Francis, 86, left Rome’s Gemelli hospital in a wheelchair, waving to reporters and well-wishers at the main entrance as he was taken to a waiting car.

“The Pope is well. He is in better shape than before,” Sergio Alfieri, the chief surgeon who operated on Francis on June 7, told reporters outside the hospital after the pontiff left.

Alfieri said the Pope was well enough to travel. Francis has trips planned for Portugal at the start of August and Mongolia at the end of that month.

His engagements have been cancelled until June 18.

The Pope traditionally takes all of July off, with the Sunday blessings being his only public appearances, so he will have next month to rest before the August trips. – Rappler.com

The amendments to the EU Commission’s proposed landmark law aimed at protecting citizens from the dangers of the technology could set up a clash with EU countries opposed to a total ban on AI use in biometric surveillance.

The rapid adoption of Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other bots has led top AI scientists and company executives including Tesla’s Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman to raise the potential risks posed to society.

“While Big Tech companies are sounding the alarm over their own creations, Europe has gone ahead and proposed a concrete response to the risks AI is starting to pose,” said Brando Benifei, co-rapporteur of the bill.

Among other changes, European Union lawmakers want any company using generative tools to disclose copyrighted material used to train its systems and for companies working on “high-risk application” to do a fundamental rights impact assessment and evaluate environmental impact.

Systems like ChatGPT would have to disclose that the content was AI-generated, help distinguish so-called deep-fake images from real ones and ensure safeguards against illegal content.

Microsoft and IBM welcomed the latest move by EU lawmakers but looked forward to further refinement of the proposed legislation.

“We believe that AI requires legislative guardrails, alignment efforts at an international level, and meaningful voluntary actions by companies that develop and deploy AI,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.

The lawmakers will now have to thrash out details with EU countries before the draft rules become legislation.

‘AI is intrinsically good’

While most big tech companies acknowledge the risks posed by AI, others like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have dismissed warnings about the potential dangers.

“AI is intrinsically good, because the effect of AI is to make people smarter,” Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun said at a conference in Paris on Wednesday.

In the current draft EU law, AI systems that could be used to influence voters and the outcome of elections and systems used by social media platforms with over 45 million users were added to the high-risk list.

Meta and Twitter will fall under that classification.

“AI raises a lot of questions – socially, ethically, economically. But now is not the time to hit any ‘pause button’. On the contrary, it is about acting fast and taking responsibility,” EU industry chief Thierry Breton said.

He said he would travel to the United States next week to meet Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI’s Altman to discuss the draft AI Act.

The Commission announced the draft rules two years ago, aiming to setting a global standard for a technology key to almost every industry and business as the EU seeks to catch up to AI leaders the United States and China. – Rappler.com

A Vatican statement put an end speculation about what role Gaenswein, a powerful figure in the Vatican for more than a decade before Francis sidelined him after a personal falling out, would have in the Church.

Former pope Benedict died on December 31, nearly a decade after he resigned in 2013, the first pontiff to do so in 600 years.

Gaenswein is 66 and it is exceptionally unusual for someone of that relatively young age and rank not to have an assignment, giving the Pope’s decision a sense of banishment.

The two-line statement said Francis “had disposed” that the 66-year-old Gaenswein return to his diocese of Freiburg “for the time being.”

Nearly all papal secretaries in the past have either been assigned to lead dioceses or made cardinals or given some other high-profile post. Gaenswein is nine years short of the normal retirement age of 75 for bishops.

He has met Francis several times in the past months about his future and there has been speculation in Catholic media that he was hoping to land a diplomatic assignment as nuncio, or ambassador, to a country.

Gaenswein declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on Thursday.

He was Benedict’s personal secretary from 2003, when Benedict was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and remained at his side for nearly 20 years, nearly 10 of them after Benedict resigned.

In a book called Nothing But The Truth – My Life Beside Benedict XVI and sent to reporters by its publisher only hours after Benedict was buried on January 5, Gaenswein rattled the Vatican by describing what he says were strains while two men wearing white lived within its walls.

