The Kremlin says a settlement in Ukraine can't be facilitated by a drop in global oil prices as U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for over 30 years, is poised to extend his rule in an election that concludes Sunday and that the opposition dismisses as a farce.

South Korea’s military says it suspects North Korea is preparing to send additional troops to Russia after its soldiers already deployed on the Russian-Ukraine war fronts suffered heavy casualties.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor says he has requested arrest warrants for two top Afghan Taliban officials over the repression of women.

U.S. President Donald Trump drew pockets of laughter and a few moans with his blunt comments to an international audience while appearing by video link at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has warned that a Russian victory over Ukraine would undermine the dissuasive force of the world’s biggest military alliance and could cost trillions of dollars to restore the organization's credibility.

President Donald Trump is threatening to impose stiff taxes, tariffs and sanctions on Russia if an agreement isn’t reached to end the war in Ukraine.

Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, taking charge as Republicans claim unified control of Washington and set out to reshape the country’s institutions.

When Donald Trump arrived in Washington in 2017 on the eve of his first inauguration, he was a stranger to most in town.

Ales Bialiatski, a human rights advocate who won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Belarus and is one of hundreds of its political prisoners.

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to broker a peace deal in Ukraine, but as he prepares to take office, peace seems as elusive as ever.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says Donald Trump is a president-elect who for all of his aggressive talk is afraid to let America compete with the rest of the world, responding instead with tariffs and curtailing immigration.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is bidding farewell to the forces and personnel he's led through a tumultuous term.

The presidents of Russia and Iran have signed a broad cooperation pact to deepen their partnership amid stinging Western sanctions.

Three lawyers who once represented the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been jailed in Russia as part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent that has reached levels unseen since Soviet times.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his Iranian counterpart, President Masoud Pezeshkian, to sign a broad partnership pact.

The super-rich have long played a role in U.S. politics but have an unusually prominent spot in incoming President Donald Trump's new administration.

President Joe Biden in his Wednesday farewell speech to the nation warned that American democracy was sliding into an “oligarchy” of tech billionaires.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accused Russia of planning acts of sabotage worldwide including “acts of air terror” against airlines.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow is open for talks with President-elect Donald Trump.

A Ukrainian official says Russian forces are bypassing a key stronghold in eastern Ukraine that they have fought for months to capture and are focusing instead on cutting supply lines to it.

South Korea’s spy agency has told lawmakers that two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces while fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region haven’t expressed a desire to seek asylum in South Korea.

As President Joe Biden prepares to leave office next week, he's insistent that his one-term presidency has made strides in restoring American credibility on the world stage and has proved that the U.S. remains an indispensable partner around the globe.

Croatia’s opposition-backed President Zoran Milanović, a critic of the European Union and NATO, overwhelmingly won reelection for another five-year term on Sunday, defeating a candidate from the ruling conservative party in a runoff vote.

President-elect Donald Trump has tossed expansionist rhetoric at U.S. allies and potential adversaries with arguments that the frontiers of American power need to be extended into Canada and the Danish territory of Greenland, and southward to include the Panama Canal.

Thousands of Slovaks have taken to the streets as protests against the pro-Russia policies of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico spread from Slovakia's capital to towns and cities across the country and abroad.

President Joe Biden's administration says it's expanding sanctions against Russia's critically important energy sector over its war in Ukraine.

President-elect Donald Trump hosted 22 of the nation’s 27 Republican governors for dinner at his Florida club, looking to help drive the agenda in conservative-run states after he takes office in 11 days.

Donald Trump ran on a return to his “America First” foreign policy platform.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says the principle of inviolability of borders applies to every country, however powerful.

A dolphin rescue center in Russia says 32 dolphins have died since fuel oil spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait near the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula.

Russia-appointed officials in Moscow-occupied Crimea have announced a regional emergency after oil was detected on the coast of Sevastopol.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he's staying “cool” against critical personal comments made by Elon Musk but finds it worrying that Musk makes the effort to get involved in Germany's general election by endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Brazil’s air force says several of its investigators are working with colleagues from three other nations to analyze data from the Azerbaijani airliner that crashed in Kazakhstan on Dec. 25, killing 38 people.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on two groups linked to Russian and Iranian disinformation campaigns targeting this year's election.

From Sydney to Mumbai to Paris to Rio de Janeiro, communities around the world are welcoming 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges.

South Korea’s worst aviation disaster in decades also was the year’s deadliest plane crash worldwide, and time is running out on 2024.

President Joe Biden says the United States will send nearly $2.5 billion more in weapons to Ukraine.

A Russian man arrested for allegedly running a travel agency for gay customers has been found dead in custody in Moscow.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev says the Azerbaijani airliner that crashed last week was shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally.

The year 2024 saw President Vladimir Putin further cement his power as he sought to counter Russia's isolation over the war in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people.

U.S. officials say the United States is expected to announce it will send another $1.25 billion in military assistance to Ukraine.

The Wednesday crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan has killed 38 of 67 people on board.

Russia’s top security agency says that it has arrested several suspects accused of involvement in an alleged Ukrainian plot to assassinate senior military officers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to the Kremlin by an EU leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukrainian drones have struck a major Russian oil terminal for the second time in just over a week, according to the Russian local governor, as part of what he called a “massive” cross-border attack on fuel and energy facilities that Kyiv says supply Moscow's military.

Russia’s central bank has left its benchmark interest rate at a record 21%, holding off on further increases despite high consumer inflation fueled by the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.

The rapid downfall of Syrian leader Bashar Assad has touched off a new round of delicate geopolitical maneuvering between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

European Union leaders insist no decisions can be taken about the future of Ukraine without its consent or behind their backs.

