US President Donald Trump has renewed his criticism of Pope Leo, potentially complicating a fence-mending visit that Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to make this week to the Vatican. In an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, Trump said the first American-born pontiff is helping Iran and also making the world less safe with his comments about the importance of not treating immigrants with disrespect. “The pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ⁠said on ⁠Tuesday that fake images ⁠of her generated by artificial intelligence were circulating online, warning that such false photos could deceive the public and target people unable to defend themselves. Meloni said ‌in a statement that several fake photos of her had been created with AI and passed off as real by political opponents. She posted one such image appearing to show her sitting on a bed wearing underwear. ⁠The original post included outraged...

Panama’s foreign minister has called on a group of opposition lawmakers visiting China to deliver a firm message defending the country’s sovereignty, as tensions over a wave of detentions of Panamanian-flagged vessels show no signs of easing. Javier Martinez-Acha Vasquez said on Monday that the lawmakers should relay a clear message to their Chinese counterparts on Panama’s behalf. “I can only suggest that you convey that Panama respects China, but Panama first respects the Constitution of our...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and successive US presidents have spent the better part of the past three decades warning that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten the whole world. Now, thanks to the illegal US-Israeli war, Iran may have to go nuclear by claiming self-defence. After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Israel would justify its clandestine nuclear weapon programme, which dates back to the 1950s, by claiming Arab states wanted to exterminate it. Well,...

Sweden’s government said on Tuesday it would push forward with a plan to form a new spy agency targeting overseas threats, part of a wider reset prompted by Russia’s war in Ukraine. The new agency would be called Sweden’s foreign intelligence service (UND) and would start operations in January 2027, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told a press conference. “During the ongoing war in Ukraine, it has become very clear that an information advantage and the ability to rapidly and...

When it comes to artificial intelligence, the United States still dominates the headlines – and, by most conventional measures, the technology itself. American institutions continue to produce a large share of high-impact AI research, and private investment reached over US$109 billion in 2024, nearly 12 times China’s total, according to the Stanford Institute for Human-Centred AI. At the same time, the economics of AI are rapidly improving. Training and deployment costs have fallen dramatically...

A hantavirus outbreak tied to a cruise ship off Cabo Verde has grown to seven cases, including two confirmed infections, the World Health Organization said on Monday, with three deaths among those linked to the voyage. The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius is carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries. Among the passengers are 17 Americans, 19 Britons and 13 from Spain. Sixty-one crew members are also on board. Of the seven cases identified, one British passenger in intensive care in Johannesburg...

When a South Korean cargo ship exploded and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz late on Monday, Donald Trump wasted no time declaring what he thought it meant. “Perhaps it’s time for South Korea to come and join the mission!” the US president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, invoking the incident as fresh justification for Seoul to send naval forces to the embattled waterway. Seoul’s answer, for now, has been a polite but firm no – or at least, not yet. The explosion occurred...

Sudan’s armed forces blamed a drone attack ⁠on Monday that targeted Khartoum airport on the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia, the latest in a barrage of assaults in recent days that has shattered months of relative calm in Sudan’s capital, three years into its civil war. Reuters could not independently verify the claims. Neither country immediately commented on the allegations made late on Monday. Sudan has often accused the UAE of supporting Rapid Support ‌Forces (RSF) paramilitaries, a charge...

A Colombian girl celebrating her 10th birthday was among three people crushed to death at a monster truck display when a vehicle veered out of control and ploughed into spectators, authorities said on Monday. Hellen Velarde was attending Sunday’s exhibition in the southwestern city of Popayan as a birthday gift when she was crushed by the truck in an incident that caused widespread anger. A second girl and a young woman were also killed, local media reported. Images circulating on social media...

Britain is in talks to join the European Union’s €90 billion (US$105.13 billion) loan to Ukraine to qualify for Kyiv’s defence orders that ‌the loan finances but will have to cover some interest payments on the borrowing to be eligible, the European Commission said. “Today marks the first high-level discussion on the UK’s potential participation in the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan, following technical exchanges between the UK Government and the Commission,” a Commission spokesman told...

Coverage of the Trump administration dominated the Pulitzer Prizes announced on Monday as the prize committee unleashed a searing attack on US President Donald Trump’s attempts to limit freedom of reporting. “We stand for civil discourse and against censorship,” said Pulitzer Administrator Marjorie Miller ahead of the announcements, which honoured coverage of Trump’s immigration crackdown and his enrichment of his allies. “Unfortunately, this bears repeating now, as media access to the White...