标签： Europe

On the same day Americans across the globe gathered to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, history’s first American-born pope made a deliberate, symbolic journey to Lampedusa — the tiny Sicilian island at the heart of Europe’s decades-long migration crisis — to honor the tens of thousands of migrants who have lost their lives seeking safety and opportunity on the continent.

Pope Leo XIV, who has repeatedly clashed with the Trump administration over its hardline immigration crackdown including mass deportations in his native Chicago, spent July 4 praying at the island’s migrant cemetery, unveiling a plaque honoring his predecessor Pope Francis, and celebrating a solemn Mass for the hundreds of recent migrant arrivals who have crossed the Mediterranean to reach European soil. The trip followed an earlier visit last month to the Canary Islands, another key European migration entry point, where he rebuked political leaders for turning away desperate migrants and condemned human smugglers for profiting from vulnerable people, warning they will face divine judgment for their exploitation.

Lampedusa, a 5.6-mile strip of rocky land located closer to North Africa than the Italian mainland, has served as the primary entry point for hundreds of thousands of migrants traveling by smugglers’ boats from Libya and Tunisia since the onset of Europe’s modern migration crisis. It has since become the global symbolic epicenter of debates over border security, asylum obligations, and humanitarian responsibility, as European nations grapple with balancing border control against legal and moral commitments to welcome people fleeing conflict, climate disaster, and extreme poverty.

Data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) confirms more than 35,000 migrants have been recorded missing or dead in the Mediterranean Sea since 2014. Independent analysts estimate the actual death toll is far higher, as countless unreported shipwrecks leave victims counted among the “invisible” losses that never make official records. Salvatore Sortino, IOM’s head of mission for Italy and Malta, noted that while total migrant arrivals along the central Mediterranean route have dropped this year, the proportional number of deaths at sea has actually risen, a trend that underscores the persistent extreme vulnerability of people making the crossing. “The diminishing numbers of arrivals hasn’t resulted in a lower number of deaths at sea,” Sortino explained, adding that Pope Leo’s visit to Lampedusa serves as a critical reminder of this ongoing humanitarian cost.

In a special letter addressed to the American people released to coincide with the 250th Independence Day anniversary, Pope Leo framed the call to welcome migrants as inseparable from the broader defense of all human life — a core tenet of Catholic social teaching. “Protecting the unborn and all human life also means welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning,” he wrote. The pontiff added that extending compassionate, generous welcome to migrants is not only an act of Christian charity, but a fundamental recognition of the inherent dignity that belongs to every person. He also reminded the U.S. that the nation itself was founded by immigrant communities seeking a new life of freedom.

Tareke Brhane, an Eritrean migrant and president of the October 3rd Committee, a nonprofit founded by family members of the 368 victims of a 2013 Lampedusa shipwreck, called the pontiff’s visit a powerful display of solidarity for families still seeking recognition of their lost loved ones. To date, Brhane noted, no official comprehensive registry of migrants who have died crossing the Mediterranean exists, a gap his organization has spent years fighting to close. “It is a strong sign for our battle with Italy and with Europe in order to register the deaths,” he told the Associated Press, adding that the visit brings comfort to grieving relatives who have waited years for acknowledgment of their loss.

Pope Leo’s trip follows the path forged by Pope Francis, who made migrant solidarity a defining priority of his pontificate. Just months after his 2013 election, Francis made his first trip outside Rome to Lampedusa, where he tossed a memorial wreath into the sea and famously decried what he called the “globalization of indifference” toward displaced people. For the global Catholic Church, welcoming the stranger is a core obligation rooted directly in Gospel teaching.

The pontiff’s visit comes just two weeks after the European Union began rolling out a sweeping new migration and asylum pact that sets binding rules for the bloc’s 27 member states. The new framework requires mandatory border screenings of all new arrivals lasting up to seven days, fast-tracks asylum assessments for people from countries deemed “safe” or flagged as security threats, and mandates automatic return orders for rejected asylum seekers to speed up both voluntary and forced repatriations. Human rights advocates have sharply criticized the new rules, arguing they undermine the fundamental right to seek asylum by rushing life-or-death assessments, open the door to racial profiling, deny protection to people with legitimate claims, and will likely lead to a sharp increase in prolonged, inhumane detentions at EU borders.

