International

Israel accuses Sánchez of “inciting Jewish genocide” for recognizing Palestine

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, accused on Tuesday the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, of being “accomplice of inciting Jewish genocide” for recognizing the Palestinian State and for not ceasing Vice President Yolanda Díaz when he said that “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.”

Vice President Díaz later clarified her words and said that when she assured that “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea” she meant that the two States, Israel and Palestine, must “share a future of peace and prosperity,” after the Israeli ambassador in Madrid, Radica Radian-Gordon, accused her of using “a Hamas slogan.”

However, in a message on social network X, both in Spanish and Hebrew, Katz accused Díaz of seeking the elimination of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian “terrorist state” and compared it to the supreme Iranian leader, Ali Khamenei, and the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

“President @sanchezcastejon – by not firing @yolanda_diaz_ and announcing the recognition of the Palestinian State – is complicit in inciting the murder of the Jewish people and war crimes,” the Israeli Foreign Minister wrote today, also labeling the account of the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

Israel has reacted with anger to the official recognition of the Palestinian State made today by Spain, Ireland and Norway and has even prohibited the Spanish Consulate in Jerusalem from providing consular services to Palestinians residing in the occupied West Bank in retaliation.

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But the Palestinian president, Mahmud Abbas, thanked on Tuesday for the official recognition of Palestine by three European countries, a decision that he described as “brave” and that he assured demonstrates an “international consensus” to end the war in the Gaza Strip.

“The Palestinian Presidency welcomes the courageous and bold European political positions, especially those adopted by Spain, Ireland and Norway that recognized the State of Palestine,” Abás said today in a statement released by the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

In that same text, Abás also alluded to the statements of the High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, who on Sunday said from Brussels that the solution of the two States “is not a painful concession” or a threat to the security of Israel, but “the only long-term guarantee” for its security and prosperity.

“(That) is consistent with the official Palestinian position, which has repeatedly stressed that military and security solutions have failed,” Abás said today, who also thanked Borrell’s criticism of Israel for not complying with the latest order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered him to “immediately stop” his military offensive in Rafah, in southern Gaza.

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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.

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.