In his first major document, the pontiff urged governments to slow down and closely regulate the development of AI systems, warning that they spread misinformation, prioritise conflict and risk leading the world down a path of unending war. The text, titled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), has been eagerly awaited since Leo said days after his election that he considered AI to be the biggest challenge facing humanity today. Leo said it was "not permissible" to entrust irreversible, lethal decisions to AI systems, setting up another flash point between the US-born pope and the Trump administration, which has worked to deregulate AI development. He warned during a Vatican event presenting the text that some autonomous weapons systems have advanced "practically beyond any human reach to govern them". "Artificial Intelligence now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death," he added. The pope invoked J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings character Gandalf as he urged people to do their part to build a "civilization of love" amid the threat of AI. He quoted the wizard saying in The Return of the King: "It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till." Leo wrote that the civilisation of love "will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization". The 83-page document, known as an encyclical, is one of the most authoritative types of teaching documents a pope can issue. Among the attendees at the presentation of the text was Chris Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic, one of the world's top AI companies. Anthropic, which produces the Claude AI tools, is currently locked in a legal battle with the Trump administration over access to its AI technology. The Vatican decided to involve Anthropic as part of its long effort to engage tech companies in dialogue over the human cost of AI. In his text, Leo called for ownership of AI data not to be left solely in private hands, for policy-makers to protect the rights of workers and keep children safe from the technology, and urged the cooling of competition between AI companies. "What is needed is a more active political involvement that is capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating," said Leo in the text The pope called for "robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility." Read more from Sky News:Unknown substance sprayed on people in TokyoMore than 30 die in Pakistan suicide bomb attack "A more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few," he added. Mr Olah thanked the pope for addressing the problems raised by AI and said firms like his faced strong commercial pressures and needed outside scrutiny. "Every frontier AI lab, including Anthropic, operates inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing," Mr Olah said.

The spacecraft took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Sunday, watched on by jubilant crowds waving the national flag. The crew will conduct dozens of science projects and complete an in-orbit rotation - turning the spacecraft on its own axis while it travels around Earth - with the crew of Shenzhou 21, who have been at the Tiangong space station for more than 200 days. One of the three astronauts on the Shenzhou 23 mission is scheduled to stay at the orbiting space station for a year, in what would be among the world's longest single stays in space. The extended stay is for the purpose of exploring "human adaptability and performance limits" in space, state media reported, but it will be decided later which astronaut will be staying on. A Russian astronaut holds the record after spending 14 and a half months in space in 1995. The launch comes after the US launched its Artemis II mission in April, which saw astronauts circumvent the moon in the Orion spacecraft. NASA plans to execute the first human moon landing since 1972 in the Artemis IV mission in 2028, as part of a push to establish a lunar base from which to reach Mars. The US is seen as China's top space rival, with Beijing stepping up its space program in recent years by carrying out almost a dozen missions to its space station since 2021. Read more from Sky News:RAF jet has signal jammed near RussiaSurf photographer bitten by a 'shark or sea lion' China developed the Tiangong space station, which means "heavenly palace", after the country was effectively barred from the International Space Station over US concerns about national security. The US has warned that China plans ​to colonise and mine lunar territory and resources, claims that Beijing has strongly denied. The astronauts on the Shenzhou mission, which translates as "divine vessel", are Zhu Yangzhu, the commander, Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who has also been identified by Chinese authorities as Li Jiaying, using the Mandarin version of her name. Lai, who was born and raised in Hong Kong and has a doctoral degree in computer forensics, is the first astronaut from the city on a space mission. With less than four years until its 2030 deadline to complete a moon landing, China faces the significant challenge of developing entirely new hardware and software specific to its lunar mission.

Helix Arts and George King Architects won the contest, which aims to shape the tree's next chapter by using half of its timber, the National Trust said on Saturday. The arts charity and architects studio, based in North Shields and London respectively, worked together on a design named "The People's Tree". The proposal combines public participation, sound, architecture and storytelling to respond to the loss of the world-famous tree. The tree, thought to have been planted in the late 1880s, was felled in 2023 during Storm Agnes. Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, who were from Cumbria, had travelled to Northumberland, where one of them cut down the sycamore overnight and the other filmed it. Both men were convicted of criminal damage and jailed for four years and three months last year following the act of vandalism, which sparked national outrage and an outpouring of grief for the widely-loved landmark. The winning proposal, to be completed in September 2027, scored highest across the public vote and a final decision by a panel of expert judges, the trust said. Members of the public will have the chance to reflect on their own relationships with trees and nature through sound and spoken word recordings while the artists create a digital soundtrack by scanning the tree's rings. The final compilation of stories and audio will then be presented through a series of exhibitions and workshops held to the north, south, east and west of Sycamore Gap. Sections of some of the seasoned wood will also be used to co-create artworks with communities and local artists. It will culminate in a "sound sculpture" - an artwork that includes some of its wood as well as the archive of stories and nature sounds, which will be placed in an accessible location along Hadrian's Wall. Cheryl Gavin, director at Helix Arts, said the project is driven by a belief that "the legacy of the Sycamore Gap tree lives not only in its wood, but in the relationships, memories and moments of connection it sparked". Read more on Sky News:Record-breaking heat forecastUK 'facing catastophe' warningSpaceX's high-stakes launch George King, from George King Architects, said "the tree as it was can never be replaced, but what we can do is create a place for reflection and connections". The National Trust's Annie Reilly, who led the judging panel, said the idea "puts a real conversation between people and the tree at its heart. "It doesn't try to give one answer to loss. Instead, it invites people to listen, reflect and reconnect - with nature and with each other." The main section of the tree's trunk has already been installed at the gateway to Northumberland National Park, where the tree once stood.

