World

The US national security advisor said Sunday that even with the election of an ultra-right president in Iran, the "ultimate decision" on recommitting to the 2015 nuclear deal lies with that country's supreme leader.

"Whether the president is Person A or Person B is less relevant than whether their system is prepared to make commitments to restrain their nuclear program," Jake Sullivan said on ABC's "This Week."

Hong Kong's pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper warned Monday it is unable to pay staff and is at imminent risk of closure after the government froze the company's assets using a sweeping new national security law.

Apple Daily has long been a thorn in Beijing's side, with unapologetic support for the city's pro-democracy movement and caustic criticism of China's authoritarian leaders.

U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least July 21, the U.S. Homeland Security Department said on Sunday.

The 30-day extension came after Canada announced its own extension on Friday of the requirements that were set to expire on Monday and have been in place since March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan is being crushed under the weight of the COVID-19 virus as the D variant spread and vaccinations were slow to start. While Japan has taken every step possible to protect Olympic athletes, "Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver noted that things don't appear to be all that safe.

Protesters have been in opposition to the Olympics amid the virus for over a month. Now there are more dying daily of COVID-19 in Japan than there were when the Olympics was supposed to happen in 2020. As of now, only 6 percent of the Japanese population is vaccinated, according to Al Jazeera News.

Ultraconservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi has been elected Iran's new president with more than 61.95 percent of the vote, electoral officials announced on Saturday. Voter turnout was estimated at 48.8 percent, the lowest ever recorded for a presidential election after reformists called for a boycott.

Ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi unsuccessfully challenged moderate reformist President Hassan Rouhani in the 2017 elections but proved victorious this time, with Rouhani ineligible to run for a third term. Raisi will take over from Rouhani in August.

A piece of art weaving together one of the great statesmen of the 20th century, an icon of the jet set and the world's first "super yacht" will go under the hammer at New York auction house Phillips on June 23.

"The Moat, Breccles," a signed 1921 oil landscape by Winston Churchill, is estimated by Phillips at $1.5 million to $2 million, far from the $11.6 million netted by another painting from the wartime British prime minister sold by Angelina Jolie at Christie's last March.

Tokyo will cancel all public Olympics viewing events in an effort to reduce the risk of coronavirus infections, the city governor said Saturday.

Having postponed the Games for a year because of the pandemic, Japan has already banned overseas spectators -- in an Olympics first -- while reducing the number of participants, volunteers and guests.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki disputed a Politico account that the White House was freezing a Ukraine military aid package.

"The Biden White House has temporarily halted a military aid package to Ukraine that would include lethal weapons, a plan originally made in response to aggressive Russian troop movements along Ukraine's border this spring," Betsy Woodruff Swan and Paul McLeary reported Friday. "The aid package would be worth up to $100 million, according to four people familiar with internal deliberations."

Far-right apologists for the January 6 insurrectionists, from Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia to Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin to Fox News' Tucker Carlson, have seriously downplayed the violence that occurred that day at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Johnson has defended the rioters as "people that love this country" and said there was "no violence" during that attack; Clyde has compared the January 6 attack to a "normal tourist visit," while Carlson has defended the insurrectionists as "sad, disenfranchised people." But conservative columnist Charlie Sykes sees nothing innocent or harmless about the January 6 insurrection, and he emphasizes that Republican apologists for the rioters have given Russian President Vladimir Putin an anti-U.S. talking point.

In his June 17 column for The Bulwark, the Never Trump conservative writes, "Our current sludge of disinformation, bilge and crackpottery is thoroughly domestic, amplified by a million voices on social media, national networks, and until recently, the White House itself. And now, it has come full circle as Russian President Vladimir Putin feeds back our homegrown disinformation. (The Washington Post's) Dana Milbank notes the symmetry: 'For the past few years, Republicans in Congress have echoed Russian propaganda. On Wednesday, in Geneva, Vladimir Putin returned the favor: He echoed Republican propaganda.'"

The unveiling of a new statue of Diana, princess of Wales, next month could help thaw frosty ties between her sons prince William and Prince Harry, a royal biographer said Friday.

The princes are due to attend the July 1 ceremony in the gardens of Kensington Palace, unveiling a statue they commissioned to mark what would have been their mother's 60th birthday.

For his first meeting with Vladimir Putin in Geneva this week, President Joe Biden gifted his Russian counterpart a pair of American-made sunglasses in the US leader's signature aviator style.

Peter Waszkiewicz, head of Randolph Engineering, said he felt "surprise" at seeing the sunglasses his company made become a diplomatic token at a meeting followed the world over.