Pope unsure if March trip to Iraq can take place because of COVID-19

Pope Francis on February 5, 2019, before his mass in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Getty Images)
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Updated 01 March 2021
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Pope unsure if March trip to Iraq can take place because of COVID-19

  • Pope Francis: Yes, I had to cancel trips ... because in good conscience, I can’t be the cause of gatherings of people, right?
  • Pope Francis: Now I don’t know if the trip to Iraq can take place — life has changed

ROME: Pope Francis said he is not sure if his trip to Iraq in March can take place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He cast doubt on the trip, which would be the first by a pope to the country, in an interview with Italy’s Canale 5 broadcast on Sunday night.
Francis spoke in a section of the interview about how his life had changed because of the pandemic and how he had to cancel trips that had been planned for last year.
“Yes, I had to cancel trips ... because in good conscience, I can’t be the cause of gatherings of people, right? Now I don’t know if the trip to Iraq can take place. Life has changed,” he said.
The March March 5-8 trip is due to take the pope the capital Baghdad, as well as Ur, a city linked to the Old Testament figure of Abraham, and Irbil, Mosul and Qaraqosh in the plain of Nineveh.
Iraqi President Barham Salih said in a post on Twitter when the trip was announced last month that the trip “will be a message of peace to Iraqis of all religions & serve to affirm our common values of justice & dignity.”
The 84-year-old pope is expected to get vaccinated against COVID-19 this week. He said in the interview everyone who is able should get vaccinated.


Minneapolis mayor demands transparent investigation into ICE shooting as protests spread

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Minneapolis mayor demands transparent investigation into ICE shooting as protests spread

  • Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, said on Thursday that Minnesota authorities had no “jurisdiction” over the investigation
  • Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said he could not be sure the government’s account was grounded in fact until an independent investigation took place

MINNEAPOLIS: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Friday demanded the federal government permit state authorities to take part in the investigation into a US immigration officer’s fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman in her car, an incident that has sparked nationwide protests.
Frey, a Democrat, accused the Republican Trump administration of trying to predetermine the investigation’s outcome after the state’s lead investigative agency, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said the FBI had reversed its initial cooperation and blocked the BCA’s access to scene evidence, witness interviews and other material.
“This is a time to follow the law,” Frey said. “This is not a time to hide from the facts.” He added that despite the lack of aid from federal authorities, state or local prosecutions of the officer were still “potential.”
Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, said on Thursday that Minnesota authorities had no “jurisdiction” over the investigation. Frey’s comments underscored the extent to which President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in mostly Democratic-run cities — despite the opposition of their mayors — has severely frayed the trust between local and federal officials. Trump administration officials have defended Wednesday’s shooting as self-defense and accused the woman, Renee Good, a US ⁠citizen and mother of three, of deliberately aiming her car at the officer in an act of “domestic terrorism” — a narrative belied by video evidence and described by Frey as “garbage.” In Portland, Oregon, on Thursday afternoon, a US Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a man and woman in their car after an attempted vehicle stop. As in Minnesota, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the driver “weaponized” the car in an effort to run over the agent, who fired in self-defense.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, echoing Frey, said he could not be sure the government’s account was grounded in fact until an independent investigation took place.
“There was a time when we could take ⁠them at their word,” Wilson, a Democrat, said of federal officials. “That time is long past.”
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield told CNN on Friday morning that there is cooperation between federal and state investigators so far but that it was too early to draw any conclusions.

STATES ACCUSE FEDS OF SOWING CHAOS
In both cases, Democratic mayors and governors have called on the Trump administration to pull federal officers out, arguing that their presence is sowing chaos and needlessly creating tensions on the streets.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot Good was one of more than 2,000 federal personnel whom the Trump administration has ordered deployed to Minneapolis in what DHS described as the “largest operation” in its history.
He was identified as Jonathan Ross, based on comments by federal officials that the officer had previously been dragged by a migrant’s car during an attempted arrest last summer, suffering serious lacerations. The details matched those reflected in the court records of a case in Bloomington, Minnesota, in June 2025, in which a man was eventually convicted of assaulting Ross.
DHS has declined to ⁠confirm the officer’s name.
Bystander videos of the shooting appear to show Good turning her wheels away from the officer as she drives forward, while he fires three shots while jumping backward from the front of the car. The final two shots appear to be aimed through the driver’s side window, after the car’s front bumper has already passed by the officer’s legs.
Since the killing, Trump administration officials have doubled down on the government’s version of events. Trump said on social media that the car “ran over” the officer, while Vice President JD Vance on Thursday accused Good of “attacking” agents and praised the officer for his actions.
The two shootings have drawn thousands of protesters in Minneapolis, Portland and other US cities. In Minnesota, Democratic Governor Tim Walz has put the state’s National Guard on alert. While the Minnesota operation is part of Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, the president has for months aimed political attacks at the state, particularly its large Somali-American community. Trump has called Somali immigrants “garbage,” railed against a sprawling welfare-fraud scandal and ridiculed Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024. Walz announced earlier this week that he would not run for a third term, citing the time necessary to address the fraud scandal.