Cyrus Habib is interrupting what had been a rapid political ascent to join the Catholic Church’s largest religious order.

Conditions at overcrowded refugee camps in Greece have become desperate, and Turkey has revived threats to renege on an agreement with the European community and to open its border allowing refugees through to Europe.

Many hope the church will repeat that activist role as political divisions depress the economy and the living conditions for average Zimbabweans, and as a severe drought threatens a hunger crisis for millions this year.

The accelerated reduction in the size of the Catholic flock in Argentina confirmed an overall Latin American trend: Between 2008 and 2019, the proportion of Catholics in Argentina dropped from 77 percent to 63 percent.

A shadow hangs over El Rosario where each year millions of monarch butterflies alight on the reserve's fir trees. Two local protectors of Mexico's monarch preserve have been killed, and so far, no one can say what happened to them.

The Global Conflict Tracker, part of the Council on Foreign Relations, listed 26 “conflicts around the world of concern to the United States” as of February, and there are new threats on the horizon.