Gaenswein and Francis fell out in 2020 when Gaenswein was at the centre of a messy episode concerning former pope Benedict’s role in a book about priestly celibacy that many saw as an attack on Francis’ authority. – Rappler.com

A statement said Rupnik, whose case has shaken the Vatican and the worldwide religious order of which Pope Francis is a member, was dismissed for his “obstinate” refusal to obey the Jesuit superior general, Father Arturo Sosa.

About 25 people, mostly former nuns, have accused Rupnik of various types of abuse, either when he was a spiritual director of a community of nuns in his native Slovenia about 30 years ago or after he moved to Rome to pursue his career as an artist.

Repeated attempts to reach Rupnik through his school for religious art in Rome were unsuccessful and he did not responded to phone messages seeking comment. His whereabouts were unknown, although he was believed to be in Rome.

The order said Rupnik, who has not publicly responded to the allegations, has 30 days to appeal the decision.

Rupnik has specialized in mosaics and came to prominence when the late Pope John Paul II commissioned him to redesign a chapel in the Vatican between 1996 and 1999. He has since designed chapels around the world.

Allegations against Rupnik began surfacing in Italian media late last year, after which the Jesuit headquarters acknowledged that he had been banned in 2019 from hearing confessions and leading spiritual retreats.

One ex-nun told the Italian investigative newspaper Domani how he used what she called psychological control over her.

She said he forced her into sexual acts, and deployed “cruel psychological, emotional, and spiritual aggression” to “destroy” her, particularly after she refused to have three-way sex.

The Jesuits and the Vatican’s doctrinal department have come under criticism for their handling of the case. The order disclosed under media pressure last year that the Vatican investigated Rupnik and ruled that some of the alleged abuse fell beyond the statute of limitations.

Jesuits say abuse accusations against priest highly credible, restrictions tightened

Last December Sosa, the Jesuit leader, said nothing had been hidden about the case. But the order subsequently disclosed that Rupnik had earlier been temporarily excommunicated by the Vatican.

That case involved the “absolution of an accomplice” in confession, referring to when a priest has sex with someone and then absolves the person of the sin.

The information released by the Jesuits so far has not shown any move to defrock him. – Rappler.com

The Ukrainian assault is in its early stages, and military experts say the decisive battles still lie ahead. But corpses of Russian soldiers and burnt-out armored vehicles lining the roadside in villages newly recaptured by Ukrainian troops attested to Kyiv’s biggest advances since last year.

Reuters reached the villages of Neskuchne and Storozheve over the past two days, providing the first independent confirmation of the Ukrainian advance several kilometers southwards along the Mokry Yali river into territory Russia had held since the early days of its invasion last year.

Several bodies of Russian soldiers lay in the streets of ruined and depopulated villages. Ukrainian troops in Storozheve told Reuters they had killed around 50 Russians and captured four there.

Moscow has not acknowledged any setbacks and says it has inflicted severe casualties on Ukrainians attempting to assault.

The Ukrainian military, which had maintained strict silence about the campaign for more than a week, came forward to tout the gains on Thursday, holding its first full media briefing since the counteroffensive began.

Troops had captured at least seven settlements and 100 square km (38 square miles) of territory in two major pushes in the south so far, Brigadier-General Oleksii Hromov said.

“We are ready to continue fighting to liberate our territory even with our bare hands,” he said.

The army on the southern front had advanced by up to 7 km (4.4 miles) in the area along the Mokry Yali, as well as by up to 3 km (1.8 miles) on another axis further west near the village of Mala Tokmachka, Ukrainian military officials said.

They also described advances in the east around the ruined city of Bakhmut, which Moscow seized last month as its only major prize for a huge winter and spring offensive that saw the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War Two.

Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted this week that Moscow’s goals in Ukraine remain unchanged despite the Ukrainian counteroffensive. He claimed that Russian forces were inflicting 10 times more casualties on Ukrainians than they were enduring.

Election plan

Russia’s announcement of a plan for elections in occupied territory was the latest effort by Moscow to convey that the situation was stable.

Russia’s TASS state news agency quoted election chief Ella Pamfilova as saying that both the DefenSe Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB) had concluded that it would be possible to hold the votes in September.

