The New York Times: Κυρώσεις των ΗΠΑ κατά της Ρωσίας – Τα επόμενα βήματα στη Γάζα – Συστάσεις δημοσιογράφων από το Νέο Δελχί – Πόσο κοστίζει η παρακολούθηση της άνθησης της τεχνητής νοημοσύνης – Ο Τραμπ επέβαλε κυρώσεις σε ρωσικές πετρελαϊκές εταιρείες – Ο Βανς συναντήθηκε με τον Νετανιάχου στο Ισραήλ – Πώς λύνουν προβλήματα στην… Αλάσκα

Google’s data center in Santiago, Chile.  Marcos Zegers for The New York Times

What it costs to keep up with the A.I. boom

Soon after Microsoft opened a data center near La Esperanza in central Mexico last year, the town began suffering power outages. At a local health clinic, a doctor stitched up children by flashlight and turned away patients when equipment stopped working. One patient was rushed to the hospital after an oxygen concentrator lost power.

This is what can happen when data centers — power-and-water-hungry warehouses that provide the computing power and storage needed to train and run A.I. systems — move into regions not prepared for them.

Haves and have-nots

Over the past year, we’ve been following the A.I. boom to understand the consequences in countries far from the center of it.

In June, we wrote about what we called the global A.I. divide. We found that the race for computing power was splitting the world into haves and have-nots. The U.S. and China dominate. Just about everyone else, whether in Europe or South America, fears being left behind. That could stunt growth, stall scientific research and deepen dependence on foreign corporations and governments. In September, the U.N. warned that this divide ranked among A.I.’s most pressing global threats.

More recently, we’ve been reporting from countries that are trying hard not to be left out. Their strategy is to attract investment in data centers with subsidies, land deals and tax breaks; the hope is that jobs, start-ups and a foothold in the digital economy will follow. But we found that these choices came with severe consequences.

Mexico followed that playbook. Querétaro, an industrial region north of Mexico City, has become the country’s hub for data centers thanks to friendly government policies. But residents told us the benefits had come at a cost.

Poor communities that already struggled with water and electricity shortages said those problems had worsened. Families threw out spoiled food when refrigerators stopped functioning. Neighbors pooled cash for private water deliveries. Elementary schools closed when their toilets wouldn’t flush.

Microsoft disputes that its data centers are to blame, saying its facilities use only minimal power and water. The local utility company pointed to causes like lightning strikes and wandering animals. Amazon and Google also operate facilities in the state.

But while it can be hard to make a direct link between any data center and local power and water shortages, experts told us that building in areas with unstable grids and existing water strains would pressure already fragile systems, increasing the potential for a cascade of effects.

La Esperanza, Mexico, is near a Microsoft data center.  Cesar Rodriguez for The New York Times

Mexico is not alone in experiencing problems. We also found them in places like Ireland, where data centers consume more than 20 percent of the country’s entire electricity output; this has led to a moratorium on construction around Dublin. In Chile, there’s been concern that data centers are putting aquifers at risk.

A.I. sovereignty

There is also a cost for missing out on A.I.

In Argentina, Nicolás Wolovick, a computer science professor, laments the loss of top students to countries with more powerful computers. He operates one of his country’s most powerful A.I. systems out of a converted room, while in the U.S., OpenAI is building megaprojects the size of New York’s Central Park.

In Kenya, coders from one start-up wait until Americans are asleep to access U.S. servers, because that’s when the internet speeds are faster. They don’t have their own servers to draw on.

These challenges don’t have simple fixes. Policymakers talk about A.I. sovereignty, in which countries and regions build their own computing infrastructure instead of relying on global tech giants. The approach won’t work for every country. It’s expensive and uses huge amounts of resources.

Yet it illustrates the fear that a handful of American and Chinese companies will dominate what could be this century’s most important technology and reap its rewards: power, wealth and freedom.

