Two men were charged with participating in an organized attack near Moscow
Russia was plunged into mourning after at the least 137 people were killed when gunmen opened fire at a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow, and investigators began filing charges against those they believed were responsible.
Russian state media reported that two men were formally charged with committing a terrorist act. The men, who face a maximum sentence of life in prison, were identified as Dalerjon Mirzoyev and Saidakrami Rachabalizoda.
There are two primary narratives about Friday night’s violence – the deadliest terrorist attack in Russia in 20 years. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, and U.S. officials say it was the work of the Islamic State of Khorasan, or ISIS-K, an offshoot of the Islamic State that has been energetic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. But on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin made no mention of ISIS in his first public remarks on the tragedy. Instead, he suggested possible Ukrainian involvement.
Many Russian nationalist commentators and ultraconservative hawks also pushed the view that Ukraine was the apparent wrongdoer, and state news outlets made almost no mention of ISIS claiming responsibility for the attack. Russia provided no evidence of Kiev’s involvement, and Ukrainian officials ridiculed the accusations. U.S. officials also said there was no indication that Ukraine played any role.
The attack dealt a political blow to Putin, a frontrunner for whom national security is paramount.
“Russia currently spends about 30 percent of its budget on its military, security services and prisons,” Valerie Hopkins, who covers Russia, told us. “It’s an enormous percentage of state spending and it’s a huge apparatus. I believe there are individuals who have questions on the way it was possible that it didn’t work out.
What is ISIS-K? The Islamic State of Khorasan was founded in 2015 by disgruntled members of the Pakistani Taliban, who then adopted a more brutal version of Islam. In January, the group said it was behind a bomb attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran.
New York’s attorney general, who filed a civil fraud lawsuit that resulted in a $454 million judgment against Trump and his family business, could start collecting today. The former president was unable to secure the half-billion-dollar deposit that he must pay in the event that he loses the appeal. If no agreement is reached inside 11 hours, the attorney general could freeze his bank accounts and start the technique of seizing a few of his assets.
In considered one of 4 criminal cases pending against him, Trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide hush money paid to a porn star during his 2016 campaign. A New York judge recently adjourned that trial until April 15, and today’s hearing will determine whether it can be postponed further.
The brutality of sugar
Archana Ashok Chaure has been cutting sugar cane in the Indian state of Maharashtra for many of her life. Last winter, she did what 1000’s of other women in the fields did to proceed working, uninterrupted by pregnancy or painful periods: she had a hysterectomy. Debts to his employer mean he must proceed to mow the sector along with his cane; Thanks to this, sugar goes to corporations reminiscent of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
Two soft drink makers have helped turn this a part of India right into a sugar-producing powerhouse. But as a Times investigation found, in addition they benefited from a brutal labor system. Western corporations have pledged to root out human rights abuses in their supply chains, but they rarely, if ever, visit fields or mills and rely heavily on their suppliers to oversee labor issues.
My colleagues spent months with Indian sugar staff. Here’s what they learned.
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Starting a conversation
Creating a language for “Dune”
The indigenous sandworm riders in Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic “Dune” speak the Chakobsa language. But there are only a number of words of this fictional language in the book. So when the novel was adapted for the massive screen, the query was asked: What does Chakobsa sound like?
This is where colangers, or skilled language constructors, got here in. Conlangers have long brought fictional voices to life in series reminiscent of “Game of Thrones” and movies reminiscent of “Avatar” by James Cameron.
For In the “Dune” series, a selected grammatical structure was created for Chakobs, in addition to about 700 basic words – not counting those made possible by adaptations, reminiscent of when lija (eat) becomes lijjin (snack).
