International
Armed settlers attack Palestinian villages as Iranian threat plans over Israel
Armed settlers attacked ten villages in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, leaving more than a dozen Palestinians wounded by bullets, after a 14-year-old Israeli teenager was found dead near a settlement; the escalation occurs while Israel remains on alert to the Iranian threat of attacking the Jewish State.
According to medical sources of the Palestinian Red Crescent, more than a dozen Palestinians were wounded by bullets today – five in the village of Al Mughayir, where yesterday a 25-year-old Palestinian died in a first attack by settlers along with law enforcement forces – and another five in the village of Duma, northeast of Ramalla.
At least three more were beaten, and one Palestinian was injured with rubber bullets in widespread attacks – with burning of homes and destruction of cars – according to a count by the Israeli NGO Yesh Din in eight other villages: As Sawiya, Qusra, Beitin, Silwad, Sinjil, Beitillu, Turmusaya and Beit Furik.
The Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohamad Mustafa, today condemned the attacks of Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and said in a statement that they will “not deter” Palestinians from “remaining in their land.” With the start of the war in Gaza, these attacks have increased to more than 700 since October, according to OCHA.
These attacks occurred after a search device found this afternoon with a drone the lifeless body, near the outpost of Malachei HaShalom (illegal settlement also under Israeli law) of the 14-year-old settler Benjamin Achimeir, who disappeared yesterday at 6:00 in the morning when he went out to herd sheep.
The Israeli Army reported that the violence and clashes “had ended” tonight and announced more military and police presence in the West Bank, according to a statement.
According to the text, members of the Israeli security forces were also injured in the clashes that lasted for hours, and the Army reported the use of “anti-riot dispersal means” to end the altercations.
The Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, today asked Israelis via X that they will not take “justice in their own hands” and to let “the security forces act quickly in the search for the terrorists.”
“Acts of revenge will make the mission of our soldiers difficult. Justice should not be taken by its own hands,” he said in reference to the search operation to find the person responsible for the death of the Jewish teenager, who the authorities believe is Palestinian.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sent his condolences to the family, in what he called an “atrocious murder,” and assured that those responsible will be punished as “anyone who damages the citizens of the State of Israel.”
Meanwhile, the Army said it was still on “high alert” to protect itself from “new Iranian aggressions,” as the Israeli military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said today in a statement shortly after the capture by Iran of a freighter in the Persian Gulf, to which he made no reference, was known.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, did confirm the participation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the hijacking of the ship, linked to the company ‘Zodiac Maritime’ owned by an Israeli billionaire, and asked the European Union to declare that Persian military corps a “terrorist organization.”
Hours later, the Ministry of Defense claimed to have increased security measures.
The capture has further increased tension in the Middle East, and especially in Israel, which awaits a reprisal attack after the bombing of the Tehran consulate in Damascus on April 1, which claimed the lives of half a dozen Iranians.
Despite the official alert, the population has hardly altered their behavior at all: the bars are still full and, tonight, a large demonstration has been called in Tel Aviv against the Netanyahu Government and for the return of the hostages from the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas informed on Saturday the intermediaries of Egypt and Qatar, who have been working for months to try to achieve a truce in the war in Gaza, its rejection of the latest proposal, mediated by the United States, which it received last Monday and calls for a “permanent ceasefire.”
“In Hamas we reaffirm our adherence to our demands and the national demands of our people,” Hamas said in a statement, in which it reiterated its four requirements for an agreement: a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of the Israeli “occupation army” from all Gaza, the return of displaced people from the northern of the Strip, and a greater entry of humanitarian aid and the beginning of reconstruction.
“We also confirm our willingness to close an agreement,” the statement says, through “a serious and real exchange of prisoners between the two parties.”
According to leaks to the Israeli media and sources close to the negotiations in Cairo contacted by EFE, the last agreement on the table included six weeks of ceasefire, and a first exchange of 40 hostages for about 900 Palestinian prisoners; a hundred of them with long sentences.
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”
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.
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