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Three missionaries are murdered in Haiti, including the daughter of a U.S. legislator

Three American missionaries were killed at the hands of armed bandits who attacked an orphanage that houses dozens of children in Lison 49, in Plaine, north of Port-au-au-Prince, under the control of armed gangs for several months, the Missions in Haiti organization confirmed on Friday.

Two of them are the daughter and son-in-law of the US state legislator of Missouri Ben Baker, as reported this Friday by the politician himself through social networks.

“My heart is broken into a thousand pieces. I had never felt this kind of pain,” the Republican, a member of the state’s local House of Representatives, wrote on Facebook.

Baker’s daughter, Natalie, and her husband, Davy Lloyd, were in the country serving as missionaries when they were attacked by an armed gang.

Haiti is experiencing a spiral of violence with killings, attacks, rapes and kidnappings at the hands of the powerful armed gangs, a situation that has been exacerbated since the end of last February.

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“They went to heaven together. Please pray for my family, we desperately need strength. And also pray for the Lloyd family. I don’t have any other words for now,” Baker added.

The news was shared through social networks by the former president and Republican pre-candidate for the presidency Donald Trump (2017-2021).

“God bless Davy and Natalie. What a tragedy. Haiti is totally out of control. Find the killers NOW!!!,” the Republican wrote in Truth Social.

In March, the U.S. State Department issued a travel notice urging Americans not to travel to Haiti due to its “unpredictable and dangerous” security conditions.

Natalie and Davy married in August 2022 and moved to Haiti three months later, according to the young woman’s Instagram account.

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On social networks you can see how they worked mainly with Haitian children for the NGO Missions in Haiti Inc., which was founded by Davy’s parents, David and Alicia Lloyd, in 2000.

The interim government of Haiti announced last Wednesday that it is extending the curfew for seven more days in the department of the West, where the capital is located and where the state of emergency also applies to try to curb the violence.

The curfew accompanies the state of emergency extended for a month between May 9 and June 8 with the aim of restoring order and taking appropriate measures to regain control of the situation in the face of the high levels of insecurity caused by the armed gangs that control much of Port-au-Prince and other areas.

In order to help stop the violence in Haiti, where insecurity caused about 8,000 deaths last year, a multinational security support mission, led by Kenya and approved by the UN, will arrive in this Caribbean country.

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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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