Pro-Russian military blogger killed in St. Petersburg cafe explosion: reports

Prominent pro-Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in an explosion in St. Petersburg on Sunday, according to Russian media.

Tatarsky was participating in an event at a cafe in Russia's second-largest city when he was killed. Russian media says a woman gifted him a figurine at the event that exploded a few minutes later, killing him and injuring 15 others. Tatarsky was a major proponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Eyewitnesses say Tatarsky appeared to know the woman who gave him the figurine, according to Russian outlet RIA. The woman, who has yet to be identified, has been placed on a wanted list.

Tatarsky had traveled to the front lines of Russia's war in Ukraine multiple times. He had also visited the Kremlin in 2022 and filmed himself speaking about Russia's right to conquest.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR AN OUTLOOK FOR 2023: MORE BLOODSHED TO COME WITH NO END IN SIGHT

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR AN OUTLOOK FOR 2023: MORE BLOODSHED TO COME WITH NO END IN SIGHT

"We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone as necessary. Just as we like it," he said at the time, according to the BBC.

Tatarsky gained popularity on the Telegram social media platform, where he had some 500,000 followers.

The group Cyber Front Z had rented out the cafe and later released a statement on the blast from its own Telegram account, the BBC reported.

"There was a terrorist attack. We took certain security measures but unfortunately they were not enough," the group wrote. "Condolences to everyone who knew the excellent war correspondent and our friend Vladlen Tatarsky."

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Mayor of Florence welcomes Americans back to 'one of the symbols of humanity'

Just back from a whirlwind trip to the United States, where he addressed 2,000 students at the United Nations on the subject of climate change, a smiling Florence mayor, Dario Nardella, connects with me via Zoom. The frescoed ceilings of his office that light up my computer screen make the normally banal exercise in teleconferencing feel ceremonial.

Speaking of climate change, I ask him about the activists he now famously chased away, cursing, from the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence’s medieval town hall, that they were spraying with orange paint. He says the act was purely vandalism, not activism.

"I don’t consider this act a simple demonstration," he said. "I immediately had a reaction. An emotional reaction. That’s why I decided to run toward the building, to defend Palazzo Vecchio, which I consider the Florentine house and also a symbol of international cultural heritage. You can’t attack art to defend nature."

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Nardella tells me there is a police inquiry into the incident. But he thinks it wouldn’t be bad for those who defaced the Palazzo Vecchio to have to spend two or three weeks doing a bit of community cleaning – scrubbing "all the historical buildings we have in the city." The mayor adds, "Florence is like an open-air museum, full of paintings and sculptures." For that reason, climate change has been harmful to the heritage of the Renaissance city. 

Nardella is very aware of the threat and says the city is strongly committed to climate policy. Florence, he says, is one of a hundred "smart and climate neutral cities – striving to achieve climate neutrality by 2030, 20 years before European goals."

Another story that grabbed headlines this month was the forced resignation of a Tallahassee, Florida, principal, Hope Carrasquilla, after a Renaissance art ruckus. Some parents of sixth-graders complained that they hadn’t been warned in advance their kids were going to see some art that involved nudity in a class. At least one even equated Michelangelo’s famous David statue to "pornography." The David is one of the Florence’s best-known works of art.

"I was shocked about this," Nardella says. "We absolutely can’t confuse pornography with art. And obviously, David is a symbol of universal art. I cannot tell you how many people every day to share the emotion, to see the David. I think this confusion between art and pornography is a direct consequence of ignorance in the world."

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Nardella says he has invited Carrasquilla to Florence and she told him she’d be happy to come. Even if Carrasquilla was not the person teaching the art, and even if her school claims her firing was over a whole host of issues and not just the art history fracas, she has become something of an icon now in Florence, a city Nardella calls "one of the symbols of humanity in the world."

Meanwhile, as the mayor waits for Carrasquilla, he says he has been happy to welcome American tourists in big numbers back to Florence after they stayed away during the two years of COVID lockdowns.

"I would like to thank all the visitors, especially American visitors, because after COVID, we were very depressed. But now we are enthusiastic because this last year 2022 has been a record in terms of the number of tourists coming back to the city."

And Nardellla says that actually one of the lessons of COVID was shifting value away from "egoism and materialism" and focusing on the basics, like culture. He is glad Florence is back in the game of showcasing its stuff.

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Andrew Tate released from Romanian jail, placed under house arrest

Andrew Tate was released from a Romanian jail on Friday, where he was being held under suspicion of rape, human trafficking, and forming an organized crime group. 

The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled in Tate's favor after he challenged a judge's ruling to extend his detention for 30 days, according to Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT.

Tate was detained in late December in Bucharest, Romania's capital, along with Tristan, his brother, and two other women. All four people won an appeal on Friday.

The four people will be under house arrest until April 29. Tate, a former kickboxer and social media influencer, and the three others haven't formally been charged with a crime.

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Bolla said that prosecutors can't challenge the decision made by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, as it's final.

Andrew Tate thanked the judges "who heard us today, because they were very attentive and they listened to us, and they let us free," while speaking outside of what's believed to be his home.

