(VATICAN CITY) — The temporary chimney atop the Sistine Chapel released a plume of white smoke on Thursday, signaling that the 133 cardinals working inside had reached a two-thirds majority to elect a new pope for the Catholic Church.
American cardinal Robert Prevost was announced as the choice to replace Pope Francis.
Bells at St. Peter’s Basilica rang and crowds cheered as the white smoke billowed from the chimney.
The new leader of the Catholic Church was chosen amid the third round of conclave voting.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command military personnel continue to work alongside Thai military and first responders near the collapsed State Audit Office building in Bangkok, Thailand, which fell after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, March 28, 2025. (U.S. Indo-Pacific Command)
(WASHINGTON) — As a U.S. team of experts heads to Myanmar to assist in recovery from the devastating earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people in Southeast Asia on Friday, international teams, including those from China and Russia, are filling the void in the U.S. absence.
The U.S. said Monday that it would provide $2 million in aid and a small U.S. Agency for International Development emergency response team has been deployed to assess the situation in Myanmar, but officials said that it had not yet been able to enter the country as of Monday morning.
While the dollar amount of initial aid is in line with what the U.S. has pledged in the past, the overall pace of the response has been slower. In the aftermath of the 2023 earthquake in Morrocco, for example, a USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team was deployed just hours later, although Morrocco did not ultimately ask for DARTs.
That same year when Libya endured catastrophic floodings, DARTs were deployed the same day. And when a major earthquake struck Turkey and Syria that same year, the DART teams were also launched just a few hours after the disaster hit. In both cases, the DARTs took a few days to get on the ground.
The U.S. response comes amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to remake the federal government and dismantle USAID, laying off thousands of employees, revoking funding for more than 80% of its programs and closing its headquarters, although those efforts are being is being challenged in multiple court cases.
On Friday, the State Department announced it was officially shuttering the agency and taking over “many of USAID’s functions and its ongoing programming.”
The State Department has pushed back on the assessment that cuts to USAID have limited the earthquake response, but officials say there has been at least some logistical impact caused by the reorganization, rather than a lack of funding.
“I would reject the notion this is obviously a result of the USAID cuts and that kind of funding,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Monday. “We’re certainly in the region.”
In the meantime, it was Chinese teams that arrived 18 hours after the quake and more than 400 Chinese personnel are now on the ground in the region. Beijing has in sent planes full of supplies, providing $14 million in aid. China also has multiple teams in Thailand.
It’s a propaganda win for China, showing it can be a reliable partner when its neighbors are in crisis.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Monday posted on X photos and videos of Chinese workers on the ground, rescuing survivors and delivering supplies, saying, “China, a friend in need.”
At the site where a 34-story building collapsed on Sunday in Bangkok, a group of U.S. military personnel were coming and going from the search area throughout Monday. The American team is working with Israeli soldiers to seach for survivor, sending drones into areas too dangerous for rescue workers to reach.
“We’re learning a lot from the Americans, and they’re bringing in a lot of good equipment,” said Choktong Issarangkool, one of the volunteers in the rescue and search teams who is also acting as a translator for the American teams.
Thais are grateful for the American assistance, something this region has become accustomed to following a natural disaster: U.S. aid teams have always been among the first on the ground to help.
State Department officials said discussions regarding a more extensive response to the earthquake are ongoing, including the possibility of sending a DART team, although it might be smaller than in past efforts.
“Our disaster experts, including those based in Bangkok, Manila and Washington, D.C., continue to monitor the situation with coordination with U.S. government counterparts in the region,” Bruce said.
She emphasized that the $2 million of initial support would be implemented through partner organizations that were already working in the impacted areas.
(LONDON and DELHI) — More than 26 people were killed and dozens more were injured overnight in Pakistan by Indian aerial attacks, Pakistani officials said.
The Pakistani military said the assault amounted to a “blatant act of aggression,” a characterization disputed by an Indian official, who said it was a “measured, non-escalatory, proportionate and responsible.”
The strike, which followed Tuesday’s missile assault, came amid rising tension as India continued to blame Pakistan for a deadly attack in April in the disputed Kashmir region, a claim that Pakistan denies. That militant attack, known as the Pahalgam incident, left 26 people dead in Indian-held Kashmir.
