary.

A Japanese high court has ruled that denying same-sex marriage is unconstitutional in a case that was due to be closely followed by activists thousands of miles away in Europe.

The sound of gunfire echoed throughout Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, on Thursday, with well-armed groups saying they wanted to topple Prime Minister Ariel Henry, an unpopular leader.