Russia proclaimed its annexation of four Ukrainian provinces last year, although it does not fully control any of them and does not hold the main population centres of two.

Kyiv says any elections staged by Russians on Ukrainian territory would be invalid and illegal.

The big test of Ukraine’s offensive still lies ahead. Russia has had months to prepare its defenses. Ukrainian troops have yet to reach the heaviest Russian defensive fortifications, which are set back from the front line.

Kyiv is believed to have prepared an attack force of around 12 brigades of thousands of soldiers each, most using newly arrived Western armored vehicles. Only a fraction of them have been engaged so far.

Russia, for its part, has released images of Western tanks and armored vehicles it says it has destroyed or captured.

In Brussels, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin presided over the latest meeting of a group of around 50 countries, set up by Washington to coordinate donations of Western arms to Ukraine.

“I ask that the members of this contact group continue to dig deep to provide Ukraine with the air defense assets and munitions that it so urgently needs to protect its citizens,” Austin said. – Rappler.com

Reports suggested hundreds of people had packed the fishing boat that capsized and sank early on Wednesday in deep waters about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern coastal town of Pylos, while being shadowed by the Greek coast guard.

As dawn broke on Thursday, a coast guard vessel sailed into the nearby port city of Kalamata, transferring victims. After an official count, authorities revised the death toll to 78 from 79. They said 104 people were rescued.

They said it was unclear how many had been aboard, but were investigating one account from a European rescue-support charity that there could have been 750 people on the 20- to 30 meter-long (65- to 100-foot) boat.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration said initial reports suggested up to 400 people were aboard.

News portal Proto Thema and Skai TV reported that, according to witnesses, mainly women and children were in the vessel’s hold.

Government officials said migrants on the boat, which had set off from the Libyan port of Tobruk, had repeatedly refused offers of help from Greek authorities.

“It was a fishing boat packed with people who refused our assistance because they wanted to go to Italy,” coast guard spokesperson Nikos Alexiou told broadcaster Skai TV.

“We stayed beside it in case it needed our assistance which they had refused.”

No engine, no captain

The search operation was due to continue until at least Friday morning, according to government sources. Chances of retrieving the sunken vessel were remote, they said, because the area of international waters where the incident occurred is one of the deepest in the Mediterranean.

Aerial pictures released by the Greek coast guard showed dozens of people on the boat’s upper and lower decks looking up, some with arms outstretched, hours before it sank.

Alarm Phone, which operates a trans-European network supporting rescue operations, said it received alerts from people on board a ship in distress off Greece late on Tuesday.

It said it had alerted Greek authorities and spoke to people on the vessel who estimated there were up to 750 people on board and appealed for help, and that the captain had fled on a small boat.

Government officials said that before capsizing and sinking around 2 am on Wednesday, the vessel’s engine stopped and it began veering from side to side.

Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Under a conservative government, in power until last month, authorities have taken a harder stance on migration, building walled camps and boosting border controls.

Greece’s caretaker administration, in power between an inconclusive election on May 21 and new elections on June 25, declared three days of national mourning.

Libya, which has had little stability or security since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, is a major launching point for those seeking to reach Europe by sea.

People-smuggling networks are mainly run by military factions that control coastal areas.

The United Nations has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world. – Rappler.com

Berlusconi died on Monday aged 86. His state funeral which will take place in Milan’s Cathedral on Wednesday afternoon is likely to attract several thousand people, including top political leaders and foreign dignitaries.

Some Italian opposition politicians, including former premier Giuseppe Conte, refused to attend the service, while former center-left minister Rosy Bindi said an “inappropriate sanctification” was taking place.

Former Italian premiers have been given state funerals in the past, but this is the first time that a national day of mourning, an unprecedented honor, has been called as well. It is up to the government to declare it.

Italy is ruled by a right-wing coalition of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party Brothers of Italy, Matteo Salvini’s League and Berlusconi’s former party Forza Italia.

The day of mourning is not a public holiday, but rather a symbolic tribute in which flags fly at half mast from public buildings. The European Parliament also decided to pay its respects in this manner.

