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Joe Biden expressed his gratitude to Americans on Monday for their “love and support” after the former US president said he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.The weekend announcement that the 82-year-old had been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer, and that it had spread to his bones, sparked an outpouring of good wishes, including from political rival President Donald Trump, Biden’s vice president Kamala Harris and ordinary Americans.”Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places,” Biden, whose son Beau died of cancer in 2015, posted on X with a photograph of him and his wife. “Thank you for lifting us up with love and support,” he said.Biden was diagnosed with the disease on Friday after he experienced urinary symptoms and a prostate nodule was found, a statement from his office said.”While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management. The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” it added.Trump, who has long derided Biden over his cognitive abilities and his record in office, said he was “saddened” by the news.”We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery,” Trump, 78, posted Sunday.”Joe is a fighter,” Harris, who stepped in as Democratic nominee in the battle against Trump after Biden dropped out of last year’s presidential election, said.”I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” she added.- ‘Personal’ -Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men, with the American Cancer Society (ACS) reporting that one in eight men in the United States are diagnosed with it over their lifetime.While it is highly treatable if discovered early, it is the second leading cause of cancer death in men.Hormone therapy is a common treatment that can shrink tumors and slow cancer growth, but is not a cure.According to the statement, Biden’s cancer was found to have “a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5),” on a 1-10 scale. Prostate cancer that looks “very abnormal” is assigned the highest rating, Grade 5, according to the ACS.Biden’s health was a dominant issue in the 2024 presidential race.Trump and his conservative backers repeatedly attacked the incumbent over his cognitive abilities, and after a disastrous debate performance against Trump, Biden ended his campaign for a second term.Biden’s life has been marked by personal tragedy. In 1972, his first wife and baby daughter were killed in a car crash.  His son Beau died aged 46 of an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2015.In the wake of Beau’s death, then-president Barack Obama launched a “cancer moonshot” bid to corral the disease in the United States, tasking Biden, then his vice president, with leading the effort.”It’s personal for me,” Biden said at the time.

Donald Trump will speak by phone Monday with Russia’s Vladimir Putin as part of the US leader’s effort to end the grinding war set off by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Trump had vowed during his US election campaign to halt the conflict within a day of taking office, but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded little progress.Despite Ukraine saying Russia launched a “record” drone attack at the weekend, Moscow said Monday it would prefer to end the conflict through diplomacy and described the upcoming call as “important”.”It is preferable to achieve our goals through political and diplomatic means, of course,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media, adding that Russia “highly valued” Washington’s attempts to end the fighting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refreshed his push for a “full and unconditional ceasefire” ahead of the call.  Delegations from Russia and Ukraine held direct negotiations in Istanbul last week for the first time in three years, but the talks ended without a commitment to a ceasefire.Both sides traded insults, with Ukraine accusing Moscow of sending a “dummy” delegation of low-ranking officials.  After the negotiations, Trump announced that he would speak by phone with the Russian president in a bid to end the “BLOODBATH” in Ukraine, which has destroyed large swathes of the country and displaced millions of people.Trump also said he would speak to Zelensky and NATO officials, expressing hope that a “ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war… will end”.Trump has directed much of his frustration towards Ukraine while abstaining from extensively criticising Putin.The US president has also argued that “nothing’s going to happen” on the conflict until he meets Putin face-to-face.   – Push for sanctions -At the talks in Istanbul, which were also attended by US officials, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each and trade ideas on a possible truce, but with no concrete commitment.Zelensky said Monday that Russia has issued threats during the talks, without elaborating.”Ukraine insists on the need for a full and unconditional ceasefire in order to save human lives and to establish the necessary foundation for diplomacy,” he said in a post on social media.Ukraine’s Western allies have since accused Putin of deliberately ignoring calls for a truce and pushed for fresh sanctions against Russia.The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy also held a phone call with Trump on Sunday.”The leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for President Putin to take peace talks seriously,” said a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.”They also discussed the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and peace talks,” the spokesman said.”Putin must agree to a ceasefire and peace talks,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who also took part in the call, wrote on X, adding that the European leaders aimed to talk to the US president once again on Monday.Zelensky also discussed possible sanctions with US Vice President JD Vance when they met after Pope Leo’s inaugural mass at the Vatican on Sunday.A senior Ukrainian official from the president’s office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that they had also discussed preparations for Monday’s telephone conversation between Trump and Putin.- ‘Root causes’ -On the ground, the Russian army continued its attacks.Moscow claimed its forces had captured two villages in Ukraine’s eastern Sumy and Donetsk regions.Russia also fired 112 drones on Ukraine overnight, 76 of which were repelled, the Ukrainian air force said.In an interview with Russian state TV broadcast on Sunday, Putin said that Moscow’s aim was to “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security”, without elaborating.Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.They include pledges to “de-Nazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.Kyiv and the West deny Moscow’s claims and say that Russia’s invasion is an imperial-style land grab.

