Vatican City: Cardinal Robert Prevost, a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.

Prevost, 69, took the name Leo XIV.

Jerusalem: Israel permanently closed six U.N. schools in east Jerusalem on Thursday, forcing Palestinian students to leave early and throwing the education of more than 800 others into question.

Last month, heavily armed Israeli police and Education Ministry officials ordered six schools in east Jerusalem to close within 30 days, which ended on Wednesday. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, runs the six schools. UNRWA also runs schools in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which continue to operate.

The closure orders come after Israel banned UNRWA from operating on its soil earlier this year, the culmination of a long campaign against the agency that intensified following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel that ignited the war in Gaza. Israel claims that UNRWA schools teach antisemitic content and anti-Israel sentiment, which UNRWA denies.

UNRWA is the main provider of education and health care to Palestinian refugees across east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city its unified capital.

The Israeli Ministry of Education says it will place the students into other Jerusalem schools. But parents, teachers and administrators caution that closing the main schools in east Jerusalem will force their children to go through crowded and dangerous checkpoints daily, and some do not have the correct permits to pass through.

In a previous statement to The Associated Press, the Ministry of Education said it was closing the schools because they were operating without a license. UNRWA administrators pledged to keep the schools open for as long as possible.

Canada’s new Prime Minister and Liberal Leader Mark Carney

Toronto: Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won Canada’s federal election on Monday, capping a stunning turnaround in fortunes fuelled by US President Donald Trump’s annexation threats and trade war.

After polls closed, the Liberals were projected to win more of Parliament’s 343 seats than the Conservative Party, though it wasn’t immediately clear if they would win an outright majority or would need to rely on one or more smaller parties to form a government and pass legislation.

The Liberals looked headed for a crushing defeat until the American president started attacking Canada’s economy and threatening its sovereignty, suggesting it should become the 51st state. Trump’s actions infuriated Canadians and stoked a surge in nationalism that helped the Liberals flip the election narrative and win a fourth-straight term in power.

“We were dead and buried in December. Now we are going to form a government,” David Lametti, a former Liberal Justice Minister, told broadcaster CTV.

“We have turned this around thanks to Mark,” he said.

The Conservative Party’s leader, Pierre Poilievre, hoped to make the election a referendum on former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose popularity declined toward the end of his decade in power as food and housing prices rose.

But Trump attacked, Trudeau resigned and Carney, a two-time central banker, became the Liberal Party’s leader and prime minister.

Even with Canadians grappling with the fallout from a deadly weekend attack at a Vancouver street festival, Trump was trolling them on election day, suggesting on social media that he was on their ballot and repeating that Canada should become the 51st state. He also erroneously claimed that the US subsidizes Canada, writing, “It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!”

Trump’s truculence has infuriated many Canadians, leading many to cancel U.S. vacations, refuse to buy American goods and possibly even vote early. A record 7.3 million Canadians cast ballots before election day.

“The Americans want to break us so they can own us,” Carney said in the runup to election day. “Those aren’t just words. That’s what’s at risk.”

As he and his wife cast their ballots in their Ottawa district on Monday, Poilievre implored voters to “Get out to vote — for a change.” After running a Trump-like campaign for months, though, his similarities to the bombastic American leader might have cost him.

Reid Warren, a Toronto resident, said he voted Liberal because Poilievre “sounds like mini-Trump to me.” And he said Trump’s tariffs are a worry.

“Canadians coming together from, you know, all the shade being thrown from the States is great, but it’s definitely created some turmoil, that’s for sure,” he said.

Historian Robert Bothwell said Poilievre appealed to the “same sense of grievance” as Trump, but that it ultimately cost him with voters.

“The Liberals ought to pay him,” Bothwell added, referring to the US president. “Trump talking is not good for the Conservatives.”

Carney and the Liberals cleared a big hurdle by winning a fourth-straight term, but they have daunting challenges ahead.