Bindi, a woman often vilified by Berlusconi’s sexist jibes, said the national day was “disrespectful towards the majority” of Italians who opposed the late leader.

Berlusconi was a highly divisive figure who set the mould for other businessmen-turned-politicians like former U.S. President Donald Trump, with a career punctuated by scandals and legal trials.

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Last goodbye

In Milan, flower wreaths were stacked against the facade of the city’s gothic cathedral ahead of the funeral starting at 1300 GMT, while giant screens were installed to allow people to follow from the square.

Among them was Lucia Adiele, a member of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia who travelled nearly 1,000 kilometers from her home in Altamura, southern Italy, to bid farewell to her favorite politician.

“I was lucky enough to be a part of Forza Italia for 18 years. I was also lucky enough to meet him. The least I could do was to be here and say goodbye for the last time,” she told Reuters TV.

Around 2,300 people were expected to be inside the cathedral, including Meloni, President Sergio Mattarella and the leader of centre-left Democratic Party (PD) Elly Schlein.

Parliamentary activity was de facto suspended on Wednesday to allow politicians to take part in the service.

EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Iraq’s PM Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani are due to attend.

Berlusconi was also honored by full-page newspaper advertisements from his family and by his media company MFE MFEB.MI.

The message from his five children read, “Sweetest Dad, Thank you for your life, Thank you for your love, You will always life inside us.” –Rappler.com

Russia launched four cruise missiles on the city of Odesa, the South command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said. The military said earlier that two missiles were destroyed before hitting their targets.

“As a result of air combat and blast waves, a business center, an educational institution, a residential complex, food establishments and shops in the city centre were damaged,” the South command said on the Telegram messaging app.

The three people killed were working at a retail chain’s warehouse when a missile hit, setting it ablaze, the military added. Seven people were wounded there.

“Sifting through the debris continues,” the military said. “There may be people under.”

Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa military administration, posted a video and photographs showing multi-story buildings with parts of their walls missing and windows blown out, as well as firefighters battling against flames in what it appeared be a warehouse.

In a separate missile strike, Russian forces killed three civilians in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Facebook.

He said two people were killed in Kramatorsk and another in Kostiantynivka.

“The missiles … hit private houses in the cities and caused significant damage: in Kramatorsk, at least 5 private houses were destroyed and about two dozen damaged, in Kostiantynivka, two were destroyed and 55 damaged,” he said.

Ukrainian Air Forces said they destroyed three missiles and nine drones overnight.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in their military operations. – Rappler.com

Not a single resident could be found in Neskuchne, one of a cluster of settlements on the Mokry Yali river that Ukraine says its troops have captured in a steady advance southwards into Russian-held territory since their operation began last week.

Ukrainian troops rode through the muddy streets on the back of a tank and in a pick-up truck. A warplane flew overhead, firing flares.

“Three days ago the Russian forces were still here. We chased them out of Neskuchne. Glory to Ukraine,” said Artem, a member of a Ukrainian territorial defense unit, who gave no surname. “These are Ukrainian lands.”

The mainly one- and two-storey buildings in the village, which had a population of several hundred before Russia invaded last year, had nearly all been damaged. The scene was silent, apart for the crump of artillery fire in the distance.

Reuters saw at least three dead Russian soldiers lying in the street, including one whose fly-blown body lay by an abandoned Russian military vehicle. Artem said the advancing Ukrainian troops had watched from a drone as comrades initially tried to evacuate him, only to dump him where he lay and flee.

It was the first independent confirmation of Ukraine’s advance in the area, roughly 90 km southwest of the city of Donetsk, one of several axes where it is trying to break through Russian lines in the early days of a long-awaited counteroffensive.

Missile strike

Elsewhere on Tuesday, a Russian missile strike killed at least 11 people in an apartment building and warehouses in Kryvyi Rih, birthplace of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Residents sobbed outside the burnt-out apartment block and smoke billowed after the early-morning attack. Officials said at least four people were killed there and another seven in the warehouses. Twenty-eight were injured.

