La Policia Nacional s'ha instal·lat per primer cop per Sant Jordi a la cruïlla de la rambla de Catalunya amb el carrer de Mallorca. Malgrat que ja havien estat presents anteriorment a la Fira del Llibre de Madrid, es tracta de la seva estrena oficial a la capital catalana, tal com han explicat a l'ARA els organitzadors.

Sant Jordi 2026 once again fills Catalonia with books, roses, kisses, and vibrant streets. In this photo gallery, which complements the live coverage from ARA, we will collect throughout the day the best images of a celebration that combines culture, festivity, and spring like no other. This year, ARA dedicates its special edition to the figure of the dragon, inseparable from the legend of Saint George, with pages illustrated with some of the dragons that inhabit Barcelona's urban landscape. The newspaper also offers reports and articles on the myth of the dragon, the most complete coverage of the day, and proposals such as The book recommender for Sant Jordi 2026 for those still looking for reading material.

Nine years after testifying in the Gürtel case, Mariano Rajoy has returned to the National Court to testify in the Kitchen case. He arrived in San Fernando de Henares at 9:40 a.m. by car and accessed the judicial premises through the parking lot. He responded for thirty minutes, in a statement that began with monosyllables and evasiveness and ended with three pleas in which he distanced himself from the facts and lent a hand to the defenses of the accused. The star phrase came right at the beginning, during the interrogation by the PSOE lawyer, who asked him if he was M. Rajoy, el Asturiano, or el Barbas: "My name is Mariano Rajoy, as everyone knows, and then each person calls me what they want; ask them." After this first display, he dedicated himself to categorically denying everything. "Did you give Bárcenas an envelope with the remainder of the B fund? Did you put the last page of Bárcenas's papers into the shredder? Do you have knowledge that Bárcenas was pressured or intimidated by order of party officials?", asked the PSOE lawyer. These are three questions that the former PP treasurer assured on Monday when he testified as a witness. "Absolutely false", Rajoy limited himself to answering on all three occasions.

Mariano Rajoy, former president of the Spanish government, testified this Thursday before the National Court in the Kitchen case. Almost a decade after testifying in the Gürtel case, he appeared today and, in an interrogation that lasted 35 minutes, answered questions about the Popular Party's slush fund, about the operation to spy on and steal information from Luis Bárcenas, and about the use of reserved funds.

The United States Secretary of the Navy, John Phelan, has been removed after several months of internal disputes with high-ranking Pentagon officials, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The dismissal, announced this Wednesday by Department of War spokesman Sean Parnell, highlights the differences within the leadership of the U.S. defense organization, immersed in the war against Iran. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration "with immediate effect," without providing further details. It was the Reuters agency that reported that it was a forced dismissal and not a voluntary departure, as confirmed by sources from several American media outlets.

With just over two weeks to go until the classic, Barça already knows it will have to play against Madrid and seal the league title without its biggest star. The results of the tests carried out this morning on Lamine Yamal have confirmed that he has a hamstring injury in his left leg and will miss the rest of the season - which ends on May 24 - with Barça. The statement also clarifies that it is "expected" that the footballer will be available for the World Cup and will undergo conservative treatment to recover.

Just past the 40th minute of the league match between Barça and Celta this Wednesday, and almost simultaneously with the moment Lamine Yamal fell to the ground injured after scoring the only goal of the match, a Barça fan suffered cardiac arrest that chilled the atmosphere at the Camp Nou. A 56-year-old supporter collapsed in the stadium's side area. The match was interrupted to attend to the affected person, as per protocol in such cases.

Catalonia will test a new strategy to address coexistence problems in some schools and institutes: Mossos d'Esquadra officers will be deployed undercover in various educational centers. The move is part of a pilot plan that will be activated in 13 centers to test a new collaboration model between the departments of Education and Interior, as reported by El País and confirmed by ARA.

The Ministry of Health is studying possible sanctions and corrective measures for the health centers that treated the baby allegedly abused in Barcelona, whose parents remain in preventive detention. The child went through the Hospital del Mar, the CAP Roger de Flor, the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, and the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, which visited him twice and detected a femur fracture. The infant was referred to the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, a reference center for child abuse care, on March 16, after detecting serious injuries in the patient and alleged sexual assaults. It was then that the protocol against child abuse was activated.

The saga surrounding the sale of Warner Bros. is nearing its end. Today, the media group's board of shareholders approved the merger with Paramount Skydance, as explained by the company in a statement. Paramount had remained the sole potential buyer after Netflix withdrew its offer this February. The streaming platform's board of directors considered that attempting to match or exceed the money offered by Paramount was not justified.

Sant Jordi, the great civic and cultural festival of Catalonia, endures everything. Literary sugar excesses and critical or humorous boutades. However cutesy we make it, however much of a profile some people adopt, we all end up celebrating the diada. It's unbeatable. Who gives up choosing a book? Who doesn't want to receive or give a rose? It's so hard to stay on the sidelines... It's a marvel that somehow works on its own, by the force of popular adherence that overcomes all mental and ideological borders, that is part of what we call shared identity. Because the magic formula doesn't fail: book and rose. So simple and so brilliant. As they say now in gastronomy, they pair well: reading and love-nature.

Today the day breathes the happiness of a festival, of a festival that has a unique particularity: it is simultaneously a national festival and a universal festival. And, frankly, as the world is (and with the busy day that awaits us), with this we would have enough to analyze this April 23rd, which today could have a very simple title: Long live Saint George.But current events are what they are, imperative and capricious, to the point that today it brings us the other side of life. If Sant Jordi is the perfume of a rose and the smell of a new book, the pact between the PP and Vox in Aragon is as if it rained shit and the air had been smeared with the stench of rot.The PP and Vox have agreed in Aragon to demand "freeing Aragon from the imposition of Catalan" to invest Jorge Azcón, from the PP, as president. Yes, as it sounds: "Freeing Aragon from Catalan." There is a section of the agreement titled "Freedom in the face of indoctrination and imposition." The law stating that Aragonese Catalan is a co-official language is being reformed, and the Aragonese Institute of Catalan, which oversees the application of Catalan norms and the social use of the language, is being abolished. Let's see, the PP already invented the name LAPAO to avoid saying Catalan, but now they are not hiding anything and are talking about "freeing Aragon from Catalan," as if one were talking about freeing it from a foreign invasion or a disease, as if it were not the language spoken and that has been spoken for centuries by the Aragonese who live in La Franja.  

Temperatures have clearly dropped this Sant Jordi, with a markedly less warm atmosphere and most highs between 20 and 25 °C, far from the over 30 °C reached in Ponent and Ebre in recent days. A decrease caused by the strengthening of cooler maritime wind from the east-northeast, which has been strongly felt on the coast, with gusts that locally exceeded 50 km/h and waves between 1 and 2.5 meters high in some cases. The sun dominated in most regions, but some afternoon showers also recurred in the Pyrenees, the Alt Maresme, and the Montseny area, although less significant and extensive than in previous days. These spring showers will repeat on Friday and the weekend in mountain areas, while in most of the country, sun and calm will continue to dominate. The atmosphere will become warmer again in the coming noons.

How many lives can a book have? In Celrà, straddling Girona and Empordà, for 16 years a recycled reading project has been beating, giving a new life to more than 300,000 books. It shares space with the town library in the old Pagans Factory, a gem of Catalan industrial modernism converted into a municipal space, where the Town Hall coexists with the municipal swimming pools, the library, the music school, art school, and a civic center with a bar and restaurant, and a free indoor play area for children and babies.

For Ali Smith, reading is so important and has shaped her in such a decisive way that this Wednesday afternoon she stated, in a packed Saló de Cent of Barcelona City Hall: "Books and libraries have a relationship and significance similar to what we humans have with water. I know that three-quarters of my body is water. I suspect that three-quarters of my body is also made of books".

I am from 1979, the son of peninsular immigrants, and I grew up in Inca, but not in the center: we lived in the areas where the foreigners who had arrived in the 60s to work in industry had settled. My parents were part of that. That origin, which didn't seem important when you were little, ended up determining which school you went to. I started nursery school in the early 80s, still with an educational structure heavily marked by Francoism, and I went to Sant Vicenç de Paül, in the Crist Rei neighborhood. It was a school practically made for the children of immigrants. We were all Spanish speakers and, in the classroom, Catalan didn't exist. In fact, we needed it, but they didn't teach it to us.

The restoration of the chapel of Santa Escolastica at the monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès has provided an exceptional surprise. After removing the Baroque altarpiece for restoration, a mural painting of a Calvary, datable to the mid-14th century, has come to light on the back wall. At the time of removing the altarpiece, the knees of Christ were exposed. Afterwards, the restorer Beatriz de Colmenares continued removing fragments of plaster until revealing the figure of Christ and, on either side, the figures of Saint John (on the right) and the holy women (on the left), among whom are the Virgin Mary, fainting, and Mary Magdalene lamenting.

