April 4, 2026 – Short News

Hegseth prays for war in the name of Jesus - the Pope openly contradicts him!

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has called on the American population to pray “every day, on their knees” for a military victory in the Middle East - “in the name of Jesus Christ.” Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born Pope in history, sees it fundamentally differently.

In a sermon on Maundy Thursday in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, Leo said that the Christian mission has often been “distorted by the desire for domination, which is entirely foreign to the path of Jesus Christ.” He did not name Hegseth. He did not have to. “We tend to feel powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals, great when we are feared,” he said. “God has given us an example - not how to dominate, but how to liberate. Not how to destroy life, but how to give it.”

It was not the first time Leo has spoken in this direction. At the end of March, he explicitly warned in a Sunday sermon against claiming the name of Jesus for conflicts. Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them,” he said at the time. Since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran at the end of February, Leo has consistently called for an end to the violence and a return to dialogue. In his first term as pontiff, the Pope has been careful not to intervene directly in American politics. He has only mentioned Donald Trump when journalists asked him directly about it. On March 31, he said outside his residence in Castel Gandolfo: “I have been told that President Trump recently said he wants to end the war. Hopefully he is looking for a way to reduce the scale of the violence and the bombings.” According to the Vatican, there has been no direct contact with Trump regarding the war so far.

Leo has so far exerted his influence through other channels. When Trump intensified his deportation campaign last year, he encouraged American bishops to firmly support immigrants.

What is colliding here is more than a theological disagreement. Hegseth presents the war against Iran as a Christian duty. Leo, in contrast, raises the question of what the Christian faith has to do with dominance and destruction - and answers it clearly. According to his own statements, the Pope has not yet spoken directly with Trump about the war. On Friday morning, however, he spoke by phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and once again emphasized the importance of dialogue as well as a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. Two Americans, two readings of the same faith, and in between a war that has been ongoing for more than a month.

Investigations show: students on paper, workers in reality - how Russia circumvents sanctions

More than 36,000 visas for North Korean citizens in just one year. Four times as many as before. Officially, almost all for education. In practice, a different picture emerges. The figures for actual entries do not match. Only a few hundred border crossings stand against tens of thousands of visas. The contradiction is obvious. Programs declared as study apparently serve to bring labor into the country. People arrive with student status, but work on construction sites and in companies. Full-time, not education.

This bypasses an existing system. The United Nations clearly stipulated in 2017 that North Korean labor abroad must not be employed. The reason is obvious. A significant portion of the income flows directly to the state and is used for military programs. Russia is operating in a space that appears formally correct, but in practice represents something else. On paper education, in reality labor. This construction makes it possible to circumvent sanctions without openly violating them.

At the same time, the demand is communicated openly. Thousands of North Koreans are expected to help with reconstruction in the Kursk region. Deminers, construction workers, technical personnel. The scale matches the rising visa numbers. Intelligence services from South Korea also assume that tens of thousands of North Korean workers are already active in Russia, many of them in the Far East. The system is not new, but it is growing. Anyone classified as a student does not fall under the ban. What they actually do plays a subordinate role in this model.

Trump attacks ABC journalist head-on and warns of new book

Donald Trump has publicly attacked ABC journalist Jonathan Karl and sharply rejected his new book. In a post, he described Karl as a “third-rate news anchor” and accused him of inventing stories that have “no connection to the truth.” At the same time, he attacked the network ABC as a whole and called it one of the most corrupt networks in the business. Trump placed the attack in a broader context and referred to an alleged payment of 16 million dollars that ABC had made due to false reporting. This is not substantiated. Public court records or confirmed settlements of this amount do not exist. The claim stands without being verifiable despite investigation.

He linked this to the accusation that Karl’s current book also contains fabricated content and alleged quotes that were never actually said. He was particularly clear in urging his supporters not to buy the book. The wording is deliberately sharp and personal. Trump attacks individual journalists directly and fundamentally questions their work. The criticism is directed not only at a publication, but at the credibility of an entire media outlet.

For observers, this is not a new tone. Media are not only criticized, but portrayed as opponents. Books, reports, and interviews thus lose impact even before their publication. The attack shows how the confrontation between politics and media continues to escalate. Content recedes into the background while personal attacks dominate the public debate.

