VATICAN CITY (AP) — Peru’s ambassador to the Holy See publicly invited Pope Leo XIV to visit his second homeland on Saturday, as 2026 is shaping up to be an important year for the pontiff's travel with big trips under study for Africa and South America.
In recent days, the president of Equatorial Guinea and the Vatican ambassador in Angola have both confirmed that plans are underway for a papal trip this year, on top of rumored stops in Cameroon and Algeria. No dates have been announced but Vatican officials say the four-country Africa visit would likely take place sometime after Easter.
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Nuns take photos of statue of the Virgin Mary that was inaugurated by pope Leo XIV in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV blesses a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Rose of Lima in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV blesses a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Rose of Lima in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to bless a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Rose of Lima in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to bless a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Rose of Lima in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Leo himself has said he wants his second trip as pope to be in Africa, especially Algeria, which has special significance for Leo’s Augustinian religious order. Algeria also plays an important role in Christian-Muslim relations that the Vatican is keen to highlight.
Leo has also said he hoped to visit three countries in Latin America in either 2026 or 2027: Argentina, Uruguay and Peru, where he lived for two decades as a missionary and where he holds citizenship. Argentina especially has been waiting for a papal visit, after Pope Francis never went home after his 2013 election.
On Saturday, Peru’s new ambassador to the Vatican, Jorge Ponce San Roman, publicly invited Leo to visit during a ceremony in the Vatican gardens to inaugurate a new mosaic and statue dedicated to the Virgin Mary that Peru sponsored.
With all Peru’s bishops on hand, Ponce said he and his fellow citizens “hoped to see you very soon in Peru.”
Leo didn’t respond but in his brief remarks at the ceremony recalled Peru was “such a beloved country to me.”
In a break with usual protocol, Leo then stayed for a buffet lunch that the Peruvian Embassy organized for the invited diplomats and Vatican officials in the gardens. For around an hour, Leo sat with Ponce and the Peruvian bishops in a shady, hidden spot back where the caterers were preparing pisco sour cocktails and plates of ravioli with huancaina, the typical Peruvian creamy sauce.
Despite an occasional rain, the party had a joyful, relaxed vibe and Leo's prolonged presence suggested he feels very much at home with his fellow Peruvians.
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.
Nuns take photos of statue of the Virgin Mary that was inaugurated by pope Leo XIV in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV blesses a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Rose of Lima in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV blesses a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Rose of Lima in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to bless a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Rose of Lima in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to bless a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Rose of Lima in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
NEW YORK (AP) — A huge new tranche of files on millionaire financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has revealed details of his communications with the wealthy and powerful, some not long before he died by suicide in 2019.
The Justice Department said it was disclosing more than 3 million pages of documents, as well as thousands of videos and photos, as required by a law passed by Congress. By Friday evening, more than 600,000 documents had been published online. Millions of files that prosecutors had identified as potentially subject to release under the law remain under wraps, however, drawing criticism from Democrats.
The Latest:
Harvard University’s review determined that the convicted sex offender visited campus more than 40 times and had unfettered access to the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, a research center Nowak created in 2003 with $6.5 million from Epstein.
The review also found in 2020 that Harvard accepted more than $9 million from Epstein during the decade leading up to his conviction but barred him from making further donations after that point.
The review done at the request of the university’s president also found that about $200,000 of Epstein’s money had not been spent, and would be given to groups that support victims of sexual violence.
Nowak gave Epstein an office at the program’s building in Harvard Square, the review found, and circumvented campus security rules to grant the financier a key card and “unlimited” access to the facility. Epstein frequently visited Office 610, which was known as “Jeffrey’s Office,” and met with scholars to hear about their work, the review found.
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Epstein gave millions of dollars to research projects associated with Martin Nowak, a Harvard University math professor. In a 2018 email, Epstein assistant Lesley Groff asked someone about a missing key card for Nowak’s office.
“We can’t find it. ... it is kept in my office drawer and it is not there...do you happen to know where it is?” Groff asked. The email recipient is redacted.
In 2021, Harvard barred Nowak from starting new research or advising students for at least two years because of his ties to Epstein after the financier’s 2008 sex crimes conviction. An investigation determined that Nowak gave Epstein an office in his campus research center, along with a building key card.
At the time, Nowak said he regretted the connection between Harvard and Epstein “and the hurt that it has caused.”
Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019, and found dead in his cell just over a month later.
The latest batch of documents includes emails between investigators about Epstein’s death, including an investigator’s observation that his final communication doesn’t look like a suicide note. Multiple investigations have determined that Epstein’s death was a suicide.
The records also detail a trick that jail staffers used to fool the media gathered outside while Epstein’s body was removed: they used boxes and sheets to create what appeared to be a body and loaded it into a white van labeled as belonging to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
The reporters followed the van when it left the jail, not knowing that Epstein’s actual body was loaded into a black vehicle, which departed “unnoticed,” according to the interview notes.
Billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk emailed Epstein in 2012 and 2013 about visiting his infamous island compound, the scene of many allegations of sexual abuse.
Epstein inquired in an email about how many people Musk would like flown by helicopter, and Musk responded that it would likely be just him and his partner at the time. “What day/night will be the wildest party on =our island?” he wrote, according to the Justice Department records.
It’s not immediately clear if the island visits took place. Spokespersons for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday.
Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures. “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” he posted on X in 2025
Epstein also invited Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to the island in Dec. 2012. Lutnick’s wife enthusiastically accepted the invitation and said they would arrive on a yacht with their children. The two also had drinks on another occasion in 2011, according to a schedule. Six years later, they e-mailed about the construction of a building across the street from both of their homes.
Lutnick has distanced himself from Epstein, calling him “gross” and saying in 2025 that he cut ties decades ago. He didn’t respond to an e-mailed request for comment on Friday afternoon.
The documents show Epstein exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with Steve Bannon, a top adviser to President Donald Trump, some months before Epstein’s death.
They discussed politics, travel and a documentary Bannon was said to be planning that would help salvage Epstein’s reputation.
In March 2019, Bannon asked Epstein if he could supply his plane to pick him up in Rome.
A couple of months later, Epstein messaged to Bannon, “Now you can understand why trump wakes up in the middle of the night sweating when he hears you and I are friends.”
The context is unclear from the documents, which were released with many redactions and little clear organization.
Another 2018 exchange focused on Trump’s threats at the time to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he had named to the post just the year prior.
Around the same time, Epstein also communicated with Kathy Ruemmler, a lawyer and former Obama White House official. In a typo-filled email, he warned that Democrats should stop demonizing Trump as a Mafia-type figure even as he derided the president as a “maniac.”
Bannon did not immediately respond to a message from the AP seeking comment. Ruemmler said through a spokesperson she was associated with Epstein professionally during her time as a lawyer in private practice and now “regrets ever knowing him.”
Compiling accurate and thorough information takes time. A team of AP reporters is working to confirm information regarding Jeffrey Epstein that the Justice Department is continuing to release in batches.
These standards guide our reporting process:
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An email that was included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files is photographed Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, and shows the cell where Epstein was found unresponsive. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche answers a question during a news conference after the Justice Department announced the release of three million pages of documents in the latest Jeffrey Epstein disclosure in Washington, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - Documents that were included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files are photographed Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, File)
A document included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files is photographed Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, that illustrates several people who handled Epstein's financial affairs or who were close to him (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
