Poland's six-month presidency of the European Union is firmly focused on security. As Europe's biggest land war in decades rages, fewer places highlight the challenges and contradictions of defending the bloc and its values more starkly than the border with Belarus.

Some 13,000 border guards and soldiers protect around 400 kilometers of border. It's become a buffer zone since Belarus' ally, Russia, invaded neighboring Ukraine three years ago. Similar fortifications farther north line Poland's frontier with the Russian region of Kaliningrad.

The Israeli military says a soldier was killed and another was seriously wounded in the West Bank.

The military declined to provide further details. Israeli media reported Monday that the soldiers’ vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern West Bank overnight.

Pope Francis said Donald Trump's plans to impose mass deportations of immigrants would be a "disgrace," as he weighed in on the incoming U.S. president's pledges nearly a decade after calling him "not Christian" for wanting to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

History's first Latin American pope was asked about the Trump administration pledges of deportations during an appearance Sunday night on a popular Italian talk show, Che Tempo Che Fa.

It was on a school playground where she learned her last name carries weight, when another girl pointed a finger at her and ordered the other kids to follow her.

"Let's go," the girl said. "That's a Capone."

Residents across the country from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine are bracing for dangerously low temperatures as tens of millions of residents along the East Coast contend with a thick blanket of snow — and more snowfall in the forecast.

Winter storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service were in effect for parts of the Mid-Atlantic through Monday morning, and warnings began in New England on Sunday afternoon. Heavy lake-effect snow was expected in western New York state Monday through Wednesday morning, with 2 to 3 feet (about 60 to 90 centimeters) possible in some areas including Oswego along Lake Ontario.

A train station in Damascus was once the pride of the Syrian capital, an essential link between Europe and the Arabian Peninsula during the Ottoman Empire and then a national transit hub. But more than a decade of war left it a wasteland of bullet-scarred walls and twisted steel.

The Qadam station's remaining staff say they still have an attachment to the railway and hope that it, like the country, can be revived after the swift and stunning downfall of leader Bashar Assad last month.

When Donald Trump returns to the White House on Monday, his family circle will look a little different than it did when he first arrived eight years ago.

His youngest son, Barron, was in fifth grade back then. He's now a college freshman who towers over his 6-foot-plus (1.8-meter-plus) dad. Granddaughter Kai, who was 9 in 2017, is now an aspiring social media influencer and impressive golfer. Grandson Joseph, who posed in Trump's lap with a Lego model of the White House last time, is 11 now.

Emails and videos of burned buildings in Los Angeles next to those left standing have been flying back and forth among architects, builders and fire safety specialists around the world.

For many homeowners, like Enrique Balcazar, the sometimes scattershot nature of the carnage can seem like random chance. Balcazar, a real estate agent, posted video that showed little more than chimneys remaining of most homes on his block after fire leapt through his Altadena neighborhood. Balcazar stood on his neighbor's destroyed classic Mustang to douse his smoldering roof, but his home was otherwise fine.

Southern Californians are bracing for gusty winds and a heightened risk of wildfires, less than two weeks after the outbreak of deadly blazes that have killed at least 27 people and charred thousands of homes.

The National Weather Service has issued a warning of a " particularly dangerous situation " for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties from Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning due to low humidity and damaging Santa Ana winds. Gusts could peak at 70 mph (113 kph) along the coast and 100 mph (160 kph) in the mountains and foothills.

Turkey reopened its consulate in Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, raising its flag at the building for the first time in 12 years, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The opening on Monday comes weeks after the Turkish Embassy resumed its operations in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Dec. 14.