分类： world

BUCHAREST, Romania — A stray Russian drone, launched as part of a wave of overnight assaults on neighboring Ukraine, has crashed into a residential apartment building in eastern Romania, leaving two people injured, Romanian national authorities confirmed in an official update Friday.

According to a public statement released by Romania’s Defense Ministry, the unmanned aerial vehicle was tracked by national air defense radar systems after it entered Romanian sovereign airspace, before impacting the roof of the multi-story residential structure in the Danube River city of Galati. The collision triggered a large blaze that spread through sections of the building, forcing emergency responders to evacuate dozens of residents from the affected block. Two people were treated for minor injuries stemming from the incident.

Galati, located along Romania’s eastern border, sits on the Danube just west of the junction where the borders of Moldova and Ukraine meet, making it a city within close proximity to active frontline fighting in Ukraine’s eastern and southern territories. Local law enforcement units, national emergency response teams and military officials quickly deployed to the crash site to secure the area and extinguish the fire.

In response to the incursion, the Romanian military activated its air defense network, scrambling two F-16 fighter jets and a military helicopter, all of which received authorization to engage any airborne threats detected during the operation. Local authorities also pushed out emergency alert notifications to residents in the impact zone to advise them of safety protocols.

The incident comes amid a sustained Russian campaign targeting Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure, with Moscow relying heavily on long-range ballistic missiles and large drone swarms to degrade Ukraine’s power grid and strike population centers across the country. Ukrainian officials have warned that they are preparing for a new round of intensifying bombardments in the coming weeks, as they continue to push Western allies for accelerated deliveries of advanced air defense systems.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters during an official visit to Sweden that he is putting direct pressure on the United States to speed up and expand shipments of Patriot air defense missiles, which are designed to intercept incoming long-range Russian projectiles. Zelenskyy warned that current delivery volumes are falling far short of Ukraine’s critical battlefield needs, pointing to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas in the Middle East that has diverted U.S. military stockpiles and stretched global weapons supplies.

“We are being very persistent, and I believe the United States must act quicker,” Zelenskyy told journalists.

The rising risk of regional escalation has drawn urgent warning from top United Nations officials. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told the U.N. Security Council this week that the steady escalation and intensification of attacks in Ukraine risks spinning out of control, with potentially severe “unknown and unintended consequences” for global security. Guterres added that civilian casualty numbers in 2024 have already outpaced the same four-month period in each of the past three years of the full-scale conflict. He repeated the U.N.’s call for urgent diplomatic engagement, immediate action to de-escalate hostilities, and the implementation of a full and unconditional ceasefire to end the bloodshed.

A high-profile trial of five pro-Palestinian activists in Germany has ignited fierce national debate over the treatment of political dissent, with the outcome poised to set a lasting legal precedent for future protest-related cases. Known publicly as the “Ulm 5,” the group — with citizenship spanning the UK, Spain, Ireland, and Germany — has remained in pre-trial detention since September over accusations that they are members of a criminal organization and caused roughly €1 million ($1.1 million) in damage at a German facility operated by Israel’s Elbit Systems, one of the Middle Eastern nation’s largest defense contractors.

The incident at the heart of the case dates back to September 2025, when the five activists gained unauthorized entry to Elbit Systems’ Ulm premises. Videos of the action shared to social media showed the demonstrators wearing branding for Palestine Action Germany, chanting the slogan “Germany finances, Elbit Systems produces, Israel bombs,” and spray-painting the phrase “Baby Killers” on facility walls. Prosecutors allege the group destroyed computer monitors, personal computing devices, precision measuring equipment, and other critical electronic infrastructure during the incursion. Additional charges include the use of symbols linked to Hamas, a Palestinian militant group classified as a terrorist organization under German law.

Court proceedings are being held in a high-security courtroom at Stuttgart’s Stammheim Prison, a location with deep historical resonance: it hosted the iconic 1970s trial of violent far-left Red Army Faction militants. Defense attorneys have argued that holding the trial in this venue deliberately frames the activists as dangerous extremists, creating an implicit bias that could lead to a wrongful conviction before all evidence is heard. Prosecutors have rejected these claims, noting they never requested special detention conditions for the defendants, and that all current restrictions align with standard German legal protocols.

The core legal dispute in the case centers on whether Palestine Action Germany qualifies as a criminal organization under Section 129 of the German Criminal Code. Prosecutors maintain that the group’s explicit mission centers on committing serious criminal acts, a legal framing that has been upheld in recent lower-court rulings for similar cases. Defense teams counter that the only substantiated offense is straightforward property damage, arguing the sweeping criminal organization charges are wildly disproportionate and have violated the defendants’ right to a fair trial.

