Since being launched in 2007, Paris’ public Vélib’ rental bikes have proven a hit with tourists and locals as a trouble-free way to get around the French capital, especially in summer when Metro trains are hot and crowded.

This year, however, the popular bikes have unwittingly become embroiled in a controversy with its roots in a fierce debate raging at the heart of French, and European, society.

In recent weeks, activists have turned some Vélib’ cycles into billboards featuring unexpected messages from a guerrilla advertising campaign opposing abortion rights.

The campaign has sparked outrage, with politicians and women’s rights groups condemning the move.

Stickers first began appearing in May, when Parisians and tourists woke up to find neighborhood public bikes covered in decals showing a fetus growing into a happy-looking boy riding a bike with this slogan: “And if you had let him live?”

The decals prompted backlash from government officials with Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo calling them “unacceptable and illegal.” France’s minister for gender equality, Isabelle Rome, vowed the country wouldn’t let anyone undermine abortion rights.

The guerrilla campaign is the work of a group called Les Survivants, according to a statement posted on its website after the stickers began appearing. The group says its name refers to people born post-1975 who “survived” the threat of abortion, which was legalized in France that year.

It was, the group said in a statement issued May 24, a response to efforts to make abortion a constitutional right in France.

“At a time when a proposed law aims to enshrine abortion in the constitution, The Survivors have decided to act on behalf of all those we miss,” the statement said. “We will not tolerate a dichotomous supreme standard in which abortion becomes a fundamental right, like the right to life.”

Suzy Rojtman, a spokesperson for the French National Collective for Women’s Rights said the campaign demonstrated an urgent need for France to secure abortion laws.

“We are worried, we are wary because we know this right could always be challenged and the United States has proven this,” Rojtman said.

The US Supreme Court’s 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade, a ruling that made abortion a federal constitutional right, sent shockwaves across French society. In response, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his solidarity with “the women whose liberties are being undermined by the Supreme Court of the United States.”

In the following months, the French government moved to introduce a bill that would inscribe abortion rights into the constitution. The proposal  has stalled after lawmakers in the lower house and upper house disagreed on wording.

Representatives in the National Assembly, where Macron’s party is the biggest force, voted for a bill that would  list abortion as a “right” in the constitution while the conservative-dominated French Senate only agreed to listing abortion as a “freedom.” In French legal context, a “right” is protected by the government in a more active manner than a “freedom.”

The assembly standoff comes amid prominent opposition to abortion in some of France’s neighbors – most notably Italy, a country with strong Roman Catholic traditions.

Calls for justice

Italy’s Minister of Family, Eugenia Roccella, voiced her opposition to extending the use of Mifepristone, a common abortion pill, in an interview in 2022 with Italian newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale, calling it home abortion “abolishing conscientious objection and the legal obligation.”

In Spain, the center-right People’s party and far-right Vox party have been challenging the country’s abortion law, in effect  since 2010. There have been similar moves elsewhere in Europe, with Poland and Hungary curtailing abortion access.

Meanwhile, Vélib’, the company which runs the public bike system in Paris, says it is unhappy to see its two-wheeled charges being drafted into the debate.

It called the sticker campaign uncivilized and said it “may have confused the general public.” It said it has begun legal action against the anti-abortion group.

“It’s shocking that some people ignore all advertising regulations,” Vélib’ President Sylvain Raifaud said in a statement, adding that perpetrators must be brought to justice.

Raifaud also vowed to return the bikes to their original status as quickly as possible. Vélib’ has yet to confirm how many bikes are impacted and when they will be restored.

The wildfire smoke that originated from Canada shrouded some major US cities on the Eastern Seaboard, leaving millions at risk of breathing unhealthy air and prompting the cancellation of outdoor activities ranging from school recess to Major League Baseball games.

Beyond being a health threat, the smoky skies altered the view of some iconic landmarks, particularly in hard-hit New York City.

Here’s a sampling of those views:

Around 75 million people in the United States are experiencing dangerous air conditions because of smoke from wildfires raging across Canada, with officials urging them to limit time outdoors and mask up for safety.

Forecasts show the dangerous air conditions could linger for days but are expected to slowly improve across the East heading into the weekend.

LIVE UPDATES: Millions in US under air quality alerts

It took several days for the dense smoke from the Quebec fires to reach US cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington. In Quebec, smoke from wildfires across the region is now considerably reduced.

Without substantial new smoke entering the US, the dangerous air conditions are expected to improve. But current weather patterns suggest the smoke will be trapped in impacted areas until it can dissipate, meaning improvements will come slowly.

