International

Argentina asks to be a “global partner” of NATO

Argentina requested to be a “global partner” of NATO in the framework of a meeting held this Thursday by its Minister of Defense, Luis Petri, and the deputy secretary general of the multilateral organization, Mircea Geoana, official sources reported.

As published by the holder of the portfolio on social network X and disseminated his ministry, Petri presented “the letter of intent that expresses Argentina’s request to become a global partner of this organization.”

“We will continue to work on recovering links that allow us to modernize and train our forces to the NATO standard,” concluded the Argentine Minister of Defense.

Petri accompanied his publication with several photographs – including that of the delivery of the official letter – of his meeting with Geoana in Brussels, where the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is located.

Argentina’s rapprochement with NATO is linked to the new foreign policy developed by the Government of the ultraliberal Javier Milei, which has as references the United States and Israel.

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In addition to the recent visit to Argentina of the commander of the Southern Command of the United States, Army General Laura Richardson, with a vocation to expand collaboration in defense, the South American country is clearly aligned with Israel both in the war in the Gaza Strip against the armed wing of Hamas and in the recent crisis unleashed with Iran.

Petri is this week in Europe, where on Monday he signed an agreement for the purchase of 24 used F-16 fighter planes from the Danish Army.

Milei was going to travel to Denmark to meet with the Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, and celebrate the signing of the agreement, but suspended the visit following Iran’s attack on Israel and returned from the United States – where he had traveled to receive a tribute from a Jewish organization – to organize a “crisis committee” in Buenos Aires.

Argentina keeps in its memory the memory of two serious attacks against the interests of the Jewish community: in 1992 against the Embassy of Israel; and in 1994 against the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA). Both left more than 100 dead and hundreds of injured.

As its official website shows, NATO has 32 full members. Born after World War II (1939-1945), twelve countries signed their accession in 1949: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the United States, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

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They were joined, in various expansions, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Finland and Sweden – the last two incorporations, in 2023 and 2024, respectively, against the background of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

In addition, it has several allies qualified as global partners, the same status that Argentina now intends: Australia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Colombia, the only country in Latin America, admitted in 2017.

Undoubtedly, an important aspect that could generate some internal conflict is the diplomatic dispute over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands between the United Kingdom – one of the founding members of NATO – and Argentina, which caused a war in 1982.

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.