The 6.3 million euro luxury penthouse acquired by the Community of Madrid has become a thorn in the side for Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government. The controversy, which threatens to grow even larger following the traumatic eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, has reached the courts and also the Court of Auditors. But almost two months after El País exposed the purchase, it remains surrounded by unknowns, changing narratives, and contradictions. A similar situation, tragedy aside, to the one that occurred with Carlos Mazón regarding his role on the day of the DANA in the Valencian Community.

After having promised to provide explanations about the origin of the jewelry from the moment they were found in his office on May 19th, former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero gave an official explanation this Wednesday through a document submitted to the National Court. Four months later, in the document, which ARA has had access to, he states that the pieces are a gift that the King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud –who died eleven years ago– gave him in June 2007, during his first term at the head of the Spanish government. It is a gift that the monarch delivered to the family home located at the Moncloa Palace on the occasion of a trip made to Madrid, and he justifies the delivery as a "strictly personal attention, accepted out of deference and as a sign of gratitude and respect" to the Saudi king. Asked about Zapatero's version, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, from New York, has reaffirmed his confidence in the presumption of innocence of the former Prime Minister.

The fiasco of the Catalan interpreters at the Roger Español case trial will end in sanctions. As reported by Nació Digital and confirmed to ARA by sources from the Department of Justice, the Generalitat has decided to open a file on the company awarded the translation service, Ofilingua SL, to impose the "economic penalties" provided for in the contract specifications.

The complaint against Pilar Rahola for her statements in favor of Israel and her actions in Palestine will not proceed. The Barcelona Provincial Prosecutor's Office has decided to archive it following the pre-trial proceedings it ordered on April 13. The complaint, filed by two militants of the Socialist Youth Organization (OJS), was for crimes of incitement to hatred and complicity in the genocide in Gaza, but the public prosecutor's office considers that there is not enough evidence to continue investigating the journalist. The decision is not subject to appeal, according to the resolution dated this Monday to which ARA has had access.

During the United Nations General Assembly, which is taking place in New York, an unprecedented image has occurred: the president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, approached the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, to address the future of her country. According to sources from the Spanish delegation, it was an initiative of the new Venezuelan leader –after the arrest of Nicolás Maduro by the United States–, who asked Sánchez to be able to sit down and talk about the political situation. The same sources add that the Spanish president responded to the offer and reaffirmed his "commitment" to the region.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has returned to Ceuta for the fourth time. This time, however, he has done so accompanied by the president of the European People's Party, Manfred Weber, to reinforce the message of the Spanish conservatives regarding this migration crisis and to illustrate the calls to "Europeanize" this Spanish enclave in North Africa. The message from the two conservative leaders has gone in the same direction as that of the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas: that the migrant minors who entered the autonomous city on July 30 and 31 must be returned to Morocco.

One of the headlines left this Thursday by the Roger Español case trial has to do with the interpreters who were in the courtroom, unable to translate the lawyers' questions from Catalan to Spanish. The lawyers for the private and popular accusations, exercised by Irídia, Òmnium and the ANC, ended up self-translating or questioning the police directly in Spanish after up to two interpreters could not do their job, a fact that the entities have denounced for "violation of linguistic rights". But how could this situation have occurred?

The Spanish government has a clear path to relocate immigrants to the facilities at the port of Ceuta. The National Court has finally decided to deny the temporary suspension of the camp's installation, as requested by a police union citing security reasons. It will be the Ministry of the Interior, the judicial order explains, that will be in charge of establishing the security conditions for the police officers and also for the immigrants. This Wednesday all alarms went off when the National Court accepted the suspension of the camp on a "highly precautionary" basis, but it took only a few hours to change its position. Sources from the Spanish government celebrate the speed of the judicial decision in view of the social urgency on the streets of Ceuta and point out that the forecast was that more than 1,700 people could be installed there today. "We reiterate that the port grounds are the most suitable and have all the security guarantees to carry out the operation," they explain from the state executive. The Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, in charge of the crisis, celebrated the decision in a video: "It is magnificent news because it will allow us to start the files and for the migrants to be returned if they do not have the right to stay," he said, assuring that this will bring Ceuta closer to "normality". Wednesday's decision, even though it was temporary, caused "perplexity" for the Spanish government, and the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, put words to this sentiment on Thursday. "There are those who want us to perform magic," he stated in an interview with TVE, recalling the lack of space in the city so that the immigrants who are still living there in poor conditions can have their basic needs guaranteed. The head of Transport has warned of the lack of alternative locations to place the camp: "Going to the port is not a whim."Puente has not refrained from criticizing the wavering of the Ceutan government regarding the camp and has accused it of "profound disloyalty". "Mr. Vivas, beyond defending Ceuta with words, has not collaborated with the Spanish government at any time," he lamented, referring to the Ceutan president, and delved into the clash between the state government and that of the autonomous city. "There are individual people who seem to have heeded Mr. Aznar's call for whoever can do something to do it," added the Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, in an interview with Cadena Ser, in reference to some "corrupt" magistrates. "It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to find arguments to defend that there is impartiality in all decisions," added the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, in an interview with RNE.

Unless there is any last-minute news, Laure Vega will be the CUP candidate in the next municipal elections in Barcelona, where the 'cupaires' aim to recover the representation they lost in the 2019 elections. The current member of Parliament has accepted the party's proposal to lead the list in the Catalan capital in 2027, as reported by El Periódico and Nació Digital and as confirmed by ARA. The expectation is that Vega will be ratified this Saturday.

