DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — In Senegal, wrestling, known as laamb in the native Wolof, is a national sport deeply rooted in village life. The country’s top wrestlers earn the title “King of the Arenas,” drawing massive crowds and TV audiences.

Laamb is unique for its spectacle, featuring elaborate costumes, protective charms, and rituals. Fighters — draped in elaborate costumes and protective charms believed to ward off injury and channel spiritual power — perform to the beat of sabar drums, emphasizing the sport’s spiritual side, which for many is as important as the fight itself.

Over time, laamb has evolved into a professional sport with sponsors and prize money. For young men like Omar, 22, it offers a chance at wealth and fame, though most wrestlers face financial challenges and hope for success abroad.

For young men like Omar, 22, an amateur wrestler, the arena represents a shot at wealth and fame. “I do this because wrestling pays more than being a footballer in this country,” he said. “If I become a professional, I will be rich.”

However, most local league wrestlers earn modest salaries, and many struggle financially, pinning their hopes on academies and transfers abroad, while dreaming of the rare few who make it to the top.

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — At 6 a.m., in the Mataderos neighborhood of Buenos Aires, workers unload sides of beef from a truck outside a butcher shop as customers line up for wholesale purchases. Inside, 73-year-old owner Jorge García and his staff prepare meat orders before dawn.

Among the stacks of beef boxes and red meat cuts hanging from metal hooks, chicken and pork are increasingly present.

Red meat consumption in Argentina — historically one of the world’s biggest consumers of beef — has fallen to its lowest level in two decades amid economic austerity measures imposed by libertarian President Javier Milei.

As of April 2026, annual per capita beef consumption fell to 44.5 kilograms (98 pounds), down from 49.5 kilograms (109 pounds) during the same month a year earlier, according to the Agricultural Foundation for Argentina’s Development. In 2006, it was 63.4 kilos (139 pounds) per person.

“People are switching to cheaper proteins. They’re eating pork, they’re eating chicken,” said García.

Analysts attribute the decline to soaring beef prices, lower cattle supply and weakened household purchasing power. The opening of Argentina’s beef market to international trade has also pushed domestic prices closer to global levels.

“Beef moved into a completely different purchasing-power category. Workers’ wages fell far behind,” said Juampi Quintero, 25, a meat distributor who estimated consumption among his clients has fallen by more than half.

Since coming into office in December 2023 with an annual inflation at 211%, Milei promised to eliminate what he called “the cancer of inflation” through an adjustment plan that included cuts equivalent to nearly one-third of public spending, symbolized by the image of a chain saw.

The government succeeded in reversing the fiscal deficit and achieving a budget surplus — a rare result in Argentina’s recent history — but the social cost of the austerity measures has drawn criticism.

Within months, Milei’s administration eliminated 13 ministries, laid off about 30,000 public employees, halted public works projects and reduced funding for key areas such as education, healthcare and science, while also cutting subsidies for basic services such as electricity, gas, water and transportation.

“That affects household income because families now have to pay more for services that were previously subsidized by the state,” said economist Camilo Tiscornia. “As a result, they have less disposable income and must give up certain more expensive goods, such as beef.”

At the same time, household incomes did not rise at the same pace as beef prices, helping drive down consumption.

Wages for registered workers increased an average of 1.8% in February, the latest available data, compared with monthly inflation of 2.9%.

“Before, I had the freedom to buy what I wanted,” said Alberto Brajin, a 61-year-old retiree who runs a streetside barbecue stall in Buenos Aires.

Brajin said he now has to “trade down” to cheaper proteins such as chicken.

Beef prices rose more than 60% over the past year, reaching an average of 18,500 pesos ($13) per kilogram in Buenos Aires in May, according to the Argentine Beef Promotion Institute.

In July 2025, Milei’s government reduced export taxes on beef and poultry and removed production quotas to encourage overseas sales, reversing part of the restrictions imposed under former President Alberto Fernández to curb rising domestic prices. The easing of export regulations came just as Argentina’s beef production dropped by more than 10 percent due to floods and droughts, according to CICCRA, the nonprofit organization that represents Argentina’s beef producers.

