Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is making an official visit to the United States this week. He will hold a summit with President Joe Biden that's meant to achieve a major upgrading of their defense alliance.

He will also join a first-ever summit of the U.S., Japanese and Philippine leaders in Washington to showcase their cooperation in the face of an increasingly assertive China.

A senior Ukrainian official has denied Russian accusations that his country's army fired exploding drones at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which the Kremlin's forces have been occupying and running in southern Ukraine since shortly after the war began more than two years ago.

Andrii Yusov, the spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence agency suggested there had been no attack, saying Russian forces routinely fabricate strikes on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. However, the strikes on this occasion were confirmed by U.N.'s atomic watchdog agency, though it didn't attribute responsibility for the attack to either side.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Beijing Monday to display the strength of ties with close diplomatic partner China amid Moscow's grinding war against Ukraine and an ongoing effort to align their foreign policies against the U.S. and its allies.

The two continent-sized authoritarian states, increasingly in dispute with democracies and NATO, seek to gain influence in Africa, the Middle East and South America. China has backed Russia's claim that President Vladimir Putin launched his assault in 2022 because of Western provocations, without producing any solid evidence.

Russia said Monday more than 10,000 residential houses are flooded across the Urals, Volga area and western Siberia as emergency services were evacuating cities hit by rising rivers.

"On the territories of the Siberian, Privolzhye (Volga area) and the central federal regions a rise in air temperature, active snow melting and the opening of rivers is forecast," Russia's Emergency Ministry said on social media. "More than 10,400 residential houses are flooded."

Iranian police have arrested three suspected members of the Islamic State group who were plotting attacks at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, state media reported Saturday.

U.N. Security Council diplomats were shaken in their chairs, planes got briefly grounded, and furniture rattled across New York Friday when an earthquake jolted the city that never sleeps.

When the Russian barrage hit the Ukrainian power plant, a worker named Taras was manning the control panel — a crucial task that required him to stay as the air-raid siren blared and his colleagues ran for safety.

After the deafening explosions came a cloud of smoke, then darkness. Fires blazed, and shrapnel pierced the roof of the huge complex, causing debris to rain down on workers. Following protocols, Taras shut down the coal-fired plant, his heart racing.

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper has called him a "threat to democracy." Former national security adviser John Bolton has declared him "unfit to be president." And former Vice President Mike Pence has declined to endorse him, citing "profound differences."

As Donald Trump seeks the presidency for a third time, he is being vigorously opposed by a vocal contingent of former officials who are stridently warning against his return to power and offering dire predictions for the country and the rule of law if his campaign succeeds.

Ukrainian officials claimed Friday they used a barrage of drones to destroy at least six military aircraft and badly damage eight others at an airfield in Russia's Rostov region, while Russian defense officials claimed they intercepted 44 Ukrainian drones and that only a power substation was damaged in the attack.

The assault appeared to be one of Kyiv's biggest air attacks in the war, coming as its forces step up their assaults on Russian soil. The Associated Press could not independently verify either side's claims.

Thousands of people gathered in Tehran on Friday for the funerals of seven members of the Revolutionary Guards killed in a strike in Syria, which Iran blamed on Israel.

The Guards, including two generals, were killed in the air strike on Monday which levelled the Iranian embassy's consular annex in Damascus.