Pope speaks about childhood and early mornings as an altar boy in unscripted visit with campers
Leo shared the memories during an unscripted visit with the children of Vatican employees who are attending the Holy See's summer camp. They were joined by other children, including Ukrainian young people, who are attending summer programs run by Italy's Caritas charity.
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Toronto Star
4 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Navy ships and helicopters used in intensified search for 30 missing after Indonesian ferry sinks
GILIMANUK, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities deployed navy ships and helicopters Friday in the intensified search for 30 people still missing almost two days after a ferry sank near the tourist island of Bali. More than 160 rescuers including police and soldiers were involved in the search that resumed after being halted overnight due to poor visibility, said Ribut Eko Suyatno, the deputy chief of operations at the National Search and Rescue Agency.
Winnipeg Free Press
9 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
US military's attempt to retain strategic land for training runs into Native Hawaiian opposition
HONOLULU (AP) — A high-altitude plateau on the Big Island is the only place in Hawaii where thousands of ground forces can practice firing live munitions. It's also a place many Native Hawaiians consider the spiritual heart of the island. The U.S. military wants to keep training at this spot, called Pohakuloa, so it's ready to quickly send troops to Asia and the Pacific. Its importance to the U.S. is only growing as China becomes more assertive, particularly regarding Taiwan. But the Army's lease for state lands beneath a key part of the training range expires in 2029. Native Hawaiians upset with the U.S. military's history of damaging Hawaiian lands with target practice and fuel leaks want the Army out. 'They have bombed and contaminated not just our land but our waters,' said Healani Sonoda-Pale, a community organizer with the Hawaiian sovereignty group Ka Lahui Hawaii. 'When does this end?' A problematic history The military controls about 5% of Hawaii's land, including bases for all branches. It has programs and staff to protect endangered and threatened species, prevent fires, and plant native plants. But past incidents have made many Native Hawaiians skeptical. The Navy turned the island of Kahoolawe, off Maui, into a bombing range after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The Navy returned it in 1994 after years of protests. But subsequent cleanup efforts have been incomplete. Live grenades and bombs remain scattered across a quarter of the island. Memories are still fresh from when the Navy spilled jet fuel into Pearl Harbor's drinking water from a network of underground fuel storage tanks and pipes in 2021. The leak prompted 6,000 people to seek medical care for rashes, nausea and other ailments and contaminated a Honolulu aquifer. The disaster occurred after admirals spent years dismissing community calls to move the tanks. On Tuesday, Honolulu's water utility sued the Navy seeking to recoup an estimated $1.2 billion that it has had to spend because of the spill. Also on Oahu, environmental advocates say Army live-fire training in Makua Valley sparked wildfires and destroyed native forestland and sacred cultural sites. A legal settlement stopped such training in 2004. The cultural significance of Pohakuloa Pohakuloa consists of rocky plains, hills and brush about 6,200 feet (1,900 meters) above sea level between the Big Island's tallest volcanoes, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. It hosts endangered species including the Hawaiian catchfly shrub. Early Hawaiians ventured across the plateau to reach a Mauna Kea quarry that produced high-quality basalt for stone tools and to travel between coastal towns. In 2022, Army staff discovered ancient wooden 'kii,' or figures, in a lava tube, an underground passageway created by molten rock. Consultants said the figures are from human burials, and state preservationists say they're among Hawaii's most significant archaeological finds. Pohakuloa Training Area spans more than 200 square miles (518 square kilometers). The section in question is only 17% of that total, but it's critically located in between two larger federal parcels. Troops fire munitions from the state-owned parcel onto federal lands. The land's importance for training and deterrence Other live-fire training areas in Hawaii are too small to accommodate battalions and brigades. Commanders say it would take too long to send troops, trucks and helicopters to the U.S. mainland for drills. 