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Pope Francis dead at 88, Vatican says
Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome and Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, who worked to instill progressive influences on the global church while maintaining unity with conservatives amid years of turmoil, died Monday morning, Vatican camerlengo Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced.
He was 88 years old.
«Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis. At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His Church,» Farrell announced.
«He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God.»
U.S. Vice President JD Vance had just met with the pope on Sunday.
«I just learned of the passing of Pope Francis. My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him. I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill. But I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID. It was really quite beautiful. May God rest his soul,» Vance said early Monday morning in a post on X.
Pope Francis meets with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his delegation during an audience at Casa Santa Marta on April 20, 2025, in Vatican City, Vatican. (Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
The pope preached frequently on the Catholic virtues of mercy, kindness and humility. He did not shy away from controversy, and American presidents, including Donald Trump and Joe Biden, were not immune from his views.
Less than a month into President Donald Trump’s presidency, the pontiff criticized the Republican’s plans for the mass deportations of migrants, stressing that the forceful removal of people simply for their immigration status deprives them of their inherent dignity and «will end badly.»
In a strongly worded letter to U.S. Catholic Bishops, the pope appeared to counter remarks made by Vice President JD Vance — who had recently converted to Catholicism — after he suggested Americans should care for family, communities and the country before caring about others.
«Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,» the pontiff wrote. «Worrying about personal, community or national identity, apart from these considerations.»
POPE FRANCIS EXPOSES CONFIDENTIAL DETAILS ABOUT HIS ELECTION AND RELATIONSHIPS IN LENGTHY INTERVIEW
Pope Francis meets with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians and pastoral workers in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 15, 2022. (Reuters/Pavel Mikheyev)
Pope Francis in 2015 became the first pontiff to ever address a Joint Meeting of Congress where he spoke on a range of topics including immigration, family, the death penalty, climate change, extremism, religious freedom and the refugee crisis.
He joined American bishops and urged American leaders to abolish capital punishment and said Congress has a «role to play» in addressing global warming.
In 2022 he questioned then President Biden’s conscience on abortion in an interview during which he described the commander-in-chief’s religious identity and views on abortion as incoherent. «A month after conception, the DNA of the fetus is already there and the organs are aligned. There is human life,» the pontiff said in the interview with Spanish-language outlet Univision.
He also weighed in on candidates Trump and Harris during the election campaign, where he bashed them both, saying, «Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,″ he said, according to the Associated Press.
Just weeks before President Trump’s second inauguration, he appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy to be the Archbishop of Washington. McElroy had been critical of Trump’s immigration policies during his first term as president.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 to Italian immigrant parents in Argentina, Francis made history as the first pope from the Americas — as well as the first Jesuit to hold the office.
He was elected pope in 2013 after the almost unprecedented retirement of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
Bergolio’s father, Mario, was an accountant for the railway industry, and his mother, Regina, was a homemaker and caregiver for her five children.
POPE FRANCIS FUELS NEW SPECULATION ON FUTURE OF PONTIFICATE
Pope Francis, born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is shown here with his family. From left to right, standing, brother Alberto Horacio, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Oscar Adrian and sister Marta Regina, sitting, sister Maria Elena, mother Regina and father Mario Jose Francisco. (API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Throughout his early years, the future pope worked a number of menial jobs. He labored briefly in the stocking factory where his father was an accountant before moving on to other opportunities, including jobs as a bar bouncer and janitor.
He eventually sought a career as a chemical technician, receiving a diploma in chemistry from the secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial N° 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen. He also worked briefly in a food laboratory. However, his career in chemistry was short-lived.
He entered the priesthood at the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto in Argentina. Francis was ordained a priest in 1969 and made his final profession with the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, in 1973. The same year, he was appointed as a provincial for the order.
His appointment as provincial was concurrent with the Dirty War, a period of intense state-led persecution of left-wing leaders and political dissidents. Bergolio experienced constant threats to his own safety as he worked to hide or aid in the escape of government targets, including many Catholic faithful.
Pope Francis’ is a fan of Argentina’s San Lorenzo Futbol Club. (API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
During that time, two Jesuit priests under his supervision were disappeared by the government, drugged and left barely alive in a field five months after their kidnapping. Pope Francis has said he was forced to negotiate with the regime for their release.
