Hegseth said Europe needs to increase defense spending and take a primary role in its own defense.
In eastern Ukraine, the battleground of ferocious fighting against Russian troops, the spectre of US President Donald Trump forcing a halt to the war has injected new worries among exhausted and outgunned Ukrainian servicemen.
The American was not identified. Their release comes a day after Marc Fogel, an American teacher, was released by Russia.
President Donald Trump announced "reciprocal tariffs" in the early morning on his social media platform, Truth Social.
An Afghan asylum seeker was arrested after a suspected car ramming attack injured at least 28 people in the southern German city of Munich on Thursday, police said.
While NATO countries living near the Russian border pay well over two percent of their GDP on defence, those further away pay less.
Donald Trump's defence chief denied Thursday the US president was betraying Ukraine by opening talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin, as blindsided European powers insisted they and Kyiv must have a seat at the table.
Britain's economy picked up at the end of last year, official data showed Thursday, relieving some pressure on the Labour government as the country faces up to US tariffs.
Western tour agencies entered North Korea for the first time on Thursday since the end of the pandemic, the companies said, voicing hopes the isolated country may soon reopen a border city to foreign visitors.
An Afghan man with suspected jihadist motives goes on trial in Germany on Thursday over a knife attack that killed a policeman and wounded five others at an anti-Islam rally last year.
For the first time in nearly two years of war, soup kitchens in famine-stricken Sudan are being forced to turn people away, with US President Donald Trump's aid freeze gutting the life-saving schemes.
James Tarkowski struck in the 98th minute to salvage a 2-2 draw for Everton against Liverpool as four red cards were issued after full-time on a dramatic final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump committed Wednesday to announcing "reciprocal tariffs" on other countries, saying he could sign an order for them within a day, a move that could open new fronts in a trade war.
Japan has asked to be exempt from the 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum after president Donald Trump revoked its duty-free quota.
Jordan's King Abdullah II was visibly uncomfortable as he sat across from US President Donald Trump and discussed the fate of over two million Palestinians in Gaza.
A Ryanair Boeing 737 plane was grounded for two days after a stowaway cat was found in the electrical bay.
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone Wednesday and agreed to immediately start talks to end the Ukraine war, in an extraordinary thaw in relations that could leave Kyiv out in the cold.
President Donald Trump says he and Putin discussed ending the Ukraine war and various other subjects.
The United States is releasing Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik as part of an exchange deal that saw Moscow free US teacher Marc Fogel a day earlier, a White House official said Wednesday.
Secretary Pete Hegseth said that a "realistic assessment of the battlefield" needs to be considered ahead of talks to end the war with Russia.
Imposing punitive tariffs on countries with high trade surpluses with the United States has been at the heart of US President Donald Trump's economic policy.
A neutrino with 30 times more energy than any previously seen on Earth was detected by an unfinished observatory at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea after travelling from beyond this galaxy, scientists said Wednesday.
US consumer inflation unexpectedly accelerated last month, data showed Wednesday, in a moment of potential political peril for President Donald Trump, who quickly blamed the uptick on his predecessor Joe Biden.
The former operator of a number of KFC and Pizza Hut franchises promises to pay the outstanding salaries of its 7,000 staff days after filing for bankruptcy.
More than 250 people rescued from online scam centres in Myanmar were handed over to Thailand on Wednesday, a senior Thai army official said, following a series of crackdowns on the illegal operations.
Russia on Wednesday rejected swapping occupied territory with Kyiv as part of any future peace deal hours after launching a barrage of drones and missiles on Kyiv that killed one person.
Mediators Qatar and Egypt were pushing to resolve a crisis in the Gaza ceasefire Wednesday, a Palestinian source told AFP, after Israel and the United States told Hamas to release hostages this weekend or face a return to war.
In a few days, France will hand over its only military base in Ivory Coast, its former star colony in west Africa, and both sides say the run up is proceeding seamlessly without any rancour.
Bangladesh's former government was behind systematic attacks and killings of protesters as it tried to hold onto power last year, the UN said Wednesday, warning the abuses could amount to "crimes against humanity".
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks Wednesday, signing a series of agreements to boost trade and defence ties between the Muslim-majority nations, including a joint venture to build drones.