'What we anticipate in a future fight is that we will not have the time to recover that equipment and to position ourselves back into the region,' said Maj. Gen. James Bartholomees, U.S. Army Pacific chief of staff. Pohakuloa training, he said, allows troops to 'move from Hawaii into the Indo-Pacific, into key terrain, to be prepared to meet our adversaries, or more importantly, to deter them.' The Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force exercise there, as do allied and partner militaries. The Hawaii National Guard accounts for one-quarter of Pohakuloa's training. County fire and police departments use it too. Negotiations to exchange land The Army prepared an environmental impact statement, including public feedback, that analyzed how the military's continued use of the land would affect plants, animals and cultural heritage. On May 9, the state land board rejected it after hearing hours of often emotional testimony in opposition. Among other issues, the board cited inadequate inventory of unexploded ordnance and insufficient inventory of ancient burials and associated artifacts. The Army is considering whether to appeal. It could also negotiate a land exchange with the state instead. Such talks can't begin until the Army finalizes its environmental study with a decision about its plans. The defense secretary's office then must sign off on acquiring land. Alice Roberts, U.S. Army Pacific's program manager for training land retention, said the service has had some informal conversations, including trying to understand the state's swap criteria. Buying the land would be a 'a big hurdle,' for the Army, she said, because two-thirds of the state House and Senate would need to approve such a transaction. U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda, a Democrat, said the Army must double down on being good stewards and make up for the military's past mistakes. Tokuda wants the military to help increase Hawaii's housing supply, given that service members occupy 14% of Oahu's housing stock and that high housing costs are driving residents out. She said it could bolster Hawaii's water and sewer infrastructure. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green suggested in an interview with Hawaii News Now that the military could take the land through eminent domain, but Tokuda said she hasn't heard anyone in the military or President Donald Trump's administration mention that. A call for a cleanup Kaialiʻi Kahele, the chairperson of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which advocates for Native Hawaiians, wants to see what federal lands the Army would offer. He wants to know whether it would be willing to reduce the impact of its training, and what sort of clean up and community benefits it would provide. 'We have to get to a point where you do training and then you clean up your mess,' said Kahele, a former congressman who served more than 20 years in the Hawaii Air National Guard and is now in the Air Force Reserve. 'That should be the model of training that respects aina, respects this place and its culture and its people,' he said, using the Hawaiian word for land.
Winnipeg Free Press
10 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Indonesian rescuers intensify search for 30 people missing after ferry sinks near Bali
GILIMANUK, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities intensified on Friday a search operation for 30 people missing after a ferry sank near the tourist island of Bali. The KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank almost half an hour after leaving Ketapang port in East Java late Wednesday for a trip of about 5 kilometers (3 miles) to Bali's Gilimanuk port. The search and rescue operation was halted Thursday evening due to visibility problems and resumed on Friday morning with more than 160 rescuers including police and soldiers, said Ribut Eko Suyatno, the deputy chief of operations at the National Search and Rescue Agency. Three helicopters and a thermal drone were deployed to conduct an aerial search over the waters of the Bali Strait, while about 20 vessels were mobilized for the sea search, Suyatno said. As weather forecasts predict high waves and rough waters around the Bali Strait on Friday, he said at least three navy ships to being deployed to replace small boats. Videos and photos released by the agency showed rescuers looking desperately from rescue boats in the waters but no new survivors. The agency released the names of 29 survivors and six people confirmed dead late Thursday. It didn't release names of the missing, but according to the passenger manifest there were 30 people missing. On Friday, survivors were being treated at Bali's Jembrana Regional Hospital, while the bodies have been handed over to the families for funerals. Distraught relatives gathered at the port office in Gilimanuk, hoping for news of missing family members. Indonesian authorities are investigating the cause of the accident. Survivors told rescuers there appeared to be a leak in the engine room of the ferry, which was carrying 22 vehicles including 14 trucks. Ferry tragedies occur regularly in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, with weak enforcement of safety regulations often to blame. Fifteen people were killed after a boat capsized off Indonesia's Sulawesi in 2023, while another ferry sank in rough seas near Bali in 2021, leaving seven dead and 11 missing. In 2018, an overcrowded ferry sank with about 200 people on board in a deep volcanic crater lake in North Sumatra province, killing 167 people. In one of the country's worst recorded disasters, an overcrowded passenger ship sank in February 1999 with 332 people aboard. There were only 20 survivors. ___ Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
