International

Biden’s advisers are looking for a way to convince him to retire

A group made up of some of the advisors and collaborators of the U.S. President, Joe Biden, is looking for formulas to convince him that the best option is to step aside and another candidate from the Democratic Party competes with Donald Trump in the November elections, according to The New York Times.

Among them, as published by the prestigious newspaper on Thursday, citing three people familiar with the issue, are some of his allies with years of service working for the president.

The media assures that there are at least two advisers in that group who have been exploring for days how the president can give up his attempt to remain in the White House and accept Vice President Kamala Harris as the next candidate.

However, according to The New York Times, these do not belong to the circle immediately close to the president of the United States, even in favor of continuing in the electoral battle.

The newspaper also points out that Biden told his confidants before the debate on June 27 – in which he had a questioned participation that has ended in a barrage of criticism – that he believed that he had a better chance of winning a second term than Harris herself.

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According to a poll on Thursday, more than two-thirds of Americans, and 54% of Democratic voters, believe that Biden should withdraw from the campaign, ahead of the November elections.

According to Times sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the group must also assure Biden that, if it is put aside, the process to choose another candidate would be “ordered” and would not mean “chaos” within the Democratic Party.

There is no indication that any of these internal discussions have yet reached Biden himself, one of the sources told the newspaper, while the White House has denied the largest.

“Without a doubt, this is not true. President Biden’s team strongly supports it,” Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the White House, told the newspaper.

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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.