The video released by Al Jazeera lasts just 25 seconds but has once again reignited public debate. The footage shows at least 10 fighters in a forest, “coming back from a mission,” as one of them can be heard saying. The group of soldiers, who are Mexican, Colombian, and Panamanian — as acknowledged by the person filming — is allegedly part of Ukraine’s front line in the war launched by Russia.

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Maricopa County, in Arizona, has emerged as the “main epicenter” of illegal arms trafficking into Mexico, according to John Lindsay-Poland, coordinator of Stop US Arms to Mexico, an initiative that studies the illicit flow of weapons between the two countries.

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Amid the internecine war within the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the factions to have suffered the heaviest blows has been Los Chapitos, led by the sons of former cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. On the other side stands La Mayiza, headed by the successors to former kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Unlike their more aggressive and media-savvy rivals, La Mayiza’s leaders have generally operated with a lower profile and less direct exposure.

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Joel René Cárdenas Carrillo, a Mexican immigrant who became a U.S. citizen and works as a welder, has lived in the United States for more than 25 years. For his father’s birthday, he decided to return to his home state of Colima in Mexico after a long absence. On August 12, as he was preparing to return to California, he went for a walk on a hill and later attended a soccer match held on a field in Manzanillo. But when he left the game in his car, several police patrols blocked his way. Officers detained him, beat him and accused him of stealing fuel, an illegal activity in Mexico known as huachicol. That is the account provided by his wife, Verónica Sánchez.

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There are film projects that do not arise from a rigid outline but from years of sediment and personal crossroads. For Gael García Bernal, 47, Hombre al agua, his latest feature which he co-wrote, directed and stars in, took more than 15 years to take its final shape, having been seeded at the exact moment he became a father.

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