When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Russia

A City Numbed: Terror's Aftermath In Volgograd

Eyewitnesses tell of the scenes of horror, while authorities still try to confirm if the second attack in two days was a suicide bombing.

Roof torn off
Roof torn off
Yaroslav Malikh

VOLGOGRAD - Explosion, smoke, screams, confusion. Despair. Near-refusal to believe what has happened that creates a kind of total societal numbness. The second terrorist attack in two days has hit this city, with at least 30 killed in the twin attacks. This comes just two months after another attack, when a woman blew herself up on a bus in Volgograd, killing seven other people.

Monday's explosion ripped through a trolleybus 50 meters before its stop on Kachintsev Street in this city formerly known as Stalingrad. Trolleybus number 15 connects the “Seven Branches” bedroom community with the central part of the city, and it is always packed with people during the morning commute.

The terrorist act happened in a busy area near a market. The explosion was so powerful that the trolleybus literally turned inside out, the roof torn off like a can of food. “My stand shook from the explosion, people started running. I also ran out, but I only made it to the intersection - I started to feel sick. People said that there was a huge bloody mess around the trolleybus,” said Irina Nikitina, who works at the market near the explosion.

Men in uniform

Ruslan, who lives at Number 124 on Kachintsev Street, near where the explosion happened, said he was home when he heard a “very loud boom.”

“I ran out to the street, it was crazy, people were running. I saw the victims, and I wanted to help them but there was someone else there who said he was a doctor and that it was best not to touch the injured, because it could do more damage,” Ruslan said. Another witness, Aleksander Romanov had just parked his car and was crossing the street when the blast occurred. "There were soldiers nearby and they ran to the scene and didn’t let anyone else get close,” he said, noting there's a military office nearby. Romanov said he saw someone in a yellow uniform, “probably the trolleybus driver, but I couldn’t tell if he was alive or not.”



Most of the 27 injured, including an eight-year-old child, were sent to the hospital, with at least nine in critical condition. Eight of the injured have been flown to hospitals in Moscow. Doctors say the victims are suffering from multiple trauma and burns. So far 14 people are confirmed killed from Monday's attack. The death toll stands at 17 for Sunday's bombing at the Volgograd train station.

Immediately after Monday's explosion there were reports on social media of many different explosions around the city, none of which were confirmed. The police was asking citizens not to repeat unconfirmed reports so as to avoid spreading panic. Authorities are still trying to determine whether the bomb was placed in the trolleybus passenger area, or if the attack was carried by a suicide bomber.

A spontaneous candlelight vigil of some 200 people was held Monday night in the center of the city, which included representatives of extreme nationalist groups as well many ordinary citizens. A police spokesman warned that such an event could be a magnet for more violence.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Society

Italy's Right-Wing Government Turns Up The Heat On 'Gastronationalism'

Rome has been strongly opposed to synthetic foods, insect-based flours and health warnings on alcohol, and aggressive lobbying by Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government against nutritional labeling has prompted accusations in Brussels of "gastronationalism."

Dough is run through a press to make pasta

Creation of home made pasta

Karl De Meyer et Olivier Tosseri

ROME — On March 23, the Italian Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, announced that Rome would ask UNESCO to recognize Italian cuisine as a piece of intangible cultural heritage.

On March 28, Lollobrigida, who is also Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's brother-in-law, promised that Italy would ban the production, import and marketing of food made in labs, especially artificial meat — despite the fact that there is still no official request to market it in Europe.

Days later, Italian Eurodeputy Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and member of the Forza Italia party, which is part of the governing coalition in Rome, caused a sensation in the European Parliament. On the sidelines of the plenary session, Sophia Loren's niece organized a wine tasting, under the slogan "In Vino Veritas," to show her strong opposition (and that of her government) to an Irish proposal to put health warnings on alcohol bottles. At the end of the press conference, around 11am, she showed her determination by drinking from the neck of a bottle of wine, to great applause.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest