The abortion giant Planned Parenthood has regained access to nearly $1 billion in Medicaid funds after the U.S. Congress failed to renew a provision in last year's “Big Beautiful Bill” that defunded Planned Parenthood for 12 months. “Is this Congress, a Republican Congress, going to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to the worst, most notorious abortion provider in the United States of America?” Hawley asked, adding, “There is no excuse, none, for Planned Parenthood to be receiving taxpayer money to be carrying out the murder of the innocent unborn.”

Even as roughly 380 million believers face persecution every year, Christianity continues to grow—even in the most hostile nations where faithfulness commonly means imprisonment, torture or death. International Christian Concern’s (ICC) recently released 2026 Global Persecution Index began with an urgent call: “Our brothers and sisters in Christ are beaten, imprisoned and even killed for their faith. In many countries, it is illegal for them to share the Gospel. We must stand with them.” Each new page of the report paints a sobering yet hopeful picture of global religious freedom facing rapidly growing persecution.

Praying, carrying or reading a Bible, or engaging in pastoral ministry or other religious practice could in some cases be illegal in Northern Ireland hospitals that perform abortions, according to guidance from the Policing Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). The extent of Northern Ireland’s abortion buffer zone law has raised questions in light of the May conviction of Pastor Clive Johnston, who stood on a public sidewalk near a hospital in the city of Coleraine in 2024 and preached a sermon on John 3:16. Although Johnston made no reference to abortion, the court found him guilty of violating Northern Ireland’s “safe access” law.

The Pakistan Supreme Court has overturned death sentences for three men convicted in the horrific 2014 murder of a Christian couple who were beaten by a mob and burned alive after Islamists accused them of desecrating the Quran.

When theological claims are presented in the Name of Christ, people naturally assume they are hearing Biblical truth. My concern is that some of the positions you advocate may lead sincere people away from the clear teaching of Scripture and toward a version of Christianity that reflects the spirit of the age more than the Word of God.

Evangelical Christians in Europe are expressing heightened concerns over the sanctity of human life as assisted suicide was legalized in France this week while the U.K. Parliament and the Isle of Man consider similar measures. 

According to the lawsuit, the “intended fathers” demanded the termination at 22 weeks’ gestation. When the surrogate mother pushed back, the relationship collapsed. The same-sex couple is now accusing the surrogate of failing to keep them informed about the baby’s health, putting the child at risk, causing emotional distress, and violating confidentiality—all of which the birth mother has denied. As this legal battle unfolds in Canada, it spawns a number of ethical questions regarding the commodification of human life in an era of advancing reproductive technologies.

First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy has released its fifth annual Religious Liberty in the States (RLS) index. Arkansas reached a religious safeguard score of 89.7% and Tennessee an 85%, placing them in the “excellent” rating category. No other states in past reports have scored above the 80% “excellent” mark. Arkansas also placed first in the study for the first time. At the state capitol, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the study’s results.  “Religious liberty is America’s First Freedom, and Arkansas is leading the nation in protecting it,” Sanders said. “Our rights come from God, not government, and every American should be free to live according to their faith and conscience. We’ll continue defending that freedom and ensuring the Natural State remains the best place in the country to live, work, and worship.”

“It’s hard to believe that Finnish Member of Parliament and Christian Päivi Räsänen has been banned from flying through London’s Heathrow Airport simply for her belief on Biblical sexuality,” Graham wrote. “She has been persecuted for many years in her home country and accused of ‘hate speech’ simply for quoting what the Bible says about homosexual sin in Romans 1:24-27. Let’s pray for Päivi as she stands boldly on God’s Word and refuses to back down. God bless her.”

“In this moment,” she said, “I don’t want it to be lost on us what is going on here: that we have a president, and a staff surrounding him, that saw the importance and the need to call [on] God. Because for 250 years this nation has returned again and again to the God who created this beautiful country that we get to call home. We do this not because we’re perfect people; we’re not. But woven into the fabric of America is a deep and persistent belief that we cannot persevere on our own—that we need God.”

A West Virginia high school student—who for the past four years has fought to protect female sports from male participation—says the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding her state’s laws to keep men out of women’s athletics is evidence of God’s faithfulness after He called her to stand on Biblical truth.

“We know the YMCA has heard these concerns,” the letter stressed. “On multiple occasions, shortly after APC publicly exposed these policies, the YMCA removed or changed the webpages containing them. But the policies themselves didn’t change. In fact, our most recent investigation found that some YMCA camps have expanded these practices to allow adult biological male counselors to sleep in girls’ cabins so long as those male counselors identify as girls.”

Arguments concluded Friday in the preliminary hearing of the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk last fall. Tyler Robinson’s defense team attempted to cast doubt on video, ballistics, and DNA evidence. Meanwhile, prosecutors showcased multiple videos of what appeared to be Robinson on the Utah campus the day of the shooting, and digital messages in which Robinson seems to confess to the murder.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, Franklin Graham thanked President Donald Trump for his role in the release of imprisoned Christian pastor Ezra Jin Mingri—founder of an underground church in China—who had been detained for 266 days. Jin, 57, was released and reunited with his wife and daughter in Los Angeles Friday, roughly two months after Trump pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to free him during a U.S.-China summit in Beijing. Jin was arrested Oct. 11 after Chinese officials raided his home in Beihai, Guangxi Province, the previous evening and conducted an all-night search. He was charged with “illegally using information networks,” according to The New York Times.

“When a denomination votes to bless what God calls sin, the vote itself is not the real story,” he stated. “The real story is a church that has decided the spirit of the age gets the final word instead of the Word that made the age. That decision was settled long before any ballot was counted... Scripture does not leave us guessing about who we are. Genesis tells us God made us male and female in His own image, and He called His handiwork very good (Genesis 1:27, 31). A church that can no longer say so has stopped listening to the One it claims to serve and begun echoing the culture it was sent to reach."