US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Iran will not be permitted to charge tolls or fees for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz under any final agreement with Washington, exposing one of the biggest points of friction in negotiations aimed at ending months of conflict across the Middle East. The dispute comes after…
Despite Iranian denials, inspections were a topic of discussion at the negotiations in Switzerland over the weekend, two officials familiar with the talks said. The idea under consideration would grant the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear inspection arm, broad powers to inspect just about any suspect site on short notice. It revives ideas…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated on Tuesday that the United States may resume its funding of a global vaccines alliance that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulled the United States out of last year, an unusual public rebuke of Mr. Kennedy’s involvement in matters of global health. Testifying on Capitol Hill, Mr. Rubio…
Even as the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo appears poised to become the largest on record, Trump administration officials have not articulated a clear plan for caring for Americans at risk of the disease. Hundreds of Americans, including federal officials, aid workers and journalists, are expected to be in parts of Congo,…
President Trump likes his military and diplomatic victories quick, clean and decisive. On his desk in the Oval Office, he keeps models of the B-2 bombers that took out three Iranian nuclear sites in one night, not quite a year ago. In the opening weeks of the Iran conflict this year, he talked often about…
Europeans, adrift between Russia and the United States, are in a persistent state of anxiety — about the war in Ukraine, hostility from President Trump, threats from Moscow and their own weak economies, worsened by the impact of the war in Iran. The Russian drone that hit a Romanian apartment building on Friday morning, wounding…
MILAN, Italy (RNS) – Amid a growing public rift between Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump — arguably the two most influential American-born figures in the world — Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Vatican on Thursday seeking to highlight common ground between the Holy See and the Trump administration. Rubio’s meeting with…
Amid growing tensions between President Trump and Pope Leo XIV, the pontiff met privately with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican on Thursday morning They discussed “the situation in the Middle East and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere,” according to a statement from Tommy Pigott, the spokesman for the State…
Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Today’s top stories Iran is evaluating the Trump administration’s latest proposal to end the war, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said yesterday. President Trump…
(RNS) — Shortly after Pope Leo XIV was elected last May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, himself a Catholic, was asked about his thoughts on the newly minted pontiff’s comments signaling deep concern for immigrants. After defending President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts — which Pope Leo would end up publicly criticizing — Rubio, the…
