The United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of its independence while observing its democratic foundations in crisis. Platforms also celebrate this with some productions that revisit the nation's history with the subtle intention of reclaiming the values that are being undermined. On HBO Max, Barack and Michelle Obama have produced a series of comedic sketches together with Larry David. The actor, besides being the main protagonist, is also co-creator, co-writer, and producer alongside Jeff Schaffer, his collaborator on Curb your enthusiasm. The series Life, Larry and the pursuit of unhappiness: An almost history of America can be read allegorically. The title parodies the formula of the Declaration of Independence: “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.Larry David introduces his curmudgeonly and killjoy character into emblematic moments of United States history. The production is cinematic and features cameos from a large cast of celebrities such as Jimmy Kimmel, Kaley Cuoco, Jon Hamm, Sarah Silverman, or Rob Reiner, to whom a posthumous dedication is made. Life, Larry and the pursuit of unhappiness pays homage to history with a sense of humor while always seeking a biting contemporary reading. Not all sketches are successful, some are too long, but it has wit. Obama makes the initial presentation recalling the petty characters who have tried to prevent the progress of the United States, in an allusion to the protagonist, but it is inevitable to also think of Trump, who will become the absent and unmentionable protagonist. The past calls to him as a bad future that is inconceivable to exist. The sketch in which George Washington decides to set a limit of two terms for future presidents of the United States to guarantee the democratic health of the nation becomes visionary considering Trump's challenge this week in which he assures that he wants to run for a third term.One of the best sketches is the one that recreates the Rosa Parks episode on the bus. Traveling next to Larry David will blow up all the epicness of the woman who refused to give up her seat to a white man and became the symbol of the civil rights struggle. The whole series summarizes an alternative history of the United States where, for example, Bob Woodward will end up begging deep throat not to call him anymore to inform him about the Watergate case, we will discover the particular sense of decency of Senator McCarthy in his fall or the uncomfortable first airplane flight of the Wright brothers. Also the overwhelming pride of the mother of Jonas Salk, the discoverer of the polio vaccine. The television exercise is fun, and it turns out to be a bit paradoxical. While Donald Trump is destroying the values of the nation's founding spirit, the Obamas are rewriting its history with humor. Perhaps it's the saying that it's better to laugh than to cry.

"Years ago you told me that you couldn't promise me the world, but that you could promise me an interesting life. Of course, you outdid yourself and managed to give me both things." The words are from Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States during the inauguration of the presidential library in Chicago, a new cultural entity. Besides the Obamas, three other former presidents attended the event –George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden–, as well as former Vice President, Kamala Harris and the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom.

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Former US President Barack Obama has sparked an unexpected headline this weekend: aliens "exist." He said this during a rapid-fire Q&A session on Brian Tyler Cohen's podcast, and the reaction has been so strong that Obama had to issue a statement clarifying that he hasn't seen "any evidence to support it."

The advice Michelle Obama gives her daughters Sasha and Malia on finding love is simple: have a very active love life. "I just want them to be open to people," Obama explained in an episode of the podcast. IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson. "What I did was go on a lot of dates. When Barack came along, I had experiences to compare him to." The Obamas met in 1988 and married in 1992.

Reed Brody (Brooklyn, 1953) has spent his life defending human rights around the world and pursuing dictators throughout Africa and Central and South America, but also denouncing the despotic leaders of the West thanks to his work at Human Rights Watch and the United Nations. He collaborated with the victims of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and in Catch a dictator (Debate) explains the journey to condemn Chadian President Hissène Habré to life imprisonment. Brody spends much of the year in Barcelona with his partner, Catalan filmmaker Isabel Coixet.

Trump's first victory—then an unlikely candidate—was by a narrow margin. His second victory—after it became known what he wanted to do—was uncontested. Now the tariff war and other measures of the Trump administration may surprise us, but it's not credible that American voters are "primary" people who don't understand the consequences of their actions.

"When we think we write our readings, we are actually writing our lives," we read in Camera obscura cannon (Seix Barral), the new novel byEnrique Vila-Matas (Barcelona, ​​​​1948). The book, explained by someone who could be an android – the first to be incorporated into Vilamatian literature –, takes us into 48 hours of obsessive writing, motivated by the memory of a dead writer and the creation of a literary canon made from randomly chosen fragments of authors such as Robert Walser. Franz Kafka, Joseph Roth and Carlo Emilio Gadda.