This specific provision of German criminal law has grown increasingly controversial in recent years, as authorities have invoked it against a range of protest movements from climate activists to pro-Palestinian organizers. Amnesty International researcher Yasmin Khuder warns that the application of Section 129 in the Ulm 5 trial carries dangerous implications. “This case creates a risk that measures actually intended to combat organised crimes are now being used against political protest,” Khuder explained, noting that the activists were simply exercising the right to freedom of expression guaranteed under Germany’s constitution.

The German trial comes amid parallel, equally contentious developments involving Palestine Action in the United Kingdom. Earlier this month, four UK-based Palestine Action activists were convicted of criminal damage for a 2024 break-in at an Elbit Systems facility near Bristol; one defendant also received a conviction for grievous bodily harm. The UK government designated Palestine Action a terrorist organization in July 2025, a ruling that was later struck down as unlawful by the UK High Court in February. The British government has since appealed the High Court’s decision, and the ban remains in legal limbo. Khuder said that repeated references to the UK’s contested designation in German court proceedings are a major point of concern for human rights observers.

Unlike the UK, Germany has not formally designated Palestine Action as a terrorist group, though it has ramped up monitoring of pro-Palestinian organizers since 2023, when it banned several pro-Hamas slogans and symbols. To date, most German courts have adjudicated cases involving the use of these symbols on an individual basis, as the bans do not carry full force of law in all contexts.

After eight months in pre-trial custody, the conditions of the defendants’ detention have added further fuel to the controversy. Family members and advocacy groups argue German authorities are deliberately using harsh conditions to make an example of the five activists. Kit Tricks, sibling of defendant Crow Walt Tricks, told reporters that Crow is held in solitary confinement for 22 hours per day — a classification recognized as solitary confinement under UN guidelines — despite the fact that none of the activists have been accused of harming any person. Nicky Robertson, mother of British defendant Hannah “Zo” Hailu, one of two UK citizens on trial, said she is “absolutely disgusted and outraged” by the treatment of her daughter, particularly the requirement that she appear in court in handcuffs. “What we are looking for is a fair trial, and what we have seen so far is not very fair,” Robertson said. She has called on the UK government to intervene, having already contacted her local Member of Parliament and written to the British ambassador in Berlin. A spokesperson for the British Embassy in Berlin confirmed that it is “providing support to two British nationals detained in Germany and was in contact with the local authorities.”

Analysts trace Germany’s stringent approach to pro-Palestinian protest back to the country’s post-Holocaust political and social identity, shaped by the “never again” doctrine that emerged after World War Two. Joel Crisetig, an analyst at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, notes that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel once codified Israel’s security as Germany’s “reason of state,” a principle that has guided decades of policy toward the Middle East.

“For these historical reasons, the pro-Palestinian movement is much weaker in Germany than countries like Britain or France,” Crisetig explained. His research shows that over the past year, Germany has hosted half the number of pro-Palestinian demonstrations as neighboring France, and far fewer than the United Kingdom. Crisetig added that property damage targeting an Israeli defense firm is particularly shocking to the German public, leading authorities to treat the Ulm incident with the same severity as a major terrorism case.

The trial got off to a chaotic start in late April, when supporters of the defendants chanted “Free Palestine” in the courtroom, and defense attorneys refused to take their seats in protest of the court’s decision to keep defendants separated behind a glass partition. Proceedings are ongoing, and if convicted on all charges, each of the Ulm 5 faces up to five years in prison.

In a verdict that has drawn global attention, an Austrian court has handed down a 15-year prison sentence to a 21-year-old man convicted of planning a large-scale jihadist attack at a sold-out Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert in Vienna back in August 2024. Identified only as Beran A under Austrian privacy regulations, the defendant was also found guilty on multiple additional terrorism-related charges, in addition to the core charge of conspiracy to commit a deadly attack.

The plot was derailed only hours before the first of three back-to-back Taylor Swift concerts scheduled at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium, after US intelligence agency the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tipped off Austrian law enforcement about the ongoing plan. With the threat confirmed, Austrian authorities immediately moved to cancel all three scheduled performances, a decision that disappointed roughly 200,000 fans who had traveled from across Europe to attend the shows, and left Swift herself reeling from the disruption.

During the trial held in Wiener Neustadt, a city located just south of Vienna, Beran A stood alongside a second defendant: 21-year-old Arda K, a Slovakian national who was accused of being a member of the same Islamic State (IS)-affiliated jihadist cell. Prosecutors confirmed that Arda K was not involved in planning the concert attack, but was still convicted of separate IS-linked terrorism offenses and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Prosecutors laid out details of the radicalization process that led Beran A to plan the attack, explaining that he had privately pledged allegiance to IS and had actively attempted to obtain illegal weapons including a fully automatic machine gun and a hand grenade. While he was unsuccessful in acquiring the lethal arsenal he sought, authorities have stressed that the plot was far advanced and posed a catastrophic risk to concertgoers. A court-appointed psychiatrist, Peter Hoffmann, told the trial that Beran A displayed no indicators of mental illness, and that there was no medical or psychiatric justification for his turn to radical Islamist ideology.

Before the jury delivered its guilty verdict, Beran A issued a brief statement to the court saying he regretted his actions. The jury deliberated for several hours before reaching its final decision on charges and sentencing.

In comments made shortly after the plot was uncovered, Swift opened up about the impact of the foiled attack, saying it left her with what she described as “a new sense of fear”. In a 2025 tour documentary released by the singer, she detailed that she learned about the bomb plot while en route to Vienna, adding that the Eras Tour had narrowly avoided what would have been a “massacre situation”. She also shared that the forced cancellation of the three shows left her carrying a “tremendous amount of guilt” for the disappointment her fans faced. Still, Swift emphasized her gratitude for the work of law enforcement on both sides of the Atlantic, writing on Instagram shortly after the incident: “I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”

An unseasonably intense early heatwave has gripped Western Europe this week, bringing historic temperature highs, disrupting public services, and prompting urgent emergency preparedness assessments across multiple nations. On Wednesday, Portugal logged a new all-time May temperature record when the central town of Mora hit 40.3 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous national May benchmark of 40C set back in 2001.

The extraordinary heat has not been confined to Portugal. Forecasters confirm the high-pressure system driving the heat — known as a “heat dome,” which traps warm air in a stagnant block — is projected to maintain sweltering conditions across the region through the weekend. Germany, Spain, and Switzerland have already recorded temperatures far above average for this time of year, while heat alerts have been issued across populated areas of France and Italy.

In France, 17 departments including Paris and parts of the northwest are currently under orange heat alerts, urging residents to exercise heightened vigilance against heat-related health risks. Temperatures in the capital are forecast to hit 33C on Thursday, and climb to 34C for both Saturday and Sunday. To reduce urban heat buildup and traffic congestion, Paris police have implemented temporary traffic measures: only low-emission vehicles are permitted on city roads through Saturday, speed limits have been lowered, and discounted flat-fare tickets are being offered across the entire public transport network to encourage people to leave private cars at home.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu chaired an emergency ministerial meeting Thursday afternoon to coordinate government preparations for the extreme heat, with priorities including wildfire suppression and safeguarding drinking water supplies through the summer months. The heatwave has already forced school closures across parts of the country: a local official confirmed a primary school in Souston, in the Landes region, will remain closed Thursday and Friday after indoor temperatures hit 53C earlier this week.

A particularly contentious issue has been the decision to proceed with the national Baccalaureate exams, France’s high-stakes secondary school leaving qualification equivalent to British A-levels. Education officials have defended the move, noting that students have spent months preparing for the exams and the rigid result timeline cannot easily be adjusted. Exam centers have been instructed to use the shadiest available rooms for testing, but education unions and teaching staff have roundly criticized the decision. A survey conducted by France’s secondary school union found that nearly 78% of schools recorded indoor temperatures above 30C this week, with reports of teachers bringing in personal fans from home and even using screwdrivers to pry open stuck windows to improve ventilation.

The extreme heat has also impacted high-profile sports events taking place in France. At the French Open in Paris, world men’s number one tennis player Jannik Sinner was forced to withdraw from the tournament mid-match after suffering severe dizziness and lethargy brought on by the high temperatures. Though Sinner downplayed the impact of the heat after his exit, saying “It was just me today, but it happens,” the incident has drawn renewed attention to the risks of extreme heat for outdoor athletic competition.

To the south, Italy has issued its first red heatwave alerts of the year for major cities including Rome, Florence, Bologna, Brescia and Turin. The highest alert level warns that the heat could pose negative health effects even for healthy, active people. Temperatures in Rome are projected to peak at 32C on Thursday, while Madrid will see highs climb to 35C over the weekend. Spanish meteorological officials note that while the current hot spell does not meet the official definition of a heatwave for the country, the temperatures are consistent with the peak summer conditions normally seen in July and August.

Portugal’s meteorological service forecasts that temperatures in most parts of the country will stay above 35C through Thursday and Friday before the heat dome begins to weaken and temperatures gradually recede. While no single weather event can be definitively linked directly to human-caused climate change, climate scientists emphasize that global warming is steadily increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events across the globe.

Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service shows that Europe has warmed at a rate of 0.56C per decade over the past 30 years, a pace that has already made extreme heat events far more severe than they were a generation ago. On Thursday, the United Nations reinforced this warning, announcing that global average temperatures are likely to remain at or near record levels this year and over the next four years. All 11 of the hottest years ever recorded globally have occurred since 2015, and the UN’s World Meteorological Organization projects this trend will continue, with a new all-time hottest global year likely to be recorded before 2031.