Americans who followed news influencers during the presidential campaign were more likely to hear positive reports about Donald Trump than they were about Kamala Harris, a study has revealed.
Influencers reviewed by the Pew Research Center talked about Trump and Harris on social media about equally, but there were more posts about Trump and they tended to be more favorable.

Pope Francis issued a major rebuke Tuesday to the Trump administration's mass deportation of migrants, warning that the program to forcefully deport people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and "will end badly."
Francis took the remarkable step of addressing the U.S. migrant crackdown in a letter to U.S. bishops who have criticized the expulsions as harming the most vulnerable.

Israeli police raided a long-established Palestinian-owned bookstore in east Jerusalem, detaining the owners and confiscating books about the decades-long conflict. The police claimed the books incited violence.
The Educational Bookshop, established over 40 years ago, is a hub of intellectual life in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed to its capital in a move not recognized internationally. Most of the city's Palestinian population lives in east Jerusalem, and the Palestinians want it to be the capital of their future state.

Salman Rushdie was so stunned when a masked man started to stab him on a stage in western New York that the author didn't even try to fight back, a prosecutor said Monday during opening statements in the suspect's attempted murder trial.
Prosecutors told jurors that the author came "dangerously close" to dying.

For over 850 years, the leaning minaret of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri stood as an iconic landmark in the Iraqi city of Mosul until it was destroyed by the Islamic State group in 2017.
Nearly eight years after IS militants were driven out of the city, the minaret has been rebuilt as part of a massive internationally-funded reconstruction project in the historic city.

In 2022, Salman Rushdie was about to deliver a lecture before a live audience in western New York when a man ran towards him and plunged a knife into the author's hand as he raised it in self-defense.
"After that there are many blows, to my neck, to my chest, to my eye, everywhere," Rushdie recalled in a memoir that followed. "I feel my legs give way, and I fall."

Karla Sofía Gascón, the Oscar-nominated trans actor and star of the movie "Emilia Pérez," is apologizing for her old posts on social media that denigrated Islam and that called George Floyd "a drug addict and a hustler."
"As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain," the actor said in a statement via Netflix, where her film can be streamed. "All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness."

President Donald Trump has launched his second bid to oust all transgender troops from the military, and once again it will be headed to the courts to sort it out.
Although the new order will affect only a tiny fraction of America's 2.1 million service members, it has taken on oversized importance to Trump and his administration, who see transgender forces as a sign the military is "woke" or not focused on training and winning wars.

A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday after a new law granted it all the rights and responsibilities of a human being.
Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land are people before. The pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand's North Island at 2,518 meters (8,261 feet) and a popular spot for tourism, hiking and snow sports.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at cutting federal support for gender transitions for people under age 19, his latest move to roll back protections for transgender people across the country.
"It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called 'transition' of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures," the order says.
