标签： Europe

Just days after one of the largest aerial assaults on Ukraine’s capital since the full-scale invasion began, Russia has issued a explicit threat of a new wave of coordinated, systematic attacks targeting Kyiv. In an official statement released by the Russian foreign ministry, Moscow confirmed that upcoming strikes will focus on what it labels “decision-making centres and command posts” in the capital, alongside facilities Ukraine uses to manufacture unmanned aerial vehicles. The statement also urged all foreign nationals and diplomatic staff to evacuate Kyiv “as soon as possible”, and warned local Ukrainian residents to avoid moving near administrative and military infrastructure across the city.

The large-scale barrage carried out by Russian forces on Saturday night left four people dead and approximately 100 others injured across Kyiv and surrounding regions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed. Moscow has framed both this weekend’s attack and the coming new strikes as retaliation for what it claims was a deliberate Ukrainian strike on a student dormitory in the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian town of Starobilsk last Friday. Russian officials allege that 21 people were killed in that incident. Ukraine’s military has pushed back against this narrative, confirming it targeted an elite Russian military drone unit operating in the area and maintains no civilian facilities were intentionally targeted in the strike.

This latest round of violence comes after a series of escalating attacks on Kyiv that began earlier this May, when a temporary ceasefire timed to coincide with Moscow’s annual Victory Day military parade expired. Within days of the ceasefire ending, Russian strikes on a Kyiv residential apartment block killed 24 people, including three children. The assault carried out overnight Saturday marked one of the most intense large-scale aerial attacks on the capital since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Footage shared by Kyiv residents on social media platforms captured sustained explosions lighting up the night sky across the capital, with multiple blasts reported that shook buildings across wide areas of the city. Dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles, alongside hundreds of attack drones, were launched against Kyiv in the assault. Russian forces also fired a nuclear-capable Oreshnik hypersonic missile targeting the area of Bila Tserkva, a city located roughly 90 kilometers south of the Ukrainian capital.

The attack left a trail of destruction across both cultural and civilian sites in Kyiv. The Chernobyl Museum, located in the city’s historic central district, and the National Art Museum of Ukraine both suffered significant damage. Multiple residential buildings, a public market and a large commercial shopping centre in Kyiv’s Lukanivka neighborhood were completely destroyed.

Analysts and political observers broadly view Russia’s public call for foreign nationals to evacuate Kyiv as a deliberate tactic of psychological warfare designed to sow panic and instability among the capital’s population. Large-scale strikes on Kyiv have been a consistent feature of Russian military strategy since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

After four and a half years of continuous full-scale war, Ukraine has built out a sophisticated, multi-layered air defense network that now intercepts the vast majority of Russian drones and missiles. However, Russia often launches attacks with such large volumes of projectiles that Ukrainian defenses are periodically overwhelmed, allowing a significant number of weapons to reach their targets. Ukraine’s air defense capabilities also remain heavily reliant on military support from Western allies, a vulnerability that Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly highlighted. Back in March, Zelensky warned that Ukraine faced a critical deficit of air defense weapons due to shifting defense resource priorities driven by conflicts involving the U.S. and Israel.

In a historic, wide-ranging address marking the first major teaching document of his papacy, Pope Leo has delivered a urgent call to rein in unregulated artificial intelligence, warning that unchecked advancement of the technology risks creating what he terms “new digital slaveries” while issuing one of the Vatican’s most comprehensive apologies ever for the Catholic Church’s historical role in the transatlantic slave trade.

Titled *Magnifica Humanitas* (“Magnificent Humanity”), the encyclical — a formal papal document that, in modern times, functions as a global moral message rather than solely a communication to Catholic bishops — was presented personally by Pope Leo at the Vatican, in an unusual break from tradition. He was joined by leading AI sector figures including Christopher Olah, co-founder of major U.S. AI developer Anthropic.

In the text, Pope Francis defended his sharp, uncompromising language, noting: “The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention.” He frames modern AI risks through a direct parallel to historical chattel slavery, arguing that the world is currently at the same kind of moral crossroads humanity faced centuries ago, when the exploitation of marginalized people was normalized and accepted by global institutions.

He draws explicit connections between historical exploitation and emerging digital harms, warning that both the supply chains that build AI hardware and the real-world applications of advanced algorithms risk normalizing a new wave of dehumanizing exploitation. He also coined the term “digital colonialism,” linking the extractive abuses of 19th-century colonial rule to modern unregulated tech development that exploits vulnerable communities and nations.