Argentina’s government said this week that beef exports rose 54% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, totaling nearly 200,000 tons worth more than $1 billion. The increase followed a U.S. decision earlier this year to expand Argentina’s tariff-free beef quota amid American cattle shortages.

With the market opening up, producers began selling beef — once affordable across much of Argentina’s social spectrum — at prices closer to international levels.

“Previously, all meats had similar prices, which encouraged high beef consumption that did not reflect its real production costs,” agricultural consultant Iván Ordóñez explained.

As beef becomes increasingly expensive for many Argentine families, chicken and pork are gaining ground as cheaper alternatives.

“We’ve chosen to buy pork and chicken because beef is too expensive,” said shop owner Ruth Simon.

Chicken costs an average of 4,900 pesos ($3.50) per kilogram, while pork ribs cost around 8,900 pesos ($6.30).

García, the butcher shop owner, said he began selling chicken and pork less than a year ago after noticing changes in customers’ eating habits.

“You have to adapt,” he said. “We can’t just sit around crying. No crying. We have to work. We have to keep our dignity. We have to fight.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

MADRID (AP) — No special menu, no themed decorations and no shared suspense over which musician’s flamboyant performance proves victorious.

For the first time in seven years, Silvia Díaz won’t get together with friends to watch the Eurovision Song Contest finals on Saturday night. Their host called off their annual gathering after Spain’s public broadcaster withdrew from the festival, protesting Israel’s participation over its war against Hamas in Gaza. Díaz will watch on YouTube, but only if she has no other plans.

“It’s not the same watching it alone at home as it is with friends. That’s the only thing that upsets me.”

The five-day song competition drew 166 million viewers last year — considerably more than Super Bowl viewership in the U.S. Spain hasn’t won since 1969; nevertheless, after months of television, radio and newspaper play for Spain’s song, friends and families usually watch the final at home and bars, and their contestant’s performance dominates the day-after headlines. Spaniards at the event wave the country’s flag, wear red clothing, or don the occasional bullfighter costume.

Spain announced its boycott in December, after the European Broadcasting Union said Israel would be allowed to compete, and has been joined by Ireland, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Iceland. Some Spanish fans respect the choice to take a stand by sitting out the cherished event, even if it’s bittersweet.

Spain’s broadcaster has repeatedly expressed disapproval over Israel’s participation. In last year’s semifinals, RTVE’s commentators introduced Israel’s singer in the same breath as they mentioned Palestinians killed in the war. Before airing the final, the network transmitted the message “Peace and justice for Palestine” on a black background to hundreds of thousands of Spanish televisions.

As Eurovision finals take place in Vienna, RTVE will air a tribute to the network’s musical history. It will feature a performance by Tony Grox and Lucycalys, the musicians who RTVE would have dispatched to represent Spain at Eurovision.

Ireland’s public broadcaster will air a film about one couple’s life in the Irish countryside. Slovenians will be shown an episode of a 10-part program about Palestinians. People can still watch Eurovision on the European Broadcasting Union’s YouTube channel, but the lack of a performer or commentator from their own country renders the vibe decidedly less passionate.

Israel has been competing for 50 years and won four times. Israelis gather in bars to watch and are enthusiastic about the country’s participation, which is seen by many as a sign of international acceptance and normalcy. Its contestant each year becomes a national celebrity and a strong showing — even if not an outright victory — is a source of pride.

Among Spain’s Eurovision fans, this year’s boycott has supporters and detractors.

For Rebeca Carril, who enjoys replaying performances from the 1960s and 1970s, before she was born, the turning point came a few years ago with the influx of Israeli sponsors. She didn’t want to support their marketing efforts by tuning in.

“I have Palestinian friends and I began to understand a little better how things worked,” said Carril, a 42-year-old marketing executive in Madrid.

For others, like Guillermina Bastida, music and politics should be separate. She drove 3 1/2 days from northern Spain in a van with her two daughters to last year’s competition in Basel, her third time attending. This year, she will settle for YouTube.

“It’s a song festival, period,” Bastida, a 47-year-old who works in communications, said by phone from Asturias province. “I also have my own stance, which is critical, but not to the point of boycotting the festival.”

