World News at a Glance

Trump Cancels Meeting With Putin, Citing Naval Clash Between Russia and Ukraine

President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled his planned meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, citing the unresolved naval standoff between Russia and Ukraine and upending his hopes of further cementing the relationship between the two leaders. The president’s decision, announced on Twitter barely an hour after he told reporters he still expected to go through with the meeting, came shortly after new revelations that Trump’s personal lawyer had negotiated to build a tower in Moscow much later during the 2016 presidential campaign than previously acknowledged. The session had been scheduled for Saturday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 economic summit in Argentina.

After Khashoggi Killing, Leaders at G-20 Weigh How to Deal With Saudi Prince

International leaders arriving at an economic summit meeting in Buenos Aires confronted the delicate question Thursday of how to approach Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who U.S. intelligence agencies and other Western officials have blamed for the killing of a Saudi dissident. The summit, which begins Friday, is the first test of the 33-year-old prince’s ability to retain his status as an international statesman after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a Virginia resident and Washington Post columnist who was ambushed Oct. 2 by Saudi agents in a consulate in Istanbul.

China Halts Work by Scientist Who Says He Edited Babies’ Genes

China said Thursday that it had suspended the work of a scientist who claims to have created the world’s first genetically edited babies, saying his conduct appeared to be unethical and in violation of Chinese law. The scientist, He Jiankui, announced Monday that he had used the gene-editing technique Crispr to alter embryos, which he implanted in the womb of a woman who gave birth to twin girls this month. Xu Nanping, China’s vice minister of science and technology, said He’s work was still being investigated. But based on news reports, he said, He appeared to have “blatantly violated China’s relevant laws and regulations,” the state broadcaster China Central Television reported.

Court Ruling on Mitsubishi Irks Japan

South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan on Thursday to compensate South Koreans forced to work in its factories during World War II, the second such ruling in a month that has bedeviled relations between the two key U.S. allies in Asia. Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 until Japan’s 1945 surrender in World War II, and in the decades since, South Korea and Japan have been locked in sensitive territorial and other disputes rooted in that colonial era. The rulings Thursday had been expected since the Supreme Court issued a landmark verdict Oct. 30, finding Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal guilty of exploiting forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule.

As Measles Surges, ‘Decades of Progress’ Are in Jeopardy

Reported cases of measles worldwide surged by nearly a third last year, partly because parents did not vaccinate their children, health organizations said Thursday. The increase in measles, a highly contagious scourge that had been nearly eradicated in many parts of the world just a few years ago, was “deeply concerning,” the organizations said in a report on the fight to eradicate measles. “Without urgent efforts to increase vaccination coverage and identify populations with unacceptable levels of under- or unimmunized children, we risk losing decades of progress,” Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, deputy director general for programs at the World Health Organization, said in announcing the findings.

Orban and His Allies Cement Control of Hungary’s News Media

Hundreds of private Hungarian news outlets have been simultaneously donated by their owners to a central holding company run by people close to far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban, cementing Orban’s grip on the Hungarian news media. If approved by Hungary’s regulatory authorities, which are led by an official appointed by Orban, the deal will place most leading private Hungarian outlets under the control of a single, state-friendly entity, in a move that is unprecedented within the European Union, according to Freedom House, a global rights watchdog that analyzes press freedom. It is the latest broadside against pluralism under the increasingly autocratic Orban.