Foreign policy hadn’t dominated a Canadian election as much as it did this year’s since 1988, when, ironically, free trade with the United States was the prevailing issue.

In addition to the trade war with the US and frosty relationship with Trump, Canada is dealing with a cost-of-living crisis. And more than 75% of its exports go to the US, so Trump’s tariffs threat and his desire to get North American automakers to move Canada’s production south could severely damage the Canadian economy.

While campaigning, Carney vowed that every dollar the the government collects from counter-tariffs on US goods will go toward Canadian workers who are adversely affected by the trade war. He also said he plans to keep dental care in place, offer a middle-class tax cut, return immigration to sustainable levels and increase funding to Canada’s public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Riyadh: A viral video is circulating on social media shows a solar halo over Saudi Arabia, with the person filming claiming it to be a sign of the approaching ‘doomsday’

In the purported video the person filming the clip is seen claiming that this solar display looks like it’s the arrival of doomsday, its nearing, everyone offer prayers as doomsday is nearing, he is heard saying in Malayalam.

However the viral claim is fake, as the solar display is a rare solar halo.

However, fact-checking reveals that the claim is false. The phenomenon is actually a rare and natural atmospheric event known as a solar halo.

On Thursday morning, residents of Aseer in Saudi Arabia were treated to a breathtaking celestial display as a rare solar halo formed a perfect, translucent ring around the sun, drawing widespread attention, reported Arab News.

Quoting Dr. Abdullah Al-Musa, a researcher and agricultural calendar specialist in the Asir region, Arab News report stated that this optical phenomenon occurs when ice crystals in high-altitude clouds align at a 22-degree angle, creating a striking ring of light around the sun. The effect, sometimes accompanied by rainbow-like colors due to light dispersion, is a result of sunlight interacting with tiny ice crystals in cirrostratus clouds, as reported by Arab News.

In the meantime, Dubai-based English daily Khaleej Times reported a similar phenomenon in the UAE, where on Saturday afternoon, a luminous 22-degree halo encircled the sun.

Ibrahim Al Jarwan, Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Emirates Astronomical Society, speaking to Khaleej Times explained that this optical phenomenon occurs when sunlight refracts through ice crystals in thin, high-altitude clouds like cirrus clouds.

The sun halos reportedly occur when sunlight passes through millions of tiny hexagonal ice crystals found in high cirrostratus clouds. The 22° angle refers to the angular radius of the ring around the sun, not the angle at which the light refracts.

Meanwhile the halo led many questions about its possible link to recent solar storms. However, Khadija Al Hariri, operations manager at the Dubai Astronomy Group, told the Khaleej Times that, “Sun halos are caused by ice crystals in Earth’s atmosphere bending sunlight. Solar storms are caused by activity on the sun like solar flares and coronal mass ejections that send charged particles toward Earth, potentially affecting satellites, power grids, and creating auroras.”

She further explained, “This phenomenon is rare in the UAE because it’s usually too hot and dry for the high-altitude ice crystals needed to form a sun halo. It doesn’t have any direct impact on the sun or space activity, it’s purely a local atmospheric observation.”

Beijing: China has reportedly tested a new kind of explosive device that uses hydrogen but does not involve any nuclear materials. This new weapon was developed by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). It works differently from traditional hydrogen bombs, which rely on nuclear fusion. Instead, this device uses a chemical reaction with a substance called magnesium hydride. The explosion creates a powerful fireball that gives off extreme heat for a longer time, reported Economic Times.

The explosive weighs only 2 kilograms and uses a unique method to create a powerful blast. Magnesium hydride, which stores hydrogen at high densities, breaks down quickly when triggered by a normal explosive. This releases hydrogen gas, which then mixes with air and catches fire. The result is a fireball with temperatures above 1,000°C much hotter than regular explosives like TNT.