Eurovision’s motto is “United by Music,” and organizers strive to keep politics out, vainly, in recent years. Months after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Broadcasting Union disqualified Russia, and it hasn’t been allowed to return. Contest rules ban overtly political lyrics or symbols, and organizers stress it is a competition among national broadcasters, not governments.

Spain is one of the so-called “Big Five” countries that contribute the most financially to Eurovision. In addition to missing out on big bucks for broadcasting rights, Eurovision is losing publicity and credibility, said Jose García, co-director of a website that provides news about the competition, whose main social media channels have a combined total of almost 100,000 followers.

That doesn’t mean people will tune out completely, he added.

“It has marked the television and personal history of many people, and fans will watch it via international channels or YouTube. But it’s one thing to be able to watch it and another to agree with what’s happening,” García said.

On the streets of Vienna, the lack of Spaniards is noticeable, said Vicente Rico after attending the first night of the semifinals.

“We’re a group that, just like at other events, makes its presence felt — we’re among the happiest, the loudest and the most fun,” said Rico, 40, who runs a perfumery in Madrid.

This is Rico’s 18th Eurovision, and he had been torn before embarking on his annual pilgrimage because he believes the boycott is morally right. Still, it doesn’t sit well.

“It bothers me that Eurovision is being used as a scapegoat,” he said, noting the lack of action by international organizations and boycotts at other events like the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off in a month.

And who will Rico support, with Spain absent?

“I think Finland is going to win, but the support for Italy is crazy,” he said. If Sweden, Serbia or Australia prevails, he would return to Spain happy.

“This year, we’re rooting for everyone except Israel.”

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Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Jill Lawless in Vienna contributed to this report.

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jana Choukeir

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/DUBAI, May 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed Tehran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz, though China gave no indication it would weigh in.

Flying back from Beijing on Friday after two days of talks with Xi, Trump said he was considering whether to lift U.S. sanctions on Chinese oil companies buying Iranian oil. China is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.

“I’m not asking for any favors because when you ask for favors, you have to do favors in return,” Trump said when asked by a reporter on Air Force One whether Xi had made a firm commitment to put pressure on the Iranians to reopen the vital strait.

Xi did not comment on his discussions with Trump about Iran, although China’s foreign ministry expressed frustration with the Iran war, calling it a conflict “which should never have happened, has no reason to continue.”

‘WE WANT THE STRAITS OPEN’

Iran effectively shut the strait, which carried one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supply before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on February 28. The disruption to shipping has caused the biggest oil supply crisis in history, sending oil prices skyrocketing.

Thousands of Iranians were killed during the U.S. and Israeli air strikes, and thousands have been killed in Lebanon in renewed fighting there between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.

The U.S. paused its attacks last month but began a port blockade. Tehran said it would not unblock the strait until the U.S. ended its blockade. Trump has threatened to resume attacks if Iran does not agree to a deal.

“We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon, we want the straits open,” Trump said in Beijing, alongside Xi.

Iran, which has long denied that it intends to build a nuclear weapon, has refused to end nuclear research or relinquish its hidden stockpile of enriched uranium, to Trump’s frustration.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran had received messages from the U.S. indicating Washington was willing to continue talks.

“We hope that, with the advancement of negotiations, we will reach a good conclusion so that the Strait of Hormuz can be completely secured and we can expedite the normalisation of traffic through the strait,” he told reporters in New Delhi.

Trump, who told Fox News’ “Hannity” program in an interview aired on Thursday that he was losing patience with Iran, said Tehran “should make a deal.”

Oil prices rose around 3% to around $109 a barrel on Friday [O/R] on concerns over a lack of progress in resolving the conflict, while U.S. Treasury yields [US/] hit their highest in around a year on expectations the Federal Reserve might need to raise interest rates.

Talks on ending the war, which has become a liability for Trump ahead of U.S. congressional elections in November, have been on hold since last week when Iran and the U.S. each rejected the other’s most recent proposals.

