Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves further restricted access to abortion, limiting it to situations when the mother’s life is in danger. The country’s previous regulations also allowed abortions if a pregnancy posed a threat to the mother’s health. No legislative approval was required for the change. In making the rule change through the Health Ministry, Chaves made good on a promise he had given religious conservatives at the Evangelical Alliance. While abortion access has advanced in...

The United States is the biggest recipient of China’s lending activities globally, according to a study which tracked Beijing’s credit activities and found it is increasingly lending to higher-income countries over developing countries. The report, published by AidData, a research lab at U.S. university William & Mary, said China’s lending and grant giving totaled $2.2 trillion across 200 countries in every region of the world from 2000 to 2023. Beijing’s portfolio size is two-to-four times...

A Kenyan entrepreneur who designed an app that translates speech into sign language using AI-powered 3D avatars has won a major award for African innovation. “Think of it as Google Translate for sign language, that takes speech and text input and outputs photorealistic avatars signing,” said Elly Savatia, creator of Terp 360, a web-based app that uses 3D avatars to provide sign language translations from speech in real time, allowing users to communicate without relying on human interpreters....

We resume our exposé of the Endtime Pagan Man. He has evolved to sophisticated heights. 3. Concern About Tomorrow Societies that do not put their faith in God, by definition must worry about the uncertainties of tomorrow. The Bible says that it should be otherwise: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew...

As the Israel-Gaza war shows signs of winding down, another front of the conflict has intensified far beyond the region’s borders: a wave of global boycotts targeting companies linked to Israel. From fast-food chains and tech giants to consumer brands and airlines, activists have urged consumers to cut ties with firms seen as complicit in the war or operating in areas they deem as “occupied territories.” However, behind the visibility lies a more complex reality. Economists and trade analysts...

Egypt and Qatar have signed a landmark $29.7 billion investment agreement to build a vast real estate and tourism complex along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast—the largest Qatari investment in the country since diplomatic ties were restored in 2021. The deal was formalized between Egypt’s New Urban Communities Authority and Qatari Diar, the real estate arm of Doha’s sovereign wealth fund. The project, to be developed in the Alam Al-Roum area of Matrouh province, will span more than 20 million...

Wikipedia’s “Gaza genocide” entry fails to meet the website’s standards and is an example of how neutrality needs to be improved, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a statement on the discussion page for the disputed entry. “I assume good faith of everyone who has worked on this ‘Gaza genocide’ article. At present, the lead and the overall presentation state—in Wikipedia’s voice—that Israel is committing genocide, although that claim is highly contested,” Wales said. “The neutrality of...

The Syrian Telecommunications Company signed an agreement in Tartus with Spain’s Medusa to lay Syria’s first international submarine cable through the Mediterranean Sea, a project officials say will directly connect the country to the global internet for the first time. According to the Syrian Ministry of Communications, the project will “improve the quality of internet services and increase the international capacity for data transmission,” changes that are expected to strengthen connection...

Palestinian support for Hamas’s October 7th attack rose by three percent, from 50% to 53%, from May to October of 2025, a recent poll by People’s Company for Polls and Survey Research (PCPSR) revealed. The majority of respondents supported Hamas’s response to the deal, but opposed the disarmament of Hamas. Nearly three-quarters (70%) of Palestinians, including almost 80% in the West Bank and 55% in Gaza, opposed the idea of the terror group laying down arms. Meanwhile, 60% of those surveyed...

“Come, Lord Jesus,” the last prayer in the Bible (Rev 22:20), has been the great desire of believers since the Ascension. A hopeful view of the Rapture. On the island of Herrenchiemsee, there is a magnificent castle belonging to Ludwig II, known as “the fairy tale king.” He constructed numerous castles, spending immense sums of money on them. When you’re guided through this castle, you can see the splendor and magnificence, as well as the extravagant liberality that was employed. But then you...

Journalism professor Thomas Hestermann’s team at the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg compiled their 2025 findings for the Berlin-based Mediendienst Integration, a research service for journalists that focuses on migration, integration and asylum. The results are alarming: “Foreign suspects are mentioned about three times more often than their share in police statistics.” A year later, about 1 million migrants arrived in Germany, around one-third of whom had fled the civil...

Mosquitoes have been detected in Iceland for the first time as the region warms due to climate change. The disease-carrying insect was first spotted by insect enthusiast Björn Hjaltason, who posted to Facebook group Insects in Iceland about a “strange fly” he spotted on Oct. 16. The mosquitoes are Culiseta annulata, a cold-tolerant species that live in the Palearctic region, which includes Northern Africa, Europe, and Asia north of the Himalayas, according to the National Institutes of...