Hungary facing a decision - loss of power for Orbán or final break with Europe

Péter Magyar calls this election a referendum. What is meant is not a political detail, but the direction of an entire country. On April 12, it will be decided whether Hungary continues its course or clearly reorients itself toward Europe. Opposite him stands Viktor Orbán, in power since 2010, politically closely aligned with Moscow and increasingly isolated within the EU. Magyar, formerly part of the system, directly attacks this course. He speaks of a development that has set Hungary back economically and made it politically dependent. For him, it is clear that security and stability remain tied to the EU and NATO. At the same time, he emphasizes that even many Fidesz voters do not want a country that ends up as a Russian outpost.

His campaign is massive. Several cities per day, hundreds of events across the country. Unlike previous opposition attempts, he specifically targets rural regions, where Orbán has his strongest base. That is exactly where this election will be decided.

Orbán presents a different image. He warns of external threats, of war, migration, and pressure from Brussels. At the same time, he uses his position within the EU to block key decisions. Most recently, he stopped a 90 billion euro package for Ukraine. In Brussels, pressure is growing to bypass such blockades in the future. Magyar counters with a clear accusation. The veto is used to demonstrate domestic strength, not to represent real interests. He announces that he will bring Hungary back to the table as a partner, not as an obstruction.

The rise of his Tisza party came quickly. After breaking with Orbán in the course of a political scandal in 2024, he founded the party and achieved 30 percent in the European elections within just a few months. Since then, the movement has continued to grow. At his events, one sentence is repeatedly chanted: Tisza is rising. External influence is also visible. JD Vance travels to Budapest to support Orbán. At the same time, many EU states openly hope for a change of power. The election has long since taken on an international dimension. One decisive point remains energy policy. While other EU states have reduced their dependence on Russia, Hungary has partly even expanded it. Magyar wants to change that, but gradually. New supply routes, new infrastructure, without immediate ruptures. The only question is whether Hungary continues its previous course or corrects it. An election that has effects far beyond the country.

Trump calls for God for the nation - and applies double standards. Both are very dangerous.

Donald Trump declares religion a prerequisite for national greatness. “A great country needs God,” he says, and claims that churches are filling again, becoming younger, becoming stronger. It sounds like a confession, but it is politically charged. Because this is not about faith as a personal decision, but about religion as a measure of belonging. The contradiction is obvious. When regimes like the Taliban make religion the foundation of state and power, this is sharply criticized in the West. There, this very mixing is considered a danger to freedom, rights, and society. When Trump now demands that the United States also make religion a condition for greatness, the boundary suddenly shifts. What is considered problematic elsewhere is presented here as a state mandate.

This is not a religious debate, but a political one. Whoever declares God a prerequisite simultaneously defines who belongs and who does not. Faith thus becomes an instrument, not a protected space. The statement acts like an offer to a specific electorate, combined with a clear line of exclusion. The claim of full churches also stands on uncertain ground. In many parts of the United States, the numbers have been declining for years. Fewer attendees and weaker affiliation. The picture Trump paints does not match the developments he describes. In the end, something else remains. Religion is not simply addressed here, it is being misused. Exactly what is otherwise loudly criticized is happening here itself. Just on one’s own side.

Trump now says war - after weeks of pretending it was not one

Donald Trump said it suddenly: “No, not at all. No, it is war. We are at war.” No hesitation, no conditional. Just this sentence - as if he had never avoided it. Yet he had avoided it for weeks. Operations were called operations, strikes were called strikes, and the war was called everything except war. Until an F-15 was shot down over Iranian territory and pilots are missing. From that point on, the old language no longer carries the weight. 13 dead US soldiers had not been enough for that.

Words are not a side issue in politics. They are the framework that holds reality in shape - as long as it can be maintained. Trump kept this framework in place for as long as possible because the term war raises questions he did not want to answer. Who authorized it. Who bears responsibility. When does it begin - and when does it end. As long as it was an operation, he did not need these answers. Now he does. And he does not have them. What remains is a president who decides for himself when reality deserves a different name. Not because it has changed. But because it can no longer be renamed away.

Trump makes a joke about Brigitte Macron - and ruins the rest with it

“I called France, Macron, whose wife treats him extremely badly, and he is still recovering from a right hook to the jaw.”

