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The far right in the European Parliament expels AfD after the scandals of its head of the list

The far-right group in the European Parliament, Identity and Democracy, decided on Thursday to expel the entire delegation of Alternative for Germany (AfD) because of the scandals in which the head of the list of this formation for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, has been involved.

“The ‘bureau’ of the Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament has decided today to exclude the German delegation, AfD, with immediate effect. The ID group does not want to remain associated with the incidents involving Maximilian Krah, head of the AfD list for the European elections,” the group said in a statement.

Hours earlier, seven of the nine MEPs of the formation had asked ID to expel their leader to prevent the exclusion of the entire delegation from the parliamentary group, on the grounds that it has damaged “the cohesion and reputation” of ID.

In practice, the decision has a small impact because the European Parliament no longer has legislative activity and its MEPs are mainly campaigning in their countries of origin. After the elections, the groups will be composed from scratch and it was already public that AfD would not be welcome again in Identity and Democracy.

After the head of the list of the German far-right affirmed that in the Nazi organization SS “not everyone was criminals,” the National Group (RN) of the French Marine Le Pen and La Liga of the Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini distanced themselves and affirmed that they will not share a parliamentary group in the European Parliament again.

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Krah’s words about the SS are only the last of the chain of scandals in which he has been involved during the campaign.

At the end of April, one of its employees in Brussels was arrested on suspicion of espionage for China and the Dresden prosecutor’s office (east of Germany) has opened preliminary proceedings to determine whether Krah could also have received payments from Beijing.

On the other hand, along with his number two, Petr Bystrom, Krah is under suspicion of having collected money from Moscow in exchange for spreading certain pro-Russian opinions, for example through contributions on the Voice of Europe platform.

The leadership of Alternative for Germany (AfD) said on Thursday that it maintains “optimism” for the next elections to the European Parliament, despite the fact that the party was expelled today from the far-right group in the European Parliament Identity and Democracy (ID).

“We are aware of the decision of the ID parliamentary group. We still see with optimism the election night and the following days,” said the co-leaders of the ultra-German formation, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, in a brief statement.

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They indicated that the AfD will strive to increase the number of representatives it has in the European Parliament and stressed that in order to have a political effect in Brussels, a collaboration with close parties is “indispensable”.

“We are confident that we will also have reliable partners by our side in the new legislature,” Weidel and Chrupalla concluded.

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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.

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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.”

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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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