International

Macron travels to New Caledonia in the face of the wave of riots

he French president, Emmanuel Macron, will travel this afternoon for a “mission” of dialogue in the territory of New Caledonia, which has been suffering a wat of riots for nine days.

The presidential trip was announced by the Government’s spokeswoman, Prisca Thevenot, after the weekly Council of Ministers, in which the situation in that autonomous French archipelago of the South Pacific was discussed, where a clear improvement has been observed in recent days, although without the calm having been totally restored.

Macron’s decision comes after the requests of regional leaders and legislators of overseas territories, who had asked the head of state for a process of dialogue to try to close the cause of the riots, which is the reform of the electoral census of the territory.

The riots were widespread on Tuesday of last week after the National Assembly approved the opening of that census, which has been blocked since 1998, the date of the Numea agreements.

As prosecutors Yves Dupas denounced today, those riots were planned. So far, about 400 companies and shops have been destroyed or damaged in the capital, Nouméa, and its surroundings, have caused 6 deaths and destroyed or damaged.

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“The chain of events suggests a preparation, an organization and a planning in terms of logistics and media,” said the prosecutor, in an interview published on Tuesday by a local newspaper.

He also points out that, despite the progressive reduction of violence after the sending of a reinforcement of a thousand police and gendarmes, “there are still hot spots of violence” fed by “decided” people who continue to shoot at the security forces.

Following the beginning of the protests, Macron proposed to postpone the entry into force of the census reform and initiate political dialogue between all parties, something that he will predictably do on his trip to Numea, the duration of which has not yet been specified.

The Numea agreements established the organization of three self-determination referendums, which were held in 2018, 2020 and 2022. In the first two, the rejection of independence won by a decreasing margin (56.67 and 53.26%, respectively).

The third was celebrated with controversy, since the independence fighters boycotted him after asking for his postponement due to a wave of coronavirus. In those circumstances, the ‘no’ achieved 96.5% but with a participation of 43.87%.

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The territory, made up of three very separate archipelagos, is also characterized by strong social inequalities and faces an economic downturn due to the fall in the international price of nickel, the main source of income.

Tourism is not as developed as in the other French territory of the Pacific, Polynesia.

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.