Iran would welcome Chinese input, Araqchi said on Friday, adding that Tehran was trying to give diplomacy a chance but did not trust the U.S., which has curtailed previous rounds of talks by launching air strikes.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Jana Choukeir, with additional reporting by Reuters Newsrooms; Writing by William Mallard; Editing by Tom Hogue)

By Iain Axon

May 16 (Reuters) – FIFA Secretary-General Mattias Grafstrom will meet Iranian FA (FFIRI) officials in Istanbul on Saturday and offer “reassurance” over Iran’s participation in the World Cup, a source familiar with the talks has told Reuters.

Iran are scheduled to play all three World Cup group matches in the United States but the team’s participation in the June 11 to July 19 tournament has been in question since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February. 

More questions arose after FFIRI President Mehdi Taj was refused entry to Canada for the FIFA Congress in Vancouver earlier this month because of his links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Both the U.S. and Canada, who are co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico, classify the IRGC as a “terrorist entity” and have made it clear they will not admit people with links to the elite military force.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, said in a social media post this week that it was incumbent on FIFA to ensure that all teams and their delegations were able to get into the host countries.

“The Iranian national football team has earned its right to participate on the field in accordance with FIFA regulations,” he wrote.

“Any obstruction to the entry of players, technical staff, federation officials, or essential members of the Iranian delegation would violate the spirit and purpose of the World Cup …

“If the organising body cannot guarantee that all qualified teams, including Iran, can enter the host country without discrimination or restriction and compete on equal terms, the credibility of the World Cup itself will be damaged.”

The source said FIFA was working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure all teams at the World Cup were able to compete in a safe and secure environment.

U.S. President Donald Trump said two weeks ago that he was “okay” with Iran playing at the World Cup despite the conflict between the countries that was triggered by air strikes on the Islamic Republic.

Iran had asked that their World Cup matches be switched to Mexico but FIFA President Gianni Infantino insists that all games be played at the grounds originally scheduled.

The Iranian national team will leave Tehran for a training camp in Turkey on Monday before moving on to their U.S. base at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona in early June.

Iran are scheduled to get their World Cup campaign underway against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15.

(Reporting by Iain Axon; Writing by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Tom Hogue and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

JERUSALEM (AP) — The tight relationship between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is typically managed discreetly. But this week, it was thrust into the open, illuminating tensions underlying the alliance as the Iran war embroils the entire region.

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, first brought attention to the strengthening ties between Israel and the UAE by revealing that Israel had sent Iron Dome air-defense weapons and personnel to operate them to help protect the UAE from Iranian attacks.

Then, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had quietly visited the UAE during the war, prompting a hasty public denial from the Gulf nation.

As Netanyahu and the Trump administration ballyhoo their alliances as part of an effort to bolster the region’s anti-Iran factions, the Gulf states prefer to downplay these partnerships — a sign of how public ties to Israel remain deeply controversial in the region.

Here’s what you need to know about the Israel-UAE relationship:

Netanyahu’s decision to reveal his wartime trip to Abu Dhabi rocked the boat, particularly coming after Huckabee confirmed military cooperation between the two countries. Reports swirled that Israel’s security chiefs had also visited.

The UAE’s official WAM news agency posted an article denying “reports circulating” about the visit. The agency wrote that the country’s relations with Israel “are public and conducted within the framework of the well-known and officially declared Abraham Accords, and are not based on non-transparent or unofficial arrangements.”

The report also denied any Israeli military delegation was received in the UAE.

“It complicates Abu Dhabi’s wartime-frame posture by forcing it into the open — which is why the denial was issued so quickly and worded so carefully,” said Hesham Alghannam, a Saudi Arabia-based scholar at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center.

Though the UAE normalized relations with Israel in 2020, its rulers like to keep the alliance somewhat quiet.

Antipathy toward the Jewish state runs high in Arab and Muslim countries across the Middle East. The negative feelings were magnified by the war in Gaza, which began after Hamas, a militant group backed by Iran, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Israel’s ensuing offensive in Gaza flattened much of the territory and has killed over 72,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and militant deaths. That conflict spilled across the region, with Israel waging deadly and damaging campaigns against Iran-backed militants in Lebanon and Yemen, and striking militant targets in Qatar and Syria.

“We are the ugly duckling of the Middle East,” said Dan Diker, the president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, a conservative Israeli think tank.

