Israel Hits Beirut as Lebanon Truce Claims Start to Fray

COPENHAGEN - Denmark's acting prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said Monday she had agreed to form a centre-left minority coalition, ending more than two months of post-election deadlock. The deal gives her a third straight term after March's fractured vote left 12 parties in parliament. As the BBC and others reported, her Social Democrats will govern with three partners. Cabinet names come Wednesday. Not exactly a landslide, but power is power.

XAYSOMBOUN - Four more men emerged from a flooded Laos cave on Saturday after 10 days underground, bringing the total rescued to five. Two men are still missing deeper inside as divers push through narrow, waterlogged passages and heavy rain slows the search. As BBC and AP reported, some of the survivors are now helping from their hospital room, describing the cave's deeper sections. Useful, if not exactly reassuring.

ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopians began voting Monday in parliamentary and regional elections expected to hand Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Prosperity Party another easy win. More than 50 million people are registered, but polling is not taking place in Tigray and has been disrupted in parts of Amhara and Oromia because of security problems, as Al Jazeera and France 24 reported. Critics say an election without full participation has a legitimacy problem.

BRUSSELS - France said its navy boarded the sanctioned tanker Tagor on Sunday in international waters more than 400 nautical miles west of Brittany, with British support, after inspectors found what authorities said was an irregular flag. As the BBC reported, the ship had sailed from Murmansk. Russia called the seizure illegal and "bordering on international piracy." France, for now, has not said what happens next.

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's proposed $1.8 billion fund for people claiming government "weaponization" has been put on hold after backlash from Republicans in Congress. As CBS News and NBC News reported Monday, Democrats are also moving to block it with amendments, floor votes and oversight. The White House has not publicly confirmed the pause. For now, the fund looks less dead than stuck.

WASHINGTON - A divided federal appeals court ruled Monday that the Trump administration's ban on transgender military service is likely unconstitutional and kept an injunction in place for active-duty plaintiffs. The D.C. Circuit split 2 to 1. As CBS News reported, the majority said the policy's stated rationale was pretextual and rooted at least in part in animus. The administration can still enforce enlistment restrictions for now.

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is developing a rule that would let USCIS officers reject some asylum applications without first interviewing applicants, as CBS News reported from internal documents. The shortcut would apply to some people who filed more than a year after entering the U.S., though the law includes exceptions. The documents do not say when the policy would take effect. For asylum seekers, that is not a small procedural tweak.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department said Monday it will stop work on its nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund after a federal judge temporarily blocked the program. As CBS News reported, the plan had already drawn heavy criticism on Capitol Hill, and it came under fresh scrutiny after President Trump met with House Speaker Mike Johnson. For now, the fund is shelved while the case plays out and the administration decides whether to kill it for good.

TOKYO - SoftBank climbed past Toyota on Monday to become Japan's most valuable company by market capitalization, a reshuffle driven by the AI stock frenzy. As the Financial Times and Bloomberg reported, SoftBank shares jumped in Tokyo trading while Toyota fell, pushing SoftBank's value above roughly 46 trillion yen. For now, at least, Masayoshi Son is sitting on top of corporate Japan.

SAN ANTONIO - The Spurs and Knicks will open the NBA Finals on Wednesday, a rematch of the 1999 series after San Antonio's 111 to 103 Game 7 win over Oklahoma City. As ESPN noted, it is New York's first Finals trip since that loss and San Antonio's first since 2014. The big question now is simple enough: how the Knicks plan to keep Victor Wembanyama from turning the paint into private property.

FOXBOROUGH - The Patriots acquired A.J. Brown from the Eagles on Monday for a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-rounder, giving Drake Maye the No. 1 receiver New England badly wanted. As ESPN and the AP reported, the deal reunites Brown with coach Mike Vrabel and lets Philadelphia split Brown's cap hit over 2026 and 2027. The waiting was the hard part. The fit is obvious.

LONDON - Serena Williams, 44, will return to professional tennis in the doubles draw at the HSBC Championships at Queen's Club, which begins June 8. As the AP and NBC News reported Monday, it will be her first competitive match since the 2022 U.S. Open, where she said she was "evolving away" from tennis. Beyond this event, she hasn't said much. Which, for now, is probably the point.

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood kicked off Marilyn Monroe's centenary Monday with screenings, museum exhibitions and a birthday gathering at the Chinese Theatre, where fans planned 100 roses and cake beneath her handprints. As France 24 reported, Los Angeles is hardly doing this quietly. The bigger revision is in the framing: curators in Los Angeles and London are leaning less on the bombshell myth, and more on Monroe as a shrewd image-maker.

LOS ANGELES - Backrooms, based on 20-year-old Kane Parsons's YouTube series, opened to $81.4 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, setting a record for distributor A24. As Bloomberg reported, another low-budget horror film from a YouTube creator, Obsession, also landed in the weekend's top two. Hollywood keeps talking about franchise fatigue. The kids with cameras may have noticed first.

MANHATTAN - The Gotham Television Awards were handed out Monday at Cipriani Wall Street, with HBO Max taking five trophies and "DTF St. Louis" the only show to win twice. As Variety reported, Rachel Sennott's "I Love LA" won breakthrough comedy, Apple TV's "Pluribus" took breakthrough drama, and acting prizes went to Tim Robinson, Chase Infiniti and Michael Shannon. Emmy season has officially started stretching.