Iran

The US House of Representatives delivered a stunning rebuke to Donald Trump over his war on Iran on Wednesday, as representatives backed a move to force him to seek approval from Congress or withdraw US forces.

The House voted 215 to 208 in favor of the war powers resolution, as four Republicans voted with Democrats. The dissident Republicans were Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Tom Barrett of Michigan.

“Following repeated attempts to get sycophants in the Republican-controlled House to join us, House Democrats successfully passed our war powers resolution today to stand up for the American people and hold Donald Trump accountable,” the top three House Democrats – Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California – said in a joint statement. “It is now time for Senate Republicans to do the right thing.”

“Vote by vote, Democrats are breaking through Republicans’ wall of silence on Trump’s illegal war,” the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said in a statement. “For more than 80 days, Trump has dragged America into a costly, chaotic conflict with no plan, no objective, and no legal authority. Today proved our pressure is working: Republicans are starting to crack, and momentum is building to check him. We are not letting up.”

Tuesday’s vote marks just the first step toward full passage of the resolution, which Trump will almost certainly veto even if it does pass in both the Senate and the House.

Still, Democrats see the resolution’s advancement as a way to force Republicans to take a stance on Trump’s unpopular war.

“The Senate should use this moment to do what we should have done before the war started – discuss the rationale, strategy, end state, and costs to American taxpayers and our economy,” said the bill’s sponsor, Virginia senator Tim Kaine, in a statement before the vote.

Leo, who is to meet the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in the Vatican on Thursday in an effort to ease tensions sparked by previous Trump broadsides, made a plea for honesty in political debate. “If anyone wants to criticise me for proclaiming the gospel, let them do so with the truth: the church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, there is no doubt about that,” the pope said. “I simply hope to be listened to because of the value of God’s word.”

Pope Leo XIV on Friday offered a new criticism of war, in a social media post that named no names but appeared to hint at the Trump administration leadership harnessing Christian nationalism to glorify the US and Israel’s war against Iran.