North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed his country will “invariably support” Russia’s war in Ukraine as he met Russia’s defense chief, the North’s state media reported Saturday.

A court in Beijing on Friday sentenced a prominent Chinese journalist to seven in years in prison for espionage, his family said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Florida on Friday to have dinner with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah brought hope for normality back to many in southern Lebanon on Friday, including fishermen who long launched their wooden-hulled single-engine boats into the Mediterranean at dawn.

An Israeli airstrike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed five people, a senior Palestinian health official said.

Thousands of Syrian insurgents took over most of Aleppo on Saturday, establishing positions in the country’s largest city and controlling its airport before expanding their shock offensive to a nearby province. They faced little to no resistance from government troops, according to fighters and activists.

Taiwan’s president departed Saturday for a trip to the South Pacific that will include a two-day transit in the U.S., his first since assuming office.

The 13-year civil war in Syria has roared back into prominence with a surprise rebel offensive on one of Syria’s largest cities and an ancient business hub. The rebel advances in Aleppo are among the largest in years in a war whose destabilizing effects have rippled far beyond Syria’s borders.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed his country will “invariably support” Russia’s war in Ukraine as he met Russia’s defense chief, the North’s state media reported Saturday.

On a bright winter day, workers at a Ukrainian thermal power plant repair its heavily damaged equipment as drops of water from melted snow leak through gaping holes in its battered roof.

The current situation is the result of a match between the interests of Russia and North Korea, one analyst said. “If this war ends in any form, as Trump has pledged, the needs of the two for each other may change.”

Calin Georgescu, a fringe independent who has questioned Romania’s membership in NATO and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, emerged from obscurity to win Sunday’s contest. The victory stunned the country’s political class, with top officials pointing the finger at the Kremlin.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Florida on Friday to meet and have dinner with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.

Federal agents, who had been on to the suspect for months, thwarted his planned bombing attack before the target date. His stated motivation for bombing the NYSE was to attain a ‘reboot’ and/or ‘reset ‘of the U.S. government.

Insurgents breached Syria’s largest city Friday and clashed with government forces for the first time since 2016, according to a war monitor and fighters, in a surprise attack that sent residents fleeing and added fresh uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars.

The Israel Defense Forces said it attacked a Hezbollah facility in southern Lebanon after identifying “terrorist activity” by the Iran-backed militant group, and separately opened fire on “several suspects” who it said had breached the terms of the cease-fire.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te will stop over in Hawaii and Guam during his trip to the South Pacific, drawing criticism from China.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday for the first time recognized the killing of West African soldiers by the French Army in 1944 as a massacre in a letter addressed to the Senegalese authorities.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday for talks with North Korean military and political leaders as the countries deepen their cooperation over Russia’s war in Ukraine.