Rosalía has debuted as an actress in the series Euphoria playing Magick, a pole dance dancer in a striptease club. The Catalan singer could be seen in the second episode of the third —and final— season of one of HBO Max's major titles, which returned to the screen after a four-year wait.

Salvador Illa asked for "common sense" from the justice system after learning that the National Court was forcing Jordi Pujol to travel to Madrid to testify, and this Thursday the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, did so. "Surely [Jordi Pujol's health status] could have been checked in Barcelona. But it is a decision of the court," he stated in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio. Bolaños is confident that with the forensic doctor's examination, "Pujol's health status will be verified and a definitive decision will be made." "Judicial processes should not be more burdensome for the people who suffer them than strictly necessary," Bolaños added.

The discursive cession to Vox in Extremadura, with the acceptance of the "principle of national priority", has borne the expected fruit for the PP. After a first attempt frustrated a month and a half ago, the popular candidate, María Guardiola, has been invested as president this Wednesday with the votes of the popular party and the far-right, which doubled its results in the regional elections of December 21. "As what the polls say does matter to me, I know that this project is only possible with Vox [...] That is why I will not apologize for governing with those who represent an important part of Extremadura," the president of Extremadura emphasized, who revalidates the position she has held since 2023. However, at the same time, in Congress, the popular party has rejected a motion from Vox defending the principle of "national priority" for access to public policies, understood as the differentiation between national and non-national when receiving aid, an interpretation that the PP rejects.

La visita del papa Lleó XIV a Catalunya i Espanya del juny tindrà la immigració com un dels temes fonamentals, especialment en el seu recorregut per les Illes Canàries. Precisament, aquest dimecres els bisbes canaris i la representant de Càritas al territori han fet una crida a favor de la regularització d'immigrants i en contra dels discursos antiimmigració en una trobada amb la premsa a Madrid, preparatòria per a la visita del pontífex. Pocs dies després del pacte entre el PP i Vox a Extremadura, que aposta per implantar una política antiimmigració amb l'acordada "prioritat nacional" en les polítiques públiques, l'Església catòlica hi topa de ple. El bisbe de les Canàries, José Mazuelos, ha estat clar: "Fa un any i mig semblava que estaven d'acord PP i PSOE amb la regularització, però per desgràcia s'hi ha arribat d'aquesta manera", ha etzibat –ha recordat el tràmit inicial al Congrés amb el vot favorable dels populars.

One of the questions that the eighth day of the Ábalos case trial has tried to resolve is where the cash bills that José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García had came from. During the investigation, the Civil Guard detected more than 95,000 euros from the former Minister of Transport and former number three of the PSOE without bank tracing. This reinforced the thesis of "the existence of undeclared cash income" and triggered the opening of a separate piece in the National Court on the financing of the PSOE. The investigating judge raised the hypothesis that the PSOE helped Ábalos or Koldo to "launder" money. This Wednesday, in the Supreme Court, two lines of action have become apparent during the testimony of Mariano Moreno, who was the party's manager between 2017 and 2021. First, he assured that Ferraz "never" handed over 100, 200, and 500 euro bills, which are the ones the Civil Guard suspects Koldo and his circle managed – using code names. Later, the lawyer for Ábalos's former advisor, wanting to show that all the money he received was "of legal origin," wanted to highlight possible errors in the documentation that the socialists sent to the courts.

"I ask for sanity." After the National High Court's decision to summon Jordi Pujol to testify in person, Salvador Illa has defended the former president and called on the justice system to reconsider the health conditions in which he finds himself. The head of the Catalan executive recounted a call he received last week from Pujol, in which he explained that he was very "excited" to attend the inauguration of the Pau Casals Year in El Vendrell, but that he was "weak" and did not feel "up to it" to go.

The popularity of German Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz has fallen to historic lows in Germany. Merz has achieved something that seemed difficult when he arrived at the Chancellery almost a year ago: in a few months, he has become more unpopular than his predecessor in office, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz. According to a Forsa survey for RTL and NTV, 80% of Germans are dissatisfied with Merz's management. Only 18% (two percentage points less) of respondents are satisfied with the work of the Christian Democrat Chancellor.

The Trump Administration has asked FIFA to swap Iran for Italy in this summer's World Cup. Paolo Zampolli, the United States' special envoy, argues for the four titles won by the Italian national team to justify the change, according to the Financial Times. For now, FIFA is sticking with Iran.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has confirmed charges of crimes against humanity against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for his role in the so-called "war on drugs", and has announced the opening of a trial because there are "reasonable grounds" to proceed.

L'acord definitiu s'ha fet esperar, però la derrota electoral de Viktor Orbán a Hongria ha aplanat el camí a la Unió Europea perquè pugui continuar ajudant Ucraïna i aplicant pressió a Rússia. Després que Budapest hagi aixecat el veto, els estats membres han pactat l'enviament del crèdit de 90.000 milions d'euros a Kíiv, segons informen fonts diplomàtiques. Una ajuda clau per al país en guerra, que ha vist com els Estats Units de Donald Trump li han tancat l'aixeta en sec. A més, els socis europeus han tramitat el vintè paquet de sancions contra el Kremlin, que també feia mesos que estava al calaix i que pretén, entre d'altres, incrementar les restriccions energètiques al règim de Vladímir Putin.

The ceasefire in the Iran war seems to be increasingly turning into a kind of safety belt in the midst of a free fall. The Iranian attacks come after the US had already boarded an Iranian-flagged vessel, the Touska

European justice definitively invalidates Germany's multi-billion euro aid to the airline Lufthansa during the covid pandemic. The General Court of the European Union (CJEU) has overturned the European Commission's decision and, therefore, confirmed the annulment of the German state's rescue of the airline for 6 billion euros, as had been ruled by the General Court of the European Union (GCEU).

The number of travelers in Catalan hotels in March surpassed all records, reaching 1.56 million, as published by the INE this Thursday, a level never before reached, and an increase of 12.6% compared to the same month last year. The historical maximum, also registered in the demarcations of Barcelona and Girona, is mainly explained by the increase in international travelers who, for the first time in a March, have exceeded 900,000.

The leased office space in Barcelona has increased by 37% in the first quarter compared to a year ago, reaching 74,000 square meters, according to the real estate agency Forcadell. More than 60% is located in 22@, the technological district of the Catalan capital.

The war industry does not stop, driven by the need for European powers to shield themselves from international geopolitical instability. The defense giant CSG, owner of the historic Granada Ammunition Factory (FMG), has sealed a contract of approximately 250 million euros for the supply of large-caliber artillery ammunition to a European client. The operation, financed by a Western European country, underscores the growing dependence on long-range technology in modern conflicts.

The real estate sector continues to focus on the first ring of Barcelona as an escape valve for the capital's lack of land. RTV Grupo Inmobiliario has announced an approximate investment of 29 million euros for the development of two new residential projects in Sant Adrià de Besòs. The operation, which has been closed with the acquisition of two strategic plots, foresees the construction of 77 units that will transform the Forum area and the La Catalana neighborhood.

The Italian Guardia di Finanza has dismantled a network accused of exploiting prostitution and managing nightlife-related events that allegedly provided services to high-level footballers. Among the players mentioned are Real Madrid's Dean Huijsen and Inter's defender, a target for Barça, according to information that has emerged in the Italian press. As confirmed by the EFE agency, the operation, which is being investigated by the Milan Court at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office, has resulted in four people under house arrest, accused of facilitating prostitution by organizing escort services, as well as money laundering derived from this activity.

A woman walking her dog saw something floating in the Baells reservoir, in Berguedà. It was wrapped and tied with a belt. It could be guessed that it was a human body. The woman called the emergency number and within a few minutes the Mossos d'Esquadra had already confirmed it was a corpse. It happened on Wednesday, April 15th. No one had gone missing from the nearest municipality, Vilada, but the answer was eventually found in Berga: a sixty-year-old resident of the old town was not at home. Everything pointed to someone having killed him.

A hundred tourists arrived in Barcelona last Tuesday night on a date as significant as Sant Jordi. They went to the hotel they had booked, the Standbyme, next to La Boqueria Market, through the Booking platform. But the reservation did not appear anywhere. One of the receptionists at this central hotel in the Catalan capital, Josefina, explained in statements to Efe that on Tuesday, around 8 p.m., they lost access to their Booking profile, coinciding with the massive arrival of people supposedly with reservations to stay in their rooms. The affected parties speak of a digital scam.

Els Mossos d'Esquadra van detenir la setmana passada dos homes a les Borges Blanques per fabricar armes de foc artesanals. El primer arrest va ser d'un home de 43 anys per tinença d'armes. Dos dies després se'n va arrestar un altre de 66 anys per la fabricació, la venda i la tinença d'armes.

The circulation of trains on lines R13 and R14 between the stations of Montblanc and Vilaverd is interrupted due to a copper theft that has caused a vegetation fire. The fire, which occurred in an area near the tracks, has already been extinguished.

