Residents in Sydney's Northern Beaches woke to a surprise visitor this morning, with a juvenile humpback whale swimming off Little Manly Cove.

The unique sighting of the younger marine mammal comes ahead of the peak migration season.

The sight left witnesses gobsmacked.

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"I've never seen a whale come this close or up that close, it was truly something special," Alex Smith told 9News.

Locals treated to the unique sighting after the adolescent male likely took a wrong turn on his early journey north to migrate and mate.

"Maybe it got chased in here by an orca, maybe it was chasing a feed or it simply just wanted to come and explore our great harbour," Steve Trikoulis from Orrca told 9News.

The whale had several obstacles to avoid as he searched for a way out, including line from anchors of boats moored in the area, as well as swimmers and kayakers.

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The young marine mammal safely made its way outside the heads into the open ocean, leaving behind a very timely message for migration season.

"When you do see a whale out in the wild maintain at least 100 metres away from it," Trikoulis said.

"If you do see a calf with it, extend that distance to 300 metres."

Getting back on track wasn't all smooth sailing for the young humpback as he set off the shark alarm passing by North Curl Curl.

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Dozens of world leaders joined thousands of mourners in St Peter's Square for the funeral of Pope Francis.

World leaders and Catholic faithful have bidden farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral highlighting his concern for the "most peripheral of the peripheries" and reflecting his wishes as pastor.

Though presidents and princes attended the mass in St Peter's Square today, prisoners and migrants welcomed him at the basilica across town where he will be buried.

Some 250,000 people flocked to the funeral, held on a brilliant spring day that was supposed to have been a special Holy Year celebration for adolescents.

AS IT HAPPENED: World leaders join huge crowds to farewell Pope Francis

Perhaps because so many young people were on hand, the somber ceremony still had a festive mood, with mourners taking selfies amid the hymns as Francis' simple wooden coffin was brought out of St Peter's Basilica at the start of the Mass.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals, delivered a lengthy, spirited and highly personal homily, or sermon. He eulogised Francis as a pope of the people, a pastor who knew how to communicate to the "least among us" with an informal, spontaneous style.

"He was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone," Re said.

He drew applause from the crowd when he recounted Francis' constant concern for migrants, including when he celebrated Mass at the US-Mexico border and travelled to a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, and brought 12 migrants home with him.

"The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open," Re said.

The Argentine pontiff choreographed the funeral himself when he revised and simplified the Vatican's rites and rituals last year. His aim was to emphasise the pope's role as a mere pastor and not "a powerful man of this world".

READ MORE: Trump, Zelenskyy meet for crunch talks at St Peter's Basilica ahead of Pope's funeral

It was a reflection of Francis' 12-year project to radically reform the papacy, to stress priests as servants and to construct "a poor church for the poor".

He articulated the mission just days after his 2013 election and it explained the name he chose as pope, honouring St Francis of Assisi "who had the heart of the poor of the world", according to the official decree of the pope's life that was placed in his coffin before it was sealed on Friday night.

Despite Francis' focus on the powerless, the powerful were out in force at his funeral. US President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Prince William and European royals leading more than 160 official delegations.

Argentine President Javier Milei had the pride of place given Francis' nationality, even if the two didn't particularly get along and the pope alienated many Argentines by never returning home.

Trump and Zelenskyy met privately on the sidelines of the funeral. A photo showed the two men sitting alone, facing one another and hunched over on chairs in St Peter's Basilica.

After the Mass, Francis' coffin left the Vatican en route to his burial place in St Mary Major Basilica.

The white facade of St Peter's glowed pink as the sun rose and hordes of mourners rushed into the square. Giant television screens were set up along the surrounding streets for those who couldn't get close.

The Mass and funeral procession across town — with Francis' coffin carried on the open-topped popemobile he used during his 2015 trip to the Philippines — were also broadcast live around the world.

Police helicopters whirled overhead, part of the massive security operation Italian authorities mounted, including more than 2500 police, 1500 soldiers and a torpedo ship off the coast, Italian media reported.

Many mourners had planned to be in Rome anyway this weekend for the now-postponed Holy Year canonisation of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, and groups of scouts and youth church groups nearly outnumbered the gaggles of nuns and seminarians.

"He was a very charismatic pope, very human, very kind, above all very human," said Miguel Vaca, a pilgrim from Peru who said he had camped out near the piazza.