Quoting Wang Xuefeng, a top scientist at the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), The Economic Times reported that hydrogen explosions require very little energy to ignite and can spread rapidly. Wang explained that such fires possess the intensity to burn through strong materials, including aluminium alloys. Due to its precision and destructive power, the device could be highly effective in targeted military strikes.

During a field test, the explosive showed a peak pressure of 428.43 kilopascals at a distance of two meters. This is around 40% of the pressure made by TNT. But the real strength of this device lies in the heat it produces. While most explosives create a quick shockwave, this one keeps burning at very high temperatures for more than two seconds.

This long-lasting heat could make the explosive useful for hitting specific military targets, such as power plants or communication centers. It could also be used to block enemy forces by burning roads or transport routes, making them unusable.

Russian President Vladimir Putin | PC: PTI

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine starting Saturday, citing humanitarian reasons, as Russia and Ukraine swapped hundreds of captured soldiers in the largest exchange since Moscow’s full-scale invasion started over three years ago.

According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire will last from 6 pm Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday to midnight (2100 GMT) following Easter Sunday.

“We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions,” Putin said at a meeting with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, in a video shared by the Kremlin’s Press Service.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the ceasefire “another attempt by Putin to play with human lives.” He wrote on X that “air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine,” and “Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life”.

Largest POW exchange so far

The two sides meanwhile exchanged hundreds of POWs on Saturday. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that 246 Russian service members were returned from territory controlled by Kyiv, and that “as a gesture of goodwill” 31 wounded Ukrainian POWs were transferred in exchange for 15 wounded Russian soldiers in need of urgent medical care.

Zelenskyy said that 277 Ukrainian “warriors” have returned home from Russian captivity.

Both sides thanked the United Arab Emirates for their mediation.

Putin’s ceasefire announcement came after US President Donald Trump on Friday said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are “coming to a head” and insisted that neither side is “playing” him in his push to end the grinding three-year war.

Trump spoke shortly after Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the US may “move on” from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting.

In January 2023, Putin had ordered his forces in Ukraine to observe a unilateral, 36-hour cease-fire for Orthodox Christmas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had stopped short of stating his forces would reject Putin’s request, but dismissed the Russian move as playing for time to regroup its invasion forces and prepare additional attacks.

Russia says its forces have retaken nearly all of Kursk

Russia’s Defence Ministry said Saturday its forces pushed Ukrainian troops from the village of Oleshnya, one of their last remaining footholds in Russia’s Kursk region where the Ukrainians staged a surprise incursion last year.

Gerasimov said Saturday in a report to Putin, quoted by Russian state media, that Russia had retaken nearly all of the territory from Ukrainian forces.

“The main part of the region’s territory, where the invasion took place, has now been liberated. This is 1,260 square kilometers, 99.5%,” Gerasimov said.

Zelenskyy wrote on X that Ukrainian forces “continued their activity on the territory of the Kursk region and are holding their positions”.

The Associated Press was unable to immediately verify the claim by Russia. Russian and North Korean soldiers have nearly deprived Kyiv of a key bargaining chip by retaking most of the region.

According to Russian state news agency Tass, Russia is still fighting to push Ukrainian forces out of the village of Gornal, some 11 km south of Oleshnya.

“The Russian military has yet to push the Ukrainian armed forces out of Gornal… in order to completely liberate the Kursk region. Fierce fighting is underway in the settlement,” the agency reported, citing Russia security agencies.

In other developments, the Ukrainian air force reported that Russia fired 87 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks overnight into Saturday. It said 33 of them were intercepted and another 36 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

Russian attacks damaged farms in the Odesa region and sparked fires in the Sumy region overnight, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Saturday. Fires were contained, and no casualties were reported.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, said its air defence systems shot down two Ukrainian drones overnight into Saturday.

Deir al-Balah: Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 24 people, including over a dozen women and children, local health officials said Sunday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to the United States to meet with President Donald Trump about the war.

