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Russia claims woman admits to carrying bomb that killed pro-war blogger in St. Petersburg cafe

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An explosion tore through a cafe in Russia’s second-largest city Sunday, killing a well-known military blogger and strident supporter of President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. Officials announced the arrest of a Russian women Monday in connection with the blast, claiming she carried a bust of the blogger into the cafe that was rigged as a bomb.

Russian officials said Vladlen Tatarsky was killed as he led a discussion at the cafe on the bank of the Neva River in the historic heart of St. Petersburg. Some 30 people were wounded in the blast, Russia’s Health Ministry reported.

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Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky speaks during a party in front of projection of an image of himself at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 2, 2023, before an explosion that killed him and left more than a dozen other people wounded.

AP


Russian media and military bloggers said Tatarsky was meeting members of the public when a woman presented him with a box containing a bust of him that apparently blew up. A patriotic Russian group that organized the event said it had taken security precautions but acknowledged that those measures “proved insufficient.”

In remarks recorded on video, a witness said a woman who identified herself as Nastya had asked questions and exchanged remarks with Tatarsky during the discussion. The witness, Alisa Smotrova, quoted Nastya as saying she had made a bust of the blogger but that guards asked her to leave it at the door, suspecting it could be a bomb. Nastya and Tatarsky joked and laughed. She then went to the door, grabbed the bust and presented it to Tatarsky.

Prominent Russian military correspondent killed in St. Petersburg cafe blast
Russian forces take security measures at the explosion site in which prominent Russian military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky died in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, on April 02, 2023.

Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images


He reportedly put the bust on a nearby table, and the explosion followed. Smotrova described people running in panic, some hurt by shattered glass and covered in blood.

Russia’s national Investigative Committee said in a message on its official channel on the Telegram messaging app that a 23-year-old St. Petersburg woman, Darya Tryopova, had been arrested “on suspicion of involvement” in the bombing. 

Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs later released a video that it said showed Tryopova admitting to bringing the exploding bust into the cafe. In the video Tryopova says she carried the bust, but asked by an unidentified interviewer who gave it to her, she declines to answer, saying she’ll give the information “later,” according to the ministry. 

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An image taken from video published online by Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry on April 3, 2023, shows a woman identified by the ministry as Daria Trepova, who was arrested as a suspect in the deadly explosion the previous day at a St. Petersburg cafe that left a prominent Russian pro-war blogger dead.

Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs


Russian news agency earlier said Tryopova had previously been detained for taking part in anti-war rallies.

Video posted on Russian messaging app channels showed the cafe after the explosion, with tables and chairs broken and stained by blood and shards of glass littering the floor.

Russian media said investigators were looking at the bust as the possible source of the blast but had not ruled out the possibility that an explosive device was planted in the cafe before the event.

The Investigative Committee, the Russian government’s top criminal investigation agency, opened a probe on charges of murder.

No one publicly claimed responsibility, but military bloggers and patriotic commentators immediately pointed a finger at Ukraine and compared the bombing to the killing last August of Darya Dugina, a nationalist TV commentator. She was killed when a remotely controlled explosive device planted in her SUV blew up as she was driving on the outskirts of Moscow.

Russian authorities blamed Ukraine’s military intelligence for Dugina’s death, but Kyiv denied involvement.

Reacting to the latest incident, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tatarsky’s activities “have won him the hatred of the Kyiv regime” and noted that he and other Russian military bloggers long have faced Ukrainian threats.

Dugina’s father, Alexander Dugin, a nationalist philosopher and political theorist who strongly supports the invasion of Ukraine, hailed Tatarsky as an “immortal” hero who died to save the Russian people.

“There must be no talks with the terrorists other than about their unconditional surrender,” Dugin said. “A victory parade must take place in Kyiv.”

Russia Cafe Explosion
Russian police officers are seen at the site of an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, April 2, 2023.

/ AP


Since the fighting in Ukraine began Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrainian authorities have refrained from claiming responsibility for various fires, explosions and apparent assassinations in Russia. At the same time, officials in Kyiv have jubilantly greeted such events and insisted on Ukraine’s right to launch attacks in Russia.

A top Ukrainian government official cast the explosion that killed Tatarsky as part of internal turmoil.

