logo
Pope Leo's Comments On Israel Striking Gaza's Only Catholic Church Are Going Mega Viral

Pope Leo's Comments On Israel Striking Gaza's Only Catholic Church Are Going Mega Viral

Yahoo20-07-2025
Yesterday, it was announced that the Holy Family Church — a shelter and place of worship for Catholics in Gaza — was struck by Israel amid the continuing Israel-Palestine conflict. Three people were killed.
Related:
Soon after, the office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement saying, 'Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza's Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.'
'Israel is investigating the incident and remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites,' it continued.
Related:
Well, as head of the Catholic church, Pope Leo released his own statement about the tragedy on X (formerly known as Twitter.)
I am deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in #Gaza. I assure the parish community of my spiritual closeness. I commend the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God, and pray for…
— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) July 17, 2025
Twitter: @Pontifex
"I am deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in #Gaza," he wrote.
"I assure the parish community of my spiritual closeness. I commend the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God, and pray for their families and the injured. I renew my call for an immediate ceasefire. Only dialogue and reconciliation can ensure enduring peace!"
Related:
The post has been viewed by over five million people.
Related:
Further, NBC reports that during a Friday morning call between Pope Leo and Netanyahu, the pope relayed the importance of a ceasefire and end to the war in Gaza...
...and expressed that places of worship, worshippers, and citizens on the ground in both Palestine and Israel should be protected.
What are your thoughts? Please share in the comments.
Also in In the News:
Also in In the News:
Also in In the News:
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Grok, is that Gaza? AI image checks mislocate news photographs
Grok, is that Gaza? AI image checks mislocate news photographs

Yahoo

time17 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Grok, is that Gaza? AI image checks mislocate news photographs

This image by AFP photojournalist Omar al-Qattaa shows a skeletal, underfed girl in Gaza, where Israel's blockade has fuelled fears of mass famine in the Palestinian territory. But when social media users asked Grok where it came from, X boss Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot was certain that the photograph was taken in Yemen nearly seven years ago. The AI bot's untrue response was widely shared online and a left-wing pro-Palestinian French lawmaker, Aymeric Caron, was accused of peddling disinformation on the Israel-Hamas war for posting the photo. At a time when internet users are turning to AI to verify images more and more, the furore shows the risks of trusting tools like Grok, when the technology is far from error-free. Grok said the photo showed Amal Hussain, a seven-year-old Yemeni child, in October 2018. In fact the photo shows nine-year-old Mariam Dawwas in the arms of her mother Modallala in Gaza City on August 2, 2025. Before the war, sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Mariam weighed 25 kilograms, her mother told AFP. Today, she weighs only nine. The only nutrition she gets to help her condition is milk, Modallala told AFP--and even that's "not always available". Challenged on its incorrect response, Grok said: "I do not spread fake news; I base my answers on verified sources." The chatbot eventually issued a response that recognised the error -- but in reply to further queries the next day, Grok repeated its claim that the photo was from Yemen. The chatbot has previously issued content that praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and that suggested people with Jewish surnames were more likely to spread online hate. - Radical right bias - Grok's mistakes illustrate the limits of AI tools, whose functions are as impenetrable as "black boxes", said Louis de Diesbach, a researcher in technological ethics. "We don't know exactly why they give this or that reply, nor how they prioritise their sources," said Diesbach, author of a book on AI tools, "Hello ChatGPT". Each AI has biases linked to the information it was trained on and the instructions of its creators, he said. In the researcher's view Grok, made by Musk's xAI start-up, shows "highly pronounced biases which are highly aligned with the ideology" of the South African billionaire, a former confidante of US President Donald Trump and a standard-bearer for the radical right. Asking a chatbot to pinpoint a photo's origin takes it out of its proper role, said Diesbach. "Typically, when you look for the origin of an image, it might say: 'This photo could have been taken in Yemen, could have been taken in Gaza, could have been taken in pretty much any country where there is famine'." AI does not necessarily seek accuracy -- "that's not the goal," the expert said. Another AFP photograph of a starving Gazan child by al-Qattaa, taken in July 2025, had already been wrongly located and dated by Grok to Yemen, 2016. That error led to internet users accusing the French newspaper Liberation, which had published the photo, of manipulation. - 'Friendly pathological liar' - An AI's bias is linked to the data it is fed and what happens during fine-tuning -- the so-called alignment phase -- which then determines what the model would rate as a good or bad answer. "Just because you explain to it that the answer's wrong doesn't mean it will then give a different one," Diesbach said. "Its training data has not changed and neither has its alignment." Grok is not alone in wrongly identifying images. When AFP asked Mistral AI's Le Chat -- which is in part trained on AFP's articles under an agreement between the French start-up and the news agency -- the bot also misidentified the photo of Mariam Dawwas as being from Yemen. For Diesbach, chatbots must never be used as tools to verify facts. "They are not made to tell the truth," but to "generate content, whether true or false", he said. "You have to look at it like a friendly pathological liar -- it may not always lie, but it always could." dou-aor/sbk/rlp