El drac sempre hi és: com a antagonista, com a referent simbòlic i iconogràfic i, fins i tot, com a peluix simpàtic fruit de la ressignificació infantil. Per això, l'ARA l'ha triat com a fil conductor del diari especial que es publicarà el 23 d'abril per celebrar Sant Jordi, la diada del llibre i de la rosa... i del drac. En el dossier, Jordi Nopca desplegarà la saviesa habitual per explicar la relació del drac amb la literatura, i no només amb el gènere fantàstic. Xavi Serra seleccionarà els dracs més emblemàtics de la cultura popular, els que espurnegen en còmics, pel·lícules i sèries de televisió. Sílvia Marimon Molas cercarà el rigor antropològic per situar el drac en diferents tradicions, representació del mal en algunes i símbol de fortalesa en altres. Antoni Ribas Tur detallarà les representacions pictòriques del drac i sant Jordi. I el dossier del dia 23 es completarà amb dues cròniques. Una serà la del pregó de l'escriptora Ali Smith a l'Ajuntament de Barcelona, i l'altra, la del concert-recital poètic La nit de les roses a La Paloma, on el grup Mishima compartirà escenari amb quatre dracs poètics: Eva Baltasar, Pol Guasch, Carlota Gurt i Biel Mesquida.

The topic of the week has been the regularization of half a million immigrants. Although you might think it's not an economic issue, it's a topic that comes up in all my economics classes.

L'ARA convoca per tercer any quatre beques remunerades per a estudiants universitaris de tercer o quart curs de periodisme per a aquest estiu. Els escollits treballaran el juliol i l'agost a la redacció, estretament amb els professionals del diari generant continguts, en especial amb les seccions de Societat, Internacional, Política i Economia. Viuran el dia a dia de l'ARA participant activament en el procés editorial, una bona oportunitat per posar a prova les seves habilitats i coneixements, posant un peu dins un mitjà professional.

More games, more original and more adapted to mobile. This summer, the ARA has improved and expanded its hobby website of language with four new games. The popular success of activities such as the ARA website Trobamot and the Crossword, which are among the most viewed content every day, added to the readers that the Saturday game supplement has been cultivating, Capficated, has made the newspaper double down on its games portal with four signature puzzles, which are added to the four we already had.

Euthanasia is a very delicate, very intimate topic, in a society that fortunately protects privacy, legislated by the Constitution and the Estatut, which, twenty years ago, anticipated its time and in article 20 argues the “right to live the dying process with dignity”. Journalism must refine itself to address its complexity, to combine respect for the ethics of people in such a critical situation and the deontology of the profession, knowing how to moderate its approaches, Criterion 6 of the Code of Ethics of Catalan journalists.The controversy over euthanasia has reached our pages following the media uproar generated by the case of Noelia Castillo. ARA's position has been in favor of her right to a dignified death, according to the law of March 24, 2021, and the published opinions have largely gone in this direction: articles byEmpar Moliner, Mònica Planas, Josep Ramoneda, Ester Busquets, David Miró, Àlex Gutiérrez and the appeal for a calm debate that Antoni Bassas proposed to us. Elena García Dalmau joins with a different perspective in the article, titled “Euthanasia for psychological pain?”, published on March 28 in the section very appropriately defined as “Debate”, which she knows very well as a text editor. I note some of the reader complaints about her reflection.Subscriber Sonia Garcia describes the article as “sectarian, deceptive, and offensive to many people who understand euthanasia as a right”, considers it the result of “profound ignorance”, and concludes: “The publication of pieces like this harms the reputation of a serious newspaper that, until now, I considered the ARA to be, and on a personal level, it makes me consider unsubscribing”. In a similar vein, reader Xavier Clèries states: “How can such an article be published? The author expresses imprecise opinions without knowing the reality of psychological disorders”. Of the forty-seven comments below the article, seven question us for having published it.Founding subscriber Albert Martín starts from a place of respect for some of the opinions, but he does not find it correct that, in the byline, Elena García “adds to her condition as a philologist, that of “editor of the Opinion section”. The argumentation in this case points out that being a philologist does not qualify her to offer expert opinions on the subject and that, consequently, “by adding her position at ARA, she seeks to reinforce her auctoritas”. Albert Martín then details the core of the criticism:“But what is completely inadmissible and serious, and even more so when dealing with a philologist, is the perverse use of language when, at the very beginning of the article, she states that “And she is dead because the state executed her”, in a crude manipulation of language to influence the reader, worthy of a “Stop the presses” and unworthy of ARA.In law, and according to the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, to execute is to compel the fulfillment of a debt or sentence, and in criminal justice, as we all know, the application of the death penalty. It is not the consequence of an act of free will authorized by a resolution (not a sentence) that must be legally and medically motivated by a body composed of prestigious professionals and following all the legal procedures.Evidently –concludes the subscriber– there is an acceptation of the concept “to execute” as “to carry out something”, but if Ms. García’s excuse were that this was the meaning she intended, please, do not make it worse by trying to pass off an ox for a cow and have more respect for the intelligence of the readers you have tried to manipulate”.I have asked Elena García Dalmau for her contrasting view, which is necessary in my role as arbitrator, and she replies:“The debate about euthanasia and the role the State should play in its application has been going on for decades and does not have an easy answer. Proof of the difficulty of establishing an irreproachable moral standard is the diversity of forms that euthanasia laws take in countries with long democratic traditions. The hesitations do not only affect the case of patients with psychological pathologies, to which my article alluded. The German Constitutional Court ruled in 2020 that the right to self-determine one's own death exists at all stages of human life; Spanish law restricts it to a very specific context. That two advanced democracies reach such divergent conclusions is the best proof that there is no single technical answer.The question, however, is whether the technical perspective in moral matters – continues Elena García – should be the only valid one. I believe that the debate on ethical issues of this gravity cannot be confined to the authorities of medicine, nursing, and law: it concerns all citizens. And it is as a citizen who has dedicated a lot of time to thinking about the issue for personal reasons that I wrote the column. That my background—philologist—and my work—editor in the Opinion section—appeared is a convention of the newspaper; I in no way wanted to reinforce an authority to which, moreover, I could not and do not believe it necessary to appeal in this debate”.Regarding this last aspect, the byline with her position within the Opinion team, the head of the section, Toni Güell, points out that The Defender's criterion, already stated in other chronicles, is that a democratic and generalist newspaper must prioritize informational interest and publish all types of opinions expressed with respect, and even more so on such sensitive and controversial topics. Euthanasia admits many readings, interpretations, legal and conscience considerations. On one hand, there is Catholic fundamentalism, sadly notorious for its activism which is too often invasive and inappropriate. But without leaving Christian doctrine, there are nuances that we can trace back to Thomas More (Utopia, 1516), who leaves the question open, where Scholasticism preaches that “de internis, neque Ecclesia”, which means that privacy cannot be interfered with by canon law, one might say in a free version. Beyond the advances in medicine and bioethics, between therapeutic sedation and palliative sedation, believers who have to face cases of this nature have an interpretative space that allows them to circumvent dogma. On the other side of religious beliefs, there is also no monolithic thought beyond defending the right to a dignified death and the guaranteeing legislation that supports it, legal texts that they themselves collect varied records in their initial drafts.It is possible, in this dimension of such open diversity of criteria, that not all opinions are respectable in the opinion of each reader, but it is certain that what is always respectable is the right to express an opinion. Journalism should be tolerance in a pragmatic way, less grandiloquent than ethical dominance: by profession, we listen to and disseminate messages – not just opinions, but also when we inform – with which we disagree, in the conviction that those responsible for the opinions are those who sign or express them, not the newspaper. In reciprocity, readers have the right to choose what they read and what they do not read, to praise and to criticize. They also have the right to tell us not to publish information and opinions that they may detest – I have seen very negative comments, for example, when we interviewed a politician from the PP; the most recent, Ana Pastor – but I appeal for understanding that, in these cases, the journalistic sender and the reader recipient can manage a healthy disagreement that activates feedback and improves us all.The Reader Advocate takes note of doubts, suggestions, criticisms, and complaints about the newspaper's content in its digital and print editions, and ensures that the information is handled in accordance with the codes of ethics.In accordance with the codes of ethics.To contact the Reader Advocate you can send an email to eldefensor@ara.cat or record a message of no more than one minute to the WhatsApp number 653784787. In all cases, identification with name, surnames, and ID number is required.

The Christmas and January holidays represent a peak in household spending. Given this reality, the key is not only to have planned ahead, but also to take advantage of the start of the year to establish a solid monthly budget. We're often told to cut back on "small expenses"—like coffee at the bar—but the goal isn't to deprive ourselves of little pleasures, but rather to better manage the big picture. To improve our financial health, there are only two paths: increase income or reduce expenses.

The teacher Miquel Roldán, convicted of harassment of minors, has had priority in the process of awarding interim positions ahead of the rest of the participants, in application of an exceptional decision endorsed by a report from the labor risk prevention department of the Ministry of Education, as ARA Balears has learned exclusively through sources close to the Administration. In this way, the teacher has joined this Tuesday at CEIP Son Pisà in Palma, where some families have already chosen not to bring their children and more are mobilizing against the teacher's presence. In principle, he will be there until April 28. However, as has been learned, it is likely that the stay will be extended.

