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Received — 1 June 2026 El País - English

Marvin Dunn, the Miami historian challenging Trump’s presidential library: ‘This is commercial benefit for the family directly’

1 June 2026 at 19:09
Marvin Dunn at his community urban farm in Overtown, Miami, May 27.

Marvin Dunn moves with surprising agility among the beds of lettuce, cabbage, and potatoes on his community farm in Overtown, a historic Black neighborhood in Miami that was fractured by the construction of the interstate highway in the 1960s. The farm, squeezed between I-95 and the high-rises packed into nearby downtown, is a kind of oasis where the 85-year-old historian — one of the most recognized voices on the history of segregation in Florida — hosts talks, distributes banned books, and is now preparing a new legal battle to stop construction of Donald Trump’s presidential library a little over 1,000 meters away.

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View of the Miami Dade College land under consideration for the possible construction of Donald Trump’s presidential library, in Miami, Florida.Crops at Dunn’s Overtown Farm.Marvin Dunn inspects crops at Dunn’s Overtown Farm on May 27.

Plants that scent the garden when night falls

1 June 2026 at 14:30

On hot days, sunset and night bring the beneficial effect of falling temperatures. Sitting on a park bench or on the balcony at home offers a different perspective of the garden areas. Taller species will silhouette against the twilight sky, and following their outline with your eyes, as if tracing their shape, is an act of reverence, a connection with the plants. Likewise, the stillness of those hours will add a slowing sensation to the day’s fast pace.

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The whiteness of gardenia flowers stands out on moonlit nights.The silhouette of an oriental plane tree is traced against the twilight sky.A brugmansia and its enormous hanging flowers exhale their perfume at night.Cineraria and its silvery leaves are also a visual draw in a garden at dusk.

© Alamy Stock Photo

The night-blooming jessamine is full of fragrant flowers that can only be smelled after dusk.

Ann Dooms, mathematician: ‘In the real world, human intuition remains irreplaceable’

1 June 2026 at 14:28

After two days in Madrid, Ann Dooms, 47, still hadn’t managed much sightseeing: only a quick visit to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium with her daughter. She was staying at the Residencia de Estudiantes, where she gave a talk at the invitation of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Public outreach is only one of the many tasks that occupy Dooms. She also leads the Mathematics and Data Science research group at the Free University of Brussels (VUB, by its Dutch initials), where she is a full professor, and chairs both the Belgian Defence Scientific Council and the Education Committee of the European Mathematical Society.

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© Laura Moreno Iraola (ICMAT)

Mathematician Ann Dooms in Madrid.

How Bunny Mellon’s whimsical world inspired Tiffany’s latest collection

1 June 2026 at 12:41

Under a mysterious tunnel woven from branches and flanked by flowerbeds, an endless table stretched out, covered in extraordinary floral arrangements. Each gilded chair — set with fine china and silver cutlery — awaited a celebrity, from actress Greta Lee (who wore around her neck a chrysoprase necklace centered on two diamond birds perched atop an exceptional 22‑carat Brazilian aquamarine) to actor Connor Storrie (whose lapel held a brooch featuring a 66‑carat spessartine surrounded by sapphires, blue spinels, fire opals, and diamonds).

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© Horst P. Horst (Conde Nast / Getty Images)

Bunny Mellon in her greenhouse at Oak Spring Farm, surrounded by the hedges she had trimmed into whimsical shapes.

Machu Picchu’s credibility crisis: A problem for Peru’s next president

1 June 2026 at 12:40

An open letter from Zurich, addressed to Keiko Fujimori and Roberto Sánchez — the two presidential contenders — has shaken up the runoff election in Peru. New7Wonders, the Switzerland‑based organization that in 2007 created the contest to determine the New Seven Wonders of the World, has reminded Peru that Machu Picchu faces a concrete threat: losing the international recognition that turned the Inca citadel into a magnet for millions of travelers and one of those places one must see at least once in their lives.

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Machu Pichu, Peru.

Ten Marilyn Monroe films to celebrate her centennial

On June 1, Norma Jeane Mortenson would have turned 100. She died at the age of 36, on August 4, 1962, but her artistic alter ego, Marilyn Monroe, became a film legend. The Bombshell Blonde façade concealed a very harsh childhood during which she lived in as many as 12 foster homes, a torturous romantic life, and a career marked by artistic self-doubt and very poor health (she never carried a pregnancy to term).

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Marilyn Monroe in 1954.

Europe seeks to open a new era for antibiotics 80 years after industrial penicillin production

In 1946, in a Europe devastated by World War II, a small, abandoned brewery in a valley of Austria’s Tyrol region was converted into an antibiotics factory. Michel Rambaud, a chemist and French officer with the Allied occupation forces, devised the project based on the fact that the fermentation process by which yeasts make beer is, in essence, the same process that Penicillium fungi use to synthesize the active ingredient in penicillin. The change of use for the facilities opened a new era: the start of industrial penicillin production saved millions of lives and helped drive a rapid economic recovery across the continent, powered partly by the pharmaceutical sector.

