Pope Leo XIV and JD Vance meet ahead of US-led diplomatic flurry to reach ceasefire in Ukraine

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Updated 19 May 2025
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Pope Leo XIV and JD Vance meet ahead of US-led diplomatic flurry to reach ceasefire in Ukraine

Pope Leo XIV and JD Vance meet ahead of US-led diplomatic flurry to reach ceasefire in Ukraine
  • Vance, a Catholic convert, had led the US delegation to the formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope

ROME: Pope Leo XIV and US Vice President JD Vance met at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of US-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Vance, a Catholic convert, had led the US delegation to the formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope. Joining him at the meeting on Monday was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a Catholic, Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder said.

“There was an exchange of views on some current international issues, calling for respect for humanitarian law and international law in areas of conflict and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” according to a Vatican statement after their meeting.

The Vatican listed Vance’s delegation as the first of several private audiences Leo was having Monday with people who had come to Rome for his inaugural Mass, including other Christian leaders and a group of faithful from his old diocese in Chiclayo, Peru.

The Vatican, which was largely sidelined during the first three years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has offered to host any peace talks while continuing humanitarian efforts to facilitate prisoner swaps and reunite Ukrainian children taken by Russia.

After greeting Leo briefly at the end of Sunday’s Mass, Vance spent the rest of the day in separate meetings, including with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He also met with European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni, who said she hoped the trialateral meeting could be a “new beginning.”

In the evening, Meloni spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump and several other European leaders ahead of Trump’s expected call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Monday, according to a statement from Meloni’s office.

‘Every Effort’

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, is a Chicago-born Augustinian missionary who spent the bulk of his ministry in Chiclayo, a commercial city of around 800,000 on Peru’s northern Pacific coast.

In the days since his May 8 election, Leo has vowed “every effort” to help bring peace to Ukraine. He also has emphasized his continuity with Pope Francis, who made caring for migrants and the poor a priority of his pontificate.

Before his election, Prevost shared news articles on X that were critical of the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants.

Vance was one of the last foreign officials to meet with Francis before the Argentine pope’s April 21 death. The two had tangled over migration, with Francis publicly rebuking the Trump administration’s deportation plan and correcting Vance’s theological justification for it.


Pakistan bans new hotel construction around tourist lakes

Pakistan bans new hotel construction around tourist lakes
Updated 5 sec ago
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Pakistan bans new hotel construction around tourist lakes

Pakistan bans new hotel construction around tourist lakes
  • Unregulated construction of hotels and guest houses in Gilgit-Baltistan has sparked major concerns about environmental degradation
  • The natural beauty of the region has made it a top tourist destination, with towering peaks looming over the Old Silk Road
GILGIT, Pakistan: Pakistan will ban for five years the construction of new hotels around picturesque lakes in the north that attract tens of thousands of tourists each year, a government agency said.
Unregulated construction of hotels and guest houses in Gilgit-Baltistan – which boasts around 13,000 glaciers, more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions – has sparked major concerns about environmental degradation.
The natural beauty of the region has made it a top tourist destination, with towering peaks looming over the Old Silk Road, and a highway transporting tourists between cherry orchards, glaciers, and ice-blue lakes.
However, in recent years construction has exploded led by companies from outside the region, straining water and power resources, and increasing waste.
“If we let them construct hotels at such pace, there will be a forest of concrete,” Khadim Hussain, a senior official at the Gilgit-Baltistan Environmental Protection Authority said on Friday.
“People don’t visit here to see concrete; people come here to enjoy natural beauty,” he added.
Last month, a foreign tourist posted a video on Instagram – which quickly went viral – alleging wastewater was being discharged by a hotel into Lake Attabad, which serves as a freshwater source for Hunza.
The next day, authorities fined the hotel more than $5,000.
Asif Sakhi, a political activist and resident of the Hunza Valley, welcomed the ban.
“We have noticed rapid changes in the name of tourism and development,” he said, adding hotel construction was “destroying our natural lakes and rivers.”
Shah Nawaz, a hotel manager and local resident of the valley, also praised the ban, saying he believes “protecting the environment and natural beauty is everyone’s responsibility.”

Germany deports 81 Afghan nationals to their homeland, the 2nd flight since the Taliban’s return

Germany deports 81 Afghan nationals to their homeland, the 2nd flight since the Taliban’s return
Updated 37 min 12 sec ago
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Germany deports 81 Afghan nationals to their homeland, the 2nd flight since the Taliban’s return

Germany deports 81 Afghan nationals to their homeland, the 2nd flight since the Taliban’s return
  • The Interior Ministry announced the flight on Friday, emphasizing that those deported had prior legal issues
  • This is the first deportation under Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has pledged stricter migration policies since taking office in May

BERLIN: Germany deported dozens of Afghan nationals to their homeland on Friday, the second time it has done so since the Taliban returned to power and the first since a new government pledging a tougher line on migration took office in Berlin.

The Interior Ministry said a flight took off Friday morning carrying 81 Afghans, all of them men who had previously come to judicial authorities’ attention. It said in a statement that the deportation was carried out with the help of Qatar, and said the government aims to deport more people to Afghanistan in the future.

More than 10 months ago, Germany’s previous government deported Afghan nationals to their homeland for the first time since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to step up deportations of asylum-seekers.

New Chancellor Friedrich Merz made tougher migration policy a central plank of his campaign for Germany’s election in February.

Just after he took office in early May, the government stationed more police at the border and said some asylum-seekers trying to enter Europe’s biggest economy would be turned away. It also has suspended family reunions for many migrants.