The Mishimas completed their first Olympic cycle of La Nit de les Roses this Wednesday. They have already In times of fear for the future of Catalan, David Carabén sent an optimistic message: “Our language is in good enough shape that we had to go over it a few times these days to select authors”. The lineup was certainly a luxury. Opening the proceedings was the latest recipient of the Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes, the poet Biel Mesquida, who torrentially recited the last three pieces from his latest book, Trast

To understand what kind of film Michael is, the biopic about Michael Jackson that has just been released, one only needs to look at the credits, where John Branca and John McClain appear as main producers, the lawyers appointed as executors of Michael Jackson's post-mortem business and who have turned him into the most profitable dead celebrity in the world, with more than 3.5 billion euros generated since Jackson's death in 2009, according to Forbes. Like so many other biopics, Michael exists above all as a commercial strategy that must protect and reinforce a brand. Therefore, the margin of artistic freedom that director Antoine Fuqua (Training day, Brooklyn's Finest) or screenwriter John Logan (Gladiator, Skyfall) have had is perceived as very scarce.

The eve of Sant Jordi, FOC (Fundació Òpera Catalunya) brought the 2025-26 season to a close with a new production of La traviata, an opera that the Sabadell-based entity has staged on several occasions throughout its long career. And I take this opportunity to suggest that FOC create a virtual consultation source listing the titles and casts programmed since 1982.On this occasion, Verdi's opera has a double cast, although it could end up being triple if Maria Miró, initially scheduled as one of the announced Violettas – the other is Montserrat Seró – joins the scheduled performances in and out of Sabadell, after a vocal ailment has kept her away. At the premiere performance, the leading soprano was Tina Gorina. The singer from Sant Feliu de Guíxols, who had already sung the title role in Valencia, displayed sensational musicality, especially in a brilliant second act with unforgettable moments, such as the way she articulated the phrase “Dite alla giovine, si bella e pura”.Good material, too, from the Mallorcan tenor Antoni Lliteres, a devoted Alfredo, with the cabaletta included in the second act after resolving with conviction and firmness De miei bollenti spiriti.For his part, baritone Luis Cansino showed excellent taste in phrasing and in the use of dynamics in his duet with Violetta and the subsequent aria (and also cabaletta) before Alfredo. His voice is uneven, but Cansino knows his stuff and made good use of the basic material.Good material also from the pit, with a brilliant Symphony of Vallès and with brilliant moments (also the Cor d’Amics de l’Òpera), although the direction of Andrés Salado did not always get it right in the concertation and with some false entry that occasionally misled the performers on stage.Carles Ortiz is a veteran director, who knows how to stage very well and who has the complicity of the spatial conception of Jordi Galobart and the movement of Jaume Sangrà. In this case, at the service of a very well-known title about which practically everything has already been said. However, the idea of ​​transferring the original action of the opera (1840s) to the glamour of high society in 1950 not only keeps the spirit of the original plot alive and current, but also helps to emphasize the loneliness of the protagonist. A complete success.After the tour that took the show to Manresa, Vic, Reus, Viladecans, Cornellà, Lleida, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Granollers, Girona, Tarragona and Barcelona, FOC is already warming up for a new season, with works such as L’elisir d’amore, the duo Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci, Cançó d’amor i de guerra and Aida. Two of these titles, by the way, also present next season at the Liceu... couldn't they agree?

After two editions focused on the horror of Gaza, this year the World Press Photo has turned its gaze towards the deportations of immigrants to the United States and has decided to award American photographer Carol Guzy, of ZUMA Press and iWitness. Thus, the award for photo of the year goes to Separated by ICE, a photograph taken for the Miami Herald in one of the few federal buildings in the U.S. to which photojournalists had access. Guzy's image captures the dramatic moment when a family is separated by U.S. government agents.

The definitive impulse to start writing, a self-confidence therapy, the stimulus to tell that story that is kept in a corner of the soul or a creative activity for an active retirement. The students of the Vicenç Pagès Jordà Writing Room of the Girona City Council are as diverse and heterogeneous as the motivations that have led them to want to write. But all of them, despite their different origins, ages or abilities, are touched by the same passion for writing. And for reading! Since the founder of the school, the late writer from Figueres Vicenç Pagès, did not conceive of one activity without the other.

A farm in some corner of rural Germany is the center of El sonido de la caída, the revelation film from Cannes 2025 that unfolds over four generations of inhabitants of this house. But Mascha Schilinski's second feature (much more ambitious than her opera primaDark Blue Girl) distances itself from the grand narrative sagas that explain the history of a country from the extensive particularity of a family. And not only because the major events that mark Germany of the last century are barely intuited or are only captured by how they indirectly affect the protagonists. Above all, because Schilinski places at the center the perspective of a series of female characters who have not usually starred in grand historical narratives to compose a film around female subjectivity, also understood as an intergenerational collective experience.

Four months ago, the parakeet fans were very happy. It should be remembered that last season the 'periquitos' did not secure their permanence until the last half hour of the league

A little more than two weeks before the classic, Barça takes for granted that it will have to seal a league title that cannot escape it in any way without its great star. We will have to wait for the tests that Lamine Yamal will undergo this Thursday, but with barely a month left until the end of the competition and with a World Cup just around the corner, the feelings at the end of the match against Celta did not invite optimism. With a penalty goal, just before suffering an injury to his left leg and the stadium freezing over because a fan suffered cardiac arrest, the Rocafonda winger did what will probably be his last service of the season for Barça. The victory (1-0) against Celta dyes the League a little more blaugrana on a complicated night at Camp Nou.

"The extraordinary thing is that it seems normal." With this motto, Barça celebrated the men's league in the 2018-19 season. The team then led by Ernesto Valverde had just won their eighth league title in eleven seasons. At that time, the first women's team only had four league titles to their name. Since then, the Blaugranas have been crowned champions of the state competition every season and now have eleven league titles. The last one, this Wednesday after winning 1-4 on Espanyol's ground. With more than ten points clear of Real Madrid, and with four matchdays left to finish the competition, Barça already has the second trophy of the season in their trophy cabinet, after the Spanish Super Cup.

"This building is like a Bach fugue." Anna Bofill means it, and she will explain it later, sitting on one of the benches in one of the four blue courtyards of the building she helped build from the Taller de Arquitectura. We are in Walden 7, this great mass in Sant Just Desvern that stands out from the highway and most people know only from hearing about it or from photographs. It's cold, and the interior is somber and imposing. It's no wonder some compare the building to a cathedral, perhaps Baroque like the musician, because in these ground-floor communal spaces there is a clear—and perhaps too obvious—desire for monumentality. But they achieve their effect. They are imposing, they fascinate. The apartments will be another matter later, which are of different types but in many cases cozy and, surprisingly, bright.

Artists like Dostoevsky, Kandinsky, Borges, and Frida Kahlo had two things in common: they were creative and suffered from mental illness. And the list of famous names could be even longer: Van Gogh, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Edvard Munch—names that are now part of the universal canon, but who also coexisted with the shadow of disorders like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. How is this possible? Can neuroscience explain this correlation that exists with so many artistic geniuses who have gone down in history?

When Rosa first opened her eyes the day after her nearsightedness surgery, she couldn't believe she could see the numbers on her alarm clock perfectly clearly. She was 32 at the time, and she hadn't been able to see anything without glasses for 26 years. "When I went to the beach and got into the water, I had to have a visual reference. A red umbrella and a blue one next to it. And when I got out of the water, I had to look for a red spot and a blue one," explains this journalist, illustrating what life is like with ten diopters.

Staying at home due to the COVID pandemic often meant discovering the neighbors. In 2020, the Barcelona City Council's Alternative Conflict Management (GAC) service, which is responsible for mediating in these situations, received 2,600% more referrals, mostly of cases that initially came to the Guardia Urbana from 28 to 686. Back to normal, these referrals have been decreasing, but remain at levels much higher than in 2019.

"God is dead," Nietzsche said in the 19th century. Many years later, the phrase seems truer than ever. Many people have replaced God with activities that have a spiritual foundation but no religion. While we see churches emptying, we witness the success of meditation classes, yoga classes, or weekend retreats. For many young people, the new way to pray is manifesting, making wishes when a mirror hour appears on their phone screen (10:22 p.m., for example), or watching the tarot reader reading your cards in a TikTok video.

L'escriptora Han Kang (Gwangju, Corea del Sud, 1970) té les expectatives altíssimes de cara a Sant Jordi. "M'han explicat que tots aquests carrers pels quals m'he estat passejant es transformaran. Tinc moltes ganes de veure-ho", explica l'autora de llibres com La vegetariana (2007; La Magrana, 2024) i Actes humans (2014; Rata, 2019) i premi Nobel de literatura 2024. Tímida i humil, Kang se sorprèn cada vegada que topa amb les multituds de lectors que l'esperen com si fos una estrella del rock. Dimarts va aplegar moltes persones al Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) i, després d'atendre'n més d'un centenar, va haver de deixar de firmar llibres perquè té una lesió al canell. Aquest Sant Jordi, l'escriptora serà a la llibreria La Central del Raval i ja ha limitat les signatures a només 100 exemplars.

