Despite the eye-catching bright blue sky over St Peter’s Basilica, the scarlet robes of the cardinals and the colours in the crowds, it is a more prosaic photograph which demands attention.
In the middle of an intricately-floored atrium in the basilica, United States President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are deep in private conversation about the war Russia started, eyeball-to-eyeball, sitting forward in their seats, hands in their laps.
White House officials said the meeting was productive and, on X, Mr Zelenskyy thanked Mr Trump for a good meeting, which had covered the protection of lives, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a lasting peace. Now they just need to get Russian President Vladimir Putin on board.
Back on Air Force One after the funeral, Mr Trump posted: "There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along. Too many people are dying."
Possibly Mr Trump’s apparent revelation that the Russian leader might not be such a great guy after all counts as another miracle. However, it is an understatement to suggest he flip-flops from one day to the next.
The lessons have been coming hard and fast recently for Mr Trump, whose personal presidential ratings continue to plummet in polls across the US.
Just for starters: Don’t hitch your wagon to the world’s richest man with an ego to match and a lack of empathy for most of your country. Don’t take away people’s pensions, allowances and healthcare to look like you are saving money. Don’t fiddle with the world’s economy and trade when you don’t understand how tariffs work. Oh, and don’t trust dictators, don’t appease or deal with them, without solid evidence they will keep their end of the agreement.
Lessons are of course only useful if the recipient pays attention and learns what or what not to do next time. Such an approach requires humility and the ability to admit to being fallible, a tough ask for the US president.
It is curious how the same word can have different meanings and differing impacts when uttered by different politicians.
When British prime minister Margaret Thatcher whispered menacingly she was "simply disappointed" with someone, it was the most frightening threat that could be issued. But when Mr Trump said he was "very disappointed" with Russia and Mr Putin, somehow it came across as naive and feeble.
The pressure is on now for a full ceasefire deal in Ukraine, which the US president said he wants in the next fortnight.
On Monday, Mr Putin announced a three-day ceasefire from May 8 to 10, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Allied powers over Nazi Germany. Does this announcement offer a glimmer of hope of something larger and longer-lasting?
Uncertainty still seems to dominate. But there are finally encouraging signs we may be coming to the end of the end of this unjust, illegal war.
Abandon hope...
It seems the government has officially discarded any intentions of raising New Zealand’s research and development spending to a measly 2% of gross domestic product in the next 10 years.
Hands have been wringing for decades at our low international standing, at odds with our much-vaunted "number 8 wire" approach and compared with countries we liken ourselves to, such as Scandinavian nations, which have more than double our current R&D spend of 1.54%.
In scrapping the target, the government says it still wants more spent on research, and highlighted a 21% rise in total R&D expenditure since 2022.
However, it’s hard to see how getting rid of the 2% target is going to help the government achieve its hyped goal of a truly science-focused economy.
