Today's headlines: Extreme heat in South Asia and Southeast Asia force the authorities to close schools. Indian Prime Minister Modi said that he has invited Pope Francis to India. South Korea's GDP is up. Turkmenistan restricts the public expression of religion. Russia's state-owned company Gazprom is set to sponsor a Hungarian football club.

Four people have been arrested recently in Germany, including a close aide to a leading member of the Alternative für Deutschland party who is running for re-election to the European Parliament. Joint research programmes between German universities and Chinese institutes connected to the country’s military have come in for closer scrutiny. For a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, China is the victim of “defamation”.

While the country is getting ready to welcome Pope Francis in September, amendments have been proposed to assert the country’s Christian identity. For the Catholic Bishops' Conference, this is a “dangerous” step that “obscures and even erases our unique Melanesian identity [. . .] rather than acknowledge, celebrate and perfect it through the Gospel”. The backers of the constitutional changes are the same groups that got the King James Bible inside parliament in 2015, promising “blessings and riches”.

The Calcutta High Court ordered new appointments within 15 days, directing concerned school staff to return paid salaries with interest. The State administration led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has appealed to the Supreme Court. Some state officials have been arrested on corruption charges, while assets worth millions of rupees have been confiscated.

Lower consumer demand forces small restaurants as well as ambitious bakery brands to throw in the towel. Business closures jump 232 per cent over a year as post zero-COVID reopening saw rising prices and income crunch for many households.

At his Wednesday audience, Francis repeated that "War is always a defeat." Through the intercession of John Paul II 10 years after his canonisation, the pontiff called for "the gift of peace" in Ukraine and Myanmar too. In the catechesis on the life of grace according to the Spirit, he stressed that the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity are an "antidote to self-sufficiency".