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Pope Leo has criticised leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was "being ravaged by a handful of tyrants" in unusually forceful comments during a visit to Cameroon.

The pontiff blasted those he said had manipulated "the very name of God" for their own gain, while touring a region ravaged by a deadly insurgency.

The remarks come just days after a high-profile spat with US President Donald Trump, who posted a lengthy attack on the Pope, a vocal critic of the US-Israeli military operation in Iran.

The Pope had voiced his concern about Trump's threat that "a whole civilisation will die" if Iran did not agree to US demands to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.

Leo, who last year became the first US-born Pope, has previously also questioned the Trump administration's approach to immigration.

"Leo should get his act together as Pope," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post at the time.

The Pope told reporters at the start of his Africa tour that he did not want to get into a debate with Trump but would continue to promote peace.

Speaking in Cameroon, the Pope criticised leaders who "turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to ​be found".

"The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild," he said on Thursday.

The war in Iran has increasingly placed the Pope and the Trump administration at odds.

Soon after the first US and Israeli attacks on Iran, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recited a highly controversial prayer at a Pentagon worship service that talked of "overwhelming violence" and "justice executed swiftly and without remorse".

Then, during a Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter's Square, the Pope said the conflict between Iran, Israel and the US was "atrocious" and that Jesus could not be used to justify war.

"This is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war," he told tens of thousands of worshippers gathered in Vatican City.

"He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them."

The pontiff also quoted the Bible passage Isaiah 1:15: "Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood."

Earlier this week, Trump launched a scathing attack on the Pope on social media, in which he described the leader of the Catholic Church as "WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy" while portraying himself as a Jesus-like figure.

He later doubled-down on his criticism and refused to apologise - but deleted the AI-generated image of himself.

Asked about the US president's remarks as he arrived in Algiers, the Pope said he had "no fear" of the Trump administration and that he would continue to speak out against war.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said a nationwide warrant has been issued in the first criminal charges against an ICE agent for on-duty actions during the surge.

Gift link — uses URL shortener because Lemmy removes the gift token

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.org/post/5339777

Something, something about no other gods before me.

This gave Tehran enhanced satellite imaging capabilities and made it nearly impossible for Israel and the U.S. to target the infrastructure supporting it.

The Trump administration has reportedly canceled an $11 million contract with the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami, which offers shelter and care to migrant children entering the United States alone.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has paid Catholic Charities for numerous years to house immigrant children entering the U.S. without adult supervision. The federal government contacted the charity about the cancellation in late March, according to The Miami Herald.

The abrupt severing of the White House's long-term support to the nonprofit comes amid an ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV. Responding to Leo’s repeated criticism of the Iran war, Trump bashed the pope on Sunday in a social media post in which he called him “weak” on crime and “terrible” for foreign policy, urging him to “get his act together as Pope.”

The Big Oil owners get to make ever-more money off high oil prices, while you and your kids get tooth decay. Nice little snapshot of how Republican policy works.

Investigation of Family Dollar and Dollar General prompts lawmakers to double penalties for retailers that repeatedly charge more at checkout than prices listed on shelves

The new state law, which takes effect on 6 May, was introduced in direct response to a Guardian investigation of pricing practices at two national chains, Dollar General and Family Dollar, according to an official who oversees the state’s price-accuracy inspections.

Both dollar-store chains target cost-conscious families, yet their stores often post one price on the shelf and ring up a higher price at the register.

The investigation, published in December, found that Dollar General stores failed more than 4,300 government price-accuracy inspections in 23 states between 2022 and 2025. The smaller Family Dollar chain failed more than 2,100 price-accuracy inspections in 20 states during the same period.

A police official in Arizona has been placed on administrative leave after showing up armed to a student-led protest and provoking an altercation that led to the arrest of a teenage girl. The officer told fellow police who arrived on the scene that he attended the students’ immigration rights protest with the intent of acting as an agent provocateur, according to a news report.

