The U.S. and some other Western embassies in Kyiv said that they would stay closed Wednesday for security reasons, with the American delegation saying it had received a warning of a potentially significant Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital.

The precautionary step came after Russian officials promised a response to President Joe Biden's decision to let Ukraine strike targets on Russian soil with U.S.-made missiles — a move that angered the Kremlin.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel's late October attack on Iran damaged "a component" of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

"It has been published that a certain component of their nuclear program was hit in this attack", Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament, adding that "the program itself and its ability to operate here have not yet been thwarted."

The European Union on Monday widened sanctions against Iran over its support for Russia's war on Ukraine, including targeting vessels and ports used to transfer drones and missiles.

The 27-nation bloc agreed to prohibit any transaction with ports "used for the transfer of Iranian UAVs or missiles or related technology and components to Russia," said a statement issued as EU foreign ministers met in Brussels.

A Russian ballistic missile with cluster munitions struck a residential area of a northern Ukraine city, killing 11 people including two children and injuring 84 others, officials said Monday.

The two children killed in the strike on Sumy late Sunday were a 9-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, the regional prosecutor's office said. Six injured children are in critical condition, it said.

One of Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet picks just became even more so: Pete Hegseth, tapped for defense secretary earlier this week, was accused of sexual assault in 2017, according to police.

The United Nations and other international organizations are bracing for four more years of Donald Trump, who famously tweeted before becoming president the first time that the 193-member U.N. was "just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time."

In his first term, Trump suspended funding for the U.N. health and family planning agencies, withdrew from its cultural organization and top human rights body, and jacked up tariffs on China and even longtime U.S. allies by flaunting the World Trade Organization's rulebook. The United States is the biggest single donor to the United Nations, paying 22% of its regular budget.

Protests erupted in Paris on Wednesday against a controversial gala organized by far-right figures in support of Israel. The event, intended to raise funds for the Israeli military, included Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich among its invited guests.

The demonstrations came on the eve of a high-stakes soccer match at France's national stadium against the Israeli national team, overshadowed by tensions around the wars in the Middle East. Authorities in Paris announced that more than 4,000 police officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed for the game.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned Thursday that the "space for negotiation and diplomacy ... is getting smaller" over Iran's advancing atomic program as wars in the Mideast rage on and as President Donald Trump will return to the White House.

Rafael Mariano Grossi of the IAEA was visiting Tehran in an effort to restore his inspectors' access to Iran's program and answer still-outstanding questions over it, as he has on previous trips with limited success since Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the Islamic Republic's nuclear deal with world powers.

President-elect Donald Trump is making a victor's return to Washington.

President Joe Biden will welcome him to the White House on Wednesday for an Oval Office visit that is a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power — a ritual that Trump himself declined to participate in four years ago.

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new "Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency.

The acronym "DOGE" is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House "advice and guidance" and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before." He added that the move would shock government systems.