Who will be the next pope?

Current favourite from Philippines would represent changing demographic of the Church

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5 April 2023

Good evening, "I'm still alive", Pope Francis joked as he cheerfully left hospital over the weekend following a three-night stay to treat bronchitis. However, concern about the pontiff's health has been growing for some time – and for Vatican watchers, the question of his succession is no laughing matter. Arion McNicoll The Week

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH . . . Papal succession: the cardinals in the running to be the next pope The struggle for control of the Catholic Church is intensifying behind the scenes, as potential successors to Pope Francis begin manoeuvring into position amid talk he could soon step down. Francis marked the tenth anniversary of his election as Pontiff in March, "having outlasted the conservative opposition that failed to bring him down and which is now at a crossroads, seeking new direction following the deaths of two of its figureheads", reported Reuters. The death of former Pope Benedict XVI in December followed by the sudden death of Australian Cardinal George Pell a month later, has left the conservative wing of the church without its two most influential voices just as talk of the succession ramps up. Benedict's death "could deepen divisions at the top of the Catholic Church by both removing a brake from Pope Francis and emboldening his conservative critics to try to succeed him", said The Times. Read more

SPONSORED On the road: India Kristy Fong, manager of Aberdeen New India Investment Trust, shares her observations following her first post-Covid trip to India. Read more

TODAY'S BIG QUESTION CPTPP: is trade deal first sign of Brexit's sunlit uplands? The Government struck a deal to join an 11-member Asia-Pacific trade bloc last week, a step hailed by No. 10 as an example of Britain seizing its "post-Brexit freedoms". The deal, secured following two years of talks, will make the UK the first nation to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) since its launch in 2018. Downing Street said that under its terms, 99% of UK goods exported to the bloc's member states – Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru and Vietnam – would be eligible for zero tariffs. Read more

TALKING POINT Three years of Starmer: is there a clear vision? Almost half of Britons say Starmer has struggled to articulate his mission for Labour Read more

More from TheWeek.co.uk today Deep-sea mining: can it help solve our climate problems? Environmentalists claim mineral extraction could destroy ecosystems, while mining companies argue for its green potential Read more from Fact File How long will it take to renew a passport? Industrial action to cause 'huge delays' ahead of summer holiday season Read more from In Depth Nicola Sturgeon's husband arrested over SNP funding probe Former Scottish National Party's chief executive is being questioned by police while searches are being carried out at a number of addresses Read more from Speed Reads US debates letting teenagers on to assembly lines Some Republican states are considering rolling back child labour laws Read more from Global Lens Will energy bills go down this year? Energy prices are beginning to fall but households may have to wait before they feel the effect Read more from Money File

WHAT THE SCIENTISTS ARE SAYING… Eczema linked to osteoarthritis If you suffer from eczema, or asthma, you may have a heightened risk of developing osteoarthritis, a Stanford University-led study has found. The discovery raises the possibility that the conditions have the same underlying causes – and could pave the way for treatments for osteoarthritis. Researchers examined health data submitted to insurance companies by more than 110,000 Americans with asthma or eczema, and compared it with that of 110,000 others who had similar profiles, but who did not have those conditions. Once they had accounted for differences in BMI, the researchers found that those who had eczema or asthma were 58% more likely to be diagnosed with osteoarthritis during the study period than the others, while people with both conditions were twice as likely. They acknowledge that the study had a number of limitations, mainly around the difficulty of accounting for potentially influential factors that were not included on the insurance forms. But they posit that the allergic reactions that lead to asthma and eczema may contribute to the development of osteoarthritis; and that taking drugs that tamp down those reactions could reduce the risk of arthritis.

T H E  W E E K  M A G A Z I N E Escape the media storm Take a step back from the noise of the news and enjoy a fresh perspective with The Week magazine. Start your trial today and enjoy your first six print and digital issues for free, then continue to save 60%. Sale ends 6 April.  Start your free trial

poll watch Sunak's small boats strategy Only 21% of voters think Rishi Sunak's strategy for tackling illegal cross-Channel migration is likely to be effective in stopping the boats, down from 26% just after he announced his new legislative measures in early March. 63% think his plan is unlikely to be effective (up from 59%), including 60% of people who voted Tory at the last election. YouGov/The Times

picture of the day Holy Week processions in Spain Celebrated through religious processions and festivities leading up to Easter Sunday, Semana Santa, the holiest week in the Spanish calendar, has begun. This week-long honouring of Jesus is "the most important religious celebration in Spain", said Lonely Planet, and it will be more "fervent than ever in 2023" after the global Covid-19 pandemic saw events curtailed for the past three years. Carlos Gil Andreu/Getty Images See more

Good week for... England's meadowlands, with the unveiling of a plan to create or restore meadows at 100 historic sites across England, to mark the coronation. Announcing the project, English Heritage's head of gardens noted that 97% of meadows that were recorded in the UK in the 1930s had disappeared by the mid-1980s.

Bad week for... Road safety, with warnings that plans to test a mobile phone siren could cause a spate of accidents. On 23 April, almost all mobile phones will emit a loud, ten-second blast. There will be a publicity campaign in advance of the test, but there are concerns that it could still catch people unawares. The siren will be used to alert the public to emergencies such as floods and terrorist attacks.

PUZZLES Daily crossword Test your general knowledge with The Week's daily crossword, part of our puzzles section Read more

instant opinion 'Hypothesis behind Trump's indictment is dangerously flimsy' Your digest of analysis from the British and international press from the past seven days As a presidential candidate back in 2016 Donald Trump was "frantic to keep evidence of his extramarital affairs secret", writes Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post, even going so far as to "buy the silence of the women involved". However, the "hard question" is whether through his efforts Trump "also violated the criminal law". On that front alone, the indictment unsealed yesterday is "disturbingly unilluminating", says Marcus, and the hypothesis on which it rests is "debatable at best, unnervingly flimsy at worst". That is "a scary situation" in a case involving the first criminal charges ever lodged against a former US president. This is not to say that prosecutors "will lose this case", she adds. However, "the fears I had in the weeks leading up to the indictment about the strength of the case" were "in no way allayed by Tuesday's developments" which is why "this feels like a dangerous leap on the highest of wires", Marcus concludes.  Read more

motoring review Nissan X-Trail: what the car critics say Nissan's new electric seven-seater may not 'set the world on fire' but it has been 'carefully crafted' Read more

DOWN TO BUSINESS Wednesday afternoon markets European markets dipped today amid investor uncertainty over the global economic outlook. Wall Street also dipped in morning trade following the release of lower than expected US private payrolls data. FTSE 100: 7,648.61, up 0.18% Dax: 15,491.25, down 0.72% Dow: 33,414.07, up 0.03% Dollar: £1 = $1.2439, down 0.48% Euro: £1 = €1.1397, down 0.11% Brent crude: $84.67, down 0.32% Gold: $2,018.10, down 0.20%

WIT & WISDOM "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." Warren Buffett, quoted in Barron's

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