Comment on U.N. donors pledge more than $1 billion for Afghanistan amid warning of ‘collapse’

KYIV, Ukraine — U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday in an unannounced diplomatic mission to reassure Ukraine that it has American support as it struggles to defend against increasingly intense Russian attacks. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The visit comes less than a month after Congress approved a long-delayed foreign assistance package that sets aside $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, much of which will go toward replenishing badly depleted artillery and air defense systems. Read More: The Fate of Ukraine Has Become a War About America’s Power On his fourth trip to Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Blinken will underscore the Biden administration’s commitment to Ukraine’s defense and long-term security, U.

Just one week before the world’s second-ever global summit on artificial intelligence, protesters of a small but growing movement called “Pause AI” demanded that the world’s governments regulate AI companies and freeze the development of new cutting edge artificial intelligence models. They say that the development of these models should only be allowed to continue if companies agree to let them be thoroughly evaluated to test their safety first.

Decades of climate policy in the European Union have made the bloc a leader in global decarbonization efforts. Championed by officials at the European Commission in Brussels, a suite of regulations have tackled everything from industrial emissions to corporate disclosure of climate risk. Over that time, though, many European companies have increasingly complained that the cost of the regulations would make their products uncompetitive on the global market. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] On April 19, Wopke Hoekstra, the bloc’s top climate official, told me that to keep up climate momentum the EU needs to ensure that climate policy does not harm the competitiveness of European companies.

Russian forces have seized at least nine villages amid a new push in northeastern Ukraine that began on Friday, the most square miles taken per day since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. On Friday, Russian troops pushed deeper into territory in two border areas of Vovchansk and Lyptsi in Kharkiv region.

A DJ is lighting up both night clubs—and monasteries. Dressed as a monk, sporting a shaved head and gray robe, DJ NewJeansNim has become all the rage in recent weeks as he produces EDM featuring Buddhist messages. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “Put your hands up,” he said in a clip of his DJ set last month in Taiwan, as he pressed his palms together in prayer position and jumped along to the beat.

PADANG, Indonesia — Heavy rains and torrents of cold lava and mud flowing down a volcano’s slopes on Indonesia’s Sumatra island triggered flash floods that killed at least 37 people and more than a dozen others were missing, officials said Sunday. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Monsoon rains and a major mudslide from a cold lava flow on Mount Marapi caused a river to breach its banks and tear through mountainside villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight on Saturday.