World
Families of Brazilian plane crash victims gather in Sao Paulo as experts work to identify the dead
SAO PAULO (AP) — Families of victims of an airliner crash in Brazil are gathering Sunday at a morgue and hotels in Sao Paulo as forensics experts work to identify the remains of the 62 people killed in the accident.
Local authorities said the bodies of the pilot, Danilo Santos Romano, and his co-pilot, Humberto de Campos Alencar e Silva, were the first to be identified by forensics experts.
Sao Paulo state government said in a statement Saturday evening that the remains of all the victims had been recovered. There were 34 male and 28 female bodies in the wreckage, it said.
The ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop operated by Brazilian airline Voepass was headed for Guarulhos international airport in Sao Paulo with 58 passengers and four crew members when it went down Friday in Vinhedo, 78 kilometers (49 miles) north of the metropolis. Voepass said three passengers who held Brazilian identification also carried Venezuelan documents and one had Portuguese.
At least eight physicians were aboard, Paraná state Gov. Ratinho Júnior said. Four professors at Unioeste university in western Paraná were also confirmed dead.
Three-year-old Liz Ibba dos Santos, who was travelling with her father, was the only child known to be on passenger list. The remains of Luna, a dog that was traveling with a Venezuelan family, was found in the wreckage.
Sao Paulo’s morgue began receiving the bodies Friday evening, and it asked victims’ relatives to bring in medical, X-ray and dental records to help identify the bodies. Blood tests were also done to help identification efforts.
The few family members speaking about the tragedy did so on social media.
Tânia Azevedo, who lost her son Tiago in the crash, was put up in one of the hotels in Sao Paulo, but said in a posting that she was waiting to go to the morgue.
“I believe Tiago is somewhere trying to help the other people wounded who also need light and love,” she said. “I couldn’t go there (to the morgue). I am here waiting. It is dark here, I need some light and love myself.”
Images recorded by witnesses showed the aircraft in a flat spin and plunging vertically before smashing to the ground inside a gated community, and leaving an obliterated fuselage consumed by fire. Residents said there were no injuries on the ground.
It was the world’s deadliest airline crash since January 2023, when 72 people died on a Yeti Airlines plane in Nepal that stalled and crashed while making its landing approach. That plane also was an ATR 72, and the final report blamed pilot error.
Metsul, one of Brazil’s most respected meteorological companies, said Friday there were reports of severe icing in Sao Paulo state around the time of the crash. Local media cited experts pointing to icing as a potential cause for the accident.
A video shared on social media channels Saturday shows a Voepass pilot telling passengers of a flight from Guarulhos to the city of Cascavel, the same origin of the crashed plane, that the ATR 72 has flown safely around the world for decades. He also asked passengers to be respectful to the memory of his colleagues and the company and asked for prayers.
“This tragedy doesn’t hit only those who perished in this accident. It hits all of us,” the unidentified pilot said. “We are giving all our hearts, all our best to be here and fulfill our mission to take you safely and comfortably to your destination.”
Police restricted access to the main entrance of the Sao Paulo morgue where bodies from the crash were being identified. Some family members of the victims arrived on foot, others came in minivans. None spoke to journalists, and authorities requested that they not be filmed as they came.
A flight carrying more family members from Paraná state landed Saturday afternoon at Guarulhos airport, and they also chose not to speak to journalists. A minivan sponsored by the airline was provided to transport them to the morgue.
Many family members were gathering at a hotel in downtown Sao Paulo, and declining to speak to media there, too.
An American Eagle ATR 72-200 crashed on Oct. 31, 1994, and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause was ice buildup while the plane was circling in a holding pattern. The plane rolled at about 8,000 feet and dove into the ground, killing all 68 people on board. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued operating procedures for ATRs and similar planes telling pilots not to use the autopilot in icing conditions.
Brazilian aviation expert Lito Sousa cautioned that meteorological conditions alone might not be enough to explain why the Voepass plane fell in the manner it did Friday.
“Analyzing an air crash just with images can lead to wrong conclusions about the causes,” Sousa told The Associated Press by phone. “But we can see a plane with loss of support, no horizontal speed. In this flat spin condition, there’s no way to reclaim control of the plane.”
