Pope Leo XIV has excommunicated members of a breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics after they consecrated bishops without Vatican approval.

The Society of St Pius X proclaimed four new bishops on Wednesday, despite the pope warning that to do so would be a “sin of extreme gravity”. “The Vatican responded aggressively”, announcing that all SSPX’s bishops and priests were excommunicated, said The Associated Press. The Pope also warned the estimated 600,000 Catholics who attend SSPX services that the order is no longer sanctioned to carry out sacraments like confession and marriage.

What is the Society of St Pius X?
Founded in 1970 by French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, it is a traditionalist group that rejects much of the Vatican II reforms of the 1960s, and purports to practise a “pure” form of Catholicism, untainted by modernising or secular influences. The order continues to celebrate Mass in Latin and uses pre-Vatican II liturgy in its services.
According to its own figures, SSPX has 751 priests and a presence in 77 countries, with the largest in France and the US.

What is its relationship with the Church?
In 1988, Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the approval of Pope John Paul II. All five were excommunicated.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI rescinded the excommunications of the surviving bishops as a gesture towards reconciliation. But, despite years of talks aimed at bringing SSPX back into full communion with the Church, the society’s official status has remained unresolved.

Can things be reconciled?
Since becoming Pope in May last year, Leo XIV “has reached out” to many conservatives and traditionalists in the Church, who were, in various ways, “alienated during the Pope Francis pontificate”, said AP. However, last month he told reporters that, “while division among Christians is always a painful matter”, SSPX was rejecting “certain fundamental elements of the Church”, and “if that is the choice they make, I am sorry, but we must move forward”.

America mostly abandoned building new nuclear power plants back in the 1990s but Donald Trump’s administration is looking to jump-start a new atomic age. It has launched a programme to build 10 new power plants by the mid-2030s, and federal officials say dozens more could come online after that.

What did the commentators say?
The US government is providing $17.5 billion (£13.1 billion) to “speed the development” of new reactors in response to growing electricity demand from “massive data centres”, said The Associated Press. Trump has set a goal of “quadrupling domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years”, despite warnings that the plants are “too expensive”, and “riskier” than solar, wind and “other low-carbon energy sources”.

In theory, nuclear power “should generate the cheapest electricity available”, said Alex Trembath on The Dispatch. The reality is that, over the decades, “overregulation, environmentalist opposition and industrial mismanagement” has made the process of building new plants “increasingly expensive”. But the 57 plants that are already online produce 20% of the nation’s power supply. Now is the “time to build”.

The US “used to be the world’s leader in nuclear power”, said The Washington Examiner’s editorial board – until “regulatory paralysis” set in. The Trump administration now plans to make it easier for companies to “build, operate, and test reactors” under supervision from the Department of Energy. This “restoration of ambition” could bring us “the nuclear renaissance America has needed for half a century”.

Hopes of a nuclear revival have often been “longer on aspiration than action” but this programme “could move the needle”, said Axios. Developing so many plants at once should “create more efficient, scaled, standardised and cheaper supply chains” that will, in turn, speed up the production of additional plants.

What next?
The US oversight body, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is  preparing to make “huge cuts” to hours devoted to safety and emergency inspections, said CNN. These changes, which “must be approved by five NRC commissioners to be finalised”, are intended to usher in “more self-policing from the industry”.

A local resident argues with a soldier in Caraballeda, Venezuela. More than a week since twin earthquakes killed more than 2,200 people, hopes of rescuing further survivors are fading, and affected communities are running short on food.

Juan Barreto / AFP / Getty Images

Sheffield Theatres’ adaptation of the hit 1963 Cliff Richard film “radiates enough rays of feel-good energy to leave you with a tan”, said Matt Barton in The Stage.

Like the film, the story follows a group of friends who take a road trip across Europe in a double-decker bus. They pick up a pop group and a mysterious American singer along the way but, beyond the “globetrotting destinations”, it’s about the journey – and that “provides a vehicle” for those “easy-going hits” Richards made famous, including “Bachelor Boy”, “The Young Ones” and, of course, the title number.

Amanda Stoodley’s costumes are “fabulously colourful, heightening the feel-good fun factor”, said Jacob Bush on The Reviews Hub. “The 1960s aesthetic is perfectly captured while somehow still feeling fresh.” Though the structure of the bus is “mainly left to the imagination”, it is “impressive to see a full-size Mini and scooter on stage”.

Directors Elizabeth Newman and Ben Occhipinti ensure the show is “packed with hits” and delivers an “irresistibly feel-good evening”, said Mark Brown in The Telegraph. All the cast are talented but George Jones, as the “fine-voiced, charismatic Don”, is a “standout”.

It is an “immensely good-humoured and infectious show”, said Ron Simpson on WhatsOnStage. Opposite Jones, Fanta Barrie morphs from “glamorous singer to urchin boy to Don’s ever-graceful bride”. There was, however, one irony that no one “could do nothing about”: singing the title number with the lyrics “We’re going where the sun shines brightly” to an audience “gasping in the current heatwave”.

It’s a truly Trumpian tragedy: he’s made billions of dollars but can’t buy love or respect
Emma Brockes in The Guardian
Donald Trump “made more than $2.2bn” last year, writes Emma Brockes – “more than three times what he pulled in the year before his inauguration”. He’s finally getting what he “always desperately wanted”: “genuine, unimaginable wealth”, but at the expense of his other craving: “universal admiration and applause”. He’s “rich but mocked”, with approval ratings on the slide, the Supreme Court ruling against him and the war with Iran “rumbling on”. The man “can’t even keep” a reflecting pool “clean”.

Kirstie Allsopp, don’t be a snob: ‘passing’ is a good word for death
Jemima Lewis in The Telegraph
“Kirstie Allsopp took umbrage” at Bafta mourning “the ‘passing’ of Dame Penelope Keith”, writes Jemima Lewis. I too used “to get irritable” about the euphemistic “vocabulary of death” but now I think it’s “perfectly suited” to our “multicultural society, where belief in the afterlife has become a personal choice, rather than a universal certainty”. “Passed” is “vague” but inoffensive; its “only crime is its politeness”. But for snobs, the word “smacks of lower-middle-class gentility, like serviettes” or “toilet”.

The toxic move that could undermine Burnham immediately
Kitty Donaldson in The i Paper
Labour’s female MPs have long blamed the “boys’ club culture” in No. 10 for “misogyny, bullying”, ignoring “reports of sexual harassment” and, “most egregiously”, the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, writes Kitty Donaldson. Now they’re warning Andy Burnham not to “make the same mistakes”, pushing for “a 50:50 gender split” in his cabinet, and a female deputy prime minister. The message is clear: “appoint women and their allies, or face the same difficulties” Keir Starmer did.