The BBC is to cut as many as 2,000 jobs in the biggest downsizing of the public service broadcaster in 15 years.

Staff were informed of the cuts, which will affect about 10 percent of the BBC’s 21,500 employees, at an all-staff meeting on Wednesday afternoon, the Guardian UK reported yesterday.

The round of job losses, the biggest at the BBC since 2011, is being set in motion before the former top Google executive Matt Brittin takes over as director general next month.

The corporation announced a £600 million cost-cutting plan in February, saying that it would involve a reduction in headcount and the end of some programming.

Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, said at the time that the BBC would need to cut 10 per cent of its approximately £6 billion annual cost base over the next three years.

Davie left the BBC on April 2, having announced his resignation in November after controversy over coverage of issues including Donald Trump, Gaza and trans rights.

US 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.

AFP reported that the image posted on 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 Sunday and removed Monday.Asked about the post, 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 post generated an outcry from several prominent conservative Christians who are among Trump’s biggest backers.

“I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,” Megan Basham, a conservative journalist and commentator wrote on X.

President Donald Trump on Sunday blasted Pope Leo XIV over the Roman Catholic pontiff’s criticism of the U.S. war with Iran.

In reaction Monday Pope Leo XIV on Monday said, ” I no intention to debate” with Donald Trump on the US-Iran war.

“I am not a politician,” the pope told reporters aboard the papal plane as they headed to Algeria for the pontiff’s first visit to Africa.

“I have no intention to debate with (Trump). The message is the same: to promote peace”, Pope emphasised.

President said in a Truth Social post he does not “want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do.”

Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, and other church leaders have also at times been sharply critical of Trump’s domestic immigration policies.

Trump linked the pope’s ascension to his return to office as president.“Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise,” Trump said.

“He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”

Trump said Leo is “Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons, does not sit well with me, nor does the fact that he meets with Obama Sympathizers like David Axelrod, a LOSER from the Left, who is one of those who wanted churchgoers and clerics to be arrested,” referring to a recent meeting between the pope and President Barack Obama’s former political aide.