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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex visit the first free town in America, in the Colombian Caribbean

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan, visited this Saturday San Basilio de Palenque, which located in the Colombian Caribbean is the first free people in America, where they talked with leaders about cultural identity, structural racism and advances towards historical reparations for slavery.

Accompanied by the Colombian vice president, Francia Márquez, the dukes first visited the Tambores de Cabildo de La Boquilla School in Cartagena de Indias, where they talked with children and young people and were able to play the ancestral drums, as a first step in a day of investment to the most African roots that Colombia has.

“When we look at that sea, we remember our African heritage. (…) In this piece of land we receive the boys and girls to protect them, with the drums we seek to change their lives (…) we invite them to help us take care of them and take care of our territory, which is threatened,” the director of this school, Rafael Ramos, told them upon arrival.

The vice president made them a teacher on this tour, assuring that they were in an “ancestral territory” that was there “since we were kidnapped in Africa,” and claimed a “sustainable, ecological tourism that does not commodify women,” from one of the most touristic points in the country.

From Cartagena, the dukes and the deputy minister moved to San Basilio de Palenque, declared Cultural and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, to preserve the musical, cultural and oral traditions of their people, with African roots, as well as their language, the palenquero.

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In a short visit, of just an hour, the cultural exhibitions allowed Prince Harry and Meghan to interact with the Afro communities and they also visited the cultural house and the Benkos Biohó square, which is named after the leader who commanded the Maroon slave rebellion in the 17th century, after which he became king of St. Basil, which is why he was hanged and dismembered in 1621.

“I wanted our guests to know the essence of what we are as a black people, of our spirituality, of our culture. The strength of the women and men of Palenque. That ancestral legacy that Benkhos, Wiwa, our ancestors, left us, which is what has allowed us to say that we can, that we continue to fight for the restoration of our people and our country,” the vice president claimed in the square.

Meanwhile, Meghan assured that they understand the importance of the people and what they represent for Colombia and was grateful to have been able to know it.

And Prince Harry alleged: “what we are seeing here is all that is a community, do not forget the message of the vice president, they are stronger together, they are stronger united as one.”

During their first visit to Colombia, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex toured several schools in Bogotá since Thursday, focused on children and technologies to promote education and the fight against cyberbullying, and tomorrow they will finish their tour in the city of Cali.

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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.

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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.”

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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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