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Pope Leo XIV rejected President Donald Trump's invitation to join his Board of Peace with a serious response, according to reports Wednesday. The Vatican issued a statement and declined the White House's January request, making it clear that the leader of the Roman Catholic Church does not want to be involved with Trump's Gaza project, The New Republic reported.The Vatican’s secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin said that the Pope expressed several concerns and "will not participate," The Independent reported.“For us, there are ... some critical issues that should be resolved,” Parolin told reporters. “One concern is that, at the international level, it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted.”The Pope has been critical of the president and his administration. He was among several world leaders invited to participate on the board and "supervise the ceasefire in Gaza and coordinate the strip’s reconstruction following the conflict between Hamas and Israel," according to The Independent. Trump has also said that the board would look to address global clashes, but some have viewed his move as an attempt to add an "alternative multilateral forum to the UN," which Trump has long complained about. The Pope has disagreed with Trump's move. In September, he made a subtle comment calling out the president, saying “someone who says ‘I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”And in November, the Pope, who is also the first American-born Vatican leader, went into further detail in his criticism. “I think we have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have. If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts, there’s a system of justice,” the Pope said.“But when people are living good lives, and many of them for 10, 15, 20 years, to treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful to say the least—and there’s been some violence unfortunately—I think that the bishops have been very clear in what they said,” he said. “I would just invite all people in the United States to listen to them.”As of now, only 19 countries have joined Trump's board, including Argentina, Hungary, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both Israel and Russia — countries that are both accused of war crimes — have been offered invitations but only Israel has decided to join the board so far."The Vatican and the pope’s rejection will hurt the board’s credibility, but that isn’t likely to change Trump’s mind," according to The New Republic.

Without AI you will be a ‘weaker and poorer nation’, says former UK chancellor two months into job at US firmThe former chancellor George Osborne has said countries that do not embrace the kind of powerful AI systems made by his new employer, OpenAI, risk “Fomo” and could be left weaker and poorer.Osborne, who is two months into a job as head of the $500bn San Francisco AI company’s “for countries” programme, told leaders gathered for the AI Impact summit in Delhi: “Don’t be left behind.” He said that without AI rollouts they could end up with a workforce “less willing to stay put” because they might want to seek AI-enabled fortunes elsewhere. Continue reading...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was revealed by Axios Wednesday to be engaged in “secret talks” with the grandson of ex-Cuban President Raúl Castro, bypassing official communication channels as part of the Trump administration’s brutal campaign to starve the Caribbean nation of resources in the pursuit of regime change."Our position – the U.S. government's position – is the regime has to go," one senior Trump administration official told Axios in its report Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "But what exactly that looks like is up to [President Donald Trump] and he has yet to decide. Rubio is still in talks with the grandson."While Cuba has faced crippling sanctions and an embargo imposed on it by the United States since the late 1950s, an executive order Trump signed last month imposed even harsher penalties on nations supplying the Caribbean nation with oil, setting off a chain reaction that’s shuttered hospitals and starved people of food.Trump openly cheered his administration’s use of starvation as a negotiating tactic on Tuesday, calling Cuba a “failed nation” that should “absolutely make a deal.” He also refused to rule out an outright attack on Cuba similar to the United States' attack on Venezuela last month.And on Wednesday, sources revealed to Axios that Rubio is apparently in regular contact with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of Raúl Castro, and the great-nephew of Fidel Castro, talks that have reportedly been "surprisingly" friendly.“I wouldn't call these 'negotiations' as much as 'discussions' about the future," the senior Trump administration official told Axios.Another source who was “familiar with the talks” told Axios that Rubio is “looking for the next Delcy in Cuba,” referring to acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, who’s led Venezuela since the Trump administration abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last month.“There's no political diatribes about the past. It's about the future,” the source told Axios. “[Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro] could be straight out of Hialeah, [Florida]. This could be a conversation between regular guys on the streets of Miami."The United States has sought to topple Cuban’s government since the late 1950s after revolutionaries – led by the Castros and Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara – ousted the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, whose leadership, critics say, maintained the Caribbean nation as a “virtual slave state” to the benefit of U.S. companies.

As a fleet of U.S. warships barrel toward Iran, the Trump administration appears poised to “pull the trigger” on a “full-fledged war” at any moment, and may do so sooner than “most Americans realize,” Axios reported Wednesday.“Trump's military and rhetorical buildups make it hard for him to back down without major concessions from Iran on its nuclear program,” writes Axios’ Mike Allen in the outlet’s report Wednesday.“It's not in Trump's nature, and his advisers don't view the deployment of all that hardware as a bluff. With Trump, anything can happen. But all signs point to him pulling the trigger if talks fail.”The Trump administration met with Iranian officials in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday in the hopes of reaching a deal to avoid further escalations, but according to Vice President JD Vance, those talks stalled due to Iranian officials refusing to “acknowledge” some of President Donald Trump’s “red lines.”Now, according to sources who spoke with Axios on the condition of anonymity, the United States could be engaged in “a major war in the Middle East,” and “very soon,” Axios reported.Both the USS Gerald Ford and the USS Abraham Lincoln – two massive aircraft carriers that each carry dozens of aircraft and crews of up to 5,690 – are currently near Iran, BBC Verify and AntiWar.com have reported. With the aircraft carriers are dozens of warships and hundreds of fighter jets. And, according to Axios, more than 150 military cargo flights have “moved weapons systems and ammunition” to the region. Within the past 24 hours as of Wednesday morning, the Trump administration has also moved 50 additional fighter jets to the region.

