Pope Leo XIV is expected to visit Lebanon this year in what could be his first foreign trip as pontiff.
Patriarch Bechara Rai, the head of Lebanon's Maronite Church, said Pope Leo will travel to Lebanon “by December”. He told Al Arabiya that “preparations are already under way” for the visit.
Pope Leo, the first pontiff from the US, was elected in May after the death of Pope Francis, and has yet to make a papal visit abroad.
Last month he suggested he could visit Turkey when commemorations are held to mark 1,700 years since the First Council of Nicaea. The meeting in the year 325, in what is now Iznik in Turkey, settled key aspects of Christian doctrine.
Pope Francis had been invited to Turkey for the occasion. It is not clear whether a Lebanon visit might be combined with that.
Pope Leo has publicly called for peace in the Middle East and a ceasefire in Gaza after the strip's only Catholic church was bombed by Israel, killing several people.
Lebanon links
An estimated 30 per cent of Lebanon's population are Christians. The Maronite Church is in communion with Rome, and President Joseph Aoun is a Maronite Christian.
After Pope Leo's election, Mr Aoun wished him success in “efforts to spread the message of love and peace throughout the world, and to promote dialogue between different religions and cultures”. The two men met at the Vatican in June.
Pope Leo also expressed solidarity with Lebanon when it marked five years since the Beirut port explosion this month. "The beloved and suffering Lebanon remains at the centre of his prayers," read a message from the Vatican.
Foreign travel has become an essential part of the modern papacy, with masses typically drawing huge crowds. Pope Francis made 47 visits abroad during his 12-year tenure, travelling to 68 countries.
His 2019 visit to the UAE was the first by a pontiff to the Arabian Peninsula. Two years later he made a landmark visit to Mosul in Iraq, visiting areas scarred by ISIS rule.
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
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Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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