A spiral taking flight, as part of an artistic creation. Smoke—and smoking—is integral to the aesthetics of photography. Throughout the 20th century, smoking was used as a creative and narrative element to create more compelling, transgressive, and modern images. Smoke and the smoker serve to reveal more complex or ambiguous individuals. Smoke expresses the fleeting nature of the moment. Through smoke, photography becomes a snapshot, rising like an invisible thread in popular culture. Despite its known dangers, the ritual endures, laden with symbolism. We journey through images, exploring the history that links smoke to photography, connecting this habit with black and white images that evoke another era and a bygone aesthetic.

With the cold, New York transforms into a new place, where silence reigns and landmarks become blurred. The dense, white fog rolls in slowly, almost imperceptibly, spreading over the city like a veil. It dissolves its identity, rendering it anonymous, as if the city were ceasing to recognize itself. Only a strange, fragile calm remains in the air, suspending time. In these images, there is no rush, no noise, none of the frenetic pace that usually defines the city. Movement slows, distances shrink, and everything seems to pause. The usual rhythm appears to have stopped. The city distances itself for a few moments and becomes a vulnerable, almost unreal landscape, as if it could vanish at any moment, swallowed by the fog.

It started in Australia, then Asia followed... and so, gradually, the world welcomed it in 2026 with great light and musical shows.

In this report, we present a selection of the award-winning images from the tenth edition of the Bioimágenes competition, the biological photography contest organized every two years by the College of Biologists of Catalonia. This year, the competition brought together 396 photographs of astonishing quality, divided into six categories encompassing students of all levels—primary, secondary, high school, vocational training, and university—as well as teachers and other members of the public. Each category has two prizes, in addition to special awards for photomicrography and research photography, underwater photography, and the ARA newspaper prize, dedicated to images with a photojournalistic approach and documentary value. With this exhibition, the College wishes to recognize the talent and curiosity of all participants, as well as the work of the jury and the support of the collaborators. A celebration of life seen up close, through lenses that capture what often escapes our notice. The winning image of the ARA newspaper's special prize – which can be seen at the top of the report – was for a minimal yet powerful scene, with the author's personal vision and the ability to capture the plasticity and beauty of the animal, without losing the documentary and reportage sense.

The ARA celebrated its fifteenth anniversary this Thursday, November 27th, at the Palau de la Música, with an event presented by journalists Carla Turró and Antoni Bassas. The Tatiana Sisquella Award was presented to the Girem Full initiative, the Ignasi Pujol Award to the Openchip technology initiative, and the Carles Capde Kallifatidas Award. The celebration culminated in an operatic performance of Verdi's works, featuring soprano Berna Perles, tenor Antoni Lliteres, baritone Àngel Òdena, the Madrigal Choir, and the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Beatriz Fernández Aucejo.

Roads, railways, and rivers. These are the three main elements that divide the municipality of Montcada i Reixac, leaving behind a landscape marked by gray scars. Beyond the territorial division and a landscape dominated by gray, these territorial scars also reveal the fragility of nature, forced to struggle between walls of cement, asphalt, and iron.

ARA Girona held an awards ceremony on Tuesday, November 11th, entitled "The 25 People from Girona Who Shaped 2025." These unique, inclusive, and diverse awards highlight the stories and individuals who exemplify Girona's talent and deserve greater recognition. Presented by the ARA Girona team, the event took place in the former Odeon Theatre in Girona's Old Quarter (Barri Vell), which reopened this year as a cycling venue thanks to Velodrom. With over 150 people in attendance, the event marked the first major social gathering at the iconic, recently renovated venue in a city that has not traditionally been associated with sports. The party, sponsored by Marlex and supported by the Girona Provincial Council, Odeon-Velodrom, La Maglia Coffee & Co, the Cantallops winery Vinyes dels Aspres, and Rispa craft beer, featured a musical performance by the half-hookish, half-Ibiza duo L'Arannà.

The Raval neighborhood of Barcelona is using art to transform its facades and shutters through the community project Ravaleart, which brought vibrant color to the streets from November 6th to 9th. The transformation was made possible by the skilled hands of thirty local and international artists, each assigned a shutter, the necessary materials for their creations, and a shared theme: global justice. Within the umbrella of "global justice" were the following key areas: environmental justice, critical interculturality, peace and nonviolence, a feminist perspective, economic and social justice, power relations, human rights and governance, and historical memory and neighborhood identity.

Robert Redford has died. One of the greatest actors in the history of cinema and one of the most beloved male beauties on the big screen. Also a director, and with a rather eventful life, given his role as the founder of the Sundance Independent Film Festival and his openness to his political ideology, Redford was 89 years old.

ERC is abandoning the yellow it had previously used for its corporate image and replacing it with brick orange and sepia. This graphic renewal is part of the new political communication strategy that the current leadership has initiated since taking the reins of the party in December of last year. "These new times mean that ERC has to adapt to the new context, with a more accessible and understandable language, connecting with the issues that concern citizens," argued the secretary general of the Republicans, Elisenda Alamany, in statements to the media. Why have the Republicans abandoned yellow? "ERC is ERC again. It returns to that color when ERC wanted to demonstrate its own clear profile, which is what it needs at a time like the present," Alamany added.

Don Pettit He recently spent seven months aboard the International Space Station. During his stay, Pettit contributed to research for future space missions. Pettit also shared what he calls "opportunity science" to demonstrate how experimenting with our environment can help us better understand how things work. In his understanding of science, this understanding is enhanced when art and science come together.

Images provided to the press with permission from the families.