"I have no resentment in my heart for the country of Romania or for anybody else," he said. "I just believe in the truth … I truly believe that justice will be served in the end. There is zero percent chance of me being convicted for something I've not done."

After being released, Tristan Tate told a group of reporters that "the judges today made the right decision."

"I respect what they’ve done for me and they will be vindicated in their decision, because I’m an innocent man and I can’t wait to prove it," Tristan Tate said.

ANDREW TATE DETAINED IN ROMANIA ON SUSPICION OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING: REPORTS

After the group of people were arrested in December, DIICOT said that it identified six victims in the alleged human trafficking case who were supposedly subjected to "acts of physical violence and mental coercion" and were sexually exploited.

According to the government agency, the victims were lured under the pretense of love and then intimidated while allegedly being coerced to perform pornographic acts which would be used to financially benefit the alleged crime group.

"The four suspects...appear to have created an organized crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialized websites for a cost," prosecutors said. "They would have gained important sums of money."

After being released from detention, Tate said that he had "Absolute clarity of mind" in his jail cell.

"Pacing a 3metre cell with zero electronics or outside contact. Absolute clarity of mind. Real thoughts. Real plans," Tate said. 

He later tweeted on Saturday "All glory to god."

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Spain's PM Sanchez urges Xi Jinping to communicate with Zelenskyy amid war in Ukraine

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to consider Ukraine's proposal to end the Russian invasion of its country.

Sanchez said at a Beijing press conference on Friday that he notified Xi that Spain supported Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's proposals to end the war. The recent demands included a request for Russia to restore Ukrainian territory that was taken during and after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

"I believe it's a plan that lays the foundations for a durable peace in Ukraine and is perfectly aligned with the United Nations charter and its principles, which have been violated by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin with his invasion," Sanchez said.

"I transmitted our concern over the illegal invasion of Ukraine," the prime minister added, saying that he encouraged Xi to talk with Zelenskyy one-on-one.

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Sanchez's comments come after Beijing released its own take on an ideal political solution to the war in Ukraine. However, China's position paper did not acknowledge that Russia was the aggressor.

Sanchez did commend that China's paper respected territorial integrity and "its complete and categorical rejection of not only the use but even the threat to use nuclear weapons."

Xi recently expressed a desire to end the "Cold War mentality" in geopolitics and "extreme" sanctions, but did not call out Russia.

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"We hope that all parties concerned will build a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture through dialogue and consultation," Xi said, according to CCTV.

Last week, Biden said that Russia and China's economic relationship is ‘vastly exaggerated[d]' in response to Xi and Putin's meeting in March to discuss their economic partnership.

"We hope that the strategic partnership between China and Russia will on the one hand uphold international fairness and justice, and on the other hand promote the common prosperity and development of our countries," Xi said during a joint press conference.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Ukraine asks court to put Orthodox leader under house arrest

In a bitter dispute over a famed Orthodox monastery, Ukraine’s top security agency notified a leading Orthodox priest there on Saturday that he was suspected of justifying Russia’s aggression, a criminal offense.

Metropolitan Pavel, the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, Ukraine’s most revered Orthodox site, has resisted the authorities’ order to vacate the complex. Earlier in the week, he cursed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, threatening him with damnation.

During a court hearing in the Ukrainian capital, the metropolitan rejected the claim by the Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, that he condoned Russia’s invasion. Pavel described the accusations against him as politically driven.

SBU agents raided his residence, and prosecutors asked the court to put him under house arrest pending the investigation. The hearing Saturday was adjourned until Monday after the metropolitan said he was feeling unwell.

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The monks in the monastery belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has been accused of having links to Russia. The dispute surrounding the property, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, is part of a wider religious conflict that has unfolded in parallel with the war.

The Ukrainian government has cracked down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over its historic ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader, Patriarch Kirill, has supported Russian President Vladimir Putin in the invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has insisted that it’s loyal to Ukraine and has denounced the Russian invasion from the start. The church declared its independence from Moscow.

But Ukrainian security agencies say some in the UOC have maintained close ties with Moscow. They’ve raided numerous holy sites of the church and then posted photos of rubles, Russian passports, and leaflets with messages from the Moscow patriarch as proof that some church officials have been loyal to Russia.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery is owned by the Ukrainian government, and the agency overseeing it notified the monks that it was terminating the lease and they had until Wednesday to leave.

RUSSIAN COURT SENTENCES SINGLE FATHER TO 2 YEARS IN PRISON FOR CRITICIZING THE WAR IN UKRAINE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Metropolitan Pavel told worshippers Wednesday that the monks would not leave pending the outcome of a lawsuit the UOC filed in a Kyiv court to stop the eviction.

The government claims that the monks violated their lease by making to the historic site and other technical infractions. The monks rejected the claim as a pretext.

Many Orthodox communities in Ukraine have cut their ties with the UOC and transitioned to the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which more than four years ago received recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Bartholomew I is considered the first among equals among the leaders of the Eastern Orthodox churches. Patriarch Kirill and most other Orthodox patriarchs have refused to accept his decision authorizing the second Ukrainian church.

