International
Trump selects Ohio Sen. JD Vance, 39, as his vice presidential nominee
Former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) chose Ohio Senator JD Vance as his vice presidential candidate on Monday , a 39-year-old who, in addition to being a politician, is also a businessman and writer.
After several weeks of uncertainty, Trump announced his choice on the Truth Social network during the first day of the Republican Convention, which began on Monday in Milwaukee, in the key state of Wisconsin, where Trump’s candidacy for the White House is also being formalized today.
The former Republican president said that after “long deliberation and reflection, and considering the tremendous talents of many others,” he has decided that Vance is “the most appropriate person to assume the role.”
During the campaign, he said, he will focus strongly on the people for whom he fought so brilliantly, the American workers and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and far beyond.”
As vice president, he added, he will “continue to fight” for the Constitution, support the troops and do everything he can to help “make America great again.”
Trump recalled to Truth Social that Vance served in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and also from Yale Law School, where he was editor of The Yale Law Journal and president of the Yale Law Veterans Association.
JD’s book “Hillbilly Elegy” “became a huge bestseller” and a movie, the former president said, adding that “he has had a very successful business career in technology and finance.”
His name was on the shortlist of Florida Senator Marco Rubio, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
In the last few hours, even former US ambassador to the UN and former governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, the latest to throw in the towel in the primary process against Trump, and even Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate, had begun to be named.
Earlier on Monday, it was leaked that both Rubio and Burgum had been notified that they would not be chosen, thus putting the spotlight on Vance, whose announcement was greeted with applause at the convention as soon as it was made public.
US President Joe Biden’s campaign on Monday lashed out at Senator JD Vance, Donald Trump’s choice as his running mate, saying he would bow to the former president, unlike Mike Pence during the assault on the Capitol in 2021.
“Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence failed to do on January 6th: bend to the side of Trump’s extreme agenda, even if it means breaking the law and regardless of whether it harms the American people,” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.
Biden’s campaign was alluding to how Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president during his time in the White House from 2017 to 2021, refused to participate in efforts to try to reverse the results of the 2020 election, in which Trump lost to Biden and alleged without evidence that there was fraud.
In its statement, the Biden campaign portrayed Vance, a senator from Ohio, as an extremist and a mere extension of Trump’s policy positions.
Regarding the 2020 election, Vance has previously said that he would not have immediately certified the results had he been vice president. He has also said that Trump had “a very legitimate grievance” regarding the election.
Vance has also set conditions for accepting the results of the November election, in line with Trump’s statements, who during his June 27 debate against Biden avoided committing to recognizing the outcome of the upcoming election.
As Biden’s campaign notes in its statement, Vance expressed support for a national ban on abortion at 15 weeks when he ran for office in 2022, but later softened that stance when he saw Ohio voters back an amendment to protect reproductive rights in 2023.
The campaign has announced that in the months leading up to the elections, its strategy will be based on showing the “great contrast” between the two visions that will face each other at the polls in November.
“The Biden-Harris ticket is all about uniting the country, creating opportunities for all, and driving down costs; and the Trump-Vance ticket is all about uniting the country, creating opportunities for all, and driving down costs; and the Trump-Vance ticket is all about uniting the country, creating opportunities for all, and driving down costs for all,” O’Malley Dillon said.
Just minutes after Trump announced JD Vance as his running mate, the Biden campaign launched a fundraising offensive on social media and emails to supporters.
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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