Here’s the latest:

New York earned the distinction of having the most polluted air quality of any city in the world Wednesday. Conditions are improving, but air quality remains at unhealthy levels.

“As of right now, the smoke models are not indicating another large plume over the city, so there’s a chance for significant improvement by tomorrow morning and throughout the day tomorrow,” Adams said Thursday. He urged residents to continue masking outdoors, preferably with an N95 mask, which city officials were providing on Wednesday.

Some schools are closing or taking precautions to limit exposure to poor air quality conditions.

Children in New York City have a planned day off Thursday. On Friday, some students that had been scheduled for in-school instruction in the city will go remote. Two school districts in New Jersey have closed due to poor air quality. Other districts are canceling after-school programs or outdoor activities and field trips. The School District of Philadelphia is encouraging students to wear masks on their way to school Thursday morning.

Check out this almost unbelievable time-lapse of wildfire smoke consuming the World Trade Center and the New York City skyline.

Those vulnerable to poor air quality, including seniors and young children, should limit time outdoors if possible.

More: https://t.co/ChRuWv7X6E pic.twitter.com/mtKtLun8lN

— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) June 7, 2023

Smoke from the wildfires has delivered some of the poorest air quality measures in decades, said Mark Zondlo, an atmospheric chemist specializing in air quality monitoring and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University.

“The weather pattern is such that it’s funneling that smoke plume, keeping it tight close to the ground, and it’s coming for a bullseye right for us.”

Air quality in Canada has been on the decline as the ferocious blazes triggered evacuation orders, including for about 7,000 people in the Quebecois town of Chibougamau.

US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed the wildfires’ impacts on air quality Wednesday, according to a statement from Trudeau’s office.

“Both leaders acknowledged the need to work together to address the devastating impacts of climate change,” the statement read.

Biden has directed federal firefighting resources to aid in stopping the fires, the White House said, adding that more than 600 firefighters and support personnel have already been deployed.

Biden on Thursday said it’s “very important” that communities impacted by the air pollution heed local guidance and check on their neighbors.

Meanwhile, New York state is sending forest rangers to Canada to help fight the wildfires in Quebec, Hochul announced Thursday. The first responders will depart from the Saratoga fire department on Friday.

Wildfires that lead to such poor air quality have become more common and severe as the planet warms from the impacts of human-induced climate change, experts have said.

“We typically see these impacts with wildfires in the Western US and in the Mountain West,” said Dr. Peter DeCarlo, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

“The East Coast is generally a little bit more insulated from this type of thing. Our forests tend to be wetter and don’t burn as much, but looking forward with climate change, while this is kind of a unique experience that we’re seeing right now, it may become a lot less unique and a little bit more common in the future.”

A string of sports games and practices have been postponed as smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to choke the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast parts of the United States.

Around 75 million people are under air quality alerts as wildfire smoke shrouds major US cities, with Major League Baseball (MLB), the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) forced to postpone games due to concerns over dangerous air quality.

The MLB postponed two games – one between the Detroit Tigers and the host Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park and the other between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium – on Wednesday due to medical and weather expert warnings about “clearing hazardous air quality conditions in both cities,” the league said in a statement.

Thursday’s game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Washington Nationals at the Nationals Park has also been rescheduled until June 22, the league confirmed Thursday. The news came after the highest level of poor air quality – level 6 of 6 – became widespread over Washington, DC, and Baltimore, according to readings from the airnow.gov website.

Meanwhile, the WNBA was forced to postpone Wednesday’s game between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx due to smoke impacting the Liberty’s home arena, with the league noting that information regarding the rescheduling of the game would be provided at a later date.

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) canceled Thursday’s training at Belmont Park due to “poor air quality conditions” affecting New York state, while in New Jersey, the NWSL postponed Wednesday night’s Challenge Cup game in Harrison and rescheduled it for August 9.

“The safety of our players, officials and fans is our top priority. Following consultation with the NWSL Medical and Operations staff, it was determined that the match could not be safely conducted based on the projected air quality index,” the NWSL said in a statement.

Smoke from Canada’s fires has periodically affected the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic for more than a week, raising concerns over the harms of persistent poor air quality.

More than nine million acres have been charred by wildfires in Canada so far this year – about 15 times the normal burned area for this point in the year – and more than 10,500 people have been evacuated from communities across Alberta.

According to the MLB, the Phillies-Tigers game will take place at 6:05 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, while the Yankees and the White Sox will now play a doubleheader beginning at 4:05 p.m. (ET) on Thursday.

The Belmont Stakes is scheduled for Saturday at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, and the NYRA said a decision on Thursday’s live racing program will be made in the morning following a “review of the air quality conditions and forecast.”

