John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state and a 1966 Yale University graduate, told students at the school’s 313th commencement that solving problems is a “matter of willpower, not capacity” and urged them to keep faith with the ability of institutions to do big things.
Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said that President Barack Obama is “madder than hell” about reports of treatment delays at veterans hospitals across the country and is demanding that administration members “continue to fix these things until they’re functioning the way” they should.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader, challenged the country’s army to help amend the constitution, which bars her from running for president in next year’s general elections, saying the military is duty-bound to safeguard the country.
William Bowen, a former president of Princeton University, used his commencement speech at Haverford College outside Philadelphia to criticize students who campaigned for the withdrawal of the school’s previously scheduled speaker, ex-Chancellor Robert Birgeneau of the University of California, Berkeley, calling them “immature” and “arrogant.”
Jodie Borchert of Deltona, Fla., was reunited with her daughter after almost five years apart from the now 12-year-old girl, who authorities said was found with her father, Aaron Cox, in Hidalgo, Mexico.
Conchita Wurst, a hirsute Austrian drag queen and recent winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, drew 10,000 people to a square and park in Vienna to hear her rendition of “Rise Like a Phoenix,” with some fans donning fake beards.
Richard Mellon Scaife, the 81-year-old billionaire media mogul and publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, has announced he has an untreatable form of cancer, adding that while some who dislike him may “rejoice” at his diagnosis, he “can’t share their enthusiasm.”
Evo Morales, the 55-yearold president of Bolivia and an avid soccer player, has been signed by the Sports Boys soccer team to play 20 to 30 minutes per match for the club, which will pay the leader $213 for the gig.
Isabella Smith, a 6-yearold Missouri girl, has had a rare surgery after her leg was accidentally mangled by a lawn tractor operated by her grandfather, with doctors moving her heel to where her kneecap used to be so her ankle can serve as a new knee joint with a prosthetic limb.