Eurotopics.net

After the initial failure of peace talks with Iran, the US has begun its own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. According to the US millitary, six merchant ships arriving from Iran have been forced to turn back within the first 24 hours. President Trump has said that a key reason for the blockade is to prevent transit tolls from falling into the hands of the regime in Tehran. What consequences could this provoke?

US President Donald Trump has hit back at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after she described his tirade against Pope Leo XIV as "unacceptable". Trump replied saying: "She is the one who is unacceptable, because she doesn't care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy up in two minutes if it had the chance!"

After his spectacular election victory, Péter Magyar has listed his priorities: he wants to focus on the fight against corruption and push through an eight-year limit on the prime minister's term of office. He also vowed that Hungary will be a constructive partner for the EU in future and cited conversion to the euro as a long-term goal. The European media assess the prospects of reform and draw conclusions from Viktor Orbán’s defeat.

For the first time in history, a US president has verbally attacked the pope. In a lengthy social media post Donald Trump said the pontiff was "terrible for foreign policy" and was damaging the Catholic Church. Leo XIV has repeatedly criticised Trump's policies, albeit indirectly, from migration policy to the war in Iran. In response to Trump's tirade, the pope said he was proclaiming the message of the Gospel.