President Donald Trump is hosting Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday, welcoming the once-pariah state into a U.S.-led global coalition to fight the Islamic State group. The meeting arrives after the U.S. lifted sanctions imposed on Syria during the decades the country was ruled by the Assad family.

Al-Sharaa led the rebel forces that toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad last December and was named the country’s interim leader in January. He had ties to al-Qaida and once had a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. Now he's the first Syrian head of state to visit the White House since the Middle Eastern country gained independence from France in 1946.

Meanwhile, The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a call to overturn its landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, turning away without comment an appeal from a former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The court also agreed Monday to decide before the 2026 elections whether states can continue to count late-arriving mail ballots, a target of Trump.

The Trump administration also returned to the Supreme Court on Monday in a push to keep full payments in the SNAP federal food aid program frozen during the U.S. government shutdown, leaving in limbo the federal aid that helps 42 million poor Americans buy groceries.

Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, on Monday met with wounded soldiers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center ahead of Veterans Day.

While there, the Vances spoke with patients and medical providers at Walter Reed, listened to them about the soldiers’ injuries and treatment plans, and handed out challenge coins while posing for photos.

One Army sergeant who met with the Vances on Monday lost his left leg during his second combat deployment. Impressed with the amount the sergeant was deadlifting, the vice president joked that the visit was designed to shame him because of how strong the injured servicemembers were, despite their wounds.

Vance served in the Marines, and he and Usha Vance headlined the Marine Corps’ 250th Birthday Ball over the weekend.

The White House is calling the emerging agreement to reopen the federal government a “positive development.”

“We look forward to seeing it progress,” said a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s deliberations.