Dusten Mullen, a sergeant with the Phoenix Police Department, has been suspended with pay pending an internal review of his conduct at a protest at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona, on January 30, according to Phoenix Police Chief Matthew Giordano.

“As law enforcement professionals, we are held to higher standards of conduct — both in and out of uniform,” Giordano said. “When we fall short, we must be accountable, and we will not tolerate actions which undermine the trust the community has placed in the Department.”

Fox 10 Phoenix, the outlet to first identify Mullen, reported that Mullen told Chandler Police Department officers on the scene that he was there in the hopes of getting a rise out of the kids that would then allow the local cops to cuff them.

The New York Islanders are facing questions about a promotion urging hockey fans to donate to a former New York City police sergeant who was recently convicted of manslaughter for hurling a cooler of ice at a man fleeing arrest.

The fundraiser — shown on the scoreboard during Tuesday's home game against the Carolina Hurricanes — featured a photo of Erik Duran, who was sentenced last week to three to nine years in prison for causing the death of 30-year-old Eric Duprey.

It included a QR code for direct donations to Duran's legal defence, along with a message from his union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, requesting fans join "the fight for justice." The team also said it would direct a quarter of proceeds from a 50/50 raffle toward the cause, the union said.

Duprey's death came as Duran and other narcotics officers were carrying out an undercover drug bust in the Bronx in 2023.

Surveillance footage showed Duran lifting a bystander's cooler full of drinks and ice and throwing it at Duprey as he attempted to flee on a motorized scooter. The impact of the cooler caused Duprey to crash into a tree, and he died almost instantly.

As scientists confirmed that March was the United States’ most abnormally hot month in recorded history, dozens of climate deniers gathered to promote misinformation and tout their newfound influence on federal policy.

At a conference hosted by the prominent science-denying think tank the Heartland Institute last week, a crowd of mostly middle-aged men in suits claimed the world is finally waking up to the idea that the climate crisis does not exist. “I feel wonderful,” James Taylor, president of the Heartland Institute, said in an interview. “The truth is winning out.”

The clearest sign of the crowd’s rising power was the gathering’s keynote speaker: Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whom President Donald Trump is also reportedly considering for attorney general. “It is a day to celebrate vindication,” Zeldin said on Wednesday morning.

As people entered the event, held in the basement of a hotel near the White House, they were greeted by wares promoting climate denial. “Good news,” read a banner outside the main ballroom, erected by the CO2 Coalition, a climate-denying nonprofit that co-sponsored the conference. “There is no climate crisis.”

A table overflowed with displays reading “CO2 is a lifesaver,” pamphlets titled “Fossil fuels are the greenest energy source” and “Challenging ‘net zero’ with science,” and children’s books falsely claiming the acceleration of sea level rise is insignificant. Baskets held buttons proclaiming “Unashamed about my carbon footprint,” as well as stress balls resembling tiny Earths that read: “Don’t stress. There is no climate crisis.”

A jury found Wednesday that entertainment giant Live Nation, which hosts tens of thousands of concerts a year, and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had a harmful monopoly over big venues.

The ruling, in a lawsuit brought by dozens of states, won’t immediately bring relief for concertgoers who have long complained about high ticket prices.

But it could cost Live Nation hundreds of millions of dollars and perhaps force the company to sell some of its concert venues when the judge hands out penalties later.

Nearly 200 organizations are urging the Trump administration and Puerto Rico’s governor to restore $350 million in federal funding that was meant to finance the installation of rooftop solar and battery systems for 12,000 low-income families across the U.S. territory.

Many of the families have disabilities or medical conditions that require electricity. Concern is growing that the U.S. will abandon them as chronic power outages persist and the Atlantic hurricane season officially nears — it runs from June 1-Nov. 30.

“For them in particular, whether they get a (solar) system or not is something that is really life or death,” Charlotte Gossett Navarro, Puerto Rico chief director for the Hispanic Federation, said in a phone interview.

After Georgia Fort and Don Lemon reported from a church whose pastor reportedly works for ICE, agents arrested Fort in front of her children

When federal agents arrived at Georgia Fort’s front door to arrest her, she knew what to do: be a journalist.