In Italy, far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has ramped up deportation efforts as part of its campaign to crack down on irregular migration and the smuggling networks that profit from the trade. Italian Interior Ministry data shows 14,464 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year as of July 4, a sharp drop from 30,598 arrivals in the same period in 2024 and 26,202 in 2023. At the same time, total deportations — both forced and voluntary — have increased compared to recent years, in line with Meloni’s policy agenda.

The International Rescue Committee estimates 118 million people are currently forcibly displaced worldwide, a figure that reflects growing global pressures from conflict, climate change, and widening economic inequality. Pope Leo’s high-profile visit to Lampedusa on the U.S. Independence Day holiday deliberately ties together conversations around migration policy on both sides of the Atlantic, urging the U.S. and European nations alike to live up to their stated values of human dignity and welcome for those seeking a better life.

Reporting was contributed by Nicole Winfield from Rome. The Associated Press’ religion coverage is supported through a collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP retains full editorial control over all content.

What began as a small grassroots movement to protect a fragile wetland habitat and its iconic pink flamingo population has erupted into a national political upheaval that has shaken Albania’s 13-year ruling government, with protesters now demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama over allegations of systemic corruption and neglected public welfare.

The unrest traces its origins to Narta Lagoon, a protected coastal ecosystem near the southern city of Vlora that serves as a critical migratory stop and breeding ground for Albania’s unique flamingo population. The project that ignited public anger is a planned luxury coastal resort, led by a group of international investors that includes Jared Kushner, son-in-law of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The Albanian government has already granted the development group privileged “special investor” status, despite the fact that no formal environmental impact assessment has been completed and final planning approval remains pending. Still, activists have documented the appearance of fencing and heavy construction machinery on the proposed site, triggering early local pushback.

The movement gained national traction a month ago, after a viral social media video showed private security guards hired for the project assaulting a local environmental demonstrator. Prime Minister Rama has since confirmed the incident occurred, but the violence did little to quell anger—instead, it galvanized broader public discontent that had been simmering for years. What started as a defense of flamingos quickly expanded to encompass a wide range of public grievances: underfunded schools, understaffed hospitals, stagnant job opportunities, soaring living costs, and widespread disillusionment with the direction of the country’s rapid development.

Gathering nightly outside Rama’s office in the capital Tirana, demonstrators now carry flamingo symbols as the emblem of their broader movement, labeled by participants as the “Flamingo Revolution.” For many protesters, the fight is as much about their future in Albania as it is about protecting wildlife. “I’m here for our schools, I’m here for our hospitals, I’m here for our infrastructure,” Helena, a young protester, told the BBC. “I want to stay in my country, and I don’t want to leave.”

Critics of the government, including prominent dissident and writer Fatos Lubonja—who spent 17 years in a forced labor camp under communist dictator Enver Hoxha—allege that the country’s decade-long building boom and tourism expansion is driven by corrupt ties between state officials, oligarchs, and organized crime, acting as a front for large-scale money laundering. Standing near Tirana’s central Skanderbeg Square, ringed by new glass-and-steel skyscrapers, Lubonja said: “If you see all these skyscrapers, it comes out that this is a plan by organised crime, plus oligarchs, plus functionaries of the state. We want to push justice to investigate.”

Rama, whose Socialist Party has held power for 13 years, has overseen significant transformation in Albania during his tenure. Tirana’s skyline has been completely remade with internationally designed towers, tourism has boomed to account for more than 20% of national GDP, and the country has made rapid progress toward European Union accession—on track to complete accession negotiations by the end of 2027, faster than any other Western Balkan candidate besides Montenegro, which has been negotiating for a decade longer.

Speaking from his office ahead of a recent night of protests, Rama framed the ongoing demonstrations as evidence of a healthy functioning democracy, dismissing widespread anger as a normal part of democratic discourse. Still, the scandal facing his government runs deep: several of Rama’s closest political allies, including his former deputy prime minister and the current mayor of Tirana, are already under investigation by Albania’s specialized anti-corruption prosecution body SPAK. When asked about concerns over his own integrity, Rama said he supports an independent judiciary that “doesn’t look left, doesn’t look right, but looks straight.” He added that the Socialist Party’s biggest contribution to the country would be allowing anti-corruption investigations to proceed without interference, even when they target party members.

The depth of the current rift within the ruling party has been highlighted by the high-profile departure of Marjana Koceku, the youngest member of Albania’s parliament. Rama personally selected the 25-year-old environmental activist as a candidate in 2025’s national elections, hoping to capitalize on her reputation as a leading climate advocate in northern Albania. But Koceku has now resigned from the Socialist Party, saying she could no longer pretend the status quo was acceptable. “Beyond these beautiful facades that look so nice and shiny, the reality is not the same,” she said. “[Rama] doesn’t inspire people anymore, and I think that this brought him to a huge crisis of legitimacy. More and more people are realizing that every day.”

