Free Republic

Friedrich Merz is spending his first day as leader of Germany visiting France and Poland, promising a “fresh start” to EU relationships and signalling defiance to President Trump in saying they will never accept an “imposed” peace on the Ukraine War. The French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed newly appointed Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Paris on Wednesday, the leaders of the two largest and richest countries in Europe publishing a joint statement vowing greater cooperation on defence, economics, and the Ukraine War. Merz will later today travel to Poland for more meetings, which in both cases he said were to launch...

ROME — Pope Francis has signed an interfaith statement asserting that humanity faces a “global climate crisis” that demands phasing out fossil fuels. The Abu Dhabi Interfaith Statement for COP28 manifests the signers’ “shared concern for the escalating climate impacts that imperil our cherished planet, as well as our common commitment to jointly address this global crisis.”

LONDON — Conservative leaders within the Anglican Communion have signed a letter urging the archbishop of Canterbury to rethink his personal views on homosexuality, and to crack down on the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. The letter to Archbishop Rowan Williams, dated Wednesday, bore the signatures of a number of conservative Anglicans, including Archbishop Peter J. Akinola of Nigeria, who have accused the U.S. and Canadian churches of violating Biblical teaching by affirming gay relationships.