The UK government on Thursday slapped new sanctions on all of Russia's top 10 oil producers ramping up pressure on Moscow over the Ukraine war.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was unveiling "a sweep of stinging new sanctions to turn the screws on Russia's oil revenues and drive forward an end to the Kremlin's needless war" as European leaders met in Dublin for talks focused on the conflict.

Megaspeed, the data center company at the center of the scandal engulfing Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, pledged Thursday to cooperate with an investigation into potential risks to U.S. national security.

Nvidia's board, meanwhile, was reportedly meeting to discuss Huang's future after revelations that he was having an affair with a former Megaspeed executive suspected of being a Chinese government agent. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Huang also had an affair with an Nvidia executive who reported to him. The Associated Press could not independently confirm those reports.

A Russian delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk arrived in Kabul Thursday for trade and investment talks with Afghanistan's Taliban government, Afghan officials said.

Russia officially recognized the Taliban government in July 2025. It remains the only country to have done so since the former insurgent group seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 in the wake of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Largely isolated from the international community and with a struggling economy, Kabul has been keen to increase foreign investment and open new trade avenues.

Spain's interim lower house of parliament on Thursday ratified housing measures designed to limit evictions and real estate speculation a day after a general strike and major street protests over the European nation's housing cost crunch.

The duration of the approved measures, however, will likely depend on the outcome of a national election set for later this month.

The Karin, a 400-foot-long (120-meter-long) cargo ship, sat moored this week on Ireland's boggy River Shannon estuary. Soon it set sail for Russia laden with a white powder that can be forged into weapons vital to Moscow's war on Ukraine.

Alumina, the key ingredient in aluminum, goes into everything from toothpaste and lipstick to missiles and drones. A Russian-owned plant in southern Ireland is Europe's biggest alumina refinery and regularly sends shiploads of the substance directly to St. Petersburg and other Russian ports.

For more than a century, the Tabbara family has been serving up falafel to Beirut's residents.

Their business, which predates Lebanon's founding, has survived two world wars and a series of local conflicts in the small Mediterranean nation.

Early signs suggest China 's biggest online shopping event is struggling to persuade anxious consumers to spend more, despite discounts.

The Singles' Day festival, a major discount campaign comparable to Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S., centers on Nov. 11. But it begins weeks earlier and is seen as a barometer of the broader economy.

China's car exports remained strong in October as growing overseas shipments helped offset persistently sluggish domestic demand in the world's largest auto market.

China exported about 927,000 passenger vehicles last month, up 62.3% from a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Wednesday. Demand for electric vehicles and hybrids drove the growth.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking ahead of U.S.-China talks, called Tuesday for a "more balanced relationship" between the two countries, saying Americans have grown too dependent on imports.

Addressing a gala hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations at a New York ballroom, Bessent extolled the countries' bond as "one of this century's most consequential relationships" and portrayed ties between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a genuine friendship. But Bessent said reducing U.S. reliance on China was necessary for both countries.

Lebanon on Tuesday began new talks with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout to help the country emerge from the worst economic crisis in its history, with progress stalled by its inability to pass banking reforms.