08 World

Pope Francis Dies, Pope Leo XIV Lives

pgnewser May 10, 2025

After the death of Pope Francis on April 21, 2025, and the funeral that followed, the Cardinals of the Catholic Judge gathered to select the next Pope to replace him. In the end, they defied oddsmakers, picking a longshot, President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Robert Francis Prevost. He will be known as Pope Leo XIV.

Prevost is the first ever U.S. citizen to serve as Pope. He is also the first ever Peruvian citizen to serve as Pope due to his duel citizenship. He was born in Chicago but spent over a decade in Peru doing missions work. His appointment by Francis to his most recent office suggests he may be more aligned with the Catholic “left” than the Catholic “right.”

Pope Leo XIV election marks ‘super happy day’ for Catholics, according to Villanova professor– www.foxnews.com
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As silence and stillness calmed the eager world, Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti, overlooking a sea of tens of thousands of teary-eyed viewers in St. Peter’s Square, introduced Catholics and non-faithful to the newest pontiff.

American Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, was elected to take the papal seat and succeed the deceased Pope Francis on May 8, 2025, after four rounds of conclave voting by 133 members of the College of Cardinals.

As the world explores both the tender and commanding qualities that make Pope Leo XIV papabile and worthy of the Vicar of Christ title, one place, a small place of around 10,000 people, is beaming with pride for the newly elected Chicago-native.

Trump Deal with UK Appears to be Framework for Larger Deal

pgnewser May 10, 2025

Trump announces trade deal with UK, cutting tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum – PBS News
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The U.S. president talked up the agreement to reporters from the Oval Office, even as the fine print remains in flux despite his prior statements that a full agreement was signed

“The final details are being written up,” Trump told reporters. “In the coming weeks, we’ll have it all very conclusive.”

The president said that the agreement would lead to more beef and ethanol exports to the U.K., which would also streamline the processing of U.S. goods though customs. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the baseline 10 percent tariffs would stay in place, while U.K. officials said that Trump’s auto tariffs would go from 27.5 percent to 10 percent on a quota of 100,000 vehicles and the import taxes on steel and aluminum would go from 25 percent to zero.

Trump cautioned that the agreement with its preservation of a 10 percent tariff was not a template for other countries pursuing possible trade deals with the U.S. He said he intends to charge higher rates on other countries as part of any agreement — a sign that the import taxes could stay in place in ways that economists warn would reduce economic growth.

 

Iran Makes Claim it Never Wanted Nuclear Weapons and Doesn’t Want Them Now

pgnewser May 10, 2025

Iran Has Agreed ‘They Don’t Want’ Nuclear Weapon– www.breitbart.com
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WASHINGTON — Senior adviser and assistant to the president Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News exclusively that the government of Iran has told him that the Iranians have agreed they do not want a nuclear weapon.

Witkoff, who made the explosive revelation in an exclusive long-form on-camera interview with Breitbart News on Thursday at the White House, is leading negotiations for President Donald Trump with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Witkoff is expected to meet with the Iranians, possibly as soon as this weekend, for a fourth round of talks in Oman, after two previous discussions in Iran and another in Rome. Witkoff will be meeting with them during a broader trip to the Middle East this upcoming week, where President Trump is expected to visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Witkoff is joining Trump for those legs of the trip, but breaking off on his own to meet with the Iranians separately in Oman at the president’s direction.

“We’ve stated our position. The Iranians cannot have a bomb. They have stated back that they don’t want one,” Witkoff told Breitbart News. “So we’re going to, for the purposes of this discussion, take them at their word that that’s actually how they feel. If that’s how they feel, then their enrichment facilities have to be dismantled. They cannot have centrifuges. They have to downblend all of their fuel that they have there and send it to a faraway place—and they have to convert to a civil program if they want to run a civil program. Now, they have a civil reactor actually in the state of Iran—it’s called Bushehr. They have no enrichment capability at this place and if we take them at their word why not just turn all the rest of their facilities just like Bushehr? Bushehr they have no ability to enrich, they have no ability to have centrifuges there, they can only use that facility for civilian purposes—making of electricity and things of that sort of civilian purposes—and if that is what they choose to do, if they believe in that program, they ought to expand it if they want to. An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line. No enrichment. That means dismantlement, it means no weaponization, and it means that Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan—those are their three enrichment facilities—have to be dismantled.”

U.S. automakers blast Trump’s UK trade deal– japantoday.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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The Trump administration’s latest trade deal with Britain unfairly penalizes U.S. automakers that have partnered with Canada and Mexico, a trade group representing Detroit automakers said Thursday.

In a sharply-worded statement, the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC) said the U.S.-UK trade deal “hurts American automakers, suppliers, and auto workers,” according to the group’s president Matt Blunt.

The deal unveiled Thursday between U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer lowers the tariff on British vehicles to 10 percent from 27.5 percent on the first 100,000 cars shipped from Britain to the United States.

U.S. says Israel won’t be involved in Gaza aid distribution– www.cbc.ca

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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A U.S.-backed mechanism for distributing aid into Gaza should take effect soon, Washington’s ambassador to Israel said on Friday ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, but he gave few details.

Gaza’s residents are facing a growing humanitarian crisis with Israel enforcing a months-long blockade on aid supplies to the small Palestinian enclave in the third year of its war against militant group Hamas.

Ambassador Mike Huckabee said several partners had already committed to taking part in the aid arrangement but declined to name them, saying details would be released in the coming days.

JD Vance pushes America First position on India-Pakistan conflict: ‘None of our business’– www.theblaze.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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The decades-long dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region has resulted in numerous bloody skirmishes and three full-fledged wars — in 1965, 1971, and 1999. In the wake of a horrific terrorist attack in the southern part of Indian-administered Kashmir last month, fighting has resumed and threatens now to embroil the two nuclear powers in another major war.

When pressed on Thursday to comment about the Trump administration’s concern “about the potential for nuclear war between India and Pakistan,” Vice President JD Vance told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum that while concerned and keen on de-escalation, the U.S. is “not going to get involved in the middle of war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it.”

“Look, we’re concerned about any time nuclear powers collide and have a major conflict,” said Vance. “What we’ve said, what Secretary Rubio has said, and certainly [what] the president has said is we want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible.”

Infamous Nazi war criminal helped set up top drug cartel and worked with Pablo Escobar, report says– www.cbsnews.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie was deeply involved in setting up one of South America’s most important drug cartels, according to a report Friday by German news weekly Der Spiegel.

Dubbed the “Butcher of Lyon” for his wartime torture of prisoners, the former Gestapo chief in the occupied French city fled to South America after the end of World War II.

Barbie was eventually arrested after being tracked down by France’s most famous Nazi-hunting couple, Serge Klarsfeld and his wife Beate, the BBC reported. He was extradited from Bolivia to France in 1983 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 on charges of crimes against humanity.

Failed Soviet probe will soon crash to Earth – and we don’t know where– www.newscientist.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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More than 50 years after its launch, a Soviet spacecraft called Kosmos 482 is about to come crashing back to Earth. It was originally intended to land on the surface of Venus, but it started to fall apart in low Earth orbit and never made it beyond there. After decades of circling our planet in an oval-shaped orbit, it’s finally about to hurtle back to the ground.

Kosmos 482 launched in 1972, but because of secrecy during the cold war period, little is known about its structure or its exact mission. We only know it was headed for Venus because of other Soviet missions that were focused on our neighbouring world at the time and because the spacecraft appeared to attempt to launch on a trajectory there before it went to pieces. It isn’t clear what exactly caused the spacecraft failure, but three of the four fragments fell in New Zealand shortly after the launch.