Bergolio would spend the next two decades bouncing from position to position at the direction of his superiors. He served as a professor of theology, seminary instructor, rector, doctoral student and parish priest.
In 1992, Pope John Paul II appointed Bergolio as titular Bishop of Auca and as an auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires. This was done at the request of Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who consecrated him to the episcopacy.
Bergoglio proved vital to the nation’s Catholic community, and he was quickly raised to the dignity of Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires, serving alongside Quarracino and taking over the archdiocese entirely after his death the following year.
Bergoglio was given the crimson hat of a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001.
In 2013, after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Bergoglio was elected to the papacy, selecting the pontifical name «Francis» after St. Francis of Assisi — a choice that set the tone for the rest of his papacy.
POPE DERIDES BIDEN’S ABORTION VIEWS, CATHOLIC SELF-IDENTITY AS ‘INCOHERENCE’
Newly elected Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina appears on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after being elected by the conclave of cardinals, at the Vatican on March 13, 2013. White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel chimney, and the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out, signaling at the time that the Roman Catholic cardinals had elected a pope to succeed Benedict XVI. (Tony Gentile/Reuters)
Pope Francis’s teachings as a priest, bishop, cardinal and pope were deeply influenced by his Jesuit vocation — viewing each person as a unique creation of God, with whom they can have a personal relationship. His ministry and leadership were committed to keeping doors open and making the church approachable to the public.
It was not only American politics that he had strong opinions of.
He faced criticism for specific remarks he made against Israel’s military operation in Gaza, calling the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave «very serious and shameful.» During that same speech, he condemned the growth of antisemitism throughout the world, Reuters reported. He also called for an end to the war in Ukraine and expressed concerns over climate change.
In 2023, seemingly looking to strike a balance, he formally allowed Catholic priests to give same-sex couples a blessing, which was seen as being a radical shift in church policy, the Associated Press reported at the time.
Pope Francis is also remembered for living a life of intense simplicity, denying himself a lavish papal apartment in the Vatican upon his election, and opting instead for a two-room suite in the Domus Santa Marta, a residence built by Pope John Paul II.
Pope Francis celebrates the traditional rite of the washing of feet at the Casal del Marmo juvenile penitentiary on April 6, 2023, in Rome, Italy. On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis went to the outskirts of Rome to celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the Casal del Marmo juvenile penitentiary, where he carried out the traditional rite of the washing of the feet of twelve of the young people there. (Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
In contrast to his immediate predecessors, Pope Francis eschewed ornate robes or luxurious clothing. His outfit rarely consisted of more than a plain, white cassock tied with a papal fascia.
Pope Francis even dressed down his Ring of the Fisherman — a piece of gold jewelry worn by popes to signify their office — by having it made with silver and only wearing it for ceremonies.
Francis’s tenure continued the ongoing efforts to investigate decades of sexual abuse claims against priests across the world, including in the United States, with Francis vowing transparency in 2019.
«Transparency is now being implemented at the highest level,» said Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Archbishop of Malta and Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, after Francis gave legal authorities access to documents about sexual abuse cases and abolished the «pontifical secret» of the cases.
POPE FRANCIS DEFROCKS NOTORIOUS BISHOP WHO CONFESSED TO ABUSING HIS NEPHEW
Pope Francis meets President Donald Trump during his first term in the Private Library of the Apostolic Palace with his wife, Melania, his daughter, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. (Vatican/Pool/Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori via Getty Images)
He continued Benedict’s work to root malicious clerics out of the Church hierarchy «with the wrath of God,» appointing task forces and establishing victim aid groups.
Pope Francis proved frustrating for a wide variety of conservatives, liberals, traditionalists and progressives.
His gentle — at times vague and confusing — language on key social issues, such as sexuality and divorce, frustrated conservatives hoping for a more aggressive champion of Catholic moral teaching.
In July 2017, a group of Catholic clergy and academics sent Pope Francis a «Filial Correction» document alleging seven serious theological mistakes made by the pontiff in public statements. The document’s assertions proved controversial within the Catholic Church and the document was never explicitly addressed.
Conversely, his refusal to back down from traditional church teachings on abortion, gay marriage, women’s ordination and priestly celibacy frustrated progressives hoping for a more modern church.
