• Leavitt: Trump Committed to Obtaining Greenland
  
  White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday reiterated that President Donald Trump remains committed to "obtaining Greenland in whatever means we can" despite strong opposition from the island territory's leaders.
• China Pushes to Pass US in AI Innovation
  
  The Atlas Institute reported in April that China's ambition is to overtake the U.S. and be the dominant force in AI within five years.
• There's an American Pope, and He's Just like Us. At Least, we Really, Really Want Him to be
  
  By the middle of last week, it became clear that something odd was happening. It was about the time that the fake video started circulating about the woman purporting to recount the "situationship" she'd had with Robert Prevost, the new American pope, decades ago when he...
• Kremlin: Putin Welcomed US-Iran Talks in Call With Trump
  
  Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed progress in talks between the U.S. and Iran on Tehran's nuclear program during a conversation with President Donald Trump on Monday, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, and offered Russia's help.
• Amb. Whitaker to Newsmax: Trump 'a Peacemaker' With Ukraine-Russia Talks
  
  Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, told Newsmax on Monday that President Donald Trump's work bringing Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table shows his skills "as a peacemaker."
• Trump: Russia, Ukraine to Begin Peace Talks Immediately
  
  President Donald Trump said his call with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Monday went very well and that Moscow and Kyiv "will immediately start negotiations" toward a ceasefire and end to the war.
• These Surreal Trees Survived for Centuries. Scientists Worry for Their Future
  
  On a windswept plateau high above the Arabian Sea, Sena Keybani cradles a sapling that barely reaches her ankle. The young plant, protected by a makeshift fence of wood and wire, is a kind of dragon's blood tree a species found only on the Yemeni island of Socotra that is...
• State Dept Moves Against Travel Agencies in India
  
  The State Department on Monday said it has begun imposing visa restrictions against "owners, executives, and senior officials of travel agencies based and operating in India for knowingly facilitating illegal immigration to the United States.
• Trump Spends 2 Hours on Phone With Putin in Push to End Russia-Ukraine War
  
  President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for more than two hours Monday, after the White House said the U.S. leader has grown "frustrated" with the conflict and planned a separate call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in hopes of making...
• Supreme Court Allows Trump to Strip Protections from Some Venezuelans; Deportations Could Follow
  
  The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans, potentially exposing them to deportation.The court's order, with only one noted dissent, puts on hold a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that kept...
• Kurt Volker to Newsmax: Putin Not 'Ready' for Ceasefire
  
  Kurt Volker, former special representative for Ukraine negotiations, told Newsmax on Monday that Russia is "not ready to have a ceasefire" despite ongoing negotiations.
• Rev. Flanagan to Newsmax: Pope Wants to Bring Hope to the Church
  
  Pope Leo XIV "couched everything or contextualized everything in the notion of hope" during his inaugural mass, says Father Patrick Flanagan, the chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Saint John's University.
• Fr. Connolly to Newsmax: Pope Leo Wants Catholic Church to Be Agent for Good
  
  Father Sean Connolly, pastor of St. Margaret of Cortona in the Bronx, told Newsmax on Monday that Pope Leo XIV wants the Catholic Church to be "an agent for the common good of all.
• Vance Meets Pope, Delivers Trump Invitation to Visit White House
  
  U.S. Vice President JD Vance met with Pope Leo XIV, the first leader of the global Catholic Church from the United States, at the Vatican Monday and extended an invitation for Leo to make an official visit home.
• It’s the End of the World and the Cannes Film Festival Does Not Feel Fine
  
  "Is this what the end of the world feels like?"So asks a character in one of the mosttalked about films of the 78th Cannes Film Festival: Oliver Laxe's "Sir`t" a Moroccan desert road trip through, we come to learn, a World War III purgatory.It's well into "Sir`t," a kind of...
• Who Is Nicusor Dan, the Pro-EU Centrist Who Beat a Nationalist in Romania’s Tense Presidential Race?
  
  Nicusor Dan, the former civic activist and proEuropean Union centrist politician who defied the odds to decisively defeat a hardright nationalist in Romania's critical presidential race, has emerged as a counterforce to the rightwing populist wave sweeping across Europe....
• Turbulent Waters May Have Contributed to Mexican Tall Ship's Crash
  
  When a Mexican navy tall ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge, it was maneuvering in turbulent waters. The tide had just turned, and a fast current was heading up the East River as a 10 mph wind set in.
• Right-Wing Hopeful in Polish Presidential Election
  
  There's a long way to go yet in Poland's presidential election - but Sunday's first round was a good day for candidates on the political right and far right and it flashed a big red warning signal for the moderate government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Tusk's candidate,...
• Trump Tower Plans in Works for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
  
  The Trump Organization and a local partner are exploring plans to build a skyscraper in Vietnam's business hub of Ho Chi Minh City, with Eric Trump expected to visit this week, a Vietnamese government document seen by Reuters shows.
• World Health Organization Looks Ahead to Life Without US
  
  Hundreds of World Health Organization officials will join donors and diplomats in Geneva from Monday with one question dominating their thoughts: How to tackle crises from mpox to cholera without their main funder, the United States.
• South Korea Presidential Candidate Kim Open to Discussing US Troop Cost
  
  South Korea's conservative presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo said on Monday he was willing to discuss sharing more of the cost of stationing the U.S. military in the country, which President Donald Trump has demanded...
• Finland to Supply Ammunition to Ukraine
  
  Finland will supply ammunition to Ukraine by using proceeds from frozen Russian assets, the Finnish defense ministry said on Monday. "Finland has been selected as one of the states implementing European Union measures...
• Israel Kills 20 in Airstrikes After Agreeing to Allow Aid Into Gaza
  
  Israel pursued its military operation in Gaza on Monday, killing at least 20 Palestinians in overnight airstrikes after it agreed to lift a two-month-old blockade on aid deliveries that has left the enclave on the brink of famine. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said...
• Iran: Nuclear Talks Will Fail If US Pushes Zero Enrichment
  
  Nuclear talks between Iran and the United States "will lead nowhere" if Washington insists that Tehran drop its uranium enrichment activity to zero, Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takhtravanchi was quoted by state media on Monday as saying.
• Russia Outlaws Amnesty International in Latest Crackdown on Dissent and Activists
  
  The Russian authorities on Monday outlawed Amnesty International as an "undesirable organization," a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense. The decision by the Russian Prosecutor General's office, announced in an online...

More Global Talk Stories