Fort, an independent Minnesota reporter who faces criminal charges after covering a protest inside a St Paul church, took out her phone and spoke directly to the camera, livestreaming to her audience that her lawyer advised her to go with the agents. Her three kids were in the house at the time, she said.

“I’m going to have to hop off here and surrender to agents,” she said in the video on 30 January. “As a member of the press, I filmed the church protest a few weeks ago, and now I’m being arrested for that. It’s hard to understand how we have a constitution, constitutional rights, when you can just be arrested for being a member of the press.”

Fort was one of two journalists, alongside Don Lemon, charged for covering the 18 January protest during services at St Paul’s Cities church, where the pastor reportedly works as a field director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The one who may not have gotten his seat at all if it wasn't for progress, blasts progress.

Clarence "Steven Candie" Thomas, raper of Anita Hill...

Samsung is retiring its SMS messenger and suggesting Google Message as an alternative.

FUCK NO!! I ain't giving a way for the government to get everything without a warrant. Google is a collaborator, and it can eat shit!

cross-posted from: https://pawb.social/post/42715642

The middle distribution of Gen Z’s feelings about AI range from apprehension to downright hatred. Despite the fact that more than half of Gen Z living in the U.S. uses AI regularly, according to a recently released Gallup poll, less than a fifth feel hopeful about the technology. About a third says the technology makes them angry. And nearly half say it makes them afraid.

Gallup’s own senior education researcher, Zach Hrynowski, blamed the bad vibes at least partially on the dwindling job market. The oldest Zoomers, he told Axios, are the angriest, as they are “acutely aware” of the ability of a technology to transform cultural norms without a second thought, unlike a Gen Xer who is trained to see new technology as toys and are still “playing around with AI.”

Indeed, job prospects for the recently graduated Gen Z are abysmal; Bloomberg just reported that 43% of young graduates are “underemployed,” meaning taking on jobs that require less education than they have.

[...]

This is not just a Gen Z problem, either. In the American heartland, data centers are being proposed at a pace that local communities never anticipated and for which they were never asked permission, and they’re increasingly pushing back.

The numbers are serious. According to a report from 10a Labs’ Data Center Watch, at least $18 billion worth of data center projects have been blocked and another $46 billion delayed over the past two years owing to local opposition. At least 142 activist groups across 24 states are now actively organizing to block data center construction and expansion. A Heatmap Pro review of public records found that 25 data center projects were canceled following local pushback in 2025 alone, four times as many as in 2024, with 21 of those cancellations occurring in the second half of the year as electricity costs grew.

The concerns driving this resistance are less about existential AI risk and more about typical kitchen-table complaints; communities consistently cite higher utility bills, water consumption, noise, impacts on property values, and green space destruction as their primary objections. Water use is mentioned as a top concern in more than 40% of contested projects, according to a Heatmap Pro review of public records.

Sid and Marty Krofft spurred my childhood imagination: from H.R. Pufnstuf to The Bugaloos to Land of the Lost, they brought me whimsy and bright colors, and gave me a love of weirdness and fantasy. I'm grateful for their gifts, and wish them joy and happiness in their journeys.

Military planning for a possible Pentagon-led operation in Cuba is quietly ramping up, in case Donald Trump gives an order to intervene there, USA TODAY has learned.

Two sources familiar with the order spoke to USA TODAY on condition of anonymity because they're not authorized to speak to media.

The directives appear to be an escalation of recent tensions between the U.S. and Cuba that began in January when the Trump administration curbed oil shipments to Cuba as part of a broader campaign to force sweeping political changes on the communist-run island.

John Eastman, a lawyer who spearheaded efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Trump’s favor, has been formally disbarred in California

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to review his appeal of a lower court’s recommendation to strip him of his law license, instead ordering his disbarment.

“The court orders that John Charles Eastman…is disbarred from the practice of law in California and that Respondent’s name is stricken from the roll of attorneys,” reads a terse order on the docket of Eastman’s case.