Pope in Iraq, Sarkozy sentenced, vaccine row, Meghan Markle
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"I'm happy to resume my travels." Those were Pope Francis' words to reporters before landing in Iraq, his first trip abroad since the Covid-19 pandemic. Francis, who has had his vaccine shots, is the first pontiff ever to visit the birthland of Abraham. The visit is fraught with sanitary issues, security concerns and a political hornet's nest, Iraq being a land where years of bloodshed have been fuelled by religious and sectarian rivalries. His first thoughts were for a Christian community that's dwindled from 1.2 million to 250,000 since the US-led invasion of 2003.
The trip is taking the pope all over, from the Shia heartland in the south to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan and the second city Mosul, still bombed out from the days when the Islamic State group claimed it as its capital. The protocol has been fine-tuned for the moment when the 84-year-old pontiff meets with the 91-year old spiritual leader of Iraq's Shia Muslim community, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
He is not the first former French president convicted on corruption charges, but Nicolas Sarkozy is the first sentenced to hard time. One year behind bars in an eavesdropping affair where he offered a cushy job to a magistrate in a bid to sway one of the other cases pending against the former conservative leader. However, it is too soon for prison food. Sarkozy is appealing and again denouncing a vendetta.
Last week at this time, a virtual EU summit was warning AstraZeneca to honour its vaccine delivery commitments. Now it has gone further: Italy has got the support of the EU to block 250,000 doses destined for Australia. The Anglo-Swedish group is now set to deliver less than half the 100 million jabs it promised a continent where the vaccine rollout has been painfully slow. Fair play to Australia, where the pandemic is under control and leaders are gracious about the missed delivery. Here in France, the prime minister is promising 10 million people vaccinated by mid-April. And while Paris tries to avoid a new lockdown, Israel's prime minister has been taking his Danish and Austrian counterparts to the gym.
Season Four of the Crown may be over and assuming Season Five is about the death of Diana, spoiler alert: there's plenty of material on the way for Season Six – what with daggers drawn between the queen and the Sussexes and a full interview slated for Sunday night.
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain and Laura Burloux.
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