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Amidst the world's misfortunes and Spanish politics, this image of presidential happiness appears.Salvador Illa, happy as a clam, taking a selfie with Bad Bunny inside the main nave of the Sagrada Família. Illa looks like he's about to sing: “If you want to have fun with charm and finesse, you just have to live a summer in Catalonia with warmth”.Bad Bunny is the best thing that will happen to Illa in the coming days, because the hurricane of the Zapatero case threatens the stability of Sánchez's government and, by extension, that of the Generalitat government, which is so closely linked to it.In the last few hours we have learned that the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit of the National Police, the UDEF, has found in Zapatero's office: jewelry, folders and mobile phones. In short, there are three lines here: Zapatero is a victim of lawfare because let him do to Sánchez what he can do, Zapatero has crossed the fine line between lobbyist and influence peddler, and Zapatero is corrupt. Probably, what we have here is that the evidence gathered by the judge (the photos of the jewelry are police propaganda) could indicate that Zapatero has gone further, recklessly, than prudence advised. And until he testifies and the investigation is clarified, we will live in this debate. Now, that the suspicion of lawfare is plausible, everyone knows and it is a prophecy.There is no doubt that the blow to Sanchez is tremendous. If yesterday we were talking about the PNB saying there should be elections this year, today we have Felipe Gonzalez (who else?) saying the same thing.Journalist: “Do you think there will be elections? Do you think there will not be elections?”Felipe González: “I think there should be. It is the first time I say it. I think there should be. I think there should be. That is to say, there should be this year. We should also have respect for the infantry. I would tell it to García Páez. Look, the leadership I value is non-mercenary leadership. That which is not exercised for one's own benefit, but is exercised for the benefit of others”. With friends like González who needs enemies, Sánchez must think. Because, moreover, he is amused by it.Felipe González: “I don’t see him, let’s say, with the capacity to set up a financial engineering as I am seeing. I say, listen, that this means nothing more than that. That Zapatero has reached, in his life trajectory, to know what an offshore company is, well, I don’t see it”.Tomorrow we will know what Sánchez's answer is when asked if he will advance the elections (which until today the answer was no, by no means). And they will ask him in Rome, where Sánchez will be received in audience by Pope Leo XIV, as a prelude to the trip to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands in fifteen days. Such is life, Sánchez standing up to the Holy Father, just as the Pope, one year after his election, has begun to raise his voice against liars like Trump and, yesterday, against the dangers of artificial intelligence.
What happened yesterday is very important, because it is not an answer given on a plane but the text of the Pope's first encyclical. It is a doctrinal text, thought out and drafted with consultations with a host of experts, matured during this first year of his pontificate.
And what did Leo XIV say about artificial intelligence? He spoke of disarming it:
Leo XIV: “Artificial intelligence must be disarmed, freed from the logic that turns it into an instrument of domination, exclusion, and death. The word is strong, I know, but it is deliberately chosen because this moment requires words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences, and pointing out paths for the future of humanity. Artificial intelligence now demands to be disarmed. Like nuclear energy, it must be at the service of everyone and the common good. Decisions about technology must never be separated from conscience and responsibility.”
Disarming artificial intelligence. “An AI that is more moral if that morality is decided by a few is not useful.” “Small, very influential groups can guide information and “condition democratic processes.” “When power of such magnitude is concentrated in a few hands, it tends to become opaque and to evade public control, and the risk of distorted development that causes new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations, and inequalities grows. The Pope described AI as “a new power” that risks discriminating against the weakest and generating new forms of slavery, such as that of those who work in the extraction of materials necessary to manufacture the technologies needed for its development. For this reason, he calls for protecting the dignity and value of work to combat the growing poverty and inequality caused by automated systems.
Leo XIV has burst forcefully onto the world debate, leading a position of defense of the common good. He faces very powerful forces. Paradoxically, his words of hope, in a world that is thirsty for it, are spoken by him as head of the Catholic Church, which has gone and still goes hand in hand with very powerful forces. It is a difficult, sometimes obscure, but exciting time.
Good morning.