Are American Catholics ready for an American pope?
Pope Benedict XVI held a synod in 2012 to discuss evangelisation in an increasingly secular world. One of the most dynamic speakers was an American priest named Robert Prevost. The then-leader of the Augustinian order delivered a brief but profoundly countercultural speech, criticising 'Western mass media' for fostering sympathy with anti-Christian practices like 'abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia'. With time the future pope evolved. 'Doctrine hasn't changed,' he told Catholic News Service after Pope Francis made him a cardinal in 2023. 'But we are looking to be more welcoming and more open.'
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Scottish Sun
36 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Nato must be ready for war with Russia by 2029 – Putin is ALREADY planning attack, Germany warns as Starmer pledges subs
NATO must be ready for war in the next four years, Germany's defence chief warned, as he claimed Russia is gearing up to attack more European nations. Keir Starmer meanwhile announced 12 new nuclear submarines to combat the "immediate and pressing threat" from Putin. 7 Flames and destruction after a Russian attack in Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine on Monday morning Credit: Getty 7 A huge crater blown into the ground by a Russian ballistic missile on Monday Credit: EPA 7 Russian Belaya Air Base in Irkutsk region, Siberia, was ablaze after a major Ukrainian drone strike over the weekend Credit: East2West 7 General Carsten Breuer said Nato is facing a "very serious threat" from Russia - the most severe he has seen in his 40 years of service. Breuer explained that Russia is producing weaponry at a rapid pace - with around 1,500 battle tanks and four million rounds of artillery each year. Crucially, not all of this is being directed to Ukraine - possibly indicating munitions are being stockpiled for use against Nato countries. He said: "There's an intent and there's a build up of the stocks." Breuer doubled down on his warning that "analysts are assessing 2029" as Russia's potential timeframe for an assault, concluding: "We have to be ready by 2029". "If you ask me now, is this a guarantee that's not earlier than 2029? I would say no, it's not. So we must be able to fight tonight," he said. In April, the general warned that Putin will have amassed a 3million-strong army by next year, and that he wants to "weaken and destroy Nato as an alliance and discredit our Western form of society". The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are particularly vulnerable, he said. Breuer said: "The Baltic States are really exposed to the Russians, right? "And once you are there, you really feel this [...] in the talks we are having over there." At least seven killed & dozens injured after bridge collapses and crushes passenger train in Russia The Estonians reportedly use the analogy of being close to a wildfire and being able to "feel the heat, see the flames and smell the smoke". Germany and other European nations "probably see a little bit of smoke over the horizon and not more," Breuer said. The general added a call to action, urging fellow Nato nations to rebuild their militaries. He said: "What we have to do now is really to lean in an to tell everybody: 'Hey, ramp up [...] get more into it because we need it. "We need it to be able to defend ourselves and therefore also to build up deterrence." Recognising this need, the British government announced that the UK will build a dozen new nuclear submarines armed with Tomohawk missiles. The UK's nuclear warhead programme will also be bolstered, with Defence Secretary John Healey saying the deterrent is 'what Putin fears most'. The government is in talks with US officials over the move, which would be the UK's biggest deterrent development since the Cold War. The news came as part of the strategic defence review, designed to get Britain moving "to war-fighting readiness". 7 General Carsten Breuer, Germany's Chief of Defence, said Europe must be ready to defend against Russia by 2029 Credit: Rex 7 Pictures show a huge stockpile of FPV drones hidden inside a secret compartment in a container Credit: 24 TV/SBU 7 Russian Tu-95 bombers burning 'en masse' during Ukraine's drone sting Credit: Ukraine's Security Service Starmer will say during a trip to Scotland: 'From the supply lines to the front lines, this government is four-square behind the men and women upholding our freedom and security.' Up to 12 nuclear-powered subs will be built under the AUKUS security partnership with the US and Australia. They are conventionally-armed with Tomahawk missiles and are mainly used as intelligence gatherers, lurking off hostile coastlines to intercept communications. They can also deploy special forces and drones. Russia's weapon stocks took a hit over the weekend when a daring Ukrainian drone plot blitzed 34 percent of Putin's cruise missile carriers, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. And a raging Putin is now said to be preparing for a terrifying revenge attack. What was 'Operation Spiderweb'? OVER the weekend, Ukraine launched a highly-sophisticated, meticulously-planned drone attack inside Russia. It marks Kyiv's longest-range operation of the conflict so far. The plot involved 117 drones which had been smuggled into Russia inside trucks. President Zelensky revealed it took over 18 months to pull off the masterful attack and hailed it as one for the "history books". Over 100 drones were involved, each with their own pilot. Zelesnsky also revealed the headquarters of the operation were "right next to the FSB", Russia's security service. At least 40 aircraft were attacked, and Zelensky claimed that 34 percent of Putin's cruise missile carriers at the targeted airfields were blasted. A £260million AWACS aircraft and bombers capable of dropping nuclear weapons were also struck. Ukrainian sources say that more than £1.5billion worth of damage has been inflicted on the Russian air force.
