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Elon Musk met with Iran's UN ambassador and discussed ways to defuse tensions between Iran and the United States, the New York Times reported on Friday. The meeting between Musk and Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravheld in a secret location in New York and lasted over an hour was described by two Iranian officials as «positive» and focused on reducing tensions between the two countries, the publication noted. Trump who appointed Musk, the owner of Tesla and X as the co-director of a new government efficiency agency during a call last week with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, handed the phone to the tech billionaire, said New York Times. Musk has played a key role in providing communications capability to Ukraine in the war with Russia.

Donald Trump's vision for education revolves around a single goal: to rid America's schools of perceived " wokeness " and «left-wing indoctrination.» The president-elect wants to keep transgender athletes out of girls' sports. He wants to forbid classroom lessons on gender identity and structural racism. He wants to abolish diversity and inclusion offices. Throughout his campaign, the Republican depicted schools as a political battleground to be won back from the left. Now that he's won the White House, he plans to use federal money as leverage to advance his vision of education across the nation.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake took a large lead Friday in early results from the parliamentary elections, in an apparent solid mandate for his program for economic revival. Dissanayake's National People's Power Party won 15 of the 22 electoral districts whose results have been released so far by the Elections Commission. Dissanayake was elected president on Sept. 21 in a rejection of traditional political parties that have governed the island nation since its independence from British rule in 1948. But he received just 42% of the votes, fueling questions over his party's outlook in Thursday's parliamentary elections. But the party received large increases in support less than two months into his presidency.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead powerful U.S. spy agencies has often seemed to embrace Washington’s adversaries and questioned key American intelligence judgments, raising alarm among veteran intelligence officials and the wider national security establishment.

Donald Trump has said his administration will focus on ending the Russia-Ukraine war, as he lamented the killing of people in the conflict. He also said his administration will also work on bringing peace to West Asia. «We're going to work on the Middle East, and we're going to work very hard on Russia and Ukraine. It's got to stop,» Trump said during a gala for the America First Policy Institute held at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thursday. This was his first major speech and public appearance after his stunning electoral victory in the November 5 presidential elections.

National People's Power (NPP) party led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has taken an unassailable lead in the parliamentary election held on Thursday. As of 6 am local time Friday, the NPP had garnered a near 62 per cent or over 4.4 million of the votes nationally. They have secured 35 of the 196 seats on offer under proportional representation from districts. The main opposition, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), and the National Democratic Front (NDF), backed by former president Ranil Wickremesinghe, have been decimated to 18 and under 5 per cent respectively. The SJB has won 8 seats while the NDP has bagged a solitary seat. The Rajapaksa family's Sri Lanka People's Front (SLPP) despite being placed fourth in terms of votes has garnered 2 seats.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Law firms are advising Indian companies operating in the US or engaging in deals with American firms to expect closer scrutiny under the Trump administration, suggesting additional clauses in legal contracts to protect their interests. The election of Donald Trump has sparked concerns in India and across the world that the President-elect's America First policies will raise the heat for other countries and their companies.

Steve Bannon, the prominent right-wing figure and former advisor to President Trump, faces a looming state fraud case that could have serious consequences. After his federal pardon, Bannon is now indicted in New York on state charges related to defrauding donors for a border wall project. Despite his past legal troubles, including time served in federal prison, Bannon's connection to Trump has raised questions about whether the former president could intervene. However, Trump's power is limited in state cases, leaving Bannon's future uncertain.

Money is a focus at COP29 whose success is likely to be judged by whether it can agree a new target for how much richer countries, development lenders and the private sector must provide each year to help developing countries finance the transition to greener energy and protect against extreme weather. Reaching a deal is likely to be especially hard at a summit where the mood has been soured by disputes and pessimism about shifts in global politics.

A Federal Reserve official has given a lengthy defense of the central bank's political independence

A remote fishing town on the edge of Peru’s coastal desert is the site for a $1.3 billion megaport majority-owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco

Choosing billionaire Elon Musk to be what President-elect Donald Trump calls “our cost cutter” for the U.S. government, is not the first time an American president has empowered a business tycoon to look for ways to dramatically cut federal regulations

LISBON, Portugal — It's a tough time for the venture capital industry right now as a dearth of blockbuster initial public offerings and M&A activity has sucked liquidity from the market, while buzzy artificial intelligence startups dominate attention.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Dear reader, Welcome to the first issue of Mint’s newsletter on the climate crisis: Climate Change And You. I am Bibek Bhattacharya, and I will be taking turns in writing this newsletter, every two weeks, alongside my colleague Sayantan Bera.

United Nations and other international organizations are bracing for four more years of Donald Trump, who famously tweeted before becoming president the first time that the 193-member UN was «just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.» In his first term, Trump suspended funding for the U.N. health and family planning agencies, withdrew from its cultural organisation and top human rights body, and jacked up tariffs on China and even longtime U.S. allies by flaunting the World Trade Organization's rulebook. The United States is the biggest single donor to the United Nations, paying 22% of its regular budget. Trump's take this time on the world body began taking shape this week with his choice of Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York for US ambassador to the UN. Stefanik, the fourth-ranking House member, called last month for a «complete reassessment» of US funding for the United Nations and urged a halt to support for its agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA. President Joe Biden paused the funding after UNRWA fired several staffers in Gaza suspected of taking part in the Oct 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Has there ever been a grimmer backdrop to the world’s most concerted attempt to avert global warming? CoP-29, the annual conference for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is happening in Baku, Azerbaijan, one of the birthplaces of the modern oil industry and (according to civil liberties group Freedom House) among the most oppressive societies on the planet. Leaders from China and the US, which account for about 45% of the world’s carbon footprint, aren’t attending—and US President Joe Biden is a ‘lame duck’ after the Republican Party’s electoral sweep.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In the lounge outside Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago office, cabinet hopefuls mingle with advisers and friends of the future president. The occasional resort member strolls through.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President-elect Donald Trump has styled himself a master dealmaker who can leverage his warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, cool tensions between the world’s biggest nuclear powers and realign global politics. But that can-do image is at odds with the two leaders’ records and the new geopolitical reality.

Allan Lichtman, often dubbed the «Nostradamus» of US Presidential Polls, has blamed disinformation and billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk for his incorrect prediction that Vice President Kamala Harris would win the US elections. Lichtman, who has correctly predicted nine out of 10 election results, is renowned for accurately forecasting nine of the last ten US elections. But things took a U-turn last week when the historian and political scientist's prediction that Kamala Harris would win the US Presidential elections turned out to be wrong with Republican Donald Trump returning to the White House. Now, speaking to News Nation, Allan Lichtman, a professor at American University, provided a deeper explanation for his incorrect forecast and pointed to conservative media platforms and Elon Musk, who pored millions into Donald Trump's campaign, as a factor in his inaccurate prediction. ALSO READ: 'Your body, our choice': Deadly 'MATGA' Movement emerges in US. All about women's new trend after Trump's victory

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the Biden administration intends to bolster its military support to Ukraine

Gold prices were flat on Thursday after hitting a two-month low earlier, pressured by a stronger U.S. dollar and uncertainty regarding the pace of the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts.