Domestic issues dominated the presidential campaign season, but global leaders will be eyeing the first steps of President-elect Joe Biden overseas. A wider-angle grasp may help Americans understand too the new administration’s intents. 

With weeks to go before the U.S. ­presidential election, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Rome to attend a symposium on religious freedom. The secretary planned to meet with top Vatican officials, and he requested an audience with Pope Francis.

MOZAMBIQUE: At least 570,000 people have fled northern Mozambique following attacks by insurgents with ties to the Islamic State. The UN refugee agency warns that if neighboring countries do not help tackle the insurgency crisis spreading from Cabo Delgado, it could reach beyond the borders of Mozambique.

In my first magazine column of 2020, I wrote about “new life born from sorrow and suffering” and asked: “Are we ready to embrace the suffering to come in the new year? And are we able to look beyond the bad-news headlines to find opportunities for helping neighbors and to glimpse more of the good news to come?”

Allow me to be the first to answer: I was not ready.

CHINA: Chinese tech giant Huawei has tested facial recognition software that could send automated “Uighur alarms” to government authorities when its camera systems identify members of the oppressed minority group.

BRITAIN: Keira Bell is the young woman at the heart of a landmark judgment issued by the U.K. High Court on Tuesday requiring doctors to seek a court order before administering puberty-blocking drugs to under-age youth.

Days of tumult in the United States coincided with formidable days for Europeans. On Election Day, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a Nov. 2 terror attack in the heart of Vienna that killed four people and wounded more than 20. Austrian investigators have identified more than 21 suspected accomplices in what could have become a far deadlier attack.