New Statesman
3 hours ago
- New Statesman
Labour needs an abundance mindset
Photo byIt once looked like Keir Starmer was going to be a pro-growth prime minister. Alas. It seems increasingly obvious that the government isn't committed enough to the reforms that are needed. The problems run deep. Growth and productivity have been slow, nearly flat, since 2008. The housing shortage in London and the south-east is getting worse. Cambridge is an economic powerhouse thanks to scientific research. But planning rules means there is no spare laboratory space. We cannot build any. We produce far less energy than France, and it costs a lot more. Cities like Manchester ought to be flourishing, but productivity is far lower in British cities than in other countries. Outside London, we are sluggish. A hundred years ago, Birmingham was a rival power to the capitol; today it is bankrupt and wretched. The reason is simple. We have too many rules that make everything too complicated and too slow. The tallest building outside of London was going to be built in Manchester but the process has been stalled because of an administrative error. An application to build a mansard roof on a house in Lambeth was rejected by the council because the house would 'dominate' the local area which is of 'low-scale character.' Imagine the horror of a discrete third floor in a two-floor neighbourhood! To get planning permission for a twenty-home development, developers must provide things like an Aviation Impact Assessment and a Public Art Strategy, among many others. Remember, this is before planning permission. In 2013 there was a proposal to build three nuclear reactors in Wales. Four of these exact reactors are already working in Japan, where they have been proven safe during significant earthquakes. Works in Progress reported that the Office for Nuclear Regulation demanded design changes for four and a half years. The aim was to reduce the amount of radiation being discharged. And they succeeded. The radiation was reduced by the amount that 'a human ingests when they consume a banana.' The planning permission alone for the Lower Thames Crossing was twice as expensive as an actual tunnel in Norway. If the government is going to fix this, it needs to get radical. In the USA, the need for similar reforms have become much more prominent recently thanks to Abundance, written by the journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. They argue that the American left is too concerned with blocking development. Worried that even something simple like building a toilet in a public park has become expensive and complicated, they argue for deregulation. This is a major shift on the American left from writers at the New York Times and the Atlantic. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe As Klein points out, what matters is the default. France is doing better than the UK on this because the default is that it is easier to build. Klein and Thompson have started the important work of reframing what seem like neo-liberal economic concerns into political reality. If Britain wants to be a country with a generous welfare system, it needs to be a country that actually builds enough decent homes for people. If we want to be a country that has excellent hospitals, we need cheap energy to run them. If we want Britain to thrive outside of London, we need the trains, roads, and laboratories to enable that thriving. If we want to have good jobs for working people, we need to have enough homes for them to live where they need to work. If we want our provincial cities to flourish, they need to be able to build transport infrastructure without spending an expensive decade in regulatory review. If we want energy bills to be cheaper for working families, we need to spend less than four years reducing the amount of radiation from a nuclear reactor by a literal banana's worth. We need this attitude shift in Britain. And fast. Apparently a lot of people in Labour are reading Abundance. And yet the government is planning to control where pensions are invested 'for the benefit of the economy.' America has the abundance movement. We have central planning for pension schemes. It will lead to lower returns, disincentivising savings. It's also deeply illiberal. Instead of building roads the government thinks it can plan my pension from Whitehall. Get real! And yet, as the economist Sam Bowman says, Britain is fixable. We don't need to invent anything. We simply need to build trams, homes, and energy plants like they do in other countries. The Democrats are waking up to the importance of this across the Atlantic. It is time for Labour to make the same shift. As well as Bowman, people like Ben Southwood, Samuel Hughes, Tim Leunig, Sam Dumitriu and Britain Remade, Stian Westlake, and many others are all working to raise these issues to the attention of policy makers and the public. But progress is slow. The government probably isn't going to do what is necessary. Ambitious talk of planning reform has become the petty chorus of telling developers to 'get on with it.' Rachel Reeves has promised more than a hundred