The World in Brief from The Economist

Melania Trump brokered a ceasefire in Oleshky, a city in southern Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, according to the White House

Donald Trump will exempt more Canadian products from his 50% tariffs, less than two weeks before America’s midterm elections; The tech-heavy NASDAQ index closed 0.2% lower on Friday.

Stock markets in Europe and Asia steadied after a sharp sell-off in American tech shares. Also, Donald Trump said that Elon Musk had restored Ukraine’s access to Starlink hours after Volodymyr Zelensky said connectivity had not fully returned.

Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” to enter American-brokered peace negotiations next month, after he met Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, in St Petersburg.

Stock markets, and particularly tech shares, took another tumble; Russia and Ukraine continued to exchange attacks despite America’s efforts to bring an end to the war.

Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” to enter American-brokered peace negotiations next month. Also, Meta’s quarterly revenues surged to $64.6bn, rising 26% year on year.

Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” to enter American-brokered peace negotiations next month, after he met Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, in St Petersburg.

Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” to enter American-brokered peace negotiations next month, after he met Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, in St Petersburg; Websites around the world were hastily taken offline after “critical vulnerabilities” were uncovered within PHP, a programming language that is thought to run 70% of sites.

Elon Musk said that his rocketry and electric-vehicle firms, SpaceX and Tesla, were exploring a merger, and that a tie-up was “a good idea”. Also, Steve Witkoff, America’s special envoy, met Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, in St Petersburg on Wednesday.