World News at a Glance

For Pope Francis, Fake News Goes Back to the Garden of Eden

The serpent in the Garden of Eden hissed the first fake news to Eve and it all went downhill from there, Pope Francis writes in a major document about the phenomenon of fake news. “We need to unmask what could be called the ‘snake-tactics’ used by those who disguise themselves in order to strike at any time and place,” the pope writes in a message ahead of what the church has designated as its World Day of Social Communications, in May. He offered a largely cleareyed assessment of the problem, its social impact, and the responsibility of social media giants and journalists.

Deadly ISIS Attack Hits Save the Children in Afghanistan

Five Islamic State gunmen stormed the Save the Children office in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad after an explosion on Wednesday, killing five people and wounding dozens in a 10-hour siege, officials said. The assailants were killed. Save the Children, a global charity that provides aid in 120 countries, said it had suspended all Afghanistan operations. It had been working in 16 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, reaching more than 700,000 children. The Islamic State’s local affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group’s Amaq news agency.

Britain’s ‘Most Un-PC’ Charity Will Shut Down

An organization that has run an all-male, black-tie charity dinner in London announced Wednesday it would hand out its remaining funds and then shut down, a day after an undercover investigation by The Financial Times revealed that participants in the dinner groped, harassed and propositioned young women hired as servers. The British establishment’s reaction to the scandal was severe and immediate, a reflection of the reckoning for many powerful men around the world following revelations of sexual misconduct by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Cell Behind Barcelona Attack May Have Had Sights on Eiffel Tower

In the weeks before they carried out an attack in the Spanish city of Barcelona last summer, a cell of jihadis inspired by the Islamic State traveled repeatedly to France, where they bought a camera and recorded footage of the Eiffel Tower. That video, as well as the stunning quantity of precursor chemicals used to make explosives which were recovered from the safe house they used, has led experts to conclude that the terrorists were plotting something larger. The materials they left behind suggest that their plan involved packing vans with explosives and attacking targets not just in Spain, where the group killed 16 people in August, but also possibly in France.

Upending Brazil’s Presidential Race, Court Upholds Former Leader’s Conviction

An appeals court in southern Brazil on Wednesday upheld a corruption conviction against the former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, dealing a significant blow to his quest to win a third term. The ruling was a victory for prosecutors in what may be the highest-stakes case in the yearslong showdown between Brazil’s judiciary and the political elite. Prosecutors have portrayed da Silva as a linchpin of Brazil’s endemically corrupt political system. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel adds fresh uncertainty to the deeply polarized race to replace President Michel Temer next year.

Trump Sharply Warns Turkey Against Military Strikes in Syria

Simmering tensions between Turkey and the United States spilled into the open Wednesday as President Donald Trump warned President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against the growing risk of conflict between the two nations. The Turkish president, for his part, demanded that the United States end its support for Kurdish militias. The two men spoke by telephone as Turkish forces attacked Kurdish militias in Syria. U.S. officials said they were increasingly uneasy that the campaign against the Islamic State would be seriously undermined by the newest battlefront in a country that has been ravaged by war for nearly seven years.