President Vladimir Putin has boasted that his military operation in Ukraine has strengthened Russia and denied that the downfall of a key ally in Syria had dented Moscow’s prestige.

A Palestinian Health Ministry official says Israeli airstrikes slammed into two schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City.

People in Finland have been left unsettled by expansionist neighbor Russia and inspired by its recent accession to NATO, are increasingly taking national self-defense into their own hands.

North Korea demonstrated this year that it could produce ballistic missiles and supply them to Russia for use against Ukraine in a matter of months.

The killing of a senior Russian general in a bombing outside his apartment building in Moscow was the boldest assassination yet of a top military officer and it again brought the war in Ukraine to the streets of the capital.

A prominent Russian opposition politician freed as part of the largest East-West civilian prisoner swap since the Cold War says that fears of his mother’s poisoning in Berlin have proven false.

President-elect Donald Trump says he might reverse President Joe Biden’s decision to permit Ukrainian forces to use American long-range weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is challenging President-elect Donald Trump to reject the isolationist voices within their party and build his foreign policy around military strength.

Russia’s intervention on behalf of former Syrian leader Bashar Assad once turned the tide of Syria's civil war.

The European Union has imposed fresh sanctions on dozens of officials linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

After insurgents toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad this month, many senior officials and members of his dreaded intelligence and security services appear to have melted away.

Russia has launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine.

In a wide-ranging interview with Time magazine, Donald Trump weighs in on Jan. 6 pardons, immigration issues and world affairs.

President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t think much of Joe Biden’s foreign policy record.

The Pentagon says Russia could launch its lethal new intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine again soon.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko says his country is hosting dozens of Russian nuclear weapons and will prepare facilities for the planned deployment of Moscow’s newest hypersonic ballistic missile.

The lower house of Russia's parliament has given initial approval to a long-discussed bill that would clear the way for Moscow to remove the Taliban’s designation as a terrorist group.

Even through a year of nonstop news about elections, climate change, protests and the price of eggs, Americans still found time to read.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to knock down the corruption charges against him as he took the stand in his long-running trial.

The grinding war pitting Ukraine against its Russian invaders has escalated ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The Kremlin’s failure to prevent Bashar Assad’s swift downfall in Syria has exposed the limits of Russia’s power and dented its international clout.

A Russian attack on a military industrial facility in central Ukraine on Nov. 21 marked the first use of a powerful new weapon -– a hypersonic ballistic missile with multiple warheads.

President Joe Biden says the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is a “fundamental act of justice” after decades of repression, but that it's “a moment of risk and uncertainty” for the Mideast.

Syrians poured into the streets in celebration after a stunning rebel advance reached the capital, ending the Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule.

Donald Trump is pushing Russian leader Vladimir Putin to act to reach an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine.

Europe's economy has enough difficulties, from tepid growth to trade tensions with the U.S. Dealing with those woes is only getting harder due to the political chaos in the two biggest European countries, France and Germany.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced that the U.S. will provide nearly $1 billion more in longer-term weapons support to Ukraine.

Donald Trump is making threats, traveling abroad, and negotiating with world leaders.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Denmark has delivered a second batch of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Syrian refugees across Turkey have jubilantly welcomed the downfall of Bashar Assad’s government with many embracing the chance to return to their homeland.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited Belarus to sign a treaty offering security guarantees, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons, to protect Moscow’s closest ally.

Russia’s top diplomat says in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that Moscow doesn’t want a war with the United States but will use “all means” to defend its interests.

The LGBTQ+ community in Russia has been under pressure for years, but the situation has worsened since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine.

Belarus is cracking down on its LGBTQ+ community, detaining and beating nearly three dozen of them in the last three months.

Russia’s top military officer called his U.S. counterpart to give advance warning of Russia’s drills in the Mediterranean Sea.

Russia is spreading disinformation to American audiences in an effort to erode U.S. support for Ukraine as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.

The head of Britain’s armed forces has warned that the world stands at the cusp of a “third nuclear age,’’ defined by multiple simultaneous challenges and weakened safeguards that kept previous threats in check.

The surprise front-runner in Romania’s presidential election insisted to The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that he is not pro-Russian — hours before Romania declassified intelligence alleging Moscow ran an online campaign to promote him to voters.

It was a life that took him from peanut farming to the presidency.

Georgia is convulsed by political upheaval again after its pro-Moscow government, fresh off parliamentary elections denounced as rigged by its critics, decided to suspend negotiations for the small former Soviet republic to join the European Union.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has visited Ukraine for the first time in more than two years and vowed to keep supporting Kyiv in the war.

The president of the International Criminal Court has lashed out at Russia for targeting its prosecutors and judges over the panel’s investigation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and slammed comments by a U.S. senator threatening the court.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved budget plans, raising 2025 military spending to record levels as Moscow seeks to prevail in the war in Ukraine.

Romania’s Social Democratic Party looks set to win the most votes in Sunday’s parliamentary election, electoral data shows, while far-right populists are on track to make significant gains in the country’s legislature.

President-elect Donald Trump is threatening 100% tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the U.S. dollar.

Romanians are preparing to go to the polls in a parliamentary vote that will determine a new government and prime minister to lead the European Union and NATO member country.

Russia’s ruble is sagging against other currencies, complicating the Kremlin’s efforts to keep consumer inflation under control with one hand even as it overheats the economy with spending on the war against Ukraine with the other.

The head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service says Russia is conducting a “staggeringly reckless” sabotage campaign against Ukraine's allies that risks dangerously escalating the conflict.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov is in North Korea for talks with its military and political leaders.

Ukrainian officials say Russia has conducted a “massive” attack against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, firing nearly 200 missiles and drones and leaving more than a million households without power.