The flight took off hours before German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt plans to meet his counterparts from five neighboring countries — France, Poland, Austria, Denmark and the Czech Republic — as well as the European Union’s commissioner responsible for migration, Magnus Brunner. Dobrindt is hosting the meeting to discuss migration on the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak, on the Austrian border.


Taiwan will not provoke confrontation with China; does not seek conflict says vice president

Taiwan will not provoke confrontation with China; does not seek conflict says vice president
Updated 39 min 49 sec ago
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Taiwan will not provoke confrontation with China; does not seek conflict says vice president

Taiwan will not provoke confrontation with China; does not seek conflict says vice president
  • Chinese pressure on Taiwan had only escalated over the past few years but that the island’s people were peace-loving

TAIPEI: Taiwan does not seek conflict with China and will not provoke confrontation and Beijing’s “aggressive” military posturing was counterproductive, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim said on Friday.

China considers democratic Taiwan as part of its own territory and calls President Lai Ching-te a “separatist.” Taiwan’s government disputes China’s claim.

Speaking to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club in the capital Taipei, Hsiao said that Chinese pressure on Taiwan had only escalated over the past few years but that the island’s people were peace-loving.

“We do not seek conflict; we will not provoke confrontation,” she said, reiterating Lai’s offer of talks between Taipei and Beijing.

For decades, Taiwan’s people and business have contributed to China’s growth and prosperity, which has only been possible under a peaceful and stable environment, Hsiao added.

“Aggressive military posturing is counterproductive and deprives the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait of opportunities to pursue an agenda of growth and prosperity,” she said.

“Defending the status quo (with China) is our choice, not because it is easy, but because it is responsible and consistent with the interests of our entire region.”


North Korea bars foreign tourists from new seaside resort

North Korea bars foreign tourists from new seaside resort
Updated 18 July 2025
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North Korea bars foreign tourists from new seaside resort

North Korea bars foreign tourists from new seaside resort
  • The Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone appears to be lined with high-rise hotels and waterparks
  • State media previously said visits to Wonsan by Russian tour groups were expected in the coming months

SEOUL: North Korea has barred foreigners from a newly opened beach resort, the country’s tourism administration said this week, just days after Russia’s top diplomat visited the area.

The sprawling seaside resort on its east coast, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s pet project, opened to domestic visitors earlier this month with great fanfare in state-run media.

Dubbed “North Korea’s Waikiki” by South Korean media, the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone appears to be lined with high-rise hotels and waterparks, and can purportedly accommodate some 20,000 people.

State media previously said visits to Wonsan by Russian tour groups were expected in the coming months.

But following Lavrov’s visit, the North’s National Tourism Administration said “foreign tourists are temporarily not being accepted” without giving further details, in a statement posted on an official website this week.

Kim showed a keen interest in developing North Korea’s tourism industry during his early years in power, analysts have said, and the coastal resort area was a particular focus.

He said ahead of the opening of the beach resort that the construction of the site would go down as “one of the greatest successes this year” and that the North would build more large-scale tourist zones “in the shortest time possible.”

The North last year permitted Russian tourists to return for the first time since the pandemic and Western tour operators briefly returned in February this year.

Seoul’s unification ministry, however, said that it expected international tourism to the new resort was “likely to remain small in scale” given the limited capacity of available flights.

Kim held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Wonsan last week where he offered Moscow his full and “unconditional” support for its war in Ukraine, KCNA reported.

Lavrov reportedly hailed the seaside project as a “good tourist attraction,” adding it would become popular among both local and Russian visitors looking for new destinations.

Ahead of Lavrov’s recent visit, Russia announced that it would begin twice-a-week flights between Moscow and Pyongyang.


Myanmar junta offers cash rewards to anti-coup defectors

Myanmar junta offers cash rewards to anti-coup defectors
Updated 18 July 2025
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Myanmar junta offers cash rewards to anti-coup defectors

Myanmar junta offers cash rewards to anti-coup defectors
  • The Southeast Asian country has been consumed by civil war since a 2021 coup
  • Embattled junta faces an array of pro-democracy guerillas and ethnic armed rebels

YANGON: Myanmar’s junta said Friday it is offering cash rewards to fighters willing to desert armed groups defying its rule and “return to the legal fold” ahead of a slated election.

The Southeast Asian country has been consumed by civil war since a 2021 coup, with the embattled junta facing an array of pro-democracy guerillas and ethnic armed rebels.

After suffering major battlefield reverses, the military has touted elections around the end of the year as a pathway to peace – plans denounced as a sham by opposition groups and international monitors.

State media The Global New Light of Myanmar said Friday “individuals who returned to the legal fold with arms and ammunition are being offered specific cash rewards.”

The junta mouthpiece did not specify how much cash it is offering, but said 14 anti-coup fighters had surrendered since it issued a statement pledging to “welcome” defectors two weeks ago.

“These individuals chose to abandon the path of armed struggle due to their desire to live peacefully within the framework of the law,” the newspaper said.

The surrendered fighters included 12 men and two women, it added.

Nine were members of ethnic armed groups, while five were from the pro-democracy “People’s Defense Forces” – formed after the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected civilian government four years ago.

The junta’s offer of a gilded olive branch matches a tactic used by its opponents – who have previously tried to tempt military deserters with cash rewards.

The “National Unity Government,” a self-proclaimed administration in exile dominated by ousted lawmakers, has called the junta’s call for cooperation “a strategy filled with deception aimed at legitimizing their power-consolidating sham election.”