As the standoff between protesters and the government continues, with neither side backing down, the pink flamingo is likely to remain a defining sight on the streets of Tirana for the foreseeable future.

As Russia enters its fifth year of full-scale war in Ukraine, Moscow’s military has launched an aggressive nationwide recruitment campaign targeting students at universities, technical colleges, and vocational training institutions, framing service in the new unmanned systems drone forces as a safe, high-tech, short-term opportunity. But the stories of three young students who lost their lives on the front lines reveal a grim reality that contradicts the recruitment pitch: promises of safety behind the lines, fixed one-year contracts, and benefits for returning to school have crumbled into front-line casualty lists.

Twenty-three-year-old Valery Averin was a final-year student at the Buryat Republican Technical School of Construction when he was recruited earlier this year. Raised in a Siberian orphanage before entering foster care at age 11, Averin had never served in the military before completing just three months of drone operator training. He told his foster mother, Oksana Afanayeva, he had left campus to earn extra money at Russian online retailer Wildberries, only admitting he had signed a military contract shortly before deploying. “He told me: ‘Nothing will happen to me, everything will be fine,’” Afanayeva recalled. In early April, Averin called to say he was being deployed to an area with no cell service, and just a week later, on April 8, he was killed in a mortar strike in Russian-occupied Luhansk, eastern Ukraine. “He studied drones for three months – and yet they still threw him into a frontal assault, into the meat grinder,” his foster mother said.

Averin is not alone. Eighteen-year-old Vladislav Gorbunov, a railway construction student from Unecha, a small town just 43 miles north of the Ukrainian border, was killed on April 6, just four months after he signed his contract. He was originally assigned to an infantry frontline assault unit before being transferred to a drone unit, a common deviation from recruitment promises. Eighteen-year-old Rakhim Abdullin, a welding student at Kumertau Mining College who had struggled with his coursework, signed up just two weeks after his 18th birthday in January, drawn to drone service because he believed it would be a safe option. “But once he got there, it turned out not to be safe at all, because they are right there with the assault troops, right on the front line,” explained his mother Elena. Abdullin was killed by mid-March. “He left quickly, and he came back quickly,” she said.

These three young men are among the more than 230,400 Russian military deaths verified through open-source analysis of cemeteries, government registers, obituaries, and war memorials conducted by the BBC. Military analysts estimate this count reflects only 45% to 55% of total Russian fatalities, putting the real death toll at between 417,000 and 509,500 – a figure that aligns with an estimate from the UK’s GCHQ intelligence agency, which put the death toll at almost 500,000 in May. Ukrainian losses are also heavy: President Volodymyr Zelensky last acknowledged 55,000 Ukrainian military deaths in February 2026, while independent open-source estimates place total Ukrainian military fatalities as high as 213,000, with Dutch military intelligence putting the total number of dead, wounded, and missing at roughly 500,000 for Ukraine.

To replace mounting casualties and sustain its war effort, the Russian Ministry of Defense launched its student-focused drone force recruitment campaign earlier this year, targeting younger recruits under 35 because of their perceived aptitude for new technology. The campaign was specifically designed to appeal to students: recruits are promised a one-year contract that includes training, service exclusively in drone units, large signing bonuses and technical skills that translate to civilian careers, and a smooth return to academic studies. Some institutions offer additional perks, including guaranteed budget-funded spots, easier admission to graduate programs, and improved campus housing. In Moscow, recruitment leaflets advertise total earnings of at least 5 million rubles ($57,000) in the first year of service.

But rights activists and military lawyers warn that many of these promises are unenforceable. Since Russia’s 2022 partial mobilization decree, all military contracts have been automatically extended until mobilization is formally ended, making it almost impossible for recruits to leave after the promised 12 months. The core claim that drone operator service is safer than front-line infantry also does not hold up to casualty data: at least 920 Russian drone operators have been confirmed killed since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, according to analysis by BBC Russian, independent Russian outlet Mediazona, and a team of volunteer open-source researchers. The confirmed death toll for drone operators is already comparable to that of artillery units, one of the most dangerous and exposed combat roles in the Russian army. Because drone operators are critical to battlefield operations, they are high-priority targets for enemy forces on both sides of the front. Many recruits also never get assigned to drone units at all: the Ministry of Defense retains final say over posting, and recruits deemed unsuitable are often transferred directly to infantry assault units.

