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Pope Leo XIV has turned down Donald Trump’s invitation to join his so-called “Board of Peace”, a senior Vatican official said.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, told reporters on Tuesday that the Pope had a number of concerns about the initiative and that he “will not participate” as a result.

“For us, there are... some critical issues that should be resolved,” he said. “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.”


Mr Trump has invited a number of world leaders to join the board, originally conceived as a body to supervise the ceasefire in Gaza and coordinate the Strip’s reconstruction following the conflict between Hamas and Israel.

Its scope has since been expanded, with Mr Trump saying it would be well-placed to address a range of global disputes. Some see it as an effort by the US president to establish and alternative multilateral forum to the United Nations, which he has repeatedly criticised as not being fit for purpose.

It was Cardinal Parolin who earlier confirmed that the Pope had been invited to join the board by Mr Trump. He said in January that “the Pope has received the invitation, and we are considering what to do; we are looking into it.”

He said at the time that the invitation to join the board “requires some time to answer” and that the request “will not be to participate financially” because “we are not in a position to do so”.

Mr Trump claims the Board of Peace has already committed more than $5bn (£3.67bn) to help rebuild Gaza.



Arab states have also expressed anger at the inclusion of Benjamin Netanyahu, citing the Gaza war that has resulted in the deaths of 72,000 Palestinians.

And there have been concerns about the prominent role of former UK prime minister Tony Blair – one of the first names announced by Mr Trump in connection to the initiative. Mr Blair is expected to sit on the board’s founding executive despite longstanding criticism over Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war.

Despite the controversy, dozens of countries – including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Hungary, and the United Arab Emirates – have committed to joining the board.


Pope Leo has repeatedly criticised Mr Trump’s policies since being named the first American pontiff. In October last year, he questioned whether the president’s hardline immigration policies were in line with the Catholic Church’s “pro-life” values.

“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,” he told the media in Rome.

At the time, the White House pushed back on the comments. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she “would reject there was inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States under this administration”.

“This administration is trying to enforce our nation’s laws in the most humane way possible, and we are upholding the law. We are doing that on behalf of the people of our country who live here.”


In November the Pope backed a message from US bishops criticising the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, including mass deportations and the treatment of migrants. “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,” he 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.

“I would just invite all people in the United States to listen to them.”

In January this year, Pope Leo delivered a powerful speech in which he condemned the growing global “zeal for war”. While he did not call out Mr Trump by name, his address came after the US military operation to forcibly remove Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro and bring him to American soil.

“A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force,” Leo told diplomats from 184 countries. “War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading.”

Suspected terrorists have abducted 14 passengers and killed two others in a late-evening attack in the Okpokwu axis of Benue State.

The passengers were travelling from the Igede axis of Oju and Obi local government areas to the South-west on Monday when their vehicle was ambushed around 7 p.m. along the Utonkon–Ojapo/Okpoga route within Okpokwu LGA.

United States President Donald Trump has said he made no mistake for a video briefly shared on his official Truth Social account that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.

Speaking late Friday to reporters accompanying him aboard Air Force One, Trump insisted he made no mistake by sharing the video and does not need to apologise.

“I didn’t make a mistake,” he said.

Trump explained that he did not watch the entire clip before it was posted.

The video, which was posted late Thursday, pushed a conspiracy theory about voting machines used during the 2020 election and included a racist depiction of the Obamas.

It remained on Trump’s Truth Social account for about 12 hours before being deleted on Friday morning, following widespread bipartisan calls for its removal.

The White House initially defended the post in an emailed statement to reporters on Friday morning by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

She said, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.”

Leavitt added, “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

Hours after the statement was issued, the video was removed from Trump’s official Truth Social account.

President Donald Trump shared a post with a racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys, sparking outrage across the US political spectrum on Friday before deleting it in a rare backtrack.

The White House initially rejected “fake outrage” over the video shared on Trump’s Truth Social account late Thursday night, only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member.

Democrats had slammed Trump as “vile” over the post about the Obamas — the first Black president and first lady in US history — while a senior Republican senator said the video was blatantly racist.

Near the end of the one-minute-long video promoting conspiracies about Republican Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second.


The video, uploaded at 11.44 pm Thursday (0445 GMT Friday) amid a flurry of other posts, repeated false allegations that ballot-counting company Dominion Voting Systems helped steal the election from Trump.

At first, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt played down the row, saying the images were “from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King.”

“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt said in a statement to AFP.

