The preacher, who authored the self-help book “When God Speaks: Thrive in Uncertain Times and Gain Confidence for Your Future,” added that he was “praying for peace” and “believing that some of these things can be averted.”

Ukraine is pledging support for the new authorities in Syria, which was once a key Russian ally in the Mideast.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was preparing to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria, less than a month after the overthrow of the Russia-backed government in Damascus.

From Ukraine to Gaza and Syria to Africa, the world seemed to be at war with itself. As nations clashed and lives were torn apart, the question loomed: are we spiraling toward global instability in 2025?

Conflicts around the world continued into 2025 as millions elsewhere celebrated the new year. Israeli air strikes on al-Bureij refugee camp and

Pope Francis has called for a “negotiation” to end the war in Ukraine in a Christmas Day message where he appealed for weapons to be laid down in global conflicts and reconciliation between enemies.

Associated Press journalists have been covering these conflicts since they began. Now, as 2024 ends and a new year begins, we asked two veteran AP reporters — Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Samya Kullab in Kyiv — to talk about what they saw the past year and what struck them. Here are their accounts:

Police in Kenya's capital Nairobi fired teargas to try to disperse protesters demonstrating on Monday against what they say is a wave of unexplained abductions of government critics as well as detaining some of those taking part.

and an adjacent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is playing out across the Lebanon landscape as the year ends. A continent away, the Russia-Ukraine war, which began with Russia's invasion in ...

The MAGA echo chamber: It wasn’t just the president-elect propagating the falsehood about an alleged migrant responsible for the truck attack in New Orleans. Trump’s son, Don Jr., also spread the lie on his social media account; so did far-right Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and a high-profile employee at Newsmax.

Richard Nephew is Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University at the Center on Global Energy Policy and an Adjunct Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He served as Deputy Special Envoy for Iran during the Biden administration and on the National Security Council and State Department during the Obama administration.