International

The Northern Irish unionist leader resigns after being accused of sexual crimes

The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland, Jeffrey Donaldson, resigned from office after being accused of alleged sexual crimes committed in the past.

According to the public broadcaster BBC, the 61-year-old politician faces a rape charge, among other charges, arising from a police investigation that began a few months ago, after two women denounced him.

The so far head of the second Northern Irish, Protestant and pro-British political formation, was arrested and charged on Thursday along with a 57-year-old woman, and they must appear on April 24 before justice.

The DUP, which was the majority in Northern Ireland until the historic electoral victory of the Catholic-pro-Irish Sinn Féin in 2022, explained in a statement that Donaldson informed them by letter of the accusations, which he denies, and of his resignation with immediate effect.

“According to the party’s statutes, the board has suspended him from affiliation pending the outcome of the judicial process,” he said in the note.

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This Friday, the formation unanimously appointed Gavin Robinson, so far its deputy leader, as acting leader while internal elections are organized.

The Northern Irish Police indicated, without identifying the accused, that a 61-year-old man has been charged with “non-recent sexual crimes” and a 57-year-old woman, of “helping and inciting additional crimes.”

Elected leader of the DUP in 2021, Donaldson is Northern Ireland’s oldest deputy in the British House of Commons, where he initially joined in 1997 with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). He was decorated by Elizabeth II in 2016 for his services to politics.

He managed the return of the DUP to the Northern Irish Government – which had been suspended since February 2022 – after reaching an agreement with the United Kingdom Executive to guarantee the status of the British province within the United Kingdom in the face of the divergences imposed by Brexit.

On February 3, Michelle O’Neill, of Sinn Féin, assumed the position of chief minister of Northern Ireland, with the deputy minister being the deputy of the DUP Emma Little-Pengelly.

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The unionists left the Belfast Government in February 2022 for their rejection of the Brexit Protocol for Northern Ireland – later replaced by the Windsor Framework Agreement – which imposed border controls between Great Britain and the region in order to avoid a physical border on the island of Ireland, in compliance with the 1998 peace agreements.

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.