Diker, who has had extensive talks and relationships with Abraham Accord countries in the region, said the regional officials with whom he often negotiated always asked to keep things under the radar.

Israel and the UAE collaborated militarily during the war with Iran. Israel benefited from having a defense foothold in a country geographically closer to its archenemy. The UAE, meanwhile, gained access to Israeli military technology, like the Iron Dome air-defense system.

The alliance has also been a boon for both countries’ economies, with trade between them rising steadily since 2020.

Israel, long isolated in the Middle East, gains legitimacy by partnering with an Arab country. And the UAE gains power in Washington.

The UAE was the third Arab country, after Egypt and Jordan, to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel.

Netanyahu faces fierce domestic opposition headed into an election season in Israel. He believes his image is bolstered if he can show his base that he is a Middle East power broker.

The Iran war did not much help the leader’s domestic popularity. One thing that could help it — while strengthening his strained relationship with President Donald Trump — would be more regional powers following the UAE’s lead. Israel is currently in talks with Azerbaijan to join the Abraham Accords.

But if Netanyahu was hopeful that broadcasting close Israel-UAE ties could serve as a model for other countries, he may need to temper expectations.

Saudi Arabia, a leader in the region that has resisted joining the Abraham Accords, has taken a different approach throughout the war. It has maintained open lines of communication with Tehran, and has supported Pakistan’s mediation between the sides, said Alghannam, the Saudi Arabia-based scholar.

“The aim is not to take a posture on Israel, per se. It is to refuse entanglement in a war whose dynamics Riyadh did not set and cannot control,” he said.

“Riyadh discussing the full range of options openly, with partners, without locking into one track, is itself a strategic signal,” he said. “The regional security architecture will be designed regionally, not inherited from whatever Washington and Tehran negotiate bilaterally.”

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Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

CAIRO (AP) — Drone warfare has become the deadliest threat to civilians in Sudan ‘s conflict and both the military and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are being supplied by a number of countries in the Middle East and beyond, experts say.

“Armed drones have now become by far and away the leading cause of civilian deaths,” or over 80% of conflict-related deaths, United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk said this week, calling for measures to prevent their transfer to Sudan. Drones killed at least 880 civilians between January and April.

The war in Sudan began in April 2023 and has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced some 13 million and pushed parts of the country into famine.

In recent weeks, the RSF has carried out drone attacks on Khartoum International Airport and other areas near the capital, which the army seized control of last year.

Analysts say foreign-supplied advanced drone technology enables the warring parties to expand strikes on densely populated areas, complicating peace efforts and raising fears of a broader proxy conflict.

“On the battlefield, drones have emerged as a force multiplier, enabling ground offensives and weakening enemy defenses,” said Jalale Getachew Birru, East Africa senior analyst at the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.

Both the army and RSF use drones to secure contested territory, disrupt mobilization efforts and spread insecurity in areas controlled by rivals, he said.

At least 2,670 people, including combatants and civilians, were killed in 2025, marking a 600% increase in drone-related deaths and an 81% increase in drone attacks compared to the previous year, ACLED found.

Drone strikes by the warring parties have targeted civilian infrastructure including hospitals, dams, schools, markets and displacement camps.

Most of the civilian deaths in drone attacks have occurred in the Kordofan region in the central Sudan, according to Türk.

On May 8, drone strikes in South Kordofan and near the city of el-Obeid in North Kordofan reportedly killed 26 civilians. More than 70 people were killed in drone attacks on densely populated areas in Kordofan earlier this year, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.

On Tuesday, a Sudanese rights group, the Emergency Lawyers, said nine drone attacks on civilian vehicles had killed at least 36 people over the past 10 days across seven provinces.

The group blamed both the army and RSF and said some drones use visual monitoring technology capable of distinguishing targets, raising concerns that the attacks may not have been indiscriminate.

The paramilitary RFS began only last year to use drones widely, said Gabriella Tejeda, research associate at The Soufan Center.

The army and RSF are competing to obtain new drone models, particularly from China, but the RSF is modifying drones and “increasingly competing to acquire newer, more sophisticated models, with the UAE likely supplying them,” Tejeda said. The United Arab Emirates has denied supplying drones to the RSF.

Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, said the RSF is backed by external technology, particularly from the UAE, with satellite imagery showing its use of Chinese-made CH-95 and FH-95 drones that are roughly the size of small aircraft.

In areas such as el-Fasher city in North Darfur, where at least 6,000 people were killed over three days last year, RSF drones shut down communications of civilians “crying for help” and target them where a signal is detected, Raymond said.

The RSF couldn’t have seized the city without these capabilities, he added.

“The sophistication of how they use drones in el-Fasher is unique because it’s the first time you’ve seen this layered, hunter-killer concept of operations to kill people, basically in a kill box or trapped inside a wall, in this case to prevent them from crying for help,” Raymond said of the city, where U.N. experts said the violence indicated “hallmarks of genocide.”

The army’s drone technology has been blamed for striking civilian infrastructure such as Al Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur, where at least 64 people were killed. The army officially denied responsibility. Two military officials at the time, however, said the intended target was a nearby police station.

Raymond said there has been an “alarming increase” in army drone strikes on protected infrastructure such as schools and markets in the past four to six months. The army has maintained that it doesn’t target civilian infrastructure.

Last month, ACLED said the army’s drone technology is supplied by Turkey, Russia, Iran and Egypt, while the RSF is supplied via networks linked to the UAE through regional transit points including Ethiopia, Chad and Libya.

Earlier this month, the Sudanese government accused neighboring Ethiopia of being behind recent drone attacks on sites including the Khartoum airport. It accused the UAE of supplying the drones. Both countries denied the allegations.

″Ethiopia is a central partner to the UAE, so the allegations are not unfounded and reflects an attempt by the UAE to try to influence the outcome of the war,” Tejeda said.

Cross-border drone activity may have contributed to rising civilian deaths, but Birru and Raymond said that is difficult to confirm.

“Both the warring parties’ battle tempo only increasing, and their backers actively still investing in the war, makes it clear that neither side is interested in a resolution,” Tejeda said.

SYDNEY, May 16 (Reuters) – A man attacked by a shark off Western Australia’s coast on Saturday died of his injuries, police said, in what is the second fatal shark attack in Australia so far this year.

The 38-year-old victim, yet to be identified, was bitten on Saturday morning at Horseshoe Reef near Rottnest Island, about 31 km (19.2 miles) west of state capital Perth, police said in a statement.

The man was taken to shore but could not be revived, police said, adding that a report would be prepared for the coroner.

State authorities advised people to take extra caution in the water at Rottnest Island, a popular tourist destination.

Aerial footage from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation showed a police boat, police officers, and a rescue helicopter with a stretcher at the scene.

The attack follows the death in January of a boy bitten by a shark in Sydney Harbour, after a series of shark attacks along the country’s east coast.

Most shark attacks occur along the east and southeast seaboard of Australia, which averages around 20 such incidents a year, according to Australia’s Institute of Health and Welfare.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government is in turmoil and the man many think could save it isn’t even eligible for the job.

Not yet, at least, though a path is now open for Andy Burnham, the popular mayor of Greater Manchester, to try to unseat beleaguered Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

It’s far from a sure thing, as there would be big hurdles to clear.

Burnham would first need to return to Parliament, where he could then try to mount a challenge to Starmer’s leadership.

Starmer, who has vowed to lead on, has been on the ropes, facing plummeting approval ratings and questions about his judgment, and seeing the Labour Party take a beating in U.K.-wide local elections this month. One key Cabinet member has already resigned, and more than a fifth of the party’s lawmakers in the House of Commons are urging him to stand down.

Burnham, 56, is seen as Starmer’s biggest would-be rival, partly because he’s perceived to be to the political left of the prime minister.

The mayor is known as the “King of the North,” and his Labour backers will be hoping that moniker reaps rewards.

The allusion to the popular Jon Snow character in “Game of Thrones” is a sign of respect earned for Burnham’s fierce backing of northern England, its working class culture and heritage. It projects an image that he’s not part of the London political establishment. For many northerners, that counts for a lot.

His three sizable mayoral victories since 2017 show he can win elections.

