The outreach, reflecting the most radical stage of his papacy, has prompted backlash while also altering the lives of the nearly 100 people he has met.

The latest cease-fire negotiations are set against the backdrop of a planned Israeli offensive in Rafah and worsening humanitarian conditions across Gaza.

In Burkina Faso, a West African nation facing Islamist extremism, a national arts festival attracted troupes from even the hardest-hit areas.

Palestinian residents of the Nur Shams refugee camp said at least three people were summarily executed or used as human shields, claims Israel’s military denies.

The bodies, which were not publicly identified, were in the same area where Carter Rhoad and Australians Jake and Callum Robinson were reported missing.

A win by Claudia Sheinbaum, protégé of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, could cement the grip of a party that already controls the presidency, both chambers of congress and two-thirds of Mexico’s governorships.