Mishima completed their first Olympic cycle of La Nit de les Roses this Wednesday. It has been four years since they were the first band to perform at the historic La Paloma venue in the heart of Barcelona's Raval after its renovation, and they did so by proposing a pre-Sant Jordi party that fuses words and music, as befits the most literary band on the contemporary Catalan scene. As Manuel de Pedrolo said, if they are roses, they will bloom. And these have burst forth proudly: if seeing them chanting Mishima's songs and the applause for the writers who acted as openers are the barometer, this is a tradition that has come to stay. 

Dragons are fodder for pop culture. Film, series, literature, music, and comics have used dragons, stretching the limits of what this mythological creature can represent: an imposing fantastic beast, a cute little animal, an exotic creature... In fiction, the dragon is a malleable character that can be adapted to family comedy, monster movies, or epic fantasy. We chose 10 that have gone down in history.

In a country that is both Catholic and priest-eater like ours, the relationship between religion and politics has historically been sinuous and critical. Polarization became very extreme during the Civil War, the echo of which continues to resonate. Vox-PP remind us of it every day. At the same time, there are surprising phenomena: we have, for example, a socialist president, Salvador Illa, who does not hide his Christian humanism in the midst of a society that is going in another direction, increasingly secularized and orphaned of meaning. And at the same time, we have an independentist far-right that banally warns about the dangers facing Christian civilization, whose values it does not practice.

It's a tradition that's gaining traction, the Estrella Damm Musical Sant Jordi, which this year coincides with the 150th anniversary of the brewing company. As usual, different spaces in the Old Estrella Damm Factory on Rosselló street in Barcelona will host about twenty concerts between 11:30 AM and 9 PM, featuring groups and artists of all kinds, such as Maria Jaume, Els Amics de les Arts, Buhos, Ven'nus, Naina, Xarim Aresté, Pastora, and Lildami.

"Don't you have a smaller or thinner one, so it doesn't weigh too much to read in bed?" Beyond literary quality, book format, or other publishing specifics, a book's length can push us towards or against buying it. A study of 2,500 bestsellers from the New York Times revealed a few years ago that the average number of pages had grown from 320 in 1999 to 400 in 2014. Is there a similar pattern with books originally written in Catalan? If we take a look at almost 5,000 narrative and essay books originally published in Catalan in recent decades, the trend is confirmed: books in Catalan (including those released simultaneously in another language) are getting longer.

Robert Serna i Mundet is a guy from El Raval. He was born there, lives there, and has his business there. He is self-taught. Talent and effort opened the doors to the world of restoration for him at just twenty-two years old. Since then, he has participated in his own and others' projects, always at the forefront of prestigious kitchens.One day, walking through the old Barri Xino, he discovered a small corner on Requesens street and decided to turn it into his refuge to be happy. Cal Robert opened its doors in 2014. At first it was more of a bar than a restaurant, but eight years ago, with David's arrival in the kitchen, the project found its definitive direction: traditional Catalan cuisine with a touch of Iberian flair. Starters to share and main courses to each one's liking. A simple formula that works if the product and execution are good. The team is as important as the food, and with Marc in the dining room, a small but very efficient team is completed.There are fixed dishes and others (those on the blackboard) that change according to the seasonality of the product. Thus, neither they nor the clients get bored: every day there is something new to taste. We start the meal with some black pudding bags and some chard fritters. We continue with a dish of tripe and some meatballs that comfort us from the outside cold and confirm our success in visiting Robert. Before dessert, a hake tail in the Donostiarra style reconciles us with product cuisine. A cream millefeuille, a meringue and lemon tartlet, and a cheesecake fulfill the purpose of ending the meal.Wine deserves a very remarkable separate chapter. The menu is oral and changing. Robert explains it to us: “We only work with local wines and none cost more than nineteen euros. It makes no sense to spend twenty euros on food and order a seventy euro wine. We are looking for a wine profile with good value for money to be able to offer them at a reasonable price.” We choose a bottle of Un Onzè black wine from the Cal Cabo winery, in Sant Martí de Maldà. They have vineyards in the Corb valley. Sometimes, oil can be as important as food and drink. In the case at hand, we highlight it for its quality. It is from Nalec, the smallest town in Urgell. “My father-in-law is from Nalec. In the mornings I make breakfasts and I try to give an outlet to the oil, the wine and the sausages from there. They are very good!”The universe of Raval

Cal Robert is much more than a bar-restaurant: it is a service to the neighborhood. It collaborates with neighborhood associations and NGOs based in the neighborhood, especially with Pallapupas, the beloved hospital clowns. It has also unofficially become the bar for the Taller de Músics. The clientele comes mainly from Sant Antoni and L'Eixample, as the population of Raval is increasingly diverse and does not always match its gastronomic proposal or the establishment's budget. The average bill is around thirty-five euros per person.Robert is a Raval resident who loves his neighborhood. El Raval has life and color, but this particular universe of Barcelona is often underestimated and feared in equal measure. We take advantage of its geographical location to walk through these streets in the heart of the city. El Raval and Cal Robert show us two of the realities of our country: the diversity of our fellow citizens and the good health of Catalan cuisine. We can be happy.

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“Have you visited the wine cellar yet?” is the first thing the chef Fran López says to me when I step into Villa Retiro, the hotel with a Michelin-starred restaurant in Xerta. He is referring to the Celler Cooperatiu del Pinell de Brai, one of the Cathedrals of Wine, which exemplify López's project very well, a project that transcends the walls of his restaurant and shows the chef's commitment to the territory. Now that Villa Retiro is 20 years old, it is a good time to focus on it and also celebrate it with the menu he has designed for the occasion, which could be nothing else but a tribute to the Terres de l'Ebre.

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Emili Feliu (Barcelona, 1968) says that he follows to the letter the recipe written down by the baker Eduard Crespo, from the Balmes bakery, the creator of Sant Jordi bread. And with this recipe, and mastery, he has won, for the third time, the competition for the best Sant Jordi bread organized by the Panàtics association. "I have adapted the bread dough, because we prepare it with sourdough, the same one we use to make our breads," he explains on the first day of Sant Jordi week. As Sant Jordi is on Thursday, Emili has decided to dose the amount of Sant Jordi breads he will be making: Monday and Tuesday, about thirty; Wednesday, about two hundred, and Thursday, the big day, about eight hundred. He works with the intention of selling a thousand, which they sell for €28.50 per kilo. That is, it is a bread they sell by weight, which varies between two hundred and fifty and three hundred grams. Therefore, the price will be around six to seven euros.

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I interview the cook Ada Parellada (Granollers, 1967) one afternoon after she has finished recording recipe videos. She offers me a piece of a blueberry pie, delicious, which she has prepared with nine ingredients. Only nine ingredients, because that way everything is easier, she says. We start the interview by talking about the last one I did with her, in which she told me the story of her family, and how it was that she decided to open the restaurant Semproniana with her partner. Ada Parellada has just written the book Els plats del dia (Rosa dels Vents), in which she vindicates set menus, like the ones she prepares at her restaurant daily for 23 euros, and which are dishes made from start to finish, and elaborate Catalan cuisine.

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Neither sardines nor anchovies. The most sold fish in our country is farmed salmon, which, for this reason, is gray and is dyed a range from pale orange to orange-red depending on the country where it is sold, because it is known that every land fights its war in colors. The popularity of salmon is probably explained because its nutritional benefits have been spread: as it is oily fish, it provides readily available omega-3. Sardines and anchovies from our ports also provide it. And you will say that salmon has no bones, and it is true, because they are removed with industrial machinery, and I counter-argue: the nutritional benefits of salmon, that is, the polyunsaturated fatty acids that regulate blood cholesterol levels and help reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, are only achieved with sardines, anchovies, and oily fish in general with a short lifespan. And with wild salmon. Farmed salmon is another story, and I will explain why.To begin with, in floating cages there is a large number of salmon with a relatively small volume of water, states marine biologist Anna Bozzano, and this fact leads to all sorts of disadvantages. First: medicines have to be used because they are all together and a disease would be easily acquired by all of them. Second: the excrement they form there is organic matter that ends up at the bottom of the sea and suffocates marine life: "There is no animal that can eat it, and that is why the seabed under salmon aquaculture cages are deserts." Fattened with soy feed

