German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. is being “humiliated” by Iranian leaders as President Trump struggles to negotiate an end to the war, Bloomberg reports.

In unusually candid terms, the German leader said he didn’t see “what strategic exit the Americans are now choosing,” adding that Tehran’s negotiators are proceeding “very skilfully — or indeed very skilfully not negotiating.”

The result is that an “entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, particularly by these so-called Revolutionary Guards.”

Bloomberg: “King Charles III’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, lived to the ripe old age of 96, giving the UK public a lot of time to consider how her son would perform as monarch.”

“A common concern, for many years, was that Charles would be too political for the throne. A man of strong opinions, he championed environmental causes and intervened in areas such as architecture.”

“Yet as king, Charles has become a highly-disciplined monarch adept at speaking only when necessary, a master of subtlety.”

CBS News: King Charles arriving for visit with Trump at a fraught time.

“Xi Jinping had just finished a lunch of herbed-ricotta ravioli at a secluded estate outside San Francisco in 2023 when his security agents sprang into action,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Their mission: ensuring no trace of the Chinese leader’s DNA fell into foreign hands. The agents—measuring about 6-foot-3, dressed in identical dark suits—were observed grabbing Xi’s utensils and plate and spraying them with an unidentified liquid.”

“Welcome to the unseen theater of great-power diplomacy, where a meeting of the two most powerful leaders on earth can hinge on the slightest missed protocol, an unexpected miscue or even a bit of saliva left on a fork. It is a ritual that is at once deeply absurd and deadly serious. The length of a red carpet can say more about the state of the world than official statements.”

“King Charles III arrives in Washington on Monday to publicly celebrate 250 years since a nascent U.S. republic ousted his forebears, and privately ensure that a fraying trans-Atlantic relationship can cope with another two-plus years of President Trump,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The four day visit—billed as Charles’s most high-wire diplomatic act since coming to the throne—will include a speech to Congress, the first time a British monarch has spoken there since 1991, a private audience with Trump and state dinner in Washington, as well as trips to New York and Virginia.”

New York Times: Can King Charles help heal the U.S.-British rupture?