Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR is ready to supply liquefied ​natural gas (LNG) to Pakistan as soon ‌as it receives a request from Islamabad, the company told Reuters on Tuesday, ​as Islamabad seeks spot cargoes to ​ease a growing energy shortfall.

SOCAR said a ⁠framework agreement signed in 2025 ​between SOCAR Trading and Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) allows ​the Pakistani buyer to purchase LNG cargoes directly under an accelerated procedure.

“SOCAR is ready to ​provide LNG to Pakistan as ​soon as PLL submits a corresponding request,” the ‌company ⁠said in response to Reuters questions.

SOCAR did not say whether such a request had already been made, when a ​first delivery ​could ⁠take place, or whose LNG would be supplied under the ​agreement.

Pakistan, which relies heavily on ​gas ⁠for its energy needs, remains vulnerable to declining domestic production and swings ⁠in ​global LNG prices amid ​the supply disruptions related to the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Facing criticism over loadshedding even before the beginning of summer, the power division has already placed an order with the petroleum division to arrange around 400 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of LNG for power generation, amid hopes for the opening of international supply routes.

A day earlier, it had also emerged that Pakistan and Qatar were in an advanced stage of discussions for the supply of at least four LNG cargoes, which could pass through the Strait of Hormuz within a couple of days.

Qatar had declared force majeure early last month on all its global LNG contracts, including those with Pakistan.

Japan on Tuesday unveiled its biggest overhaul of defence export rules in decades, scrapping restrictions on overseas arms sales and opening the way for exports of warships, missiles and other weapons.

The move aimed at strengthening Japan’s defence industrial base marks another step away from the pacifist restraints that have shaped its postwar security policy. It has been made in tandem with efforts to deepen ties with other nations in Asia to counter China’s growing regional influence.

Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are also straining US weapons production, expanding opportunities for Japan. At the same time, US allies in Europe and Asia are looking to diversify suppliers as Washington’s long-held security commitments look less certain under President Donald Trump.

“No single country can now protect its own peace and security alone, and partner countries that support each other in terms of defence equipment are necessary,” Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in a post on X.

While countries such as the Philippines welcomed the change, China was not impressed.

“China is deeply concerned about this,” foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a daily press conference, adding that Beijing “will remain highly vigilant and resolutely resist any reckless actions by Japan towards a new form of militarism.”

Relations between Japan and China have been at a low ebb since Takaichi said in November that a Chinese attack on Taiwan threatening Japan’s survival could trigger a military response.

Philippines, US and Germany welcome the shift

The revision removes five export categories that had limited most military exports to rescue, transport, warning, surveillance and mine-sweeping equipment. Ministers and officials will instead assess the merits of each proposed sale.

Japan will keep in place three export principles that commit it to strict screening, controls on transfers to third countries and a ban on sales to countries involved in conflict. But in a presentation outlining the changes, the government said exceptions could be made when deemed necessary for national security.

Countries ranging from Poland to the Philippines are exploring procurement opportunities as they modernise their forces, Japanese officials and foreign diplomats have told Reuters.

One of the first deals could be the export of used warships to Manila, two of the sources said.

Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro welcomed Japan’s rule change, saying in a statement that it would provide access to defence “articles of the highest quality” that would “strengthen domestic resilience” and “contribute to regional stability through deterrence.”

The Philippines, together with Japan’s southwestern island chain, forms part of what military planners call the First Island Chain, a string of islands that hems in China’s access from its coastal waters to the Western Pacific.

Manila and Tokyo signed an agreement in September, making it easier for their forces to operate in each other’s territory and in January, eased rules for exchanging military supplies.

US Ambassador to Japan, George Glass, heralded the export rule change in a post on X as a “historic step” to strengthen collective defence.

Germany’s envoy to Tokyo, Petra Sigmund, said it created opportunities for deeper cooperation “with the aim of enhancing global stability”.