Donald Trump said in a remark at the White House that Macron’s wife Brigitte treats her husband “extremely badly” - he is still recovering from a “right hook,” a reference to a viral video from May 2025 that shows Brigitte Macron touching her husband’s face during a trip to Southeast Asia. Macron, currently in Seoul, responded coolly: “The remarks you are referring to are neither elegant nor appropriate to the level.” Then he followed up - not about the joke, but about the war. “If you are serious, you do not go around saying the opposite of what you said the day before. And maybe you should not speak every day.” This was not a diplomatic slip. It was a reckoning.

The two men have known each other for almost a decade. Macron invited Trump in 2017 as guest of honor to the national holiday, with military parade, dinner at the Eiffel Tower, and everything that goes with it. Trump called him perfect, brushed flakes from his jacket and held his hand. In 2018, there were air kisses in the Oval Office. That is a long time ago. Today, Macron says that a military opening of the Strait of Hormuz is “unrealistic,” that Europe bears no responsibility for the consequences of a war that the United States and Israel began without consultation, and that Trump should stop sending contradictory messages into the world every day. “This is not a show,” he said. Trump probably did not take that message as a compliment.

Belarus criminalizes identity - when the state defines how people are allowed to live

Belarus is creating new criminal offenses that go far beyond classical legislation. Anyone who is deemed to engage in “propaganda” of homosexuality, transgender identity, or childlessness in the future can be prosecuted. The definition remains deliberately open. That is exactly where the effect lies. The law massively expands the administrative code. New articles, new categories, new possibilities for intervention. At the same time, everything is placed within a framework that suggests order and protection, but in reality expands control. Terms are chosen in such a way that they can capture almost any form of visibility.

The equation is striking. Homosexuality, transgender identity, and childlessness are mentioned in the same breath as serious crimes. This not only regulates, but evaluates. Ways of life are politically categorized. Specific penalties remain unclear. That creates room for maneuver. Authorities can decide when a boundary has been crossed. It is precisely this lack of precision that makes the law effective. At the same time, the package also contains technical adjustments. Digital communication, administration, procedures. It appears like modernization, but at the same time expands the possibilities of state intervention. In the end, there is a system that not only regulates behavior, but controls identity. Not openly through bans alone, but through terms that can be interpreted at any time.

Last Update: Iran War: hits, rubble, dead - the war reaches corporations, cities, and its own military

The impacts are no longer limited to military targets. In Dubai, facades are damaged, including a building belonging to the US company Oracle. Debris from intercepted drones strikes, injuring no one, but sending a clear signal. In Abu Dhabi, a gas facility in Habshan is hit. One person dies, several are injured. Fire, damage, ongoing assessments. The line between military strike and civilian reality no longer exists. Iran is openly directing its threats against US corporations. Oracle is among them, as well as 17 other companies that Tehran accuses of involvement in espionage. Previous attacks have already damaged infrastructure of Amazon Web Services in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The conflict is directly pulling economic nodes into it.

At the same time, the situation on the battlefield is shifting. Two US combat aircraft are lost within a short period of time. An F-15 is shot down, one crew member is recovered, the second remains missing. Shortly afterward, an A-10 is also hit. Iranian air defense claims the shootdown. The whereabouts of the pilot are unclear. In Washington, it remains quiet. No rapid explanations, no details. The numbers on the American side continue to rise. 365 wounded soldiers, including 247 from the Army, 63 from the Navy, 19 Marines, and 36 from the Air Force. 13 dead. The majority of the wounded come from experienced ranks. The war is not only hitting young units, but also those who are supposed to carry it.

US aircraft and helicopters are flying as part of search and rescue operations for the pilots at low altitude and at low height deep within Iranian airspace.

At the same time, diplomacy is stalling. Bahrain postpones a vote in the UN Security Council. The aim was to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Russia and China block even a weakened version. Instead of a clear line, a draft without enforcement remains. One of the most important trade routes in the world remains under pressure. Donald Trump remains reserved. No press appearances, no detailed statements. When asked about the search for missing soldiers, he only says: “No, not at all. No, this is war.” Nothing more follows.

Criticism is also growing from religious circles. Timothy Broglio, Archbishop for the Military Services of the United States, openly questions the legitimacy of the war. He says that according to just war doctrine, this deployment cannot be justified. He speaks of action against a threat that has not yet materialized and reminds that war should always be the last resort. While political answers remain absent, a leading Iranian politician openly expresses mockery. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf comments on the downing of a US aircraft with the words: “This brilliant war without strategy has been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘can someone find our pilots?’.”