To continue, farmed salmon is fattened with feed, made from small caught fish, processed into meal and with soy. “Until a few years ago, to grow one kilogram of salmon, five kilograms of small fish were needed. With soy, it has been balanced to one kilogram of small fish per kilogram of aquaculture; the rest is done by soy”, says Bozzano, who warns that if the proportion of soy with which they make the feed is higher than what the fish can absorb, they get sick because their system is not designed to feed on it. In this fact, the data must be highlighted: small fish and soy are needed to feed aquaculture, and these foods create consequences in the entire system. The small fish used to fatten salmon can come from other areas where the cages are located, such as Africa or South America.And, to finish, let's talk about the color of salmon. Wild salmon eat shrimp that contain a natural pigment, astaxanthin, but there are no small shrimp in the feed, which is why farmed salmon have gray flesh, which the market would not accept if it were put up for sale. So they dye it at the source before putting it on the market. Depending on each country, a different Pantone color. In our country, orange; if you travel and find other shades, lighter, redder, remember that it depends on the final pigment they have given it because it is the color that is liked in that country. A detail: the pigment can be natural or synthetic, which is allowed, but in the latter case, the exact amount that is healthy for the human body is measured, informs marine biologist Anna Bozzano.Despite all this, salmon is the best-selling fish. In 2023, eight thousand tons were sold; in 2024, nine thousand. The second best-selling fish, monkfish, is six thousand tons behind. It is clear, then, the abundance of salmon, but perhaps there is a way to save it: in a growing world population, with an emptying sea, is it perhaps the fish that can provide us with animal protein? But if the sea runs out of small fish, will farmed salmon also not be able to be fed? Perhaps we should eat small local fish and not a distant one, farmed crowded and fed with fish caught on the other side of the world. It is the (dyed) fish that eats its tail.

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The Ninot cheese from the Sant Gil d’Albió cheese factory is the best in Catalonia, according to the Làctium contest in Vic, which chose it from a total of sixteen, from different categories, that had passed a previous elimination phase. A specialized jury, made up of ninety people, met this morning at Casa Ricart in Vic to choose the best of each specialty so that they could advance to the final. In one of the categories, the most popular in recent years, that of cheesecake, the winner has been Jon Cake, a name that refers to the producer Jon García, who started with a shop in El Born in Barcelona and is currently in full expansion, with shops in other neighborhoods of Barcelona and also in Girona. The cake contains three types of cheese: buffalo blue and Garrotxa, both from Muntanyola, and cream, from L’Esquella. García will donate 10% of the sales of this cake to the Fundació Ampans, the non-profit organization that manages the Muntanyola cheese factory.

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Every Wednesday, Emma Osorio practices judo at the Municipal Sports Center Olímpics on Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron, in Barcelona. She has been doing so for three years, accompanied by 17 other boys and girls between 12 and 19 years old who, like her, have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These are adapted sessions, led by judo instructors and volunteers, in which the young people practice everything from the typical greetings and stances of this sport to pair and group dynamics, including strength training and other aerobic exercises.

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We have become extraordinarily skilled at choosing, practically in everything. We choose the best school, the best extracurricular activity, the most ergonomic backpack, the BPA-free lunchbox, and the flat-soled sneakers. We choose sugar-free, we choose to restrict mobile phones, we choose respectful clothing as if clothing could behave disrespectfully, and we choose toys with a Montessori label.

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“Children don’t just feel conflict, they breathe it”. Psychologist specialized in mediation and conciliation Javier Wilhelm highlights that when two families go through a conflict situation and their children share a class, this has a direct implication on the minors’ well-being. The school can play an important role as a link between the parties, but the key factor that will determine the extent of the consequences are the families involved. The way they manage their disagreement –with the emotions it entails– can lead to a serious estrangement between the children and, among adults, open a communicative abyss.

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This very day, in a second, Guillem has disappeared. What are you saying!

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Fantasy books, mystery books, dystopian stories, personal diaries, and traditional tales with block letters, cursive letters, or print letters. And sagas, many sagas. Students from Institut Escola Sant Felip Neri in Barcelona, aged 4 to 15, have recommended their favorite books to us, as well as those that once opened the door to the enjoyment of reading. These are their recommendations for this Sant Jordi.

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The Good Daughter, by director Júlia de Paz (Sant Cugat del Vallès, 1995), can now be seen in cinemas. It shows the consequences of vicarious violence and sexist violence on children, who are often unrecognized victims. And it does so through Carmela, a 12-year-old girl, who must periodically go to a meeting point to see her father, whom she idolizes. Little by little, however, the girl – and with her, the viewer – will discover who he really is and his way of exercising psychological violence.

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Her hair really catches the eye. She herself admits that she feels observed wherever she goes and that she is tired of being stopped in the street to be asked if they can touch her hair or if they simply touch it without her permission. Isabel Balde, 32, has beautiful afro hair. The kind that's a huge ball of curls. "People are not aware that touching someone's hair is invading personal space," she says, as her hairdresser styles it and she looks proudly in the mirror. It wasn't always like this. She used to hate her hair.

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On March 15, 2004, the annual induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was held at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. The date was used to pay tribute to George Harrison, who had died a few years earlier, and the event concluded with a performance of While my guitar gently weeps by Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, and Dhani Harrison, the ex-Beatle's son, and Prince, who was also being inducted as an artist into the academy and would join them on guitar. As Joel Gallen, the gala's director, explained years later to The New York Times, during the morning rehearsals, Prince remained on the sidelines, playing basic chords, following the tone. Although they encouraged him to shine, he stayed in the shadows, in a corner of the stage, without standing out. No one expected what happened hours later. The performance went smoothly until the song was nearing its end, and then Prince delivered one of the most iconic guitar improvisation solos in the history of popular music. It's three minutes of virtuosity, genius, and rhythm. And passion, dedication, and enthusiasm. The astonished faces of his fellow musicians on stage speak for themselves. Finally, the show ended, Prince threw his instrument in the air and walked off stage.

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Zara has done it again. Without any shame or embarrassment, it has strolled through the supermarket of social struggles, underground cultures, and symbolic identities with its cart wide open: a bit of marginality to give it pedigree, some uncomfortable figure of those who were a nuisance in life, and, above all, a good dose of rebellion. That's right: all nicely domesticated. Everything, passed through the quick boil of fast fashion, shrink-wrapped and ready to be consumed in the form of a prefabricated identity. And this time, who got to enter the shredder of turbocapitalism? Camarón de la Isla.And this in the full Camarón year, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the birth of the iconic cantaor, a figure who was not only an exceptional voice of flamenco, but also one of its great renovators. From La leyenda del tiempo, he opened the genre to new sounds and sensibilities, and moved it from an almost fossilized space to a living territory in tension with the present. But, furthermore, he contributed to overflowing the social image of gypsy culture beyond the cliché to which it had been subjected during Francoism, trapped between folklorism and marginality. Together with key figures like Paco de Lucía, he broadened the imaginaries around gypsy identity, both from within and in its public projection.

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Humanity returns to the Moon 50 years later. NASA's Artemis program, which made history this April by breaking the record for the furthest manned space voyage, responds to an openly declared objective by Donald Trump himself: “Get to the Moon before China”.

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An omnipresent element in Rosalía's concert is a large white canvas that serves as the backdrop for the stage, as if it were stretched over a wooden frame. It is the reverse of an immense cloth, as if you were seeing the back of an imposing painting. With a Palau Sant Jordi still with its lights on and the audience filling the stands in a hurry, the back of this canvas patiently awaits the start of the show until, when everything goes dark, it opens in half, as if we were entering the interior of the work of art. It is a way of telling us that what we are seeing is not just a musical performance, but also an artistic process that will unfold before us. It is much more than a concert, it is a total work of art, in motion, full of life, of references, and in constant evolution and transformation. Rosalía is the artist who completes her work during the two hours of the show.

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“Salvador Espriu Castelló, writer, single, sixty years old, a native of Santa Coloma de Farners [...]. He declares that he in no way wishes to be buried in the cemetery of Arenys de Mar. He further declares his express wish that his body be cremated, if the laws permit”. These are verbatim words, handwritten by Salvador Espriu in what is a document of last wishes, a draft of a will, written at some point between the summer of 1973 and that of 1974 – he was born on July 10, 1913 –, drafted in Spanish – the law did not provide for any other option – and addressed to his great friend and lawyer Josep Ferrer i Rius.

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Wholemeal and high-fiber biscuits. Also with chocolate or caramel touches. Some gluten-free, lactose-free, and salt-free. Round, square, or even dragon-shaped. In Catalonia, Gullón biscuits are a classic on supermarket shelves. Their green logo appears stamped on boxes of dozens of different formats, each aimed at a specific consumer. With over 130 years of history, it is a historic company in the Spanish biscuit sector, but also a European giant: in 2024 it had a turnover of 690 million euros, directly employs over 2,100 people, and is present in 125 countries.

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Japan is moving towards a tightening of controls in strategic technological sectors, a direction that is beginning to generate concern in the business community. Within the framework of the new economic security law and in a context of geopolitical rivalry with Beijing, Tokyo has strengthened mechanisms to protect critical infrastructure and data, especially in areas such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, or batteries. Although the legal framework does not establish explicit restrictions on international recruitment, various sectors warn that the increase in regulatory complexity and the introduction of stricter security criteria could deter the arrival of foreign talent in areas crucial for the country's growth.

