British-born Thomas Paine helped inspire the 13 English colonies to declare independence and form the United States of America.
Pope Leo XIV has denounced how nations are increasingly using force to assert their dominion worldwide.
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered in Somalia’s capital to protest Israel’s recognition of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland.
Health officials say at least 13 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza as U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce his Board of Peace to oversee the fragile ceasefire.
A massive crowd of mostly barefoot Filipino Catholics is joining an annual procession of a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ in the Philippine capital, with some using the gathering to express outrage over a corruption scandal involving influential legislators.
Investigators say a shooting outside a church in Salt Lake City that killed two people and injured six others grew out of a dispute between people who knew each other and were attending a funeral.
Israel’s prime minister says a former U.N. Mideast envoy, Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov, has been chosen to serve as the director-general for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace aimed at overseeing the peace process in Gaza.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a royal commission into antisemitism, weeks after a deadly attack at a Jewish holiday event in Bondi Beach.
Several court hearings and policies affecting education, health and more will roll out in the new year.
A grandmother and her 5-year-old grandson have burned to death in Gaza when their tent caught fire.
Incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is making history not only as the city's first mayor to take the oath of office on a Quran but also as the first Muslim, South Asian, and African-born mayor.
Israel says it will suspend several humanitarian organizations for failing to meet its new rules to vet international organizations working in Gaza.
Police say an investigation that extended to the Philippines of two men accused of killing 15 people at a Sydney Jewish festival has found no evidence they were part of a “broader terrorist cell.”.
Barefoot children played on chilly sand as Gaza’s thousands of displaced people prepared threadbare tents for another round of winter rain.
Comedian Mo Amer is gaining attention for his show “Mo,” which explores the journey of a Palestinian refugee family seeking asylum in the U.S. The series is part of a wave of TV shows by Arab or Muslim American creators that aim to tell authentic stories without relying on stereotypes.
A U.S. airstrike that targeted an alleged camp of the Islamic State group in Nigeria has caused panic in the village of Jabo, close to where the strike hit.
Police say that two people have been killed and at least two more injured in northern Israel in a car-ramming and stabbing attack by a Palestinian man.
Pope Leo XIV, during his first Christmas Day message, has urged the faithful to shed indifference toward those who are suffering.
King Charles III has urged people to focus on kindness instead of conflict in his annual Christmas address.
An explosive device has detonated in Gaza and wounded one Israeli soldier, prompting Israel to accuse Hamas of violating the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
On Christmas Eve, thousands of people flocked to Bethlehem's Manger Square and other Holy Land sites, after two years of subdued Christmas celebrations because of the war in Gaza.
Pope Leo XIV says he's “very disappointed” that his home state of Illinois has approved medically assisted suicide.
Gaza’s tiny Palestinian Christian community is trying to capture some of the Christmas spirit under a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
The Australian state of New South Wales is proposing a ban on public displays of Islamic State group flags and extremist symbols.
Originally a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus, Christmas has evolved into a global cultural event.
Pope Leo XIV has summoned the world’s cardinals for meetings to help him govern the church, marking the unofficial start of his pontificate.
Pope Leo XIV has made another high-profile appointment that signals a generational shift in the English-speaking Catholic hierarchy.
Thousands of people have returned to Australia's Bondi Beach in the first full day of opening since a mass shooting killed 15 people.
Hundreds of mourners have gathered in Sydney for the funeral of a 10-year-old girl killed in an antisemitic massacre during a Hanukkah celebration.
Israel’s military says troops fired a mortar shell into a Palestinian residential area in the Gaza Strip, in the latest incident to rock the tenuous ceasefire with Hamas.
In 2018, German artist Michael Triegel asked a homeless man in Rome to pose for a drawing, thinking that he would make an ideal model for St. Peter if he ever needed to paint the first pope.
An accused gunman in Sydney’s Bondi Beach massacre has been charged with 59 offenses including 15 charges of murder as hundreds of mourners gathered in Sydney to begin funerals for the victims.
