There are many movies I haven't seen. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the tragedy, I didn't see Dirty Dancing until lockdown (what a marvel) or, as incredible as it may seem, Pretty Woman. For someone born in 1990, turning thirty and never having seen Pretty Woman is like saying you've never heard La Bomba, or like having crossed the square with firm steps in the middle of a water fight and having your clothes completely dry. Well, it's possible. Pretty Woman! I like the triangle it draws with the universal Cinderella plot and how Nights of Cabiria (Fellini, 1957) is its dark, fatal, bitter version. And yet, with an ending that illuminates the spirit with the force of a thousand suns.

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Days before July 4, 1776, Benjamin Franklin invited twenty-one chiefs of the Iroquois nations to Philadelphia. These leaders represented the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a league of six Indigenous nations whose territories spanned part of what is now New York, Quebec, and Ontario. The Indigenous delegates were lodged on the second floor of the Pennsylvania State House—now known as Independence Hall—directly above the room where the U.S. Declaration of Independence was about to be signed.

Summer has arrived in La Garrotxa: the gold of the harvested fields and the green of the forests coexist on the route between Olot and La Vall de Bianya, on the way to La Vila, the estate where Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta, the RCR, are building their dream place, a pioneering research center on space. More specifically, as they themselves have reflected, it is "a living and thinking space to transmit new awareness directly and concretely through nature and architecture". "This is an exceptional project: we are used to working on commission, and here what we want is to build an idea," says Ramon Vilalta, on the way. The RCR set out to make the dream of La Vila a reality after winning the Pritzker Prize in 2017, the Nobel of architects. They already knew it because they had built a small pond for the previous owner, but when they acquired it, they conceived a much more ambitious project, where they want to bring together, in addition to architects, artists, thinkers, scientists, musicians, engineers, philosophers, psychologists, designers, filmmakers, students, and entrepreneurs, to "highlight hybridization". "We have always thought that culture is the most precious value we have as a country," says Vilalta. "In Catalonia there are very creative people, but we don't know each other, we don't connect. Just by making it possible for people to meet transversally, the La Vila project would already give a lot," he emphasizes.

Our interview takes place in Olot’s old Barberí foundry, converted into the studio and beating heart of RCR Arquitectes. Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta discuss returning to Olot, the decision to always work together, landscape as an ally, the Pritzker Prize as freedom and responsibility, and their Vila as a cultural and life project.

Once upon a time, footballers seemed to have only one dimension: when they weren't sweating it out on the field, they were always seen in tracksuits. People programmed solely to perform athletically, as if there were no boundary between athlete and person. And when they appeared in street clothes, they conveyed the same discomfort as men who only dress up for weddings: outfits that seemed to wear them rather than the other way around. Times that, seeing the national teams' arrivals at the World Cup, seem absolutely past. But this transformation has taken several World Cups to crystallize.

Cows are very important to Rwandan culture and symbolize wealth, prosperity, and identity, and are still used today to pay a bride price or to give as a gift. Since Paul Kagame's government implemented the program called Girinka in 2006, after seeing the extent of malnutrition and stunting among Rwandan children, milk production and consumption have doubled. The program was established with the central objective of reducing childhood malnutrition rates and increasing the household incomes of poor farmers. These goals are achieved directly through increased access to and consumption of milk, by providing a cow to families.

Eat more protein, you need it! How much? Look it up and calculate. Make sure it's quality because your muscles and bone mass will thank you, I promise you by the Virgin of Conscious Menopause. But don't just eat protein, eat everything but eat well. Attention: raw vegetables at night, no. Processed foods, never! Gluten in moderation. Alcohol... Nye.

These are days for finalizing trips and buying tickets for the museums in the chosen destinations to avoid queues. Visits to great art spaces have become an obligation. Taking a photograph of the city's quintessential masterpiece, be it La Gioconda, Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Rodin's The Kiss, or Grant Wood's American Gothic becomes proof of the visit. It is the guarantee of having been there. The painting or sculpture that justifies the queue and the ticket is the objective to be met. It's not so much “look at this marvel” but rather “I was there”.

The memory of a ship remains among its wooden planks, from port to starboard, but its chronicle, on the other hand, in the experiences of sailors accustomed to the sea and oblivion. The history of the Grand-Dauphin, one of the first French merchant ships to circumnavigate the world, was known, from its departure from the port of Saint-Malo (northern France) at the beginning of the 18th century, to its stays in Cadiz, Chile, Peru, and, finally, China and Indonesia. However, the memory of the one hundred and forty men who inhabited this three hundred and fifty-ton ship monster had remained an anecdote lost in the fleeting abyss of time. Until now. Antiquarian and collector Jean-François Letenneur discovers the ship's logbook in the year 2000, archived since May 20, 1717. Letenneur conducted an exhaustive study to determine its historical interest and deliver it, this year, to the Maritime Museum of Saint-Malo, where it is currently being analyzed for public exhibition.