Pope Leo XIV received US Vice President JD Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican Monday, ahead of a US-led push to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.The Vatican released photographs of Vance and Rubio smiling as they met with the Chicago-born pope, who was elected as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics on May 8.The pair were among the 200,000 dignitaries, royals and faithful gathered Sunday to mark the official start of Leo’s papacy at an inauguration mass in St Peter’s Square.Leo, 69, has made peace the key word of his papacy so far and was expected to talk to Vance and Rubio about the US administration’s role in pushing for an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict in particular.US President Donald Trump will hold a phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin later Monday as part of his efforts to end the war set off by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Vance also met Monday with the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, Paul Richard Gallagher, for “cordial talks” during which they expressed “satisfaction at the good bilateral relations”, the Vatican said.There was also “an exchange of views on some current international issues, calling for respect for humanitarian law and international law in areas of conflict and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved”, it said.There was a flurry of diplomatic meetings on the sidelines of Leo’s inauguration, with world dignitaries discussing both Israel’s offensive in Gaza and the Ukraine conflict.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was present at the inauguration mass, met with Leo for his first private audience Sunday.He also sat down with Vance and Rubio to discuss “their shared goal of ending the bloodshed in Ukraine,” according to the vice president’s office. – ‘Every effort’ -Leo offered last week to mediate between leaders of countries at war, saying that he himself “will make every effort so that this peace may prevail”.And the pope’s number two, Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, said Friday Leo “may offer the Vatican for a direct meeting between the two parties”, according to media reports.Vance’s audience with Leo lasted 45 minutes, the VP’s spokesperson said.Before becoming pope, Leo reposted on his personal X account criticism of US President Donald Trump’s administration over its approach to migration and also pilloried Vance.But Vance insisted Sunday that the United States was “very proud of him”, adding that “our prayers go with him as he starts this very important work”.JD Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 and Rubio is also a Catholic.Vance and Gallagher also discussed “collaboration between Church and State… as well as some matters of special relevance to ecclesial life and religious freedom,” the Vatican said.Leo, who was elected following the death of his predecessor Pope Francis last month, is tasked with tackling a series of pressing challenges facing the Catholic Church.These include a bitter divide between supporters of Francis’s reforms and conservative opponents, particularly in the US, as well as increasingly empty pews in the West.

One of Hollywood’s top-grossing actors, Scarlett Johansson is walking the red carpet twice at Cannes, for her directorial debut with “Eleanor the Great” on Tuesday and for Wes Anderson’s film “The Phoenician Scheme”, which premiered Sunday.Here are five things to know about the teen star turned Hollywood A-Lister:- Starlet Scarlett -When baby Johansson was born into a Jewish family in Manhattan in 1984, early signs suggested stardom was ahead.Her parents named her after Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind”, and at a young age she was drawn to tap dance and theatre. Barely into double-digits she made her screen debut, and soon after Robert Redford cast her in “The Horse Whisperer” for her first major role. Then, just shy of 20, she hit the big time with Sofia Coppola’s art-house classic “Lost in Translation”. In the film, which unfolds in the alienating surroundings of a Tokyo hotel, Johansson manages to touch the heart of an ever-sardonic Bill Murray as well as charming spectators and critics worldwide.- Cha-ching! -Over the next decades, Johansson has starred in a string of hits and top directors have queued up to cast her, from Wes Anderson and the Coen brothers to Jonathan Glazer and Christopher Nolan. Catapulting her into movie stratosphere, she joined the Marvel universe as the indomitable Black Widow in 2010 and made eight films with the franchise.During this collaboration she topped the Forbes list of highest-paid actresses and featured in hits including “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018), one of the top-10 highest grossing films of all time according to IMDB Pro.