But he hasn’t always. Burnham, who was in the Cabinet of Gordon Brown’s government from 2007 to 2010, ran twice for the leadership of the Labour Party and lost badly — first in 2010 and then in 2015. Looking back on those campaigns, he was pretty stiff.

Ending his 16-year tenure in Parliament yielded smoother speaking skills and a sleeker look. Suits and ties were largely replaced by a smart-casual look, often paired with sneakers.

That may seem superficial, but it broke down barriers with voters.

More importantly, his stint as mayor made him a more effective operator and, arguably, the best communicator in Labour’s ranks.

His standing grew during the COVID-19 pandemic when he became the de facto spokesman for northern England by constantly haranguing Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a “London-centric” approach to the crisis.

Burnham is ready to quit his job as mayor if he wins a special parliamentary election in the constituency of Makerfield, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Manchester.

His route back to the House of Commons opened up Thursday when Josh Simons, of the Labour Party, said he would step down to make way for Burnham. Though Burnham was blocked from running for a seat that came up earlier this year, Labour’s executive body said Friday that he could run in the special election, which is expected to take place in the next two months.

It will likely be a bruising battle in one of, if not, the most consequential special elections in U.K. history. Burnham acknowledged as much.

“I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times,” he said when announcing his intention to run.

Simons secured the seat by about 5,400 votes two years ago, but that was in Labour’s landslide victory of 2024 that swept Conservatives out after 14 years.

Times have changed dramatically, and Labour’s recent battering came at the hands of the ascendant anti-immigrant Reform UK party on the right and, to a lesser-extent, the eco-populist Greens on the left. All the wards in the Makerfield constituency were won by Reform in the local races.

Reform’s leader, Nigel Farage, said the party would “throw absolutely everything at it.”

Despite those results, Burnham can capitalize on his reputation as someone who gets things done, said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.

“Andy Burnham is a big name in the northwest. There will be a lot of people who would like to see him get back into Parliament, not least to take down Keir Starmer,” Bale said. “In some ways, it’s a useful test for Burnham because if he can’t beat Reform in that constituency, then quite frankly, he’s not much use to the Labour Party as leader.”

Labour has never ousted one of its leaders mid-term in government, but there is a process.

If Burnham can get a House of Commons seat, he would either have to trigger a leadership contest or join one. To do so, a member of Parliament needs the support of a fifth — or 81 — of Labour’s 403 members. Starmer, who has vowed to fight on, would automatically be entered to defend his position.

Wes Streeting had been expected to announce a bid for the top job Thursday after he resigned as Starmer’s health secretary and castigated his former boss for failing to offer effective solutions to the U.K.’s many problems. But he stopped short of that and, in what seemed to be a nod to Burnham, instead called for a “broad” field of candidates to debate the party’s future.

Streeting followed up Friday by endorsing Burnham, saying on X that Labour needs its “best players on the pitch.” He did not, however, say he wanted to see Burnham as prime minister.

If there is a leadership battle, both Burnham and Streeting could run. Others said to be considering doing so are former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, defense minister Al Carns and former party leader Ed Miliband.

For now, all permutations go through Makerfield and that result could have a seismic impact.

“Were Burnham to win the by-election, it’s unlikely that Keir Starmer will actually stand in that leadership contest,” Bale said. “If Burnham fails, then Starmer might feel he has a chance against Streeting and Rayner.”

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Associated Press writer Danica Kirka contributed to this story.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is gearing up for the release of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, a document expected to address artificial intelligence and insist on an ethics-based approach to the technology that prioritizes human dignity, social relationships and peace.

Vatican officials said Leo signed the document Friday, 135 years to the day after his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, signed his most important encyclical, “Rerum Novarum,” or Of New Things. That document addressed the rights of workers, the limits of capitalism and the obligations that states and employers owed workers as the Industrial Revolution was under way.

It became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope has already cited it in relation to the AI revolution, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago. The new encyclical is expected to place the AI question in the context of the church’s social teaching, which also covers issues such as labor, justice and peace.

