Demo News Separate Categories

Iran and the United States held a second round of nuclear talks Saturday in Rome, where both sides agreed to begin drafting a potential deal. Iran’s foreign minister confirmed the move, while a U.S. official reported “very good progress.”

Easter Sunday remained far from peaceful in Ukraine as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia intensified shelling and the use of drones. The reported attacks came despite Moscow’s announcement of an Easter ceasefire.

As Easter approached, there was some hope for hundreds of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war and scores of injured soldiers, with officials saying they were being exchanged on Saturday. It also came after U.S. Vice President JD Vance cautiously expressed optimism about an end to the more than three-year war following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The United States may abandon efforts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine within days if no clear progress is made, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on April 18. Speaking after talks in Paris with European and Ukrainian leaders, Rubio said President Trump is prepared to “move on” from the negotiations in the absence of any clear signs of progress.

Italy’s rightwing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says U.S. President Donald J. Trump has accepted her invitation for an official trip to Rome at a time when the third largest economy in the European Union tries to bridge differences between the EU and the U.S. over trade and security.

A federal judge has cleared the way for President Donald Trump to move forward with plans to trim the federal workforce through a deferred resignation program.

In a victory for opponents of the project, the boss of the U.S. Federal Reserve has said the central bank won’t develop its own digital currency as long as he is in charge.

After Donald Trump’s executive order to declassify all JFK assassination files, the FBI revealed 2,400 lost documents, while Task Force head, Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, suggested the involvement of “two shooters” in the former President’s death in 1963.

President Donald Trump sharply criticized a series of federal judges on Tuesday who have issued rulings to block several of his executive orders and attempts to reform the government.

Over two dozen Christian and Jewish groups, representing millions, sued the Trump administration to block expanded immigration arrests at houses of worship.

The Israeli government has agreed to a U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire during Ramadan and Passover. However, Hamas rejected Israel’s terms for extending the first phase of the hostage-ceasefire deal, which would involve maintaining the ceasefire and releasing more hostages in exchange for Palestinian detainees and terrorists.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Middle East leaders have a “strong desire” to see expansion of the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords that led to the normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Israel and Bahrain.

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire began in Cairo Thursday amid mounting concerns the truce will collapse.

Israeli Military Intelligence and the Southern Command ignored more than five warnings, such as new SIM activations in Gaza and unusual Hamas activities. Dismissing these as routine, they overlooked signs of the impending October 7 attack. On this day in 2023, Hamas and other terrorists groups launched an unprecedented invasion from Gaza into southern Israel, coinciding with Simchat Torah and marking the start of the ongoing Gaza war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed a negotiation team to “travel to Cairo for talks Thursday evening.” Israeli officials are hopeful to secure the release of additional hostages by as early as Saturday, although “discussions have not yet commenced” and the timeline is still uncertain.

A pastor in Ohio has been fined $200 and sentenced to a 60-day suspended jail term after being convicted of violating a municipal fire code order at his church.

Pepperdine University, a Christian college in Malibu, California provided essential assistance in the fight against the horrific Los Angeles Palisades and Kenneth wildfires earlier this month by allowing firefighters access to the school’s Recycled Water Irrigation Reservoir and acting as a hub for coordinating an emergency response for the affected community, Christianity Today reports.

A major human rights group in Pakistan has demanded the immediate release from prison of Christian Anwar Kenneth, who it says has been arbitrarily detained on trumped-up blasphemy charges for over 20 years and faces the death penalty.

A Christian convert in Sudan’s West Darfur state has been made to divorce his Muslim wife and has been shunned by his Muslim family on account of his new faith in Christ, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Devastated by ongoing civil war, Muslim-majority Sudan ranks 5 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2025 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

At least five people were believed to be in Pakistani police custody Monday over the Christmas Day shooting of Christians in Pakistan.