Israel last month ended its ceasefire with Hamas and renewed its air and ground offensive, carrying out waves of strikes and seizing territory to pressure the fighter group to accept a new deal for a truce and release of remaining hostages.

It has also blocked the import of food, fuel and humanitarian aid for over a month to the coastal territory heavily reliant on outside assistance.

“Stocks are getting low and the situation is becoming desperate,” the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said on social media.

The latest Israeli strikes overnight into Sunday hit a tent and a house in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing five men, five women and five children, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies.

A female journalist was among those killed. “My daughter is innocent. She had no involvement, she loved journalism and adored it,” said her mother, Amal Kaskeen.

The body of one child, 1 1/2-year old, took up just one end of an emergency stretcher.

“Trump wants to end the Gaza issue. He is in a hurry, and that is clear from this morning,” asserted Mohammad Abdel-Hadi, cousin of a woman killed.

Israeli shelling killed at least four people in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. And the bodies of five people, including a child and three women, arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, according to an Associated Press journalist there.

Dozens of Palestinians took to the streets in Jabaliya for a new round of anti-war protests. Footage circulating on social media showed people marching and chanting against Hamas. Such protests, while rare, have occurred in recent weeks.

There is also anger inside Israel over the war’s resumption and its effects on remaining hostages in Gaza. Families of hostages along with some of those recently freed from Gaza and their supporters on Saturday urged Trump to help ensure the fighting ends.

Netanyahu on Monday will meet with Trump for the second time since Trump began his latest term in January. The prime minister said they would discuss the war and the new 17 per cent tariff imposed on Israel, part of a sweeping global decision by the new US administration.

“There is a very large queue of leaders who want to do this with respect to their economies. I think it reflects the special personal connection and the special connection between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time,” Netanyahu said while wrapping up a visit to Hungary.

The US, a mediator in ceasefire efforts along with Egypt and Qatar, expressed support for Israel’s resumption of the war last month.

The toll of war

Hundreds of Palestinians since then have been killed, among them 15 medics whose bodies were recovered only a week later. Israel’s military this weekend backtracked on its account of what happened in the incident, captured in part on video, that caused anger by Red Cross and Red Crescent and UN officials.

The war began when Hamas-led group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Fifty-nine hostages are still held in Gaza — 24 believed to be alive — after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 50,695 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants but says more than half were women and children. It says another 115,338 people have been wounded. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 members of the group, without providing evidence.

London (AP): Britain’s Heathrow Airport will be closed Friday after an electrical substation fire knocked out its power, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers who use one of Europe’s biggest travel hubs.

Thousands of homes also lost power and about 150 people had to be evacuated after a transformer within an electrical substation caught fire in west London.

“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow” for the full day Friday, the airport’s statement said. “We expect significant disruption over the coming days, and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”

Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage.

To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March.

It said it will provide an update on its operations when it has more information on restoring power available.

Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports for international travel. It had its busiest January on record earlier this year, with more than 6.3 million passengers, up more than 5% for the same period last year. January also was the 11th month in a row it averaged over 200,000 passengers a day, with the airport citing transatlantic travel as a key contributor.

The U.K. government earlier this year approved building a third runway at the airport to boost the economy and connectivity to the world.

London Fire Brigade said 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters were on the scene of the fire.

“The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large number of homes and local businesses, and we are working closely with our partners to minimize disruption,” Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said.

Footage posted to social media showed huge flames and large plumes of smoke coming from the facility.

Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation recognising February 9 as “the first-ever Gulf of America Day” after a recent executive order by him to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

Trump signed the proclamation on Sunday on his way to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, which sits on the gulf.

“We are flying right over it right now,” Trump said, sitting aboard Air Force One with a pen in his hand. “So we thought this would be appropriate.”

“Today, I am making my first visit to the Gulf of America since its renaming,” Trump said in the proclamation published on the White House website.