“I think that the Catholic Church in many ways is going to be the adult in the room on some of these debates about how we are going to integrate AI into the rest of our society,” said Meghan Sullivan, a philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame who directs its ethics institute. “For sure, the pope is going to be one of the most forceful advocates for human dignity in these discussions.”

Just days after his 2025 election, Leo told the cardinals who made him pope that the Catholic Church owed it to the world to offer the “treasury of her social teaching” to confront the challenges posed by AI on “human dignity, justice and labor.”

The American pope, a math major who is known to spend time scrolling on his phone, will likely refer to the issue this weekend, since the Vatican on Sunday marks its social communications day with a message dedicated to the human cost of the AI race. In the message, released earlier this year, Leo warned of the need to preserve real human relationships in the face of chatbot “friends,” human genius in the face of AI-powered music and video, and human reality in the face of generative AI deepfakes.

The public release of the encyclical, expected in coming weeks, will likely become a new flashpoint between the Chicago-born Leo and the Trump administration, which has made the rapid development of AI a matter of vital national economic and security strategy. The U.S. has strongly rejected international regulatory efforts to rein in AI, and domestically, the Trump administration has removed bureaucratic roadblocks slowing its development.

The document was signed as U.S. President Donald Trump wrapped up a visit to China that included AI business. Traveling with Trump on Air Force One were, among others, Elon Musk, whose social media platform X features his AI chatbot Grok, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who recently secured federal approval to sell H200 AI chips to Chinese buyers.

Since the AI boom kicked off with ChatGPT’s debut, the technology’s breathtaking capabilities have amazed the world. Tech companies have raced to develop better AI systems even as experts warn of its risks, from existential but far-off threats like rogue AIs running out of control to everyday problems like bias in algorithmic hiring systems.

The United Nations last year adopted a new governance architecture to rein in AI after previous multilateral efforts, including AI summits organized by Britain, South Korea and France resulted only in nonbinding pledges. The EU in 2024 adopted its own Artificial Intelligence Act, applying a risk-based approach to its AI rules.

The Vatican has sought to add its voice to the debate, offering ethical guidelines for the application of AI in sectors from warfare to education and healthcare. The underlying call has been that the technology must be used as a tool to complement, and not replace, human intelligence.

The Vatican has also warned of the environmental impact of the AI race, recalling the “vast amounts of energy and water” needed for AI data centers and computational power.

“There are almost a billion and a half Catholics in the world, so that alone is reason to pay attention,” said Thomas Harmon, theology professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. “But beyond the numbers, the Catholic Church has a deep and sophisticated tradition of thinking through what it means to be human.”

The Vatican in 2020 enlisted tech companies to sign onto an AI pledge, known as the Rome Call for AI Ethics, which among other things boiled down some core principles for AI regulation, including inclusiveness, accountability, impartiality and privacy. Microsoft, IBM and Cisco were among the private sector companies that signed on.

In his final years, Pope Francis called for an international treaty to regulate AI, saying the risks of technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness were too great to merely trust in the morality of AI researchers and developers.

He also brought his authority to bear on the Group of Seven, addressing a special session on the perils and promises of AI in 2024. There, Francis said politicians must take the lead in making sure AI remains human-centric, so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans. He called ultimately for a ban on the use of lethal autonomous weapons, colloquially known as “killer robots.”

In-house, Leo has warned priests against using AI to write their homilies, but he has also raised his voice on the broader implications of AI on world peace, labor and the very meaning of reality.

For the Augustinian pope, generative AI’s ability to misinform and deceive through deepfake imagery is particularly worrisome, given that the search for truth is a fundamental element of his religious order’s spirituality.

In a June 2025 speech to an AI conference, Leo acknowledged generative AI’s contributions to healthcare and scientific discovery. But he questioned “its possible repercussions on humanity’s openness to truth and beauty, on our distinctive ability to grasp reality.”

Leo, who has emphasized a constant appeal for peace, has also called for monitoring how AI is being used and developed in warfare in the Middle East and Ukraine, where automated weapons systems are using everything from aerial drones and maritime and ground platforms.

“What is happening in Ukraine, in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon and in Iran illustrates the inhuman evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation,” he said this past week at La Sapienza, Europe’s largest university.

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AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed from Providence, R.I.

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