This week started off with a photo of a child spinning a ring of fire during rituals in celebration of Sirni Zagovezni in Łozen, Bulgaria, on Feb. 26. This tradition happens seven weeks before Easter and signifies the end of winter, during which people spend time with family and enjoy food and various customs. Then on Monday, as the Mobile World Congress trade show commenced in Barcelona, a man took a selfie with a robot “dog,” eerily similar to something out of Black Mirror.
This past week also saw tragedy in Europe. Late Tuesday night in Greece, 57 people died in a train crash in Larissa when a passenger train and freight train collided head-on; that same night, scores of migrants were killed in a shipwreck in Italy, with the remains washing ashore on the coast near Crotone. In a statement released by her office, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed “her deep sorrow for the many human lives torn away by human traffickers.”