Beyond misleading marketing, the BBC has documented cases of direct coercion targeting vulnerable students. Recruiters specifically focus on students at risk of expulsion or those considering taking academic leave, leveraging their precarious position to pressure them into signing. At one college in Novosibirsk, a school administrator was recorded publicly calling students who refused to sign contracts cowards. Multiple institutions have also reportedly been assigned formal recruitment quotas: a former advisor to the rector of Far Eastern Federal University claimed the school was ordered to supply 32 recruits in February, a claim the university has denied, saying it only supports students who choose to enlist voluntarily.

The penetration of military recruitment into Russia’s educational institutions marks how the war has increasingly seeped into civilian life, targeting young people who have not yet completed their education or begun their adult lives. What recruiters frame as a low-risk, rewarding opportunity has time and again turned into a death sentence for students who believed their promises. For Averin, Abdullin, and Gorbunov, the short, safe technical service they were promised never materialized – only a quick deployment and an early death on the Ukrainian front line.

LONDON — A London court has handed down lengthy prison sentences to two Romanian men convicted of carrying out a state-sponsored stabbing attack against a prominent exiled Iranian journalist on British soil, in a case that has laid bare the growing threat of transnational Iranian aggression targeting opponents on U.K. territory.

Pouria Zeraati, a well-known host for London-based Persian-language opposition broadcaster Iran International, was attacked and stabbed in the leg in March 2024 as he stood outside his residential home in London’s Wimbledon neighborhood.

Following a jury trial last month, 21-year-old Nandito Badea, a former professional soccer player, and 25-year-old George Stana were found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. At Friday’s sentencing hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court, Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb concluded that evidence in the case overwhelmingly confirmed the plot was directed and ordered by the Iranian government.

“I am sure that this was an attack carried out for and for the benefit of a foreign power,” the judge stated in her ruling.

According to case details presented by law enforcement, Badea and an unidentified third assailant carried out the stabbing directly, before fleeing the scene in a getaway car driven by Stana. The pair flew out of the United Kingdom from London Heathrow Airport just hours after the attack. After months of cross-border law enforcement coordination, Badea and Stana were apprehended in Romania in December 2024 and extradited back to the U.K. to face trial. A third suspect, David Andrei, remains in Romanian custody, where criminal proceedings against him are ongoing.

In sentencing, Cheema-Grubb ruled that Stana was fully aware the attack was being carried out on behalf of Iranian authorities, and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. Badea, who was involved in the conspiracy for a shorter period of time, received an eight-year prison term.

This case marks the latest in a rising pattern of Iran-linked plots targeting opponents and minority groups on U.K. soil, according to British security and counter-terrorism officials. U.K. authorities have repeatedly warned that Iran increasingly uses criminal proxy actors based in Europe to carry out attacks against dissidents, opposition media and the British Jewish community.

Iran International, which operates outside of Iran to provide independent coverage critical of Tehran’s theocratic government, has faced escalating state-backed threats from Iran for years. In 2023, the broadcaster temporarily relocated its headquarters to Washington, D.C., after it described a major escalation of targeted threats from Tehran. It later resumed operations from an undisclosed new location in London. Prosecutors told the court that Zeraati, one of the channel’s most high-profile presenters, had been specifically targeted: a billboard displaying his image was spotted in the Iranian capital Tehran emblazoned with a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” notice.

Though Zeraati recovered from his physical injuries and has returned to his journalistic work, the attack left lasting psychological harm. In a victim impact statement, he shared that the incident left him permanently “scared and anxious,” and forced him to relocate outside of the U.K. to avoid the risk of further reprisals.

Senior Iranian diplomat based in the U.K. has denied any involvement by the Tehran government in the attack, a claim rejected by the court’s findings.

Chief Superintendent Kris Wright of Counter Terrorism Policing London said the court’s ruling backed up law enforcement’s core argument that the attack was ordered by the Iranian regime. “Our message to anyone being asked to carry out activity by foreign states or even unknown entities online is to think again, because you will be caught and you will face justice,” Wright said.

Ken McCallum, head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5, warned in an October 2024 address that British authorities had disrupted more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots targeting people on U.K. soil in the preceding 12 months. In recent months, an Iranian proxy group has claimed responsibility for a wave of antisemitic attacks across the U.K., including stabbings and attempted fire bombings targeting synagogues.