Echoing his time as a prelate in Argentina, Pope Francis was at times criticized from both sides of the aisle for his heavy hand enforcing Catholic unity on national and international levels.
Traditionalists voiced intense opposition to his apostolic letter «Traditionis custodes,» which restricted the celebration of the traditional Latin mass in an attempt to squash increasingly separatist conservative movements within the Church.
Pope Francis meets with then-President Joe Biden during an audience at the Apostolic Palace on Oct. 29, 2021 in Vatican City. (Vatican Media via Vatican Pool)
He similarly shut down discussion of many social issues that progressives have sought to reform.
In 2019, Pope Francis told a nun asking him to approve the ordination of women that «if the Lord didn’t want a sacramental ministry for women, it can’t go forward,» adding, «We are Catholics, but if anyone wants to found another church they are free [to do so].»
The hyper-progressive leadership of the Catholic Church in Germany was a target of his ire after the country’s clerical leaders attempted an upheaval of traditional teachings regarding gender and sexuality. The Vatican issued a series of letters, approved by Pope Francis, accusing the German church of risking separation from the Catholic Communion.
The conflict with German bishops encapsulated his papacy’s recurring themes of authority and unity, best exemplified in a passage from his «Letter to the Pilgrim People of God in Germany.»
POPE FRANCIS URGES CATHOLIC VOTERS TO ‘CHOOSE THE LESSER EVIL’ BETWEEN TRUMP AND HARRIS
Pope Francis delivers a speech during the Holy Mass with newly appointed Cardinals. (Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In the letter, Pope Francis wrote, «The universal Church lives in and of the particular Churches, just as the particular Churches live and flourish in and from the universal Church. If they find themselves separated from the entire ecclesial body, they weaken, rot and die. Hence, the need always to ensure that communion with the whole body of the Church is alive and effective.»
Pope Francis visited dozens of countries, including the United States and Cuba in 2015, and went as far afield as Papua New Guinea, as well as visits to predominantly Muslim countries including Egypt, Morocco and Jordan.
Pope Francis struggled with health complications throughout his reign.
The pontiff dealt for many years with sciatica, a nerve condition that caused immense pain in his leg and at times hindered his ability to walk.
In 2021, Pope Francis was hospitalized for an intestinal surgery that removed 13 inches of his colon.
In March 2023, Francis was again taken to the hospital after experiencing intense chest pain and difficulty breathing. He was treated for a respiratory infection and released after antibiotic treatment.
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Pope Francis is welcomed as he arrives at the Apostolic Prefecture on Sept. 1, 2023 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. According to the Vatican, the trip was Pope Francis’s 43rd Apostolic Journey abroad and the 61st country he visited as Pope. (Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
In June of the same year, the pope was brought back for another abdominal surgery to repair an incisional hernia. He was released after making a full recovery.
He took a fall at his residence and suffered a contusion on his right arm in January 2025.
In February, he was once again hospitalized after a bout of bronchitis.
Following Pope Francis’ death, the Vatican has entered a time of sede vacante — in English, «empty seat.»
The Associated Press, Reuters and Fox News’ Annie Butterworth contributed to this report.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is coordinating with his colleagues in the House to push back against Senate Republicans’ efforts to ram President Donald Trump’s wish list of policy desires through the Senate.
In a letter to Senate Democrats on Sunday, Schumer, D-N.Y., laid out a multipronged strategy to inflict as much pain on Republicans as possible in the budget reconciliation process, the legislative strategy the GOP is employing to sidestep negotiating with Democrats to advance the president’s priorities.
SENATE REPUBLICANS EYE CHANGES TO TRUMP’S MEGABILL AFTER HOUSE WIN
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Donald Trump (Getty Images)
While congressional Republicans don’t need Democrats to move the colossal bill to Trump’s desk, Schumer wants to make the process as uncomfortable as possible as Senate Republicans begin a roughly monthlong sprint to put their fingerprints on what Trump deemed a «big, beautiful bill.»
The top Senate Democrat is coordinating with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and the top Democrats on crucial House committees to «share firsthand insight from their process and key Republican fault lines» with their Senate counterparts.
«Based on Senate Republicans’ public comments, it’s clear that if this reckless reconciliation bill passes the Senate it is very likely to contain changes, forcing it to be sent back to the House of Representatives,» Schumer wrote. «That’s why we must be united with our House Democratic colleagues to fight this assault on working families.»
