The expectations of the people of Beirut two weeks before the Pope's arrival. Sadness over a brief and heavily guarded visit: ‘Will he really be able to see the country as it is, or will they give him the false impression that everything is fine?’ But also the certainty that ‘his presence will be a message in any case’. Prevost will arrive immediately after the National Day on 22 November and exactly one year after the ceasefire that still does not spare the Lebanese from Israeli incursions.

The extradition of She Zhijiang from Thailand to China comes at a time of intense international pressure on Bangkok to crack down on criminal networks operating between Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. The case reignites attention on the proliferation of scam centres and their impact on Thai tourism, which has seen sharp declines over the past year.

The government in Bishkek is grappling with a Soviet-era system that is no longer viable. The crisis particularly affects the medical profession, with numbers in constant decline: in 2022 there were 18.5 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants, today there are just 15, while in Kazakhstan, for example, there are 40. But the real problem is the lack of resources allocated to healthcare: just per person per year.

A legal expert and politician, he was one of dictator Ferdinand Marcos's closest aides, designing and implementing martial law. But he was also a key figure in the 1986 crisis that ultimately brought down the regime. Still at the centre of politics, he served as legal advisor to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. even as he approached his 100th birthday. A divisive figure, he was for some, a symbol of political skill, for others, an emblem of elite impunity.

A new, large-scale mining facility, 75 per cent owned by Chinese companies, began operations this week in the hills of southern Guinea. It is expected to have a major impact on the global mining industry, not least because of the quality of the extracted material, which is more suitable for low-carbon steel production.

Through a chirograph, the pope gave a new legal form to the network of port chaplaincies to continue this service with "enthusiasm and generosity." Meanwhile, Cardinal Czerny, in his message for World Fisheries Day, laments that “many fishermen face storms far beyond the seas: low income, job insecurity, poor working conditions, being far from their families.”