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  • ‘Aura farming:’ Pope Leo’s Middle East debut ignites hope — and memes


‘Aura farming:’ Pope Leo’s Middle East debut ignites hope — and memes

The unique blend of American approachability and ancient tradition has sent interest in the new pope skyrocketing. (AFP/File)
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Updated 28 November 2025
Arab News
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‘Aura farming:’ Pope Leo’s Middle East debut ignites hope — and memes

  • During the ceremony, he belted out ‘Merhaba Asker!’ (‘Greetings, soldiers!’) in Turkish alongside President Erdogan
  • People online praised the pope’s first-ever foreign visit as a message of ‘unity and deep peace’
Updated 28 November 2025
Arab News

LONDON: Pope Leo XIV’s first-ever foreign visit since becoming pontiff has been marked by messages of hope — and memes.

Leo, who succeeded Pope Francis in May, becoming the first American to be elected to the highest role in Catholic Christianity, arrived in Turkiye on Thursday, before making his way to Lebanon on Sunday.

Shouts of “Papa Leo” and “Viva il Papa” (“Long live the pope”) erupted along with cheering and clapping, inside and outside Istanbul’s Cathedral of the Holy Spirit as Leo arrived to begin his first full day in Turkiye on Friday.

But on social media, the reaction was less about theology and more about “aura.”

In the clip, Leo confidently walks past the soldiers, accompanied by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and belts out a crisp, booming, “Merhaba Asker!” (“Greetings, soldiers!”) in Turkish.

Gen Z users immediately labeled the moment as “aura farming,” internet slang for someone who exudes effortless power or charisma.

“You can’t convince me this wasn’t on purpose,” said one user on X, pointing out how visibly happy he seemed to be to pull it off.

“His lil turn. He’s so cool,” said another user on Instagram.

Another account joked about how the pope must have prepared for the moment by taking Turkish language lessons: “When your Duolingo Turkish finally pays off.”

Beyond the viral clips, the visit carried deep spiritual weight. Leo is also honoring the promises made by his predecessor, Francis, to visit both countries.

Francis had planned to visit Lebanon in 2022 and Turkiye at some point in 2025 to commemorate an important church anniversary, but both trips were postponed for health reasons.

On Friday, Leo also visited Iznik (ancient Nicaea) to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, a move celebrated by Orthodox and Catholic communities alike as a historic step toward healing ancient rifts.

Paying tribute to the historical event, people called Leo’s meeting with the local Christian community, which numbers about 25,000 in a country of over 80 million people, the majority Sunni Muslim, a “moment of unity, simplicity, and deep peace. Truly unforgettable to witness this in my own city.”

The first American pope is embarking on his first trip during the US Thanksgiving holiday, a time when gratitude, togetherness and peace come to the fore.

Before his flight took off from Rome on Thursday, Leo wished a Happy Thanksgiving to American journalists aboard the papal plane bound for Ankara.

“To the Americans: Happy Thanksgiving!” he said, joking that he would miss the turkey but hoped for some pumpkin pie. He got his wish: Journalists on board presented him with two homemade pies, which he promised to share with his staff.

During the occasion, CBS News correspondent Chris Livesay, who is traveling with Leo in Turkiye, surprised the pontiff with a baseball bat formerly owned by Nellie Fox, legendary player for the Chicago White Sox, the team of the city where the pope grew up.

“He asked me how the heck I managed to get that thing through security,” Livesay said during his broadcast for CBS, noting the pontiff was visibly amused and “very grateful” at the sight of the Louisville Slugger.

The unique blend of American approachability and ancient tradition has sent interest in the new pope skyrocketing.

Data from Google Trends suggests Leo is on track to become a contender for “Most Googled Person of the Year” for 2025, surpassing political figures and pop stars. Betting markets and search analysts have noted a massive spike in global curiosity since his election in May, with this Middle East tour serving as his first major introduction to the non-Western world.

As he prepares to depart for Lebanon on Sunday, where he will meet with leaders in a country facing deep economic and political crises, the world is watching closely.

Topics: Pope Leo XIV Turkiye Lebanon

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Disinformation the new enemy in disaster zones, says Red Cross

Updated 05 March 2026
AFP
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Disinformation the new enemy in disaster zones, says Red Cross

  • “Harmful information and dehumanizing narratives” undermines humanitarian aid and putting lives of aid workers at risk
  • Between 2020 and 2024, disasters affected nearly 700 million people, displaced over 105 million, and killed more than 270,000 — doubling the number in need of humanitarian aid
Updated 05 March 2026
AFP

GENEVA: The rise of disinformation is undermining humanitarian aid and putting lives at risk, while disasters are affecting ever more people, the Red Cross warned Thursday.
“Between 2020 and 2024, disasters affected nearly 700 million people, caused more than 105 million displacements, and claimed over 270,000 lives,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
The number of people needing humanitarian assistance more than doubled in the same timeframe, the IFRC said in its World Disasters Report 2026.
But the world’s largest humanitarian network said that “harmful information and dehumanizing narratives” were increasingly undermining trust, putting the lives of aid workers at risk.
“In polarized and politically-charged contexts, humanitarian principles such as neutrality and impartiality are increasingly misunderstood, misrepresented or deliberately attacked online,” it said.
The IFRC has more than 17 million volunteers across more than 191 countries.
“In every crisis I have witnessed, information is as essential as food, water and shelter,” said the Geneva-based federation’s secretary general Jagan Chapagain.
“But when information is false, misleading or deliberately manipulated, it can deepen fear, obstruct humanitarian access and cost lives.”
He said harmful information was not a new phenomenon, but it was now moving “with unprecedented speed and reach.”
Chapagain said digital platforms were proving “fertile ground for lies.”
The IFRC report said the challenge nowadays was no longer about the availability of information but its reliability, noting that the production and spread of disinformation was easily amplified by artificial intelligence.

- ‘Life and death’ -

The report cited numerous recent examples of harmful information hampering crisis response.
During the 2024 floods in Valencia, false narratives online accused the Spanish Red Cross of diverting aid to migrants, which in turn fueled “xenophobic attacks on volunteers,” the IFRC said.
In South Sudan, rumors that humanitarian agencies were distributing poisoned food “caused people to avoid life-saving aid” and led to threats against Red Cross staff.
In Lebanon, false claims that volunteers were spreading Covid-19, favoring certain groups with aid and providing unsafe cholera vaccines eroded trust and endangered vulnerable communities, the IFRC said.
And in Bangladesh, during political unrest, volunteers faced “widespread accusations of inaction and political alignment,” leading to harassment and reputational damage, it added.
Similar events were registered by the IFRC in Sudan, Myanmar, Peru, the United States, New Zealand, Canada, Kenya and Bulgaria.
The report underlined that around 94 percent of disasters were handled by national authorities and local communities, without international interventions.
“However, while volunteers, local leaders and community media are often the most trusted messengers, they operate in increasingly hostile and polarized information environments,” the IFRC said.
The federation called on governments, tech firms, humanitarian agencies and local actors to recognize that reliable information “is a matter of life and death.”
“Without trust, people are less likely to prepare, seek help or follow life-saving guidance; with it, communities act together, absorb shocks and recover more effectively,” said Chapagain.
The organization urged technology platforms to prioritize authoritative information from trusted sources in crisis contexts, and transparently moderate harmful content.
And it said humanitarian agencies needed to make preparing to deal with disinformation “a core function” of their operations, with trained teams and analytics.

Topics: disinformation Red Cross World Disasters Report humanitarian aid

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