International
Schmit (PSE): “When someone asks Sánchez to be hanged, all boundaries are crossed”

The head of the list of the Social Democrats to the presidency of the European Commission, Nicolas Schmit, warned on Thursday against “turning politics into a battlefield” and considered that in Spain, “when someone asks Pedro Sánchez to be hanged, all boundaries have been crossed.”
“It is a danger in our democracy when in Spain someone asks that Pedro Sánchez be hanged, (because) all the boundaries have been crossed. And from there everything is possible because it can reach the ears of someone upset,” the social democratic candidate warned the European Commission in an interview with the European Drafting of Agencies, of which EFE is a part.
Near the end of a campaign for the European elections in which there has been an assassination attempt in Slovakia and several politicians in Germany have suffered violent attacks, Schmit stressed that the discourse of some forces (which does not limit the extreme right) “does not reach a minimum of dignity,” so “from there the next level is physical violence.”
“Politics should not be about hatred, it should be something between democrats. Between adversaries, not enemies. If politics is transformed into a battlefield, into a war, there is a danger that some madman will take it literally and grab a gun,” Schmit stressed.
In the same interview, Schmit warned about the risk that the existence of two far-right groups in the European Parliament (the Conservatives and Reformists, on the one hand, and Identity and Democracy, on the other) will lead to the conclusion that part of them are “decent.”
“What is attractive about Vox?” asked the Social Democratic leader, who stressed that his group will not enter into any coalition with individual groups or delegations that are located to the right of the European People’s Party.
The Luxembourg politician, until now Commissioner for Employment, opined that the founding fathers and mothers of the European Union and belonging to the Christian Democratic family “must be stirring in their graves” with the approaches of the European People’s Party towards the ultra-conservatives.
“Christian Democrats were among the fathers and mothers of the process of European integration and now they do not exclude alliances with those who are fundamentally against this Europe project. People like (the former Italian prime minister) Alcide de Gasperi must be stirring in his grave,” Schmit lamented.
The social democratic candidate declared himself “surprised” by the campaign messages of his main rival and current president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and asked him to be “honest” with his approach to the Italian Prime Minister, the ultra-conservative Giorgia Meloni.
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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