Associated Press

Pope Leo XIV made his first appointment of a Chinese bishop under the Vatican's 2018 agreement with Beijing, signalling he is continuing one of Pope Francis' most controversial foreign policy decisions.

A Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists arrived at an Israeli port Monday after Israeli forces stopped and detained them — enforcing a longstanding blockade of the Palestinian territory that has been tightened during the Israel-Hamas war.

 Pope Leo has been credited by victims of helping to dismantle an abusive Catholic movement in Peru, but other survivors have asked him to account for other cases.

Pope Leo XIV visited the papal summer palace south of Rome on May 29 as questions swirled whether he will use it himself to escape the heat or follow in Pope Francis' footsteps and keep the hilltop estate as a museum and environmental center.

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Apaches who want to stop the transfer of Oak Flat federal land to Resolution Copper, which plans to mine what it says is the second-largest known copper deposit in the world.

The most pressing sports question for many locals inside the Vatican and surrounding Italy concerning the first American pope — Does Leo support an Italian soccer club?

From the Pilgrims' Madonna at the Basilica of St. Augustine to the Martyrdom of St. Ursula that closes the "Caravaggio 2025" exhibit, art historians and clergy are highlighting the connections between religious belief and Caravaggio's "chiaroscuro."

"The pope absolutely has an open invite to come back," the team's chief executive and marketing officer said, "to come sit in Section 140, to throw out a first pitch. Heck, maybe we'll let him get an at bat."

Pope Leo XIV called Wednesday for humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip and for an end to the "heartbreaking" toll on its people, as he presided over his first general audience in St. Peter's Square.

"That's what we wanted to do through many of the exhibits, to show the feasibility of the ark," says Ken Ham, the organizer behind the Ark Encounter theme park and related attractions.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance extended an invitation to Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States during a meeting at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine.

The top-ranked tennis player visited the new pope on Wednesday, gave him a tennis racket and offered to play, during an off day for Sinner at the Italian Open.

The women who have worked closely with Pope Leo XIV in recent years have praised his leadership style, ability to listen and respect for their opinions. In interviews with The Associated Press, they say they expect that as pope, Leo will continue to promote women in church governance positions, albeit with limits.

Clergymen and faithful in the Amazon region see Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV, who spent about two decades in Peru's countryside, as a pontiff who will protect the region and fight against climate change.

Leo said he will follow in the modernizing reforms of Pope Francis to make the Catholic Church inclusive, attentive to the faithful and a church that looks out for the "least and rejected.”

When white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel revealing that a new pope had been chosen, John Prevost turned on his television in Illinois, called his niece and they watched in awe as his brother's name was announced.

After white smoke billowed Thursday from the Sistine Chapel, signaling that a pope had been chosen, students in every classroom at The Frances Xavier Warde School in Chicago had their eyes glued to TV screens.

At a recent service in the remote southern Mexican community of Simojovel, Catholic and Mayan symbolism mingled at the altar as the deacon — his wife beside him — read the gospel in his native Tsotsil and recalled Pope Francis' teachings: work together for human rights, justice and Mother Earth.

If the next pope is from sub-Saharan Africa, he would be the first in Catholic Church history. Catholic Africans think it is a long shot, though some are cautiously optimistic that Pope Francis' successor could be a Black cardinal from their continent.

Martin Scorsese is producing a documentary made with Pope Francis that will chronicle the late pontiff's work with cinema in the global educational movement he founded before his death.