Pope Leo XIV, an American

History was made Thursday when the Roman Catholic College of Cardinals selected an American as pope to lead the 1.4 billion members of the 2,000-year old church.

According to the Associated Press, on only the second day of the conclave, Robert Prevost, a native of Chicago, was chosen to become the 267th pontiff. He has taken the name of Leo XIV.

Prevost’s first public words were “Peace be with you.” Although born in America, he has spent most of clerical life in Peru. He is fluent in Spanish and Italian as well as English.

“Together, we must try to find out how to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, that’s always open to receive — like on this piazza with open arms — to be able to receive everybody that needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love,” Leo said in Italian,” according to the AP.

Prevost was considered a favorite of the late Pope Francis and was therefore considered a leading candidate to lead the church.

His selection was announced with the traditional Latin phase, “Habemus Papam,” which means “We have a pope.”

U.S., Britain make trade deal

A trade agreement between the United States and Great Britain has been reached, a deal that is expected to reduce tariffs that President Donald Tump has ordered placed on steel, aluminum and automobiles from Britain.

The New York Times is reporting that the deal would lead to Britain would decrease its tariffs on American beer, ethanol, sporting goods, etc, and purchase $10 billion of airplanes manufactured by Boeing.

Details were considered imprecise and more negotiations are expected to follow as both sides meet to iron out the details.

Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer both hailed the agreement.

Weather: Roller coaster climate

Like variety, do you? Then you’ll enjoy the weather patterns in our West Orange County cities the next few days. The forecast for Friday is for a daytime high of 86 with an overnight low of 60 with partly cloudy skies. Saturday is expected to warm to 90 (60), again with partly cloudy skies again. But in Sunday, temps will plunge again to 80 (60) with morning clouds and afternoon sun. Monday is forecast to be mostly cloudy with a high of 70 (57).