First Run News

GARPENBERG, Sweden — From inside the control room carved into the rock more than half a mile underground, Mika Persson can see the robots on the march, supposedly coming for his job here at the New Boliden mine. He’s fine with it. Sweden’s famously generous social welfare system makes this a place not prone to fretting about automation — or much else, for that matter. Mr. Persson, 35, sits in front of four computer screens, one displaying the loader he steers as it lifts freshly blasted rock containing silver, zinc and lead.

MOSCOW — After a sharp escalation in fighting this month between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists, the two sides took an unusual break from shelling each other on Wednesday to carry out their biggest exchange of prisoners since the conflict began in 2014. The prisoner swap — involving 73 Ukrainians held captive by the rebels, and more than 200 separatists captured by Ukraine — was carried out without serious incident just days after the Trump administration agreed to provide weapons to Uk

The Food and Drug Administration is not moving quickly enough to ensure that contaminated food is removed from store shelves, despite being given the necessary authority, federal investigators have concluded. The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services examined 30 of 1,557 food recalls between 2012 and 2015. The investigators found that the F.D.A. did not always evaluate food-borne hazards in a timely manner or ensure that companies initiated recalls promptly, leaving consumers at risk. Food companies took an average of 57 days to recall items after the F.D.A.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Roy S. Moore, the first Republican to lose a United States Senate race in Alabama in 25 years, moved late Wednesday to block state officials from certifying the victory of his Democratic rival on Thursday afternoon because of “systematic voter fraud.” In a complaint filed in the circuit court here in Alabama’s capital, Mr. Moore’s campaign argued that such fraud had tainted the Dec. 12 special election, which Mr.

KABUL — A suicide attack on an office of the Afghan Voice news agency and a neighboring Shi'ite cultural center in the capital Kabul killed dozens on Thursday, officials and witnesses said, with many of the victims students attending a conference. Interior Ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said at least 40 people had been killed and 30 wounded in the blast, the latest in a series to have hit media organizations in Kabul. The attack occurred during a morning panel discussion on the 38th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Sunni-majority Afghanistan at the Tabian Social and Cultural Cen

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to revise its nearly 17-year-old standard for dangerous levels of lead in paint and dust within one year, a rare legal move that amounts to a sharp rebuff of President Trump and Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator. The decision also called attention to the persistent threat of lead paint to children in millions of American homes, four decades after the federal government banned it from households. “This is going to protect the brains of thousands of children across the country,” said Eve C.

JERUSALEM — In the uneasy days after President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, some Israelis who cheered the move paid homage — and taunted outraged Palestinians — by posting doctored photos of the Dome of the Rock with the president’s surname plastered across it, as if one of Islam’s holiest shrines had been reduced to the latest gold-plated Trump property. Now, a powerful Israeli cabinet minister is offering to express his gratitude by putting Mr.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Turkey’s leader denounced President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Wednesday as a terrorist mass murderer with no place in that country’s postwar future, scrapping a softened approach that Turkish officials had taken toward Mr. Assad in recent years. The statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey came as Mr. Assad seemed more confident than ever that he has won the war and will remain Syria’s leader for the foreseeable future. It also came against the backdrop of maneuvering by many powers — most notably Russia and Iran, Mr.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Venezuela, which a decade ago aspired to be the axis of a new, left-leaning diplomatic and trade alliance in the Americas, is finding itself increasingly isolated in the hemisphere. Venezuela downgraded diplomatic relations with Canada and Brazil in recent days, after a war of words over the Venezuelan government’s decision last week to ban three influential opposition parties from running candidates in next year’s presidential election. As its leftist president, Nic