Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been hospitalized for COVID-19 after testing positive for coronavirus earlier this week, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

Zelenskiy announced Monday that he had become infected with the virus, saying he felt good and promising to self-isolate while continuing to work.

On Monday, Zelenskiy said he was running a temperature of 37.5 Celsius (99.5 Fahrenheit).

Updated at 12:44 p.m. ET Sunday

World leaders have acknowledged — and even celebrated — the victory of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the 2020 United States presidential election.

President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is playing down his contacts with a Ukrainian lawmaker who the Treasury Department says is a longtime Russian agent.

A hostage standoff on a bus in western Ukraine ended Tuesday after a bizarre demand from the captor was met when the country's president publicly recommended a 15-year-old animal rights documentary narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.

Just before the end of the 12-hour standoff in Lutsk, a city located some 250 miles west of Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a video clip to his Facebook page stating: "Everyone should watch the 2005 film Earthlings."

The post has since been deleted.

Human error, a misaligned missile guidance system and a decision to fire without authorization contributed to Iran's downing of a civilian passenger plane in January, according to a new report from Iran's Civil Aviation Organization.

Updated at 6:49 p.m. ET

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key witness in the impeachment trial of President Trump, will retire Wednesday after 21 years in the military.

Vindman is leaving the Army "after it has been made clear that his future within the institution he has dutifully served will forever be limited," his lawyer, David Pressman, said in a statement. Recently, controversy has grown over an abnormal stall in his promotion to the rank of full colonel.

Updated at 7:17 p.m. ET

President Trump has removed Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, from office, ending the tenure of a top Justice Department official whose office has overseen the prosecutions of several of the president's associates.

Attorney General William Barr announced the termination Saturday, less than a day after initially suggesting that Berman was resigning — only to be contradicted by Berman himself.

Updated at 9:33 p.m. ET

President Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he endorsed Beijing's now-infamous archipelago of prison camps for minority Uighurs, John Bolton writes in his new memoir, The Room Where It Happened.

The former national security adviser quotes U.S. officials who took part in Trump's meetings with their Chinese counterparts.

All three authors are former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine. William B. Taylor is Vice President, Strategic Stability and Security, United States Institute of Peace. Steven Pifer (@steven_pifer) is William Perry Research Fellow at Stanford University. John Herbst is Director of the Eurasia Center, the Atlantic Council.

Updated at 3:31 p.m. ET Saturday

President Trump, who has expressed anger about officials who testified in his impeachment inquiry, fired two of them on Friday.

Trump recalled European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland and ended the White House National Security Council assignment of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.