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International

New pope elected, white smoke from the Vatican

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From LifeSiteNews

By Michael Haynes, Snr. Vatican Correspondent

White smoke has emerged from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel to signify that the cardinals have elected a new pope.

In the past few minutes, white smoke began to billow out of the temporary chimney placed on top of the Sistine Chapel as the first signal to the world announcing the election of a new pope.

Cardinals gathered in conclave have now elected the 266th successor of St. Peter, after having gathered in conclave beginning on the afternoon of May 7.

At the moment, the identity of the new pope is known only to the cardinals inside the Sistine Chapel, who will now be greeting him and offering their congratulations on his election.

The pope will make his way into the small room adjoining the Sistine Chapel, known as the Room of Tears, and there he will change into the white papal cassock.

The new pope will shortly emerge onto the loggia at the front of St. Peter’s Basilica within an hour, and there offer his first blessings to the crowds gathered below.

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Business

Ottawa Funded the China Ferry Deal—Then Pretended to Oppose It

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The Opposition with Dan Knight

While Beijing-backed hackers infiltrated Canadian telecoms, federal and B.C. leaders quietly financed a billion-dollar shipbuilding deal with a Chinese state firm—then tried to pass the buck.

So just to recap—because this one’s almost too absurd to believe: BC Ferries cuts a billion-dollar deal with a Chinese state-owned shipyard to build four new ferries. Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland—always quick to perform outrage when the cameras are on—writes a stern letter saying how “dismayed” she is. She scolds British Columbia for daring to do business with a hostile foreign regime that’s literally attacking our critical infrastructure in real time.

And then—wait for it—it turns out her own federal government quietly financed the whole thing.

Yes, really.

According to an explosive report from The Globe and Mail, the Canada Infrastructure Bank—a federal Crown corporation—provided $1 billion in low-interest financing for the very same China shipbuilding deal Freeland claimed to oppose. The contract was signed in March 2025. The outrage? That only came later, when the public found out about it in June.

Freeland’s letter to BC’s Transportation Minister was loaded with warnings. She talked about China’s “unjustified tariffs” and “cybersecurity threats.” She demanded assurances that “no federal funding” would support the purchase. But what she didn’t mention—what she conveniently left out—was that Ottawa had already cut the cheque. The financing was already in place. The loan had been approved. Freeland just didn’t say a word.

And when reporters asked for clarification, what did her office say? Nothing. They passed the buck to another minister. The new Infrastructure Minister, Gregor Robertson, now claims the government had “no influence” in the procurement decision. No influence? You loan a billion dollars to a company and have no opinion on where it goes?

Let’s be clear: This wasn’t some harmless miscommunication. If it wasn’t a cover-up, then it was sheer incompetence—the same brand of incompetence that’s driven our shipyards into obsolescence, our economy into dependence, and our country into managed decline. An entire federal cabinet stood by, watched this unfold, signed the cheque—and then pretended they had nothing to do with it.

And British Columbia’s government? Just as bad. Premier David Eby, the man who pretends to champion “BC First,” claims he was “not happy” with the China deal but says it’s “too late” to change course. Too late? This isn’t an asteroid heading for Earth. It’s a contract. And contracts can be rewritten, canceled, renegotiated—if anyone in charge had the political will to stand up and say, “No, we don’t hand billion-dollar infrastructure projects to hostile regimes.”

But instead, we get excuse after excuse. They say BC Ferries is independent. They say there was no capacity in Canada. They say we had no choice. All the while, Canadian shipyards sit idle, unionized workers are frozen out, and the Canadian taxpayer is stuck subsidizing Chinese shipbuilding—and Chinese espionage.

Because while all of this was happening, we now know that a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group called Salt Typhoon was actively breaching Canadian telecommunications networks. That’s not speculation—it’s confirmed in a federal cyber security bulletin dated June 19, 2025.

Chinese actors exploited a vulnerability in Cisco equipment and infiltrated the networks of at least one major Canadian telecom provider. They pulled config files, rerouted traffic through GRE tunnels, and monitored call metadata and SMS communications. Translation: They were spying. On us. On officials. On infrastructure.

So let’s break this down. In February, China hacked Canadian telecoms. In March, Canada quietly finances a massive shipbuilding contract with China. In June, Freeland pretends to be outraged—while hiding the fact that her own government bankrolled it.

And now we’re told, “There’s nothing to see here. No jurisdiction.”

Really?

Freeland has jurisdiction when it comes to issuing carbon taxes, banning handguns, and lecturing citizens about disinformation—but somehow has no jurisdiction when her own Infrastructure Bank gives a billion dollars to build ships in a country that’s attacking our networks and undermining our democracy?

