Monday morning news: June 22, 2026

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Vance Iran talks » Vice President JD Vance is meeting face-to-face with Iran's leaders at a mountainside resort in Switzerland.

He met Sunday with two of Iran's most senior officials along with mediators from Pakistan and Qatar. The aim: hold Iran to its nuclear pledges and keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

Vance says the president has asked negotiators to extend an outstretched hand to Iran and communicate...

VANCE: ...that if your leadership is willing to give up being a driver of regional instability, if they are willing to give up nuclear weapons ambitions for the long term, then the United States is willing to fundamentally transform our relationship.

But the White House says it remains very much a carrot and stick situation. President Trump has warned that the U.S. could hit Iran "very hard again" if it keeps backing Hezbollah or closes the strait.

Vice President Vance on Sunday said the question now is: what can the United States and Iran "accomplish together"?

VANCE: Can we change relations in the Middle East permanently, or do we go back to doing things the old way? Which is not our preference, but is certainly very much something that can happen.

In Washington, Democrats remain skeptical. Sen. Cory Booker:

BOOKER: We have a disaster for a commander in chief who's leaving us with less and less good choices. What the world needs now is leadership.

But GOP Sen. Mike Lee says President Trump is—in his words —"the master of the art of the deal."

LEE: I would bank on the fact that President Trump will make darn sure Iran complies, and if it doesn't, Iran will face very unpleasant consequences.

The current framework arrangement calls for two months of negotiations to turn the truce into a final deal.

Iran-Israel » As a part of any long-term peace deal, Iran wants Israeli boots out of Lebanon. But Israel still says they're staying as long as it takes.

Israeli forces have been targeting the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon even as Israel has hammered out a ceasefire with Lebanon’s government. And Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon says what happens there isn’t any of Iran’s business.

DANON:  I don't understand why Iran is trying to interfere, sabotage those negotiations. At the end of the day, we want to see a free Lebanon with the control of the Lebanese government, the Lebanese military, and without the presence of the proxies of Iran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the military won't leave its security zone in southern Lebanon and will continue to carry out strikes against threats there.

Iran says any Israeli presence voids the deal; the White House disagrees.

Tehran claimed it shut the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend over Israel’s actions, but U.S. Central Command said that's false and tankers were still moving through.

Colombia election » Colombia will once again be led by a conservative government. The second-largest country in South America by population went to the polls for Sunday's runoff election and picked a conservative political outsider backed by President Trump. 

WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Voters were faced with a stark choice:

Leftist lawmaker Iván Cepeda campaigned in the mold of outgoing President Gustavo Petro, the nation’s first socialist leader.

Opposing him was businessman Abelardo de la Espriella, who supporters call “El Tigre,” The Tiger, due to his tough-on-crime platform. He vowed to crack down on cartels and reforge stronger ties with the U.S.

SOUND: [Celebration]

EICHER: The celebration was city-wide, with residents honking horns and launching fireworks as Colombian flags waved from high-rise windows.

SOUND: [Celebration]

EICHER: In the end it was a tight race, decided by roughly one percentage point. But the country is returning to its familiar center-right governance.

President Trump has endorsed Espriella, predicting he would lead Colombia to “a new height of Greatness!”

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

France imposes restrictions amid heat wave » It's so hot in France that authorities have banned public drinking and shut hundreds of schools. About a third of the country is under a red alert—temperatures hit 104 degrees Sunday, and today's forecast is hotter still. And air conditioning there is rare. 

The heat is also turning deadly: several people, including four children, have drowned seeking relief in the water. Spain, Italy, Germany and the U.K. are baking amid a heatwave.

Box office » At the weekend box office, Buzz, Woody, and the gang are back in Toy Story 5.

CLIP (Toy Story 5 trailer): We’re finding more abandoned toys each day. /We’re doomed! / Tech’s invaded our house too.  / I don’t know, Jessie, toys are for play but tech, tech is for everything.

The latest installment of Pixar's enduring franchise hauled in an estimated $160 million dollars in its opening weekend and more than $300 million globally.

That’s the second-biggest opening of the year behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day finished a distant second with another $17 million in ticket sales.

I'm Kristen Flavin.

Straight ahead: David Bahnsen is here for Moneybeat. Plus, the legacy of the Liberty Bell.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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