Japan also building up its own military

Tokyo hopes defence exports will shore up its industrial base by boosting production volumes, lowering per-unit costs and adding manufacturing capacity it could draw on in a military crisis.

Contractors such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries can build advanced systems, including submarines, fighter aircraft and missiles, but for decades have depended on small orders from a single customer, Japan’s Self-Defence Forces.

Japan is pressing ahead with unprecedented efforts to bolster its military — buying missiles, stealth jets and drones it says are needed to deter any threat posed by China, including around its islands near Taiwan.

Beijing has said its intentions in East Asia and elsewhere are peaceful.

Tokyo is also developing a next-generation fighter jet with Britain and Italy for deployment in the mid-2030s, part of a strategy to share development costs and gain access to new technology.

Japan has steadily increased defence spending in recent years to two per cent of GDP, and Takaichi’s government is expected to announce further rises this year when it releases a new security strategy.

Director of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, filed a defamation lawsuit against American magazine The Atlantic and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick following the publication of an article on Friday alleging the director had a drinking problem that could pose a threat to national security.

The magazine’s story, initially titled ‘Kash Patel’s Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job’, cited more than two dozen anonymous sources expressing concern at Patel’s alleged conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences that alarmed officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice.

The article, which The Atlantic subsequently titled ‘The FBI Director Is MIA’ in its online version, alleged that the FBI had to reschedule early meetings as a result of Patel’s alcohol-fuelled nights and that he is often away or unreachable, delaying time-sensitive decisions needed to advance investigations.

In The Atlantic’s story, the White House, the Department of Justice and Patel denied the allegations. The article included a statement from the FBI attributed to Patel, saying: “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court, bring your checkbook.”

Patel rejected the claims made in the article.

The Atlantic’s story is a lie, Patel claimed in an interview with Reuters. “They were given the truth before they published, and they chose to print falsehoods anyway.”

After Patel threatened to sue the publication on Sunday in an appearance on Fox News, The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in a statement to CNBC, “We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel.”

Reuters could not independently establish the accuracy of The Atlantic’s article or why the publication changed the title. The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick could not be immediately reached for comment.

Patel’s complaint says that while The Atlantic is free to criticise the leadership of the FBI, they crossed the legal line by publishing an article “replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office”.

The lawsuit, filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks $250 million in damages.

The lawsuit alleges The Atlantic ignored the FBI’s denials and did not respond to a Friday letter from Patel’s lawyer, Jesse Binnall, to senior editors and The Atlantic’s legal department, asking for more time to refute the 19 allegations the reporter told the FBI’s press office she would be publishing.

Reuters could not establish how or if The Atlantic responded to Binnall’s request.

The lawsuit alleges the publication acted with actual malice, a legal standard that requires public figures such as Patel to show the publisher knowingly printed false information or recklessly ignored doubts about its accuracy.

The lawsuit says defendants’ conscious decision to ignore the detailed, specific, and substantive refutations in the Pre-Publication Letter, and their refusal to give a reasonable amount of time for the FBI and Director Patel to respond, is among the strongest possible evidence of actual malice.

The lawsuit is the latest instance of a Trump administration figure suing a media outlet.

A judge earlier dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against CNN for describing election denialism as the “big lie”.

Judges also dismissed Trump’s lawsuits against the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Trump has refiled his lawsuit against the New York Times and may refile against the Wall Street Journal.

He has also secured some settlements. ABC News agreed to settle a case for $15m plus $1m in legal fees. Paramount Global agreed to pay $16m for what the Trump administration called deceptive editing of a CBS News interview with his opponent in the 2024 election, Kamala Harris.

India and South Korea said on Monday that they would boost their economic ties by expanding cooperation in energy, critical minerals, shipbuilding, semiconductors and steel as they seek to double their trade to $50 billion by 2030.