And it gets worse. The interest rate on the loan? Just 1.8%. That’s below market. That’s a subsidy, plain and simple. The financial gap will be recorded as government funding. So even if the Liberals want to play word games about “no direct funding,” that distinction is meaningless. The money came from taxpayers. It went to BC Ferries. It ended up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.

So what do we call this? It’s not economic strategy. It’s not climate policy. It’s not forward-looking infrastructure planning.

It’s decline. Managed decline.

It’s a government that tells Canadians we’re too broke, too slow, too divided to build our own ships. So we’ll just outsource it. To the same regime our intelligence services say is spying on us and interfering in our elections.

This was a test. A big one. And the people who told you they were going to put “Canada First”—people like David Eby and Mark Carney—failed that test spectacularly. When it came time to make a real choice—stand with Canadian workers, Canadian industry, and Canadian sovereignty—or cave to foreign pressure and cheap outsourcing, they chose China.

And then they lied about it.

But Canadians aren’t stupid. We know what leadership looks like—and this isn’t it. We don’t need more slogans. We need action. We need courage. We need people in government who actually believe in this country and the people who built it.

Because Canada can build ships. Canada can defend its infrastructure. And Canada should never hand over critical national projects to a regime that’s actively working against our interests.

If this is what “Canada First” looks like under the Liberals and the BC NDP, then we need something better. It’s time to stop managing decline and start building again.

Call the election. Let Canadians choose a path forward—one rooted in strength, in sovereignty, and in pride. Let us choose leaders who put Canada first—for real.


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armed forces

NATO commits to 5% defense floor after Trump pushes allies to step up

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President Donald Trump heads home from the NATO summit in the Netherlands touting a slew of international successes, including the member nations committing to more than doubling their defense spending.

In addition, Trump is taking a victory lap after Israeli officials supported Trump’s claim that the U.S. “obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear sites, following media reports disputing the overall success.

NATO partners, comprised of 32 member nations, agreed to Trump’s demands that the countries increase their defense spending to 5% of GDP. The proposal initially had been met with resistance, given that the current spending threshold is 2%.

However, in recognition of Russian aggression and terrorism threats on member nations, the leaders agreed to increase their spending by 2035 substantially.

“United in the face of profound security threats and challenges, in particular the long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security and the persistent threat of terrorism, Allies commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence-and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations, in accordance with Article 3 of the Washington Treaty,” according to a statement signed by the member nations.

The member nations say the 5% spending “commitment will comprise two essential categories.”

“Allies will allocate at least 3.5% of GDP annually based on the agreed definition of NATO defence expenditure by 2035 to resource core defence requirements, and to meet the NATO Capability Targets. Allies agree to submit annual plans showing a credible, incremental path to reach this goal. And Allies will account for up to 1.5% of GDP annually to inter alia protect our critical infrastructure, defend our networks, ensure our civil preparedness and resilience, unleash innovation, and strengthen our defence industrial base,” the statement said. “The trajectory and balance of spending under this plan will be reviewed in 2029, in light of the strategic environment and updated Capability Targets.”

The member nations also underscored their commitment to supporting Ukraine, a non-member nation, from continued Russian aggression.

Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the summit. This was the second time the leaders had met since their publicly contentious meeting in the Oval Office in February.

The meeting was reported to be friendly, with the Ukrainian leader praising Trump for leading a “successful operation” in Iran.

Zelenskyy said the pair discussed the embattled Eastern European country’s plan to purchase military equipment from the U.S.

“We discussed the protection of our people with the President – first and foremost, the purchase of American air defense systems to shield our cities, our people, churches, and infrastructure. Ukraine is ready to buy this equipment and support American weapons manufacturers. Europe can help. We also discussed the potential co-production of drones. We can strengthen each other,” Zelenskyy posted to X Wednesday afternoon.

Trump characterized the meeting as “good,” adding that Zelenskyy “couldn’t have been nicer.”

The president stressed his commitment to ending the war between Ukraine and Russia, adding that he would be talking to Vladimir Putin.

“I think [Zelenskyy would] like to see an end to this… I think it’s a great time to end it. I’m going to speak to Vladmir Putin; see if we can get it ended,” Trump told reporters.

The president also addressed many questions concerning Iran, strongly disputing what he is characterizing as “fake news” reports that the U.S. airstrikes did minimal damage to the nuclear facilities.

“We’ve collected additional intelligence and we’ve also spoken to people who have seen this site – and the site is obliterated,” Trump told reporters.

The president shared a letter from the Atomic Energy Commission of Israel that described the strike as “devastating,” adding that strikes on Fordow “destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility totally inoperable.”

Trump added that he would be speaking with Iranian officials next week on the next steps for the Islamic Republic.

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