Pope thrills hundreds of thousands of young Catholics at Holy Year youth festival
Leo arrived by helicopter as the sun set over the Tor Vergata field and immediately boarded his open-topped popemobile for long loops through the flag-waving, cheering pilgrims. They had already been partying there for hours, setting up campsites for the night as misting trucks and water cannons spritzed them to cool them down from the 30C (85F) temperatures.
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Toronto Sun
a day ago
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Storm Floris batters Scotland with 145 km/h winds, disrupts travel and festivals
Published Aug 04, 2025 • 1 minute read Members of the public are turned away from Edinburgh Castle as the site is closed to visitors due to high winds, in Scotland, Monday Aug. 4, 2025, as weather warnings are coming into force with Storm Floris expected to cause severe travel disruption to road, air and ferry services, and close bridges. Photo by Jane Barlow / PA via AP LONDON — Authorities in Scotland cancelled trains, closed parks and warned people to tie down backyard trampolines as a rare summer storm brought potentially destructive winds to northern Britain. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The U.K.'s Meteorological Office on Monday issued an 'amber' wind warning in Scotland for Storm Floris, meaning there is a potential risk to lives and property, especially from large waves in coastal areas. Network Rail Scotland said wind gusts of up to 90 m.p.h. (145 km/h) had felled trees across lines and damaged overhead wires. The wind and heavy rain are hitting at the busiest time of year for tourism, with hundreds of thousands of people flocking to the Edinburgh Fringe and other arts festivals. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo, one of the city's biggest tourist draws, said it was cancelling Monday's scheduled outdoor performance by massed ranks of bagpipers and drummers at Edinburgh Castle. Train companies cancelled services across much of Scotland and some ferry crossings were also scrapped. Floris, named by weather authorities, also could hit parts of Northern Ireland, Wales and northern England, the Met Office said. Scottish government minister Angela Constance urged people to be careful if traveling and 'consider this a winter journey as opposed to a summer journey. 'Please make sure you've got warm clothes, food, water, plenty of fuel and that your mobile phone is charged up,' she said. Train operator ScotRail urged 'anyone with garden equipment, such as tents, trampolines or furniture, to secure items so that they don't blow onto the tracks and interfere with lineside equipment.' Sunshine Girls Celebrity Sex Files Relationships Columnists
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
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LONDON (AP) — Authorities in Scotland canceled trains, closed parks and warned people to tie down backyard trampolines as a rare summer storm brought potentially destructive winds to northern Britain. The U.K.'s Meteorological Office issued an 'amber' wind warning in Scotland for Storm Floris, meaning there is a potential risk to lives and property, especially from large waves in coastal areas. The agency said wind gusts could reach 85 mph (137 kph), accompanied by heavy rain. The storm is hitting at the busiest time of year for tourism, with hundreds of thousands of people flocking to the Edinburgh Fringe and other arts festivals. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo, one of the city's biggest tourist draws, said it was cancelling Monday's scheduled outdoor performance by massed ranks of bagpipers and drummers at Edinburgh Castle. Train companies canceled services across much of Scotland and some ferry crossing also were scrapped. Floris, named by weather authorities, also could hit parts of Northern Ireland, Wales and northern England, the Met Office said. Scottish government minister Angela Constance urged people to be careful if traveling and 'consider this a winter journey as opposed to a summer journey. 'Please make sure you've got warm clothes, food, water, plenty of fuel and that your mobile phone is charged up,' she said. Train operator ScotRail urged 'anyone with garden equipment, such as tents, trampolines or furniture, to secure items so that they don't blow onto the tracks and interfere with lineside equipment.'