“Spiders are eating each other in a jar,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote in English on Twitter. “Question of when domestic terrorism would become an instrument of internal political fight was a matter of time.”

Tatarsky, who had filed regular reports from Ukraine, was the pen name for Maxim Fomin, who had accumulated more than 560,000 followers on his Telegram messaging app channel.

Born in the Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland, Tatarsky worked as a coal miner before starting a furniture business. When he ran into financial difficulties, he robbed a bank and was sentenced to prison. He fled from custody after a Russia-backed separatist rebellion engulfed the Donbas in 2014, weeks after Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Then he joined separatist rebels and fought on the front line before turning to blogging.

Tatarsky was known for his blustery pronouncements and ardent pro-war rhetoric.

After the Kremlin’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine last year that most of the world rejected as illegal, Tatarsky posted a video in which he vowed: “That’s it. We’ll defeat everybody, kill everybody, rob everybody we need to. It will all be the way we like it. God be with you.”

Military bloggers have played an increasingly prominent and influential role in the flow of information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They have almost universally championed the goals of the campaign but at times criticize Russian military strategy and tactical decisions.

At the same time, the Kremlin has squelched alternative voices opposing the war by shutting down news outlets, limiting the public’s access to information and jailing critics.



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Israeli strike kills Lebanese soldier as Hezbollah fires at least 185 rockets at Israel

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Hezbollah fired at least 185 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in the militant group’s heaviest barrage in several days, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with cease-fire efforts to halt the war.

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center killed one soldier and wounded 18 others on the southwestern coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon’s military said. Israel’s military expressed regret and said the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah, adding that its operations are directed solely against the militants. The strike was under review.

Lebanon Israel
Rescue workers search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit central Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.

Hussein Malla / AP


Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon’s military has largely kept to the sidelines.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on U.S.-led cease-fire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Hezbollah fired a total of around 160 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted, the Israeli military said.

Israel Lebanon
Israeli police bomb squad inspect the site after a missile fired from Lebanon hit the area in Petah Tikva, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024.

Oded Balilty / AP


Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people in the central city of Petah Tikva, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast and a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire. The first responders said they treated three other people in northern Israel, closer to the border, including a 60-year-old man in serious condition.

It was unclear whether the injuries and damage were caused by the rockets or interceptors.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel’s ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country’s north.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a cease-fire, and U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.


U.S. envoy says there is “real opportunity” to end fighting between Israel, Hezbollah

04:33

The European Union’s top diplomat called for more pressure on both Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was “pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government.”

Josep Borrell spoke Sunday after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group.

Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate 200 million euros ($208m) to assist the Lebanese military, which would deploy additional forces to the south.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of U.N. peacekeepers.

Lebanon’s army reflects the religious diversity of the country and is respected as a national institution, but it does not have the military capability to impose its will on Hezbollah or resist Israel’s invasion.



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Sen. Rand Paul says he “will not support” use of military in Trump’s planned deportations

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Sen. Rand Paul says he “will not support” use of military in Trump’s planned deportations – CBS News


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Republican Sen. Rand Pual of Kentucky tells “Face the Nation” that while he supports President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation, but through the “normal process of domestic policing.” “I will not support and will not vote to use the military in our cities,” Paul said.

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Transcript: Rep.-elect Sarah McBride on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 24, 2024

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The following is a transcript of an interview with Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, Democrat of Delaware, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 24, 2024.


MARGARET BRENNAN: The 2024 election was historic for several reasons. Among them, the first openly transgender person was elected to the United States Congress. She joins us now from the state she will be representing, Delaware. Democratic Representative-elect Sarah McBride. Welcome to Face the Nation.

REP.-ELECT SARAH MCBRIDE: Thank you for having me, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, it’s interesting, given how polarized, how angry and divided this country is that people choose to serve and to run. You told my colleague Scott MacFarlane that it was your personal experience as a caregiver for your husband during his bout with terminal cancer that inspired you to run. Do you expect that health care policy will be the focus of your work here?

