It is easy to get distracted by US officials pledging to rally support for a "humanitarian pause" and reducing the number of civilian casualties in Israel's bombardment of Gaza. But what matters is the actions of the Biden administration, not empty platitudes. In early November, the US State Department approved a $320m sale of guided bomb kits, reportedly assisting Israel to more precisely hit targets in Gaza. According to The New York Times, "Modern militaries generally add the guidance systems on their bombs with the goal of minimizing civilian casualties, although the damage can still be devastating, especially in urban areas." The United Nations and every major human rights group in the world have routinely condemned Israeli actions in Gaza, along with the Hamas barbarism on October 7, and accused the Israeli army of potentially committing war crimes. Human Rights Watch has rightly called for a suspension of all weapons transfers to Israel and Hamas.

Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv were urged to head to air raid shelters as sirens wailed across the city early on Friday morning, a day after Russia carried out the biggest aerial assault since it started the war in February. Shortly after 2:00am (00:00 GMT), Kyiv's city government issued an alert on its Telegram messaging app calling on residents to proceed to shelters. Oleksiy Kuleba, governor of the Kyiv region, said on Telegram that an "attack by drones" was under way. A Reuters witness 20km (12 miles) south of Kyiv heard several explosions and the sound of anti-aircraft fire. Local media outlet The Kyiv Independent reported that air raid alerts were blaring in the Kyiv, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad regions due to possible Russian drone attacks.

At The Common Good in the Digital Age conference last weekend, Pope Francis warned that artificial intelligence (AI) could, if unchecked by ethics, become "an enemy of the common good". But is his assessment of AI as a potential new "barbarism" a fair one? The Common Good in the Digital Age was a three-day conference held at the end of September in the Vatican, which saw academics and religious authorities discuss the social, ethical and political implications of recent technological developments. As part of the conference, Pope Francis addressed diplomats, financiers and tech company executives, warning that the rush to develop artificial intelligence must also be accompanied with ethical evaluations of the common good to mitigate the risk of increasing social inequality. "If technological advancement became the cause of increasingly evident inequalities, it would not be true and real progress. "If mankind's so-called technological progress were to become an enemy of the common good, ...

At a conference at the Vatican last week, Pope Francis warned a group of Silicon Valley execs that in the wrong hands, artificial intelligence could have devastating consequences for humanity. "If mankind's so-called technological progress were to become an enemy of the common good, this would lead to an unfortunate regression to a form of barbarism dictated by the law of the strongest," he said, according to Reuters. The development of advanced AI can "raise increasingly significant implications in all areas of human activity," the Pope said. He also called for "open and concrete discussions" to develop "both theoretical and practical moral principles." The conference also grappled with the March 2019 attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, and how social media platforms helped spread footage taken during the shootings, according to TIME.

Pope Francis has sent a warning to Silicon Valley urging tech giants to be aware that artificial intelligence (AI) does not lead to a new'form of barbarism' -- where the law of the strongest prevails over the common good. The leader of the Catholic Church commended those in the field for their remarkable developments, but voiced concerns about'increasingly significant implications in all areas of human activity'. The Pontiff noted that AI has the ability to circulate biased opinions and false data, resulting in the manipulation of millions of people. Pope Francis (pictured) has sent a warning to Silicon Valley urging tech giants to be aware that artificial intelligence (AI) does not lead to a new'form of barbarism' -- where the law of the strongest prevails over the common good The grim warning was given during a three-day conference at the Vatican, which attendees from all over the technology sector attended. This conference touches on subjects not primarily discussed among the clergy such as algorithms to blockchain to robot workers.