Pope Leo XIV has issued the first major theological text of his papacy … and like everyone else at the moment, he’s talking about artificial intelligence. The pontiff issued a warning about the growing power of AI and called for stronger regulation of the technology.

Released Monday, the 42,300-word encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” marks Pope Leo’s most sweeping statement yet on the promise and dangers of AI, a topic he has repeatedly spoken about in the year since his election. Framed as an appeal for the defense of humanity in a rapidly automating world, the text urges governments, corporations, and individuals to slow the rate of technological development and ensure that AI remains subject to ethical and political oversight. He presented the encyclical at the Vatican alongside Christopher Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic, in a symbolic gesture of dialogue between Church leadership and the AI industry.

Why is this a big deal? Well, experts say the long-awaited document signals that the Vatican is aggressively positioning itself as a central moral authority in the global tech debate. The pope's core message in his stark warning is that AI can be useful, but it’s NOT neutral. He said AI systems carry the values of the people and institutions that design, finance, train and deploy them—especially when they decide who gets a job, credit, public services or reputational standing.

Echoing many of his predecessors, including Pope John Paul II, Leo acknowledges that economic and technological systems may undergo radical upheavals over the course of history, but insists that the essential dignity of the worker—which includes fair wages—must remain at the center of any new order.

He also said to beware of erecting a new Tower of Babel. The biblical story describes a world in which a unified human population that speaks only one language decides to build a tower “whose top reaches to the heavens” in order to exert its own power and domination. (God’s not happy and scatters the people across the earth, in what serves as an origin story for the existence of different languages and cultures.) Leo used it as an illustration of the pitfalls of pursuing uniformity and standardization, and the limits of ambitious undertakings that appear able to compete with the claims of religion. As many aspects of global culture homogenize, and technology becomes a kind of universal language, Leo’s call for humility and diversity stands in contrast. It’s also a reminder that many of the seemingly new ethical and social challenges posed by AI have ancient roots.

The U.S. military said Monday that it carried out “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran, including on missile launch sites and boats placing mines, even as President Donald Trump said on social media that negotiations with Tehran were “proceeding nicely.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard vowed early Tuesday to “respond decisively to any violation of the ceasefire.”

The strikes were done “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” but the military was “using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for the U.S. military’s Central Command, said in a statement. The strikes were the latest attacks to shake the weekslong ceasefire in the war. When asked about the renewed hostilities, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. would continue to pursue a diplomatic solution, noting that talks were currently playing out in Qatar on the original framework for ending the war.

Rubio said Trump is committed to either making a “good deal or no deal.” “The straits have to be open,” he said. “They’re going to be open one way or the other.”On Tuesday morning the price of Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was up 3 percent to about $99 a gallon.

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It seems that fewer and fewer people want to visit America lately … any guesses as to why? It’s not that travel is down. Last year was a record-breaking one for international tourism—injecting trillions of dollars into the global economy and supporting millions of jobs. But while more people than ever took to weathered streets of European capitals or sun-soaked beaches on Pacific islands, the U.S. has plummeted down travelers’ bucket lists.

The United States had roughly 4 million fewer international visitors in 2025 than the year before, marking a 5.5 percent decline in overseas tourism, according to The Daily Beast. Foreign visitor spending also fell by more than $8 billion. Aside from the collapse in travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, it represents the sharpest annual drop in international tourism in more than two decades.

CNN points out that this is not just bad for those working in the service and tourism industries. The impact of a self-inflicted decrease in international visitors of this magnitude has implications on America’s standing in the world, its soft power diplomacy and the economy as a whole. “We used to be a country that others wanted to emulate’” said Juliette Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School. “That narrative no longer exists.”