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.

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.

Political analyst Daniel Cronrath and News4JAX anchor Bruce Hamilton discuss the ripple effects expected in the Middle East after the historic ouster of Syria's Bashar Assad that brought an end to his family's 50 years of brutal rule.

At least one person has died after two Russian oil tankers took heavy storm damage in the Kerch Strait, spilling oil and sparking an emergency rescue operation, Russian officials told state news outlets.

Moldova’s parliament has voted in favor of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector over fears that Russia could leave the European Union candidate country without sufficient natural gas supplies this winter.

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

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 new head of the U.N. humanitarian aid agency is calling for “ruthlessness” when prioritizing how it spends money.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to Europe for what will likely be the last high-level NATO meeting before the Biden administration leaves office next month.

The former Wimbledon and French Open tennis champion Simona Halep has expressed dismay at the way Iga Swiatek’s doping case was handled compared to her own.

Two years after fleeing Ukraine due to Russia’s invasion, the Moiseienko family is finding their footing in Florida, with 2023 marking significant milestones in their new life.

Russian authorities have ordered a British diplomat to leave the country on allegations of spying as tensions soar over the conflict in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden is using the waning days of his administration to shape his legacy while President-elect Donald Trump is waiting in the wings to take office. And Biden is very mindful of the fact that Trump may very well undo everything he does once he moves into the White House.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is leaving on a diplomatic trip to Europe that includes a meeting of foreign ministers from the leading industrialized nations that will focus on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Russia’s third largest bank, Gazprombank and its six foreign subsidiaries were hit with U.S. sanctions on Thursday.

The U.S. decision to provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines expands the use of a weapon that the international community has long condemned because of its danger to innocent civilians.

The U.K. government has hit Iran with new sanctions for sending ballistic missiles and other weapons to Russia in support of the war against Ukraine.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter what he characterizes as U.S.-led threats.

Austria's chancellor says Russia’s state-owned natural gas company Gazrom will cut off supplies early Saturday to Austrian utility OMV.

A Russian man has gone on trial on charges of high treason for a video he had allegedly sent to Ukraine’s security services.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called on Western allies to provide further support to Ukraine “to change the trajectory of the conflict.”.

The nominee for the European Union's next top diplomat says the bloc must commit to Ukraine for the long-haul even as the war's costs mount.

The Kremlin is rejecting reports that President Vladimir Putin spoke last week with President-elect Donald Trump about the war in Ukraine, and a spokesman for Trump refused to comment on what he called his “private calls” with world leaders.

The United States’ European allies are bracing for an America that’s less interested in them no matter who wins the presidential election — and for old traumas and new problems if Donald Trump returns to the White House.

The U.S. on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 398 firms across Russia, India, China, and more than a dozen other nations — accusing them of providing products and services that enable Russia’s war effort and aid its ability to evade sanctions.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance says Russia is a U.S. adversary but suggests it’s counterproductive to approach Moscow as an enemy.

Russia’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by two percentage points to a record-high 21% in an effort to combat growing inflation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has presided at the closing session of a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, hailing its role as a counterbalance to the West.

South Korea’s president has raised the possibility of supplying Ukraine with weapons while stressing that his government “won’t sit idle” as North Korea allegedly sends troops to support Russia’s aggression toward its neighbor.

Ukraine will receive $50 billion in loans, backed by frozen Russian assets, from Group of Seven allies.

Officials say German submarine-hunting planes will patrol the North Atlantic from a base in Scotland under a new Britain-Germany defense pact in response to the growing threat from Russia.

Ukraine’s president is hoping allies will take a more positive stance on his so-called victory plan after the U.S. election, but concedes that its key demand — an invitation to join NATO — is not welcome by some key Western partners, in particular Germany.

On top of the grievous toll in human life and misery, Israel’s war against the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups has been expensive.

The prominent American writer Anne Applebaum has urged continued support for Ukraine with weapons in accepting a prestigious German prize.