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In the spring of 2022, we told the life and miracles of the banker Alfred Loewenstein in a story that began, precisely, with his death in strange circumstances. On July 4, 1928, as his Fokker Trimotor was crossing the English Channel, the magnate opened the door that led to the outside of the cabin and plunged to his death. As the causes of the accident were never clarified, the shadow of suspicion loomed over all the characters who surrounded him. Inevitably, when looking for beneficiaries of a possible murder, the eyes turned to two men, Albert Samuel Pam and Frederick Szarvasy, both partners of Loewenstein.

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It seems that artificial intelligence has arrived to stay. As happened with other technological revolutions, the fear has set in that it will end up destroying jobs massively. Nothing new. When the internet appeared, the end of many professions was also announced.Beyond opinions, recent studies point in another direction: AI increases worker productivity by around 4% and, in the short term, no significant job destruction has been detected. This does not mean, however, that there will be no changes. There will be, and many.AI will transform tasks, redefine professional profiles, and force adaptation. Just fifteen years ago, almost no one imagined the current demand for artificial intelligence experts. Similarly, today we don't know what the key jobs will be in fifteen years. And this is not an anomaly: it is the usual functioning of technological progress. However, this impact will not be uniform. Medium and large companies start with an advantage, as they can better afford the initial implementation costs. The question is not whether AI will change the labor market, but how and who it will benefit most.The core issue, however, is whether this increase in productivity will translate into better wages. Recent experience suggests skepticism. In other technological revolutions, gains have been unevenly distributed: more qualified profiles have emerged stronger, while workers with more routine tasks have seen their bargaining power reduced.The challenge, therefore, is not only technological, but also social and political. If the benefits of AI are concentrated in a few companies or profiles, the result will be a more unequal labor market. If, on the other hand, it is accompanied by training, adaptation, and certain guarantees, it can become a tool for shared progress.

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The stratospheric professional leap of a Spanish executive has marked the week. Amparo Moraleda will be appointed president of the aeronautical giant Airbus next October, thus breaking with the Franco-German tradition that until now pursued the highest office in the European consortium. Executive functions, however, will remain in the hands of the CEO, the Frenchman Guillaume Faury. On the other hand, continuity will continue in another company in the aeronautical sector: this week Maurici Lucena has been re-elected president of Aena for another four years, until 2030.

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For a few days now, the opposition's offensive has consisted of talking about the existence of a fiscal hell. The PP, which insists on the need to lower taxes, has recently been using the concept frequently. And it is an expression that the president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, who will run again for a third term in the elections he has called for May 18, made known during the presentation of the Green Paper on taxation in Catalonia in 2024. He himself considers it "apt" and says it is currently enduring.

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The Geely E2 (also called EX2 in Latin American markets) is an affordable 4-meter-long electric car with about 395 kilometers of range and power outputs of up to 116 hp that last year became the best-selling car in China. Aware of the potential of its urban electric vehicle, the Chinese automotive giant Geely made the leap to Europe some months ago, but the fact of having to pay tariffs and transport and distribution costs means that its cars are not so competitive on the Old Continent.

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For quite a few years now, Nissan has been dragging financial losses and seeing various industrial and commercial indicators of the brand go down in a crisis that seems to have no bottom. In fact, the Japanese brand is the weak link in the alliance with Renault, which had already offered Honda the possibility of taking over Nissan if it took charge of the brand's debts through the mediation of the Japanese government, an agreement that Honda (focused on its own problems) ultimately did not want to sign.

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The Seat Martorell plant today closes a fifteen-year relationship with Audi with the end of the production of the Audi A1. In fact, relations between the two brands of the Volkswagen group in Baix Llobregat are older, as they started in 2009, with the start of production of the Seat Exeo, an aspirational saloon with a three-box body and estate or station wagon that was actually an Audi A4 from the previous generation, called with the internal nomenclature B7. The very good work of those in Martorell with the Exeo led the Volkswagen Group's management to trust Martorell to manufacture the Audi Q3 SUV there between 2011 and 2018, before a new strategic repositioning saw the VAG Group's top brass assign the manufacture of the Audi A1 there, a model that has been current between 2018 and this 2026.

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Not even a week after the PP and Vox reached an agreement in Extremadura, the two formations are following the same path in Aragon and have also reached a pact to invest the popular Jorge Azcón. The popular party and the far-right party announced the understanding this afternoon in a joint appearance by Azcón and the Vox spokesperson in the Aragonese Cortes, Alejandro Nolasco. The staging is a carbon copy of what they followed in Extremadura to present a policy in line with the Extremaduran one, in which national priority in public policies has been the keystone. But in this case, the furious anti-Catalanism that has characterized the right in the region has reappeared, and this makes it understandable that there is an essential point that includes the defense of "freedom against indoctrination" with two star measures: "freeing Aragon from the imposition of Catalan" and initiating the "abolition of the Aragonese Institute of Catalan". That is, the PP and Vox have agreed to eliminate Catalan in Aragon.

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The judge investigating the allocation of protected housing in Alicante has summoned 15 people to testify as defendants and seven as witnesses. Among those investigated are the former Councilor for Urban Planning of the city, Rocío Gómez, the head of the Contracting Service of the City Council, María Pérez-Hickman, the municipal architect, Francisco Nieto, the sole administrator of the promoting cooperative, Francisco Ordiñana, and the head of the Protected Housing section of the Department of Housing, Employment, Youth and Equality, Roberto Palencia. The five must testify on May 20.

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The relations between the PSOE and Junts have not been going well for some time —they avoid negotiation since the Junts considered the investiture agreement broken—, but this Wednesday the spokesperson for Carles Puigdemont's party in Congress, Miriam Nogueras, has raised the tone against the Spanish president. To the point of reproaching him that he has been "governing without a majority" in the Spanish chamber for "too long" and that he makes no decisions: "What argument does he have left not to call elections?"

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I have never traveled outside of Afghanistan. I do not know how life is elsewhere, nor what happens in the so-called developed countries when there's a major storm or earthquake. I assume people there can receive help or perhaps are alerted when something like that happens. In Afghanistan, you can expect absolutely nothing. Sometimes I think Afghanistan is at the very end of the world, a place where death returns in a new form every season: war, bitter cold, flood, earthquake. Each disaster feels sharper than the last, and each one reminds us of our vulnerability.

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The political crisis surrounding Keir Starmer over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to Washington in December 2024 has worsened this week, after Olly Robbins' appearance in Parliament has revealed numerous contradictions in the process followed. The discrepancies between Downing Street's account and the testimony of who until last week was the highest-ranking Foreign Office official responsible for overseeing the designation, once again place the prime minister's judgment at the center of the controversy, and leave him in a very compromised position.

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In the bazaar of Khuyand, the second largest city in Tajikistan, until May of last year, women walked around with hijabs and abayas, others in European clothing with their hair uncovered, and others with scarves tied at the nape of their necks and colorful tunics. Now, however, one of these garments has been banned. In a country with over 90% Muslim population, one might think the state has banned uncovering their hair. But no. In Tajikistan, which is constitutionally secular, the fined woman is the one wearing a hijab.

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Since the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, which altered the usual functioning of classes, attendance at Catalan universities has been weakening. However, since university education is not compulsory, there is no official data on this type of absenteeism. Now, however, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) has published the first report by a public university on this phenomenon, which concludes that 40% of its student community does not attend class in some subjects.

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The Jardí de Granollers School, where the teacher arrested for possessing over 100,000 child pornography files worked, has stated that he will not be reinstated. "He is completely prohibited from any form of contact, in person or digital," adds the center in a message sent to families, explaining that they never had any indication or suspicion about the teacher, nor any complaint against him.

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Exposure to pesticides is associated with the appearance of colorectal cancer in people under 50 years of age. Specifically, researchers from the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) have discovered a significant association between a widely used herbicide, picloram, and a substantial increase in the number of cases of this disease in young patients in recent years.

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Weeks after the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the resulting energy crisis, the European Commission has presented the long-awaited plan to try to mitigate its consequences. The main point is the flexibility of aid that state and regional administrations can adopt to reduce electricity bills, as well as greater coordination between countries in the purchase and storage of fuel to avoid competing with each other. On the other hand, Brussels has ignored the request of Pedro Sánchez's government and rules out generalizing the imposition of an additional tax on what are known as the electricity companies' "windfall profits", the additional profits they make when fossil fuel prices skyrocket.

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The Port of Barcelona has launched the 5th Strategic Plan for the period 2026-2030, the largest investment cycle in the history of the port infrastructure, which will extend until 2040 with actions on accesses, terminals and facilities. This was explained at a press conference by the president of the Port of Barcelona, José Alberto Carbonell, and the head of strategy for the infrastructure, Jordi Torrent, who presented the strategic plan approved at the end of January by the board of directors.

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Spain was one of the seven countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, the think tank of the world's most developed economies) where last year the rise in taxes on wages far outstripped the increase in salaries, resulting in a loss of real income. The calculation, however, does not take into account the value of the public services citizens receive, which are funded by taxes.