"It is a very great emotion to say goodbye to him."

The poor and marginalised welcome him

Francis, the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, died on Easter Monday at age 88 after suffering a stroke while recovering at home from pneumonia.

Following his funeral, preparations can begin in earnest to launch the centuries-old process of electing a new pope, a conclave that will likely begin in the first week of May.

In the interim, the Vatican is being run by a handful of cardinals, key among them Re, who is organising the secret voting in the Sistine Chapel.

Francis is breaking with recent tradition and will be buried in St Mary Major, near Rome's main train station, where a simple tomb awaits him with just his name: Franciscus.

As many as 300,000 people are expected to line the Six-kilometre motorcade route that will bring Francis' coffin from the Vatican through the centre of Rome to the basilica after the funeral.

Forty special guests, organised by the Vatican's Caritas charity and the Sant'Egidio community, will greet his coffin at the basilica, honouring the marginalised groups Francis prioritised as pope: homeless people and migrants, prisoners and transgender people.

"The poor have a privileged place in the heart of God," the Vatican quoted Francis as saying in explaining the choice.

A special relationship with the basilica

Even before he became pope, Francis had a particular affection for St Mary Major, home to a Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna, the Salus Populi Romani, to which Francis was particularly devoted.

He would pray before it before and after each of his foreign trips as pope.

The choice of the basilica is also symbolically significant given its ties to Francis' Jesuit religious order.

St Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jesuits, celebrated his first Mass in the basilica on Christmas Day in 1538.

Crowds waited hours to bid farewell to Francis

Over three days this week, more than 250,000 people stood for hours in line to pay their final respects while Francis' body lay in state in St Peter's Basilica.

The Vatican kept the basilica open through the night to accommodate them, but it wasn't enough. When the doors closed to the general public at 7pm yesterday (3am today AEST), mourners were turned away in droves.

By dawn Saturday, they were back and ready to say a final farewell, some recalling the words he uttered the very first night of his election and throughout his papacy.

"We are here to honour him because he always said 'don't forget to pray for me,'" said Sister Christiana Neenwata from Biafrana, Nigeria.

"So we are also here to give to him this love that he gave to us."

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From a distance, the fluffy figures on Ottilie Vaughan's bag look like children's toys.

Get a little closer and you'll spot the sharp-toothed grins and intense expressions that mark them as something altogether different: a little "monster" named Labubu.

Designed by Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung and sold by Chinese toy company Pop Mart, Labubu is the latest viral obsession Gen Zs and Millennials can't get enough of.

READ MORE: How the Pope spent his final hours and his last touching words to nurse

The most popular toys are the keychain size, which typically retail for $32 at Pop Mart but can go for more than $100 on some resale sites because they're so hard to get.

Massive lines form outside Pop Mart stores before they even open when new Labubu stock is due in, the online store is almost always sold out of the toys, and customers must adhere to a strict purchase limit to limit resale.

And Australians who manage to get their hands on one of the "creepy" toys won't even know which one they've purchased until they open it, as Labubus are sold in a blind box format.

Each one comes sealed in a box that could contain one of several "normal" versions of the toy or a very rare "special" version, which are coveted among collectors.

The blind box toy market is growing and its global value was estimated to be more than $21 billion in 2024, according to Cognitive Market Research.

The Australian market alone made up more than $260 million of that figure, suggesting that Aussies are more than willing to spend their hard-earned cash on the collectibles.

Videos of shoppers "unboxing" the toys can amass hundreds of thousands of views on social media, where 23-year-old Vaughan first discovered Labubus late last year.

She first spotted the toys on the handbags of fashion influencers, K-pop stars, and celebrities, then videos of the little monsters started popping up on her TikTok For You Page.

There are currently more than 1.2 million posts with the hashtag #labubu on the app and after watching just a fraction of them, Vaughan decided she "needed" a Labubu too.

She just had to find one.

"I went looking for them all around Sydney city [but] I had no luck," she told 9news.com.au.

"I wasn't keen on buying second-hand, it's not as fun and also can be so expensive."

There's also no guarantee that resold or second-hand Labubus are legitimate and fake toys – Lafufus, as they're sometimes called by fans – are common.