But almost exactly 12 hours after the post appeared on Trump’s account, there was an unusual concession from an administration that normally refuses to admit the slightest mistake.

“A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,” a White House official told AFP.

There was no immediate comment from the Obamas.

While Democrats had pounced on the post, it was the outrage from some members of Trump’s own Republican party that appeared to trigger the about-face.

Tim Scott, the only Black Republican senator and a contender for the 2024 presidential nomination, called the video “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”

Scott said he was “praying it was fake” and called for Trump to remove it.



– ‘Disgusting bigotry’ –

The top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, called Trump “vile, unhinged and malignant” and urged Republicans on X to “immediately denounce Donald Trump’s disgusting bigotry.”

During negotiations to avoid a US government shutdown last year, Trump posted a video of Jeffries, who is Black, wearing a fake moustache and a sombrero. Jeffries called the image racist.

Billionaire Trump launched his own political career by pushing the racist and false “birther” conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was lying about being born in the United States.

Trump has long had a bitter rivalry with his Democratic predecessor, taking particular umbrage at his popularity and the fact that he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the first year of his second term in the White House, Trump has ramped up his use of hyper-realistic but fabricated AI visuals on Truth Social and other platforms, often glorifying himself while lampooning his critics.

He has used the provocative posts to rally his conservative base.

An AI-generated video in one of the posts, showing fighter jets dumping human waste on protesters, was created by the same X user who made the video showing the Obamas as monkeys.

Last year, Trump posted a video generated by artificial intelligence showing Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and appearing behind bars in an orange jumpsuit.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has drawn criticism from his opponents for leading a crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

US federal anti-discrimination programmes were born of the 1960s civil rights struggle, mainly led by Black Americans, for equality and justice after hundreds of years of slavery, whose abolition in 1865 saw other institutional forms of racism enforced.

President Trump has attacked key pillars of his country's democracy, Human Rights Watch warned on Wednesday in its annual report, citing the Republican president's immigration crackdown, threats to ​voting rights and other policies.

Human Rights Watch Executive Director Philippe Bolopion said global democracy was now back at 1985 ‌levels, according to some metrics. He said Russia, China and the United States were all less free than 20 years ago, and 72% of the world's ‌population was now living under autocracy.

Philippe Bolopion wrote that Washington was now helping countries such as Russia and China in undermining human rights.

Bolopion told reporters: "We see a sort of very hostile environment in the US and a very rapid decline of ... the quality of democracy in this country."

Bolopion also said in the report that the Trump administration had leaned on racist tropes and "embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology."

He criticized what he said was degrading treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers, the killing of two people in Minneapolis, and the deportation of hundreds of migrants to a mega-prison in El Salvador known for its harsh conditions, among other elements of Trump's immigration crackdown.

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Story. You chop Doris Ogala abi u no chop am?

I pity those that take most of these so called pastors serious. Some women even respect their 'Daddy' pastor more than their husband.

The leaders of Britain and China called Thursday for a "comprehensive strategic partnership" to deepen ties between their nations at a time of growing global turbulence and uncertainty.

Neither Prime Minister Keir Starmer nor President Xi Jinping publicly mentioned Donald Trump, but the U.S. president's challenge to the post-Cold War order was clearly on their minds.

"I think that working together on issues like climate change, global stability during challenging times for the world is precisely what we should be doing as we build this relationship in the way that I've described," Starmer told Xi at the start of their meeting in Beijing.

The two met for 80 minutes — double the scheduled time — in the Great Hall of the People as their nations try to improve relations after several years of acrimony. Relations have deteriorated over allegations of Chinese spying in Britain, China's support for Russia in the Ukraine war and the crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, the former British colony that was returned to China in 1997. Starmer is the first British prime minister to visit in eight years.

Xi said that "China-U.K. relations experienced setbacks in previous years, which was not in the interests of either country."

"In the current turbulent and ever-changing international situation ... China and the U.K. need to strengthen dialogue and cooperation to maintain world peace and stability," he said.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Xi had stressed, without mentioning the U.S. directly, that "major powers" must adhere to international law or the world would regress into a "jungle."

Relationship is in 'a good place'

After the meeting, Starmer said the leaders had made "really good progress" on issues including slashing Chinese tariffs on Scotch whisky and introducing visa-free travel for British visitors.

"The relationship is in a good place, a strong place," the British leader said.