New Delhi and Seoul also agreed to resume and step up negotiations to give new energy to their 2010 trade agreement as India wanted their trade to be more balanced and South Korea wanted greater market access to the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is in India for a three-day visit, the first South Korean presidential state visit to the country in eight years.

“We decided to upgrade the framework of economic cooperation between the two countries to create a new engine for shared growth,” Lee told reporters after talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two countries created a ministerial-level economic cooperation committee for the first time, Lee said, adding that they would strengthen cooperation in areas such as nuclear power plants, clean energy as well as trade and investment.

With the US-Israel war on Iran squeezing global energy supplies, India and South Korea would also continue to cooperate to ensure the stable supply of energy resources and key raw materials such as naphtha, Lee added.

Modi said Lee’s visit was extremely significant and that the two countries had taken important decisions to boost two-way trade to $50bn by 2030 from around $27bn at present.

“Today, we are laying the foundation for the success story of the next decade,” Modi said, as he recalled strong civilisational ties between the two countries that go back several centuries.

Big investment in India’s steel sector

Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said he held talks with his South Korean counterpart, Yeo Han-koo, and discussed ways to resume and revamp the trade pact and explored opportunities to deepen cooperation in the areas of industry, green energy and digital trade.

Lee will attend a joint business forum conference later on Monday where some 250 South Korean participants are expected, including leaders of household names in India such as Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor and LG Group, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.

The two sides also plan to sign a total of 20 private-sector memoranda of understanding on the sidelines of the forum, covering areas including shipbuilding, digital technology and energy, Yonhap said.

Separately, South Korea’s POSCO Holdings said in a regulatory filing on Monday that its steelmaking unit plans to build a joint venture integrated steel plant with India’s JSW in Odisha state.

POSCO’s investment until end-2031 is expected to be about $1.09bn, the filing said.

The joint venture deal to set up a 6-million-ton-per-annum steel plant in Odisha was announced last week.

In a policy seminar at South Korea’s parliament last week, Maeng Hyun-chul, a research fellow at Seoul National University’s Asia Centre, noted India’s longstanding complaint of a widening trade deficit with South Korea and said that political ties had not kept pace with commercial ties.

South Korea had a $12.8bn trade surplus last year, with exports worth $19.2bn and imports of $6.4bn, according to Korea International Trade Association data.

Lee will be visiting Vietnam after India.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the foreign minister and the military on Monday condemned the desecration of a crucifix after it was smashed by an Israeli soldier in a Christian village in southern Lebanon.

A photo that emerged online over the weekend shows a soldier taking the blunt side of an axe to a fallen sculpture of Jesus on the cross. It was posted by Younis Tirawi, who describes himself as a Palestinian reporter and has also posted images of Israeli soldiers’ misconduct in Gaza.

Reuters verified the location of the image as Debel, one of the few villages in southern Lebanon where residents remained through an Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah that began on March 2.

The cross was part of a small shrine in the garden of a family living on the edge of the village, said Fadi Falfel, a priest in Debel.

“One of the Israeli soldiers broke the cross and did this horrible thing, this desecration of our holy symbols,” he said.

Netanyahu said that the soldier’s actions went against Jewish values of tolerance. “I was stunned and saddened to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon. I condemn the act in the strongest terms,” he wrote on X.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the soldier’s actions were disgraceful and shameful. “We apologise for this incident and to every Christian whose feelings were hurt,” Saar said on X.

The Israeli military claimed the incident was being investigated. “The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) views the incident with great severity and emphasises that the soldier’s conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops,” the military said.

“The IDF is working to assist the community in restoring the statue to its place.”

Debel is one of dozens of villages in south Lebanon now under effective Israeli military occupation.

Israel and Lebanon on Thursday agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire intended to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

“We have every kind of crisis,” Falfel said. “We thought the ceasefire would bring us some relief, but we were still surrounded, unable to travel to and from the town. There are some houses on the edge of town that were barred from accessing.”