Ahmed al Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian tobacco shop owner, has become a national hero in Australia, with an online fundraiser for him raising millions of dollars.
Palestinians in Gaza are struggling to recover from torrential rains that have battered the enclave for days, flooding camps for the displaced, collapsing buildings already badly damaged in the two-year war and leaving at least 12 dead, including a two-week-old baby.
Australia is preparing for the funerals of some of the victims of an antisemitic mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Leading Jewish groups in the United States are urging all Jewish organizations to ratchet up security at public events following the weekend's mass shooting attack on a Hanukkah celebration on a beach in Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called an attack on a Hanukkah celebration at a Sydney beach that killed at least 11 people an act of antisemitism and terrorism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticized Australia's leader, linking calls for a Palestinian state to rising antisemitism.
Archaeologists in Turkey have uncovered a significant fresco of Jesus as the "Good Shepherd" from Anatolia's early Christian era.
New footage shows six Israeli hostages celebrating Hanukkah while held captive in Gaza months before they were killed.
In a story published Dec. 12, 2025, about Nativity scenes portraying immigration enforcement, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the Rev. Jillian Westerfield’s church is United Methodist.
A Hamas leader is calling for international pressure on Israel before the Palestinian militant group moves forward with the next phase of the ceasefire in the territory.
Hundreds of Nicaraguans caroled the Virgin Mary at flower-and-light-filled altars set up in church parking lots as well as the back of vehicles on the streets of Miami to mark the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has designated one of the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy groups in the U.S. a “foreign terrorist organization,” following a similar step by Texas last month.
A federal judge has approved a federal settlement that will clear the way for the New Orleans Archdiocese to pay at least $230 million to hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse.
A Harvard visiting law professor from Brazil who told police he was shooting at rats when he fired a pellet gun near a synagogue on Yom Kippur has left the United States after his visa was revoked.
Pope Leo XIV has taken his biggest step yet to correct one of Pope Francis’ more problematic financial moves.
In the Ecuadorian Andes, young Otavalo Indigenous people are using anime to inspire pride in their culture and language.
Lebanon’s prime minister says his country is “far from” diplomatic normalization or economic relations with Israel.
A graduate student instructor at the University of Oklahoma was placed on administrative leave after a student claimed she was religiously discriminated against for receiving a “zero” on an assignment.
Pope Leo XIV has shared his thoughts during the conclave that elected him, saying he resigned himself to the inevitable and put the rest in God’s hands.
Pope Leo XIV has offered a silent prayer at the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion as he wrapped up his first foreign trip to Turkey and Lebanon.
Pope Leo XIV has celebrated Lebanon's tradition of interfaith coexistence as a beacon of hope for a conflict-torn region.
Pope Leo XIV's visit to Lebanon highlights the country's religious pluralism and sends a message to Christians not to abandon the region.
Pope Leo XIV has doubled down on the Holy See’s insistence on a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pope Leo XIV has challenged Lebanon’s political leaders to be true peacemakers and put their differences aside.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,000 since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Pope Leo XIV has visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque without praying there as he focused on strengthening ties with Orthodox patriarchs.
Israeli forces have raided a village in southern Syria, killing at least 13 people, according to Syrian officials.
Pope Leo XIV has marked a significant moment in his first foreign trip to Turkey by visiting the site of the historic Council of Nicaea.
Pope Leo XIV has joined Orthodox patriarchs and ecumenical leaders in Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
People who work with refugees are worried about backlash after authorities say an Afghan national shot National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., this week.
Israel has returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians, following Hamas' return of the remains of an Israeli hostage.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson's family says that the civil rights leader has been released from a hospital where he was treated for a rare neurological disorder.
As travel picks up for the season, flyers can find a moment of quiet and relaxation at interfaith chapels or meditation spaces in many U.S. airports.
The Vatican has doubled down on the value of monogamous marriage between a man and woman.