Xi appeared to acknowledge the criticism that Starmer has faced for reaching out to China despite national security and human rights concerns. The U.K. recently approved controversial plans for a huge Chinese Embassy in London, removing a sticking point in relations but also overriding fears that the "mega-embassy" would make it easier for China to conduct espionage and intimidate dissidents.

"Good things often come with difficulties," Xi said. "As long as it is the right thing to do in accordance with the fundamental interests of the country and its people, leaders will not shy away from difficulties and will forge ahead bravely."

Starmer's visit comes less than two months after a Hong Kong court convicted Jimmy Lai, a former newspaper publisher and British citizen, under a national security law that Beijing imposed on the territory after massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Starmer said he raised human rights issues with Xi and the two men had a "respectful discussion."

Starmer, who was elected in July 2024, has said he will protect national security while keeping up diplomatic dialogue and economic cooperation with China. He told Xi that it has "been far too long" since a U.K. prime minister visited.

"I made a promise 18 months ago when we were elected into government, that I would make Britain face outward again," the leader of the center-left Labour Party said. "Because as we all know, events abroad affect everything that happens back in our home countries, from prices on the supermarket shelves to how secure we feel."

Starmer's government has struggled to deliver the economic growth it promised and ease a cost-of-living crisis for millions of households and he sees China as a potential source of growth.

More than 50 U.K. business executives have joined him on the trip, along with the leaders of major cultural organizations, as he seeks to expand opportunities for British companies in China and secure Chinese investment in the U.K.

Trump tariffs spur new trade talks

The disruption to global trade under Trump has made expanding trade and investment more imperative for many governments. Vietnam and the European Union upgraded ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership Thursday, two days after the EU and India announced a free trade accord.

"At a moment when the international rules-based order is under threat from multiple sides, we need to stand side by side as reliable and predictable partners," European Council President Antonio Costa said in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Starmer is the fourth leader of a U.S. ally to visit Beijing this month, following those of South Korea, Canada and Finland. The German chancellor is expected to visit next month.

The U.K. leader earlier Thursday met Zhao Leji, the chairman of China's legislature, the National People's Congress. The two countries were expected to sign a number of agreements later in the day.

One will try to disrupt the trade in Chinese boat engines used by smugglers to bring people across the English Channel to Britain. More than half the engines come from China, the British government said. Under the agreement, U.K law enforcement agencies will work with Chinese authorities and manufacturers to prevent engines from ending up in the hands of criminal gangs.

Melania,” the new documentary about the first lady, scheduled to open worldwide on Friday, has been pulled from theaters in South Africa after the film’s local distributor said on Wednesday that it would no longer release it.

“Based on recent developments, we’ve taken the decision to not go ahead with a theatrical release in territory,” said Thobashan Govindarajulu, the head of sales and marketing for the distributor, Filmfinity.

Mr. Govindarajulu declined to say what recent developments had led to the decision, but said that the company was not pressured or asked to pull the film. “That was our decision,” he said. The decision was first reported by the South African outlet News24.

The promotion of the film about Melania Trump has been as polarizing as her husband, President Trump, who has touted the movie as a “must watch.

Melania Trump suffers humiliating blow as one person shows up to premiere of £29m film in London

Despite a whopping $35million (£25m) marketing budget, tickets sales for Amazon MGM Studios' glossy Melania Trump documentary are reportedly 'soft


MELANIA: TRAILER TEASES FILM ABOUT THE FIRST LADY

On Monday, US president Donald Trump posted several photos from a VIP-packed screening of his wife’s documentary Melania, insisting that the film is “a MUST WATCH” and that tickets are “selling out, FAST!”

That may be the case in some territories, but in the UK, director Brett Ratner’s loving cinematic portrait of the First Lady has opened to a distinctly lukewarm reception. UK cinema chain Vue's premiered Melania at its flagship Islington branch in London at 3.10pm on Friday, but only one person bought a ticket.

The later, 6pm screening did twice as well, selling two tickets. Future screenings, in the cinema’s small 25-seat auditorium, seem to be faring little better. Vue’s chief executive, Tim Richards, admitted to the Guardian that UK ticket sales for the Melania Trump documentary feature had been “soft” so far.

One industry insider suggested that the film’s distributors might be paying a fee to cinemas in exchange for screenings, an established practice known as “four-walling.”

Donald Trump's blunt two words show true feelings towards Melania

They added: “I’d be amazed if box office gets reported on this title.” The Mirror reached out to Vue for some detail on ticket sales for Melania, but has yet to receive a reply.