Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday insisted that the residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed a year ago “made their choice — to be with their Fatherland.”

The swift fall of the Armenian-majority enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani troops and the exodus of much of its population has stunned the large Armenian diaspora around the world. Traumatized by a widely acknowledged genocide a century ago, they fear the erasure of what they consider a central and beloved part of their historic homeland.

An impending government shutdown in the United States is threatening to put a damper on gameday plans for American service members overseas who are diehard NFL fans.

Kosovo’s prime minister on Friday welcomed a NATO decision to bolster its troops in the volatile Balkan region, saying last weekend’s shootout that left four people dead illustrates Serbia’s attempts to destabilize its former province with the help of ally Russia.

Is China shifting its approach to “panda diplomacy”? Zoos in some Western countries face the prospect of losing all their pandas by next year.

The NATO military alliance is racing to develop technologies to allow real-time detection of suspicious activity near underwater critical infrastructure, after the Nord Stream pipeline blasts one year ago laid bare the difficulty of monitoring.

Kosovo’s interior minister on Thursday accused Serbia of direct involvement in weekend clashes and was investigating the possibility of Russian involvement in the violence that left four people dead and further strained relations between the former wartime foes.

A government shutdown would slow the pace of replacing weapons stockpiles sent to Ukraine, the Defense Department’s comptroller said, especially if new money for the war against Russia is left out of the ultimate spending package.

Germany and Israel on Thursday signed an agreement for Berlin to buy the sophisticated Arrow 3 missile defense system, designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles. The development is the latest step in Berlin’s bid to strengthen its air defenses following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the status of the war and needs of troops on Thursday, the day after Russia accused Ukraine’s Western allies of helping plan and conduct last week’s missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters on the annexed Crimean Peninsula.