Over the last five years, European Union countries have been forced to adapt to unprecedented circumstances. They pulled together to purchase tens of millions of vaccines and devised an innovative debt financing scheme to resuscitate their COVID-19-ravaged economies.

After President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine three years ago, Russia restricted the flow of natural gas to weaken Western support for Kyiv. In response, the 27 EU nations weaned themselves off a dependency on Russian energy in record time.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit the White House on Thursday to try to convince President Donald Trump that a lasting peace in Ukraine will endure only if Kyiv and European leaders are at the table as negotiations move forward with Moscow.

Starmer's trip, coming a few days after French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron's own visit, reflects the mounting concern felt by much of Europe that Trump's aggressive push to find an end to Russia's war in Ukraine signals his willingness to concede too much to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Senior officials from Turkey's pro-Kurdish political party were set to meet with Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, on Thursday, as part of renewed peace efforts between Ankara and the banned Kurdish group.

The officials from the Equality and Democracy Party, DEM, are expected to convey a message from Ocalan, which is widely anticipated to be a call for the PKK to disarm. The call could potentially bring an end to a conflict that has spanned over four decades and claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium as tensions between Tehran and Washington rise after the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, a report by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday showed.

The report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said that as of Feb. 8, Iran has 274.8 kilograms (605.8 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%. That's an increase of 92.5 kilograms (203.9 pounds) since the IAEA's last report in November.

The Kremlin on Thursday ruled out any negotiation over the status of five Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed despite not fully controlling four of them.

"The territories which have become subjects of the Russian Federation, which are inscribed in our country's constitution, are an inseparable part of our country. This is undeniable and non-negotiable," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Ukraine said Wednesday that five people were killed in Russian strikes in the east of the country, while a journalist was among those killed near Kyiv by Russian drones overnight, her employer announced.

"At least five people were killed and eight were wounded in the strikes on Kostyantynivka," the governor of the Donetsk region wrote on social media. In a separate statement, the Ukrinform news agency said journalist Tetyana Kulyk was among two people killed in a Russian attack near Kyiv.

French police said officers killed a man holding a knife in each hand after he "threw himself" at them in the northeastern Paris suburbs on Wednesday.

At around 7:00 am (0600 GMT), police approached "a man sitting at a bus stop with a knife in each hand" in the town of Dugny, Paris police told AFP.

Chileans were able to return to a sense of normalcy on Wednesday after the country lifted a curfew imposed in response to a massive, rare blackout that left millions without power.

The metro in the capital Santiago was also operating normally after it had to be evacuated Tuesday because of the power outage.

The meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Donald Trump was a spectacle of thigh-patting, prolonged hand-holding and other touch-heavy displays that have become a signature of their public appearances.

It was another chapter in a relationship where physicality has often spoken louder than words as the two men have engaged in an unusual degree of touch since their first meeting early in Trump's first term.

Negotiations between U.S. and Ukrainian officials over continued American military aid in exchange for access to Ukraine's valuable mineral resources are gaining traction after a rocky start, something Kyiv hopes will help secure long-term support for its defense against Russia.

Ukraine has offered to strike a deal with President Donald Trump which would supply the U.S. with rare earth elements — critical for various technologies. Trump said that he wanted such a deal earlier this month, and it was initially proposed last fall by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of his plan to strengthen Kyiv's hand in future negotiations with Moscow.