Google, Meta and TikTok have removed social media accounts belonging to an industrial plant in Russia’s Tatarstan region aimed at recruiting young foreign women to make drones for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury has announced sanctions against two Chinese makers of drone engines and parts that the Biden administration says directly helped Russia build long-range attack drones used in the war in Ukraine.

A group that monitors political detentions in Russia says that a man convicted of discrediting the military after his daughter made a drawing criticizing Russia’s military actions in Ukraine has been released from prison after serving 22 months.

On Path to the Polls this week, News4JAX anchor Bruce Hamilton talks with Nancy Soderberg, a former UN Ambassador and expert on American foreign relations, about tensions in the Middle East, the U.S. policy on Ukraine and more.

Russia has recruited about 200 women ages 18-22 from across Africa to work in a factory alongside Russian vocational students, including teenagers, assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine.

Top U.S. intelligence officials say Russia and China are seeking to meddle with specific U.S. House and Senate races this election year.

The new head of NATO is vowing to help shore up Western support for war-ravaged Ukraine and says he can work with whoever is elected president of the United States, the alliance’s most powerful member.

New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer took the world stage at the U.N. General Assembly for the first time.

President Joe Biden has signed a temporary government spending bill that keeps agencies operating into December, after Congress punted key spending decisions until after the November election.

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party could win a national election for the first time when Austria votes on Sunday.

Two researchers write in a new paper that Russia was able to brace for the financial penalties imposed after its invasion of Ukraine because of the lessons learned from sanctions imposed in 2014 after it invaded Crimea.

It's not a great moment in world affairs right now.

President Joe Biden is opening a busy stretch tending to international allies anxious about where U.S. foreign policy may be headed when he leaves office in four months.

A charred transformer from one of Ukraine’s severely damaged power plants has come to a square in Kyiv’s city center.

Vice President Kamala Harris is pushing a new initiative to connect with Polish American voters.

Russia’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by a full percentage point to 19% to combat high inflation as government spending on the military strains the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services and drives up workers’ wages.

They faced the challenge of moderating what is probably the only general election debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden will host British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for talks next week in Washington that are expected to touch on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Top U.S. military leaders will be in Germany to discuss Ukraine’s wartime needs as Russia has conducted one of its deadliest airstrikes in the conflict and Ukraine presses its offensive in Russia’s Kursk region.

The Biden administration has announced criminal charges, the seizure of internet domains and sanctions related to Russian disinformation efforts to influence the U.S. presidential election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Mongolia, a member of the international court that issued an arrest warrant for him.

The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Mongolia next week despite the country being a member of the International Criminal Court.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says the 2025 state budget will include record-high spending on defense.

A Pennsylvania ammunition plant that makes a key artillery shell in Ukraine’s fight against Russia has managed to boost production by 50% to meet surging demand, with more capacity set to come on line.

China has expressed its opposition to the latest U.S. sanctions on Chinese companies over their alleged ties to Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying it would adopt necessary measures to safeguard the rights and interests of the country’s businesses.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says the challenge of deterring America's adversaries should be “front and center” for the next president.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Poland for top-level security and trade talks before heading to neighboring Ukraine, which is at war with India’s strategic partner, Russia.

NATO member Poland is paying tribute to its historic victory over the Red Army by honoring fallen Poles and displaying its modern armed forces, which it hopes will deter the threat it sees in modern-day Russia.

Serbia’s president has accused demonstrators who oppose a lithium mining project in the Balkan country of being part of a Western-backed “hybrid” warfare against his government and vowed to take strong legal action against those protesters who have blocked railway and road traffic in the capital a day earlier.

Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied in downtown Belgrade against lithium mining in Serbia.

The U.S. is sending Ukraine an additional $125 million in weapons to assist in its military operations against Russia, including much-needed air defense capabilities, radars to detect and counter enemy artillery and anti-tank weapons.

China will ban the export of all unregulated civilian drones that can be used for military purposes or in terrorist activities and restrict certain drone features.