Indeed, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said much of the debate and subsequent tweaks to the bill would focus on finding deeper spending cuts. The House’s offering set a goal of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade, but some Senate Republicans want to hit $2 trillion, while a smaller cohort of fiscal hawks want to go even deeper.
DEMS CALL BUDGET BILL ‘BUREAUCRATIC WATER TORTURE’ AS GOP ‘GLAD TO HAVE THE BALL IN OUR COURT’
Sens. John Barrasso, left, John Thune and Tom Cotton (Getty)
Thune said that Republicans’ main focus during the next month would be ensuring that Trump’s first-term tax cuts are made permanent with the massive bill and not allowed to expire by the end of the year on the Senate floor, marking the Senate’s return on Monday.
«We are not going to let that happen, and our biggest focus this month is completing this tax relief legislation with the goal of getting the final bill to the president before the Fourth of July,» he said. «It’s going to be a very busy month, Mr. President.»
In all, 10 Senate committees will be tasked with sifting through the massive bill’s contents, which include the president’s policy desires on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt.
FETTERMAN DEFIES ‘PUNITIVE’ PUNISHMENT FOR BREAKING WITH DEMOCRATIC PARTY DURING BIPARTISAN DISCUSSION
House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans celebrated passing Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ on Thursday. (Getty Images)
Schumer’s edict comes as those committees gear up to make their own revisions to the bill to, in part, fall in line with their own policy and spending desires and to also comply with Senate rules.
He noted that Senate Democrats have been working «overtime» to target a litany of policies in the GOP’s plan that «are in clear violation of the reconciliation rules and, in some cases, an assault on our very democracy.»
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Some Republicans already have issues with certain policies in the bill, like cuts to Medicaid or the plan to move up the timeline to phase out green energy tax credits ushered in by the Biden administration.
Schumer also prodded Democrats to continue aggressively denouncing the bill on the ground in their home states and districts, arguing that «if the American people truly knew how deeply devastating, damaging, and deceitful this Republican plan is, they will reject it.»
«Republicans’ ‘One Ugly Bill’ is a farce; an attack on the values that make America great,» he wrote. «We know the first four months of Donald Trump’s presidency have been catastrophic for the American people. It is our duty to fight for American families, to stop the damage, and make certain Republicans are held accountable.»
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Donald Trump estaría abierto a encabezar una reunión con Volodimir Zelensky y Vladimir Putin
El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, está “abierto” a reunirse con sus homólogos ruso y ucraniano en Turquía, dijo la Casa Blanca, después de que las dos partes no lograron el lunes avanzar hacia un esquivo alto el fuego.
Sin embargo, las delegaciones de ambas partes acordaron otro intercambio de prisioneros a gran escala en su reunión en Estambul, que a mediados de mayo también albergó su primera ronda de conversaciones cara a cara.
El presidente turco, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, propuso que el presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin, el presidente ucraniano, Volodimir Zelensky, y Trump se reúnan para una tercera ronda a finales de este mes en Estambul o Ankara.
Putin se ha negado hasta ahora a tal reunión. Pero Zelensky ha declarado su disposición, subrayando que los asuntos clave solo pueden resolverse a nivel de líderes.
Trump, que quiere un fin rápido a la guerra de tres años, “está abierto a ello (una cumbre tripartita) si se llega a ese punto, pero quiere que ambos líderes y ambas partes se sienten juntos a la mesa”, dijo la portavoz de la Casa Blanca, Karoline Leavitt, en Washington.
Zelensky dijo que “realmente esperamos que Trump tome medidas enérgicas” e instó al líder estadounidense a endurecer las sanciones contra Rusia para “presionarla” a aceptar un alto el fuego total.
En la reunión del lunes, Ucrania declaró que Moscú había rechazado su petición de un alto el fuego incondicional. En su lugar, ofreció una tregua parcial de dos a tres días en algunas zonas del frente.
Rusia solo aceptará un alto el fuego total si las tropas ucranianas se retiran por completo de cuatro regiones: Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia y Kherson, según los términos de negociación informados por los medios estatales rusos. Actualmente, Rusia solo controla parcialmente esas regiones.
