IN THE later part of the 16th century, Henry Navarre, the first French king from the house of Bourbon, wanted to ascend to the throne. Henry was a Huguenot, a Protestant, nearly assassinated in the Saint Bartholomew day bloody massacre of Protestants by Catholics in Paris.

The pope, backed by the Spanish monarchy, opposed Henry’s accession. Henry then decided to convert and when asked why the conversion, is supposed to have shrugged his shoulders and said: “Paris is worth a mass.”

Volodymyr Zelensky desperately wants Ukraine to be accepted into the European Union. However, Ukraine is universally characterised, and perennially ranked, as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe, so Zelensky, in an attempt to further Ukraine’s candidacy, is supposedly cleaning house, proclaiming new reforms that “will change the social reality.”