Sochi (Russia), May 14 (AFP) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday meets US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the highest-level talks between the rival powers in nearly a year as they see if they can make headway on a raft of disagreements from Venezuela to Iran to arms control.

Pompeo will visit Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi less than two weeks after US President Donald Trump voiced optimism about improving relations with Moscow during a more than one-hour telephone conversation with the Russian leader.

MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/: European energy companies acting as partners of the Russian gas holding Gazprom in the Nord Stream 2 are committed to invest into the project implementation, an official spokesperson of Nord Stream 2 AG, the project operator, told TASS on Tuesday.

"Western European energy companies from Austria Germany, France, the UK, and the Netherlands have committed to invest almost a billion euros each. Our shareholder and the five European financial investors are fully committed to the project, as are Nord Stream 2’s suppliers," the company said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders rallied support for the Green New Deal on Monday night, with the New York congresswoman saying there should be “no middle ground” when it comes to climate change and the Vermont senator calling for a political revolution.

Washington, May 14 (PTI) US President Donald Trump on Monday said he will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in June on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Japan.

This would also be the first opportunity for a meeting between the Indian prime minister and Trump after the election results are declared in India on May 23. However, Trump, during his interaction with the media at his Oval Office, made no mention of any meeting other than that with Xi and Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit.

14 May 2019; DW: Atmospheric levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide have hit a record high of more than 415 parts per million. The accelerated rise of man-made greenhouse gas emissions has scientists alarmed.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has reached a record high, according to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the US.

BOSTON (AP) — “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty Monday in the college admissions bribery scheme, the biggest name to do so in a scandal that has underscored the lengths to which some wealthy parents will go to get their children into top universities.

The Emmy-winning actress, 56, could face prison time after she admitted to participating in the nationwide scam, in which authorities say parents bribed coaches, rigged entrance exams or both to game the admissions system.

LONDON, May 14. /TASS/: The Russian embassy in London has addressed the British authorities with fresh a reminder it is necessary to publish the results of the probe into the poisoning of former GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. The embassy’s comment followed a report in The Times a group of parliament members led by Labor MP Chris Bryant accused the government of doing nothing since the Salisbury incident.

BRATISLAVA, May 14. /TASS/: Players of all national teams participating in the 2019 IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) World Championship underwent tests for banned performance enhancing drugs and all doping samples tested negative, the IIHF press service announced to TASS.

"All teams before the IIHF World Championship in Slovakia were checked by doping-control officers and all doping tests were negative," the press service reported.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Five men who say they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests when they were minors are planning to sue the Vatican and are demanding the names of thousands of predator priests they claim have been kept secret by the Holy See.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A jury on Monday ordered agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. to pay a combined $2.055 billion to a couple claiming that the company’s popular weed killer Roundup Ready caused their cancers.

The jury’s verdict is the third such courtroom loss for Monsanto in California since August, but a San Francisco law professor said it’s likely a trial judge or appellate court will significantly reduce the punitive damage award.

Colombo, May 14; PTI/GANASHAKTI: A Muslim man has been killed in northwestern Sri Lanka as majority Sinhalese mobs set fire to shops and vehicles as communal violence broke out in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks, a Cabinet minister said Tuesday.

The government on Tuesday relaxed nationwide night curfew in all areas except the northwestern province where the Muslim man was killed by a mob on Monday, Rauff Hakeem, a Cabinet minister and leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, said.

DALLAS (AP) — The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines says his airline might never fly the Boeing 737 Max again after a deadly crash in March, and if it does, it will wait until other carriers use the plane first.

Tewolde Gebremariam told NBC News that Ethiopian won’t use the plane unless the airline, its pilots and passengers are convinced that it is safe.

“If we fly them again, we will be the last airline to fly them again,” he said.