A U.S. airstrike that targeted an alleged Islamic State camp in Nigeria has caused panic in the village of Jabo.

As 2025 wraps up, The Associated Press has curated a list of memorable stories and enjoyable reads published this year.

A bombing at a mosque in Homs, Syria, during Friday prayers has killed at least eight people and wounded 18 others.

Three Palestinians have been arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a Christmas tree and damaging a Nativity scene at a Catholic Church in the West Bank city of Jenin.

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.

Christian music is growing in popularity while other genres struggle to grow new listenership.

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.

An Australian state leader says a man accused of killing 15 people at Sydney’s Bondi Beach faced a lengthy gun license delay due to bureaucracy, not suspicion.

Florida's Catholic bishops have appealed to President Donald Trump to pause immigration enforcement during the Christmas holidays.

Christian influencers are reaching hundreds of thousands of young people online.

Israel’s far-right finance minister says the Cabinet has approved 19 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Thousands of mourners have gathered at Sydney’s Bondi Beach to mark a week since two gunmen targeted a Jewish festival, killing 15 people.

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.

A local Gaza hospital says Israeli troops have fired over the ceasefire line in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least five Palestinians, including a baby.

Pope Leo XIV has named the Rev. Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida.

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.

A rock covered with petroglyphs created centuries ago by the ancestors of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation is back home in the mountains of Utah.

One of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s appointees has resigned over social media posts she made more than a decade ago that featured antisemitic tropes.

It’s been called an “epidemic” of loneliness and isolation.

Americans are disconnected from each other at historic levels, buffeted by what a former surgeon general calls an “epidemic of loneliness.”.

Pope Leo XIV has made a significant U.S. appointment by naming Bishop Ronald Hicks as the next archbishop of New York.

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.

Faith-based films are gaining traction in Hollywood, with recent successes sparking renewed interest.

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's federal police commissioner has confirmed that a mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach was a terrorist attack inspired by the Islamic State group.

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.

Hamas has confirmed the death of a top commander in Gaza, a day after Israel said it had killed Raed Saad in a strike outside Gaza City.

Israel says it killed a top Hamas commander in Gaza after an explosive device detonated and wounded two soldiers in the territory’s south.

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.

Eastern Orthodoxy in the U.S. is experiencing a surge in converts, partly due to online content.

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.

Sound baths are meditative experiences where participants lie down and are immersed in sound waves from instruments like gongs, singing bowls and chimes.

A woman from Syria's Alawite minority has spoken about her harrowing experience of being kidnapped and raped by gunmen.

Pope Leo XIV is insisting that Europe must have a role in any Ukraine peace deal.

Gov_ Ron DeSantis has labeled the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a "foreign terrorist organization."

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.

A man who says he was held down and beaten by members of a religious group in North Carolina wants the prosecutor removed from his case.

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.

Pope Leo XIV embraces a Roman tradition by praying for peace at a statue of the Madonna near the Spanish Steps.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel and Hamas are expected to move into the second phase of their ceasefire soon.

An Atlanta church with a viral pastor has grown from less than 200 weekly churchgoers in 2023 to about 6,000 today.

Qatar’s prime minister says the Gaza ceasefire has reached a “critical moment” as its first phase winds down.

Mexican composer María Leonora relies on fire, ritual and Mesoamerican tradition to shape her immersive concerts.

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.

Pope Leo XIV's first full-length U.S. book is set to release next winter.

A Lithuanian court has convicted the leader of one of the parties in the country’s coalition government for making antisemitic comments and fined him 5,000 euros or about $5,800.

London’s Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square is a famed British tradition with roots in the Norwegian forest.

A former missionary with an Ohio-based ministry has been indicted on federal charges of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with four different minors in Haiti over multiple years.

Lebanon’s prime minister says his country is “far from” diplomatic normalization or economic relations with Israel.

The West Virginia Supreme Court has paused a ruling that allowed parents to use religious beliefs to opt out of required school vaccines for their children.

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.

Israel says it has received remains handed over by Palestinian militants in Gaza to the Red Cross.

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 prayed at the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, urging justice for the 218 victims.

Belgian authorities are puzzled by the theft of an infant Jesus icon from a Nativity scene in Brussels.

Pope Leo XIV has celebrated Lebanon's tradition of interfaith coexistence as a beacon of hope for a conflict-torn region.

Pope Leo XIV visits holy sites in Lebanon on Monday, drawing Christians and Muslims.

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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Israel's president for a pardon during his ongoing corruption trial.

Pope Leo XIV has challenged Lebanon’s political leaders to be true peacemakers and put their differences aside.

Families of Mexico’s disappeared gathered at a cathedral near Mexico City to craft Christmas ornaments bearing the faces of their missing loved ones.

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.

Pope Leo XIV has visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, emphasizing Christian unity during his trip to Turkey.

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.

Pope Leo XIV is encouraging Turkey to be a source of stability and dialogue in a world riven by conflict.

A West Virginia judge has ruled that parents can use religious beliefs to opt out of required school vaccines for their children.

Israel has returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians, following Hamas' return of the remains of an Israeli hostage.

Pope Leo XIV is embarking on his first foreign trip.

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.

The greatest mystery in Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” movies might be Benoit Blanc.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski has summoned the Israeli ambassador over a post by Yad Vashem.

Traditional Christmas markets are opening across Germany, drawing revelers to enjoy mulled wine, grilled sausages, and festive attractions.

Pope Leo XIV is set to embark on his first trip abroad with a visit to Turkey, marking a key event in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity.

Former New York Mets star Darryl Strawberry says God set him free when he was pardoned by President Donald Trump.

Paternity disputes in Uganda have become a significant issue as DNA testing becomes more accessible.