Iran is reeling from a cratering economy and stinging military setbacks across its sphere of influence in the Middle East. Its bad times are likely to get worse once President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House with his policy of "maximum pressure" on Iran.

Facing difficulties at home and abroad, Iran last week began an unusual two-month-long military drill. It includes testing air defenses near a key nuclear facility and preparing for exercises in waterways vital to the global oil trade.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on Friday accused Algeria of "trying to humiliate France" after the North African country refused to admit one of its nationals who was being deported.

The influencer was arrested in the city of Montpellier on Sunday on charges of inciting violence in videos he posted on social media. French immigration officials put him on a flight to Algiers Thursday, but Algeria refused to admit him, saying he was banned from entering its territory. He was finally sent back to France that evening, the French interior ministry said.

The Kremlin has welcomed U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's readiness to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a senior Moscow official said Friday.

Russia attaches no conditions to the possibility of face-to-face talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a conference call.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin used their final meeting Thursday to press the incoming Trump administration not to give up on Kyiv's fight, with Austin warning that to cease military support now "will only invite more aggression, chaos and war."

"We've come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not keep building on the defense coalitions we've created," Zelensky said. "No matter what's going on in the world, everyone wants to feel sure that their country will not just be erased off the map."

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said Thursday she didn't believe President-elect Donald Trump actually intends to use military force to seize control of Greenland or the Panama Canal, saying she read his comments more as a warning to China and other global players to keep their hands off such strategically important interests.

"I think we can exclude that the United States in the coming years will try to use force to annex territory that interests it," said Meloni, who travelled last weekend to visit Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate and intends to attend his inauguration.

Donald Trump ran on a return to his "America First" foreign policy platform. The U.S., he said, could no longer afford to be the world's policeman. On his watch, he pledged, there would be no new wars.

But since winning a second term, the president-elect has been embracing a new imperialist agenda, threatening to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland — perhaps by military force — and saying he will use economic coercion to pressure Canada to become the nation's 51st state.

Jimmy Carter, who considered himself an outsider even as he sat in the Oval Office as the 39th U.S. president, will be honored Thursday with the pageantry of a funeral at Washington National Cathedral before a second service and burial in his tiny Georgia hometown.

President Joe Biden, who was the first sitting senator to endorse Carter's 1976 presidential campaign, will eulogize his fellow Democrat 11 days before he leaves office. All of Carter's living successors are expected to attend the Washington funeral, including President-elect Donald Trump, who paid his respects before Carter's casket Wednesday.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday announced a new $500 million military aid package for Ukraine at a meeting of Kyiv's international supporters in Germany.

The package includes "additional missiles for Ukrainian air defense, more ammunition, more air-to-ground munitions and other equipment to support Ukraine's F-16s", Austin said.

The head of Poland's parliament said Wednesday that the country's presidential election will be held on May 18, with a runoff on June 1 if needed.

The election will decide whether the pro-European Union Cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk will gain an ally in the presidential palace at a challenging time for Poland and for Europe.

President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to call off Friday's sentencing in his hush money case in New York.

Trump's lawyers turned to the nation's highest court on Wednesday after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump's trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has denied wrongdoing.