Trump wants Russia in, State wants Russia out

CANADA: Ahead of Saturday’s annual G-7 Summit in Quebec, U.S. President Donald Trump called for Russia’s reinstatement to the group of advanced nations—only hours after the U.S. State Department condemned “Russian aggression” in Ukraine. Russia lost its seat at the gathering after its 2014 invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin also is threatening Ukraine ahead of soccer’s World Cup, which Russia will host starting Thursday.

AUSTRIA: Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced the closure of seven mosques and the potential expulsion of 40 imams in a crackdown on “political Islam” and foreign-funded Muslim groups.

ARGENTINA: Just weeks after Irish voters revoked a constitutional amendment barring abortions, voters in Argentina are going against that grain after a coalition of Christians, Muslims, Africans, and others secured more than 400,000 signatures against a bill to expand abortion on demand. The Chamber of Deputies is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday.

NORTH KOREA: Trump will leave Canada for Singapore on Saturday ahead of the now-expected summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday. Some legit concerns loom about the high-stakes encounter for a president whose foreign policy has been high on bravado and demolition.

SYRIA: We are learning more about the ethnic and religious cleansing of Christians in Afrin—thanks to the brave work of Free Burma Rangers and just a few other aid workers—during the February-March offensive by Turkey, which now (with NATO and Russian acquiescence) controls this part of northern Syria. At least 3,000 Christians and tens of thousands of Yazidis have been driven from their homes with nowhere to go.

NICARAGUA is unraveling.

WEEKEND READS: The U-2 spy plane still flies, complete with Kodak film. Visit the world’s highest post office—at 14,000 feet. And recall June 8, 1978, when Alexander Solzhenitsyn delivered his Harvard commencement speech, saying, “the West has lost its civil courage.”

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