International

The US accuses Russia of using its nationals as a “exchange currency”

As part of the anniversary of the arrest in Russia of the American journalist of The Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, the United States accused Moscow on Friday of using its citizens as a “exchange currency.”

“We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia’s atrocious attempts to use Americans as a bargaining chip,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

Gershkovich, 33, was arrested at the end of March 2023 in Yekaterinburg, capital of the Urals, and on April 7 he was formally accused of espionage by the Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB).

According to the FSB, “he was on behalf of the American side, he compiled secret information about the activities of one of the companies of the Russian military industrial complex.”

This week, the Russian Justice extended his arrest until June 30. By then, he will be in pretrial detention for one year and three months.

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Biden said that the United States will continue to work “every day to achieve his release” and will continue to remain “firm” against all those who “seek to attack the press or attack journalists, the pillars of free society.”

“Journalism is not a crime and Evan went to Russia to do his job as a reporter, risking his safety to shed light on the truth about Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine,” he said.

In another similar statement, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated that to date “Russia has not provided any proof of irregularities” because “Evan did nothing wrong.”

“Journalism is not a crime. In the year since Evan’s unjust arrest, Russia’s already restrictive media landscape has become more oppressive, with a continuous attack on independent voices that point to any form of dissent,” he said.

Blinken recalled Paul Whelan, a former Marine infantryman, who was arrested in Moscow at the end of 2018 and sentenced for espionage to 16 years in prison in 2020.

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The United States “continues to be committed to bringing Evan and Paul home,” said the head of American diplomacy.

“People are not a currency. Russia should put an end to its practice of arbitrarily detaining people for purposes of political influence and should immediately release Evan and Paul,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal published this Friday in white part of the cover of its printed edition to remember its correspondent in Russia, Evan Gershkovich.

About the blank space the headline ‘Your story should be here’ and that accompanies a note about what the journalist has not been able to enjoy on a personal and professional level during the year in which he has been in prison.

The digital edition publishes instead of the blank space a photo of the journalist with the same article but under the title of ‘Evan Gershkovich, a year stolen in a Russian prison’, which also includes biographical data.

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The Wall Street Journal also published other articles about the danger faced by journalists.

“Evan Gershkovich was supposed to be with his friends in Berlin the first week of April 2023,” the report begins and highlights the plans that the young reporter had to share with a group of journalist friends.

“It was the beginning of his stolen year,” the note adds.

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.