Israeli military officials say they are working with aid agencies to meet the humanitarian needs of Debel and other villages.

• Ahmed Shihab-Eldin charged with spreading false information, harming security
• CPJ, UN rapporteur call for his immediate release

LONDON: Kuwaiti authorities have detained US-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has not been seen for six weeks, a media watchdog said, during a wider crackdown by Gulf nations on people for filming or posting footage during the US-Israel war on Iran.

Shihab-Eldin, 41, who was visiting family in Kuwait, has not posted online or been seen in public since March 2, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday.

CPJ said he had been charged with spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.

Kuwait enacted a law on March 15, including a provision carrying prison terms of up to 10 years for spreading false rumours related to military entities with the intent of undermining confidence in them.

Government spokespeople did not immediately respond to Reuters’ attempts to obtain comment on Shihab-Eldin’s case via email and telephone.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, authorities have reported hundreds of arrests of people filming sites affected by the Middle East conflict or sharing related material online.

Iran responded to US-Israeli strikes from Feb 28 by targeting US military and energy installations in neighbouring Gulf states.

Shihab-Eldin had posted before his detention on publicly available videos and images related to the war. The last posts on his Substack account include footage showing a US fighter jet crash near a US air base in Kuwait.

Shihab-Eldin describes himself as an independent journalist who has worked for various international media outlets, including the New York Times, HBO, Vice, PBS, BBC and Al Jazeera. It was unclear if he was working, as well as seeing family, during his visit to Kuwait.

‘Journalism not a crime’

“We call on Kuwait to release Ahmed Shihab-Eldin and drop all charges against him,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Jou­r­nalism is not a crime,” she added.

UN official Francesca Albanese, who is the special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, also called for his release, praising him as a “journalist of rare strength, integrity and compassion”.

Reuters could not independently verify the circumstances of his detention or the reported charges.

In Kuwait, the interior ministry said on Feb 28 that the public should refrain from filming missile interceptions, sharing such footage on social media, or filming security personnel at work.

It urged residents to rely on official sources.

On March 2, state news agency KUNA reported that the ministry had arrested a number of people over what it described as violations affecting public security, including filming events and circulating video clips.

Qatar’s interior ministry said on March 9 that 313 people of various nationalities had been arrested for filming and circulating video clips, spreading misleading information and rumours and publishing material aimed at stirring public concern.

In the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi police, in a statement on April 8, said 375 people of various nationalities had been arrested over filming locations and sharing misleading information on social media in connection with “current events”, and that the cases had been referred to prosecutors.

A UAE official said that numerous local and foreign media operate there “freely” in line with local laws that include prohibitions on entering restricted areas without a permit and taking photos where not allowed.

“Such measures are standard practice during periods of heightened security and are intended to ensure stability,” the official said, without giving details of arrests.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2026

The Israeli military published for the first time a map of its new deployment line inside Lebanon on Sunday, bringing dozens of mostly abandoned Lebanese villages under its control, ​days after a ceasefire with Lebanon took effect.

There was no immediate comment from Lebanese officials or ‌from Hezbollah. Israel and Lebanon agreed on Thursday to a US-backed ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

The deal, which followed the first direct talks in decades between Israel and Lebanon on April 14, is meant to enable broader US-Iran negotiations, ​but with Israeli forces maintaining positions deep inside southern Lebanon.

Stretching east to west, the deployment line ​on the map runs 5-10 kilometres deep from the border into Lebanese territory, ⁠where Israel has said that it plans to create a so-called buffer zone.

Israeli forces have destroyed Lebanese ​villages in the area, claiming their aim is to protect northern Israeli towns from Hezbollah attacks. It has ​created buffer zones in Syria and in Gaza, where it controls more than half the enclave.

“Five divisions, alongside Israeli navy forces, are operating simultaneously south of the forward defence line in southern Lebanon in order to dismantle Hezbollah … infrastructure sites ​and to prevent direct threats to communities in northern Israel,” the military said in a statement accompanying ​the map.

