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

NATO has been ramping up its forces along its eastern flank with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, deploying thousands of troops and equipment to deter Moscow from expanding its war into the territory of any of the organization's 32 member countries.

President Donald Trump's national security adviser on Wednesday sidelined about 160 National Security Council aides, sending them home while the administration reviews staffing and tries to align it with Trump's agenda.

The career government employees, commonly referred to as detailees, were summoned Wednesday for an all-staff call and told they will be expected to be available to the council's senior directors but would not need to report to the White House. The council provides national security and foreign policy advice to the president.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded an apology from the Episcopal bishop of Washington after she made a direct appeal to him during a prayer service marking his inauguration to have mercy on the LGBTQ+ community and migrant workers who are in the United States illegally.

Referencing Trump's belief that he was saved by God from assassination, the Right Rev. Mariann Budde said, "You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now."

China's relations are starting to improve with Japan, India and other countries that former U.S. President Joe Biden courted, just as Donald Trump brings his more unilateralist approach back to the White House.

The change of leadership in Washington on Monday could be an opportunity for China, which has long railed against Biden's strategy of building partnerships with "like-minded countries" to counter its growing influence.

Russia said Wednesday that it had taken control of a new village in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region in a westward push.

The defense ministry said in a statement that its forces had taken the village of Zapadne on the western bank of the Oskil River, which for a long time formed the front line between the armies, as Russian troops advance rapidly in eastern Ukraine.

President Donald Trump is swiftly breaching the traditional boundaries of presidential power as he returns to the White House, bringing to bear a lifetime of bending the limits in courthouses, boardrooms and politics to forge an expansive view of his authority.

He's already unleashed an unprecedented wave of executive orders, daring anyone to stop him, with actions intended to clamp down on border crossings, limit the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship and keep the popular Chinese-owned TikTok operational despite a law shutting down the social media platform.

Leaders from around the world reacted to Donald Trump's return Monday to the White House, offering congratulations and urging good relations with the mercurial leader.

President Donald Trump announced severe new restrictions on immigration and asylum in the United States hours after taking office Monday, declaring that he will send troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and attempt to end birthright citizenship.

Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and used a careening press conference in the Oval Office to announce the controversial order seeking to revoke the right of U.S. nationality to anyone born in America.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday promptly reversed Joe Biden's decision to remove Cuba from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, announced days earlier as part of a deal to free prisoners.

Donald Trump cast himself both as a peacemaker and fierce defender of U.S. interests in a mercurial return to the White House on Monday, vowing to seize the Panama Canal but also imploring Russia to make a deal on Ukraine.