The industry brought £8.8bn to the British economy last year; it generates twice as much revenue as film and TV; it employs 73,000 workers around the country. They're big numbers and they're often rolled out because to a lot of people, gaming can still feel niche; the domain of teenage boys in fusty bedrooms. Sure, it inspires devotees; we watched this weekend as tens of thousands of elaborately costumed fans poured into MCM Comic Con in London. But that's not the whole story; the majority of adults (65%) now play video games. (If you're thinking, 'Not me or my friends' - phone games like Candy Crush and Farmville are video games.) Those working on our games argue there's a huge cultural value to British gaming too. "I always think of the money, but the cultural impact of games is phenomenal," said Harvey Elliott, founder of games publisher Playstack and board member of Ukie, the industry's trade body. "We know that this generation of kids is growing up with gaming as their main entertainment platform." Another publisher, James Schall of Secret Mode games, believes video games are becoming a way of showing off British culture to the world. Four of the companies' games, based in glamorous locations like Scarborough and a Scottish oil rig in the '70s, have had a surprising amount of international success. "You may think some of these games are only for British audiences but actually audiences in America, in Germany, in China adore these stories," said Mr Schall. "The output is so strong, not just financially, but also culturally in selling Great Britain as a destination and as a brand," he said. But change is coming, and difficult decisions are on the horizon. "The video games market, in terms of console and PC, reached maturity," said George E Osborn, author of Power Play: Video Games, Politics and the Battle for Global Influence. "That means growth is tailing off here, but it's continuing to grow the industry at large in places like China." Naturally, that means money and talent is heading east to where the growth is; China has overtaken the US in terms of dominance in video games, its market is worth more than $50bn. With all that change afoot, the people who make our video games here in the UK are having to reassess. "You're having to change a lot of fundamentals about how you do business, who you trade with, and whether you have to make some difficult decisions like 'Do I want to do things like censor my video game to get access to the Chinese market?'," said Mr Osborn. "These are big, complicated decisions." Read more from Sky News:Rape case in which teenage boys spared jail 'appalling', PM saysBody found in search for boy, 15, missing after entering lake The last thing you need during a period of instability like that… is instability at home. The turbulent landscape in Westminster, with a Labour leadership race looming, has the potential to rock an already unstable - and highly valuable - industry. Watch the video at the top to find out why Westminster's troubles could impact the games we play.

It comes as the Democratic Republic of Congo's football team and staff have been told to isolate before travelling to the US for the World Cup. Two Ugandans - a ​male driver who ⁠transported a patient who was the country's ⁠first confirmed Ebola case and a female health worker ‌who treated him - are among the new cases, the Ugandan health ​ministry said ​in a statement on Saturday. Both have since tested positive and are receiving treatment after being identified among known contacts, the ministry said. They were exposed to a 59-year-old Congolese man, who was admitted to a hospital in Kampala on 11 May and died three days later. The third case was a ⁠Congolese woman who entered the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), "presenting with mild abdominal symptoms". She travelled from Arua, close to the ​border, to Entebbe before seeking care at a ​private hospital in the capital Kampala, where she improved and returned to the central African country four days later. The patient later tested positive for Ebola after a follow-up prompted by a tip-off from a pilot ⁠involved in transporting her. All identified contacts ​linked to the confirmed cases are being closely monitored, ​the ministry said, urging the public to remain vigilant and report suspected symptoms. Meanwhile the entire Congolese delegation to the football World Cup must isolate and maintain a bubble for 21 days or risk being denied entry to the US. The team is currently training in Belgium. Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Task Force for ‌the World Cup told ESPN: "We've made it very clear to the Congo government as well, that they need to ‌maintain that bubble or they risk not being able to travel to the United States. We cannot be any clearer." Their first match is against Portugal on 17 June in Houston followed by one against Colombia in Guadalajara in Mexico on 23 June. All of the team's players are based outside DR Congo. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the outbreak of the rare ​Bundibugyo strain a public health emergency ‌of international concern, and said the risk of a national epidemic in the ​DRC is "very high". DRC, ​the centre of the outbreak, has nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths from the illness. The country is particularly vulnerable because of late detection, the absence ⁠of a vaccine or virus-specific therapeutics, widespread armed violence and high mobility among the population, the organisation said. The WHO said Ugandan authorities have stepped up ​contact tracing to contain the spread. Read more:Ebola outbreak 'spreading fast'UK donates millions to fight Ebola In a post on X on Saturday morning, the WHO said screening has been boosted at major points of entry to Uganda, as well as health checks at Entebbe airport. It said Ugandan health authorities were carrying out "enhanced disease surveillance, contact tracing and community engagement" in what it referred to as "high-risk districts".