On Monday, President Trump opened his first-ever remarks as president to the United Nations General Assembly with a shout out to one of his luxury properties. "I actually saw great potential right across the street, to be honest with you, and it was only for the reason that the United Nations was here that that turned out to be such a successful project," Trump said about Trump World Tower, immediately after thanking the world leaders and diplomats gathered for the annual week-long summit in New York City.

USA Today noted that Saudi Arabia bought the Tower's 45th floor, and "turned those into part of the Saudi Mission to the United Nations."

After that, Trump turned to talking about the reforms he believes are needed at the organization he once criticized as a "club for people to get together, talk, and have a good time." "[I]n recent years, the United Nations has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement," Trump said, warning that he's "not seeing results in line with this investment" made by America. He proceeded to outline plans for reform, including "clearly defined goals and metrics" for "every peacekeeping mission" and a bigger focus on "results rather than on process."

As he'd walked in Monday morning, he'd proclaimed that "this will be a great week." Trump is slated to give a speech Tuesday, and later in the week he will meet with other world leaders. Becca Stanek

President Trump renewed his criticism of NATO allies ahead of his Tuesday departure for a summit that starts Wednesday in Brussels, accusing them of failing to contribute enough to the alliance while Europe maintains a trade surplus with the U.S. "The United States is spending far more on NATO than any other Country," Trump tweeted Monday. "This is not fair, nor is it acceptable... they must do much more." On Tuesday, he elaborated:

Madeleine Albright and 15 other former foreign ministers from around the world sent Trump a letter saying he could "take some credit" for getting other NATO members to increase defense spending, Politico reported. They urged him to bolster America's "deteriorating relationship" with its Western allies, and to avoid cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin when they meet in Helsinki after the NATO gathering. Harold Maass

President Trump departed with his wife on Tuesday morning for Brussels, where he will attend a NATO summit, followed by a visit to Britain and then Finland, where he is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Assessing the week ahead, Trump told reporters before his departure: "I have NATO, I have the U.K., which is somewhat in turmoil, and I have Putin. Frankly, Putin may be the easiest of them all — who would think?"

It might be surprising for the American president to suggest that his meeting with Putin will be easier than meetings with U.S. allies, especially when the United States envoy to Moscow, Jon Huntsman, has told The New York Times that Trump plans to "hold Russia accountable for its malign activities," like election meddling and the annexation of Crimea. A former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, warned, however, that Putin is "very clever."

"He can charm Trump into changing his position or dropping longstanding U.S. positions if he's alone with him for too long," said Vershbow. Jeva Lange

All 12 soccer players and their 25-year-old coach have been rescued from a Thailand cave where they were trapped by floodwaters for two weeks, Thai Navy Seals confirmed. The final group of boys and the coach were removed from the cave Tuesday.

The divers began the rescue operation Sunday morning, extracting four boys. Four more were rescued Monday.

The soccer team was stuck in the cave when monsoon rains struck unseasonably early. It took divers 11 hours roundtrip to extract each boy. One diver died during the rescue efforts last week. Learn more about how the boys were saved from the cave, and how complicated the process was, here. Jeva Lange

The White House has released its list of references vouching for President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, with statements of approval coming from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and more. The 32-name list contains members of both the House and the Senate, with one glaring omission — it doesn't contain a recommendation from a single woman, the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Vanita Gupta, observed.

The omission of any women to vouch for Kavanaugh is at odds with his nomination speech, which he used to highlight himself as an advocate for women, Newsweek points out. "I teach that the Constitution's separation of powers protects individual liberty, and I remain grateful to the dean who hired me, Justice Elena Kagan," he said. "As a judge, I hire four law clerks each year. I look for the best. My law clerks come from diverse backgrounds and points of view. I am proud that a majority of my law clerks have been women." Kavanaugh also made reference to his mother, his wife, and his two daughters, Margaret and Liza.

Kavanaugh would replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative swing vote. Activists on both sides are watching closely for if Kavanaugh might help overturn Roe v. Wade. Two of the Senate's key votes are both Republican women — Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) — and both have promised a "careful" vetting of Kavanaugh, rather than immediately signing on. Read the full list of lawmakers who have given their support for Kavanaugh here. Jeva Lange

At least seven former Ohio State University wrestlers have said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) knew about sexual abuse by the team doctor when he was an assistant wrestling coach from 1987 to 1995 but failed to do anything about it. The doctor, Richard Strauss, died by suicide in 2015. OSU is investigating the allegations against Strauss from athletes in 14 sports.

