I spent a tense hour on Thursday afternoon after the white smoke was spotted, waiting to see who would emerge onto the Vatican balcony (I felt a pang of sympathy for the BBC presenters filing dead air – how much easier the job of a print journalist!). When the new pope was named as Cardinal Robert Prevost from Illinois, I immediately Googled his name to see what I could find out about the man who will henceforth be known as Pope Leo XIV, the first North American holy father. But I was given a much better introduction to the new pontiff by this excellent profile from Massimo D’Angelo, an expert in the Catholic church at Loughborough University’s Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs.

I was among the many who recoiled at the bizarre AI-generated image of Donald Trump decked out in papal robes that the US president chose to share on social media earlier this week. So I was fascinated to learn that Cardinal Prevost, as was, has been as critical as you could expect from a papal wannabe of the Trump administration’s policies on immigration and the Catholic convert J.D. Vance’s somewhat limited ideas about love. As D’Angelo explains, Leo XIV could prove an important counterweight to Trumpism.

Something I wish I’d read when I was younger: saunas and alcohol don’t mix. For a number of health reasons, obviously, it’s not a good idea to have a skinful before immersing yourself in intense heat and steam. But also consider the second part of the all-important health and safety equation: the potential for disaster from getting a bit squiffy in a small slippery room and scalding water. I lived to tell the tale of heat and hi-jinks – but be warned and save the prosecco for after you’ve done the steam room.

Back in Trump’s world for a second. On the international affairs desk this week, among other things, we’ve been puzzling out how the first 100 days of the 47th president’s administration are affecting the way the world works, particularly for those of us in Europe. When you consider that the most important role of any government is to keep its citizens safe, what seems to be a fairly abrupt disengagement by the US from its role as guarantor of European security must now be top of the agenda for leaders across the continent. It appears that over the next few years we could witness the biggest realignments of any time since the second world war.

Of course, they are adjusting to Trump 2.0 pretty much everywhere you care to look. Given that China appears to be the main target of this administration’s tariffs, it’s worth taking a look at how Beijing is responding. Our China expert wonders whether the US president and his advisers have read Mao Zedong’s 1938 essay On Protracted War. It may be that Xi Jinping thinks the Chinese people are prepared to “eat bitterness” in a trade war for longer than the American people are able to bear.

I’ve never been a fan of artificial sweeteners, so the news that aspartame comes with health risks is not going to get me to change my habits. But this cautionary analysis is worth reading if the sweetener happens to be (in) your cup of tea. And, for your listening pleasure this weekend: the perfect double album. 

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