Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that his country's ties with North Korea were developing "as planned" as he hosted North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in the Kremlin.

A video posted on the Kremlin's Telegram account showed Putin greet and shake hands with Choe, before remarking: "Everything is going as planned."

Russia's test of a nuclear-powered missile that it claims can't be stopped by air defenses reflects Moscow's determination to look out for its security interests, a Kremlin official said Monday, after the United States and European countries increased pressure on President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Putin should focus on making a peace deal, not testing missiles.

About 100 people gathered at a church in Kyiv on Monday to honor two Ukrainian journalists killed when a Russian drone struck their car in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region.

Sudanese paramilitary forces seized a key military base in the army's last stronghold in the embattled western Darfur region, activists and aid groups said Monday in a significant blow to the military in a war that has gripped Sudan since 2023.

Medical groups reported dozens of civilians killed and health infrastructure destroyed as fighting raged on between the two sides in el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur. There were no definitive numbers on the casualties.

President Donald Trump opened his visit to Japan on Monday with greetings from the emperor a day before he meets new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is banking on building a friendly personal relationship with the U.S. leader to ease trade tensions.

One key to this strategy might lie in an idea floated by Japan's government to buy a fleet of Ford F-150 trucks, a meaningful gesture that may also be impractical given the narrow streets in Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

The last time U.S. President Donald Trump visited South Korea in 2019, he made a surprise trip to the border with North Korea for an impromptu meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to revive faltering nuclear talks.

Now, as Trump is set to make his first trip to Asia since his return to office, speculation is rife that he may seek to meet Kim again during his stop in South Korea. If realized, it would mark the two's first summit since their last meeting at the Korean border village of Panmunjom in June 2019, and fourth overall.

Anyone who watched U.S. President Donald Trump vow to condition financial aid to cash-strapped Argentina on the outcome of a "very big" and "very important" vote in the South American country would be forgiven for thinking that his close ideological ally, Argentine President Javier Milei, was up for reelection.

Russian military planes briefly violated Lithuania's airspace Thursday evening, the Lithuanian president said, condemning what he called a blatant breach of the territorial integrity of his European Union and NATO-member country.

Lithuania's foreign ministry planned to summon Russian Embassy representatives in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius to protest the violation, President Gitanas Nausėda said in a post on the social media platform X.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in London on Friday for talks with two dozen European leaders who have pledged military help to shield his country from future Russian aggression if a ceasefire stops the more than three-year war.

The meeting hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also due to assess ways of helping protect Ukraine's power grid from Russia's almost daily drone and missiles attacks as winter approaches, enhancing Ukrainian air defenses, and supplying Kyiv with longer-range missiles that can strike deep inside Russia.

Four people were killed and another 12 wounded at a train station in northern Ukraine on Friday, police said, when a 23-year-old man detonated an explosive device during document checks.

"State Border Guard Service employees were checking the documents of passengers on a diesel train. At that moment, one of them took out an explosive device on the platform, which then detonated," the national police service said in a statement, adding that the perpetrator was among those killed.