SRN NEWS

LONDON (AP) — Andy Burnham once said he would refuse to meet Donald Trump. Now Britain’s prime minister is about to hold his first meeting with the U.S. president, with Ukraine and the soaring cost of conflict in the Middle East at the top of his agenda. U.S. officials say the two leaders will hold talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Burnham is set to address the annual gathering of world leaders on Tuesday, setting out his vision of Britain’s place in an increasingly fractured world order. Burnham’s only other foreign trip since taking office in July was to Kyiv, and he has said he will urge Trump to send interceptor missiles to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses ahead of another winter of war. The British government also wants to discuss ways to restore free movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, largely blocked since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran in February. The closure of the key route has sent oil prices spiking, complicating Burnham’s efforts to jump-start Britain’s sluggish economy and ease the cost of living. Like many Labour Party politicians, Burnham was strongly critical of Trump in the past. In 2017 Burnham, as the mayor of Greater Manchester, said the president wouldn’t be welcome in the city. Two years later he said he would refuse to meet Trump if he visited. After becoming prime minister in July, Burnham said he always tries to find “common ground” with other politicians. Burnham and Trump have spoken twice since Burnham replaced Keir Starmer at the helm of the center-left governing party. Trump has called Burnham “a nice guy,” but has also recently needled U.K. officials by expressing support for Irish unification and musing about the future of the Falkland Islands that are claimed by both Britain and Argentina. Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said Burnham would be “pragmatic.” “We won’t agree with the U.S. administration on everything,” Phillipson told Times Radio on Sunday. “We are from different political traditions, we have different approaches. But maintaining that relationship is critical for our national interest and I know that that’s the approach Andy Burnham will always take, putting our country first.” Starmer went out of his way to flatter Trump, presenting him in the Oval Office in February 2025 with an invitation from King Charles III for an unprecedented second state visit to the U.K. British officials felt Starmer’s approach was vindicated when the U.K. struck a trade deal with the Trump administration. But Trump soured on Starmer over his refusal to join the Iran war. The president also has repeatedly criticized the U.K.’s immigration and green-energy policies, urging the country to open more of the North Sea up to oil drilling. Burnham is expected to announce a decision soon about whether to approve new oil and gas fields off Scotland. U.K. officials also are braced for criticism of Britain’s ban on trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and efforts to regulate big American technology firms. Trump’s threats to seize Greenland alarmed the U.K. and other European allies earlier this year, and Burnham was among leaders expressing relief at the announcement of a deal between Greenland, Denmark and the U.S. to bolster the American military presence there but keep the Arctic island under Danish control. Trump has other, more high-profile, international meetings this week, including one at the White House with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Burnham’s trip comes as middle-sized powers, led most vocally by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, try to forge closer alliances in the face of Trump’s “America first” foreign policy. Burnham’s government wants Britain to be bolder on the world stage, and to restore some of the ties with Europe severed when the U.K. left the European Union in 2020. Ed Davey, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, urged Burnham to “do what the Europeans are doing, what the Canadians are doing, and start saying to Donald Trump, ‘the way you’re treating our country, the way you’re treating the world, is not acceptable.’” “I want him to stand up to Trump. It’s really clear that’s the only language the president respects,” Davey said. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

VATICAN CITY (AP) — When an ailing Pope John Paul II visited the French shrine at Lourdes in 2004, on his last foreign trip, he delivered a forceful condemnation of abortion and euthanasia as he gasped for air during Mass. Pope Leo XIV is expected to make a similar appeal to protect life when he visits France this weekend and also prays at Lourdes. One of Christianity’s most-visited pilgrimage destinations is especially popular for sick people because of its association with miraculous cures. Leo’s message will likely land differently, since France’s National Assembly in 2024 enshrined abortion as a constitutional right and recently gave final approval to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication. It was the culmination of years of debate over end-of-life care in France and comes as other countries in Europe and the Americas have increasingly legalized assisted dying, though British lawmakers recently voted down a bill allowing it. Catholic teaching holds that life must be defended from conception until natural death. It insists that chronically ill patients, including those in vegetative states, must receive “ordinary” care such as hydration and nutrition, but that “extraordinary” or disproportionate care can be suspended if it is only prolonging a precarious and painful life. With Leo’s blessing, French bishops decided the official motto of his trip would be “That the world may have life,” suggesting that protecting human life and human dignity will be an overarching theme of the visit. Leo has emphasized the need to protect the dignity of all human life, from immigrants to the sick and unborn, most significantly in his inaugural encyclical on safeguarding human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence. Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, president of the bishops’ conference, said he expected Leo would raise the issue. “We already know that the question of life and respect for life — not only from an ethical standpoint, but in many ways — is at the heart of the pope’s message and aligns very closely with the message of the Gospel.” France is a traditionally Catholic country, but adheres to a strict form of secularism in public life based on a 1905 law separating church and state. And like many countries in the once-traditionally Christian West, France has seen the influence of the Catholic Church wane amid secularizing trends and the impact of the clergy sexual abuse scandal on its credibility. Yet French bishops have expressed astonishment at the level of interest in the pope’s Sept. 25-28 visit and say they expect 1 million people will see him. Due to larger-than-expected crowds, organizers lengthened the perimeter for Leo’s main Mass at the central Place de la Concorde, extending the site beyond the 1.9-kilometer (1.2-mile) length of the Champs-Elysees where he’ll parade down in his popemobile. Leo elicited a similar level of interest in secular Spain in June, where he received a seven-minute standing ovation after his speech to the Spanish Parliament. “I think nobody many months ago or a few months ago would have imagined” the level of interest, said Sister Nathalie Becquart, a top Vatican official from France. “But they see what happened in Spain.” Like Spain, France has seen a trend of new adult baptisms in recent years, particularly among conservative young adults, many of whom are attracted to more traditional forms of worship including the old Latin Mass. More than 13,000 adults were baptized at Easter this year in France, where the number of adult baptisms has more than tripled since 2016, the French bishops’ conference reported. Leo will meet with some of these new converts in a special audience. But experts caution these numbers don’t counteract the overall generational trend of the children of practicing French Catholics no longer going to Mass or baptizing their babies. In 1980, there were 513,000 baptisms in France; in 2024, a total of 186,000. “The new phenomenon of adult baptisms is put into perspective; in fact, it represents only a very modest rebound,” said Christian Marquant, a traditionalist Catholic who blames the secularizing crisis in the French church on the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Leo is bookending his trip to France with two events to broaden his message to an international audience. On Day 1, he visits UNESCO to speak about artificial intelligence and the value of education and art. In his AI encyclical “Magnificent Humanity,” Leo called for robust AI regulation and for developers to slow down — a stance they have recently taken as a group. Leo’s position on AI has put him at odds with the Trump administration, which has encouraged AI innovation so the U.S. can compete with and surpass China. The visit to UNESCO by the American pope is significant, given the Trump administration has once again announced it is withdrawing from the U.N. cultural agency, part of its broader retreat from international organizations. On his final day, Sept. 28, Leo will visit the northern French city of Metz, the birthplace of Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of European integration. Leo will participate in a meeting with other faith leaders and then speak at a European conference on peace, at a time of war in Ukraine and beyond. The Vatican took the unusual step of announcing ahead of time that Leo would meet with victims of clergy sexual abuse while in France. The gathering of seven survivors includes one who was an adult when abused, a recognition of the new frontier of the abuse crisis facing the church. The French church has endured a brutal reckoning with its legacy of abuse. An independent report in 2021 estimated 330,000 children had been abused over 70 years by some 3,000 priests and church workers. Despite criticism of the report’s methodology and conclusions, French bishops nevertheless put in place an independent system of compensation for victims that to date has recommended the church pay out more than 20 million euros. In Lourdes, Leo will be reminded of a prickly abuse case inherited from Pope Francis. The façade of one of the Lourdes basilicas was designed by the Rev. Marko Rupnik, one of the Catholic Church’s most famous mosaic artists. Rupnik is currently on trial in a Vatican court, accused by more than two dozen women of having psychologically, spiritually and sexually abused them starting in the 1990s, including during the creation of his artworks. His case was covered up for three decades by his Jesuit superiors, and even Francis was suspected of having protected his fellow Jesuit. Amid a media outcry, Francis in 2024 ordered a canonical trial, which is ongoing. The Rupnik case posed the question of what to do with his mosaics, which adorn basilicas around the world. In 2024, Lourdes Bishop Jean-Marc Micas decided to no longer illuminate the façade of the Notre Dame du Rosaire Basilica at night. He subsequently ordered the decorated doors covered, and more recently decided to cover the façade’s mosaics entirely. He reasoned that abuse victims who come to Lourdes for healing shouldn’t be forced to see them. Since some of the abuse was allegedly committed during the creation of the mosaics, “it is impossible to separate the work of art from the abuse,” said Laura Sgro, attorney for five women who accused Rupnik and have welcomed Micas’ decision to cover the mosaics. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An explosion injured three South Korean military officers Monday inside the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone separating the Koreas, officials said. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the explosion occurred during an unspecified operation near the military demarcation line within the border buffer zone between the two nations, which is commonly referred to as the DMZ. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, the ministry said. South Korean officials did not say whether it was possible the explosion was caused by a land mine planted by North Korea, which has added mines, anti-tank barriers and other front line fortifications in recent months as relations between the war-divided rivals have sharply deteriorated. Two of the officers were airlifted from the site by helicopter, while the third was transported by land before being airlifted, according to the ministry. The officers are being treated at a military hospital near the capital Seoul. The DMZ, which is 248 kilometers (155 miles) long and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide, is one of the world’s most heavily armed borders. An estimated 2 million mines are peppered inside and near the border, which also is guarded by barbed wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides. The zone is a legacy of the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, which ended with an armistice but not a peace treaty. There have been growing concerns in South Korea about increased activity by North Korean soldiers near the military demarcation line as the North strengthens its border defenses during prolonged tensions between the countries. The South Korean military has not officially confirmed media reports that North Korean soldiers crossed the MDL more than 20 times during front line operations in August alone. The South’s military fired warning shots to repel some 10 North Korean soldiers who crossed the military demarcation line at the eastern section of the DMZ in April 2025. The North Korean soldiers retreated after the South broadcast audio warnings and fired the shots and there were no clashes. In June 2024, North Korean troops crossed the border three times, prompting South Korea to fire warning shots. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent years has suspended virtually all cooperation and diplomacy with South Korea while declaring Seoul as his most hostile enemy during a stalemate in his larger nuclear negotiations with Washington. North Korean mines in past years have occasionally washed down a swollen river into South Korea, killing or injuring civilians. In August 2015, land mine blasts maimed two South Korean soldiers and caused tensions between the two Koreas to flare. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Stine Jacobsen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen COPENHAGEN, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Denmark, Greenland and the United States are set to sign a deal on Greenland’s security on Tuesday, an agreement Denmark says will put Arctic security under NATO’s watch rather than leaving it solely to Washington and Copenhagen. The agreement, expected to be signed at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, has not been made public, though President Donald Trump says it grants the US “permanent control”. Denmark and Greenland have not commented on Trump’s claim but said the deal will benefit the Arctic island and respect its sovereignty. The deal follows months of pressure from Trump, who has said the United States should control Greenland and at times refused to rule out using military or economic force to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish territory. His threats, which peaked in January, triggered a diplomatic crisis within NATO and pushed Denmark and Greenland into negotiations with Washington aimed at defusing the pressure. “It (the agreement) will be in a form where responsibility for security in the Arctic is not only Danish or American,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told national broadcaster TV2 on Sunday. He added that to a large extent “it would be NATO that looks after the Arctic”. PROMOTING ‘SECURITY, STABILITY AND COOPERATION’  A NATO spokesperson said on Saturday that the alliance welcomed the agreement, which would “help advance security, stability and cooperation in this vital region”.  Rasmussen, who travelled to New York overnight, declined to discuss the contents of the agreement. “But we have said from the start that we are open to accommodating the United States’ legitimate security interests,” Rasmussen told Danish news agency Ritzau on Monday. Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday the agreement gives the United States “permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland,” and that no US adversary could have a base or military presence there without Washington’s written approval.  Denmark has not responded to Trump’s claim, though Copenhagen has earlier acknowledged it underinvested in Greenland’s defence for decades and has pledged to expand its military presence on the island, including more NATO troops. Key details have not been made public, including whether the deal amends the 1951 defence agreement that is the legal basis for the US presence in Greenland.  Greenland’s government has sought to reassure the public about the deal. Erik Jensen, an opposition lawmaker in Greenland, wrote on Facebook that he had read the draft agreement: “I feel reassured and am not worried,” he said, adding that the island’s foreign minister was handling the work well. (Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Jacob Gronholt-PedersenEditing by Gareth Jones) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

MILAN, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Central banks need to understand who benefits from artificial intelligence-driven gains, as their distribution will help shape aggregate demand and inflation, European Central Bank Governing Council member Fabio Panetta said on Monday. • AI is set to transform productivity and growth, labour and financial markets, and payment systems, Panetta said. • If AI mainly creates new tasks and raises expected labour income, demand could increase before AI’s full productivity benefits materialise, prolonging inflationary pressures, he added. • Panetta, who is also governor of the Bank of Italy, was speaking at an event hosted by the National Bank of Ukraine. • Credibility is an essential asset of every central bank, but how it is built and preserved depends on the nature of the challenges faced, he said. • Central banks cannot remain on the sidelines, Panetta said, adding that understanding changes underway is increasingly essential to central bank credibility. • According to Panetta, if automation dominates, weaker consumption could cause the disinflationary effects of AI to emerge sooner. (Reporting by Sara Rossi; Editing Gianluca Semeraro and Jamie Freed) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com