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Apr 9, 2026 - World

A report that Donald Trump’s administration menaced the first American-born pope led the entire panel on MS NOW’s "Morning Joe” to wonder what they could possibly be thinking as they risk alienating millions of Catholics.According to a report from The Free Press, after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech where he criticized the Trump administration, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby demanded an audience with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, and then issued a threat, reportedly telling the pope’s representative, “The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”After MS NOW host Willie Geist reported on the exchange, contributor Mike Barnicle, a lifelong Catholic, made a compelling case that the president and his underlings created a massive and enduring problem for themselves.“What do you make of what you're hearing here?” Geist prompted his guest. “I make that they are once again clowning the atmosphere up, the Trump administration, the idea that they would try to intimidate Pope Leo, the first American-born pope, is just absurd," the incensed Barnicle replied. “The idea that they would have anything to say critical of the Catholic church or the pope itself, the pope himself is absurd, especially given the Easter morning tweet from the president of the United States, which was so deeply offensive to any breathing, thinking human being that it's outrageous for the Trump administration to pose any problems they allege they have with the Vatican.”“I went to parochial school for eight consecutive years, and I got thrown out nearly every year by the nuns. You know, every grade — you deserve early stuff like that,” he recalled. But the one thing that you get to, to hold on to when you're raised Catholic, born Catholic, raised Catholic, especially by my mother, we used to call her 'my mother, the nun.' The one thing you retain, I would think, is that the theory of the Catholic church is rooted in a simple phrase: the least among us.” “So if you look at the Trump administration's behavior toward the least among us, it is almost criminal,” he accused. “It is certainly a sin because they don't care for the least among us, and that we should all care for the least among us. Because when we care for them, we care for ourselves.”Normally unflappable former diplomat Richard Haass was incredulous at the breach of protocol.“I mean, of all of all the fights to pick,” he exclaimed. “So we give Russia a free pass. We let Iran enhance half the stuff it's doing. We attack Europe and so forth –– I go around the world –– we give China a free pass, and who do we go after? We go after our democratic allies, and then we go after the Catholic church.”“That's our priorities for who we want to pick fights with,” he noted. “This is, this is, Mike used the word ‘absurd.’ This is preposterous that we are doing. And again, we're forfeiting the high ground. There's actually a serious part of this; we are forfeiting the high ground. Why aren't we trying to build support around the world? The idea that you can do everything with bullets and bombs, you can do some things, but this war should have taught us that you can’t do it all.” - YouTube youtu.be

Apr 9, 2026 - World

Iran and mediator Pakistan say ceasefire includes Lebanon but Israel and US disagree. Plus, how Korean fried chicken took over the worldGood morning.The fate of the two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict looked in peril as both sides gave divergent versions of what had been agreed, Israel intensified its bombing campaign in Lebanon and Iran halted the passage of oil tankers because of an alleged Israeli ceasefire breach.What has Iran said? In a sharply worded statement, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Israel and the US had violated several clauses of the provisional ceasefire, and he decried Israel’s aggressive bombing of Lebanon and a US demand that Iran should have no right to enrich its own uranium.This is a developing story. Follow our liveblog here.What was said in the video about Mamdani? The videos feature the organization’s founder, Yisrael Yaacob Ben Avraham, describing Mamdani as a “Muslim terrorist” and a “cancer”, and his election as a “harbinger” of “a creeping Islamic takeover of America”. Continue reading...

Apr 9, 2026 - World

How much fuel does Australia have left today, and when could we run out? Check how much petrol and diesel prices have risen near you in Sydney, Melbourne and across the country since the US and Israel’s war on Iran began in late FebruaryGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastHundreds of service stations across Australia have run empty, fuel prices are elevated and oil shipments have been cancelled.Australia is battling a fuel crisis as Iran’s closure of the strait of Hormuz continues to bite. The federal government has released fuel reserves, cut fuel excise taxes and rolled out a national fuel security plan. Continue reading...

Apr 9, 2026 - World

Legislative change backed by libertarian president makes it easier to extract metals in frozen parts of the AndesArgentina’s congress has approved a bill promoted by the libertarian president, Javier Milei, that authorises mining in ecologically sensitive areas of glaciers and permafrost, outraging environmentalists.The amendment to the “glacier law”, which was already approved by the senate in February, would make it easier to mine for metals such as copper, lithium and silver in frozen parts of the Andes mountains. Continue reading...

Apr 9, 2026 - World

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s continuing over-the-top press conferences about the Iran war are not doing Donald Trump any favors due to his childish behavior, leading MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough to suggest the president may want to put an end to Hegseth's "humiliating" antics.Reacting to the Wednesday Pentagon press conference, where the former Fox News personality boasted about the president’s ceasefire agreement that was already in the process of falling apart, the “Morning Joe” host compared Hegseth repeatedly to a grossly immature elementary school student.Speaking with co-hosts Willie Geist and Mika Brzezinski, Scarborough exclaimed, “To see [Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General] Kaine have to stand there while Pete Hegseth is doing all of this, like third-grade chest thumping, like he's out on the back on the playground –– and then General Kaine having to say, ‘Well, you know, we're still still basically at war and Americans could still die here,’ it's just, again, I just, I'm just shocked.”“I really am, that Donald Trump, at this late stage with Pete Hegseth humiliating him and the administration every day with his stupid routine,” he added. “Third-grade routine; I'm just shocked he's still allowed to go out there in front of a microphone because he just embarrasses himself and he sets Donald Trump and this administration and this country up for continued humiliation at the hands of the Iranians.”“Yeah, I mean, he's talking yesterday, and we carried it live, about a great military victory, effectively suggesting the war is all but won,” Geist pointed out. “And because of this great military victory he's describing, it forced Iran to the negotiating table, which is not quite how it played out, as we explained yesterday.” - YouTube youtu.be