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An AI-generated image President Donald Trump posted online depicting himself as a Christ-like figure sparked an uproar among some religious conservatives, including criticism that the image was blasphemous.

Less than a day later, the image of a man wearing a white caftan draped with a red shawl was removed from Trump's social media feed in what appeared to be a rare concession to critics. Trump later said the i“This is gross blasphemy,” Brilyn Hollyhand, the former chair of the Republican National Committee’s Youth Advisory Council and a self-described “full time Christian” said of the image in a social media post. “Faith is not a prop. You dhttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFwaOZhW0AAX2Dl?format=png&name=900x900on’t need to portray yourself as a savior when your record should speak for itself.”doctor not Jesus.

“This is gross blasphemy,” Brilyn Hollyhand, the former chair of the Republican National Committee’s Youth Advisory Council and a self-described “full time Christian” said of the image in a social media post. “Faith is not a prop. You don’t need to portray yourself as a savior when your record should speak for itself.”

The president posted the image on his Truth Social account on April 12. It depicted Trump laying his hand on the forehead of a man who appears to be in a sick bed. A light glows in Trump’s other hand and light shines around the sick man’s head. An American flag waves in the background as a bald eagle flies nearby.

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Wrapped in bloodied bandages, Aline ⁠Saeed, ⁠seven, barely survived the Israeli strike on her ⁠home in south Lebanon last week. She was there to bury her father as hopes of a truce ​spread across the region, but a new strike killed her infant sister and other relatives.

The strike on the Saeed family home in the village of Srifa took ‌place on Wednesday, the first day of a ‌U.S.-Iran ceasefire https://www.reuters.com/world/iran/ that many in Lebanon hoped would apply to their country, too. Instead, Israeli strikes killed more than 350 across Lebanon and left ⁠the Saeed family with ⁠four more relatives to bury.

"They said it was a ceasefire. Like all these people, we ​went up to the village. We went to the casket to read the prayers and walk home... suddenly we felt like a storm was landing right on us," said Nasser Saeed, Aline's 64-year-old grandfather, who also survived.

On Sunday, he joined other relatives in the southern port city of Tyre to pick up the bodies wrapped in green cloth. ​One of them, a fraction the size of the rest, contained his granddaughter Taleen, Aline's sister.

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The report, seen exclusively by Middle East Eye, is based on testimonies from Palestinian former prisoners gathered by the rights watchdog Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

It reveals how the scope of sexual violence of Palestinian prisoners, including rape using objects and trained military dogs, constitutes an "organised state policy", aided and abetted by Israeli institutions and leadership.

One former detainee, a 42-year-old woman from north Gaza who was held in the notorious Sde Teiman detention centre, said she was bound naked to a metal table and repeatedly raped by two masked soldiers over the course of two days.

She recalled that she was left shackled, naked and bleeding throughout the night before the soldiers returned the next day to continue raping her.

She said she wished for death and likened her experience to "another genocide behind walls".

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The UK Royal Navy may be forced to request military support from France to intercept Russian vessels in British waters as the fleet struggles to meet operational commitments, the Daily Mail reported on Sunday, April 12.

Senior naval planners at Navy Command Headquarters in Portsmouth have reportedly concluded that UK forces “need help” from Paris to conduct boarding operations and provide “overwatch” for sanctioned tankers. The revelation comes despite an official denial from the UK Ministry of Defence, which stated on Saturday night that “UK waters remain protected and monitored 24/7.”

The capability gap was highlighted by reports that the UK currently has only one submarine and two frigates available for immediate operations. Last week, the Kremlin sent three submarines into northern UK waters to potentially sabotage undersea cables while HMS Dragon, Britain’s only available destroyer, was deployed to the Mediterranean.

In a further display of defiance, the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich recently escorted a pair of “shadow fleet” ships through the English Channel, despite UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s earlier vows to seize such vessels.

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The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations.

The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims.

The demolitions came after Israel’s minister of defence, Israel Katz, called for the destruction of “all houses” in border villages “in accordance with the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza” to stop threats to communities in northern Israel. The Israeli military destroyed 90% of homes in Rafah, in south Gaza.

The tactic of mass destruction of homes in Gaza, where Israel has been accused of committing genocide, was described as domicide by academics, a strategy that is used to systematically destroy and damage civilian housing to render entire areas uninhabitable.

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Seven people were shot, including one fatally, at a fast-food chain restaurant in Union Township, New Jersey, on Saturday night, according to authorities.

Seven people were shot, including one fatally, at a fast-food chain restaurant in Union Township, New Jersey, on Saturday night, according to authorities.

The Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan reference resource, listed the reported shooting at the Chick-fil-A restaurant in the 2300 block of Route 22 as the 100th mass shooting documented in the US this year, as of Sunday. The archive defines mass shootings as cases in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.

A statement from the local county prosecutor’s office said that Saturday’s shooting erupted at the Chick-fil-A location at about 9pm. One person was pronounced dead at the scene, and six others were treated for injures that were considered not life-threatening, according to the statement, issued early on Sunday afternoon.

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Maggie was faced with a tough choice in February 2025: quit her job at the US office of personnel management or be unceremoniously fired.

Though she was a few months pregnant at the time, Maggie was offered one of the buyouts that were offered to tens of thousands of federal government employees by the office of personnel management.

“I couldn’t be without health insurance through the delivering of my baby,” said Maggie, who requested to omit her last name for fear of professional repercussions. “I was going to have six to seven months of paid parental leave, because I’d been on my job for five years and I accrued time.”

She took a buyout offer in May 2025 and, like many federal employees who took buyouts, and was placed on administrative leave until September 2025. She delivered her baby in September, just 10 days before she formally lost her job.

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In one of Europe’s most consequential elections of the year, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has conceded to the party led by Péter Magyar, ending his run as Hungary’s leader after more than 16 years.

With 60 percent of the votes counted, Magyar’s Tisza Party had more than 52 percent of the vote compared with Orbán’s 38 percent for his governing Fidesz party, according to The Associated Press, despite a last-minute push from Vice President Vance during a rally for Orbán last week.

The vote distribution will change as more votes are counted.

“Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has just called to congratulate us on our victory,” Magyar said in a post on the social platform X.

Orbán, a far-right politician and ally of President Trump, sought to hold on to power in the face of a challenge from center-right Tisza Party leader Magyar, once himself a member of Orbán’s governing Fidesz party.

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