Catholics on social media lambasted Trump for attacking the leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, who they believe is the successor of St. Peter, one of Jesus’ 12 apostles

International News via Reuters:

U.S. President Donald Trump has criticised Pope Leo as “terrible” in an unusual, direct attack on the pontiff, who responded by vowing to continue denouncing war and suffering.

The president’s comments came after the pope had spoken out, with growing force, against the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies.

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social late on Sunday.

Pope Leo, the first pontiff from the U.S., responded on Monday by saying he would continue to denounce war, adding that the Christian message, rooted in the primacy of peace, was being “abused”.

‘SOMEONE HAS TO STAND UP,’ POPE SAYS

“I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems,” Leo told Reuters aboard a papal flight to Algiers, where he is embarking on a 10-day tour nL8N40T0YU to four African countries.

“Too many people are suffering in the world today,” he said. “Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.”

Catholics on social media lambasted Trump for attacking the leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, who they believe is the successor of St. Peter, one of Jesus’ 12 apostles.

“There is no ambiguity about the situation now,” Massimo Faggioli, an expert on the papacy, told Reuters.

He compared the comments to efforts by the leaders of Germany and Italy during World War Two to draw the late Pope Pius XII to support their causes.

“Not even Hitler or Mussolini attacked the pope so directly and publicly,” said Faggioli.

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was disheartened by Trump’s comments.

“Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls,” he said in a statement.

TRUMP SAYS LEO SHOULD ‘GET HIS ACT TOGETHER’

Leo, originally from Chicago, is known for choosing his words carefully. He has ​emerged as an outspoken critic of the conflict with Iran in recent weeks and decried the “madness of war” in a peace appeal on Saturday.

Last year, he questioned whether the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies were in line with the Church’s pro-life teachings, and called for a “deep reflection about the way migrants are being treated in the United States.

“Someone who says, ‘I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States’, I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” the pontiff said in September.

Trump wrote in his post on Sunday that “Leo should get his act together as Pope”, later telling reporters he was “not a big fan” of the pontiff.

Trump’s broadside against Leo also accused him of being “weak on nuclear weapons”, several days after the pope said the U.S. president’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization was “truly unacceptable”.

POPE SAYS HE IS NOT A POLITICIAN

In a speech on Palm Sunday last month in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, the pope said God rejected the prayers of leaders who start wars and have their “hands full of blood,” calling the conflict in Iran “atrocious”. 

Leo has also called on Trump to find an “off-ramp” to end the conflict and “decrease the amount of violence”. 

In his post, Trump suggested that Leo was only elected to lead the Catholic Church last year “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump”.

Leo said on Monday that he was not a politician and did not want to be drawn into a debate with Trump.

“The message of the Church, my message, the message of the Gospel: Blessed are the Peacemakers. I do not look at my role as being political, a politician,” he said.

Trump also had a rocky relationship with Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, who criticized Trump’s immigration policy proposals when he first ran for president and suggested Trump was “not a Christian”. 

Trump had called Francis “disgraceful” in early 2016.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Chris Kirkham in Los Angeles; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus, Crispian Balmer and Alison Williams

In a bid to ease the discontent, the government announced 500 million euros ($586 million) worth of spending increases and tax cuts to soften the impact on consumers and businesses

International News via Reuters:

Irish police on Sunday cleared tractors and trucks that had been blocking traffic and blockading oil infrastructure across the country during a wave of protests against surging fuel prices.

In a bid to ease the discontent, the government announced 500 million euros ($586 million) worth of spending increases and tax cuts to soften the impact on consumers and businesses. 

Protesters, angered by a more than 20% rise in diesel prices since the outbreak of the Iran war nL6N40S1FU, had used vehicles nL8N40R116 to block an oil refinery, two ports, a fuel terminal and Irish roads.

The protests caused major transport disruption in Dublin and left about a third of Ireland’s petrol stations without fuel, creating what Finance Minister Simon Harris described as a “very dangerous moment” for the country. 

Police removed vehicles blocking nL1N40U04B access to Ireland’s only oil refinery on Saturday and cleared a blockade of Galway Port, a major fuel depot, and removed roadblocks in Dublin on Sunday.

The government has refused to negotiate with the protesters, who included farmers, drivers and contractors, who complained that an earlier 250 million euro package nL1N40C0KB to temporarily cut taxes on petrol and diesel did not go far enough.