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On a plot between party walls in Sabadell, only six meters wide and very deep, a family has found a way of living that has little to do with excesses and much to do with daily well-being. The house, with 210 square meters over two floors, does not seek to impress. Their idea of luxury is that natural light reigns, that there is cross-ventilation, that silence dominates, and that a tree is present in most rooms.

Cabró Rock, Canet Rock, Empordà Music Fest, Festiuet, Castanyada Rock. Beyond sharing scarce semantic creativity when it comes to naming, they are festivals with several points in common. Essentially two: they are the most crowded in the country in the Catalan language, some with audiences exceeding 40,000 spectators, and they coincide in having practically identical lineups. Most of the participating groups in these gatherings are the same. In fact, names as well-known as La Fúmiga, Buhos, Figa Flawas, and The Tyets, for example, in this 2026 will play in all of them, as if it were an itinerant tour that jumps from summer to summer. The fact is that Catalonia can finally boast of having its own mass scene, consolidated in the country's language. This implies, for example, having several bands that accumulate millions of online streams, also a collection of crowded meeting points, and a part of the industry that monopolizes the lucrative business of music in Catalan for all audiences. But as it could not be otherwise, whenever an official, harmless, and domesticated movement consolidates, a truly rich and exciting one comes along behind it.

When Pau Palaus returned from his first trip to Lebanon, in May, he organized an event in the Plaça d’Arbúcies to explain the experience to his neighbors. He lives on the outskirts of the village in a farmhouse called Ca l’Ocell, where he has a small stage to rehearse shows and set up small-scale performances. Roser Loscos' violin was playing in the square, and the children were asking him questions. “And did you bring food to Lebanon?”, a girl asked him. Pau is a clown; with his company, he has visited about thirty countries, won awards like the Zirkólika, and a few years ago he set up the association Contaminando Sonrisas, with which he organizes solidarity expeditions to countries in conflict or places that have suffered natural disasters. It was the bombings in April, launched by Israel over the south of the country but also in the capital, and the contacts Pau maintains with some Lebanese clowns that prompted him to travel to Lebanon. Not to bring food, precisely, but rather “hope”: “Talking so much about the number of deaths, in the end we end up dehumanizing war, and what I try to do is bring a little humanity to the conflict”. He usually shares these trips with a small team of collaborators, but this time, for logistical reasons, he had to travel alone. He performed mainly in the most popular neighborhoods of Beirut, including Dahieh, the suburbs where Hezbollah is considered to have its main urban base, and where Israel usually has its sights set. In total there were 27 performances in less than two weeks, many improvised in the middle of the street, during days when bombs continued to fall despite the theoretical ceasefire. A ceasefire that never quite is, as has been demonstrated in recent weeks. “The bombings that fall during a ceasefire are the most dangerous, because people let their guard down. I thought I would find an empty city, with everything closed and people at home, and it's the opposite, shops are open, life goes on almost normally. In Beirut I spent the day watching the drones that flew over us all the time, but they didn't pay any attention to them.” During the last two days of my stay in Beirut, the suburbs suffered a new wave of attacks, in which the government of Israel claimed to have killed a high commander of Hezbollah, the Shiite paramilitary group allied with Iran. It is estimated that since the United States and Israel launched the offensive against Iran, there have been more than 3,000 deaths in Lebanon and one and a half million displaced people, mainly due to bombings ordered from Tel Aviv to attack southern Lebanon and occupy about thirty border towns. “During a performance I was giving, a group of people received a call saying that two missiles had fallen in their village and seven people had died. There was a bit of a commotion, but the show continued, and when it ended, those same people came to congratulate me as if nothing had happened.” During his nine days in Lebanon, Pau recounts having a dream: hundreds of buses arriving in Beirut loaded with clowns and invading the country. He told this to two Lebanese documentary filmmakers who were helping him set up performances in Beirut, and from this, a new project has emerged and is now underway: to record an eight-episode series in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa to demonstrate that the work of a clown can be a symbol of peace and also of transformation. “They stopped making documentaries focused on war some time ago because they found it too emotionally taxing, but now they see the possibility of addressing it from the perspective of hope. The intention is to invite other artists who are willing to perform with me in these places,” he explains. The series will likely begin filming in August, taking advantage of Pau being invited to a circus festival in the town of Ramallah, in the West Bank.A destroyed capitalIn recent months, Pau has met some Lebanese clowns and artists, and from this have come different collaborations. Last week, for example, Contaminando Sonrisas promoted from Catalonia – with economic and logistical support – a series of performances by a pair of local artists who perform mask and puppet shows. “They were born in Syria but had to exile themselves to Lebanon and grew up in Shatila, a refugee camp in the heart of Beirut built in 1949 to host Palestinians fleeing the war. It can be said that it is already part of the city itself, but it is a very degraded place, with mafias and corruption, where young people have many difficulties finding work. Meeting this pair of artists with so much sensitivity has been like finding a flower in the middle of the rubble," he explains. This coming Wednesday, Pau will once again leave for Lebanon to perform in other areas particularly hard-hit by the war. He will visit the Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border; two refugee camps in Tripoli, further north, and the peripheral neighborhoods of Beirut. In addition, he will conduct a free training workshop for about fifteen local clowns. “Many public services have not been functioning for years and the population has had to self-manage. I don't know if they have much hope left, but they have a lot of resilience,” he adds. During his performances in May, he was able to personally verify the accounts that Western media correspondents have been giving in recent times. On the one hand, the destruction that continues to plague the capital. “There are many damaged buildings, and for each one, they can tell you what year it was attacked. Apart from an explosion at the port [in 2020], which was brutal and it is still unknown who was responsible. The Lebanese say that life is what happens between one war and another, because conflicts have been constant throughout their history,” he laments.