Asked whether people who fled the Israeli strikes would be allowed to return to their homes, the Israeli military ‌declined ⁠to comment.

Lebanese civilians have been able to access some of the villages that fall on or beyond the Israeli-set line, but Israeli forces still prevent people from accessing most of those south of the line, a Lebanese security source said.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that homes on the border exploited ​by Hezbollah would be demolished ​and that “any structure threatening ⁠our soldiers and any road suspected of (being planted with) explosives must be immediately destroyed”.

Lebanon was dragged into the war on March 2, when Hezbollah opened fire ​in support of Tehran, prompting an Israeli offensive that has killed more than ​2,100 people, ⁠including 177 children, and forced more than 1.2 million to flee, Lebanese authorities say.

Dozens of Chinese-made humanoid robots showed off their fast-improving athleticism and autonomous navigation skills as they whizzed past ​human runners in a half-marathon race in Beijing on Sunday, highlighting the sector’s rapid technical advances.

The race’s inaugural edition last year was riddled with ‌mishaps, and most robots were unable to finish. Last year’s champion robot recorded a time of 2 hours 40 minutes, more than double the time of the human winner of the conventional race.

This year’s contrast was stark. Not only had the number of participating teams increased from 20 to more than 100, but several robot frontrunners were noticeably faster than professional athletes, beating the ​human winners by more than 10 minutes.

Unlike last year, nearly half of the robot entrants navigated the tougher terrain autonomously instead of being directed by ​remote control during the 21-km (13-mile) race. The robots and 12,000 men and women ran on parallel tracks to avoid collisions.

The winning ⁠robot, developed by Chinese smartphone brand Honour, finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, several minutes faster than the half-marathon world record set by Ugandan ​runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month.

Teams from Honour, a Huawei spin-off, took the three podium spots, all self-navigated and posting world-record-beating times. Du Xiaodi, an Honour engineer ​on the winning team, said its robot was in development for a year, fitted with legs 90 to 95 cm (35 to 37 inches) long to mimic elite human runners and liquid cooling technology used in its smartphones.

Du said the sector remained in a nascent phase, but he was confident humanoids would eventually reshape many industries, including manufacturing.

“Running faster may not seem meaningful at first, ​but it enables technology transfer, for example, into structural reliability and cooling, and eventually industrial applications,” Du said.

Robotics improvements

Spectators largely viewed the variety of humanoids of different ​sizes and gaits on display as evidence of China’s improvements in robotics.

“The humanoid robots’ running posture I saw was really quite impressive … considering that AI has only been developing for a ‌short time, ⁠I’m already very impressed that it can achieve this level of performance,” said Chu Tianqi, a 23-year-old engineering student at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

“The future will definitely be an AI era. If people don’t know how to use AI now, especially if some are still resistant to it, they will definitely become obsolete,” he said.

Another spectator, 11-year-old schoolboy Guo Yukun, said after watching the race, he was inspired to pursue a university degree in robotics in the future.

Guo said he takes regular ​classes in robotics theory and programming at ​his elite Beijing school, and is ⁠part of his school’s team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global programming competition for high schoolers.

Economically viable applications

While economically viable applications of humanoid robots mostly remain in a trial phase, the half-marathon’s showcasing of these machines’ physical prowess highlights their ​potential to reshape everything from dangerous jobs to battlefield combat.

However, Chinese robotics firms are still struggling to develop the AI ​software that would enable ⁠humanoids to match the efficiency of human factory workers.

Experts said the skills on display during the half-marathon, while entertaining, do not translate to the widespread commercialisation of humanoid robots in industrial settings, where manual dexterity, real-world perception and capabilities beyond small-scale, repetitive tasks are crucial.

China is seeking to become a global powerhouse in this frontier industry, and it has ⁠enacted a ​wide range of policies from subsidies to infrastructure projects to cultivate local firms.

