Live: Pope heads to France on first state visit in 18 years

During the trip, Pope Leo is expected to address AI risks, migration, clerical sexual abuse and peace in Europe. (EPA Images pic)ROME: Pope Leo XIV flies to France on Friday for the Vatican's first state visit to the European nation in 18 years, with artificial intelligence and young believers near the top of his agenda.Church bells around the nation are set to ring for seven minutes when the first US pontiff, whose paternal grandmother was born in France, lands outside Paris at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) for a four-day trip.President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte will be on the tarmac to greet the 71-year-old pope, as he marks the first official trip by a head of the Vatican since Pope Benedict XVI in September 2008.Seven months ahead of elections to replace Macron, in which the far right is eyeing power, the pope is expected to touch on topics ranging from the dangers of artificial intelligence and the migration crisis to clerical sexual abuse and peace in Europe.The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics will visit the presidential palace on Friday morning, before a speech expected to focus on the need to regulate AI at Unesco headquarters in the afternoon."Human dignity, peace, education and responsibility in the face of new technologies will likely occupy an important place in his address," Monsignor Roberto Campisi, permanent observer of the Holy See to the UN's culture agency, told AFP.A million people are expected at the various events being held in Paris for the first two days of his trip.Later on Friday afternoon, Leo is to wave to the crowds on a 2.5-kilometre (1.5-mile) popemobile ride to the Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris, where he will be the first pope to inspect renovations following a devastating 2019 fire.His predecessor Pope Francis -- who visited France three times, but never officially -- did not attend the Gothic masterpiece's reopening in late 2024, when then president-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk were among the guests.Carmen Quintana, a 71-year-old Peruvian retired journalist, said she would be among the crowd as the pope headed to the cathedral."We're very happy to be able to be near him," she said of the pontiff, who spent two decades as a missionary in Peru and also holds Peruvian nationality.Last on his agenda for the day will be a mass prayer and hymns with 80,000 young believers aged 17 to 35 in sta… Pope Leo XIV flies to France on Friday for the Vatican's first state visit to the European nation in 18 years, with artificial intelligence and young believers near the top of his agenda.

President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte will be on the tarmac to greet the 71-year-old pope.