World

MIAMI — U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff held two days of “productive” talks with Ukraine’s senior negotiator Rustem Umerov in Miami and will meet again, U.S. officials said Friday, as the delegation and Ukrainian leaders pressed to translate recent diplomacy with Moscow into a durable cease-fire. Witkoff, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week alongside President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Kushner held what the State Department and Ukrainian officials described as “constructive…

IAEA inspection finds drone damage at Chornobyl shelter has degraded its primary safety functions, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Thursday, after an impact Ukraine has blamed on Russia and Moscow denied. The International Atomic Energy Agency said an inspection last week of the steel confinement structure completed in 2019 identified an impact from a drone in February that "had degraded the structure." Director General Rafael Grossi said the mission "confirmed that the (protective structure) had lost its primary safety…

Australia will become the first country to implement a nationwide social media ban for children under 16 when new rules take effect on Dec. 10, the government said, aiming to shield young people from the negative effects of online platforms. The Australian government announced the move as part of a wider child-safety push. Officials said the measure is intended to reduce young people’s exposure to harmful material and the mental-health risks associated with heavy social media use. Earlier this year Canberra…

Netflix’s proposed $72 billion takeover of Warner Bros Discovery has drawn sharp opposition from Hollywood unions, theatre owners and industry groups who say the deal would concentrate power, cut jobs and further weaken theatrical releases if it survives regulatory scrutiny. The deal, announced this month, would put HBO brands and the historic Warner Bros studio under Netflix’s control. Netflix, the streaming giant behind Stranger Things and Squid Game, would also gain control of marquee Warner Bros titles such as Batman…

For the sixth time this year, U.S. President Donald Trump sent his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to Moscow — this time accompanied by Jared Kushner — and once again returned with cordial meetings but no breakthrough on a cease-fire or an enduring peace settlement for Ukraine. The repeat mission underscores a familiar pattern: U.S. interlocutors sit down with senior Russian officials, describe the talks as constructive, and leave with little to show except the prospect of more discussions. “Compromises have not been found…

Advisory panel appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted Thursday to stop recommending that all newborns in the United States routinely receive a Hepatitis B vaccine, a major reversal of three decades of federal guidance that public health experts say could increase infections in infants and children. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 8-3 to shift to "individual-based decision-making" for the birth dose when mothers test negative for Hepatitis B, recommending that parents consult a…

Frank Gehry, the visionary architect whose sculptural, often metallic buildings reshaped skylines and public imagination, has died at 96, Meaghan Lloyd, chief of staff at Gehry Partners LLP, said. Gehry died at his home in Santa Monica after a brief respiratory illness. Gehry, whose work fused modern pop art sensibilities with engineering daring, won virtually every prize in his field, including the Pritzker Prize, the Royal Institute of British Architects gold medal, the Americans for the Arts lifetime achievement award…

Jair Bolsonaro has signaled his intention to back his eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, as a presidential candidate in Brazil’s 2026 election, the Liberal Party said, setting off political and market jitters on Thursday. Valdemar Costa Neto, head of Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing Liberal Party, told Reuters he had been told by the senator that the former president had “ratified his candidacy.” CNN Brasil, citing unnamed sources, reported that Jair Bolsonaro offered his support to his son during a visit to federal police…

Japa and Japada: the twin words now woven into Nigeria’s migration story — one that charts the exodus of skilled young people and the tentative returns that follow. For those who have left and come back, the decision to return is not simply personal; it is an economic and social experiment played out in kitchens, boardrooms and startups across Lagos and beyond. “I was probably the only black person in school at the time,” says Adenike Adekunle, recalling her childhood in Tipperary after she emigrated from Nigeria at age 7.…

Ukraine negotiators and U.S. officials are holding fresh talks in Miami on a Washington-backed plan to end Russia’s invasion, a Kyiv adviser said, as behind-the-scenes diplomacy intensifies over proposals that would require territorial concessions and stop short of NATO membership. The meeting was scheduled to begin in Florida this week with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, listed as participants, though U.S. officials have not publicly confirmed whether an…