World

Prospect's Tuesday morning news roundup

Prince born, Miliband announces special conference and Pope met with adoration and protest in Brazil

July 23, 2013
Pope Francis is in Brazil to mark World Youth Day
Pope Francis is in Brazil to mark World Youth Day

The birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's son, the third in line to the throne, will be marked later on today with gun salutes across London. Thousands of well-wishers descended on Buckingham Palace yesterday after the news broke. The boy, yet to be named, was born at the private Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in west London at 16:24 BST yesterday.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has announced that he will put to a vote his landmark reforms of the relationship between his party and the trades union movement at a specially convened conference next spring. The unions will hold half the votes. There will be a campaign across the Labour party to gather support for the proposals, described here by Prospect, which Miliband insists will be implemented in time for the next general election.

Union leaders including Len McCluskey of Unite, the party's biggest financial backer, have publicly warned that these reforms could bankrupt the party. According to the Guardian, the GMB has been heavily lobbying the party leader to drop the proposals, saying they were unacceptable.

Legislators in the US Congress have given cautious approval to President Barack Obama's plans to arm Syrian rebels in their fight against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Speaking to Reuters, the House of Representatives Intelligance Committee chairman Mike Rogers said, "We believe we are in a position that the administration can move forward."

Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who had questioned the wisdom of arming the insurgents have agreed that the Obama administration can now go ahead with its plans.

Pope Francis, the first ever pontiff from Latin America, has been greeted in Brazil by tens of thousands of people as he began his first trip abroad since becoming the Catholic Church's leader. However, shortly after he arrived police fired tear gas to disperse protestors, rallying against what they see as government corruption and the cost of the visit. Approximately an hour after a welcoming ceremony was staged for the pope in Rio, protestors were met with stun grenades and tear gas outside the governor's palace in the city.