The Trump administration on Monday escalated its pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, formally designating the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization—a move that adds new terrorism-based sanctions and intensifies concerns of potential U.S. military action.
Israel announced a major expansion of its air-defense production last Thursday, accelerating manufacturing of Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and the emerging Iron Beam laser system amid warnings that two years of nonstop conflict have strained the country’s defensive readiness.
Crime-ridden Chicago on Monday faced the prospect of a bleak Christmas after shootings rocked the heart of this U.S. city, killing one person and injuring at least eight others, authorities said.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to review recent remarks by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) after the retired Navy captain appeared in a video urging service members to “refuse illegal orders,” a message the Trump administration has denounced as dangerous and politically motivated.
Authorities say Russia has launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 20 others in strikes that hit residential buildings and energy infrastructure, despite peace talks.
In one of the most sweeping crackdowns on underground Christianity in recent years, Chinese authorities have formally arrested 18 leaders of the Beijing Zion Church, according to the Christian rights organization ChinaAid. The arrests finalize detentions that began in early October as part of a multi-province operation targeting unregistered Christian groups.
Israel has approved a multi-year plan to bring roughly 5,800 members of India’s Bnei Menashe community to the country by 2030, the government announced Sunday, calling the move both strategic and demographic in significance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the United States has reaffirmed its pledge to preserve Israel’s strategic edge in the Middle East, even as President Donald Trump advances a controversial sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may have lost its high-profile founder, Elon Musk, but its mission is still running inside the federal bureaucracy, according to Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor.
A federal judge on Monday dismissed criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the cases — Lindsey Halligan — was never lawfully appointed to serve as interim U.S. attorney.