Local collectors reported that imitation Labubus were being sold at the Sydney Royal Easter Show this year, where local influencer Annie Nguyen recorded footage of what she claimed was a stall selling fake collectibles.

Two toys purchased at the stall for $35 each and sighted by 9news.com.au appeared to be imitation Labubus and featured details that didn't match the authentic product.

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Vaughan's hunt for an elusive Labubu finally came to an end more than 6600km away in Malaysia, where she bought two for about $40 each from a store in Kuala Lumpur while on holiday.

"I couldn't resist," she said.

"They're hard to get, so even if you don't have a lot of money, if you can find one it feels necessary to buy."

And she's not the only Australian who feels that way.

Pop Mart, which is known for selling Labubu and other collectable blind box toys, has exploded across the country in the almost four years since it first arrived in Australia.

Its Australian website and online store went live in October 2021, followed by a robo-shop (a retail location stocked with vending machines) in November and a pop-up store in December.

The first physical store opened in August 2022 and less than three years later, Pop Mart boasts 11 retail stores and 19 robo shops across the country.

Selling everything from $20 Labubu phone charms to $1500 collectible statues of the monster, Pop Mart has done well by cashing in on the collectible craze Down Under.

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And Vaughan doesn't see it dying down any time soon either, adding that she's not surprised young Australians are spending their cash on the viral toys even in a cost-of-living crisis.

"Everyone has given up on saving lots of money so we just buy trinkets for fun," she said.

With three Labubus currently adorning her favourite bag, the 23-year-old isn't actively searching for the toys anymore but hasn't ruled out buying more.

"If I saw one in a vending machine, I would probably buy it."

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Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty to a federal murder charge in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Prosecutors formally declared their intent to seek the death penalty, and the judge warned Justice Department officials to refrain from making public comments that could spoil his right to a fair trial.

Mangione, 26, stood between his lawyers and leaned toward a tabletop microphone as he entered the plea in Manhattan federal court.

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He responded “yes” when U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett asked if he understood the indictment that charges him with gunning down Thompson outside a midtown hotel last December.

Asked how he wished to plead, Mangione said simply “not guilty” and sat down.

A cause célèbre for people upset with the health insurance industry, Mangione’s federal arraignment drew dozens of people to court, including former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who served prison time for stealing classified diplomatic cables.

Some lined up for hours in front of the courthouse steps, trying to snag a seat inside. Others rallied across the street as a pair of advertising trucks drove around playing videos denouncing the health insurance industry and the death penalty.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, faces separate murders in federal and state court, where he faces a maximum punishment of life in prison.

Prosecutors had expected the state case go to trial first, but Mangione’s lawyers said Friday that they want the federal case to take precedent because it involves the death penalty. Because of the many legal issues involved in capital cases, Mangione’s federal case will move at a slower pace than non-death penalty prosecutions.

Mangione is next due in federal court on December 5, a day after the one-year anniversary of Thompson’s death. His next appearance in the state case is set for June 26. No trial date has been set in either case.

Mangione, held in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest, arrived to court in a mustard-coloured jail suit and chatted with one of his lawyers, death penalty counsel Avi Moskowitz, as they waited for the arraignment to begin.

Late Thursday night, federal prosecutors filed a required notice of their intent to seek the death penalty. That came weeks after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she would be directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for what she called “an act of political violence" and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

It was the first time the Justice Department said it was pursuing capital punishment since President Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20 with a vow to resume federal executions after they were halted under the previous administration.

Mangione’s lawyers argue that Bondi’s announcement — which she followed with posts on Instagram account and a TV appearance — was a “political stunt” that violated long-established Justice Department protocols, corrupted the grand jury process and deprived him of his constitutional right to due process.

After Mangione lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo raised the issue again on Friday, Garnett instructed federal prosecutors to convey to Bondi and other Justice Department officials that court rules prohibit any pretrial publicity that could interfere with a defendant’s right to a fair trial.

Mangione’s federal indictment includes a charge of murder through use of a firearm, which carries the possibility of the death penalty. The indictment also charges him with stalking and a gun offence.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as the executive arrived for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference. Police say the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

The killing and ensuing five-day search leading to Mangione’s arrest rattled the business community while galvanising health insurance critics who rallied around Mangione as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty bills.

Mangione was arrested December 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 370 kilometres west of New York City and whisked to Manhattan by plane and helicopter.

