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In the news today: A peek inside the papal plane with AP’s chief Vatican correspondent; the U.S. threatens economic warfare on Iran; the Senate rejects an effort to halt arms sales to Israel. Also, why the iPod is making a comeback.
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Pope Leo XIV speaks to journalists aboard his flight on Monday, at the start of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa. (Alberto Pizzoli/Pool Photo via AP)
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A look inside the Vatican bubble during a remarkable exchange between Pope Leo and Trump
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AP chief Vatican correspondent Nicole Winfield is covering Pope Leo XIV from inside the Vatican’s traveling press pool during his four-nation trip to Africa. So she had a front row seat to the unprecedented back-and-forth between President Donald Trump and history’s first American pope. Winfield described the experience as “almost surreal.” Read more.
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- Like other heads of state, the pope travels internationally with both the Vatican’s own media team as well as a group of external news organizations that pay, oftentimes handsomely, to have their reporters travel aboard the papal plane and have special access to cover his events. The reason why news organizations choose to spend thousands of dollars to be on the papal plane is to be on hand for the pope’s news conferences. The only time a pope holds such briefings with journalists is at an altitude of 35,000 feet. And Leo responded head-on to Trump’s comments. He told journalists aboard the papal plane that he was merely preaching the Gospel when he called for peace and criticized war, and that he didn’t fear the Trump administration.
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US pivots to economic warfare on Iran
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If the U.S. and Iran aren’t able to soon come to a deal to end the war or extend the ceasefire, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at a White House briefing Wednesday that the U.S. plans to ramp up economic pain on Iran, and said the new moves will be the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign. Read more.
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The warning comes the day after the Treasury Department sent a letter to financial institutions in China, Hong Kong, the UAE and Oman, threatening to levy secondary sanctions for doing business with Iran, and accusing those countries of allowing Iranian illicit activities to flow through their financial institutions. However, more sanctions could be ineffective or risk diplomatic and economic blowback, say experts and lawmakers. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Banking Committee, argued that any new economic sanctions would be effectively offset by the oil revenue windfall that Iran was seeing in the aftermath of the war.
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Senate rejects effort to halt arms sales to Israel, but most Democrats vote to block them
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More than three dozen Democrats supported an effort by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday to block arms sales to Israel, signaling a growing discontent in the party with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the wars in Gaza and Iran. Read more.
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The two resolutions to block U.S. sales of bulldozers and bombs to Israel were opposed by all Republicans. Similar resolutions forced by Sanders in 2024 and 2025 were also rejected, but the number of Democrats voting with Sanders has more than doubled in less than two years. “It’s clear that Democrats are beginning to listen to the average American who is sick and tired of spending billions of dollars to support Netanyahu’s horrific wars when people in this country can’t afford housing or health care,” Sanders said after the vote. Among the Democrats voting against the resolutions were Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
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An iPod is displayed after its introduction during a news conference in 2001, in Cupertino, Calif. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
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A new generation is reviving the iPod
On social media I’ve noticed young people showing off their collections of physical media, such as CDs and cassettes. Maybe it’s nostalgic yearning for the retro, but maybe it’s also to combat subscription and algorithm fatigue. So I was interested to read our reporting on why, four years after Apple discontinued the iPod, secondhand sales are booming. I’ll have to scavenge my cupboards to find my childhood iPod, a neon pink Nano, which if I remember correctly only has one Britney Spears album, so that’ll need some updating.
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