International
Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing show their willingness to resume the trilateral summits “on a regular basis”
South Korea, Japan and China expressed on Monday their desire to resume their summits to three “on a regular basis and without interruption” in a joint statement at the end of the trilateral meeting held between the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, and the prime ministers of Japan and China, Fumio Kishida and Li Qiang, respectively.
“We reiterate that promoting the institutionalization of trilateral cooperation improves the respective bilateral relations and promotes peace, stability and prosperity in the Northeast Asian region, and helps to promote a world in which countries, large or small, can benefit universally,” the document reads.
The three countries held their first summits of heads of government annually between 2008 and 2012, but the differences between Seoul and Tokyo around the consequences of the Japanese colonial domination of the Korean peninsula (1910-1945) caused the meetings to begin to be convened intermittently.
Since Yoon’s coming to power in 2022, he and Kishida have sought to smooth out those differences with a reinforcement of the military cooperation of both countries with their traditional partner, the United States.
In turn, China’s lack of transparency around the pandemic and its origins, added to the growing rivalry between Beijing and Washington, has widened in recent years the gap between the three neighbors, who had not held a summit like this since 2019.
Today, the three countries have stressed that this ninth three-way summit held in Seoul “has an important meaning to revitalize trilateral cooperation,” according to the statement, which adds that “conversations will be held to accelerate negotiations for a trilateral free trade agreement (FTA),” as Kishida already said at a press conference.
The three neighbors decided today to establish cooperation projects in six key areas: human exchanges, sustainable development, economic and commercial cooperation, public health and the aging of society, science and technology, and disaster security and assistance.
“We are striving to increase the number of human exchanges between the three countries to 40 million by 2030 by promoting exchanges in areas that include culture, tourism and education,” the document explains.
The two areas that apparently had the most tangible results in terms of cooperation after today’s summit were that of intellectual property and that of “future pandemics”, since two separate memorandums were signed in this regard.
There was no mention of the thorny issue of Taiwan and the growing Chinese pressure on the island and only a heading was dedicated to the North Korean issue, which increasingly worries Seoul and Tokyo but which lately generates lukewarm statements from Beijing, which for years has not supported the activation of new UN sanctions against Pyongyang.
Not even the announcement on Monday that North Korea will launch between today and next June 3 a new spy satellite using ballistic missile technology – something that the UN prohibits – made Li talk about it at the post-summit press conference.
The declaration was limited to recalling the importance of “reaffirming peace, stability and prosperity on the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia” and the “denuclearization of the peninsula.”
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”
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.
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