Moscú también ha exigido que se prohíba a Kiev unirse a la OTAN, limitar el ejército ucraniano y poner fin al apoyo militar occidental.
Los principales negociadores de ambos lados confirmaron que sus últimas conversaciones dieron como resultado un acuerdo para intercambiar a todos los soldados gravemente heridos, así como a todos los combatientes capturados menores de 25 años.
El principal negociador ruso, Vladimir Medinsky, dijo que esto implicaría “al menos 1.000” de cada lado, superando el intercambio de 1.000 por 1.000 prisioneros de guerra acordado en las conversaciones el mes pasado.
Las dos partes también acordaron entregar los cuerpos de 6.000 soldados muertos, dijo Ucrania después de las conversaciones.
“La parte rusa siguió rechazando la moción de un alto el fuego incondicional”, dijo a los periodistas el viceministro de Asuntos Exteriores de Ucrania, Sergiy Kyslytsya, después de las conversaciones.
Rusia dijo que había ofrecido una pausa limitada en los combates.
“Hemos propuesto un alto el fuego específico durante dos o tres días en ciertas zonas de la línea del frente”, dijo el principal negociador, Vladimir Medinsky, añadiendo que esto era necesario para recoger los cuerpos de los soldados muertos en el campo de batalla.
Kiev dijo que estudiaría un documento que la parte rusa entregó a sus negociadores en el que se describen sus demandas tanto de paz como de un alto el fuego total.
Zelensky dijo después de concluir las conversaciones de Estambul que ningún acuerdo debe “recompensar” a Putin.
“La clave para una paz duradera es clara: el agresor no debe recibir ninguna recompensa por la guerra”, dijo Zelensky en una conferencia de prensa en Vilna junto a varios líderes de la OTAN.
El presidente ucraniano ha dicho que un acuerdo de paz a largo plazo sólo puede lograrse una vez que los combates hayan cesado, y ha pedido un cese del fuego inmediato e incondicional que cubra los combates en el aire, el mar y la tierra.
El ministro de Defensa ucraniano, Rustem Umerov, quien encabezó la delegación de su país, solicitó una próxima reunión antes de finales de junio. También afirmó que debería discutirse una cumbre entre Putin y Zelensky.
El ministro de Asuntos Exteriores turco, Hakan Fidan, dijo después de las conversaciones, celebradas en un hotel de lujo a orillas del Bósforo, que se celebraron “en un ambiente constructivo”.
“Las partes avanzaron sobre los puntos que habían acordado durante la primera reunión”, dijo Fidan en X.
“Durante la reunión, las partes decidieron continuar los preparativos para una posible reunión a nivel de líderes”, dijo.
Decenas de miles de personas han muerto desde que Rusia invadió el país, con franjas del este y el sur de Ucrania destruidas y millones de personas obligadas a huir de sus hogares en la mayor crisis de refugiados de Europa desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
En la ciudad de Dobropillya, en primera línea del frente, al este de Ucrania, Volodymyr, de 53 años, dijo a AFP que no tenía ninguna esperanza de que el conflicto terminara.
Pensábamos que todo se detendría. Y ahora no hay nada que esperar. No tenemos casa, nada. Casi nos matan los drones, dijo.
Después de meses de reveses para el ejército de Kiev, Ucrania dijo que había llevado a cabo un audaz ataque el domingo, contrabandeando drones a Rusia y luego disparándolos contra bases aéreas, dañando alrededor de 40 bombarderos estratégicos rusos por un valor de 7 mil millones de dólares en una importante operación especial.
(Con información de AFP)
Europe,Military Conflicts,DONETSK REGION
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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday that he is moving the United Kingdom’s military into «war-fighting readiness» to address growing threats from Russia.
During a visit to BAE Systems’Govan facility, a navy ship-building yard in Glasgow, Scotland, the prime minister laid out «three fundamental changes» to be made in response to the country’s strategic defense review.
«First, we are moving to war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces,» Starmer said. «When we are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, the most effective way to deter them is to be ready. And frankly, to show them that we’re ready, to deliver peace through strength.»
