Top Stories — Tuesday, April 14, 2026
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- Many Popes Before Leo Have Been Entangled in Politics. Here Are 5 of Them. — nyt News
- Fed nominee Warsh clears a hurdle to Senate hearing — CNBC
- Trump deletes Truth Social image depicting him as Jesus: 'It was me as a doctor' — CNBC
Many Popes Before Leo Have Been Entangled in Politics. Here Are 5 of Them.
Source: nyt News • Published: 4/14/2026, 2:04:46 AM
Pope Leo XIV’s standoff with President Trump is the latest example in which a pope ventured into geopolitical territory, at times directly clashing with the secular authorities or even provoking political change. Here are five other examples, including Pope John Paul II, who helped inspire anti-Communist activists, and Pope Benedict XVI, who inflamed relations with the Muslim world.
Pope Francis, who led the church from 2013 until his death last year, was considered the most outspoken of recent pontiffs, regularly voicing opinions on climate change, poverty and migration.
Weeks into his papacy, on his first papal trip out of Rome, Francis described migrants as “brothers and sisters” while visiting Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island that had become the point of arrival for thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Africa. That same month, he struck a more compassionate tone on homosexuality than his predecessors, asking, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Though Francis rarely confronted the politicians and dictators he visited, he was sometimes more direct. Meeting in 2021 with Viktor Orban, the hard-right, anti-migrant prime minister of Hungary, Francis told him that God was not a strongman who silenced enemies and that a country’s religious roots should allow it to extend “its arms toward everyone.” (Mr. Orban lost national elections on Sunday.)
Francis’ vision, expressed in major documents like the encyclical “Laudato Si,” or “Praise Be to You,” linked Catholic theology to protecting the environment while denouncing the perceived excesses of global capitalism as exploiting the poor.
Benedict XVI, who was pope from 2005 until his resignation in 2013, inadvertently provoked riots in which several people died in 2006 when he quoted a Byzantine emperor saying that Islam had brought “things only evil and inhuman.” The Vatican said his words had been misinterpreted, and Benedict visited Turkey later that year as a way to make amends.
John Paul II, the first Polish pope, visited his homeland in 1979, the year after his election as pontiff. Speaking to students in Krakow, the pope told Poles, “Do not be afraid.”
It was a message that Polish leaders later said helped to inspire the pro-democracy movement that overthrew the Communist dictatorship. A year after his visit, activists formed the Solidarity labor movement, which helped propel the collapse of Communism in Poland in 1989. That helped accelerate the collapse of other Communist governments in Eastern Europe, including in East Germany and Bulgaria.
Paul VI, the pontiff from 1963 to 1978, instituted the “Day of Peace,” an annual event since held by the Vatican on the first day of each year to promote efforts to end conflict.
John Paul II cited Paul VI’s appeals for peace when he opposed the Iraq invasion in 2003. So did Leo in his criticism of the Iran war over the weekend: “I make his appeal my own this evening, relevant as it is today.”
While other popes attracted attention for their words, Pope Pius XII, who led the church from 1939 to 1958, has long been scrutinized for what he did not say about Nazism and the Holocaust.
After the Vatican unsealed the archives of his papacy in 2020, researchers found a letter that showed that the Holy See had been told in 1942 that up to 6,000 people, “above all Poles and Jews,” were being killed every day at a Nazi death camp in Poland.
Some have used such material to cast Pius XII as the pontiff who remained shamefully silent as the Nazis massacred Jews during the war. Others say that Pius, who has long been considered for sainthood, worked behind the scenes to encourage the Roman Catholic Church to save thousands of Jews and other victims of persecution.
An earlier version of this article misstated what the Holy See was told in a 1942 letter about a Nazi death camp in Poland. The letter said 6,000 people were being killed there every day, not that “up to 6,000 people were being killed.”
When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at corrections@nytimes.com.Learn more
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
Read the full story at nyt News.
Fed nominee Warsh clears a hurdle to Senate hearing
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/14/2026, 2:02:31 AM
Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh has submitted required paperwork to the Senate, two people familiar with the matter said Monday, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive information ahead of its public release.
Filing his financial disclosures puts Warsh one step closer to a Senate hearing. A prior plan to hold that hearing this week had to be delayed after a holdup with the paperwork. Warsh is married to Estée Lauder heir Jane Lauder, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $1.9 billion.
The Senate will also need to receive Warsh's answers to questions from the Senate Banking Committee, one of the people said. Once that questionnaire is received, the Senate can go ahead with formally giving notice of the hearing. It would take place next week at the earliest.
Warsh's path to a full Senate vote is still unclear, however. Sen. Thom Tillis, R.-N.C., has said he will block final approval of Warsh's candidacy until a federal criminal probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell is resolved. Tillis is also a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro is pledging to continue the case, despite recent setbacks.
Powell's term as chair expires May 15. The Trump administration said last week it expects to have Warsh in place by then.
Trump deletes Truth Social image depicting him as Jesus: 'It was me as a doctor'
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/14/2026, 1:55:19 AM
President Donald Trump on Monday morning deleted a Truth Social post with an image showing Trump appearing like Jesus Christ after it was met with backlash.
"I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker there, which we support, Trump told reporters at the White House, denying claims he was meant to appear as Jesus.
"Only the 'fake news' could come up with that one," Trump added.
"It's supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better," he said. "And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.
Trump on Sunday night posted the image, which appears to have been generated with artificial intelligence, after he lambasted Pope Leo XIV for criticizing U.S. military actions against Iran and Venezuela.
The image depicted Trump, wearing a white robe, laying his right hand on a man who appeared sick or dying, with a bright light emanating from the president's left hand, and the American flag, eagles and military planes flying behind him.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC when asked for comment about the post being deleted.
"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," wrote Megan Basham, a conservative Christian commentator, in a post about the image on X.
"But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God," Basham wrote.
The post was one of several in a series posted to Trump's Truth Social account Sunday night. The image stood alone without any accompanying words.
Former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had been an ally of Trump, in her own post on X wrote, "On Orthodox Easter, President Trump attacked the Pope because the Pope is rightly against Trump's war in Iran and then he posted this picture of himself as if he is replacing Jesus."
"This comes after last week's post of his evil tirade on Easter and then threatening to kill an entire civilization. I completely denounce this and I'm praying against it!!!" Greene wrote.
The president was blasted by the New York State Catholic Conference, which represents the state's bishops, for that post.
"There is nothing clever or funny about this image," the conference said in a post on X. "We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us."
For complete details, visit the original sources linked above.
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