Making the first state visit of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV met Italian President Sergio Mattarella and spoke of common concerns, including war, migration, ecology and Italy’s declining birthrate.

During a private audience with Pope Leo XIV, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva invited the pope to the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference, being held for the first time in the heart of the Amazon region.

President Donald Trump said during a meeting in Egypt on Oct. 13 that “phase two has started” of a peace deal between Israel and Hamas in response to a question from a reporter about when the next stage of negotiations would begin.

In a proclamation Trump signed Oct. 9, ahead of the Oct. 13 holiday, he called Christopher Columbus “the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth.”

A 17th-century monastery in northern Italy where recently canonized St. Carlo Acutis received his first Communion was in ruins after a massive fire ravaged the historic building.