‘MAKE NATO GREAT AGAIN’: HEGSETH PUSHES EUROPEAN ALLIES TO STEP UP DEFENSE EFFORTS
Starmer continued, «Now Britain has the finest service men and women in the world. We’re showing them the respect that they deserve by delivering the biggest armed forces pay rise in 20 years and by pledging today that we will end the hollowing out of our armed forces. «We’ll build a fighting force that is more integrated, more ready, more lethal than ever, backed by a stronger strategic reserve, fully trained and ready to mobilize at any time.»
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a visit to the BAE Systems’Govan facility, in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday, June 2, 2025. (Andy Buchanan, Pool Photo via AP)
The new approach comes as President Donald Trump has warned European nations to take more responsibility for their own security. Starmer’s announcement focused on a «new era» of threats, citing the war in Ukraine, new nuclear risks and «daily cyberattacks,» as well as reversing the post-Cold War defense decline. He called out «growing Russian aggression» in U.K. waters and skies, blaming «their reckless actions» for the increased cost of living «hitting working people the hardest.»
«The threat we now face is more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable than at any time since the Cold War,» Starmer said.
The U.K. government announced military plans in response to a strategic defense review commissioned by Starmer and led by George Robertson, a former U.K. defense secretary and NATO secretary general.
It’s the first such review since 2021. Months after Britain’s last major defense review was published in 2021, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson said with confidence that the era of «fighting big tank battles on European landmass» are over. Three months later, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine. Starmer’s center-left Labour Party government says it will accept all 62 recommendations made in the review, aiming to help the U.K. confront growing threats on land, air, sea and in cyberspace.
The second change, Starmer explained from Scotland, is ensuring «everything we do will add to the strength of NATO.»
«As we step up to take greater responsibility for our collective defense, the NATO alliance means something profound, that we will never fight alone,» Starmer said. «It is a fundamental source of our strategic strength. That’s why our defense policy will always be NATO first, something that’s written through this review. The transformation we are driving in our defense must add up to Britain’s biggest contribution to NATO since its creation. So that when we’re building new capabilities at home, we are making our allies safer too, strengthening Europe, and strengthening our bridge to the US as Britain’s first partner in defense.»
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers his speech during a visit to the BAE Systems’Govan facility, in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday, June 2, 2025. (Andy Buchanan, Pool Photo via AP)
RUBIO DEMANDS NATO PONY UP, DISMISSES ‘HYSTERIA’ OVER US ROLE UNDER TRUMP
The third change laid out by Starmer is for the U.K. to «innovate and accelerate at a wartime pace so we can meet the threats of today and of tomorrow as the fastest innovator in NATO.» He said such advancements would not mean «replacing people» or hardware, but would rather mean «learning the lessons of Ukraine» and ensuring «every capability we have works seamlessly together.»
«Drones, destroyers, AI, aircraft, each different branch of our armed services, fully integrated to create an army which is 10 times more lethal by 2035,» Starmer said.
The U.K. government said it’s expanding the country’s armed, nuclear-powered submarine fleet with up to 12 new SSN-AUKUS boats through a partnership with Australia and the United States. The government also says it will invest 15 billion pounds in Britain’s nuclear arsenal, which consists of missiles carried on a handful of submarines. Details of those plans are likely to be kept secret.
Starmer has already pledged to increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, a boost from the current 2.3%, and to eventually get that up to 3%.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers his speech during a visit to the BAE Systems’Govan facility, in Glasgow, Scotland, Monday June 2, 2025. (Andy Buchanan, Pool Photo via AP)
GB News noted at the press conference Monday that Starmer hasn’t committed to having 3% of the GDP go to defense spending within the next nine years, even as Germany’s defense chief warned Russia could invade a NATO ally within the next four years. In his response, Starmer reiterated the U.K. as a «steadfast ally» to Ukraine and said the changes coming as a result of the review would be the best way to deter further conflict.
The U.K. government will also increase Britain’s conventional weapons stockpiles with up to 7,000 U.K.-built long-range weapons.
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Starmer said rearming would create a «defense dividend» of thousands of well-paid manufacturing jobs – a contrast to the post-Cold War «peace dividend» that saw Western nations channel money away from defense into other areas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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“El Pro dejó de existir. Ya estamos ante el fin del Pro”, sentenció Héctor Costa en el inicio de su análisis. Para...
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POLITICA1 día agoEn medio del conflicto, el Garrahan anunció un aumento salarial de más de 60% para los médicos residentes