World
Ledecky seals GOAT status, USA break world record in Olympic swimming pool
Already rated one of swimming’s all-time greats coming into the Paris Olympics, Katie Ledecky made it official by storming to victory in her signature event, the 800-metre freestyle, to end her work in the French capital in great style.
French torpedo Leon Marchand may be the prince of Paris, electrifying the home nation with four spectacular gold medals, but it is Ledecky writing her name in the record books after she claimed her ninth gold, equalling Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most by any woman in any Olympic sport.
In sharp contrast to Ledecky’s runaway win in the 1,500-metre, the 800-metre freestyle on Saturday was a thriller from start to finish, with Ariarne Titmus matching her stroke-for-stroke for almost the entire distance.
But with the American setting a relentless, grinding pace, her great Australian rival would never get her nose in front, settling for silver as Ledecky got to the wall first in a time of 8 minutes, 11.04 seconds.
Paige Madden took bronze for the United States.
It is the fourth time Ledecky has won the 800-metre freestyle and she joins compatriot Michael Phelps as the only swimmer to win gold in four different Olympics.
The 800-metre was the final event on Ledecky’s Paris card and she returns home having added two golds, a silver and a bronze, bringing her Olympic stockpile to 14 medals in all – with more possible. The 27-year-old has hinted that a home Olympics in Los Angeles in four years is on her mind.
And in a passing of the baton moment, Canada’s Summer McIntosh enhanced her status as the rising star of women’s swimming by winning her third gold medal of the games in the 200-metre individual medley.
The 17-year-old produced a brilliant late surge to win in a time of 2min 06.56sec, the third-fastest time in history.
Kate Douglass of the USA finished second to take silver while Australian Kaylee McKeown took the bronze after American Alex Walsh, who had finished third, was disqualified.
McIntosh had already claimed gold in the 400-metre individual medley and the 200-metre butterfly, as well as a silver in the 400-metre freestyle.
“It’s pretty surreal. I’m just so proud of myself, how I’ve been able to recover and manage the events because it is a lot,” said the teenager, who also won silver in the 400-metre freestyle during what has been an intense games for her.
“The reason I’m able to do this just because of all the hard work and dedication I’ve given to this moment along with all my family and my teammates and my coaches, and I’ve also worked so hard for me to be here today,” she said.
The Canadian said she knew that she had to pull out all the stops to secure her latest win.
Earlier, Hungarian powerhouse Kristof Milak stormed to a second Olympic gold with victory in a thrilling men’s 100-metre butterfly final, while adding to the silver medal he won in the 200-metre event at the Paris Games.
Three years after claiming the 200-metre gold at Tokyo, the 24-year-old secured the shorter of the two Olympic butterfly titles by touching the wall in 49.90, 0.09 seconds ahead of Canadian runner-up Josh Liendo.
Ilya Kharun grabbed a second bronze for Canada, having also taken one in the 200-metre butterfly in Paris.
Now boasting four Olympic medals, Milak gave Hungary a second gold in the Paris meet following Hubert Kos’s 200-metre backstroke title.
In the final race of the night in the pool, the United States broke the world record in winning the 4×100-metre mixed medley relay gold, outgunning China and Australia.
Their team of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske touched in 3min 37.43sec to narrowly better the mark set by Britain at the Tokyo Games, when the event was first added to the Olympic programme.
China’s Zhang Yufei took silver in 3:37.55, with Australia filling the podium in 3:38.76.
It is only the second world record in the pool in Paris after China’s Pan Zhanle smashed the men’s 100-metre freestyle best.
Teams in the mixed medley comprise two women and two men, with each of the four swimmers allocated to one of the four traditional medley strokes – backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
The United States chose to lead off with Murphy up against China’s Xu Jiayu, while Australia opted for Kaylee McKeown.
Both Fink and Walsh then swam storming legs before Huske brought it home with China’s Yang Junxuan and Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan in hot pursuit.
Shops and schools shut in northern Israel as residents protested a 10-day ceasefire with Lebanon that took effect on April 16, saying “nothing was achieved”. Israeli officials say operations may continue, with forces still deployed inside southern Lebanon.
Published On 19 Apr 2026
World
Pope Leo says remarks about world being ‘ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ were not aimed at Trump: report
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Pope Leo XIV said Saturday that remarks he made this week in which he said the “world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants” were not directed at President Donald Trump, a report said.
The pope, speaking onboard a flight to Angola during his 10-day tour of Africa, said reporting about his comments “has not been accurate in all its aspects” and his speech “was prepared two weeks ago, well before the president ever commented on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting,” according to Reuters.
The news outlet cited the pope as saying his comments were not aimed at Trump.
“As it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate the president, which is not in my interest at all,” the pope reportedly said.
