Pope Leo blasted leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants“, in unusually forceful remarks in Cameroon on Thursday after US president Donald Trump attacked him again on social media.

Leo, the first US pope, also decried leaders who used religious language to justify wars and urged a “decisive change of course” in a meeting in the biggest city in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, where a simmering conflict going back nearly a decade has left thousands dead.

On Tuesday, JD Vance capped several days of insults by insinuating the pontiff was not being truthful in matters of theology, and did not understand the concept of war.

“How can you say that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword?” the vice-president said during a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia, at which he was heckled by anti-war protesters.

“Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps? It’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology … you’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth.”

Donald Trump’s design for the Triumphal Arch he wants built at an entrance to the US capital comes up for a review and possible vote on Thursday by a key federal agency.

It is one of several projects he is pursuing alongside a White House ballroom to leave his lasting footprint on Washington, AP reported.

Trump said on social media that the arch “will be the GREATEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL Triumphal Arch, anywhere in the World” and a “wonderful addition to the Washington D.C. area for all Americans to enjoy for many decades to come!”

Also on the agenda for the monthly meeting of the US Commission of Fine Arts, whose seven members were appointed by the Republican president, is his plan to paint the gray granite exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House white.

A third White House-related project, construction of an underground center to conduct security screenings of tourists and other guests, is also up for consideration.

Commissioners are scheduled to review design plans for all three projects. They will be reviewing the arch and the paint job for the first time. The White House visitors’ center was discussed at the March meeting. It was unclear if the commission would approve any of the projects on Thursday.

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House Democrats filed six articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, accusing the defense secretary of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, in reference to the attack on Iran without congressional authorization and deadly strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats, among other official acts.

The move comes as the Trump administration faces mounting scrutiny over recent foreign action, particularly the war with Iran. The impeachment attempt can be seen as more symbolic than the realistic prospect of removing Hegseth from office.

In Wednesday’s resolution, Yassamin Ansari, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, and colleagues including John Larson of Connecticut accused the Pentagon chief of disregarding rules to minimize civilian casualties during armed conflict.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats again failed to pass a war powers resolution to curb the Trump administration’s military campaign in Iran in a vote of 47-52.

Republican senator Rand Paul voted yes on the measure, bucking his party, while John Fetterman was the only Democratic senator to vote against the resolution. It was the upper chamber’s fourth failed attempt but its first since Congress returned from its most recent recess and the ongoing two-week ceasefire with Iran began.

It comes as senator Bernie Sanders’ effort to block the sale of bombs and bulldozers to Israel also failed yesterday, although the votes reinforced the growing appetite among Democrats to impose limits on US weapons transfers to a longtime US ally.

It was the fourth time Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, had forced consideration of resolutions cutting off military aid for Israel in the Senate, all of which have been rejected by the chamber’s Republican majority, and many Democrats.

In other developments:

• Trump threatened to fire Jerome Powell if he stays on as US Federal Reserve chair past the end of his tenure and doubled down on a criminal investigation into renovations of the central bank’s headquarters.

• Wall Street scaled a fresh all-time high amid growing optimism among investors that the US-Israel war on Iran will soon be over.

• The supreme court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has delivered a sustained attack on her conservative colleagues’ use of emergency orders to benefit the Trump administration.

• Trump defended his consumption of diet soda by suggesting it might help prevent cancer, according to recent comments shared by Mehmet Oz.

• The US and Iran have been in indirect talks aimed at extending the two-week ceasefire beyond its expiry on 22 April, as Pakistan’s army chief arrived in Tehran to continue mediation efforts.

• John Eastman, the Republican legal scholar who convinced Trump he could stay in office despite losing the 2020 election, lost his license to practice law in California.