Sam Jones

John Prevost says his brother is middle-of-the-road but shares Pope Francis’s concerns about Trump’s policy

Despite the pronouncements of veteran Vatican-watchers, the rash of profiles and the raking over of old statements, very few people seem to know exactly where Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost – now known as Pope Leo XIV – stands on the big issues of the day.

But one person who has a better idea than most is the new pontiff’s elder brother John Prevost.

Colleagues recall a calm and grounded leader capable of moderating between factions, with a strong connection to his predecessor

Robert Francis Prevost – who has chosen the papal name Leo XIV – may not be the Latin American Jesuit wildcard that his predecessor, Pope Francis, was, but his election is similarly historic.

In the figure of the 69-year-old former head of the Augustinian order, the Roman Catholic church has its very first US leader. Until Thursday evening, the idea of the fisherman’s ring being slipped on to a North American hand was seen as a fairly distant possibility. The Vatican’s long-standing opposition to a US pope stemmed largely from the optics of having a pontiff from both a political superpower and a country with such a hegemonic cultural and secular global influence.

Experts hope vessel’s old timbers and nails will help shed light on how boats were built during medieval period

Archaeologists excavating the site of a former fish market in Barcelona have uncovered the remains of a large medieval boat that was swallowed by the waters off the Catalan capital 500 or 600 years ago.

The area, which is being dug up in order to build a new centre dedicated to biomedicine and biodiversity, has already yielded finds ranging from a Spanish civil war air-raid shelter to traces of the old market and of the city’s 18th-century history.