’60 MINUTES’ ACCUSED OF USING LEFT-LEANING CARDINALS TO BAIT TRUMP INTO FEUD WITH VATICAN
Pope Leo XIV answers journalists’ questions during his flight from Yaoundé, Cameroon, to Luanda, Angola, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (Luca Zennaro/Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance later took to X to thank the pope for clearing the record.
“While the media narrative constantly gins up conflict — and yes, real disagreements have happened and will happen — the reality is often much more complicated,” Vance wrote. “Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should, and that will inevitably mean he offers his opinions on the moral issues of the day.
“The President — and the entire administration — work to apply those moral principles in a messy world,” he continued. “He will be in our prayers, and I hope that we’ll be in his.”
The vice president’s comments came days after he told Fox News’ Bret Baier on “Special Report” that it would be best for the Vatican to “stick to matters of morality.”
“Let the President of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance said Tuesday.
Trump last Sunday accused Pope Leo XIV of being “terrible” on foreign policy after the pontiff criticized the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
“He talks about ‘fear’ of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
POPE LEO SLAMS THOSE WHO ‘MANIPULATE RELIGION’ FOR MILITARY OR POLITICAL GAIN, TRUMP RESPONDS
Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump (Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images; Salwan Georges/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
During a speech in Cameroon on Thursday, the pope said, “We must make a decisive change of course — a true conversion — that will lead us in the opposite direction, onto a sustainable path rich in human fraternity.
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.
Pope Leo XIV speaks as he meets with the community of Bamenda at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda on the fourth day of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa April 16, 2026. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
Bulgarians headed to the polls Sunday for the eighth time in five years, with anti-corruption candidate and former president Rumen Radev’s bloc tipped to win.
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The European Union’s poorest member has been through a spate of governments since 2021, when large anti-graft rallies brought an end to the conservative government of long-time leader Boyko Borissov.
Eurostat data shows Bulgaria consistently ranks last in the EU by GDP per capita. In 2025, Bulgaria (along with Greece) was at 68% of the EU average.
Radev, who has advocated for renewing ties with Russia and opposes military aid to Ukraine, was president for nine years in the Balkan nation of 6.5 million people.
He stepped down in January to lead newly formed centre-left grouping Progressive Bulgaria, with opinion polls before Sunday’s vote suggesting the bloc could gain 35% of the vote.
The former air force general has said he wants to rid the country of its “oligarchic governance model”, and backed anti-corruption protests in late 2025 that brought down the latest conservative-backed government.
“I’m voting for change,” Decho Kostadinov, 57, told reporters after casting his ballot at a polling station in the capital, Sofia, adding corrupt politicians “should leave — they should take whatever they’ve stolen and get out of Bulgaria”.
Polls are forecasting a surge in voter participation, with more than 3.3 million Bulgarians expected to cast ballots according to the Bulgarian News Agency.
Voting will close at 1700 GMT, with exit polls expected immediately afterwards. Preliminary results are expected on Monday.
‘Preserve what we have’
Borissov’s pro-European GERB party is likely to come second, according to opinion polls, with around 20%, ahead of the liberal PP-DB.
“I’m voting to preserve what we have. We are a democratic country, we live well,” said Elena, an accountant of about 60, who did not give her full name, after casting her vote in Sofia.
Front-runner Radev has slammed the EU’s green energy policy, which he considers naive “in a world without rules”.
He also opposes any Bulgarian efforts to send arms to help Ukraine fight back Russia’s 2022 invasion, though he has said he would not use his country’s veto to block Brussels’ decisions.
Pushing for renewed ties with Russia, Radev denounced a 10-year defence agreement between Bulgaria and Ukraine signed last month – drawing fresh accusations from opponents of being too soft on Moscow.
The ex-president also stoked outrage online for screening images at his final campaign rally of his meetings with world leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“We need to close ranks,” he told around 10,000 cheering supporters at the rally, presenting his party as a non-corrupt “alternative to the perverse cartel of old-style parties”.
Borissov, who headed the country virtually uninterrupted for close to a decade, has dismissed suggestions that Radev brings something “new”.
At a rally of his party earlier this week, he insisted GERB had “fulfilled the dreams of the 1990s” with such achievements as the country joining the eurozone this year.
‘No one to vote for’
Radev is aiming for an absolute majority in the 240-seat parliament.
A lack of trust in politics has affected voter turnout, which slumped to 39% in the last election in 2024.
But with Radev rallying voters, high turnout is expected this time, according to analyst Boryana Dimitrova from the Alpha Research polling institute.
Miglena Boyadjieva, a taxi driver of about 55, said she always votes, but the “problem is that there is no one to vote for”.
“You vote for one person and get others. The system has to change,” she told reporters.
Political parties have called on Bulgarians to show up for the polls, also to curb the impact of vote buying.
In recent weeks, police have seized more than one million euros in raids against vote buying in stepped-up operations.
They have also detained hundreds of people, including local councillors and mayors.
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