But after talks with agricultural and transport industry groups, Dublin announced measures including a 10 cent per litre reduction for diesel and petrol and a delay in an increase in a carbon tax. A fuel subsidy support scheme will also be introduced for farming and fisheries, the government said. 

A poll in the Sunday Independent newspaper showed that 56% of voters surveyed supported the protesters, but that most supporters of the two governing parties opposed them. 

($1 = 0.8533 euros) 

Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by David Holmes and Alexander Smith

Results based on 46% of votes counted showed the centre-right, pro-EU Tisza party of Peter Magyar winning 135 seats – or a crucial two-thirds majority – in the 199-member parliament, ahead of Orban’s Fidesz party

International News via Reuters:

Hungary’s veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban conceded defeat on Sunday after a landslide election https://www.reuters.com/world/hungary/elections/ victory by the upstart opposition Tisza party, in a setback for his allies in Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House.

Results based on 46% of votes counted showed the centre-right, pro-EU Tisza party of Peter Magyar winning 135 seats – or a crucial two-thirds majority – in the 199-member parliament, ahead of Orban’s Fidesz party.

“The election results are not final yet, but the situation is understandable and clear,” Orban said at the Fidesz campaign offices. “The election result is painful for us, but clear.”

Pollsters predicted a record voter turnout, with Hungarian television showing long queues outside some voting stations in Budapest. Data at 1630 GMT, half an hour before polls were due to close, showed 77.8% of voters casting their ballots, up from 67.8% four years earlier.

If the final results confirm the early readings, an end to Orban’s period in government after 16 years in power would have significant implications not only for Hungary, but for the European Union, Ukraine and beyond.

It would likely spell an end to Hungary’s adversarial role inside the EU, possibly opening the way for a 90 billion euro ($105 billion) loan to war-battered Ukraine blocked by Orban.

Defeat for Orban could also mean the eventual release of EU funds to Hungary that the bloc had suspended due to what Brussels said was Orban’s erosion of democratic standards.

Orban’s exit would also deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of his main ally in the EU and send shockwaves through Western right-wing circles, including the White House.

In Hungary, a Tisza victory could open the way for reforms that the party says would aim to combat corruption and restore the independence of the judiciary and other institutions.

However, the extent of such reforms will depend on whether Tisza can secure the two-thirds constitutional majority it would need to reverse much of Orban’s legacy.

ECONOMIC STAGNATION HURT ORBAN’S SUPPORT

Orban, a eurosceptic, carved out a model of an “illiberal democracy” seen as a blueprint by Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and its admirers in Europe.

But many Hungarians have grown increasingly weary https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/factbox-what-has-changed-hungary-during-orbans-12-year-rule-2022-03-31/ of Orban, 62, after three years of economic stagnation and soaring living costs as well as reports of oligarchs close to the government amassing more wealth.

Tisza’s leader Magyar appears to have successfully tapped into this frustration.

Casting his vote for Tisza in the Hungarian capital, Mihaly Bacsi, 27, said the country needed change.

“We need an improvement in public mood, there is too much tension in many areas and the current government only fuels these sentiments,” he said. 

Another voter, who gave her name as Zsuzsa, said she wanted continuity. 

“I would really like if all the results that have been achieved in recent years remain – and I am terribly afraid of the war,” she said, referring to the conflict raging in Ukraine, Hungary’s eastern neighbour.

Orban sought to cast Sunday’s election as a choice between “war and peace” nL8N3Z71ND. During campaigning, the government blanketed the country with signs warning that Magyar would drag Hungary into Russia’s war with Ukraine, something he strongly denies. 

Additional reporting by Krisztina Than, Anita Komuves, Lili Bayer, Thomas Holdstock, Judith Langowski, writing by Justyna Pawlak, editing by Alexander Smith and Gareth Jones

The strait is under the control and ‘smart management’ of Iran’s Navy, the Guards said in a statement reported by Iranian state media

International News via Reuters:

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that any military vessels attempting to approach the Strait of Hormuz will be considered a violation of the two-week U.S. ceasefire and be dealt with harshly and decisively. 

The strait is under the control and ‘smart management’ of Iran’s Navy, the Guards said in a statement reported by Iranian state media, adding it is “open for the safe passage of non-military vessels in accordance with specific regulations”.   

Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Hatem Maher; Editing by Alexander Smith