- Other missions -But Johansson the box-office megastar has also missed out on, or sidestepped, plenty of big roles.There was a potential “Mission Impossible” movie but this was shelved, officially due to scheduling clashes. She did not land the lead in “Les Miserables”, which went to Anne Hathaway, who won an Oscar for it, nor did she get Lisbeth Salander in “Millennium”. But she was plenty busy, often starring in lower-budget films that wowed critics and audiences.These included a stand-out performance as an alien in Jonathan Glazer’s remarkable “Under the Skin” (2013), shot in wintery backstreets, abandoned houses and seedy minivans. So far, she has not won an Oscar, but she was nominated for best actress and supporting actress in 2020 for her roles in indie favourites “Marriage Story” and “Jojo Rabbit”.- That voice -It is unmistakable and Johansson has capitalised on it, though sometimes with unwanted repercussions.She brought her deep, distinctive vocals to the voice of Samantha in “Her” (2013) by Spike Jonze, about an artificial intelligence system Joaquin Phoenix falls for. But in May last year Johansson accused tech firm OpenAI of using her voice in their own generative AI ChatGPT, which responded by modifying its tone. She can also be heard in hit animations including “The Jungle Book” and the two “Sing” films. Johansson has also released two albums, “Anywhere I Lay My Head” in 2008 and a year later “Break Up”.They did not rock the music world, but reviewing the inaugural album, Pitchfork called it a “curio” while praising the “wide textural range” of Johansson’s voice.- Against the grain -Never reluctant to speak her mind, Johansson has been outspoken on various social and film-related issues.She has supported victims of harassment, pushed for gender-equal pay and spotlighted the impact of streaming on theatrical releases. She is also willing to take more controversial stances, not least in defending Woody Allen — who has cast her in three films — when much of Hollywood has shunned him over a long-running sexual assault scandal. “I love Woody. I believe him, and I would work with him any time,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019.

A mega-bill central to US President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda cleared a key hurdle Sunday, progressing out of the House Budget Committee after several lawmakers holding up the legislation dropped their opposition.Trump is pushing to usher into law his so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill” pairing an extension of his first-term tax cuts with savings that will see millions of the poorest Americans lose their health coverage.But sharp divisions in the Republican Party have slowed the legislative process in Congress, with conservatives angling for much deeper cuts and moderates worried about threats to healthcare.House Speaker Mike Johnson spent the weekend working to persuade rebels who blocked the bill on Friday. Republicans have a very slim majority in the House, meaning the legislation needs almost unanimous support to pass.Republican Congressman Josh Brecheen, one of four representatives who reversed their votes on Sunday, said the legislation “still required tweaking.””We look forward to working with the White House and leadership to resolve these issues in the next few days,” he posted on X.Speaker Johnson told “Fox News Sunday” that he plans for a floor vote on the package by the end of the week.Independent congressional analysts calculate that the mega-bill’s tax provisions would add more than $4.8 trillion to the federal deficit over the coming decade.To partially offset that, Republicans plan significant cuts in spending — notably by adding new restrictions on the Medicaid program that helps provide health insurance for more than 70 million lower-income Americans.The policy change would result in more than 10 million people losing coverage under the program, according to estimates by the independent Congressional Budget Office.Moderate Republicans fear overly large cuts in the popular program could upset the party’s prospects in the midterm elections of November 2026.But deficit hawks on the party’s far right insist the projected cuts don’t go far enough.”We don’t like smoke and mirrors,” one of those legislators, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, told reporters. “We want real cuts.””This is the largest spending reduction in at least three decades, probably longer,” he told the Fox program. “It’s historic.” Even if the bill passes in the House, it will face challenges in the Senate.Republicans in the upper chamber, who have a similarly narrow majority, are demanding major changes in the sweeping bill — which Trump is eager to present as a signal accomplishment early in his second term.

