Food
Pope Leo’s plane was grounded. Then the King of Spain stepped in to help

On board the Iberia Airways flight taking Pope Leo XIV from Tenerife back to Rome, the captain made an announcement. A technical problem had been discovered, and the plane wasn’t able to take off. Moments later the pope and some of his entourage left the aircraft.
I was one of the roughly 80 journalists on board travelling with the pope for his June 6-12 visit to Spain, and we were flying on an Iberia Airways flight back to Rome. When he travels, the pope uses a regular plane, and flies out using an ITA aircraft, while the host country often provides the plane on the way back.
The journalists travelling with the pope sit at the back of the plane, while the pope, cardinals, bishops and Vatican staff sit at the front. We pay business class fares for economy class seats, but in return get to meet the pope on the way out while he holds a press conference with reporters on the way home. The food is much better on papal flights with special menus printed with the pope’s coat of arms, which also adorn the head rests.
Papal aircraft have had technical problems in the past, but for a plane carrying the pope to be unable to take off is unheard of. It’s seen as an honour for local carriers to fly the pope, and whether it’s Aereo Dili in East Timor or Emirates in the UAE the flights normally progress seamlessly. So when the captain on Iberia made his announcement, it sparked chaos among the travelling press corps.
Eventually, we were told to disembark and news then filtered through that the pope had been offered the King of Spain’s private plane to fly back to Rome. I watched as Pope Leo walked across the tarmac to get on board and we reporters stayed back waiting for another plane to fly us to Rome.
It marked a chaotic end to what had been an historic visit to Spain by Pope Leo. The first American pope, who is a fluent Spanish speaker, drew huge crowds in Madrid, including around 1.2 million for a Mass and procession. He became the first pontiff to address Spain’s parliament receiving a seven-minute standing ovation from across representatives of the country’s intensely polarized political spectrum.
The large crowd numbers came as a surprise, with the pope telling CNN on the flight over that he knew he was competing with the Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, who had a concert in Madrid on the night Leo arrived. After plenty of speculation that Bad Bunny might somehow link up with a papal event, the Vatican confirmed that the pair had a brief, behind-closed-doors meeting, although no photos were released.
But the showstopper moment of the trip came at Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica. One hundred years after the death of Antoni Gaudí, the architect visionary behind the building, the pope celebrated a Mass in the basilica and blessed the tower of Jesus Christ, which makes it the tallest church in the world. Choristers from the oldest choir in Europe sang as the basilica was bathed in color by a light show and fireworks. Drone lights then made Gaudí’s face light up the night sky.
Alongside the large-scale events, the pope made time for low-key but moments. He met migrants at the Las Raices camp in Santa Cruz, Tenerife as he highlighted the plight of those risking their lives on wooden boats to cross the sea from west Africa to Europe. And the pope condemned those trafficking migrants telling them to “stop” and “repent,” adding that they would face “divine justice.” He used the last part of his Spain visit to travel to the Canary Islands, a major entry point for new arrivals into Europe, to highlight the plight of migrants, a major priority of his papacy. The pope also met abuse survivors privately and urged Spain’s bishops to listen to victims and make reparations.
Perhaps the most striking part of the visit was seeing the pope appearing the most relaxed and happy since the beginning of his papacy. He spoke off the cuff – which is rare for Leo – when encouraging young people to consider getting married and starting a family and talking about his time playing soccer and American Football in his youth. He pointed out that he still plays tennis and takes exercise.
Leo looked like he was enjoying himself. On one occasion he took to the cockpit of the plane during the trip from Madrid to Barcelona, talking to the pilots on the in-flight radio and waving at the military plane escort. On several occasions he delighted the crowd from the popemobile as he did the “six-seven” hand gesture, something that he likes to do frequently.
The pope taking the Spanish king’s plane meant reporters couldn’t ask him questions at the end during the in-flight press conference which remains a rare opportunity for the pope to engage in a sustained question and answer with journalists.
The last two papal trips have seen dramatic, unscheduled moments. From President Donald Trump’s extraordinary broadside against the pope on the eve of his Africa visit in April, to the unprecedented grounding of a papal flight, the Leo papacy is throwing up plenty of surprises.
Food
1 killed, others injured in Virginia church tent collapse amid high winds
One person was killed and 11 others were taken to hospitals after a large tent at a Virginia church event collapsed during a storm and high winds Friday, authorities said.
The tent collapsed around 6:45 p.m. as an event was being held outside of EastLake Community Church in Moneta, Bedford County acting fire and rescue Chief Abbey Johnston told reporters.
Johnston said the pastor was in the process of evacuating the tent, which has seats for 1,500, when the collapse occurred.
“It happened very quickly,” she said.