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Interior of the Sandoz antibiotics factory in Kundl, Austria.

The US men’s soccer team, between staying quiet and speaking out

1 June 2026 at 10:33

Timothy Weah used his platform as a member of the U.S. men’s national soccer team to speak out about what he sees as an injustice. The Marseille player — son of Ballon d’Or winner and former Liberian president George Weah — joined New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani onstage as he announced he had secured 1,000 tickets priced at $50 for the matches to be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, just across the river from Manhattan. They are a drop in the bucket for this venue — the stadium, expanded to a capacity of 87,000, will host eight matches including the final, meaning 696,000 total tickets — but it’s something.

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© Pamela Smith (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)

Timothy Weah walks onto the stage at the event where the U.S. World Cup roster was announced.

Caetano Veloso: ‘Right now concern predominates within me; Brazil seems unable to save itself’

Caetano Veloso, in a video call from Lisbon, Portugal, speaks slowly with that blend of intellectual clarity and Bahian melancholy that for six decades has turned each of his interviews into something more like a philosophical conversation than a mere promotion of new albums or concerts. At age 83, the celebrated musician from Brazil is embarking on a tour titled Caetano nos festivais, which will stop in Madrid on June 4 and which he himself describes, without drama but with honesty, as perhaps his last visit to Spain. That is despite the close relationship he has always maintained with Spanish culture. There is no monumental nostalgia in his words; rather a physical weariness, a wise resignation, political concern and a bitter — though not yet defeated — view of the present. He speaks, without losing passion, about the military dictatorship his country suffered, about Silicon Valley, The Beatles, contemporary confusion and a Brazil that, in spite of everything, he still believes can “say something to the world.”

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© Jota Erre (AGIF via AFP / Europa Press)

Caetano Veloso during a concert in São Paulo, in November 2025.

Trump’s latest assault on migrants pushes green card applicants to leave the country

1 June 2026 at 09:17

Confusion, uncertainty and panic. That is the consequence of the latest move by the Donald Trump administration to push migrants out of the country. On May 22, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a memorandum requiring applicants for lawful permanent residence — the so‑called green card — to complete the process from outside the United States, which would force hundreds of thousands of people to leave the country. The announcement landed like a bombshell among immigration lawyers and their clients, who, disoriented by the lack of information, do not know whether they face detention if they carry on with the process known as “adjustment of status,” which for decades has granted permanent residency to more than half a million people a year without requiring them to leave the country.

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© Kurgenc (Getty Images)

A green card in the United States.

Trump, mayor (and emperor) of Washington

Portrait of Trump on a sign that last week covered works at the roundabout in front of the train station.

Rare is the day Washington residents do not wake up to a new jolt courtesy of U.S. President Donald Trump. And it is not only — though it is also — because of the war with Iran, his use of the press to poison public opinion, or his disrespectful posts on Truth Social. It is because of the unilateral renovations that Trump is undertaking in the U.S. capital, like a mayor with unlimited budget and power, like a Roman emperor or a king obsessed with a city.

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Works in the park facing the north side of the White House.Renovation of the pond in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.National Guard soldiers deployed by order of Trump in front of the Lincoln Memorial in WashingtonBanner bearing the president’s face unfurled over the Department of Justice.Meridian Hill Park in Washington, where fountains and pools are flowing again.'King of the World,' a statue depicting Trump and Epstein, installed in March in front of the Capitol.

Latin America seeks to build an Atlantic alliance with Europe and the US: ‘The region has never been so central to the world’

Closing of the CEAPI congress in Mexico.

Just a year ago, Latin America’s major business families — owners of some of the world’s largest fortunes — were watching anxiously for the effects of the tariff wall erected by U.S. President Donald Trump. One year on, they are observing with concern the geopolitical upheaval unleashed by Trump, with an unprecedented change to the liberal international order built after World War II. The new national security strategy outlined by the Trump administration singles out Latin America as a new priority. The Republican tycoon has designated the entire region as his sphere of influence: as both his backyard and his front yard.

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Secrets, UFOs, and smokescreens: Why Washington is obsessed with extraterrestrials

Stephen Bassett, ufologist, political activist and lobbyist, in Washington, May 14.

Let’s start with the proven facts: Disclosure Day is the most anticipated film of the summer. Its director and screenwriter, Steven Spielberg, revealed details about its plot this week on one of Stephen Colbert’s final shows: he says it tells the story of the theft by officials, “committed to the truth,” of all information held by the government “about UFOs and extraterrestrial visits,” and the system’s desperate attempts to prevent it being revealed.

