French authorities were on Monday imposing a newly-announced ban on the abaya Muslim dress for women in schools, with over 500 establishments under scrutiny as children across the country returned to class.

Pope Francis arrived in Mongolia on Friday morning to encourage one of the world's smallest and newest Catholic communities.

It's the first time a pope has visited the landlocked Asian country and comes at a time when the Vatican's relations with Mongolia's two powerful neighbors, Russia and China, are once again strained.

The Nobel Foundation that administers the prestigious awards, has reversed its invitation policy and invited Russia, Belarus and Iran, as well as the leader of a far-right Swedish party, who had previously been banned.

Vidar Helgesen, the executive director of the private foundation said in a statement that there was a global trend in which "dialogue between those with differing views is being reduced."

On August 1, 2023, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded a contract to RTI International, a nonprofit research institute and leading international development organization, to implement the new five-year $96.9M Quality Instruction Towards Access and Basic Education Improvement (QITABI) 3 to support Lebanon’s education system.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) and the Center for Educational Research and Development (CRDP), USAID’s QITABI 3 will improve literacy, numeracy, social and emotional learning (SEL), and inclusive education outcomes for students nationwide. The project will also provide life skills and career guidance to students at the intermediate and secondary levels.

Rainbows, school books, movies and drag shows have all been targeted in Lebanon in recent weeks as politicians, religious leaders and vigilante groups step up a campaign against the LGBTQ+ community in a country that has long shown relative tolerance.

At a time when Lebanon is in the grips of one of the world's worst economic meltdowns in more than a century, the country and its leaders have been deeply split on how to deal with the crisis. Political factions have been so divided they haven't been able to choose a new president for 10 months.

France's education minister has announced a ban on long robes in classrooms starting with the new school year, saying the garments worn mainly by Muslims are testing secularism in the nation's schools.

Critics say that abayas, worn by women, and khamis, the male garb, are no more than a fashion statement. They say the garments do not constitute an ostentatious sign of religion and should not be banned from classrooms under a 2004 law.

The Vatican on Tuesday sought to tamp down an uproar that erupted after Pope Francis praised Russia's imperialist past during a video conference with Russian Catholic youths, insisting that he never intended to encourage modern-day Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said Francis merely wanted to praise the positive aspects of Russia's spiritual and cultural history when he praised Russia's imperial rulers Peter and Catherine the Great, encouraged young people to remember that past and praised their way of "being Russian."

The mother of Spain's suspended football chief Luis Rubiales, who is under fire for planting an unsolicited kiss on the lips of player Jenni Hermoso, went on hunger strike Monday in support of her son.

Angeles Bejar began her protest inside the Divina Pastora church in the southern seaside town of Motril, saying she would continue until Hermoso "tells the truth" about what happened, a family member told reporters outside of the church.

Prosecutors at Spain's top criminal court said Monday they had opened a preliminary investigation into Luis Rubiales' forcible kiss on the lips of a star of World Cup player Jenni Hermoso on grounds it could constitute a crime of "sexual assault."

"Prosecutors from the National Court have opened a preliminary investigation to look into the facts, which could constitute an offence of sexual assault," a court statement said, indicating it would offer Hermoso a chance to file suit to that end.

Journalist Talal Salman, who founded one of Lebanon's largest Arabic-language independent newspapers, died Friday after a long illness, the state-run National News Agency said. He was 85.

An Arab nationalist whose role model was late Egyptian President Gamal Abdul-Nasser, Salman devoted much of his writing to the Palestinian cause and calls for Arab unity.