In other news Saturday, Zelenskyy said he spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron to brief him on the battlefield situation and discuss defense cooperation.

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While Ukraine is preparing for a counteroffensive expected later this spring, Russian forces have kept pressing their effort to capture the city of Bakhmut. The Ukrainian stronghold in the Donbas region in Ukraine’s east has been the focus of a ferocious battle that has dragged on for eight months.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during a Saturday visit to the military headquarters overseeing the action in Ukraine that Russia’s defense industries have boosted production of ammunition "by several times." Russian’s government previously acknowledged ammunition shortages.

The U.K. Defense Ministry said in its latest analysis Saturday that the Russian offensive personally overseen by Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian military, has fizzled. Putin put Gerasimov in charge of overseeing what Moscow refers to as its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

"Gerasimov’s tenure has been characterized by an effort to launch a general winter offensive with the aim of extending Russian control over the whole of the Donbas region," the British ministry said on Twitter. "Eighty days on, it is increasingly apparent that this project has failed."

As evidence, the ministry said that "on several axes across the Donbas front, Russian forces have made only marginal gains at the cost of tens of thousands of casualties."

With the losses, the Russian military was "largely squandering its temporary advantage in personnel" from a partial mobilization of 300,000 reservists Putin ordered in the fall, according to the U.K. analysis.

It noted that Gerasimov, who has been in his job for 10 years, "is pushing the limits of how far Russia’s political leadership will tolerate failure."

The U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, meanwhile, mocked a new edition of Moscow’s foreign policy doctrine published Friday that described the Russian policy as "peaceful, open, predictable, consistent, pragmatic and based on respect for universally recognized principles and norms of international law."

"April Fool’s Day is TOMORROW," the Foreign Office tweeted late Friday.

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Traveling mummy exhibit may pose health risks to visitors due to fungal growths, Mexican experts say

Mexican government experts said Thursday they are concerned that a traveling display of mummies from the 1800s may pose a health risk to the public.

The preserved corpses were unintentionally mummified when they were buried in crypts in dry, mineral-rich soil in the state of Guanajuato. Some still have hair, leathery skin and their original clothing.

But the National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement that one of the mummies also appears to have fungal growths.

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The federal institute distanced itself from a state government decision to display a half dozen of the mummies in glass cases at a tourism fair in Mexico City. It was unclear whether the cases were air-tight, and the institute said it had not been consulted about the display.

"It is even more worrisome that they are still being exhibited without the safeguards for the public against biohazards," said the institute.

"From some of the published photos, at least one of the corpses on display, which was inspected by the institute in November 2021, shows signs of a proliferation of possible fungus colonies," the institute wrote.

"This should all be carefully studied to see if these are signs of a risk for the cultural legacy, as well as for those who handle them and come to see them."

The mummies are usually on display in the Guanajuato state capital. But they have travelled before, and some were exhibited in the United States in 2009.

They were naturally preserved, some say because of the climate, mineral-rich environment, other because of the sealed crypts, though no one knows for sure. They were dug up starting in the 1860s, because their families could no longer pay burial fees, and put on display.

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Pope Francis departs hospital, delivers two-word joke to reporters ahead of Holy Week

Pope Francis has been discharged from the hospital after a three-day stint under observation for a respiratory infection.

The pontiff, 86, was discharged on Saturday morning from Gemelli Hospital in Rome, Italy in good health.

Asked by reporters how he was feeling, Pope Francis quipped, "Still alive!"

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The sovereign was hospitalized on Wednesday due to difficulty breathing. He was later diagnosed with bronchitis and showed rapid improvement after receiving antibiotic infusion treatment.

Pope Francis met with patients and their loved ones before departing Gemelli Hospital, stopping to pray with the mother of a five-year-old who had died during the night previous.

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He took time to sign a young boy's arm cast before departing, and also visited with and thanked the staff of the hospital for the healthcare he received.

The pope's first stop upon departure was the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where he prayed for the souls of those he met during his time at Gemelli Hospital.

He is expected to participate in the Psalm Sunday mass on April 2.

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Pope Francis continued to work in a limited capacity during his three-day hospitalization — bringing chocolates, rosaries, and children's books about Jesus to the facility's pediatric oncology ward.

On Friday, he also baptized a child named Miguel Angel who was only a few weeks old.

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During his recovery, Pope Francis also sent a papal telegram to the Diocese of Nashville to express condolences for the victims and those affected by the Covenant School shooting.

"Deeply saddened to learn of the recent shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, his Holiness Pope Francis asks you to convey his heartfelt condolences and the assurance of his prayers to all affected by this senseless act of violence," the telegram read. 

The message continued, "He joins the entire community in mourning the children and adults who died and commends them to the loving embrace of the Lord Jesus."

The papal telegram was relayed to Bishop Mark Spalding by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

The message concluded, "He likewise invokes the consolation and strength of the Holy Spirit upon the grieving families and prays that they will be confirmed in their faith in the power of the risen Lord to heal every hurt and to bring good out of unspeakable evil."

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