After embrace, pope and Argentina’s Milei meet amid speculation Francis might finally go home

ROME (AP) — Despite their rocky start, Argentine President Javier Milei and Pope Francis appear to have hit it off. They met Monday amid speculation that the Argentine pontiff might finally go home for a visit later this year. En route to his audience, Milei stopped his motorcade along the main Via della Conciliazione boulevard leading to the Vatican to greet well-wishers. According to his office, he planned to present Francis with his favorite Argentine dulce de leche alfahores cookies and lemon biscuits. A warm tone was already set the previous day, when Milei embraced Francis with a bearhug at the end of a Mass to declare Argentina’s first female saint. The pope quipped: “You cut your hair!”