International

Azerbaijani government sources say AZAL plane was hit by Russian missile

The Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people, was hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile, two Azerbaijani government sources told EFE on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

According to sources, Flight 8432, from Baku, was hit by shrapnel from a surface-to-air missile while it was in the airspace of the Russian city of Grozny, its destination.

They also said that the authorities did not allow the emergency landing requested by the pilots of the Embraer 190 at Russian airports and diverted it towards the city of Aktau, in Kazakhstan, for which it had to fly over the waters of the Caspian Sea.

According to the pro-government agency Caliber.Az, the missile used against the plane was a Pantsir-S.

The same media outlet reports that Russian sources acknowledge that Russian anti-aircraft defences were trying to shoot down Ukrainian drones in the skies over Chechnya, where the AZAL plane was flying.

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In addition, the head of the Center for Combating Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Andri Kovalenko, said that the plane was shot down by a Russian air defense system.

“The explosion of an air defense missile damaged the plane and disabled its systems,” Kovalenko wrote on Telegram.

The black boxes are found

The black boxes of the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people, have been found at the scene of the tragedy, Kazakh officials said today.

“During the inspection of the crash site, two flight recorders were discovered, which will be handed over to the Air Accident Investigation Department,” Abilaibek Ordabaev, the transport prosecutor of Kazakhstan’s Mangystau region, told a press conference.

He added that inspection work at the site of the accident, which covers more than 4,000 square meters, is “in the final stage.”

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According to Kazakh sources, specialists from the Brazilian company Embraer will be in charge of decoding the black boxes. They will arrive in the Central Asian country tomorrow to join the investigation.

Attacks on Grozny

The holes in the plane’s fuselage that appeared during the flight and can be seen in the passengers’ images could not have been caused by birds, as initially reported by Russian sources, he said.

“Russia had to close the airspace over Grozny, but it did not do so,” Kovalenko stressed, referring to the risks created by the drone attack that was taking place in Grozny at the same time.

The Russian city was attacked by drones on Wednesday morning, according to the secretary of the Chechen Security Council and nephew of the head of the region, Jamzat Kadyrov.

“Everything that flew was shot down,” he said on Instagram.

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The Ukrainian official said the plane “was damaged by the Russians and sent to Kazakhstan instead of making an emergency landing in Grozny and saving lives.”

The Kremlin calls for not rushing into hypotheses

Only the professionalism of the plane’s pilots prevented Russia from “turning this story into a Russian provocation against Ukraine,” he said, warning that Russia will do everything possible to hide its own responsibility for the plane crash and the deaths of people.

On Wednesday morning, 38 of the 67 people on board the plane died in the accident near the city of Aktau (Kazakhstan), after failing to land in the Russian city of Grozny (Chechnya).

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency earlier said the plane “hit birds” after which its captain decided to land at an alternate airfield in Aktau, Kazakhstan.

The Kremlin today called on people not to rush to conclusions about the causes of the crash.

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“It would be a mistake to formulate hypotheses before the conclusions of the investigation. We, of course, will not do so and no one should do so,” said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov at his daily telephone press conference.

Peskov insisted that it was necessary to “wait until the investigation is over.”

NATO calls for a “thorough” investigation

Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office spokesman Kanan Zeinalov said Thursday that Azerbaijani and Kazakh specialists are working together to clarify the causes of the tragedy, and Brazilian experts are also expected to join them.

Several pro-war Russian military bloggers, including Fighterbomber, have added their support to the theory that the aircraft was possibly shot down by Russian air defenses, noting that alleged shrapnel impacts can be seen in images of the wreckage of the plane.

NATO has called for a “thorough” investigation into the crash.

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“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and victims of Azerbaijan Airlines flight J28243. We wish those injured in the accident a speedy recovery and call for a thorough investigation,” NATO spokeswoman Farah Dakhlallah said in a message on social media.

International

Protests erupt over Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ migrant jail in the Everglades

Hundreds of environmentalists, Indigenous leaders, and activists gathered on Saturday to protest against the planned opening of a migrant detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” which, according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, could begin operating as early as Tuesday and hold up to 3,000 migrants.

The protest took place amid active construction at the site, located in the Everglades Natural Park—an ecologically sensitive wetlands region west of Miami. Demonstrators raised concerns about the environmental impact on an area that is home to 36 native species of plants and animals that are threatened or endangered.

Protest signs read messages such as: “This scam will cost us $450 million and destroy our precious Everglades,”“Continuing with ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is criminal,” and “These are concentration camps on Indigenous land.”

The backlash intensified after a televised segment aired the night before on Fox and Friends, where DeSantis toured the facility—built on an abandoned airport—and suggested the detention center could start receiving migrants as early as Tuesday.

Internacionales

Jalisco’s grim discovery: drug cartel mass grave found in construction site

A mass grave was discovered in a residential area under construction in the municipality of Zapopan, part of the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco.

“After analyzing the recovered remains, they correspond to 34 individuals,” said a state official during a press conference. Jalisco has one of the highest numbers of missing persons in Mexico, largely due to the activity of drug cartels.

As of May 31, official data shows that Jalisco has recorded 15,683 missing persons, according to the state prosecutor’s office. Authorities attribute most of these cases to criminal organizations, which often bury or cremate their victims clandestinely.

“The construction company notified us at the end of February after discovering some remains,” explained the official, González, adding that excavation efforts have been ongoing since then.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) operates in the region and was designated as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Washington has accused CJNG and the Sinaloa cartel of being the main sources of fentanyl trafficking, a synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the U.S.

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Mexico has accumulated more than 127,000 missing persons, most of them since 2006, when the federal government launched a heavily criticized military-led anti-drug offensive.

International

U.S. targets families of sanctioned drug traffickers with new Visa restrictions

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday a new visa restriction policy targeting the family members and close associates of individuals sanctioned for drug trafficking, as part of efforts to combat the spread of fentanyl.

Overdoses from this synthetic opioid remain the leading cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 44. According to official sources, more than 220 overdose deaths are reported daily in 2024, and over 40% of Americans know someone who has died from opioid-related causes.

“Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy (…) which will apply to close family members and personal or business associates of individuals sanctioned for drug trafficking,” Rubio said in a statement.