Obama administration officials said on June 18 that representatives will begin formal talks with the Taliban “within a few days" at a new office in Doha, Qatar. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, told the Associated Press that they viewed the Taliban’s opening of the office as a stepping stone to the fundamentalist Islamic movement’s repudiation of al-Qaeda.

Speaking at the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles forum at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Washington on June 12, Sen. Rand Paul (R.-Ky.) said he believes there will be a time when everyone is judged on whether they took a stand in defense of human life.

As anti-government protests that began on May 28 continued in Istanbul on June 11, hundreds of riot police breached barricades set up by protesters in the Turkish city’s Taksim Square, using non-lethal weapons such as tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons to control the area. The protests started as a demonstration against the replacement of Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park with a reconstruction of the historic Taksim Military Barracks, then morphed into larger protests and riots across Turkey against what many regard as the authoritarian rule of Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his elected government.

President Obama will announce the appointment of Dr. Jason Furman to chair the White House's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Monday afternoon, according to a White House statement. Furman has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and received an MSc from the London School of Economics. He has advised Obama on economics matters since the president’s 2008 election campaign.

President Obama used his fundraising trip to California today to promote the Affordable Care Act — popularly known as ObamaCare. Obama arrived in California on Thursday evening, June 6, to attend Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) fundraisers in Palo Alto and Portola Valley. 

National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon will resign his post next month and will be replaced by U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan E. Rice, White House officials announced on June 5. The Washington Post and other news sources reported that Donilon’s resignation will become effective in early July.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who was the oldest member and last World War II veteran in the Senate, died Monday following complications stemming from viral pneumonia. He was New Jersey’s longest serving U.S. Senator, first elected in 1982, retiring in 2000, then elected again in 2002.

As the Senate awaits a vote on the confirmation of President Obama’s nominee for secretary of labor, Thomas Perez, it is uncertain as to whether strident Republican opposition to the nominee will delay or even prevent a vote in the Democrat-controlled upper house.

The Obama administration has warned British officials that if the U.K. leaves the European Union, it will exclude itself from the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which may cost Britain hundreds of billions of pounds a year. President Obama has invested considerable political capital in both the TTIP and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), promoting both in his State of the Union Address to Congress on February 12, 2013.

The state Senate of Minnesota voted 37 to 30 on May 13 to allow same-sex marriages, following earlier passage of the legislation by the state’s House of Representatives on May 9 by a 75-to-59 vote. The legislation changes the definition of marriage in Minnesota from "between a man and a woman" to a civil contract between two persons.