Pakistani military officials on Tuesday had vowed to respond from the “air and ground.” Officials this morning repeated that warning, saying it “reserves the right to respond, in self-defense, at a time, place, and manner of its choosing.” A statement released by the Pakistan National Security Commitee after a meeting of the committee says “the Armed Forces of Pakistan have duly been authorized to undertake corresponding actions in this regard.”
The Indian Army confirmed New Delhi’s latest strikes on Wednesday, saying in a statement that its forces were “responding appropriately in a calibrated manner.”
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said India’s strikes overnight amounted to a preemptive action, saying Pakistan did not take sufficient steps against “terrorist infrastructure on its territory or on territory under its control.”
Two military officials also described the attack, which they said involved nine locations and lasted about 25 minutes. The officials claim the targets were destroyed and that the Indian military is prepared to respond to what she characterizes as “Pakistani misadventures” that would “escalate the situation.”
Pakistan said the airstrikes hit numerous locations in Pakistan, not just in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Pakistan also claimed that India hit a hydroelectric dam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
At least 46 people were injured in Pakistan, military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a press conference on Wednesday. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had summoned India’s top diplomat in Pakistan.
The attack “constitutes a clear violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding, “The Indian side was warned that such reckless behavior poses a serious threat to regional peace and stability.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Israel’s humanitarian aid obligations in Gaza and its ban on UNRWA, the United Nations agency that provides civil and medical services to Palestinian refugees, are under examination in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a week of hearings began on Monday.
Forty countries and four international organizations are set to participate in the oral proceedings, the court has said.
The weeklong hearing comes after the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) voted to request an advisory opinion from the ICJ concerning “the obligations of Israel in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations, other international organizations and third States.” The United States, Israel’s close international ally, was one of 12 countries to vote against the request.
The court will evaluate the legality of Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA, the U.N.’s Relief and Works’ Agency, the dedicated U.N. body to support Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. It will then issue an advisory opinion, which has been requested by the UNGA, and which will be legally nonbinding. The ICJ’s ruling will not be legally binding, however, but could add to mounting pressure on Israel to reopen the Gaza crossings for aid deliveries.
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, voted to ban UNRWA from operating in Gaza and the West Bank in October 2024. Israel’s government has long accused UNRWA of turning a blind eye to employees who support or belong to Hamas, the militant organization that led a terror attack on Israel in October 2023. UNRWA denies those claims. The ban came into effect at the end of January 2025. UNRWA is the main distributor of aid within Gaza.
Israel has long maintained that humanitarian aid has been looted by Hamas. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says the ban on aid into Gaza is designed to pressure Hamas to release 59 hostages, including one American who is presumed to be alive.
UNRWA Commissioner General Phillipe Lazzarini issued a statement saying he “welcome[d]” the ICJ hearing and that the agency worked in Palestinian territories to “address overwhelming needs.”
Those needs have become more acute since Israel blocked the flow of all goods into Gaza on March 2, international aid organizations said. The World Food Programme said on April 24 that its warehouses had run out of flour in Gaza, and warned the “situation inside the Gaza Strip has once again reached a breaking point.”
“#Gaza: children are starving,” Lazzarini posted on X over the weekend. “The Government of Israel continues to block the entry of food + other basics. A manmade & politically motivated starvation. Nearly two months of siege. Calls to bring in supplies are going unheeded.”
Israel has submitted a written defense to the court, but it declined to send a legal representative to The Hague court proceedings. Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said that Israel would not be attending the court in person, describing the proceedings as a “circus.”
“The goal is to deprive Israel of its most basic right to defend itself,” he said at a press conference that coincided with the start of the ICJ hearings. “It is not Israel that should be on trial. It is the U.N. and UNRWA. The U.N. has become a rotten, anti-Israel, and antisemitic body.”
Ammar Hijazi, the Palestinian ambassador to the Netherlands, accused Israel of breaching international law on the first day of the oral hearings on Monday.
“Israel is starving, killing and displacing Palestinians while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organizations trying to save their lives,” he said.
This week’s hearings mark the latest legal pressure placed on Israel since the war in Gaza began after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack. Last July the ICJ issued an advisory opinion ruling Israel’s occupation of the West Bank to be illegal under international law, and a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide is still ongoing. Israel has rejected the ruling and the allegation of genocide.
Over 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage into Gaza in the Hamas-led assault on Israel of Oct. 7. More than 52,000 people have been killed in Gaza have been killed during Israel’s retaliatory military campaign response, with more than 2,000 killed since the latest ceasefire broke down on March 18, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
