World

WASHINGTON/PARIS – U.S. intelligence reports continue to warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to capture all of Ukraine and reclaim parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire, six sources familiar with U.S. intelligence said, even as negotiators seek an end to the war that would leave Russia with far less territory.

At the moment Russia launched the nearly four-ton ballistic missile, an 8-year-old Ukrainian boy was running across a playground. The missile was an Iskander 9M723, fresh off an assembly line in Votkinsk, where workers in the Russian heartland plug American technology into the bellies of guided weapons, despite sanctions and export controls, Ukrainian investigators have found.

"Coca-Cola did not create the legend of Santa Claus." The myth that the many-named gift-bringer of Christmas was invented by a soda brand is so persistent that even Coca-Cola has had to step in to clear up the facts.

BRUSSELS – Ukraine thanked the European Union on Friday for deciding to provide it with 90 billion euros ($105.46 billion) of support over the next two years – even if the bloc failed to agree on an ambitious plan to finance it using frozen Russian assets.

SYDNEY – Australia will launch a national gun buyback scheme following the mass shooting in Sydney, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday, as hundreds of surfers and swimmers paddled out at Bondi Beach to honor victims.

Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch citizen who has admitted to killing American tourist Natalee Holloway in 2005, appears to have attempted to end his own life in a Peruvian prison.

The U.S. is preparing a fresh round of sanctions on Russia’s energy sector to increase the pressure on Moscow should President Vladimir Putin reject a peace agreement with Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter.

President Donald Trump said he was ordering a “TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS” going into and leaving Venezuela, ratcheting up pressure on Caracas amid a U.S. military buildup in the region and the threat of land strikes.

Citizens of Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica will face new restrictions on entry into the United States after President Donald Trump on Tuesday expanded a partial travel ban to include 15 new countries as of Jan. 1.

SYDNEY – One of two men suspected of carrying out Australia's deadliest mass shooting in three decades will be charged later on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, as the funerals of the Jewish victims of Sunday's attack began.

President Donald Trump sued the BBC for at least $10 billion over a misleading edit in a documentary last year that gave the impression he’d made a direct call for violence in a speech leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has an agreement with the U.S. to make security guarantees legally binding through a vote in Congress as part of a deal to end Russia’s war.

MOSCOW – Several dozen people protested on Sunday in the Siberian city of Tomsk against Russia’s ban on U.S. children’s gaming platform Roblox, a rare show of public dissent as popular irritation over the ban gains some momentum.

Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators gave an upbeat assessment of talks in Berlin on ending Russia’s war, with a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voicing optimism that the sides could close in on an agreement by the end of the day.

A day after the deadliest domestic terror attack in Australia’s history, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese faced criticism he didn’t do enough to combat rising attacks on the Jewish community nor swiftly enact recommendations from the nation’s antisemitism envoy released five months ago.

SEOUL – Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol tried to provoke North Korea into mounting an armed aggression to create justification for the December 2024 martial law declaration and to eliminate political opponents, a special prosecutor said.

NEW YORK – Ukraine’s offer to forgo joining the NATO military alliance probably will not significantly change the course of peace talks, two security experts said on Sunday.

SYDNEY – Two alleged gunmen who killed 15 people at a Jewish celebration in Sydney’s Bondi Beach were a father and son, police said on Monday, as Australia mourned victims of its worst gun violence in almost 30 years.

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media mogul and China critic, reaches a key moment in his long fight on Monday, with the verdict in his years-long trial on national security charges seen as a test case of the city's rule of law.