Brazil’s air force said Saturday that both of the plane’s flight recorders had been sent to its analysis laboratory in the capital, Brasilia. The results of its investigations are expected to be published within 30 days, it said.
Marcelo Moura, director of operations for Voepass, told reporters Friday night that while there were forecasts for ice, they were within acceptable levels for the aircraft.
In an earlier statement, the Brazilian air force’s center for the investigation and prevention of air accidents said the plane’s pilots did not call for help or say they were operating under adverse weather conditions.
The ATR 72, which is built by a joint venture of Airbus in France and Italy’s Leonardo SpA. is generally used on shorter flights. Crashes involving various models of the ATR 72 have resulted in 470 deaths going back to the 1990s, according to a database of the Aviation Safety Network.
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Pollastri reported from Vinhedo.
World
Christopher Nolan Defends ‘The Odyssey’ Armor and Casting Travis Scott After Online Backlash: ‘What Is the Best Speculation?’
Arguably the most hotly anticipated movie of the summer is none other than “The Odyssey,” celebrated filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer.”
It is a film the likes of which Hollywood rarely signs off on nowadays — an ambitious sword-and-sandals epic with massive sets, some practical effects, and a cast of thousands. The $250 million-budgeted tentpole, adapted from Homer’s epic and hitting theaters July 17, is the first in Nolan’s career to be shot entirely on 70 mm Imax cameras. It stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, a Greek king who’s embarked on a long journey home filled with one outstanding obstacle after another to return to his fearlessly devoted wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway). The all-star cast is rounded out by Tom Holland as Telemachus, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Calypso, Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, and Benny Safdie as Agamemnon.
In a series of interviews with Time magazine, Nolan and his creative team opened up about the making of “The Odyssey” and addressed the wave of online criticism regarding the armor of his warriors, which many online felt resembled Batman’s more modern-looking Batsuit.
“There are Mycenaean daggers that are blackened bronze,” Nolan said. “The theory is they probably could have blackened bronze in those days. You take bronze, you add more gold and silver to it and then use sulfur… With Agamemnon, Ellen [Mirojnick], our costume designer, is trying to communicate how elevated he is relative to everyone else. You do that through materials that would be very expensive.”
Nolan also defended the casting of rapper Travis Scott as a bard, whose appearance in an early trailer caught some by surprise.
“I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap,” Nolan said.
Anyone who’s been following Nolan’s career knows the British filmmaker is painstaking when it comes to accuracy. On “Interstellar,” he hired a team of scientists to get the physics to be as accurate as possible. He took a similar approach to “The Odyssey.”
“For ‘Interstellar,’ you’re looking at, ‘What is the best speculation of the future?’ When you’re looking at the ancient past, it’s actually the same thing,” Nolan said. “‘What is the best speculation and how can I use that to create a world?’”
He added, “Hopefully they’ll enjoy the film, even if they don’t agree with everything. We had a lot of scientists complain about ‘Interstellar.’ But you just don’t want people to think that you took it on frivolously.”
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French President Emmanuel Macron sparked a firestorm of criticism after he interrupted a youth-focused session at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi on Monday, publicly scolding attendees for talking over speakers and calling the disruption “a total lack of respect.”
Video from the event showed Macron rising from his seat and walking onto the stage during the “Africa Forward: Creation in Motion” session, which featured artists and young entrepreneurs speaking about culture and innovation.
“Excuse me, everybody. Hey, hey, hey,” Macron told the audience. “I’m sorry, guys. But it’s impossible to speak about culture, to have people like that super inspired, coming here, making a speech with such a noise.”
“So this is a total lack of respect,” he continued. “I suggest if you want to have bilateral or speak about somebody else, I mean something else, you have bilateral rooms, or you go outside. If you want to stay here, we listen to the people, and we’re playing the same game.”
MACRON TO APPOINT FOURTH PRIME MINISTER IN A YEAR AS DEBT BATTLE TOPPLES CENTRIST LEADER
A screenshot of French President Emmanuel Macron stopping a session at the Africa Forward Summit in Kenya. (Reuters)
Macron was immediately criticized for his uninvited remarks on social media. A former member of Parliament from Zimbabwe, Fadzayi Mahere, called the French leader out on X. “Respectfully @EmmanuelMacron I don’t believe that it’s courteous or appropriate for you to come onto our Continent and talk down at people like this. They are not your kids. Don’t be condescending. Imagine if a guest of the state did the same in your country? Would it fly? I don’t think so.”