More than two hundred guests on Thursday will make their way to a ritzy country club just up the Potomac River from Washington, ready for a sumptuous dinner hosted by the president of the United States. The lucky few are not top officials or visiting heads of state but the 220 biggest buyers of $TRUMP, a crypto memecoin launched by the US president in January.The top 25 investors will enjoy even more special access: a private session with Trump before dinner — which is set at the Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia — and a White House tour. “The most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the World,” a website dedicated to the event said. “The question is…ARE YOU IN?”This dinner represents perhaps the boldest commercial venture of Trump’s presidency, further blurring already hazy boundaries between politics and profit.Launched hours before his January inauguration, the $TRUMP memecoin is only one example of the Trump family’s ever-expanding moves into cryptocurrency.Much of the crypto industry frowns upon these coins or tokens, fearing they tarnish the sector’s credibility, amid reports of quick pump-and-dump schemes that leave unwitting buyers paying for assets that end up worthless.$TRUMP saw a spike in value when it announced the dinner, but reports said that many of the winners of the offer, which closed on May 12, are now selling their memecoins.Critics, including the typically Trump-friendly Wall Street Journal editorial board, point out that Trump and his allies, as the creators of the memecoin, have made $320 million in trading fees, citing Chainalysis, a data analytic firm.They also point out that the dinner allows foreign actors who otherwise can’t influence the White House to try to use the memecoin to buy favor with the government.The crypto industry, which massively contributed to his campaign, has welcomed Trump’s return to the White House, praising his promise for a clear departure from the skepticism of the previous Democratic administration toward digital currencies.Those years were marked by major scandal, including the collapse of FTX, the crypto giant founded by CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who is now serving a 25-year sentence for committing massive fraud.But the controversy surrounding the dinner is complicating efforts to pass crucial legislation that would provide clearer legal framework in stablecoins, digital assets that are considered safer and more established than more speculative corners of the sector.”The American people deserve the unwavering assurance that access to the presidency is not being offered for sale to the highest bidder in exchange for the President’s own financial gain,” US Senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren wrote in a letter to the Office of Government Ethics.Trump, despite previous hostility toward cryptocurrency, has already taken significant steps to reduce regulatory barriers, including an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” that would maintain government holdings of the world’s leading digital currency. However, key Democrats in Congress are blocking other legislative advancements, frustrated by the dinner and other Trump family ventures into cryptocurrency. – Win the ‘race’ -These expanding connections include investment in Binance, whose founder is seeking a presidential pardon to re-enter the US market.The investment is being made through World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture backed by the Trumps that launched in September and has made major deals in the Middle East. The company founders feature Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric alongside Zach Witkoff, son of Trump’s diplomatic adviser Steve Witkoff.At an April crypto conference in Dubai, Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff announced that the state-backed Emirati fund MGX would use USD1, their firm’s cryptocurrency, to invest $2 billion in Binance. Additionally, American Bitcoin, another venture backed by Trump’s eldest sons, recently announced plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange.That company will ride lower energy costs and environmental norms to lower the cost of bitcoin mining in the United States.”The US won the space race. We better win the crypto race,” Eric Trump recently told CNBC.

US President Donald Trump will hold a phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday as part of his long-running effort to end the war set off by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Trump had vowed during the US election campaign to halt the conflict within a day of taking office, but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded little progress.Delegations from Russia and Ukraine held direct negotiations in Istanbul last week for the first time in almost three years, but the talks ended without a commitment to a ceasefire.Both sides traded insults, with Ukraine accusing Moscow of sending a “dummy” delegation of low-ranking officials.After the negotiations, Trump announced that he would speak by phone with the Russian president in a bid to end the “bloodbath” in Ukraine, which has destroyed large swathes of the country and displaced millions of people.Trump also said he would speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO officials, expressing hope that a “ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war… will end”.Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly stressed that he wants to see an end to the conflict, and has recently backed calls for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.So far, he has mainly focused on upping the pressure on Ukraine and abstained from criticising Putin.Both Moscow and Washington have previously stressed the need for a meeting on the conflict between Putin and Trump. The US president has also argued that “nothing’s going to happen” on the conflict until he meets Putin face-to-face.- Push for sanctions -At the talks in Istanbul, which were also attended by US officials, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each and trade ideas on a possible truce, but with no concrete commitment.Ukraine’s top negotiator, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said that the “next step” would be a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.Russia said it had taken note of the request.”We consider it possible, but only as a result of the work and upon achieving certain results in the form of an agreement between the two sides,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson said.Ukraine’s western allies have since accused Putin of deliberately ignoring calls for a ceasefire and pushed for fresh sanctions against Russia.The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy held a phone call with Trump on Sunday.”Looking ahead to President Trump’s call with President Putin tomorrow, the leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for President Putin to take peace talks seriously,” said a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.”They also discussed the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and peace talks,” the spokesman said.Zelensky also discussed possible sanctions with US Vice President JD Vance when they met after Pope Leo’s inaugural mass at the Vatican on Sunday.”We discussed the talks in Istanbul, where the Russians sent a low-level delegation with no decision-making powers,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram following the meeting.”We also touched on the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defence cooperation, the situation on the battlefield and the future exchange of prisoners.” A senior Ukrainian official from the president’s office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that they had also discussed preparations for Monday’s telephone conversation between Trump and Putin.