Police said Mangione had a 9mm handgun that matched the one used in the shooting and other items including a notebook in which they say he expressed hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives.

Among the entries, prosecutors said, was one from last August that said “the target is insurance” because “it checks every box” and one from October that describes an intent to “wack” an insurance CEO. UnitedHealthcare, the largest US health insurer, has said Mangione was never a client.

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As the sun sets over the Vatican City mere days after the death of Pope Francis, St Peter's Square is abuzz with pilgrims from all corners of the globe gathering to pay their respects to the late pontiff, who died on Easter Monday at the age of 88.

A curious blend of solemnity and anticipation fills the air as I weave my way through the dense throng of Catholic mourners, tourists, and media from around the world.

Conversations in multiple languages hum in the background as the stoic crowd stands united in a shared moment of history, grappling not only with the loss of a deeply cherished spiritual leader, but also with the gravity of witnessing a moment that will echo through time.

READ MORE: Pope Francis' doctor says pontiff died 'without suffering, at home'

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Linda Coorey, who's travelling with fellow Australian Bernadette Lahood, says.

The pair, currently on holiday from Sydney, adjusted their itinerary to visit the Vatican in recognition of the impact Pope Francis had on their community.

"I think he was a particularly great pope, and certainly for our families, this is really important to pay our respects," Lahood adds.

"They wish they could also be here, but they're really glad that we're here and able to experience this and share that experience with them back home."

READ MORE: Faithfuls pay final respects to Pope Francis as public viewing begins

Crowds are enduring waits of up to six hours for a glimpse of Pope Francis's body, now lying in state beneath the majestic dome of St Peter's Basilica.

The basilica's great bell, Campanone, tolls solemnly, honouring the late pontiff in accordance with centuries-old tradition.

The sacred site remains open to the public day and night until the funeral tonight (AEST), allowing mourners from around the world to pay their final respects.

"It's worth it," Coorey says without hesitation.

To her, Pope Francis represented a leader who embraced everyone, regardless of their background.

"He was a people person – he loved being among ordinary people, not just dignitaries and politicians."

READ MORE: St Peter's Basilica opens for public to pay respects to Pope Francis

Similarly for Lahood, the Pope's inclusive nature set him apart, bridging a gap between generations.

"For young Catholics in their formative years he's been a really good influence and been connected to all people, not just traditionalists, he's had a lot of appeal to the broader community, both Catholic and non-Catholic and I think he's been really vocal about issues that really represent how Christians should behave."

Inside the Basilica, I'm told it's an atmosphere of deep reverence and beauty as crowds silently shuffle past the open casket, rosaries in hand, to honour the man who led the Catholic Church for over a decade.

"Waiting outside was anxious and exhausting, but once I got in, it was beautiful," New Yorker Nancy Jiang says.

"I was just in St Peter's on Easter Saturday.

"Now going back in the evening and seeing everything lighten up, it was beautiful.

"Definitely worth the wait and lifetime experience."

READ MORE: How the Pope spent his final hours and his last touching words to nurse

Renowned for his humility, compassion, and reformist vision, Pope Francis — born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires— was the first Latin American and the first Jesuit to ascend to the papacy.

Among the many gathered in Rome today are South American Catholics, devoted followers of the late pontiff.

"The church is not just a European church, it's a world church," Brazilian Aducci Correia Kenig shares.

He's confident the same sense of diversity will continue with the next leader, who will be decided by an inner sanctum of cardinals in the coming weeks.

"It was very important for the church… Because we had this South American pope from another continent so people from China, Australia and other places, they think 'why not?"

READ MORE: The youngest man to vote for a new pope is a Melbourne priest

The pope's funeral will take place this Saturday, April 26, at 10am local time (6pm in Australia) in St Peter's Square, with global leaders including US President Donald Trump and Prince William expected to attend.

True to his wishes for simplicity, Pope Francis will be buried in the Basilica of St Mary Major – a quieter, more humble resting place than some of his predecessors chose.

As the Vatican mourns, Catholics like Correia Kenig are hopeful that it's not the end, but an exciting new beginning for the church.

"The faith is reborn… believers are coming back to the church, new believers, I hope this new pope will make the faith stronger so those far away from the church can return."

