International

Argentine President fires seven thousand government workers

Photo: EFE

December 27 |

Within the package package of the Argentine President Javier Milei that labor centers and unions reject, 7,000 government employees are expected to be dismissed, through a decree that vetoes the renewal of state workers’ contracts.

The determination is part of the new economic adjustment plan with which the President wants to put the Argentine economy back on track, since among the measures has been the dissolution of nine ministries. The total number of layoffs corresponds to all personnel hired during the current year.

The provision will reach the workers of the National Administration of Social Security (ANSES), the Program of Integral Medical Attention (PAMI) and the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP).

At a press conference, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni indicated that public contracts discharged in 2023 that end next December 31 will not be renewed in 2024, while the rest will enter into a ninety-day review process.

With respect to social plans, the Argentine Executive will initiate the audit of more than one million social plans and foresees, based on the estimates of judicial investigations, that 160,000 beneficiaries could be receiving these benefits in an “irregular” manner.

According to the spokesman, these plans would have a total value of 10 billion Argentine pesos (12.45 million dollars). “Argentines should not be in charge of this money,” Adorni emphasized.

The order issued also includes that the employees hired before January 1, 2023 will only be renewed for a period of 90 days, since the objective is that the authorities of each jurisdiction “carry out an exhaustive survey of the hired personnel in order to evaluate the renewal” of their labor relationship with the Argentine Government.

On this day, the Argentine Congress starts extraordinary sessions called by the ultra-liberal President Milei to debate complementary laws to a mega-decree of economic deregulation resisted by the opposition and the labor unions, which are asking the courts to declare it unconstitutional.

“The deputies and senators will have to choose between accompanying the change that the people have voted for or continue obstructing and putting sticks in the wheel”, said Adorni in a press conference.

20250301_vacunacion_vph-728x90

20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90

20231124_etesal_728x90_1

20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90

domfuturo_netview-728x90

20240604_dom_728x90

CEL

The complementary package to be debated by Congress until January 31 includes reforms to taxation, electoral law and the functions of the State.

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

International

Miyazaki’s style goes viral with AI but at what cost?

This week, you may have noticed that everything—from historical photos and classic movie scenes to internet memes and recent political moments—has been reimagined on social media as Studio Ghibli-style portraits. The trend quickly went viral thanks to ChatGPT and the latest update of OpenAI’s chatbot, released on Tuesday, March 25.

The newest addition to GPT-4o has allowed users to replicate the distinctive artistic style of the legendary Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away). “Today is a great day on the internet,” one user declared while sharing popular memes in Ghibli format.

While the trend has captivated users worldwide, it has also highlighted ethical concerns about AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works—and what this means for the livelihoods of human artists.

Not that this concerns OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has actively encouraged the “Ghiblification”experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile picture on the social media platform X to a Ghibli-style portrait.

Miyazaki, now 84 years old, is known for his hand-drawn animation approach and whimsical storytelling. He has long expressed skepticism about AI’s role in animation. His past remarks on AI-generated animation have resurfaced and gone viral again, particularly when he once said he was “utterly disgusted” by an AI demonstration.