Johnston did not have the condition of the 11 people who were transported to hospitals. Another 11 were treated at the scene and released, she said.
The tent collapse occurred as most of Virginia was under a severe thunderstorm watch, including in the Moneta area, until 9 p.m. Friday.
“The tent collapsed as a result of, we believe, the winds that came through,” Johnston said. “Initially, I’m told it was a very chaotic scene, trying to account for individuals.”
Johnston said that the commercial tent was properly secured. The fire chief of a different department and members were there when the incident occurred and quickly responded and helped people to safety, she said.
The church had advertised an event with food, a service and water activities for children and ice cream Friday.
It’s part of a “multiply week” celebration, which was advertised as a time for families to come and connect with one another which was to be held under a large tent.
Moneta is a community of around 450 people around 18 miles east of Roanoke.
Pastor Troy Keaton said on Facebook that the “church family suffered a great tragedy tonight.”
“Just as I had walked to the stage to release people to their cars a burst of wind picked up the tent,” Keaton wrote.
He said that “Sadly one of our dear brothers suffered a fatal injury,” and others were injured.
“We are currently focused on caring and praying for them,” he said.
Food
‘Today Show’ Critic Was 100
Shalit, the bushy-haired mustachioed television personality who reviewed books and movies on “The Today Show” for 40 years, died Friday. His family told NBC News he “passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life.”
Shalit appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show” from 1970 until his retirement in 2010, sporting his signature bow ties and large glasses and working numerous puns into his film and book reviews in the “Critic’s Corner” segments.
In addition to his reviews, he interviewed celebrities from Steven Spielberg to the Grateful Dead to Helen Hayes.
“It was always magical for me to see Gene on the screen,” CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric said upon his retirement in 2010. “I think Gene was a master at doing celebrity interviews. He interviewed Sophia Loren and you could tell he was completed mesmerized by her.”
His long tenure on “The Today Show” made him one of the few recognizable film critics, which led to him being featured in several animated shows. “SpongeBob Square Pants” dubbed him Gene Scallop, a fish food critic for whom Shalit provided the voice. He was parodied in four episodes of “Family Guy,” voiced a character playing himself on “The Critic” and was portrayed in “The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence.”
“Saturday Night Live” also parodied the popular critic, with Jon Lovitz and later Horatio Sanz portraying Shalit. On “Second City Television,” he was portrayed by the equally bushy-eyebrowed Eugene Levy.
Born in New York City, he graduated the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where like fellow critic Roger Ebert many years later, he wrote for the Daily Illini newspaper. Early in his career he was a press agent for Dick Clark, a job which ended during a Congressional investigation of payola.
He turned to writing about entertainment in the late 1960s for publications including Look, Ladies’ Home Journal, TV Guide and The New York Times. He also authored four books of humor.
Shalit also broadcast daily essays called “Man About Anything” on the NBC Radio Network from 1970 to 1982.
He is survived by a son and a daughter. Another daughter and his wife, Nancy Lewis, pre-deceased him.
Food
Here’s How Much More Money Elon Musk Has Than Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, and You
U.S. oligarch Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on Friday after his company SpaceX went public in the largest initial public offering ever. Musk is worth $1.1 trillion, thanks in large part to his stock in both Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk becoming a trillionaire is an incredibly dark milestone for humanity. In a world where millions of people are suffering from treatable illnesses and starvation—often as a result of Musk’s own actions—there is one guy who holds more wealth than most of us can even conceptualize.
How wealthy is Musk now?
It can be difficult to put such staggering numbers in perspective.
At $1.1 trillion, Musk is worth about $704 billion more than the second-wealthiest person in the world, Google co-founder Larry Page, who’s worth $296 billion, according to Forbes. The gap between Elon Musk and Larry Page ($804 billion) is larger than the entire GDP of Ireland ($779 billion).
Google co-founder Sergey Brin is worth about $273 billion, according to Forbes, making him the third-wealthiest person in the world. The gap between Elon Musk’s wealth and Sergey Brin’s wealth is $827 billion, roughly what it would cost to fix the national debt, according to Fortune.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the third-wealthiest on the Forbes list of richest people, at about $247 billion. That’s a gap of $853 billion, roughly the combined net worth of the 10 wealthiest people in 2020.
Oracle founder Larry Ellison currently sits at number four on the Forbes list of wealthiest people, with $228 billion. The gap between Ellison’s wealth and Musk’s net worth is about $872 billion. If you spent $1,000 per day every single day, it would take about 2.4 million years to spend that amount of money.
Dell founder Michael Dell is currently just under Ellison on the Forbes billionaires list at $227 billion. If you have even a single dollar to your name, your net worth is closer to Michael Dell’s than Dell’s is to Elon Musk’s.
Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is worth $196 billion. The gap between Zuck’s net worth and Musk’s is a whopping $904 billion. The median U.S. home price is currently about $436,500. You could buy 2.07 million homes with the money in that gap.
Nvidia founder Jensen Huang is worth $178 billion, making him the eighth-wealthiest person, according to Forbes. The gap between his net worth and Musk’s now sits at $922 billion. That amount of cash could buy you over 92 million horses for your personal flight attendants. Or settle over 3.6 million claims with those employees (at $250,000 a piece) after they accuse you of sexual harassment.
Bernard Arnault, the CEO of luxury goods company LVMH, and his family are worth about $156 billion, meaning the gap between their wealth and Musk’s is $944 billion. That’s nearly the entire GDP of Taiwan, which is currently at $976 billion.
Legendary 95-year-old investor Warren Buffett is worth about $144 billion, making him the tenth-wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes. The gap between Buffett’s wealth and Musk’s is now $956 billion. As Bloomberg notes, Musk is worth about seven Warren Buffetts.
Where did the money actually come from?
SpaceX is currently trading at $173 per share at the time of this writing, up significantly from the IPO price of $135. The company is now the sixth-largest by market cap, behind Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. And while nobody knows what will happen to the stock, every penny that it goes up contributes to Elon Musk’s enormous wealth.
Musk was worth $24.6 billion as recently as 2020. But he managed to see his wealth climb tremendously, in large part thanks to government contracts. The trillionaire’s companies have been built on at least $38 billion in government funding, according to the Washington Post, including loans, subsidies, and tax credits. And yet he still promotes the libertarian myth that he somehow exists outside of America’s oligarchic system.
No matter how many ways you try to put these numbers in context, it’s still difficult for any human to comprehend the kind of money and power Elon Musk now possesses. Another way to look at it: If you gave someone $1 million every day since the birth of Jesus Christ, they’d have about $741 billion, not including any interest. Elon Musk is much wealthier than that. (Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, recently used this stat to complain about the national debt.)
Elon Musk and charity
There simply aren’t enough hours in the day for anyone to “earn” a trillion dollars. And yet Musk doesn’t believe in giving money to charity, insisting that his creation of private companies is its own kind of charitable giving.
Back in 2021, the head of the UN World Food Program asked Musk to donate $6 billion to save 42 million people from starvation. Musk declined.
At the time, that $6 billion was just 2% of Musk’s wealth. Today, it’s just half a percent. We won’t hold our breath waiting for the newly minted trillionaire to save millions of people from unnecessary death.
What money can’t buy
No matter how much money you have, it won’t make you a good person or fulfill you in any profound ways. And it can’t make people like you.
Only 36% of Americans say they approve of Elon Musk, with 48% saying they disapprove of him, according to the latest polling. It will be interesting to see how those numbers fluctuate as his net worth goes up or down with the price of SpaceX stock.
Then again, it’s hard for mere mortals to imagine even the difference between $100 billion and $1 trillion. The numbers are simply too large.
Food
Iran says missiles off table in US talks, demands $300 billion in war damages
Iran has not yet given final approval to a draft memorandum of understanding with the United States, Iranian state-affiliated Mehr News Agency reported Friday, adding that Tehran’s ballistic missile program will not be part of any negotiations.
According to the report, discussions with Washington will focus exclusively on Iran’s nuclear program and economic issues, particularly sanctions relief.
Mehr published what it said were the 14 points contained in the draft agreement, although the details have not been confirmed by U.S. officials.
Under the reported framework, the war would end immediately and permanently on all fronts, including Lebanon. The United States would commit to respecting Iran’s sovereignty and refraining from interference in its internal affairs.
The draft also reportedly calls for the lifting of the maritime blockade within 30 days, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from areas near Iran, and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz under arrangements coordinated with Tehran.
According to the report, sanctions on Iranian oil, petrochemical products and related exports would be suspended, granting Iran access to its financial resources. The United States and its allies would also commit to presenting plans for rebuilding Iran’s economy worth at least $300 billion.
The memorandum would establish a 60-day period of ceasefire and negotiations aimed at reaching a final agreement. During that period, Washington would pledge not to increase its military presence in the region or impose additional sanctions.
Mehr reported that Iran would reaffirm its commitment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty not to pursue nuclear weapons. The final agreement, if reached, would focus exclusively on uranium enrichment and enriched material, the removal of sanctions and Iran’s economic recovery.
According to the report, discussion of Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for allied militant groups across the Middle East has been permanently removed from the agenda.
The draft reportedly includes the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets during the 60-day negotiating period, with half of that amount to be made available before talks begin. It also calls for the establishment of a mechanism to monitor implementation and for any final agreement to receive approval from the UN Security Council.
