VATICAN
The Pope’s trip to South America begins today, a 12-day tour that includes a highly anticipated ‘homecoming’ to Peru, where he served as a missionary priest for many years. Several commentators have noted that the Pope appears to be in excellent health following surgery to remove a lung tumour. The starting point will be Uruguay, which is set to host its first papal visit in forty years.
INDONESIA
Indonesian police have identified a fourth suspect in the investigation into the alleged wiretapping of President Prabowo Subianto. Three officials, very close to former President Joko Widodo – who had also been an ally of Prabowo – had already been arrested earlier this week. According to media reports, the person arrested is believed to be Slamet Uliandi, who headed the Indonesian Criminal Investigation Agency between 2010 and 2019. Over the past two days, thousands of soldiers have been deployed in the capital, Jakarta.
JORDAN
A Jordanian security officer was killed and another injured in a stabbing attack outside the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman, Jordan’s capital. The victim, Corporal Jawad Ali Khalaf al-Salaita, was a member of the diplomatic security unit responsible for protecting the embassy. The attack occurred on Thursday at around 12:20 pm on Medina al-Munawwara Street. The attacker attempted to seize the murdered officer’s weapon, but a second officer intervened to stop him. Both sustained injuries. Jordanian authorities described the incident as a “cowardly terrorist act”.
VIETNAM
The delivery company Grab will reduce its maximum commission rate on rides in Vietnam from 40 per cent to 32 per cent, following a similar move announced in Indonesia: GoTo stated last week that its third-quarter profit fell by 25 per cent after Indonesia imposed a cap of 8 per cent on the commissions charged to motorbike taxi drivers, earning $19 million. Grab’s turnover also rose by 27 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter, reaching $1.11 billion.
MYANMAR
Myanmar’s election commission, controlled by the military leadership, has scheduled by-elections for 4 April next year, state media reported. According to the plans, voting will take place in several districts of the Sagaing region and in the Chin and Shan states, where forces opposed to the military junta have a strong presence. Rakhine State, on the border with Bangladesh, is not included; there, the army is engaged in fierce fighting with the Arakan Army.
MACAO
Macau has sentenced Au Kam San, 69, a former lawmaker and pro-democracy activist, to 12 years and six months in prison for “subversion against the political power of the state”. This is the first sentence handed down following the application of the National Security Law, the same legislation that led to the sentencing of activist Joshua Wong to 10 years’ imprisonment in Hong Kong. Au’s wife condemned the sentence, describing the case as “unfounded persecution aimed at humiliating Au”. The law was amended in 2023 to broaden its scope to include non-violent acts of secession, and again this year to allow trials to be held behind closed doors, as in Au’s case.
CHINA
The marriage rate in China in the first nine months of 2026 plummeted to its lowest level in 18 years. According to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs published this week, a total of 4.65 million couples married between January and the end of September, whilst 2.08 million divorced – a situation accompanied by concerns over the falling birth rate despite government subsidies and measures designed to support young couples.
ARMENIA
More than 53,000 displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh have applied for Armenian citizenship, as announced by Armenia’s Minister of the Interior, Arpine Sargsyan, at a joint meeting of the National Assembly’s standing committees during the debate on the draft state budget for 2027. Under a presidential decree, citizenship has been granted to 32,690 people, whilst a further 14,344 minors have acquired citizenship through the issue of passports. The procedure for applying for Armenian citizenship has been digitised.
RUSSIA
In Dagestan, a family with two middle-income earners spends around 90 per cent of its total monthly income on mortgage repayments, a higher proportion than in other regions of Russia. Ingushetia, also in the North Caucasus, ranks among the top three regions in the country with the most affordable mortgages. The study, based on data from Rosstat and the Central Bank, was conducted by the state agency Ria Rating; the bottom ten regions also include Kalmykia, where 81 per cent of total household income is spent on mortgage repayments, North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria (63 per cent), Karachay-Circassia (58 per cent), Adygea (57 per cent) and the Astrakhan region (55 per cent).
