CHINA FOREIGN MINISTER met LAVROV in Baku on the 14th. LAVROV said Russia fully supports China hosting the APEC leaders' informal meeting. The two said their positions on international affairs are similar and agreed to deepen coordination in multilateral forums including the UN, G20, APEC and BRICS to jointly uphold international fairness and justice. They coordinated positions on future high-level exchanges and regional hotspots and reached new consensus.

On the 14th the Russian Defence Ministry said Russian forces expanded control in the Kharkiv region, seizing three settlements including Kotovka, and struck 146 Ukrainian targets, naming drone production/storage workshops and temporary billets for Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries. Moscow said its forces also used drones to hit a logistics hub used to store and distribute supplies for Ukrainian forces and a dry-cargo vessel carrying dual-use military-civilian goods. Also on the 14th the commander of Ukraine’s Third Corps said Ukrainian forces in Donetsk blocked a Russian flanking encirclement of the Sloviansk–Kramatorsk area, retained control of the Kharkiv–Sloviansk road, launched a large-scale offensive and during the operation restored full control over 16 settlements.

Netflix (NFLX.O) will cut roughly 6% of its global workforce, about 1,000 roles, its largest layoff since 2022 as growth slows and user engagement declines. Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos said reductions will mainly hit product, engineering, legal and HR teams. Antenna data show U.S. churn just above 2%, well below peers. Netflix shares are down over 40% in the past 12 months. Other tech and media firms, including Disney and Amazon, have also carried out substantial job cuts recently.