If you’ve been too busy, too tired, or too bamboozled to follow this week’s news, fear not. Here’s our simple digest of what we think are four of the most important stories of the week.

First stop: the Vatican.

• Pope calls for climate action
• Could Oprah be US vice president?
• Government unveils plan for northern Australia
• PM slammed for ‘ridiculous’ comments

Pope Francis comes out as a greenie

Who would have thought it? The Pope, in stark contrast to our own devoutly Catholic prime minister, is a passionate environmentalist.

In only his second ‘Encyclical’ (a papal decree), Pope Francis on Thursday threw all his support behind the fight against global warming.

The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) June 18, 2015

Beginning the letter in passionate religious language, he referred to the environment as our “sister”.

“This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life.”

Later he adopted a more secular line, saying: “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.”

Pope Francis has already become a favourite among progressives, and this move will only further his popularity with that group. His support will also loom large in the UN Paris climate summit in December.

But it will leave the Catholic climate change sceptics like Tony Abbott in an awkward position.

US election: Hilary vs ?

Speaking of climate change deniers, this week saw two high-profile Republicans announce their candidacy for US president: Jeb Bush, brother of Dubbya; and billionaire businessman Donald Trump.

Along with his candidacy, Donald Trump’s hair got a lot of people talking this week. Photo: Getty

Jeb Bush is by far the strongest candidate in the running. Unlike his neoconservative brother, Jeb Bush is a moderate (at least by Republican standards), and probably the least outlandish candidate. Only George Pataki and Lindsey Graham can claim to be moderates, and the consensus is neither have much of a chance. As for the remaining candidates, well, where to start?

In total, 12 Republicans have confirmed they will run. They include the usual suspects Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Rand Paul. Strong(ish) new candidates include the three Tea Partiers, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Ben Carson (the only black candidate). The only female candidate, Carly Fiorina, is not expected to gain much support.

Apart from Pataki, Bush and Graham, they are extremely conservative, and are all either climate change sceptics or outright deniers.

Donald Trump in particular wears his climate change denial as a badge of honour, as this tweet of January 2014 demonstrates: “This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullsh*t has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps, and our GW scientists are stuck in ice.” He takes a similarly considered approach to most other political issues. Oh, and he wants Oprah Winfrey to be his VP.

In other words, things are looking pretty good for Hilary Clinton, who is far and away the Democrats’ frontrunner.

Back home: big plans for Northern Australia

On Thursday Tony Abbott announced a 20-year, $1.2 billion plan to turn tropical northern Australia into an “economic powerhouse”. That’s a dramatic way of saying the government will build more roads, airstrips and damns, cut red tape, capture more water, and coax more migrant workers into the region. This will, they hope, stimulate the economy.

There is so much space there, so Abbott says why not make money from it? Makes sense, right? Photo: Getty

Perhaps the most interesting – and potentially controversial – proposal is to change rules so that indigenous northern Australians can borrow against their native title. Currently, banks will not lend money against land that is under native title because it is ‘inalienable’ and non-transferrable. If the borrower fails to pay his or her debt, the bank cannot seize the land.

The government wants to find a solution – probably involving long-term leases – that would give native title holders much readier access capital, which in turn would unlock economical potential.

The Northern Land Council “cautiously” welcomed the white paper, with CEO Joe Morrison saying: “It’s a matter of immediate comfort that the White Paper does not attack the basic integrity of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.” This is one to watch.

Paying off people smugglers

It seemed like the scoop of the year. The Abbott government was allegedly bribing people smugglers tens of thousands of dollars to turn the boats around. And when Peter Dutton denied it with a supremely unconvincing “no”, it looked like becoming a major headache for the government. But somehow Tony Abbott emerged, if anything, looking stronger.

Peter Dutton stood firm all week. The government does not comment on operational matters remember. Photo: Getty

So what actually happened?

Nothing has been definitively confirmed, but Fairfax reports the two boats, containing 65 asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, were heading to New Zealand. The Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) probably intercepted them in international waters (though this is disputed) whereupon Australian officials allegedly paid each of the crew $US5,000 in crisp, fresh hundred dollar bills – on the condition that they return to Indonesia.

Was this illegal? Lawyer Michael Bradley argues in this article for the ABC that the answer is, probably not. The only relevant law, he argues, is Section 73.3A of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, which makes it an offence to provide “material support or resources which aid a person to engage in the crime of people smuggling”. In his view, ASIS wasn’t doing this, which makes this a question of policy, not law.