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This is the world in brief from The Economist.

Our top stories.

A British government inquiry found that Vladimir Putin authorized the attempted killing of Sergei Scrippel, a former Russian spy in Britain in 2018. Mr. Scrippel survived

contact with a nerve agent, but a British woman who was exposed to it died. Sarkia Stama,

Britain's Prime Minister, announced new sanctions on Russia. On Wednesday he told the economist

that Russia was interfering in Britain's democracy.

The White House said that American and Ukrainian officials would meet in Florida on Thursday

to continue discussions to end the war in Ukraine. President Donald Trump said the path to peace in Ukraine remained unclear,

despite a, quote, reasonably good meeting between Russian and American officials this week.

Meanwhile, Russia attacked energy infrastructure in Kersan and Odessa, two Ukrainian cities,

leaving thousands of people without power.

The European Commission opened an antitrust probe into Meta over its integration of Meta

AI into WhatsApp, its messaging app, amid concerns it could shut out rival chatbots.

Italy is already investigating the social media giant for this.

The case will proceed under traditional antitrust rules,

a route that allows potentially broader penalties

than the bloc's new digital markets act.

...