While a new pope is expected to be elected by mid-May, the focus for now remains on remembering a leader who touched lives across continents with a message of mercy, dignity, and hope.

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GRAPHIC WARNING: This video contains details some viewers may find distressing.

A young man has been left with serious injuries after he was stabbed while jogging in Melbourne's north this morning.

The 24-year-old was on a routine jog when he was allegedly ambushed by a stranger, struck in the abdomen and slashed on the neck and chin.

Bystanders at the service station in Reservoir came to his aid and called Triple Zero while they tried to stop the bleeding.

READ MORE: PM slams booing at Anzac Day dawn services as 'acts of low cowardice'

Seven minutes later emergency services arrived.

His parents followed closely behind and were visibly shocked as he was checked over by paramedics.

One service station worker, who did not want to be unidentified, saw the injured jogger bleeding.

"It was shocking, I couldn't understand what was happening actually," the worker said.

"I just saw him coming and he was coming screaming here … He was saying 'I got stabbed, I got stabbed, I got stabbed'.

READ MORE: Two men charged with murder after stabbing on popular Melbourne night strip

It is understood the man was struck outside a nearby pizza shop on Spring Street in Reservoir.

He ran more than 150 metres down the road to the petrol station and left behind a trail of blood.

"He was holding his tummy," the worker said.

"I gave him a towel and paper towel to hold it, asked him to sit down and finally he sat down and then [the bleeding] stopped a little bit."

The young man's family said he'd just returned from an Anzac Day dawn service with his parents before his usual morning exercise.

Tonight, he's in a stable condition in at the Royal Melbourne Hospital after undergoing emergency surgery.

The offender behind the incident remains at large and police are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

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Warning: This story contains the name and images of a deceased Indigenous person.

Adrian Torrens was spared jail and was serving a community corrections order for breaching an AVO when he allegedly murdered Central Coast teenager Audrey Griffin, it can now be revealed.

The 53-year-old was found unresponsive about 4.50pm yesterday in a cell at western Sydney's Silverwater Correctional Complex.

Corrective Services personnel and paramedics were unable to revive him.

READ MORE: Hundreds gather in sunset vigil for allegedly murdered NSW teenager

The discovery, which wasn't revealed until later in the night, came during a vigil that was held for the 19-year-old, with hundreds gathering in Terrigal to pay tribute to the vibrant young woman.

Griffin's mother, Kathleen, received a call from police informing her of the news of Torrens' death as she was leaving the vigil.

The news was described as "bittersweet" by her loved ones.

9News can now reveal that Torrens was serving an 18-month community corrections order at the time of Griffin's murder.

Torrens avoided prison when he was sentenced last October for using a carriage service to harass, menace or offend, and for breaching an AVO.

Torrens had a long history of violent offending and breaching restraining orders.

It can also be revealed that Torrens made a confession to someone close to him about Griffin's murder on the phone in the weeks after her death.

"I just f—— clicked and I have no reason for my actions," he said on the call.

"I just did it, man. I was so f—– up, you know?"

In a following call, he apparently admitted to killing someone.

"I killed someone about a month ago, and now they're looking for me," he said.

Earlier this week, Torrens was charged with 11 separate domestic violence offences relating to another victim.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said he was aware of those reports, which he described as "concerning".

"As soon as we have answers, we'll report them to the family," Minns said.

Griffin's death was initially labelled a drowning by police after her partially submerged body was discovered in Erina Creek on the NSW Central Coast on the afternoon of March 24.

After initially not finding any suspicious circumstances surrounding her death, a homicide investigation was launched following a tip-off from the public.

Police sent out an appeal for information last week along with a photo allegedly showing Torrens near Hotel Gosford, around the time Griffin left her friends and began walking towards Terrigal, about 2am.

Authorities were working off the theory that Torrens followed Griffin, whom he didn't know, from the pub before assaulting her and the teen drowned as a result.

Police said Torrens' DNA was found under Griffin's fingernails and that a witness heard a high-pitched scream in the area around 3am.

He was later arrested and charged with Griffin's murder.

The turn of events left her family, friends and community shocked.

Torrens was put through a mental health assessment when he was remanded in custody.

His death is being treated as a suicide.

A coroner will now determine how his death could have happened within Silverwater jail.

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyond blue on 1300 22 4636.

National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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People from across Australia and around the world have gathered to remember those who gave their lives during Anzac Day services.