billion of capital spending. This is as much as the government spends on debt repayment every year, which now costs more than Universal Credit. And spending all of that money is not much use if it all goes down the perpetual sink-hole of regulation and approvals. Despite the extent of the problems, the government is more interested in adjusting the ISA rules. This is destructive in itself, but while there is so much that needs doing, it is truly fiddling while Rome burns. There's another reason for the left to become more like Ezra Klein. Soon there won't be another option. If Starmer doesn't start ripping up the rule book, someone else will do it. Sooner or later, reform will come. Taxes and spending can only rise for so long while growth remains stagnant. And another decade of low productivity, low GDP-per-capita growth, not enough houses, energy infrastructure, roads, or reservoirs, and an over burdensome tax-and-spend regime to cap it all, will leave us requiring more and more radical reform. The longer the government runs a deficit (while already spending so much on debt repayments) without improving the economy, the more unavoidable the solution will become. Left long enough, that will mean another Margaret Thatcher. Sooner or later, there really will be no alternative. If Starmer wants to avoid empowering a new Thatcher as his eventual successor, he should take a lead from Klein and Thompson and act now. [See also: Why George Osborne still runs Britain] Related
Scottish Sun
3 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Anti-EU football hooligan ‘pimp' Karol Nawrocki wins Poland's presidential election after knife-edge vote
Nawrocki labelled his mass footy brawl an act of 'noble combat' Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) ANTI-EU football hooligan "pimp" Karol Nawrocki has won Poland's presidential election. According to the final result from the electoral commission, right-wing historian with a past of football hooliganism Nawrocki, 42, won the election with a slim 50.89% of the votes. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Karol Nawrocki during the election evening of the second round of the Presidential election in Warsaw Credit: Getty 2 Marta Nawrocka and supported by Law and Justice party candidate for the President of Poland Karol Nawrocki during the election Credit: Getty Just six months ago, Nawrocki was a fairly unknown name - but in the run up to the election, the historian posted videos of himself at shooting ranges and boxing rings - cultivating a tough-guy image for voters. And the past two weeks have seen Nawrocki have to vehemently deny claims he had contacts in the criminal underworld and that he got prostitutes to pretend to be guests at a luxury hotel. But his campaign team were forced to admit that the new Polish leader did in fact engage in a bare-knuckle mass brawl between rival football hooligans. While his liberal opponent Rafal Trzaskowski played up his European credentials, Nawrocki met Donald Trump at the White House and received the US President's backing. read more news VOTE SHOCK Putin dealt blow in 'Super Sunday' of votes after shock result in election Unlike other eurosceptics in central Europe like Hungary's Viktor Orban, Nawrocki supports giving military aid to help Ukraine in the bloody war with Russia. But he also revealed prior to his win that he will oppose membership in Western alliances for Ukraine. This view aligns with the falling support among Poles for Ukrainians, with the country having hosted more than a million refugees from across the border. His backers in the Law and Justice (PiS) party had supported fast-tracking membership in the EU and NATO for Kyiv while in power until late 2023. Nawrocki's critics said he was fuelling unease over Ukrainian refugees at a time when the far-right is highlighting migration, the cost of living and security. He cited his campaign slogan, Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April. Nawrocki's past has been a topic of intense public debate following a series of negative media coverage. Robert Prevost elected as Pope Leo XIV - the first from North American There were questions over his acquisition of a flat from a pensioner -and even an admission that he took part in orchestrated brawls. Nawrocki, an amateur boxer, told a debate when confronted over reports he had been involved in mass organised fights between football hooligans: "All my sports activities were based on the strength of my heart, the strength of my muscles, my fists. "It was a fair competition, regardless of the form." His Law and Justice party backers have accused the government of orchestrating the controversies with the help of Poland's special services and liberal media. Nawrocki portrayed the election as a referendum on the government, which he described as a metropolitan elite out of touch with their concerns. "I am simply one of you," he told voters in the eastern town of Biala Podlaska while on the campaign trail. More to follow... For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos. Like us on Facebook at TheSunUS and follow us on X at @TheUSSun
