MILAN, Italy (RNS) – Amid a growing public rift between Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump — arguably the two most influential American-born figures in the world — Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Vatican on Thursday seeking to highlight common ground between the Holy See and the Trump administration. Rubio’s meeting with…
Amid growing tensions between President Trump and Pope Leo XIV, the pontiff met privately with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican on Thursday morning They discussed “the situation in the Middle East and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere,” according to a statement from Tommy Pigott, the spokesman for the State…
President Trump will host President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil at the White House on Thursday, at a moment of a fragile truce following a tense year of U.S. tariffs and public insults between the leaders of the Western Hemisphere’s largest nations. Mr. Trump has subjected Brazil to a whiplash of measures, only…
A federal judge in Georgia ruled Wednesday that the federal government did not have to return 2020 election records seized by the F.B.I., rejecting a request from Fulton County that the materials be returned. After F.B.I. agents carried out an extraordinary seizure of about 660 boxes of records from Fulton County’s elections hub, county officials…
Jack Smith, the special counsel who twice indicted President Trump, accused the Justice Department of having been “corrupted” by Trump loyalists he claimed were demolishing its credibility and seeking to undermine the rule of law. Mr. Smith’s remarks, made last month in a private discussion at the Cosmos Club in Washington, represented his sharpest criticism…
China’s top diplomat met with Iran’s foreign minister on Wednesday and called for greater efforts to open the Strait of Hormuz and for an end to the war, after the Trump administration pressed Beijing to help end Tehran’s chokehold over the waterway. Meeting in Beijing with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, Foreign Minister Wang Yi…
Howard Lutnick, President Trump’s commerce secretary, was grilled by lawmakers for several hours on Wednesday over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender, after documents released by the Justice Department revealed that Mr. Lutnick had misrepresented his relationship with Mr. Epstein. During a closed-door interview, members of the House Oversight Committee pressed Mr….
Iran said on Wednesday that it was reviewing an American proposal to end the war, a day after President Trump abruptly paused a new U.S. military effort to protect ships in the Strait of Hormuz, citing “great progress” in talks with Tehran. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said that his government had not yet…
U.S. military forces intercepted and incapacitated an Iranian-flagged unladen oil tanker Wednesday that was sailing toward an Iranian port in violation of the U.S. Navy blockade, the service announced. U.S. Central Command military forces observed the M/T Hasna transiting in the direction of the Gulf of Oman and issued multiple warnings before taking action, according…
On the campaign trail in Florida farm country, a long-shot Republican candidate for governor is selling $40 T-shirts that say “No American should die for Israel.” A few hours west, Laura Loomer, the far-right media figure, is preparing a pitch to donors to help fund a new outlet: a weekly newsletter taking on the right-wing…