- ‘Root causes’ -It was the first meeting between Zelensky and Vance since their heated White House exchange in February.In the Oval Office, Vance publicly accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” towards Trump, who told the Ukrainian leader he should be more grateful and that he had no “cards” to play in negotiations with Russia.Ukraine on Sunday said that Russia had launched a record number of drones at the country overnight, targeting various regions, including the capital Kyiv, where a woman was killed.Another man was killed in the southeastern Kherson region, where a railway station and private houses and cars were hit.In an interview with Russian state TV published on Sunday, Putin said that Moscow’s aim was to “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security”, without elaborating further. Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.They include pledges to “de-Nazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.However, Kyiv and the West say that Russia’s invasion is an imperial-style land grab.

Train service in New Jersey will resume Tuesday after striking transit workers and officials came to a tentative agreement following several days of mass misery for New York area commuters.Train engineers seeking higher pay went on the first statewide transit strike in more than 40 years on Friday at a minute after midnight as contract talks fell apart.Many area commuters were caught unaware and left scrambling to get into nearby New York using other means of transportation such as Uber or Amtrak, the national rail system, both of which can be many multitudes more expensive.New Jersey Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced Sunday in separate statements that they had reached “a tentative agreement.”But they warned that train service would not resume for approximately 24 hours, with the transit authority reporting that it needed the time “to inspect and prepare tracks, rail cars and other infrastructure before returning to full scheduled service.”Neither side provided details of the agreement.BLET said the terms would be sent for consideration to the union’s 450 members who work as locomotive engineers or are trainees, with details and figures to be disclosed publicly after the members are able to review them.The union said it has been locked in a years-long dispute with NJ Transit, with its members going five years without a raise.BLET workers had picketed outside rail stations, with many waving signs that accused NJ Transit executives of treating themselves to expensive perks while train drivers’ wages lagged behind those of colleagues in other areas of the country.NJ Transit officials, however, have said the wage hike requested by the union would end up costing the company and taxpayers millions.

Former US president Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, and is reviewing treatment options, his office said Sunday.On Friday, the 82-year-old Democrat — whose son Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015 — was diagnosed with the disease after he experienced urinary symptoms and a prostate nodule was found, a statement from his office said.”While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management. The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” it continued.US President Donald Trump, who has long derided political rival Biden over his cognitive abilities, said he was “saddened” by the news.”We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery,” Republican Trump said on Truth Social, referring to Biden’s wife, Jill Biden. “Joe is a fighter,” Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, who stepped in as Democratic nominee in the battle against Trump after Biden dropped out of last year’s presidential election, said in a post on X. “I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery,” she continued.Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men, with the American Cancer Society reporting one in eight men in the United States are diagnosed with it over their lifetime.While it is highly treatable if discovered early, it is the second leading cause of cancer death in men, the organization said.Hormone therapy is a common treatment that can shrink tumors and slow cancer growth, but is not a cure. According to the statement, Biden’s cancer was found to have “a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5).”Prostate cancer that looks “very abnormal” is assigned the highest rating, Grade 5, according to the American Cancer Society. The Gleason Score goes up to 10, indicating the seriousness of Biden’s disease.- ‘Watch me’ -Biden left office in January this year as the oldest serving US president in history, and was dogged by questions, including from Democratic voters, over his health and age for much of his term — and whether he could handle the office’s demands. His response was a brisk: “Watch me.”In July last year, he was forced to drop his reelection bid after a disastrous debate against Trump in which fears about his decline and cognitive abilities came surging to the fore. Support rocketed for Harris as she stepped up to the plate, but she eventually lost to Trump. Biden, who beat Trump at the polls in 2020, maintains that he could have won the 2024 election too, but questions have long swirled over the responses of staff and key Democrats to his decline.They have flared with the upcoming release of a new book on his “disastrous” choice to run again, and the publication last week of a recording of him speaking hesitantly and struggling to recall key events and dates. Biden’s life has been marked by personal tragedy. In 1972, his first wife and baby daughter were killed in a car crash.  His son Beau Biden died aged 46 of an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2015, a loss which touched many Americans.In the wake of Beau Biden’s death, then-president Barack Obama launched a “cancer moonshot” bid to corral the disease in the United States, tasking Biden, then his vice president, with leading the effort. “It’s personal for me,” Biden said at the time.”But it’s also personal for nearly every American, and millions of people around the world. We all know someone who has had cancer, or is fighting to beat it.””Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe,” Obama said Sunday. “I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace,” he added in a statement on X. Trump’s administration cut cancer research funding by 31 percent in the first three months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, a Senate report showed earlier this month.Americans in the capital Washington lamented the diagnosis Sunday. Ariale Booker, a Washington resident who said her mother and grandmother had both died of cancer, described it as “heartbreaking.””I think that’s just really sad,” she told AFP.”His last years, his life’s going to be really hard.”