Russia saw the effects of its war on Ukraine dramatically reverberate back onto its own territory on Wednesday, after a “massive” shelling attack injured four people in Belgorod and preliminary information indicated a drone crashed and sparked a fire at an oil refinery further south.

Eight apartment buildings, four homes, a school and two administrative buildings were damaged during the shelling in Shebekino, a village in the border region of Belgorod, its governor said, as the oblast increasingly becomes a hotbed of straying violence.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov said there was more shelling of a border area later on Wednesday, which he blamed on Ukrainian forces.

Speaking in a live broadcast, he said an industrial plant close to the city of Shebekino had been struck. “The situation in Shebekino is not getting better,” Gladkov said in a live broadcast. “There is shelling of Shebekino, there is a fire at one of the industrial enterprises.”

Earlier on Tuesday night, Gladkov said one person was killed and two were injured in an attack on a temporary accommodation center.

And a drone crashed at the Ilsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, east of the annexed territory of Crimea, starting a fire in the early hours of Wednesday morning, local officials there said. The blaze was put out soon after.

The incidents come one day after a drone attack on Moscow, for which Russia has blamed Ukraine. All eight aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles launched at the Russian capital were destroyed, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Kyiv has not yet commented on the drone attack or on Wednesday’s incidents in Belgorod and Krasnodar. The Ukrainian government generally does not confirm or deny strikes inside Russian territory.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, a drone attack was launched on Russia’s Bryansk region, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. About 10 drones tried to attack the Klimovsky district and were shot down or intercepted, RIA reported citing emergency services.

The string of events – following last week’s incursion on Belgorod by anti-Putin Russians who had been fighting alongside the Ukrainian military – mark a new turn in a conflict that is increasingly coming home to Russian people, 15 months after Moscow launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Strikes have separately hit Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine on Wednesday. Five people were killed and 19 injured in Ukrainian shelling of the village of Karpaty, in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Luhansk, the acting head of the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic said on Telegram.

And a senior Russian-appointed official in Zaporizhzhia said there has been a series of explosions in Polohy, a Russian-held town close to the frontlines that many observers expect to be targeted in an anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive. Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-formed council of the civil-military administration of Zaporizhzhia, said on Telegram: “It’s loud in Polohy. A series of explosions is heard in town.”

Russia says the situation is ‘rather alarming’

Ukraine has denied involvement in Tuesday’s attack in Moscow, even as one top official made it clear that Russia was getting a taste of its own medicine after months of bombarding Ukrainian cities.

“Of course, we enjoy watching and predicting an increase in attacks,” said Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. “But of course, we have nothing to do directly with it.”

“In this case, too, by the way, we have not heard a single word of condemnation from anyone from the collective West, so far,” Peskov said. “The situation is rather alarming. Measures are being taken.”

“I woke up from explosions and the sound of shattering glass,” a woman in Belgorod told Russian news outlet Izvestia. “My husband and I jumped up immediately and ran to the bathroom … and now we’re wandering. The city center is all scattered.”

Kirby added that the Biden administration has “been clear, privately and publicly, with the Ukrainians that we don’t support attacks on Russian soil.”

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for the drone attack in the Moscow region, calling it a “clear sign of terrorist activity.” Putin claimed that “Kyiv chose the path of intimidation of Russian citizens and attacks on residential buildings.”

Putin said Tuesday the city’s air defenses worked normally but there was still “work to be done to make it better.” Asked to clarify the Russian president’s remarks, Peskov said: “The system worked effectively, but there is room for improvement. Work will continue to improve the air defense system.”

The Freedom for Russia Legion, a group that claimed responsibility for last week’s raid in Belgorod, posted an “additional” recruitment drive for drone pilots on its Telegram channel following a drone attack on Moscow on Tuesday. The legion, made up of Russian citizens who are fighting in Ukraine against their motherland, joked: “Graduates of the course will have the opportunity to practice their skills.”

But early signals from the West indicated that it had little patience for the Kremlin’s efforts to frame the narrative.

“The ‘Russia is the victim’ argument is so tired and so ridiculous that even the Russian people must see it for what it is – an overused and desperate retort by the Kremlin to try and explain its litany of strategic mistakes that have decimated Russia’s once proud global reputation,” UK military adviser Ian Stubbs said during a Wednesday speech in Vienna.

The incidents come as Ukraine prepares a much-anticipated counter-offensive against Russian forces, and follows days of missile bombardments on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities by Moscow.

On Monday Russia appeared to change its tactics by striking Kyiv with rockets and missiles during the day, hours after a separate wave of strikes overnight.

