Writer Etgar Keret (Ramat Gan, Israel, 58) had planned to deliver his ninth book of short stories to his publisher on October 8, 2023. He had picked the date at random: he produces one every seven years or so and sets himself a firm deadline. Two days earlier, he told his wife, Shira Geffen — the screenwriter and filmmaker who wrote the film Jellyfish (2007), directed by Keret and awarded at Cannes — that he felt the book had become too dark because of the personal and political events that had marked him in preceding years: his mother’s death, the coronavirus pandemic, a herniated disc, the return to power of Benjamin Netanyahu with the most right-wing government in the country’s history… His wife advised him to reread it calmly the next day and, if he still felt that way, to ask the publisher for an extension.

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Everything a traveler encounters upon leaving Mexico City International Airport (AICM) illustrates the problems facing the country’s largest terminal. The first thing you see after stepping outside is long lines, cars being towed away, and National Guard officers handing out fines. The standoff between licensed taxi drivers and ride‑hailing apps over control of the airport has been simmering for months, becoming a strange daily routine of enforcement operations and drivers losing their cars at both terminals of the airport. But with only eight days before the World Cup begins in the capital — bringing millions of visitors— the conflict is intensifying.

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“The era of deportations has begun.” A few months ago, this line from far‑right Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers sounded like a provocation. Now, after the agreement on the EU’s new Return Regulation between Parliament, the member states and the Commission, it reads more like an accurate description of the European Union’s political direction. With the legal framework for sending migrants to deportation camps outside Europe nearly complete, several member states — Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece — have intensified their search for countries willing to host them, mainly in Africa, far from the European continent, according to diplomatic sources. The political battle is over; the geographical one is just beginning.

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In 2018, Russian paleontologists discovered in Siberia the almost perfectly preserved frozen body of a cave lion cub. They named her Sparta. She was 32,000 years old, with blond fur, perfectly intact claws, and she looked as if she were asleep. What no one knew at the time was that Sparta carried a secret in her cells that would take years to decode: she and her kind were not, as previously thought, simply a larger, furrier version of the African lion, but something far more extraordinary.

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Teachers in Mexico have launched a nationwide strike that is bringing mounting pressure on President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government ahead of the start of the soccer World Cup.

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A sense of calm runs through Russia despite the fact that these are dangerous months. The hopes the Kremlin had placed on U.S. President Donald Trump handing Ukraine to it on a platter have faded; the war is a drain on Russia with no strategic victories, and security forces are tightening their control over the state just months before legislative elections that are shaping up as a plebiscite on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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By 2030, water consumption linked to the use of artificial intelligence will be equivalent to that of 1.3 billion people in sub-Saharan Africa, while it will require nearly three times the annual energy consumption of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria — countries with a combined population of 650 million. In terms of carbon emissions, these could reach 400 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, comparable to the United Kingdom’s total emissions. The operation of AI will require 14,500 square kilometres of land, including infrastructure and supply chains — twice the size of the Jakarta metropolitan area, a megacity with more than 32 million inhabitants, or 10 times that of Mexico City (21 million).

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Recovered from the ice of an Alpine glacier at the end of the last century, almost everything about Ötzi was already known. That he was about 45 when he was killed from behind some 5,300 years ago. A detailed genetic study published three years ago revealed that, besides being bald, he had a dark complexion and likely came from distant Anatolia. We even know what he ate shortly before he was killed by an arrow. Now, a new study identifies the microscopic life he carried inside him. The paper, published in the journal Microbiome, shows that his bacteria were very different from those of people in modern societies. The researchers also found a number of cold-adapted fungi that have awakened thousands of years later and could threaten the mummy’s future.

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The fascination with Diana, Princess of Wales, and her legacy endures nearly 29 years after her death. From time to time her story is rewritten in the present tense. Not only because new information comes to light—or because past material is rediscovered—but also because tangible memories have become prized possessions for their owners and objects of desire for her fans. From her iconic dresses to personal letters, they are small fragments of a life that continues to attract interest.

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The Mexican government’s campaign against foreign interference has reached U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson. The U.S. representative this week clashed with President Claudia Sheinbaum after her Sunday speech, in which she protested U.S. interference in Mexico’s internal politics. Johnson, a former Green Beret appointed by Donald Trump to press for action against the drug cartels, replied with a social media post that the Mexican leader acknowledged almost immediately: “Ambassadors must be respectful of countries’ internal political affairs.”

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It took a while, but the endorsement that Colombia’s far-right presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella was most eagerly awaiting has finally arrived. U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his support for him on Tuesday via his social media platform, Truth. And he did so in the most effusive way possible: “Congratulations to Colombian presidential candidate El Tigre, Abelardo de la Espriella, a smart, strong, and tough leader, on his decisive victory in the first round of Colombia’s presidential election,” the Republican celebrated in his message.

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The clock keeps ticking. The United States waits patiently after its latest checkmate against Cuba. The move has shaken a country that is already held together by pins, plunged into a severe crisis that has only worsened this year as economic strangulation by Washington intensifies. And all of this is unfolding in the shadow of a possible military intervention. Adding to this climate of extreme tension is an ultimatum: Friday, June 5, 2026. That is the date when a White House executive order of May 1 will take effect. The order threatens to freeze the assets on U.S. soil of any foreign companies or individuals that are still doing business with the Cuban regime.

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In the war with Iran, the sense of urgency has shifted sides. In February, the United States and Israel judged it so urgent to start the conflict that they were prepared to launch a massive strike and kill the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, even amid negotiations; three months later it is Donald Trump who is trying to keep alive the talks that would definitively end the conflict, while Tehran remains firm. The U.S. president showed that attitude again on Monday when he ordered Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to halt the airstrikes the latter had announced on Beirut. The aim? To prevent the feared derailment of negotiations with the ayatollahs.

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Early results from California’s primary elections indicate that the Democrat Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton, a Republican, will face off for the governorship of the nation’s most populous state in a November runoff. Both candidates emerged from a tight contest that will shape the state’s political direction after the departure of Governor Gavin Newsom, one of the most visible opponents of President Donald Trump. Since 2011, California has been under Democratic control and has become a laboratory for progressive policies that often clash with the White House agenda.

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