“Who is the most important in the Church?” asks Francis. “The Pope, the bishops, the monsignors, the cardinals, the parish priests of the most beautiful parish churches, the presidents of lay associations? No! The greatest in the Church are those who become servants of all, those who serve all, not those with more titles.”

People protested against the arrival in Poltava region of 73 evacuees from China, including 45 Ukrainians as well as citizens of Norway, Israel, Belarus, Spain, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Panama and other countries. Protesters blocked roads and threw stones at buses carrying the evacuees. The Church urged the faithful to not let “fear of disease cloud our mind and our conscience, our very humanity.”

Any new government needs least 112 votes in parliament. This is the first time the king is playing a crucial role. The political crisis follows rumours about a new alliance being formed. The prime minister had promised to hand over power to his ally Anwar. The early end of the government casts shadows on the transition.

Charged with espionage, the Hong Kong-based publisher was seized in Thailand in 2015. Under pressure, he gave up his Swedish citizenship. Communist China keeps cracking down on free voices. The sentence will likely spur Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

A member of a provincial middle class family, he ruled the country more than Nasser and Sadat. Unlike them, he did not die in office. Tried and convicted of killing protesters and dissidents, he was acquitted years later. He led the fight against Islamic extremism, and mended fences with the rest of the Arab world.

The monk spent at least 30 years in detention for defending religious freedom. In 2018 he was expelled from a monastery where he was under house arrest. For him, freedom in Vietnam “is like the drawing of a dessert: it looks delicious on paper, but you can't eat it”. State media did not report his death.