National Security

Mexico is back on the World Watch List in 2021, a yearly index of the 50 countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan got his first dose of the Chinese coronavirus vaccine candidate, “CoronaVac,” on Thursday.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday that the presidency “is not for women” and that he has discouraged his politician daughter, Sara Duterte, from running for president of the Philippines.

Pope Francis sent his condolences and prayers for victims of the “violent earthquake” that struck Indonesia Friday, killing dozens and injuring hundreds more.

Christians in India face persecution “in all areas of public and private life,” according to a study by the Christian Aid group Open Doors.

A few days after attempting to dismiss disappointing test results from Brazil on China’s Sinovac vaccine candidate for the Chinese coronavirus, Chinese state media turned to attacking Sinovac’s American competitors Pfizer and Moderna, calling for a worldwide ban on Pfizer’s vaccine after 23 elderly Norwegians died, ostensibly from reactions to the Pfizer shots.

Lebanese officials imposed an extremely strict nationwide lockdown Thursday as coronavirus cases spiked and the prospects for widespread vaccinations grew dim.

The communist regime governing North Korea held a military parade Thursday, apparently featuring no social distancing or other anti-coronavirus measures, to celebrate the end of its eighth-ever Workers’ Party Congress.

Hospitals in Manaus, the regional capital of Brazil’s Amazonas deep in the eponymous rain forest, began reporting shortages of oxygen Thursday, reportedly forcing doctors to inject dying Chinese coronavirus patients with morphine to ease the pain of asphyxiation.

Preliminary results in Uganda’s January 14 presidential election showed 35-year dictator Yoweri Museveni with 61.31 percent of votes counted as of Friday morning, according to the Ugandan state electoral commission.

The government of Afghanistan is reportedly considering an offer from Iran to send well-trained and battle-hardened Shiite militia fighters to help defeat the Islamic State (ISIS), which has a significant presence in Afghanistan and is violently competing with the Taliban for power.

Two Christian-majority nations — Colombia and Mexico — appeared in the ranking of the top 50 most dangerous places to be a Christian in the world published by the Christian aid organization Open Doors this week.

Prosecutors in Russia confirmed this week that they would investigate a Russian state circus performance involving a monkey dressed as a Nazi and goats wearing swastikas.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard forces on Friday held a military exercise involving ballistic missiles and drones in the country’s central desert, state TV reported, amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program and a U.S. pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic.

Iran expects the next U.S. administration under President-elect Joe Biden to unconditionally return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal as originally negotiated by President Barack Obama, Iran’s Ambassador to the U.N. said Friday.

Government officials in Indonesia reprimanded local celebrity Raffi Ahmad on Thursday after he was photographed socializing at a private party on Wednesday hours after participating in the Indonesian government’s official coronavirus vaccination campaign.

The Ugandan military’s “heavy” presence in the national capital, Kampala, ahead of the country’s general election on Thursday evoked a tense, war-like atmosphere, Ugandan human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo told Deutsche Welle (DW) on Wednesday.

The more than 25,000 law enforcment personnel that are being deployed in D.C. is five times the number of military in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Indian government officials expect “several million” people to gather in northern India’s Uttarakhand state over the next several weeks as part of the Hindu Kumbh Mela pilgrimage.

The human rights magazine Bitter Winter reported on Wednesday that the government of Afghanistan deported ten Chinese nationals last week initially accused of engaging in terrorist activity, but later believed to be attempting to create a fake Uyghur terrorist cell to defame the ethnic group.

Chinese officials on Thursday blocked two members of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) team investigating the origins of the Chinese coronavirus from entering China.

“History will remember China’s achievements and U.S.’ shames in Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus] battle,” declared the first of a string of editorials in Chinese state media on Wednesday and Thursday that presented the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic as a stepping stone to greatness for China and a gravestone for the American century.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo received his first dose of CoronaVac, a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine candidate, on live TV this week.

Internet service provider Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) confirmed Thursday that it blocked access to a pro-democracy news website called HKChronicles under orders from the city’s Beijing-controlled government.

The Chinese Communist Party is using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to crack down on Christians, even arresting some for attending online services via Zoom, David Curry, the CEO of the Christian charity Open Doors, told Breitbart News in an interview on Wednesday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Wednesday that it would not allow any cotton or tomato products from Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province, into the country due to the high likelihood that they were produced by slave labor.

Sexual predators working for international aid agencies in disaster zones are still abusing vulnerable women and girls, a report by British MPs has revealed.

Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, chief of the Afghan Taliban, has instructed his top officials to “avoid second, third, and fourth marriage if there is no need.” Constant requests from Taliban officials for extra money to pay for multiple wives reportedly prompted the order.

Twelve months ago today the World Health Organisation (WHO) reassured the world on the then-new coronavirus outbreak.

The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) announced Thursday that prominent opposition leader and Putin critic Alexei Navalny will face arrest upon his return to Russia, state media outlet Tass reported Thursday.