: Well, I certainly am glad to be back here in Delaware after two weeks of orientation and to have the privilege of serving this state that I love in Congress. I ran to bring down costs facing workers, retirees and their families. That means bringing down the cost of health care, but also housing and child care and everyday expenses like gas and groceries. I did run for office after my experience as a caregiver to my husband, Andy, during his battle with cancer. And throughout that experience, while Andy ultimately lost his life, we both knew how lucky we were. We knew how lucky Andy was to have health insurance that would allow him to get care that would hopefully save his life. And we both knew how lucky we were to have flexibility with our employers. That allowed Andy to focus on the full time job of getting care, and me to focus on the full time job of being there by his side to care for him, to love him, to marry him, and to walk him to his passing. And I ran for office because I do not believe that in the wealthiest, most developed nation on earth, that that time and that ability to get care should be a matter of luck. I believe it should be the law of the land. And it’s why during my time in the Delaware General Assembly, I passed paid family and medical leave and secured the largest investment in our state’s Medicaid program. And I want to do that work in Congress on health care, but also on housing and child care. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Paid leave is something that Mr. Trump has paid lip service to, we’ll see in the new Congress if it comes up. We see in our CBS polling that 86% of voters feel congressional Democrats should find common ground with Mr. Trump and Republicans. Do you feel you can?

: Well, I said throughout this campaign that I will work with anyone who’s willing to work with me to help Delawareans, to lower costs facing my constituents. There are opportunities for us to find common ground. But it’s also clear that this administration, as it begins to fill its appointments with Project 2025 authors, that a lot of the policies that this president will pursue will likely hurt my constituents and raise prices. And so where I need to fight back, I will. But where I can find common ground, I will certainly seek it. That’s what I’ve done during my time in the General Assembly, where nearly every bill I passed passed with bipartisan support. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: As you mentioned, you were here for orientation. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked about you coming to work and some objections by a female South Carolina Republican representative regarding what bathroom you’d be able to use. Here’s what the speaker said.

SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON (ON TAPE): A man is a man, and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot become a woman. That said, I also believe- that’s what Scripture teaches, what I just said. But I also believe that we treat everybody with dignity.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you believe that you are being treated with dignity by your colleagues?

: I didn’t run for the United States House of Representatives to talk about what bathroom I use. I didn’t run to talk about myself. I ran to deliver for Delawareans. And while Republicans in Congress seem focused on bathrooms and trans people, and specifically me, I’m focused on rolling up my sleeves, diving into the details, setting up my office, and beginning the hard work of delivering for Delawareans on the issues that I know keep them up at night. And I look forward to working with any colleague who’s ready to work and ready to be serious about the issues that matter because at the end of the day, how I’m being treated does not matter. What matters is how the American people are being treated and whether we’re actually focused on the issues that matter to them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, some of your fellow congressional Democrats, including Tom Suozzi and Seth Moulton, have also recently spoken about their feelings, looking back at the last election, and said Democrats should be more open about saying whether they object to transgender athletes playing in girls sports. Those were the specific examples they brought up. How would you respond to your soon to be Democratic colleagues on those? Do you understand why some parents, for example, feel uncomfortable or frustrated?

: Look, I think this country is still entering into a conversation about who trans people are, the full diversity of the community. And I’ve had conversations with colleagues in the Democratic caucus already that- that span diversity of thought about how the party should engage on a whole host of issues. But I think we are all united that every single American deserves equal rights. I think we are all united that attempts to attack a vulnerable community are not only mean spirited, but really an attempt to misdirect. Because every single time we hear the incoming administration or Republicans in Congress talk about any vulnerable group in this country, we have to be clear that it is an attempt to distract. It is an attempt to distract from what they are actually doing. Every single time, every single time we hear them say the word trans, look what they’re doing with their right hand. Look at what they’re doing to pick the pocket of American workers, to fleece seniors by privatizing Social Security and Medicare. Look what they’re doing undermining workers. And here’s also what we have to be clear about, because I think the last week has been a prime example of this. Every bit of time and energy that is used to divert the attention of federal government to go after trans people is time and energy that is not focused on addressing the cost of living for our constituents. And we have to be clear that there is a real cost for the American worker every time they focus on this. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Congresswoman elect, I’m sure we’ll be seeing you here in Washington. We’ll be right back.



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