Five days before his 100th day in office – and 93 days since his own deadline passed for resolving the conflict in Ukraine – President Donald Trump is frustrated his efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine have so far fallen short, and has privately told advisers that mediating a deal has been more difficult than he anticipated, sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

Behind the scenes, he frequently brings up how much Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hate one another, one of the sources said – an unsurprising fact, but one the president argues further complicates negotiations.

Overnight, his agitation boiled over as Russia launched its worst assault on Kyiv since last summer, killing at least 12 people.

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The attack, Trump said, came at an inopportune moment: just as he believed he was on the verge of securing a deal, which he told aides he wanted in place by his 100th-day anniversary.

"I didn't like last night," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, where he was meeting with Norway's prime minister. "I wasn't happy with it, and we're in the midst of talking peace, and missiles were fired, and I was not happy with it."

It was a rare moment of criticism directed toward Russia from a president whose ire over the course of his time back in office has mostly been aimed at the Ukrainians.

The exchange shined a light on a rising sense of exasperation among the president and his advisers at his inability to mount a successful pressure campaign against Putin to end the war. Trump bristled at a reporter's suggestion that he had not applied pressure to the Russian leader.

"You don't know what pressure I'm putting on Russia," Trump snapped. "We're putting a lot of pressure on Russia, and Russia knows that."

Trump then argued that "it takes two to tango, and you have to have Ukraine want to make a deal, too."

Moscow, he said, has already made a substantial concession by not "taking the whole country."

"Stopping the war," he said, is a "pretty big concession."

Earlier in the day, he addressed Russia's president directly on Truth Social, writing: "Vladimir, STOP!" – an unusually personal plea to convince Putin to cease the aerial bombardment.

"Not necessary," Trump lamented, "and very bad timing."

Still, the rare flash of anger towards Putin paled in scale and scope to Trump's sustained criticism of Ukraine's Zelenskyy, whom he accused this week of prolonging the war in his own country by not agreeing to a US peace plan that would grant Russia most of the territory it has seized. Some US allies are highly alarmed by that framework, CNN reported earlier Thursday, citing multiple diplomatic sources.

Trump's social media message to Putin totaled 30 words; his dispatch a day earlier directed towards Zelenskyy was 259.

READ MORE: 'Outrage': Booing at Anzac Day dawn service condemned by national leaders

Trump signals his timeline

While Trump said again on Thursday that he had "no allegiance" to leaders on either side of the conflict, that question is very much at the centre of the path forward for the administration as it enters the next 100 days. But for one of the first times, he signalled a timeframe for his patience.

Asked what he would do if Putin kept firing bombs on Ukraine, Trump said: "I'd rather answer that question in a week. I want to see if we can have a deal. No reason to answer it now, but I won't be happy, let me put it that way."

Inside the Oval Office, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store had brought along his finance minister Jens Stoltenberg, who served as the secretary general of NATO during Trump's first term in office.

Stoltenberg found success in that period convincing Trump of the importance of the defence alliance and avoided a US withdrawal from the bloc, earning him a reputation as a "Trump whisperer" when it came to matters of European defense.

Trump on Thursday seemed to remember him fondly, calling him "tremendous".

An hour after the Norwegians pulled out of the White House driveway, however, officials did one better: the sitting NATO chief Mark Rutte arrived for his own meeting with Trump, talks not originally on the president's schedule.

The session focused mostly on planning for NATO's summer summit in the Hague, which some European officials have feared Trump might skip as his enmity for the defense alliance festers.

But Rutte also told reporters in the White House driveway Ukraine was discussed. After Trump insisted earlier in the day that Putin still wanted to reach peace, Rutte sounded decidedly less certain.

"I worked with him for four years between 2010 and 2014," Rutte said, describing the period he served as prime minister of the Netherlands. "I stopped trying to read his mind."

Rutte went on to argue that the US' European allies are united in their view of Russia being a "long-term threat."

"We all agree, in NATO, that Russia is the long-term threat to NATO territory, to the whole of the Euro-Atlantic territory," Rutte told reporters.

The NATO secretary said that "something is on the table for Russia" in terms of a peace deal with Ukraine, but he argued that it's up to Russia to bend.

"Ukrainians are really playing ball, and I think the ball is clearly in the Russian court now."