International
Russia mourns the victims of the attack in the concert hall while the investigation continues
Russia is experiencing today a day of national mourning for the dead in the attack committed last Friday by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) on the outskirts of Moscow while the count of fatalities and the search for the organizers of the massacre continues.
Flowers, candles and toys filled the surroundings of the Crocus City Hall on Sunday, where Friday’s terrorist attack left at least 137 dead and 180 injured.
Despite the rain that fell in the Russian capital, a tide of people approached the site of the attack today to pay tribute to the memory of the deceased.
“I came because I’m a Moscow, I live next door. I have been to the concerts at Crocus City Hall many times. It’s a tragedy what has happened, no one can be indifferent,” a local told the Vecherniaya Moskva newspaper.
On numerous screens on the roads and large shops of Moscow, candles were seen on a black background and the date of the attack, on March 22, 2024.
Meanwhile, in the capital subway, passengers were reminded that the security measures have been reinforced after the attack and they were asked for understanding for possible inconvenience.
Different memorials in memory of the victims of the tragedy were also created today in other Russian cities, according to regional media.
Meanwhile, the Russian flags in the state institutions and the Russian embassies abroad were flying at half-mast as a sign of mourning.
The deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, said on Sunday that all those involved in the brutal attack in Crocus City Hall will be “legitimate targets” of Russia.
“We will avenge everyone. And those involved, regardless of their country of origin or their status, will henceforth be our legitimate and main objective,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
He added right away: “Wait, you scoundrels.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin also assured the day before that “all the perpetrators, organizers and those who commissioned this crime will receive a well-deserved and irremediable punishment, whoever they are and regardless of whether they have sent them.”
So far, the security forces have arrested eleven people linked to the attack, four of whom personally participated in the massacre, according to the authorities.
This Sunday, the four responsible for the attack were transferred to Moscow pending the judicial decision on their entry into pretrial detention.
Meanwhile, several Russian politicians and analysts are already advocating the lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty in this country.
According to updated data, the tragedy has left 137 dead and 180 injured.
At the same time, these figures are growing every day because the search and rescue work continues at the site of the attack, where firefighters took long hours to extinguish the fire caused by the attackers and which devastated an area of 13,000 square meters.
“So far, the bodies of 137 people have been found at the site of the terrorist attack, including three children,” the Russian Instruction Committee said today in a statement.
He added that 62 bodies have been identified and “genetic tests are being carried out to establish the identities” of the other victims.
Meanwhile, the number of injured rose today from 154 to 180 people. According to Russian media, some survivors of the attack took more than a day to request medical help because they were in a state of shock.
On the other hand, the Russian police evicted the London Mall in St. Petersburg on Sunday after receiving a bomb warning, reports the local media Fontanka.ru.
Simultaneously, law enforcement officers arrested a man who claimed to have placed an explosive device in the shopping center.
Another woman was arrested today for a false bomb warning on a plane that was about to take off from Moscow to yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
During the interrogation, the woman assured that her words were “a joke.”
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links
A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”
The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
International
Miyazaki’s style goes viral with AI but at what cost?
This week, you may have noticed that everything—from historical photos and classic movie scenes to internet memes and recent political moments—has been reimagined on social media as Studio Ghibli-style portraits. The trend quickly went viral thanks to ChatGPT and the latest update of OpenAI’s chatbot, released on Tuesday, March 25.
The newest addition to GPT-4o has allowed users to replicate the distinctive artistic style of the legendary Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away). “Today is a great day on the internet,” one user declared while sharing popular memes in Ghibli format.
While the trend has captivated users worldwide, it has also highlighted ethical concerns about AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works—and what this means for the livelihoods of human artists.
Not that this concerns OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has actively encouraged the “Ghiblification”experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile picture on the social media platform X to a Ghibli-style portrait.
Miyazaki, now 84 years old, is known for his hand-drawn animation approach and whimsical storytelling. He has long expressed skepticism about AI’s role in animation. His past remarks on AI-generated animation have resurfaced and gone viral again, particularly when he once said he was “utterly disgusted” by an AI demonstration.
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