1. The hidden impact

To make a single tote bag of conventional cotton, 2,700 liters of water are needed (what a person drinks in three years) and intensive use of pesticides.

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It is common for younger generations to share their geolocation as a sign of affection and trust. Mobile phones have a function that can be activated to indicate location to other chosen devices, and there are also applications that facilitate this information. Each user can decide, in principle voluntarily, which people they want to know where they are at all times. Initially, it was used to locate the mobile phone in case of loss or theft. Then it became useful for keeping track of minors when they began to have some autonomy. It allowed knowing if they had already arrived home or at school and provided a dose of tranquility thanks to rapid and distant, but precise, surveillance. But in the end, it has become a form of socialization and relationship that can lead to abusive forms of control.

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Among the watermelons of Verdcamp Fruits, in Cambrils, flowers of all colors grow. There are yellow, lilac, and orange ones, in a floral mosaic where bees and butterflies dance tirelessly. A few years ago, that same field was maintained with phytosanitary products to combat an aphid infestation and didn't breathe so much life. The problem was that the chemicals also killed the pollinators and production ended up falling. "One night I thought: what if the solution is to attract more life instead of fighting it?", recalls Ernest Mas, a farmer and member of the family business.That intuition led him more than a decade ago to plant strips of flowers among the crops to attract insects naturally. It worked. But, above all, it was the beginning of a much deeper change in mentality: to stop seeing agricultural land as a simple support for producing food and to start treating it as a living ecosystem.Today, Mas is part of a generation of farmers who are committed to organic and regenerative agriculture, a model that seeks to restore soil health so that it becomes fertile again, capable of hosting biodiversity and better withstanding the impacts of climate change such as droughts. Some of their techniques include leaving chemicals behind, not plowing, and using cover crops.The proposal gains traction in a particularly delicate context for agriculture. According to the European Environment Agency, 89% of agricultural soils show signs of critical loss of their functions. For decades, the intensive use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and heavy machinery has degraded many soils to the point of impoverishing them and making them increasingly dependent on external products. On the other hand, the benefits observed in the field are also beginning to be supported by recent scientific studies indicating that regenerative soils can store more carbon than conventional ones, retain water better, and have a network of beneficial microorganisms, some of which even act as natural pesticides.This is why farmers like Mas have decided to bet on the regenerative model. Their stories are different, but they share a single conviction: without living soil, there is no future for the countryside.Grow among flowers

At Verdcamp Fruits, the floral strips that cross the crops are called intercropping floral: a technique that combines biodiversity and agricultural production to attract pollinators.But the change didn't happen overnight. First, they took the step towards organic farming. Then, seven years ago, Mas decided to do a master's degree in agroecology at the University of Barcelona and also began to apply other techniques to restore soil health, such as not plowing and maintaining vegetation cover. "I understood that the key was not only to take care of what was visible, but also what is underground," he explains.

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His book Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013) catapulted him to global fame. But even then, the French economist Thomas Piketty had been one of the most respected names in economic theory for over a decade, as co-founder of the Paris School of Economics and co-creator of the World Inequality Database. A specialist in the study of inequalities and wealth distribution, Piketty now presents the Global Justice Report, an ambitious economic roadmap that outlines how global inequality can be eliminated and the climate crisis curbed before 2100.

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Following a personal experience – the arduous task of getting rid of some of your belongings when you move house – Maria Andrés, 27, and her family launched Pompina Home Reborn, a company with which they aim to redefine what it means to empty a home. After carrying out an extensive inventory, for three days, they organize markets open to the public within the property itself and offer the opportunity to buy furniture or objects that the owner of the flat does not want or cannot take with them. Andrés explains that in the process of emptying flats, they have found items they didn't even know what they were, such as an antique stereoscope, an optical instrument that became very popular in the late 19th century and allows you to view flat photographs in three dimensions.

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