Iranian media said the framework includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, removing sanctions on Iranian oil exports and unfreezing Iranian assets.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Israeli officials have insisted that any agreement with Tehran must address not only Iran’s nuclear activities but also its ballistic missile program and its network of regional proxy groups.
For that reason, Israeli officials have opposed the emerging framework and continue to hope the talks collapse or that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, does not approve the deal.
The precise details of the framework remain unclear. Iranian reports claimed Washington backed away from some of its earlier demands, although it remains uncertain whether President Donald Trump maintained his original conditions.
The proposed memorandum would establish a 60-day window for negotiating a comprehensive nuclear agreement, with the possibility of a further 60-day extension. Analysts note that reaching such a deal within that time frame appears unlikely, given that negotiations leading to the 2015 nuclear agreement lasted roughly 18 months.
One of the main sticking points remains how much financial relief Iran will receive. According to information circulating in Israel, a compromise has been reached under which Iran would not receive direct cash transfers but would instead be allowed to purchase food and medicine using funds held by Qatar.
U.S. officials are reportedly insisting that frozen assets will not be released until issues surrounding Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium are addressed, though that issue itself is expected to be part of future negotiations.
Food
iOS 27: All the New Health and Fitness Features
Apple was rumored to be working on an AI health service, but it was scrapped well before the iOS 27 beta came out. It could resurface in the future, but for now, there are a handful of health and fitness changes in the update. Design Apple redesigned the Browse section of the Health app, and it now uses a card-style interface instead of a list. It is more colorful and easier to see the different categories.
Apple was rumored to be working on an AI health service, but it was scrapped well before the iOS 27 beta came out. It could resurface in the future, but for now, there are a handful of health and fitness changes in the update.
Design
Apple redesigned the Browse section of the Health app, and it now uses a card-style interface instead of a list. It is more colorful and easier to see the different categories.
The app also has a single bottom navigation bar that incorporates a search/browse button, instead of a separate search button.
Visual Intelligence
Visual Intelligence has a new nutrition feature that can tell you the nutritional value of what you’re eating. You can open the Camera app to the new Siri mode and take a photo of a food item to get feedback.
It does not give exact calorie counts, but it lets you know if a food is heavily processed, if it has protein, if it’s high in sugar, and more. It gives food a nutritional value ranking between very low and very high. Data does not sync to the Health app, but it’s still useful.
Visual Intelligence requires an iPhone 15 Pro or later.
Cycle Tracking
Cycle Tracking is expanding with perimenopause/menopause support. The Health app now sends notifications when logged cycle patterns are suggestive of perimenopause.
The feature uses long-term cycle data to flag the perimenopause hormonal transition that can begin a decade or more before menopause. Cycle deviation alerts are based on the user’s logged cycle history and are for users age 40 and above.
Users can keep track of symptoms and access educational resources that offer guidance and support.
Apple also added new Fitness+ workouts for perimenopause and menopause.
Data syncs to the Health app quicker than before thanks to performance improvements Apple implemented.
Child Safety
There are several new Child Safety features that give parents more control over the content their children are seeing. Apple is including guidance based on expert health research to help parents make decisions about managing child accounts.
Route and Distance Accuracy
Route maps that populate the Fitness app after workouts are more accurate in iOS 27. During treadmill workouts, distance is also reflected more accurately than before.
Step Count
Step counts will sync between the Health and Fitness apps.
GymKit
GymKit has expanded to the iPhone, which can pair with treadmills, indoor bikes, and other exercise equipment for data syncing. GymKit was previously an Apple Watch feature, but now iPhone users won’t need a watch to use it.
GymKit can sync calories, distance, speed, incline, and pace.
iOS 27 is available to developers, with a public beta planned for July. It will launch to the public this fall.
-
LifestyleNews1 week ago
120 minutes of strength training per week may help extend lifespan
-
Politics2 days ago
What to know about the stabbing that set off fiery riots in Northern Ireland
-
Video15 hours ago
Download fans say what they love about the festival. #DownloadFestival #BBCNews
-
HealthNews24 hours ago
The people of Okinawa, Japan only eat until they are about 80 percent full, then stop — and the practice has been linked in multiple peer-reviewed studies to lower rates of cardiovascular disease, slo
-
Video15 hours ago
Why SpaceX IPO isn't about space. #SpaceX #ElonMusk #BBCNews
-
BBC News World1 day ago
Why the economics makes this the craziest world cup ever
-
BBC News World5 days ago
Backrooms and Obsession: How two low-budget horror films caused a Hollywood earthquake
-
Politics12 hours ago
Zohran Mamdani Pushes Tax on Rich After Elon Musk Becomes Trillionaire