International
The protocol for the funeral of Pope Francis, a delicate diplomatic work
The rigid protocol for the funeral of Francis this Saturday, in which more than 130 international delegations, 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs are expected, is a delicate diplomatic work to avoid conflicting situations that will follow the alphabetical order in French when assigning the posts.
The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, confirmed the presence of 130 delegations, but they could be increased during the day and some media speak of up to 170, which will arrive throughout the afternoon.
The delegations will enter through the Vatican walls through the Puerta del Perugino, where they will park the cars to go to St. Peter’s Square and enter through a side access, where they will be received by the prefect of the Pontifical House Leonardo Sapienza, before the staff of the pontifical ceremonial accompanies them to their position.
The international delegations will be placed on the right side of the square while on the left side the cardinals will be.
The Vatican protocol, which has had harsh evidence during the funeral of Benedict XVI or the massive farewell to John Paul II – which had 80 Heads of State or Government – indicates that the front rows are reserved for the heads of State, but with priority for the Italian delegations, the most massive with the presence of the president, Sergio Mattarella, and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni; and the Argentine, Francisco’s native country, headed by Javier Milei.
The first rows are also dedicated to the Catholic royal houses, so the kings of Spain will be placed in that position along with the rest of the monarchs who have announced their presence: Philip and Matilda of Belgium, Grand Duke Henry and Grand Duchess Maria Theresa of Luxembourg, Princes Albert and Charlène of Monaco, and the co-prince of Andorra, Joan Enric Vives, current bishop of Seu de Urgell. Next to them will sit the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, frey John T. Dunlap
Then the non-Catholic kings such as Charles Gustav of Sweden and Queen Silvia, and Prince William of England.
And then there is the complicated diplomatic game of the presidents that follows the French alphabetical order. Donald Trump, along with his wife Melania, will be in the same row as the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron, but very far from the Ukrainian Volodimir Zelensky, who has sponsored a meeting with the US president, but which will be difficult since he intends to return to his country just after the mass.
Among the first positions are also the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, the representatives of the European Union – with the Presidents of the Council, the Commission and the Parliament, Antonio Costa, Ursula von der Leyen and Roberta Metsola.
Among the heads of state closest to the altar, always in the front row, will be the Germans and Austrians, Frank Walter Steinmeier and Alexander van der Bellen, with their Albanian counterparts Bajram Begaj and the Angolan João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenç.
Also the Brazilian president, Lula da Silva, along with the governor general of Canada, Mary Simon, and the heads of state of Cape Verde and Cyprus, José Maria Pereira Neves and Nikos Christodoulides, as well as the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa.
An enigma will be to know if former US President Joe Biden, who confirmed his presence in Rome yesterday due to his close relationship with Pope Francis, will be included in the delegation, but what is certain is that he will be in the back rows with respect to Trump.
In the third row there will be ministers, other members of the delegations and ambassadors, as will be the case of Israel’s representative to the Holy See, Yaron Sideman.
International
China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”
The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.
That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”
“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.
Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”
In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”
This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.
The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.
Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.
For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.
International
Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants
The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.
According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.
The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”
The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.
The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”
These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.
International
Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”
“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.
“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.
Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.
“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.
The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.
Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.
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