U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday deleted a social media image apparently depicting him as Jesus after an outcry from religious leaders that he was being blasphemous.

The image posted on Mr. Trump’s Truth Social platform showed him in flowing red and white robes, touching the forehead of what appeared to be a sick man and with light shining from his hand and head.

An American flag waved in the background while various figures gazed up at the president in reverence.

The AI picture was posted late on Sunday and removed on Monday.

Asked about the post, Mr. Trump denied that he was trying to look like Jesus Christ.

“I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do Red Cross,” he told journalists. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”

The Israeli military said on Monday (April 13, 2026) its troops had completely surrounded a key town in southern Lebanon after killing more than 100 Hezbollah fighters there over the past week.

The announcement marks a significant advance in Israel’s ongoing invasion of southern Lebanon.

“The forces of the 98th Division have completed the encirclement of the town of Bint Jbeil and have begun an assault on it,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee said on X.

Over the past week, Israeli forces have killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters in and around the town in “face-to-face” clashes and with air strikes, he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting that since Sunday the fighting in southern Lebanon had been “concentrated” in Bint Jbeil.

“The fighting continues. It has not stopped — it is ongoing all the time. Yesterday and today it has been concentrated in Bint Jbeil,” he said, according to a video statement released by his office on Monday (April 13, 2026).

Mr. Netanyahu said that Israeli troops were pushing Hezbollah fighters away from the border.

“We are talking about a solid security belt, deeper than before, one that prevents the danger of infiltration and pushes back the anti-tank threat,” he said.

“They are also dealing with the terror villages that were right up against us — every terror position, and there were many, has simply been flattened.”

The Iran-backed Hezbollah said it has been engaged for days in clashes with Israeli forces in Bint Jbeil. — AFP

U.S. President Donald Trump forcefully criticized Pope Leo late on Sunday in ‌an unusual, direct attack on the leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church that drew immediate rebuke from believers. 

The President, in an apparent response to the pope’s growing criticisms of the ⁠U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies, said Leo was “terrible”. 

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. 

Catholics on social media quickly lambasted Mr. Trump for attacking the leader ‌of their Church, who they believe is the successor of St. Peter, one of Jesus’ 12 apostles. 

-Reuters