Alongside his warnings about AI-driven exploitation, Pope Leo issued a formal apology for the Church’s complicity in slavery. “It was impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many,” he wrote, adding that he “sincerely asked for pardon” in the name of the entire Catholic Church. The apology is one of the most sweeping the Vatican has ever issued on the topic of historical slavery.

The encyclical addresses multiple specific risks posed by advancing AI, going beyond exploitation to condemn the development of AI-augmented weaponry. “No algorithm can make war morally acceptable,” Pope Leo wrote, arguing that reducing human control over weapons not only fails to erase the “intrinsic inhumanity” of war, but also lowers the threshold for armed conflict by making violence less personal and turning civilian casualties into abstract data points. He explicitly warned against the rise of a global AI arms race.

Pope Leo also criticized the use of AI in political systems, particularly the spread of AI-generated deepfake images and videos that manipulate public perception and expose audiences to biased, misleading content that erodes trust in democratic processes. Echoing past remarks, he compared the current need for AI guardrails to the protections that had to be put in place to protect human dignity during the Industrial Revolution, noting that both the Church and global society were far too slow to condemn the historical scourge of slavery — a mistake he argues must not be repeated with AI.

In a special direct appeal to AI developers worldwide, the Pope emphasized that creators of the technology carry unique moral and spiritual responsibility: “Developers bear a particular ethical and spiritual responsibility, for every design choice reflects a vision of humanity.”

Olah, the Anthropic co-founder, echoed the Pope’s framing during the post-presentation remarks, acknowledging that the questions raised by AI extend far beyond the technical research community. “Every AI lab including his operated ‘inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing’,” Olah said, adding that “the questions raised by AI are bigger than the AI research community, not just in their implications, but also in their nature.”

To advance the recommendations laid out in the encyclical, Pope Leo has convened a special commission to continue work on AI governance and ethical standards. Still, observers have raised questions about how much impact the papal message will have amid the breakneck pace of global AI development. Analysts point to the 2015 encyclical *Laudato Si* from the late Pope Francis, which called for urgent action on climate change, only for Pope Francis to publicly express disappointment at global inaction on the issue eight years later. Many wonder that, despite his passionate call for AI regulation today, Pope Leo may be forced to issue a similar frustrated warning in years to come.

An unseasonal, record-shattering heat wave has swept across Western Europe this May, triggering urgent public health warnings from national authorities following two confirmed fatalities linked to extreme heat during amateur sports competitions in France.

The fatal incidents, both occurring on Sunday, have underscored the growing risks of out-of-season extreme heat as climate change amplifies the frequency of abnormal weather events. French Sports Minister Marina Ferrari released an official statement mourning the death of a 53-year-old male runner who collapsed from a cardiac arrest mid-race in Paris’ 20th arrondissement. First responders were unable to resuscitate the athlete, per local French newspaper Le Parisien. While a formal cause of death has not been finalized, Ferrari highlighted a probable connection to the extreme ongoing heat.

“The events that took place during Sunday’s running races serve as a critical reminder that sporting activity in extreme heat demands the highest level of vigilance,” Ferrari wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “My deepest condolences go out to the family and loved ones of the runner who lost their life in Paris, as well as to all those who required emergency medical care during Sunday’s events.”

A second heat-related fatality was reported in the southeastern French city of Lyon on Monday, per local outlet Actu Lyon. A female participant in another Sunday sporting event died after suffering severe heat stroke during competition.

National meteorological service Meteo France confirmed that this May’s heat wave has broken long-standing monthly temperature records, with thermometers climbing above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) across most of the country, with the unseasonal heat expected to persist through the rest of the week.

Across the English Channel, the United Kingdom also joined the list of nations facing record-breaking early heat. London’s Heathrow Airport registered a high of 33.5 degrees Celsius (92.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, beating the country’s previous May temperature record of 32.8 degrees Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) — a mark that was first set in 1922 and later matched in 1944. The record high prompted national officials to declare an official heat wave across multiple regions of the UK, as both local residents and holiday travelers crowded into beaches, public parks and shaded spaces to find relief from the sweltering conditions.

The U.K. Health Security Agency has issued its first amber heat health alert of 2024, warning the public of elevated risks of heat-related deaths, particularly for vulnerable groups including elderly people, during the hottest peak hours of the day.

Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that extreme, often deadly weather events are growing more frequent as global average temperatures rise from anthropogenic climate change. Unprecedented heat surges that hit outside the typical summer season, and in regions unaccustomed to early extreme heat, are putting increasingly large numbers of people at risk of preventable heat-related illness and death.