The Guardian’s community affairs correspondent, Chris Osuh, reports on the plot by two IS terrorists to massacre Jews in Manchester, and how it was thwarted by an undercover stingWalid Saadaoui had once worked as a holiday entertainer, organising dance shows and quizzes at a resort in his native Tunisia. After moving to the UK and marrying a British woman, he became a restaurateur and an avid keeper of birds.All the while, however – as the Guardian’s community affairs correspondent, Chris Osuh, explains – he was hiding a secret: he had pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Continue reading...

At this point, you have probably heard enough about the effect of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show on the president and his coalition. While there are plenty of details to debate, including the ludicrous allegation that the Grammy-winner’s performance was “pure smut,” I think it’s important to keep your eyes fixed on what’s really at stake.Rightwingers don’t mind “indecent acts,” as their protection of “the Epstein class” should attest. What they mind is a global superstar, who originates from Puerto Rico and whose native language is Spanish, making affirmative claims about who belongs in America.Bad Bunny’s halftime show was an extension of remarks he made two weekends ago after winning six Grammys. “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said. “We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”His argument in favor of kindness and common cause, and in defense of diversity and inclusion, was later immortalized on words written on a football — “Together, we are America” — and it lay beneath a spectacle seen by 135 million, according to the Daily News.The strength of Bad Bunny’s argument was enhanced by the impotence of its counterpart. Turning Point USA, the hate group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, organized an alternate musical event. Emceed by Kid Rock, the show’s message was, more or less, America is for “us,” not “them.” According to the Daily News, just 6 million watched it.That’s their beef.Donald Trump and his rightwing allies will not believe their vision of America — essentially, a racially exclusive club — is unpopular. They will never accept that America has fallen in love with a man who was born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, who was bagging groceries a decade ago before rising to Spotify’s top global artist, who welcomes everyone and whose life embodies the American Dream.So they smear him, accusing him of involvement in a criminal conspiracy to somehow force Americans into loving him against their will. That’s the thinking behind a new complaint by US Congressman Andy Ogles. The Tennessee Republican described the Super Bowl halftime show as "pure smut" featuring "explicit displays of gay sexual acts, women gyrating provocatively, and Bad Bunny shamelessly grabbing his crotch while dry-humping the air."Ogles continued, saying Bad Bunny "openly glorified sodomy and countless other unspeakable depravities." Ogles said "these flagrant, indecent acts" break federal law regulating television airwaves. He called for an investigation in a letter to the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees broadcast regulations.But such allegations are decoys. Rightwingers do not care about “family values.” If they did, they would not tolerate the incarceration of babies. (The youngest person in the Dilley Detention Center in Texas is 2 months old, according to Univision.) Rightwingers do not care about higher-order things, only whether they can be used to accomplish their goals.In this case, the goal is discrediting a global superstar who is popularizing a new and dangerous idea of belonging in America. You don’t need to pass a test. You don’t have to know the rules. You don’t even need the correct paperwork. If you’re here, you’re American.Because “together, we are America.”“Together, we are America” is new, as it casts immigration in the context of brotherhood, so the burden of government is finding ways of turning a fact of life into a fact of law.It is dangerous, as it upends a decade of rightwing effort to move public understanding of immigration away from a matter of freedom and opportunity to a matter of crime and punishment. The burden is now entirely on individuals. They’re presumed guilty until proven innocent. “Together, we are America” has the potential of turning that around.Bad Bunny’s ethic of belonging is dangerous for another reason. It comes as the logical conclusion to ten years of fear-mongering and hate speech is coming into view: families ripped apart, communities shredded, citizens murdered and concentration camps opening.Even respectable white people, or “independent voters,” are recoiling (mostly because they are shocked to learn that an “immigration crackdown” includes them). Thanks to the horrors the country has witnessed over the last month, they are now open to alternatives, especially alternatives being advanced by the most popular performing artist on the planet.Right now, the focus is on ICE and its crimes. That, however, is like the allegation that Bad Bunny’s show was “pure smut” — it limits politics to terms favorable to Trump. “Abolish ICE” should be part of a bigger picture so the meaning of belonging is radically redefined.Immigrants are Americans. They might not speak the language. They might not know the rules. They might not have the right papers. But they are here. That makes them American.The question is not if they are, but when it becomes official.