Trump had signed an executive order on his inauguration on January 20, giving the Department of the Interior 30 days to take “all appropriate action” needed to facilitate the name change.

Just after Trump signed the executive order, the US Coast Guard started using the term Gulf of America, marking the US government’s first official use of the term.

“As my administration restores American pride in the history of American greatness, it is fitting and appropriate for our great Nation to come together and commemorate this momentous occasion and the renaming of the Gulf of America,” Trump said in the proclamation.

“NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 9, 2025, as Gulf of America Day,” he said.

He called upon public officials and all the people of the United States to observe the day with appropriate programmes, ceremonies, and activities.

Taipei (Taiwan) (AP): China’s population fell last year for the third straight year, its government said on Friday, pointing to further demographic challenges for the world’s second most populous nation, which is now facing both an ageing population and an emerging shortage of working age people.

China’s population stood at 1.408 billion at the end of 2024, a decline of 1.39 million from the previous year.

The figures announced by the government in Beijing follow trends worldwide, but especially in East Asia, where Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and other nations have seen their birth rates plummet. China three years ago joined Japan and most of Eastern Europe among other nations whose population is falling.

The reasons are in many cases similar: Rising costs of living are causing young people to put off or rule out marriage and child birth while pursuing higher education and careers. While people are living longer, that’s not enough to keep up with rate of new births.

Countries such as China that allow very little immigration are especially at risk.

China has long been among the world’s most populous nations, enduring invasions, floods and other natural disasters to sustain a population that thrived on rice in the south and wheat in the north. Following the end of World War II and the Communist Party’s rise to power in 1949, large families re-emerged and the population doubled in just three decades, even after tens of millions died in the Great Leap Forward that sought to revolutionize agriculture and industry and the Cultural Revolution that followed a few years later.

After the end of the Cultural Revolution and leader Mao Zedong’s death, Communist bureaucrats began to worry the country’s population was outstripping its ability to feed itself and began implementing a draconian “one child policy.”

Though it was never law, women had to apply for permission to have a child and violators could face forced late-term abortions and birth control procedures, massive fines and the prospect of their child being deprived an identification number, effectively making them non-citizens.

Rural China, where the preference for male offspring was especially strong and two children were still ostensibly allowed, became the focus of government efforts, with women forced to present evidence they were menstruating and buildings emblazoned with slogans such as “have fewer children, have better children.”

The government sought to stamp out selective abortion of female children, but with abortions legal and readily available, those operating illicit sonogram machines enjoyed a thriving business.

That has been the biggest factor in China’s lopsided sex ratio, with as many as millions more boys born for every 100 girls, raising the possibility of social instability among China’s army of bachelors. Friday’s report gave the sex imbalance as 104.34 men to every 100 women, though independent groups give the imbalance as considerably higher.

More disturbing for the government was the drastically falling birthrate, with China’s total population dropping for the first time in decades in 2023 and China being narrowly overtaken by India as the world’s most populous nation in the same year. A rapidly aging population, declining workforce, lack of consumer markets and migration abroad are putting the system under severe pressure.

While spending on the military and flashy infrastructure projects continues to rise, China’s already frail social security system is teetering, with increasing numbers of Chinese refusing to pay into the underfunded pension system.

Already, more than one-fifth of the population is aged 60 or over, with the official figure given as 310.3 million or 22% of the total population. By 2035, this number is forecast to exceed 30%, sparking discussion of changes to the official retirement age, which one of the lowest in the world. With fewer students, some vacant schools and kindergartens are meanwhile being transformed into care facilities for older people.

Such developments are giving some credence to the aphorism that China, now the world’s second largest economy but facing major headwinds, will “grow old before it grows rich.”

Government inducements including cash payouts for having up to three children and financial help with housing costs have had only temporary effects.

Meanwhile, China continued its transition to an urban society, with 10 million more people moving to cities for an urbanization rate of 67%, up almost a percentage point from the previous year.