A militia group had raised an alarm because they thought Russell Vane’s rhetoric was so extreme that he must be a government agent sent to entrap them. Agents found a test tube with ricin in his home. But prosecutors determined he was just experimenting out of curiosity.

The U.S. military judge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has scheduled hearings in early January for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants to enter guilty pleas in exchange for life sentences. That is despite the Defense Department’s effort to scuttle the plea deals.

The French medical charity Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières said Wednesday that at least two patients at its Haiti hospital were executed and its staff violently attacked after one of its ambulances in Port-au-Prince was stopped on Monday by Haitian police officers and members of a vigilante group.

Republicans have elected South Dakota Sen. John Thune as the next Senate majority leader, completing a momentous shift in their leadership that elevates a top deputy of Mitch McConnell into a key position as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

The National Hurricane Center expects the season’s next tropical depression or storm to form in the Caribbean soon, and forecast models predict it will intensify into a hurricane and threaten Florida next week.

President Joe Biden is planning to meet Saturday with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a trip to Lima, Peru, according to White House officials, in what amounts to a final meeting between two leaders of superpowers amid a period of significant transition that could alter that relationship.

Among Ukraine’s European allies, there is a quiet but growing shift toward the notion that the war with Russia will end only through negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow involving concessions of Ukrainian territory.

President-elect Donald Trump made a victor’s return to Washington on Wednesday, visiting the White House for a nearly two-hour meeting with President Joe Biden and committing to a straightforward transition of power.

Although Indonesia is often presented as one of Australia’s most important strategic allies, the relationship has fluctuated. Indonesia has also held military exercises with other countries, including with Russia on Nov. 4.

Niger’s junta took power in a coup last year and have since pulled the country away from its Western partners, turning instead to Russia for security. The U.S. military completed its withdrawal from Niger in September.

The U.S. Department of Treasury said Tuesday that Abdel Rahman Juma Barakallah led the Rapid Support Forces campaign in West Darfur, committing human rights abuses against civilians, including sexual violence and ethnically-motivated attacks.

Known as Scylla, the experimental software connects to surveillance cameras and turbocharges their monitoring potential, picking up on things imperceptible to the naked eye of a guard.

The base was originally conceived as a way to protect Europe from Iran. But Poland has always seen it as a guarantee of U.S. protection in case of Russia aggression. The Kremlin denounced it as a challenge to its own military potential that would require measures “to ensure parity.”

Several local veterans were awarded Quilts of Valor in recognition of their military service on Monday in New Baltimore.

Turkey has been seeking a reconciliation with Syria to address security threats from groups affiliated with Kurdish militants along its southern border and to help ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees. Reconciliation efforts that were brokered by Russia have fizzled out.

In 1968, while serving on tour in Vietnam, a bullet struck U.S. Marine Private First Class James Ohlheiser and left him partially paralyzed. On Monday, 56 years later, Ohlheiser finally received his Purple Heart Medal.

As Israel is embroiled in a multifront war, settlement advocates believe Trump’s history of fervent support could translate into their supreme goal: Israeli annexation of the West Bank — a move that critics say would smother any remaining hopes for Palestinian statehood.

The man, identified as Asif William Rahman, was arrested by the FBI this week in Cambodia and was to due to make his first court appearance in Guam. It’s not immediately clear which federal agency employed him.

The Biden administration is committed to ensuring “every dollar we have at our disposal” is pushed out to Ukraine before Donald Trump takes office, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.