📌American Pope, India-Pakistan Attacks, More

Robert Prevost, the Chicago-born missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru, was elected the first pope from the US.

Prevost, a 69-year-old longshot known for his prudence and an approach similar to his predecessor, Pope Francis, chose the name Leo XIV. He spent 40 years as a missionary in Peru, and his immediate ancestors are Spanish and French.

Prevost attended Villanova University and Catholic Theological Union in Chicago before earning a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

The Rev. Msgr. W. Ronald Jameson, the director of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, DC, said the selection “totally shocked” him. “I never thought in my lifetime I would see an American pope,” he said as he listened to Pope Leo XIV's first words through a cell phone. “Today is an extremely joyful day.”

William Miles, a professor of political science at Northeastern University in Boston, commented: “The Catholic Church wants to put another kind of American face out to the world. To paraphrase the first President Bush, a ‘kinder, gentler’ face. … A pope can rival an American president for the world’s attention.”

India and Pakistan accused each other of launching new military attacks today.

Both countries have been clashing since India struck multiple locations in Pakistan on Wednesday that it said were "terrorist camps,” in retaliation for a deadly attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir last month.

Pakistan denied it was involved in the attack, but both countries have exchanged cross-border fire and shelling and sent drones and missiles into each other's airspace since then, with around 50 deaths resulting.

In Pakistani Kashmir, officials said heavy shelling from across the border killed five civilians, including an infant, and injured 29 early today. Sirens blared for more than two hours today in India's border city of Amritsar, which houses the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs, and residents were asked to remain indoors.

Other border areas also took precautionary measures today, including Bhuj in Gujarat, where authorities said tourist buses had been kept on standby to evacuate residents near the Pakistan border.

World powers from the US to China have urged the two countries to calm tensions, and Vice President JD Vance on Thursday reiterated the call for de-escalation.

The FaceAge AI tool can estimate a person's biological age by analyzing a selfie, giving insights into health and life expectancy.

Biological age, influenced by lifestyle and genetics, can predict survival chances for cancer patients and overall health. Researchers trained the AI using 59,000 photos, demonstrating its potential as a biomarker for aging.

The study found that cancer patients' biological age averaged five years older than their chronological age, correlating with worse survival outcomes. The tool could serve as an additional data point for clinicians, complementing vital signs and lab results.

Author Dr Hugo Aerts said: “The impact can be very large, because we now have a way to monitor a patient's health status continuously and this could help us to better predict the risk of death or complications after, say, for example, a major surgery or other treatments.”

The tool assessed the biological age of Hollywood actors Paul Rudd and Wilford Brimley based on photos of the men when they were both 50. Rudd's biological age was calculated at 42.6, while Brimley, who died in 2020, was assessed to be 69. Rudd is considered someone who has “aged well.”

Microsoft founder Bill Gates plans to distribute “virtually all” of his wealth within the next 20 years.

Gates, who estimates his wealth at around $200 billion, will close his foundation on December 31, 2045. Gates wants to accelerate the foundation’s work on global health and equity initiatives and hopes the move will set a model for other billionaires.

Gates, along with ex-wife French Gates and Warren Buffett, launched the Giving Pledge in 2010 to encourage wealthy individuals to donate most of their fortunes to charitable causes either during their lifetimes or in their wills. It now has more than 240 signatories.

“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” Gates, who turns 70 later this year, wrote. “There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.”

The Gates Foundation, one of the world’s largest philanthropies, has already given away more than $100 billion since its founding, including to develop new vaccines, diagnostic tools and treatment delivery mechanisms to fight disease around the world.

Over the next 20 years, the Gates Foundation will focus on three main goals: ending preventable deaths of moms and babies, eradicating deadly infectious diseases and lifting hundreds of millions of people around the world out of poverty.

President Donald Trump is suggesting raising the highest earners’ tax rate and closing the ‘carried interest’ loophole, sources say.

Trump privately pressed House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to add the proposals to his agenda, the sources say. The White House has discussed hiking the top tax rate for the past few months, and is close to finalizing a topline number for the bill, said a GOP source familiar with the call.

Trump is considering allowing the rate on individuals making $2.5 million or more annually to revert from 37% to the pre-2017 39.6% to protect Medicaid and help pay for middle- and working-class tax cuts, another GOP familiar with the call said.

Republican leaders have traditionally opposed tax increases on the wealthy, but Trump's push has led to reconsideration within the party.

The tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee plans to mark up its part of the reconciliation bill next week. It is still sorting through issues such as how to raise the cap on the state and local tax deduction. House GOP leaders hope to pass the final package before Memorial Day, which is seen as ambitious.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wants a full modernization of the US air traffic control system within four years.

On Thursday, he announced a far-reaching, estimated multibillion-dollar plan that would drastically overhaul the technology used by thousands of controllers responsible for guiding planes in and out of airports.

Duffy and other Trump administration officials unveiled the ambitious modernization plan after several days of turmoil at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the nation's busiest.

The DOT proposes replacing old telecomms, radio and surveillance systems, which use copper wires and floppy disks, with new technology. The plan includes investing in ground radar sensors on tarmacs and at airports, a flight management system and air traffic control towers and other facilities.

The plan will need approval from Congress. To get this done within four years, the secretary is requesting Congress provide the funding up front, rather than incrementally. Trump has endorsed the plan, even joining Duffy at the press conference via speakerphone.

Airline executives and trade representatives attended the plan's unveiling, expressing full backing of the proposal. The plan comes after years of mounting problems at airports and a series of incidents just this year.

A woman filed for divorce after ChatGPT interpreted a photo of coffee grounds in her husband’s cup as him having an affair.

The bewildered husband, appearing on the Greek morning show To Proino, recounted the incident. “One day, she made us Greek coffee and thought it would be fun to take pictures of the cups and have ChatGPT ‘read’ them.”

He recounted what happened. According to the chatbot, his cup revealed a mysterious woman with the initial “E” that he was supposedly fantasizing about — and with whom he was destined to begin a relationship. His wife’s cup showed he was already cheating, and the “other woman” wanted to destroy their home.

“I laughed it off as nonsense,” the husband said. “But she took it seriously. She asked me to leave, told our two kids we were getting divorced, and then I got a call from a lawyer.” The couple have been married for 12 years.

Seasoned coffee readers weighed in, noting that real tasseography, a fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves and coffee grounds, involves much more than just the grounds — skilled practitioners also analyze the foam and the coffee saucer.

When he refused to agree to a mutual separation, he was formally served with divorce papers just three days later. His lawyer emphasized that the claims made by an AI chatbot have no legal standing and stressed that the husband is “innocent until proven otherwise.”