Two more suspects have been named in the alleged murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, including the alleged mastermind of the crime, Brazilian police say.

Phillips and Pereira were shot dead a year ago while they were returning from a reporting trip in the Amazon.

Ruben Villar, also known as “Colombia,” has been named as a suspect and the “mastermind” of the crime, according to the statement by Brazil’s Federal Police. He is suspected of being the leader of an illegal fishing criminal organization in the region.

Fisherman Janio Freitas de Souza has also been named as a suspect and has links to the illegal fishing criminal organization, the statement added.

Phillips and Pereira disappeared on June 5, 2022, while conducting research for a book project on conservation efforts in the region, which authorities have described as “complicated” and “dangerous.”

The pair had been traveling in the Javari Valley, in the far western side of the Brazilian Amazon, before they were killed and had received death threats just days prior to their disappearance, according to the Coordination of the Indigenous Organization, known as UNIVAJA.

Brazilian authorities said that although there are several people arrested and the investigation is well advanced, their police work is still not finished.

The deaths of Phillips and Pereira has drawn global attention to the perils often faced by journalists and environmental activists in Brazil.

Between 2009 and 2019, more than 300 people were killed in Brazil amid land and resource conflicts in the Amazon, according to Human Rights Watch, citing figures from the Pastoral Land Commission, a non-profit affiliated with the Catholic Church.

Former New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern, who stepped down from her post earlier this year, has been made a dame in one of the country’s highest honors.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced the appointment on Monday to mark the King’s Birthday public holiday, with Ardern among 182 recipients receiving various honors for their contributions to the country.

“Having served as Prime Minister from 2017 to 2023, Dame Jacinda Ardern is recognized for her service to New Zealand during some of the greatest challenges our country has faced in modern times,” Hipkins said in a statement.

“Leading New Zealand’s response to the 2019 terrorist attacks and to the Covid-19 pandemic represented periods of intense challenge for our 40th Prime Minister, during which time I saw first hand that her commitment to New Zealand remained absolute.”

Hipkins hails from the same party as Ardern, the Labour Party, and succeeded her as leader.

The move grants Ardern the title of Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. The Order of Merit, established in 1996, is awarded to those in any field who have performed “meritorious service to the Crown and the nation” or who are known for their “eminence, talents, contributions, or other merits,” according to the government site.

“I was in two minds about accepting this acknowledgment,” she said. “So many of the things we went through as a nation over the last five years were about all of us rather than one individual.”

“But I have heard that said by so many Kiwis who I have encouraged to accept an honour over the years. And so for me this a way to say thank you – to my family, to my colleagues, and to the people who supported me to take on the most challenging and rewarding role of my life.”

When Ardern became the country’s prime minister in 2017 at the age of 37, she was New Zealand’s third female leader and one of the youngest leaders in the world. Within a year, she had become only the second world leader to give birth in office.

Her time in power was defined by multiple crises, including the Christchurch terrorist attack, a deadly volcanic explosion, and the pandemic.

She quickly became a progressive global icon, remembered for her empathy while steering New Zealand through these crises and for taking her baby daughter to the United Nations General Assembly.

However, at home her popularity ebbed amid the rising cost of living, housing shortages and economic anxiety. And she faced violent anti-lockdown protests in the capital Wellington, with threats made against her.

Ardern announced her shock resignation in January, saying she no longer had enough fuel in the tank to contest an election – prompting a wave of praise and warm farewells from other world leaders and her many international admirers.

In April, she revealed she will head to Harvard University this fall to complete two fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School, the university’s school of public policy and government. She will be gone for a semester, missing out on the New Zealand general election, but will return at the end of the fellowships, she said.

Three people, including a young girl, were killed in Kyiv on Thursday while desperately trying to take cover in a closed bomb shelter amid fresh Russian strikes, in an incident that sparked anger in the Ukrainian capital.

Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko condemned the incident as a “crime” in a statement shared by Ukraine’s National Police, adding that an investigation had been launched.

Russia launched a total of 10 missiles at Kyiv early on Thursday morning, all of which were shot down, the Ukraine Armed Forces said.

However, falling debris from the skies killed three people – a 9-year-old girl, her 34-year-old mother, and a 33-year-old woman – according to the national police. Fourteen others were injured.

The husband of one of the women told public broadcaster Suspilne that when they heard the air raid alarm, people ran to the shelter but found it locked. “People knocked… They knocked for a very long time… There were women, children. No one opened. My wife and child [were there]. The child is fine, but my wife died,” he said.

“I just ran to the other side, calling for them to open. And just at that moment everything happened, at that moment something flew – I don’t know, fragments or something,” the man, named Yaroslav, added.