Mohan Karki – one of many people ICE has deported to countries with which they have little connection – leaves behind his wife and seven-month-old baby he has yet to holdTika Basnet sat facing the glow of her iPhone, a red tika pressed into the center of her forehead. Seven-month-old Briana slept on her lap, her breathing soft and uneven. On the other side of the screen was Mohan Karki, Basnet’s husband, who had yet to hold his daughter.For Karki, nearly 9,000 miles (14,500km) away, it was already morning. He was in hiding in south Asia, his exact location withheld for his safety, his face breaking into pixels as he watched his daughter sleep. Continue reading...

Parts of the winter world are frozen. Europe, the U.S. Midwest, and even southern states are enduring the worst cold in years as the North Pole rapidly melts, pushing frigid Arctic air through a weakened polar vortex into non-Arctic regions. So far, in the U.S., power grids are holding. Although some states experienced significant power outages in late January, they were short-lived. Ukrainians are not so lucky.A monster tries to freeze a nationOn Feb. 13, more than half the residents of Ukraine woke up in one of the coldest winters on record with no heat, no electricity, and no water. Ukrainians are fighting both climate change and a Russian invasion, both driven by evil and greed.When he attacked Ukraine in 2022, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin began strategically targeting its power grid, bombing one facility more than 200 times. By December 2024, more than half of Ukraine's energy-generating capacity had been knocked out. Now, roughly 60 percent of Ukraine’s families are living without heat during an extreme subzero winter, sleeping with pets and barn animals to share body heat and keep children alive.Putin has targeted high-voltage substations and power lines to break electricity connections within and between geographic regions. Ukraine’s Minister of Energy, Denys Shmyhal, acknowledged that there is “not a single power plant in Ukraine” that Putin hasn’t bombed. Putin’s “plan is instability through total blackout.” An American president celebrates a war criminalCutting off heat, electricity and water, deliberately freezing and starving non-combatant civilians to death, is a war crime. Kidnapping young Ukrainian children, stealing them to punish, torture or indoctrinate, is also a war crime. By credible counts, more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been taken in Putin’s sick push to erase Ukraine’s national identity.Putin is not only committing high-visibility war crimes in Ukraine as he murders critics at home, he is also responsible for the deaths of more than 50,000 Ukrainians whose only offense was choosing democracy over dictatorship.In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest. As a result, he is now barred from entering more than 120 nations including nearly all of Europe, where border officials would immediately arrest him for crimes against humanity. Despite the ICC warrant, in August, 2025, Trump mocked the international rule of law and welcomed Putin on Alaskan soil.Putin is a notorious war criminal, an international pariah hated by leaders of the free world. So, on Jan. 28, when Trump installed a framed photo of Putin, standing side by side with Trump, in the White House, the collective response was disbelief.Leaders of the free world are aghast. As one European leader quipped, “The U.S. president considers it appropriate to hang on the White House wall a photo of the greatest war criminal of the 21st century.” Meanwhile, Trump is too compromised — financially, politically, or cognitively — to comprehend that honoring THE enemy of NATO in the White House spits in the face of our allies, not to mention our veterans.Get a roomJournalist Michael Andersen, who has written about Ukraine and the former U.S.S.R. for 15 years, asks whether Americans know, or even care, how this feels to people in Ukraine. He writes: Dear Americans, your president just put up a photo in the White House of himself and the biggest war criminal of the 21st century, the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. It is ‘perfectly’ timed to mark that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is about to enter its fifth year. Do you understand the feeling this provokes in Ukraine? In Europe? 10 million Ukrainians have been forced to run away from their homes, maybe 200,000 have been killed — and your country celebrates the monster responsible?It’s a fair question. Political analysts have long speculated that Trump owes Putin something considerable. The sooner main stream media stop sugarcoating the obvious, the better.A love that was never freeIn the late 1990s, after U.S. banks stopped lending money to the Trump Organization due to its repeated bankruptcies, Trump sought and obtained alternative financing from Russian sources. Since then, his financial ties to former Russian apparatchiks have only grown. Trump-branded condos in New York and Florida are owned by wealthy Russians, often purchased through shell companies. In 2019, Newsweek reported that “Crime Infested” Trump Tower was home to convicted Russian criminals and “mobster tenants.” Trump’s financial ties to Russia are beyond speculation: Eric Trump told a reporter that Trump’s businesses “have all the funding we need out of Russia.” KGB-trained Putin plays Trump like a cheap instrument: through flattery. In October, when Putin complimented Trump’s ability to “solve complex problems” and fix “crises that last for decades,” Trump ran to post a video of Putin’s praise, writing, “Thank you to President Putin!” That Trump has solved anything, complex or otherwise, comes as a surprise to Americans suffering under his asinine tariffs, unsolved inflation, climate denial, and massive civil rights violations. That he is too stupid or narcissistic to understand how honoring Putin hurts our allies, compromising America’s vital security interests in a real and material way, is dangerous.Michael Andersen finished his commentary on Putin’s new photograph in the White House by asking, “Where is your red line, Americans?” If a Putin photo in the White House is fine with Americans, “How about one of Adolf Hitler?” It’s another fair question.Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.