In Africa, for example, a company called Cassava is developing regional data centers to serve start-ups, researchers and businesses. In Chile, there’s a push to force large tech companies that build data centers in the country to share A.I. resources locally.

Whether any of this works could determine the makeup of economic and geopolitical imbalances in the future. The hope is that there is a way to capture the promise of A.I. while keeping the damage in check. If not, the choice is stark: Build for the future at a steep cost or be left behind.

Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary general, and President Trump in the Oval Office yesterday. Doug Mills/The New York Times

Trump imposed sanctions on Russian oil companies

President Trump announced yesterday that he was imposing significant new sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, underscoring a new degree of frustration with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, over the war in Ukraine.

The sanctions were announced a day after Trump said he had put off a meeting with Putin in Budapest, and just as the U.S. president sat down in the Oval Office with NATO’s secretary general, who was in Washington on behalf of European leaders desperate to keep Trump on the side of Ukraine.

The sanctions, among the most significant measures that the U.S. has taken against the Russian energy sector since the beginning of the war, targeted Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.

Vance met with Netanyahu in Israel

Vice President JD Vance said yesterday that recent visits to Israel by U.S. officials were meant to monitor the fragile cease-fire in Gaza, but not “in the sense of, you know, you monitor a toddler.”

After meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Jerusalem, Vance cautioned that the next steps in the cease-fire deal were “not going to be easy.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to arrive in Israel today.

For a look at what’s next for Gaza, watch my conversation with David Halbfinger, our Jerusalem bureau chief, in the video above.

Related: The International Court of Justice told Israel to cooperate with U.N. relief efforts in Gaza and the West Bank.

Football: Arsenal kept its Champions League campaign perfect with a 4-0 victory over Atlético Madrid.

Cricket: Here’s an interview with Ben Duckett about England’s quest to win the Ashes.

Horeg

— A Javanese word that means to vibrate or shake. In many villages in East Java Province, Indonesia, trucks known as horegs are mounted with loudspeakers that boom out folk music remixed with electronic beats. It’s not a party without them.

Mary Turner for The New York Times

The singer Naghma is loved by generations of Afghans because she has expressed their pain and longing through more than four decades of war.

Now in her seventh decade, she continues to tour and record folk and contemporary songs across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. To her fans, she is the embodiment of beauty, music and love for the homeland. Read more.

Acacia Johnson for The New York Times

How they’re problem-solving in … Alaska

Alaska has plenty of land. But energy and food are not easy to come by. So researchers are testing a kind of double-barreled solution: planting crops among the panels in the state’s largest solar farm.

The project has focused on three crops known to grow well in cool Alaskan summers: potatoes, kale and spinach. After one season, the scientists were enthusiastic about the results. The crops flourished, with the bulk of the harvest going into boxes of free produce for locals.

New Delhi

Our reporter Suhasini Raj shared her favorite spots in India’s capital, where she’s based.

The Sunderwala Burj tomb in Sunder Nursery in New Delhi. Rajat Gupta/European Pressphoto Agency

Picnic at Sunder Nursery, a large garden in the heart of New Delhi that’s surrounded by Mughal-era monuments. It’s the place where the British experimented with plants and trees during colonial times.

Eat at Triveni Terrace Cafe, an open-air cafe inside the Triveni Kala Sangam arts complex, one of several modernist architectural gems in central Delhi. Come for a plate of pumpkin and lentil kebabs or some coffee and ginger cake. From the cafe, you might hear music from the dance classes held in the amphitheater next door or wander over to the nearby gallery.

Shop at Mehar Chand Market, a strip near Lodhi Road. This market was established soon after India gained independence, by refugees who had fled Pakistan after partition. Today, it’s perhaps best known for clothing boutiques selling contemporary designs of traditional textiles.

Christopher Testani for The New York Times

Fondant potatoes, a classic French restaurant menu item, make for a showstopping side dish. To achieve their signature shape, you can use a round cookie cutter or a paring knife. Seared in a hot pan, basted and then baked, the potatoes become creamy and fall-apart tender.