Whether it’s Gaza, Ukraine, Syria or a new world order, it’s been Russia versus the United States and the West during Moscow’s presidency of the U.N. Security Council this month.

Russia’s foreign minister has accused the United States of holding the entire West “at gunpoint” and impeding international cooperation at a U.N. event.

Elevated into the national spotlight as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance has carved out a unique role in his short Senate career.

Some European Union leaders are protesting what they see as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s misuse of the bloc’s rotating presidency by boycotting a meeting hosted by Hungary.

The European Commission says that the commission president and other top EU officials will boycott informal meetings hosted by Hungary while the country holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

Ukraine hopes to find a strategic edge against Russia in drones built in abandoned warehouses or factory basements.

In their most serious rebuke against Beijing, NATO allies have called China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine and expressed concerns over China’s nuclear arsenal and its capabilities in space.

Norway says it will donate six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has discussed the war in Ukraine with the leader of Austria, an ally of Kyiv that has a policy of military neutrality.

A Russian internet propaganda campaign backed by the Kremlin that spread disinformation in the United States and relied on artificial intelligence has been disrupted.

New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Australia are sending leaders or their deputies to the NATO summit in Washington this week as the military alliance shows growing interest beyond Europe and the Western Hemisphere.

NATO leaders meet this week for a summit commemorating the 75th anniversary of the military alliance, which has never been larger and more focused.

India’s prime minister is kicking off a two-day visit to Russia, his first since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine — a war that has complicated the relationship between the longtime allies and pushed Russia closer to India’s rival China.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is making a surprise visit to China after similar trips to Russia and Ukraine to discuss prospects for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden and his Western counterparts are meeting in Washington this week to mark the 75th anniversary of NATO.

NATO allies are gathering in Washington for a summit this week, and the prospect that Donald Trump, the military alliance's most prominent critic, may return to power is dominating discussions.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has visited Moscow for a rare meeting by a European leader with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed peace proposals for Ukraine.

NATO has appointed Mark Rutte as its next secretary-general, putting the outgoing Dutch prime minister in charge of the world’s biggest security organization at a critical time for European security as war rages in Ukraine.

The European Union has slapped new sanctions on Russia over its war on Ukraine.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for talks on Ukraine, peace and bilateral trade on a visit to Beijing that brings the leader of a NATO member to a country that has backed Russia in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Behind the pageantry of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea, a strong signal came through: In the spiraling confrontation with the U.S. and its allies over Ukraine, the Russian leader is willing to challenge Western interests like never before.

The far-right leader angling to become France’s prime minister after the country’s upcoming parliamentary election has backtracked on the party’s previous promise to pull out of NATO’s strategic military command.

With less than three weeks to go until Britain’s election day, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is running out of time to change the tune.

Vice President Kamala Harris is pledging America’s full support in backing Ukraine and global efforts to achieve “a just and lasting peace” in the face of Russia’s invasion.

Wimbledon’s total prize money fund will rise to a record 50 million pounds, which is about $64 million.

The leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies have agreed to set in motion a $50 billion loan to help Ukraine.

Negotiators for the Group of Seven have reached an agreement on a plan to provide Ukraine with $50 billion backed by frozen Russian assets, two people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.

A fleet of Russian warships have reached Cuban waters ahead of planned military exercises in the Caribbean.

President Vladimir Putin says that he sees no current threat to Russia’s sovereignty that would warrant the use of nuclear weapons but has again warned that Moscow could send arms to countries or groups to strike Western targets.

Russia’s top state criminal investigation agency says a French citizen has been arrested on charges of collecting information on military issues.

The United Nations humanitarian chief says leaders in many conflict areas are more interested in power and political rivalries than in listening to the needs of their people, improving their lives and ending the fighting.

Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico says he believes he was targeted for having a Ukraine position contrary to the European mainstream but bears no malice toward the gunman who seriously wounded him three weeks ago.

Colombo and Moscow are starting talks to resolve the issue of Sri Lankans fighting alongside Russians in the war against Ukraine, after at least 16 people were reported missing in action.