Another post from a Kenyan-Canadian lawyer with 3.1 million followers announced, “Africans don’t need @EmmanuelMacron’s permission to speak in Africa,” said Dr. Miguna Miguna, who in January announced he was running for the Kenyan presidency in 2027, according to local reports.
A report published Monday by Modern Ghana, the interruption carried a symbolic irony, as Macron had traveled to Kenya to promote what Paris describes as a more equal and respectful partnership with African nations, moving away from what critics have long viewed as a paternalistic post-colonial model.
The incident took place during the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, where more than 30 African leaders, business executives and young entrepreneurs gathered for discussions focused on economic development, innovation and cooperation between Africa and Europe.
Kenya’s Standard Media reported that the exchange “cast an unusual shadow” over the summit, noting that some civil society groups characterized the two-day summit as a “reengineering of imperialism.”
The moment underscored the balancing act facing Macron as France attempts to redefine its relationship with Africa following years of political tensions and military withdrawals from several West African countries.
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French President Emmanuel Macron, arrives at the White House, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, in Washington. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)
Earlier Monday, Macron told students at the University of Nairobi that “Africa is succeeding” and argued the continent needs investment to strengthen its sovereignty rather than dependence on development aid, according to Modern Ghana’s report by Mustapha Bature Sallama. The report also noted Macron acknowledged France’s own financial constraints during the remarks.
Macron has increasingly emphasized partnerships with African youth, entrepreneurs and cultural leaders as Paris recalibrates its Africa strategy amid growing competition from Russia, China and Turkey for influence across the continent.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Published on •Updated
A vast majority of EU member states criticised the reopening of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale during a “heated discussion” among the bloc’s culture ministers on Tuesday in Brussels.
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Many ministers also expressed support for the European Commission’s move to freeze a €2 million grant to the Biennale Foundation for allowing Russia’s participation, several diplomats told Euronews.
The issue was raised by Latvian Minister of Culture Agnese Lāce, who called for preventing what she described as “the instrumentalization of cultural institutions by Russia.”
According to people in the room, a total of 14 ministers denounced Russia’s presence but stopped short of directly criticising Italy, which was represented at the meeting by Ambassador Marco Canaparo in place of Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli.
Several countries, such as Belgium, Spain and Poland, argued that culture cannot be used to whitewash the war of aggression launched by Russia against Ukraine and stressed the importance of avoiding any sanction circumvention by Russian individuals involved in the exhibition.
The Commission and Cyprus’s EU rotating presidency called for a suspension of funding, reallocating the Biennale’s money to Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Brussels has so far strongly condemned the Biennale’s decision to allow Russia to reopen its national pavilion, claiming that culture “should never be used as a platform for propaganda” and warning that the Russian stand could become a “platform to individuals who have actively supported or justified the aggression against Ukraine.”
In April, the Commission initiated proceedings to cut funding, notifying the Biennale of a breach of the grant’s conditions, which, if not addressed, could lead to the suspension or termination of the grant.
The foundation maintains that the event should remain “a place of dialogue, openness and artistic freedom” and that it cannot prevent a country from participating, as any state recognised by the Italian Republic can apply to join the exhibition.
Russia maintains a pavilion within the exhibition area and, under the rules, can independently decide whether to take part in each edition of the Venice Biennale. Its last participation was in 2019, as Russian artists withdrew in 2022 and the country did not present a pavilion in 2024, instead lending its space to Bolivia.
Russia’s participation in 2026 sparked controversy within the Italian government, as Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli boycotted the opening ceremony, while vice prime minister Matteo Salvini defended the “freedom of art” and even paid a visit to the Russian pavilion.
This year’s edition opened on Saturday, amid protests for the participation of Russia and Israel. The Russian dissident collectives Pussy Riot and Femen displayed slogans against Vladimir Putin while wearing balaclavas and topless.
The Biennale’s international jury, which will assign the main awards to the pavilions, collectively resigned after criticism for its decision to exclude from prizes those countries whose leaders are currently accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
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