Jordan has denied knowing about the alleged abuse, though he clarified on Fox New Friday that "conversations in a locker room are a lot different than people coming up and talking about abuse." He has his defenders, among them President Trump, Supreme Court spouse Ginny Thomas, a group of former OSU wrestling coaches, and fellow House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), who said Monday that accusations "don't pass the smell test. ... Unlike the Olympians who were minor children at the time they were abused, these former wrestlers were adults at the time they claim they were sexually abused by the Ohio State team doctor."

Other members of the Freedom Caucus are more "uncomfortable" with the allegations that Jordan turned a blind eye, and they're "taking a wait-and-see approach," a Republican familiar with their thinking told CNN Monday. Jordan's Freedom Caucus colleagues view him as a "good man who was probably just in a bad situation," the source added, but "it was expressed to me by one member that after Joe Paterno, you never want to go too deep in defending somebody, because you can have somebody who was just almost seen as an otherworldly figure of integrity and then you find out that 'Wow, he really did know more than we thought he did. He really didn't do what he should have done.'"

Even some of Jordan's wrestler defenders suggest he isn't being honest and say the "locker room talk" should have raised some red flags, even if he was young and didn't see them at the time. Peter Weber

On Tuesday, the Trump administration will reunite 54 migrant children under 5 with their parents, Justice Department lawyer Sarah Fabian said Monday. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who set a Tuesday deadline for the Trump administration to reunite all 102 under-5 kids separated from their parents under President Trump's "zero tolerance" border policy, acknowledged Monday that some reunification cases "will necessitate additional time." He ordered the Justice Department and ACLU back in court Tuesday to update him and adjudicate protocols on reuniting children.

Fabian was reticent about the administration's reunification plans, citing safety, but The New York Times says "the operation will be carried out with an unusual level of secrecy" by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arm. That's pretty unorthodox, the Times adds:

A person familiar with the reunification plan said managers at the sites where younger children are being housed have been instructed that they are to put the children in vans on Tuesday and take them to locations that are as yet unknown to them. ... The plan for Tuesday was unusual not only for its secrecy, but for its oversight: The Homeland Security Department is not typically involved directly in family reunifications. Until now, most such reunifications have occurred at migrant youth shelters, many of which are run by contractors. Those contractors, however, do not appear to be actively involved in the reunifications planned for this week. [The New York Times]

Fabian said the reunited families will be released until their immigration cases are concluded, though Guatemala's vice minister of foreign affairs said 11 reunified families are expected to be deported to Guatemala on Tuesday. Fabian said that nine parents of children under 5 have already been deported without their children, nine parents were released and their whereabouts are unknown, and other migrant parents have criminal records that preclude them being reunited with their kids. One child, age 3, has not been matched with a parent yet. Peter Weber

While The Late Show was on break last week, President Trump ousted scandal-plagued Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt. On Monday's show, Stephen Colbert noted that Pruitt is just the latest official to leave the Trump administration, by choice or, usually, otherwise. "For those of us in the media, this ongoing staff purge is amazing to watch," Colbert said. "It's like a form of blood sport. We're riveted. It's like something out of The Hunger Games — no, wait! It's 'The Hungry to Leave Power Games.'"

That was Colbert's cue to transform into his Caesar Flickerman character. "Tonight, citizens, we honor EPA head Scott Pruitt, a man whose only flaw was being terrible," he said, recapping some of Pruitt's scandals, even after his theatrical huffing of chlorpyrifos — a brain-damaging chemical Pruitt green-lighted after meeting with the head of its manufacturer, Dow Chemicals — fatally fogged up his glasses. Before playing the Hunger Games theme music, he placed a Pruitt action figure into a soundproof box with moisturizer lotion and a few sprays of chlorpyrifos, promising to put the box into a polluted river. Then it was farewell to the tribute from "District Fancy Pens." (Some of Flickerman's language is borderline NSFW.)

Colbert also gawked at Trump's campaign rally in Montana last week, starting with his threat to gently lob a DNA kit at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). "So, crazy stuff, but I know what you're saying," he said. "You're saying, Stephen, did he ramble for two straight minutes about Elton John, hockey, and brains? Let's find out." (Spoiler: He did.) "Now, we have to remember, this is the president of the United States talking, and I, frankly, do not feel qualified to respond to his Elton John-brain speech," Colbert said. "So I've decided to bring in someone who's more qualified." That teed up a new Late Show segment. Watch below. Peter Weber