North Korea ratified a major defense treaty with Russia stipulating mutual military aid, the North's state media reported Tuesday, as the U.S., South Korea and Ukraine say North Korea has sent thousands of troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.

Russia had completed the ratification of the treaty last week after it was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June. It is considered both countries' biggest defense deal since the end of the Cold War.

The Kremlin on Monday denied a U.S. media report that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. president-elect Donald Trump shared a call about the Ukraine conflict.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump had urged the Russian leader not to escalate the war in Ukraine.

Iran signalled an openness towards Donald Trump Saturday, calling on the U.S. president-elect to adopt new policies towards it after Washington accused Tehran of involvement in a plot to kill him.

Iran's foreign ministry on Saturday described as "totally unfounded" U.S. accusations of a plot by Tehran to assassinate president-elect Donald Trump.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday made his first cabinet appointment after his decisive election win, while signaling his intent to ditch the outgoing administration's policies by talking to Vladimir Putin.

Russian missiles, bombs and drones battered three regions of Ukraine in targeted nighttime attacks, officials said Friday, as Russia mounts an intensified aerial campaign that Ukrainian officials say they need more Western help to counter — even as doubts deepen over what Kyiv can expect from a new U.S. administration.

Since the war began almost three years ago following Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor, the Russian military has repeatedly used its superior air power to blast civilian targets across Ukraine. More than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations.

As he bid farewell to Washington in January 2021, deeply unpopular and diminished, Donald Trump was already hinting at a comeback.

"Goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form," Trump told supporters at Joint Base Andrews, where he'd arranged a 21-gun salute as part of a military send-off before boarding Air Force One. "We will see you soon."

Rioters "actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them" after a soccer match, Amsterdam authorities said Friday as Israel announced it was sending planes to the Dutch capital to fly fans home.

An unknown number of Israeli supporters were injured in the Thursday night violence that was condemned by the leaders of both the Netherlands and Israel as antisemitic.

Joe Biden's name wasn't on the ballot, but history will likely remember Kamala Harris' resounding defeat as his loss too.

As Democrats pick up the pieces after President-elect Donald Trump's decisive victory, some of the vice president's backers are expressing frustration that Biden's decision to seek reelection until this summer — despite long-standing voter concerns about his age and unease about post-pandemic inflation as well as the U.S.-Mexico border — all but sealed his party's surrender of the White House.

After Germany's government coalition collapsed in a dramatic fashion when Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats, Scholz said he would lead the country with a minority government, despite calls from opposition leaders on Thursday for early elections.

The chancellor said the minority government would be made up of his Social Democrats and the Greens until early next year — even as the leader of the biggest opposition bloc in parliament, Friedrich Merz from the center-right Christian Democrats, called for an immediate no-confidence vote and new elections.