CTV News
3 days ago
- CTV News
Pope thrills hundreds of thousands of young Catholics at Holy Year youth festival
ROME — Pope Leo XIV urged hundreds of thousands of young people on Saturday to have the courage to make radical choices to do good, as he presided over his first big encounter with the next generation of Catholics during the highlight of the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year. Leo encountered a sea of people as he arrived by helicopter at the Tor Vergata field on Rome's outskirts for a vigil service of the Jubilee of Youth. Hailing from early 150 countries, the pilgrims had set up campsites on the field for the night, as misting trucks and water cannons spritzed them to cool them down from the 30C (85F) temperatures. Leo displayed his fluency in speaking to the kids in Spanish, Italian and English about the dangers of social media, the value of true friendship and the need to have courage to make radical choices like marriage or religious vows. 'Friendship can really change the world. Friendship is a path to peace,' he said. 'How much the world needs missionaries of the Gospel who are witnesses of justice and peace!' But history's first American pope also alerted them to some tragic news: Two young people who had made the pilgrimage to Rome had died, one reportedly of cardiac arrest, while a third was hospitalized, Leo told the crowd during the vigil service. Leo was to return to the field for an early morning Mass on Sunday morning to close out the celebration. Rome welcomes the throngs For the past week, these bands of young Catholics from around the world have poured into Rome for their special Jubilee celebration, in a Holy Year in which 32 million people are expected to descend on the Vatican to participate in a centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism. The young people have been traipsing down cobblestoned streets in color-coordinated T-shirts, praying the Rosary and singing hymns with guitars, bongo drums and tambourines shimmying alongside. Using their flags as tarps to shield them from the sun, they have taken over entire piazzas for Christian rock concerts and inspirational talks, and stood for hours at the Circus Maximus to confess their sins to 1,000 priests offering the sacrament in a dozen different languages. 'It is something spiritual, that you can experience only every 25 years,' said Francisco Michel, a pilgrim from Mexico. 'As a young person, having the chance to live this meting with the pope I feel it is a spiritual growth.' A mini World Youth Day, 25 years later It all has the vibe of a World Youth Day, the Catholic Woodstock festival that St. John Paul II inaugurated and made famous in Rome in 2000 at the very same Tor Vergata field. Then, before an estimated 2 million people, John Paul told the young pilgrims they were the 'sentinels of the morning' at the dawn of the third millennium. Officials had initially expected 500,000 youngsters this weekend, but Leo and organizers from the stage said the number could reach 1 million. The Vatican didn't immediately provide a final estimate. 'It's a bit messed up, but this is what is nice about the Jubilee,' said Chloe Jobbour, a 19-year-old Lebanese Catholic who was in Rome with a group of more than 200 young members of the Community of the Beatitudes, a France-based charismatic group. She said, for example, that it had taken two hours to get dinner at a KFC overwhelmed by orders Friday night. The Salesian school that offered her group housing is an hour away by bus. But Jobbour, like many in Rome this week, didn't mind the discomfort: It's all part of the experience. 'I don't expect it to be better than that. I expected it this way,' she said, as members of her group gathered on church steps near the Vatican to sing and pray Saturday morning before heading out to Tor Vergata. Romans inconvenienced, but tolerant Those Romans who didn't flee the onslaught have been inconvenienced by the additional strain on the city's notoriously insufficient public transport system. Residents are sharing social media posts of outbursts by Romans at kids flooding subway platforms and crowding bus stops that have delayed and complicated their commutes to work. But other Romans have welcomed the enthusiasm the youngsters have brought. Premier Giorgia Meloni offered a video welcome, marveling at the 'extraordinary festival of faith, joy and hope' that the young people had created. 'I think it's marvelous,' said Rome hairdresser Rina Verdone, who lives near the Tor Vergata field and woke up Saturday to find a gaggle of police outside her home as part of the massive, 4,000-strong operation mounted to keep the peace. 'You think the faith, the religion is in difficulty, but this is proof that it's not so.' Verdone had already made plans to take an alternate route home Saturday afternoon, that would require an extra kilometer (half-mile) walk, because she feared the 'invasion' of kids in her neighborhood would disrupt her usual bus route. But she said she was more than happy to make the sacrifice. 'You think of invasion as something negative. But this is a positive invasion,' she said. Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press