Another eyewitness named Kateryna Didukh said: “They ran here to hide, but unfortunately it was closed. This is the largest bomb shelter. They were all standing at the entrance. There is a polyclinic and a kindergarten here, and it fell right between them.”

An image taken in the aftermath of the incident shows the grandfather of the nine-year-old victim, who was killed alongside her mother, watching over her body.

The photographer, Serhii Okunev, said in a Facebook post the man “sat on his haunches for several hours, then a chair was found for him.”

Lessons would have to be learned from the incident, minister Klymenko said in his statement. “The 16th month of full-scale war. It would seem that during this time, responsible officials should have identified and fixed all the flaws in the issue of people’s safety. The enemy continues large-scale shelling of cities. But some shelters still remain closed during the air raid alarm.

“Closed bomb shelters during the war are not just indifference. It is a crime,” he added, calling for shelters to be kept open around the clock.

Bomb shelter patrols

In response to the incident on Thursday, Kyiv’s Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said police would now patrol bomb shelters in the city during night-time air-raid alarms to check they are open.

In a Telegram post, Klitschko said a missile fragment fell near the entrance to a clinic in the Desnianskyi district of the capital, “4 minutes after the air raid alarm was announced. People were running to the shelter.”

“Now the investigation is establishing whether the shelter was open. Whether there were people in it,” he said.

“I gave a separate order to the heads of the capital’s districts to immediately check all bomb shelters,” he added.

Klitchko said he had asked for the head of the Desnianskyi district to be removed from his duties while the investigation into the shelter at the clinic is underway, adding that the head of the medical institution should also be removed.

Belgorod strikes

Ukraine, meanwhile, unleashed an early-morning strike on Russia’s Belgorod region Thursday, a day after Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov lashed out at Western countries for not condemning recent strikes inside Russian territory.

“Shebekino is under incessant fire: at 12 a.m., 3:40 a.m. and 5:15 a.m., the Ukrainian armed forces fired Grad missiles at the center and outskirts of the city,” Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

Gladkov added that of the five injured, three people have been hospitalized, one woman was treated at the scene, and “there is information about a man who is unconscious with multiple shrapnel wounds. An ambulance team is transporting him to the hospital.”

Residential and administrative buildings were damaged in the strikes, according to Gladkov.

Belgorod – which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv region – has recently become a hotbed of straying violence, marking a new turn in a conflict that is increasingly coming home to the Russian people.

In a regular call with journalists on Wednesday, before the overnight strikes, Peskov said the Kremlin was concerned about the situation in Belgorod.

He said: “We have not heard a single word of condemnation from any one from the collective West, so far. The situation is rather alarming. Measures are being taken.”

Meanwhile, the Russian Volunteer Corps – a group of anti-Putin Russian nationals aligned with the Ukrainian army – has denied shelling civilians as it claimed its “second phase” inside Russia had begun on Thursday.

In a video message, a fighter from the Russian Volunteer Corps claimed they were “once again fighting on Russian territory.”

The Freedom for Russia Legion posted a video online, claiming it shows the “detonation of ammunition and mortar of the enemy after a precise artillery work on them.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that together with the Federal Security Service (FSB) it had prevented an incursion across its border by Ukraine, saying tanks and two motorized infantry companies attempted to enter the Belgorod region.

According to the daily briefing by the Russian MoD, around 3 a.m. Moscow time (8 p.m. Wednesday ET), “after intensive shelling of civilian targets in the Belgorod region, Ukrainian terrorist formations with up to two motorized infantry companies, reinforced with tanks, attempted to invade the territory of the Russian Federation near the settlement of Novaya Tavolzhanka and the Shebekino international automobile checkpoint.”

The Russian military repelled three attacks by Ukrainian terrorist groups, MOD spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said, adding that “terrorists of the Kyiv regime were pushed back, suffering significant losses.”

“Violations of the state border were not allowed,” he added.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, also denied these latest claims of a border incursion.

“There was no enemy on the territory of the Belgorod region and there is none,” Gladkov said in a Telegram video message Thursday.

“There is massive shelling. Of course, the lives of civilians, the population is under threat. Mainly, in Shebekino and in the surrounding villages,” he added.

Shelling continued into the afternoon on Thursday. Photographs and videos from social media showed a plume of smoke rising from downtown in Belgorod. One video showed broken windows in a nearby high-rise building.

Gladkov said on Telegram that it appears a drone caused the explosion, adding that two men were injured in the attack.

The Russian Volunteer Corps, alongside another anti-Putin group known as the Freedom for Russia Legion, last week claimed responsibility for an incursion into Belgorod.