US Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday praised Pope Leo XIV’s manifesto warning of the risks of artificial intelligence, calling it “profound” and a necessary act of moral leadership in a disruptive AI age. Vance has close ties to the tech industry, having worked as a venture capitalist before entering politics, and counts Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk among his most prominent backers. In an encyclical called “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), the first US pope, who has clashed with the White House over the Iran war and its use of religion to justify conflict, set out on Monday a…
Author: Agency
Pope Leo XIV on Monday issued an unprecedented apology for the Vatican’s role in justifying slavery and said the delay in condemning the practice was “a wound in Christian memory”. In a major text warning about the risk of “new forms of slavery” behind the digital economy, Leo said Church institutions owned slaves until the Middle Ages. “In the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to requests from sovereigns, intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimise forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, the enslavement of ‘infidels’,” he wrote. It was only in the 19th…
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has sacked Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the nation’s government after months of tensions between the two men. A shock decree, read out on TV by a presidential aide, said Faye had “ended the duties of Ousmane Sonko… and consequently those of the ministers and secretaries of state who are members of the government”. Sonko, a popular figure among Senegal’s youth, said on social media that he would “sleep with a light heart”. The split comes as the country faces mounting economic pressure, with its public debt having reached the equivalent of 132% of…
In 1970 it was the introduction of yellow and red cards. In 2018 VAR made its World Cup debut, while in Qatar in 2022 a FIFA directive to referees led to huge extensions to the amount of stoppage time played in games. So what can we expect to see at this year’s World Cup in North America? Hydration breaks Pauses to allow players to take on fluids have been regularly seen in games played in hot conditions, but they have never been introduced as a compulsory element of every match at a World Cup. That will change this year, with…
A senior cleric and member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts has said that the country will select its next supreme leader soon, with candidates determined. Seyed Ahmad Khatami made the remarks in an interview with state-run IRIB TV four days after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in a U.S.-Israeli attack on the Iranian capital Tehran. He stressed that no problem has occurred in the country’s leadership, noting that the interim leadership council, comprising Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei and Alireza Arafi, a jurist from the country’s Constitutional Council, is running the country. Khatami expressed his…
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised concerns on Monday that the rule of law is being “outmuscled” by the rule of force in his opening speech at the 61st UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva. Guterres also warned that a two-state solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict was being undermined, noting that human rights “are under a full-scale attack around the world”. “Around the world, human rights are being pushed back deliberately, strategically and sometimes proudly,” he said, adding that the consequences are “devastating”. “I began this month speaking to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of…
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday warned against escalation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, calling on all parties to exercise restraint and resolve differences through peaceful dialogue and measures aimed at rebuilding trust. The secretary-general is closely following developments in Tigray, where renewed tensions and reported clashes have contributed to a worsening security environment, his deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement. Guterres is “deeply concerned about the potential impact on civilians and the risk of a return to a wider conflict in a region still working to rebuild and recover,” said Haq. The UN chief urged the…
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Iran was “seriously talking” with the United States. Asked by reporters aboard Air Force One whether he had made a final decision on Iran, Trump said, “Certainly, I can’t tell you that, but we do have very big, powerful ships heading in that direction.” “I hope they negotiate something that’s acceptable,” Trump said, adding, “We could make a negotiated deal that would be satisfactory, with no nuclear weapons, and they should do that, but I don’t know if they will.” The president also told Fox News that the United States could not…
Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok is facing global backlash for generating sexualised deepfakes of women and children, with the European Union joining the condemnation and Britain warning of an investigation. Complaints of abuse flooded the internet after the recent rollout of an “edit image” button on Grok, which enabled users to alter online images with prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.” The digital undressing spree, which follows growing concerns among tech campaigners over proliferating AI “nudify” apps, prompted swift probes or calls for remedial action from countries including France, India and Malaysia. The European…
Emirates, the Middle East’s biggest airline, topped up its order of Boeing 777X planes on Monday despite years of delays, delivering a vote of confidence to the US manufacturer at the Dubai Airshow. The order of 65 777-9s, valued at $38 billion (Sh4.94 trillion) including engines, came despite last month’s announcement that delivery was now due in 2027 — seven years behind the original schedule. Emirates, already the biggest customer for the Boeing 777, now has 270 777X, 10 777 freighters and 35 Boeing 787s on order. The 777X deliveries will start in the second quarter of 2027, Emirates Group…