Syria signs $14 billion in investment deals, including $4 billion airport expansion
Syria signs $14 billion in investment deals, including $4 billion airport expansion

Yahoo

time17 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Syria signs $14 billion in investment deals, including $4 billion airport expansion

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria signed agreements worth $14 billion with regional and international companies on Wednesday for 12 investment projects, including modernizing the international airport in Damascus and a new subway system, state media reported. The deals are the largest so far since foreign companies and countries started an investment push into the war-torn country after Western sanctions were eased following the fall of the 54-year rule of the Assad family. The head of Syria's Investment Authority, Talal al-Halili, was quoted by state-run news agency SANA as saying that the expansion of Damascus' International Airport will cost $4 billion and will be done by the Qatar-based UCC Holding. SANA said that the airport will be able to serve up to 31 million travelers a year, after the expansion. SANA added that the agreement for the new subway system in the capital is worth $2 billion, and the network is expected to be used by 750,000 people a day. The deal for the subway was signed by Syria's Transportation Ministry and the United Arab Emirates' National Investment Corporation, SANA said. Other projects include the $2 billion construction of 60 residential towers with 20,000 housing units outside of the capital. 'Syria is open for investments and determined to build a bright future,' al-Hilali said during the ceremony, which was attended by President Ahmad al-Sharaa. In late July, Syria and Saudi Arabia announced 47 investment agreements, valued at more than $6 billion to mark a significant step in rebuilding Syria's war-battered economy. In May, Syria signed an agreement with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish and U.S. companies for the development of a $7 billion 5,000-megawatt energy project to revitalize much of Syria's war-battered electricity grid. 'The future of a prosperous and peaceful Syria is in the hands of Syria and its regional partners,' said the U.S. special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, who attended Wednesday's signing in Damascus.

Syria signs $14 billion in investment deals, including $4 billion airport expansion
Syria signs $14 billion in investment deals, including $4 billion airport expansion

Washington Post

time20 minutes ago

  • Washington Post

Syria signs $14 billion in investment deals, including $4 billion airport expansion

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria signed agreements worth $14 billion with regional and international companies on Wednesday for 12 investment projects, including modernizing the international airport in Damascus and a new subway system, state media reported. The deals are the largest so far since foreign companies and countries started an investment push into the war-torn country after Western sanctions were eased following the fall of the 54-year rule of the Assad family . The head of Syria's Investment Authority, Talal al-Halili, was quoted by state-run news agency SANA as saying that the expansion of Damascus' International Airport will cost $4 billion and will be done by the Qatar-based UCC Holding. SANA said that the airport will be able to serve up to 31 million travelers a year, after the expansion. SANA added that the agreement for the new subway system in the capital is worth $2 billion, and the network is expected to be used by 750,000 people a day. The deal for the subway was signed by Syria's Transportation Ministry and the United Arab Emirates' National Investment Corporation, SANA said. Other projects include the $2 billion construction of 60 residential towers with 20,000 housing units outside of the capital. 'Syria is open for investments and determined to build a bright future,' al-Hilali said during the ceremony, which was attended by President Ahmad al-Sharaa. In late July, Syria and Saudi Arabia announced 47 investment agreements , valued at more than $6 billion to mark a significant step in rebuilding Syria's war-battered economy. In May, Syria signed an agreement with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish and U.S. companies for the development of a $7 billion 5,000-megawatt energy project to revitalize much of Syria's war-battered electricity grid. 'The future of a prosperous and peaceful Syria is in the hands of Syria and its regional partners,' said the U.S. special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, who attended Wednesday's signing in Damascus.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store