International
Ukraine destroys another key bridge in the Russian region of Kursk and takes another locality
The Ukrainian Army claims that it has destroyed a second bridge in the Russian region of Kursk where its detachments are “reinforcing” positions, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk reported on his Telegram channel. In addition, he has taken the Russian town of Otruba.
Oleshchuk posted a video on that social network where he apparently shows what he described as a “precise” air strike on the structure of the bridge.
Although Oleshchuk did not specify the location of the damaged structure, the Russian Telegram channel ‘Mash’ said that it was a bridge over the Seim River, near the town of Zvannoye.
He also stated that the attack used HIMARS (multiple rocket launcher system) supplied by the United States, according to information from local Russian media that cannot be independently verified.
If this attack is confirmed, it would be the second bridge destroyed by Ukrainian forces in recent days, which will further hinder Russia’s ability to replenish troops to defend itself from Ukraine’s incursion.
Another bridge over the Seim River in the Glushkovsky district in the Russian region of Kursk was attacked on August 16, as confirmed by Alexey Smirnov, interim governor of the region.
For its part, Russia affirmed that “this is not the time” to negotiate with Ukraine in view of its offensive in the Russian border region of Kursk, but insisted that Moscow’s conditions for the settlement of the conflict “are not annulled.”
“No, (the conditions) are not canceled, but right now it would be inappropriate to start a negotiation process,” Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov told the Telegram Shot channel.
He insisted that at the current stage of Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk, Russia is not going to talk to the authorities of that country.
Ushakov thus referred to the conditions of Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, which go through the withdrawal of Kiev forces from four regions annexed by Moscow in September 2022.
Russian forces captured 19 Ukrainian soldiers during the defense of the Russian region of Kursk from the Ukrainian offensive, the state agency RIA Novosti reported.
Almost two weeks after the start of Ukraine’s cross-border offensive in the Russian region of Kursk, Ukrainian troops claim to control about 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory and more than 80 settlements in the region and continue to move forward.
One of the objectives of the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk is to create a plug zone in the territory of the aggressor country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed.
“Right now, the main task of our defensive actions is to destroy as much as possible of the Russian potential, of its war potential, and maximize our counterattacks,” Zelenski said in his last night speech.
“This includes the creation of a plug zone in the aggressor’s territory: our operation in the Kursk region,” he explained.
Everything that inflicts damage to the Army, the State, the defense or the economy of the Russian Federation helps Ukraine to prevent the expansion of the war and put an end to it with “a just peace for Ukraine,” Zelenski emphasized.
On the other hand, Ukrainian forces have taken the Russian town of Otruba and 11.5 square kilometers of its surroundings after penetrating the Russian region of Kursk crossing the border in another area, 35 kilometers from the initial incursion, Ukrainian military analysts say.
The take of Otruba was confirmed by the Ukrainian analysis platform DeepState on Sunday at the last minute.
According to the map of the fights, there are several more localities that are in the running, including Tiotkino and the territories near Popovo-Lezhachi, so in total there are six square kilometers that are being contested in that area.
These fighting is taking place west of the Glushkovo district of the Kursk region, about 35 kilometers away from the area that Ukraine already controls in the Russian region, east of that district.
To the east of the Glushkovo district, Ukraine captured the towns of Snagost and Apanasivka, Deepstate also reported on Sunday night, and its forces have also made advances in Olgovka, near Korenevo, to the north.
As a result, Ukraine already controls or disputes more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory in Kursk, according to Deepstate.
However, families with minors will have to leave the city of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, due to the danger posed by the Russian advance towards the important logistical node, the authorities announced.
Russia has lost more than 600,000 of its soldiers, between dead and wounded, since the beginning of its large-scale invasion that began almost two and a half years ago, said the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army.
In addition, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warns of the deterioration in the safety of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporijia, under Russian occupation and with the reactors turned off since 2022, after the impact this weekend of a drone with an explosive charge near the plant.
“Nuclear power plants are designed to withstand technical, human and external events, even extreme failures, but they are not built to resist a direct military attack,” explains the director general of the IAEA, the Argentine Rafael Grossi, in a statement.
The Ukrainian Air Force also stated that last morning it has managed to successfully intercept the 11 kamikaze-type drones launched by Russia from the Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk regions.
For its part, the Russian Army took the Ukrainian town of Zalizne, known to the Russians as Artiomovo, in its advance towards the city of Toretsk, one of the objectives of the Russian offensive in the annexed region of Donetsk, as reported today by the Russian Ministry of Defense in its daily war report.
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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