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Front pages of the 'Roswell Daily Record' for July 9 and 10, 1947.Emily Blunt, in a promotional still from Steven Spielberg's film ‘Disclosure Day.’Screening of the documentary ‘The Age of Disclosure’ at the Capitol for members of Congress.Dan Farah, director and producer of ‘The Age of Disclosure,’ alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Fear of ICE can be deadly: The murdered migrants too scared to report abuse

31 May 2026 at 05:00

Vanesa Rodríguez Valdés, based in Las Vegas, and her best friend, Liuddibet Calzadilla, in Barcelona, Spain, talked almost daily about their lives and their families back in Cuba, where they were both from. They talked about how much Valdés missed her teenage daughter and the diminutive size of the bedsit in the United States. On Sunday, May 26, Calzadilla wrote to her to ask how she was. She also asked if her husband Roelmer Sánchez Garrido was at home. If he was not, it meant they could talk freely.

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© EL PAÍS

Acá Yaneicy and Vanesa Rodríguez Valdés in Cuba.

Russians make mass cash withdrawals amid internet shutdowns and transfer controls

Russians, accustomed to living with constant unpredictability, have been stashing rubles for months in the drawers of their homes. Cash withdrawals have been so massive since the start of the year that the Bank of Russia has carried out a substantial upward revision of the financial system’s liquidity needs through the end of 2026. Internet shutdowns — and, by extension, disruptions to payment systems — ordered by the authorities for alleged “security reasons” have driven Russians to withdraw money from ATMs. Added to this, in a bid to raise revenue to fund the war against Ukraine, is a new bill that would tighten controls on cash payments to businesses.

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© ALEXEY MALGAVKO (REUTERS) (EL PAÍS)

A woman pays in cash in Tara, Russia. 

Tony Leung, actor: ‘I considered quitting because I was on the verge of an existential boredom, but working with Wong Kar-wai transformed me’

Tony Leung (Hong Kong, 63) enters the lobby of a Madrid hotel and brings with him an absolute sense of calm. The pace slows; you even get the impression the temperature has dropped slightly. Leung’s image in the film collective was sealed by his role in In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai’s masterpiece that earned Leung the best actor award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. A man anchored in melancholy, unable to confront his unfaithful wife or to declare his love to his neighbor. That introspection turned Leung into one of the coolest men on the planet.

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© FRANCIS TSANG (EL PAÍS)

Tony Leung, photographed in Madrid.

‘Macondo York’: The gaze of a García Márquez overwhelmed by the Big Apple

Few associate Gabriel García Márquez with the asphalt jungle of New York. Collective memory places the Nobel Prize-winner in the heat of Mexico, the hustle and bustle of Barranquilla or the elegance of Barcelona. But for Colombian graphic designer and author Iván Onatra, the Big Apple was a crucial — and at times, forgotten — stage in the scribe’s life. García Márquez’s time in the city that never sleeps takes on new life in Onatra’s bilingual design book Macondo York, in which he explores the writer’s love-hate relationship that lasted for six months, while he worked as a journalist for the Prensa Latina news agency.

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© Daniel Mordzinski

Colombian designer Iván Onatra.

Sweet dreams for $2,000 a night: Luxury sleep tourism and how it works

30 May 2026 at 05:00

At some paddleball courts, the sound of rackets can be heard until close to midnight. Many gyms and swimming pools have expanded their hours of operation, as users wake up earlier, or else want to come during times of the evening once reserved for being at home or at the pub. Streaming platforms automatically queue one episode after another of their series in an attempt to keep you hooked until the next morning. Batch cooking takes place at night, and those with complex skincare routines perform them just before bed, adding steps to a ritual that seems to get longer and longer. Though today, many jobs necessitate a graveyard shift, or to be constantly available, there are also everyday leisure activities invading moments that traditionally have been dedicated to rest.

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© Fine Art (Corbis via Getty Images)

Several industries compete with TV to rob the hours we once spent sleeping.

What will happen to tourism in Cuba? Inside GAESA, the military conglomerate on Washington’s radar

When a Cuban person on the island wants to refer to “those in charge,” they lightly tap their shoulder with two fingers. The subtle gesture, shaped by nearly seven decades of censorship, is a reference to the epaulet of a military uniform. In Cuba, people do not speak of the government or the party (the Communist Party of Cuba, the only legal one), but rather of the “country’s leadership.” It is a euphemism that points to the real political and economic power: the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR).

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How a group of young Italians created an international scandal with their trip to Spain in 1961 to record anti-Franco songs

30 May 2026 at 05:00

Seven young Italians — five men and two women between the ages of 20 and 30, with a spirit of adventure — sparked an international diplomatic conflict with Francisco Franco’s Spain in the early 1960s. They traveled through the country as tourists in 1961, secretly recording popular songs against the regime among the people, and later released two albums and a book. It was primarily the book, Canti della nuova resistenza spagnola: 1939-1961 (Songs of the New Spanish Resistance: 1939-1961) — published in 1962 by the prestigious Turin publishing house Einaudi, where the writer Italo Calvino, a friend of the group, worked — that triggered a major scandal.

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Gianna Jona, Giorgio De Maria y Margot Galante, tres de los participantes en el viaje, en la muralla de Ávila el 18 de julio de 1961.
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