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In art, in literature, in history... the dragon is the symbol par excellence of Saint George

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The dragon is one of the quintessential fantastic animals in the history of literature. Its power has fascinated millions of readers, young and old, spurred by the creativity of novelists and poets from all over, but the image it presents has been changing: the dragon can be menacing, dangerous, and violent, although also, on some occasions, benign and compassionate, and can even possess a wisdom superior to that of humans. "I am fire. I am death," proclaims Smaug, the imposing and fearsome dragon with whom Bilbo Baggins must verbally contend in The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. "Never give up, and sooner or later you will find good luck," recommends Fuixur, the majestic white dragon, to the intrepid Atreyu in The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende. For Ursula K. Le Guin, who expanded and renewed the abilities of these enigmatic animals in the Earthsea novel cycle, dragons represent the human capacity to imagine: "If dragons frighten us it is because we tend to consider the works of imagination as suspicious or even despicable," the author defended in the article Why, as Americans, are we afraid of dragons? (1974).

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What better space to talk about Francesc Cambó (1876-1947) than the place that was his home? Specifically, his library, which remains intact, with all the shelves and all the books. This was the setting for a conversation between Borja de Riquer, the historian who knows the most about the factotum of the Lliga and his complex trajectory, and the deputy director of ARA, Ignasi Aragay.

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Four European Cups, four World Cups, 7 Leagues, 5 Cups..., the list of trophies won by Anna Casarramona i Vivas (Manlleu, 1994) seems endless. For 18 seasons, she has become one of the best Catalan athletes, leading the wave that changed women's roller hockey, and bringing it to the brink of professionalization. Now she is retiring, playing her last matches with HC Palau, which has become a model club, with hundreds of boys and girls on wheels and a top-tier changing room for the first women's team where Anna receives the ARA.

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Three golden points for Barça in a match marked by Lamine Yamal's injury and a first half that lasted 67 minutes (1-0). La Liga, closer. Next, some immediate thoughts.

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"The extraordinary thing is that it seems normal." With this slogan, Barça celebrated the men's league in the 2018-19 season. The team then led by Ernesto Valverde had just won their eighth league title in eleven seasons. At that time, the first women's team only had four league titles to their name. Since then, the blaugranes have been crowned champions of the domestic competition in the next seven seasons and now have eleven league titles. The latest one, this Wednesday after beating Espanyol 1-4 away. With more than ten points ahead of Real Madrid and with four matchdays left to finish the competition, Barça already has the second trophy of the season in their trophy cabinet, after the Spanish Super Cup.

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The emergence of an entire generation of female television fiction creators has spawned a subgenre until recently (almost) unheard of: the parenting comedy. Titles like Better things, Catastrophe, Working Moms, and The Letdown tackle motherhood from a desacralized perspective that turns humor into the best weapon to face the reality of parenting, without Instagram filters. In our country, we can place Mira lo que has hecho, with Berto Romero, and Això no és Suècia, by Aina Clotet and Mar Coll. In some episodes, this latter series brought together a group of real-life mothers in the fiction who shared their experiences as such in mutual support meetings. One of these mothers was Marta Bassols, a well-known (and beloved) writer, actress, and cultural agitator on the Barcelona scene. Now she is the one promoting another series about the tribulations of motherhood, Yo siempre a veces, co-written with Marta Loza, sponsored by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, and starring Ana Boga.

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The arithmetic forces the PP to make a pact with Vox and, therefore, to assume part of their program and ideology. The conservative press tries to defuse the notion that this constitutes a somewhat humiliating act of submission –they, who precisely have this verb always at their fingertips– and that is why one comes across headlines like Wednesday's in la Razón: “Imminent pact in Aragon with «national priority» and no change in immigration”. Meanwhile, El País squeezes Feijóo and company's dangerous friendships as much as possible and opens its front page with “The PP assumes Vox's idea of «national priority»”. In the initial paragraph, they explain that this principle “points to the discrimination of foreigners”. The drama of it all is that the reader who does their homework and informs themselves from more than one medium with non-coinciding editorial lines ends up confused and not quite knowing whether the popular party has indeed succumbed to xenophobic policies or if it is Vox who has settled for a semantic gesture –this unsettling thing of national priority– devoid of content because what counts is rootedness, regardless of origin. Polarization is a close cousin of confusion. And a twin of disaffection.

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Richard Gadd was an unknown actor and creator until 2024 when he premiered Baby Reindeer on Netflix, a miniseries that explained his experience as a victim of harassment and also sexual abuse. The production was a phenomenon that even obsessed some viewers – some supposed fans revealed the identity of Gadd's harasser and she sued the series and the platform–. After that whirlwind, the Scotsman premieres Half man, a new miniseries with which he wants to reaffirm his authorial voice: a new uncomfortable and impactful story about toxic masculinities, homophobia, and dependency relationships. The series will be available on HBO Max starting this Friday.

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Pol, Nil, Jan, Roc and Jacobo have met at Sol Soler on Plaça del Sol in Gràcia for some beers. As soon as they entered, Roc saw a girl who caught his attention.

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Yaya Buschraft asks us not to say her real name, nor where she lives. She is in the mountains, that's for sure. Anyone who follows her on social media knows this, where she has thousands of followers, to whom she explains her day-to-day life building cabins. She decided this would be her life project when she was nearing 70, and now she tells her story in the book Living without asking permission (Penguin).

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The 080 Barcelona Fashion closes its 37th edition with proposals from 26 brands, a clear international commitment, and its classic combination of established designers and young emerging talents. The move to Port Vell was experienced with a certain duality, as the spectacularity of the new location could not be fully enjoyed since the runway area was closed off by large black curtains that blocked the sea views. Nevertheless, we have selected some of the most prominent trends we saw over these four days of fashion.

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Apparently, it is a music festival. But, if we are honest, Coachella is much more than that nowadays. This veteran Californian desert festival has become a physical hub for brands and media attention thanks to its instagrammability, which greatly surpasses what happens there from a musical point of view. If not, you only need to look at how many news items related to this festival you have seen in the last week and, above all, how many of them were about music. There are no further questions, Your Honour. In this absolutely commercial magma, in which brands from all over the world pay between half a million and one million dollars to have a stand there, and in which these same firms pay up to $20,000 per day for a billboard on the road from Los Angeles to the festival grounds, a Kardashian couldn't be missing, grabbing attention. As often happens when there are spotlights, flashes, and excited algorithms, one of the world's most famous sisters – or sometimes all of them – has become global news. In this case, the lucky one has been Kendall Jenner, who, so we all understand, is the model Kardashian, who went there last weekend.

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When she was only 23 years old, Lena Dunham sold her first series, Girls, to HBO Max. The dramedy about a group of four friends living in New York was one of the shows that marked television in the second decade of the 2000s, and its protagonist and creator was very often also the subject of all sorts of articles and criticisms, often for her physique. Now Dunham, who will turn forty in May, has just published a memoir, Famesick (it will be published here in Spanish in September), in which she reviews not only the impact that sudden fame had on her but also her relationship with her co-stars on the series and the many health problems she has suffered throughout her life.

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When in a relationship the older one is the man, that age difference is transparent in the eyes of society. In fact, it is something so normalized and so insignificant in terms of social controversy that people don't even notice it unless someone specifically points it out to them. Fortunately, nowadays, some feminists with some standing on social media raise their voices when some rich/famous/powerful man –or all three at once– starts dating a young woman who is the same age –or younger!– as his own daughters. But, well, the percentage of people who publicly complain about that age difference is infinitesimal. And mind you, there are angles from which to criticize it... From the secular heritage of machismo that the relationship represents to the inequality in terms of power it embodies or to the medium-term harm that it will cause her, to name just three examples.

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Santiago Ramón y Cajal said that we can all be sculptors of our own brain, referring to its enormous plasticity and how, with our actions, we can shape it. In this sense, surely one of the most powerful chisels is reading. Under the pretext of the quintessential day for book lovers, we propose five publications to grow and shape gray matter: memoirs, written with humor, about the passion for mathematics; a collection of ideas, reflections, and thoughts from who is surely one of the pivotal minds of the 21st century; an ode to the brain and its enormous capacity to rebuild, reconfigure, and remodel itself through breathing and meditation; the experience of nine women working and living together for a few days on a Martian station; and, finally, a journey through the history of medicine and humanity to dismantle, forever, the myths and biases that have surrounded women's mental health. Neither crazy nor hysterical.

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This Sunday, humanoid robots have reduced the time they set last year in the Beijing half marathon by almost two hours. Specifically, the Qitian Dasheng robot won with a time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds. The winning team, however, was not the fastest: the Shandian, which operates under remote control, completed the 21 kilometers of the race with a net time of 48 minutes and 19 seconds, despite suffering a fall 100 meters from the finish line. The fastest robot, however, was not declared the winner, because, according to the competition rules, the times of remotely controlled robots are multiplied by 1.2.

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