The country’s most-watched TV ​show, the annual CCTV Spring Festival gala, in February showcased China’s push to dominate humanoid robots and the future of manufacturing.

That included a lengthy martial arts demonstration where over a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated fight ​sequences waving swords, poles and nunchucks in close proximity to human children performers.

Police in Austria said late on Saturday that rat poison was found inside a jar of HiPP baby food, following a recall of the product from more than 1,000 SPAR supermarkets in the country over safety fears.

Police in Burgenland, Austria, said in a statement that a sample from one of the 190-gram jars of “Carrots and Potatoes” baby food reported by a customer had tested positive for rat poison.

HIPP had said on Saturday that it could not be ruled out that a dangerous substance was introduced into the product and that its HiPP Vegetable Carrot with Potato jars may have been tampered with.

Consuming the contents of jars could be life-threatening, HiPP said.

The police statement said the affected jars had a sticker with a red circle on the bottom of the jar and a lid that had already been opened, damaged, or missing a safety seal, or had an unusual smell.

They said initial lab tests on similar jars seized by police in the Czech Republic and Slovakia showed the presence of a toxic substance. The statement gave no further details.

The police also said authorities in Austria were warned about the risk following investigations in Germany. They provided no further details.

HiPP said on Saturday: “According to our current knowledge, this critical situation involves an external criminal interference that affects the SPAR Austria distribution channel.”

HiPP was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.

A SPAR spokesperson told Reuters on Saturday that the product recall was a precautionary measure and affected 1,500 stores in Austria, with no impact on outlets elsewhere.

SPAR and HiPP advised customers not to consume the contents of the jars bought from SPAR Austria. They said customers would receive a full refund on returned products. Police advised customers to wash their hands thoroughly if they came into contact with a jar.

North Korea fired ballistic missiles into the sea on Sunday, accelerating its missile launches amid Iran war tensions and talk of possible meetings with the US and South Korea.

Pyongyang’s intense missile activity — this was the fourth such launch this month and the seventh of the year — is meant to display its self-defence capabilities while gaining international leverage, some experts said.

“The missile launches may be a way of showing that — unlike Iran — we have self-defence capabilities,” said South Korean former presidential security adviser Kim Ki-jung.

“The North also appears to be exerting pressure preemptively and make a show of force before engaging in dialogue with the United States and South Korea,” he said.

Iran war, Trump visit loom over launches

The seven-week-old US-Israeli war against Iran, which Washington says aims to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme, could reinforce Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, experts and former South Korean officials say.

US President Donald Trump, preparing for a summit in China next month, and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung have repeatedly expressed interest in holding talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. There are no publicly known plans for any meetings.

Lee recently conveyed regret to the North for drone incursions from the South, receiving rare praise from Pyongyang.

Sunday’s missiles were fired from near the city of Sinpo on North Korea’s east coast toward the sea around 6:10am (2:10am PKT) and flew about 140km, South Korea’s military said in a statement.

Japan’s government posted on social media that the missiles were believed to have fallen near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, and no incursion into Japan’s exclusive economic zone had been confirmed.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House convened an emergency security meeting, calling the launches a provocation that violated UN Security Council resolutions, according to media reports. It urged Pyongyang to “stop the provocative acts”.

It was not clear what kind of ballistic missiles were fired, but Sinpo has submarines and equipment for test-firing submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The North last fired a ballistic missile from a submarine in May 2022, and it flew as far as 600km.

North Korea has made “very serious” advances in its ability to turn out nuclear weapons, with the probable addition of a new uranium enrichment facility, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.

In late March, North Korean leader Kim said Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear-armed state was irreversible and expanding a “self-defensive nuclear deterrent” was essential to national security.

Pope Leo sought to downplay his feud with US President Donald Trump on Saturday, saying reporting about comments he has made so far during his Africa tour “has not been accurate in all its aspects”.

