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“I don’t feel there is a need to apologize for a plea for mercy. I don’t hate him, and I pray for him,” said Mariann Budde. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who urged U.S. President Donald Trump to show compassion for migrants and transgender children, stated that she does not intend to apologize, as requested by the Republican politician.

Previously, Trump said that Budde has “an unpleasant tone” and is “neither persuasive nor intelligent,” sparking a controversy that has drawn significant media attention. “I don’t feel there is a need to apologize for a plea for mercy. I don’t hate him, and I pray for him,” said the Episcopal bishop, who denied being “a left-wing radical” who hates Trump, as the U.S. president described her. On Thursday, The New York Times published an article titled “The Bishop Who Pleaded with Trump: ‘Was Anyone Going to Say Anything?’” that praises Budde, 65, the first woman to hold that position in her church, for her stance in confronting political power.

“Perhaps it was naïve of me. When I decided to plead with the President for compassion, I thought it would be taken differently because it was an acknowledgment of his position, his current power, and the millions of people who put him there,” she said.

On Tuesday, Budde officiated a religious ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral. At one point, addressing Trump, who is Presbyterian, she said, “Millions of people have placed their trust in you. And as you said to the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people of our country who are now afraid.”

A day later, Trump, who has already taken initial steps to curb what he calls an “invasion of migrants,” asked Budde to apologize for her remarks. While she refuses to apologize, Budde does regret that her words provoked the kind of response they did, in the sense that “they confirmed what I was talking about earlier—that is, our tendency to become outraged and not speak to one another respectfully.”

“To be united as a country with such a rich diversity, we need mercy. We need compassion. We need empathy,” added Budde, who considers it dangerous to make generalizations and to speak of immigrants “as if they were all criminals or of transgender children as if they were somehow dangerous.”

Dodoma, 20 January 2025 – Tanzania today confirmed an outbreak of Marburg virus disease in the northwestern Kagera region after one case tested positive for the virus following investigations and laboratory analysis of suspected cases of the disease.

“Laboratory tests conducted in Kabaile Mobile Laboratory in Kagera and later confirmed in Dar es Salaam identified one patient as being infected with the Marburg virus. Fortunately, the remaining suspected patients tested negative,” the president said. “We have demonstrated in the past our ability to contain a similar outbreak and are determined to do the same this time around.”

A total of 25 suspected cases have been reported as of 20 January 2025, all of whom have tested negative and are currently under close follow-up, the president said. The cases have been reported in Biharamulo and Muleba districts in Kagera.

Marburg virus disease is highly virulent and causes haemorrhagic fever. It belongs to the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus disease. Illness caused by Marburg virus begins abruptly. Patients present with high fever, severe headache and severe malaise. They may develop severe haemorrhagic symptoms within seven days.

Tanzania previously reported an outbreak of Marburg in March 2023 – the country’s first – in Kagera region, in which a total of nine cases (eight confirmed and one probable) and six deaths were reported, with a case fatality ratio of 67%.

In the African region, previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.

Marburg virus is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials. Although several promising candidate medical countermeasures are currently undergoing clinical trials, there is no licensed treatment or vaccine for effective management or prevention of Marburg virus disease. However, early access to treatment and supportive care – rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids – and treatment of specific symptoms, improve survival.