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Israeli forces bombard Gaza, killing 43 people since midnight, after the military orders Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis to flee ahead of an “unprecedented attack”.

The leaders of Canada, France and the UK threaten to take “concrete action” against Israel if it does not end its renewed offensive in Gaza, while 22 countries urge Israel to let aid into the besieged enclave.

President Donald Trump spoke with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other leaders in separate calls Monday, in an attempt to stop the “bloodbath” of the war in Ukraine.

But the president’s outreach was inconclusive, and there was little sign of a breakthrough. Russia and Ukraine would hold direct talks on a ceasefire “immediately,” Trump said afterward in a post on his social network Truth Social, but it was unclear what form those talks would take or when they would happen. The Vatican, Trump said, has expressed interest in hosting the negotiations.

“The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,” he said.

Trump’s call with Putin lasted more than two hours and “was very informative and very open,” Putin told Russian state media.

Guy Joseph Guidry fondly remembers the moment he first encountered a bonsai tree, three decades ago.

Guidry spotted a cluster of the miniature trees in his neighbor's backyard in New Orleans. They were neglected, so Guidry adopted them. He became obsessed with figuring out how to care for bonsai.

"I would be late for work and didn't want to go inside," Guidry said. "I desperately wanted to learn."

He pored over books, picked up trimming tools and found mentors to help him get into the art of growing and shaping miniature trees in containers. The practice is derived from an ancient Chinese one known as penjing that was adopted by Japan.

Bonsai artists aim to realistically represent nature in the form of a miniature mature tree.

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A federal judge on Monday blocked efforts by the Trump administration and its so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to dismantle the US Institute of Peace, at least temporarily.

Doge, initially overseen by billionaire Donald Trump supporter Elon Musk, took over the congressionally created and funded thinktank in March and had fired most employees by a late-night email after the US president targeted the institute and three other agencies with an executive order.

The takeover prompted a couple of lawsuits against Doge and the Trump administration, including from fired employees, trying to impede the institute’s dismantling. The White House claimed the thinktank was in “non-compliance” with Trump’s executive order, whose purported aim was to shrink the federal government’s size. And Doge staff forcefully entered the thinktank’s building after cancelling its contract for private security.

US district court judge Beryl Howell on Monday ruled that Doge illegally took over the institute through “blunt force, backed up by law enforcement officers from three separate local and federal agencies”.

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