Survivors described two explosions. Olha Chernousova said she was thrown out of her bed by a violent blast wave. She escaped onto her balcony to wait for rescuers. “I thought I would have to jump into a tree.”

Moscow denies intentionally targeting civilians but has repeatedly struck apartment buildings with long-range missiles, often at perceived turning points in the war. It killed 25 people in an apartment block in the central city of Uman six weeks ago at the start of an intensified campaign of drone and missile strikes in the run-up to Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

Early days of assault

Ukraine began its counterassault last week after sticking to the defensive through seven months of a huge Russian winter and spring campaign that yielded scant gains despite the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War Two.

So far Ukraine’s offensive is still in its early days, with tens of thousands of fresh troops and hundreds of Western armored vehicles yet to be committed to the fight. Russia, for its part, has had months to prepare several layers of defensive lines, meaning Ukraine’s advance does not necessarily amount to a breach through the front.

After a week of giving little information about its offensive, Ukraine said on Monday it had recaptured seven settlements so far. Troops have advanced up to 6.5 km (4 miles) and seized 90 square km (35 square miles) of ground along a 100 km-long stretch of the southern front line, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a televised meeting with Russian military bloggers, said on Tuesday the goals of Russia’s military campaign had not fundamentally changed, and claimed that Ukraine had suffered 10 times the casualties as Russia.

Leaked US intelligence documents have estimated Russia has suffered losses several times greater than Ukraine’s, with the worst casualties coming in recent months during the winter and spring campaign that captured scant territory.

Russia has not acknowledged any Ukrainian gains since the counteroffensive began last week, and says it has repelled repeated advances. Its defense ministry said on Tuesday its forces had fended off Ukrainian attacks near the villages of Makarivka, Rivnopil and Prechystivka. Makarivka is located further south along the river from Neskuchne.

Moscow also released video footage of what it said were German-made Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles captured in battle. Reuters could not immediately verify the location or time of the footage.

Military analysts say the fighting so far is probably still mainly probing attacks by the Ukrainians who have yet to unleash the bulk of their forces, while Russia’s main defensive fortifications still lie further back. – Rappler.com

Residents sobbed outside the burnt-out apartment block, from which smoke billowed after the early-morning attack on the central Ukrainian city. Officials said at least 25 people were wounded and others could still be trapped under the rubble.

Olha Chernousova, who lives in the five-story apartment block, said she was woken by an explosion which sounded like thunder and thrown out of her bed by a violent blast wave.

“I ran to my front door, but it was very hot there… the smoke was heavy,” she said.

“What could I do? I was sat on the balcony, terrified I would lose consciousness. Nobody came for a long time… I thought I would have to jump into a tree.”

Around her, the street and courtyard were strewn with glass and bricks. At least five cars were ruined husks.

Ihor Lavrenenko, who lives in a different part of the building, said he heard two blasts.

“I woke up from the first bang, a weak one, and went straightaway onto the balcony. Then the second one erupted overhead, I watched from my balcony as hot debris fell,” he said.

Rescue operations were underway in the apartment building and in a destroyed warehouse, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on the Telegram messaging app.

City mayor Oleksandr Vilkul confirmed at least six people had been killed. In an earlier post, he had said three people were killed, at least seven were believed trapped under the rubble and that 25 others were wounded.

Zelenskiy condemns attack

“Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people,” Zelenskiy, who was born in Kryvyi Rih, said on Telegram.

Russia did not immediately comment on the attack. It has repeatedly struck cities across Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in February 2022 though it denies targeting civilians.

Moscow has also accused Ukraine of cross-border shelling as Kyiv carries out counter-offensive operations. The governor of Kursk in Russia said on Tuesday several houses had been damaged and power supplies disrupted in two villages in the region near the border.

During the early hours of Tuesday, air raid sirens blared across the whole of Ukraine, with Kyiv’s military officials saying air defense forces destroyed all Russian missiles targeting the Ukrainian capital.

Ukraine’s top military command said that air forces destroyed 10 out of 14 cruise missiles Russia launched on Ukraine and one of the four Iranian-made drones. – Rappler.com