INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings traded cornerback Mekhi Blackmon to Indianapolis for a sixth-round draft pick on Monday night, giving the Colts another addition to the injury-depleted position group a week after they signed veteran Xavien Howard.
Completion of the deal was pending a physical for Blackmon, who was a third-round draft pick by the Vikings in 2023. He made three starts and had seven pass breakups with one interception and one fumble recovery that season, with a coverage grade by Pro Football Focus that was the third-highest among NFL rookies. But the 5-foot-11, 178-pounder tore his ACL on the first day of training camp last year.
Blackmon was solidly on the second team during camp with the Vikings this year, behind Byron Murphy Jr. and free agent newcomers Isaiah Rodgers and Jeff Okudah. Blackmon played extensively in all three of Minnesota's preseason games as the coaching staff continued to evaluate his progress and fit in the defense.
Howard, a four-time Pro Bowl pick who went unsigned in 2024 and did not play in the league, has landed atop the depth chart at cornerback for now in Indianapolis opposite fellow veteran Charvarius Ward.
Primary nickel back Kenny Moore II left practice on Aug. 10 with an injured right knee and still has not returned. Two other key players at the position, Jaylon Jones and JuJu Brents, still are recovering from hamstring injuries they suffered on July 29. Jones started every game for the Colts last season. Rookie Justin Walley, a third-round draft pick who was in the mix for a starting spot, tore his ACL during a joint practice against Baltimore earlier this month.
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New England Patriots wide receiver Efton Chism III (86) avoids a tackle from Minnesota Vikings safety Jay Ward, right, and cornerback Mekhi Blackmon (5) to score a touchdown during the first half of a preseason NFL football game Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Tennessee Titans running back Julius Chestnut (36) is tackled by Minnesota Vikings cornerback Mekhi Blackmon (5) during the first half of a preseason NFL football game, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — In his most substantial critique of U.S., Russian and other military incursions in sovereign countries, Pope Leo XIV on Friday denounced how nations were using force to assert their dominion worldwide, “completely undermining” peace and the post-World War II international legal order.
“War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading,” Leo told ambassadors from around the world who represent their countries’ interests at the Holy See.
Leo didn’t name individual countries that have resorted to force in his lengthy speech, the bulk of which he delivered in English in a break from the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic protocol of Italian and French. But his speech came amid the backdrop of the recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela to remove Nicolás Maduro from power, Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and other conflicts.
The occasion was the pope’s annual audience with the Vatican diplomatic corps, which traditionally amounts to his yearly foreign policy address.
In his first such encounter, history’s first U.S.-born pope delivered much more than the traditional roundup of global hotspots. In a speech that touched on threats to religious freedom and the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion and surrogacy, Leo lamented how the United Nations and multilateralism as a whole were increasingly under threat.
“A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies,” he said. “The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.”
“Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion. This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence,” he said.
Leo did refer explicitly to tensions in Venezuela, calling for a peaceful political solution that keeps in mind the “common good of the peoples and not the defense of partisan interests.”
The U.S. military seized Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, in a surprise nighttime raid. The Trump administration is now seeking to control Venezuela’s oil resources and its government. The U.S. government has insisted Maduro's capture was legal, saying drug cartels operating from Venezuela amounted to unlawful combatants and that the U.S. is now in an “armed conflict” with them.
Analysts and some world leaders have condemned the Venezuela mission, warning that Maduro’s ouster could pave the way for more military interventions and a further erosion of the global legal order.
On Ukraine, Leo repeated his appeal for an immediate ceasefire and urgently called for the international community “not to waver in its commitment to pursuing just and lasting solutions that will protect the most vulnerable and restore hope to the afflicted peoples.”
On Gaza, Leo repeated the Holy See’s call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and insisted on the Palestinians’ right to live in Gaza and the West Bank “in their own land.”
In other comments, Leo said the persecution of Christians around the world was “one of the most widespread human rights crises today,” affecting one in seven Christians globally. He cited religiously motivated violence in Bangladesh, Nigeria, the Sahel, Mozambique and Syria but said religious discrimination was also present in Europe and the Americas.
There, Christians “are sometimes restricted in their ability to proclaim the truths of the Gospel for political or ideological reasons, especially when they defend the dignity of the weakest, the unborn, refugees and migrants, or promote the family.”
Leo repeated the church’s opposition to abortion and euthanasia and expressed “deep concern” about projects to provide cross-border access to mothers seeking abortion.
He also described surrogacy as a threat to life and dignity. “By transforming gestation into a negotiable service, this violates the dignity both of the child, who is reduced to a product, and of the mother, exploiting her body and the generative process, and distorting the original relational calling of the family,” he said.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