Speaking to reporters in English aboard his flight to Angola for the third leg of his ambitious 10-day Africa tour, the first American pope said comments he made two days earlier in Cameroon, decrying that the world was being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants”, were not aimed at Trump.

That speech, said Leo, “was prepared two weeks ago, well before the president ever commented on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting”.

On Sunday, as the pontiff prepared to embark on his tour, Trump called him “weak on crime, and terrible for foreign policy” in a post on Truth Social.

Trump also posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure, drawing widespread criticism even from some religious conservatives who typically support him. The post was removed on Monday morning.

Trump appeared to be responding to Leo’s growing criticism in recent weeks of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Pope Leo said on Monday that he would keep speaking out about the war, and Trump reiterated his criticism on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Pope Leo blasted leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants”, though he did not mention Trump directly again.

“As it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate the president, which is not in my interest at all,” the pontiff said on Saturday.

Leo, originally from Chicago, kept a relatively low profile for a pope in his first 10 months but has debuted a new forceful speaking style in Africa, sharply denouncing war, inequality and global leaders.

His Africa tour is one of the most complicated ever arranged for a pontiff, with stops in 11 cities and towns in four countries, traversing nearly 18,000 kilometres over 18 flights.

The Trump administration on Saturday renewed a waiver allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil at sea for about a month, even as lawmakers accused the government of going easy on Moscow as its war on Ukraine grinds on.

The United States Treasury Department’s waiver lets countries purchase Russian oil and petroleum products loaded on vessels as of Friday through May 16. It replaces a 30-day waiver that expired on April 11 and excludes transactions involving Iran, Cuba and North Korea.

The move is part of the administration’s effort to control global energy prices that have shot higher during the US-Israeli war with Iran. It came after countries in Asia, suffering from the global energy shock, pressed Washington to allow alternative supplies to reach markets.

Reversal by treasury

“As negotiations (with Iran) accelerate, Treasury wants to ensure oil is available to those who need it,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said.

Just two days earlier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would not be renewing the waiver for Russian oil and another for Iranian oil, which is set to expire on Sunday.

Global oil prices tumbled 9 per cent on Friday to about $90 a barrel after Iran temporarily reopened the Strait of Hormuz, an oil choke point in the Gulf. But the war has already created the worst global energy supply disruption in history, the International Energy Agency has said.

The war, which entered its eighth week on Saturday, has damaged more than 80 oil and gas facilities in the Middle East, and Tehran has warned it could close the strait again if the recent US Navy blockade of Iranian ports continued.

High oil prices are a threat to President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections. Trump has also faced pressure from partner countries on the oil price.

A US source said partner countries on the sidelines of Group of 20, World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington this week had requested the US extend the waiver. And he spoke about oil this week in a call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, a big purchaser of Russian oil.

The waiver on Iranian oil, which the Treasury Department issued on March 20, allowed about 140 million barrels of oil to reach global markets and helped relieve pressure on energy supply, Bessent said last month.

Lasting damage

US lawmakers from both political parties had slammed the administration over the sanctions waivers, saying they stood to help the economy of Iran while it was at war with the US and of Russia as it was at war with Ukraine.

The waivers could impede the West’s efforts to deprive Russia of revenue for its war in Ukraine and put Washington at odds with its allies. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said now is not the time to relax sanctions against Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev said an extension of the US waiver will affect another 100m barrels of Russian oil, bringing the total volume affected by both waivers to 200m barrels.

Dmitriev, who travelled to the US on April 9 for meetings with members of the Trump administration ahead of the previous waiver expiry, said on his Telegram channel that the extension faced “active political opposition”.

Brett Erickson, a sanctions expert at the consulting firm Obsidian Risk Advisors, said Friday’s renewal is likely not the last waiver Washington will issue.

“The conflict has done lasting damage to global energy markets, and the tools available to stabilise them are nearly exhausted,” Erickson said.