Pope Leo XIV set the tone for his papacy with a call to stop exploiting nature and marginalising the poor at his inaugural mass Sunday attended by dignitaries including Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance.Ten days after he became the first US head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, some 200,000 people gathered to see his inaugural mass in St Peter’s Square, according to the Vatican.Before it started, the Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost delighted the crowds by taking to the popemobile for the first time, smiling, waving and blessing those he passed.In his homily, the soft-spoken 69-year-old returned to the themes of peace, reconciliation and social justice that have marked his first few days as pope.”In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalises the poorest,” he said. In a prayer afterwards, he noted the ongoing efforts to end the war in Ukraine, before holding a private audience with Zelensky and his wife.”The martyred Ukraine is waiting for negotiations for a just and lasting peace to finally happen,” Leo said.After two decades spent as missionary in Peru, the new pope — who was only made a cardinal in 2023 — is unknown to many Catholics.But many of those gathered in St Peter’s Square said they liked what they had heard so far.Maria Grazia La Barbera, 56, a pilgrim from Palermo in Sicily, said Leo was “the right person at the right time” to lead the Church.”He will certainly do what he promised: knocking down walls and building bridges,” she said.- Vance ‘very proud’ -Leo’s elevation has sparked huge enthusiasm in the United States, which was represented on Sunday by Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019.Vance met with the late Pope Francis the day before he died last month, and queued up to shake Leo’s hand on Sunday along with the other dignitaries.Before becoming pope, Leo reposted on his personal X account criticism of US President Donald Trump’s administration over its approach to migration and also pilloried Vance.But Vance insisted Sunday that the United States was “very proud of him”.”Certainly our prayers go with him as he starts this very important work,” Vance said at a meeting with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.There is some consternation outside the United States that a country with an already outsized political and military role in the world now boasts one its foremost spiritual leaders.”There is going to be extra weight because he is American,” said Sophia Tripp, a 20-year-old student visiting from Leo’s hometown of Chicago.”I think there’s going to be a lot of extra eyes, and maybe criticisms.”She hoped he would “bring people together”, she said. “We are all human, and we should just all be loving to one another.”- ‘Fear and trembling’ -Security was tight for the event, which included politicians from Germany to Peru — where the pope holds citizenship — the Gulf and Canada, as well as faith leaders and European royals.Also lining up to greet the new pontiff inside St Peter’s Basilica after the mass was Leo’s older brother Louis, and the two men shared a hug.Succeeding the charismatic but impulsive Francis, Leo took over a Church still battling the fallout of the clerical child abuse scandal, and trying to adapt to the modern world.He acknowledged on Sunday some trepidation in his new role.”I was chosen, without any merit of my own, and now, with fear and trembling, I come to you as a brother who desires to be the servant of your faith and your joy,” he said.In his homily he warned against “closing ourselves off in our small groups”.”We are called to offer God’s love to everyone, in order to achieve that unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of every people,” he said.At the mass, Leo received the pontifical emblems — the pallium, a strip of cloth worn around the neck, and the fisherman’s ring, which is forged anew for each pope.He will wear the ring on his finger until he dies, when it will be destroyed.