"Giving away Spanish passports? [...] That is over" and "The passport must be earned". The phrases were spoken this July by Alberto Núñez Feijóo during his assessment of the year as leader of the opposition. Amid the controversy over the amnesty lawof the Spanish government, and immersed in a competition with Vox over the toughness of the rhetoric on immigration, the president of the PP was already proposing a tightening of the conditions for accessing Spanish nationality. Just two months later, and in the midst of a crisis in Ceuta, the Popular Party goes a step further: they are now proposing to withdraw nationality from Spaniards of foreign origin who commit serious crimes.

The PSOE is losing support, but it is holding firm and would win the elections again, according to the first CIS poll after the crisis in Ceuta. The September barometer, published this Monday, gives the socialists 31% of the votes, two points less than in the July survey, and sees how the PP narrows the gap, which stands at just 5.5 points of difference – in the previous one it was almost eight –. The popular party, however, only rises half a point in vote estimation, from 25% to 25.5%. The far-right Vox party, which is focusing a large part of its discourse on the migration crisis, obtains limited growth of 1.3 points (from 15.3% to 16.6%), while Se Acabó la Fiesta, the party of the ultra Alvise Pérez, falls from 2.6% to 1.8%. "The real poll will take place at the ballot box," said PSOE spokesperson Montse Mínguez on Monday regarding this, even though this survey is much more favorable than the polls published last week. From the newspaper El País to La Razón and Abc, they gave a clear victory to the right-wing vote against the support for the left. For this reason, the PP has described the CIS forecast as a "joke" and a "bad taste prank", reports Andrea Zamorano.

The fact that both Spain and France have experienced the worst fires in their history – that of the Community of Madrid and Ávila, and Bordeaux, respectively – has a scientific explanation. The meteorological conditions that favor large fires have intensified by up to 50% in these two countries over the last decade, according to the conclusions of the study published this Thursday in the journal Nature. The article comes to light the same day that the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has ended the "national emergency" due to fires in the center of the State, which have already burned more than 75,000 hectares.

Updates to the list of Catalan municipalities that meet the conditions for applying the rent price cap. The Generalitat has reviewed the declaration of municipalities considered a tense residential market area and has incorporated and excluded several towns: after conducting a study on the housing situation, the Government proposes that 302 municipalities have official recognition that their housing market is tense.

Lawyer Khaled Quzmar(1964) has been working for almost four decades to defend the rights of the Palestinian population. Executive Director of the Palestinian Centre for Child Rights (PCCR), a few days ago he visited Barcelona at the invitation of the NGO Mundubat to denounce the impact of the occupation and genocide on children in Gaza and the West Bank. He spoke to ARA before meeting with representatives of the Parliament and travelling to Madrid to meet with the Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Rego.Since October 7, 2023, more than 20,000 Palestinian minors have been killed in Gaza, 44,000 have been injured, and 58,000 have been orphaned, according to UN data.

The day after the European justice's endorsement of the amnesty everyone builds their own narrative. While the independence movement celebrates the ECJ's decision, but warns that this does not end the repression, both the Catalan and Spanish governments see their "reconciliation" agenda validated and claim the end of the "political crisis" between Catalonia and the State. Moreover, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has assured that if he "were Carles Puigdemont" he would return to Spain, "without a doubt". "We must face up to it once and for all," he said in an interview with RNE, as reported by Efe. This attitude has not pleased Junts at all, as the arrest warrant remains in effect and the former president would be arrested. "What misery and frivolity," replied the party's general secretary, Jordi Turull. After this, party sources consulted by ARA reaffirm their break with the Spanish government, also after the ECJ's ruling in favor of amnesty.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has given a clear endorsement to the amnesty law this Thursday, which has triggered a wave of reactions uniting the independence movement and the Catalan and Spanish governments in a single demand: the immediate application of the law by the Spanish judiciary. The ruling has been received as a "resounding victory", although with the caution of knowing that the final executive decision rests with the state courts. In the words of former president Carles Puigdemont, "the game will no longer be played in Europe but at the Bernabéu, with the referees and the crowd leaning to one side".

Mariano Rajoy not only downplayed his racist comment about the French team, backed by the PP, but now he is resisting apologizing. Amid the euphoria over Spain's progress to the World Cup final, the former Spanish president has published a new article in El Debate in which he discusses the controversy surrounding him. A chronicle with little footballing content and a lot of politics, in which he directly attacks the Spanish government: "They don't apologize for anything," he even says.

The CNI spied on Carles Riera and David Fernàndez for alleged "activities contrary to national security". The agency had the phones of the two former CUP deputies infected with Pegasus for almost two years and six months, respectively, and had the authorization of the Supreme Court.

The eviction of residents from the eight affected blocks is extended due to last Tuesday's sinkhole, caused by the works on metro line L9. The general director of Infrastructure of the Generalitat, Ramon Ramírez, has explained that the technicians have recommended carrying out new checks on the state of the land beneath the buildings where the hole occurred and, for this reason, the residents will not be able to return to their homes at least until Friday of next week. The possibility of them returning this Saturday is thus ruled out.

Plot twist with a few days until the Kitchen trial ends. The National High Court judge Antonio Piña, who is investigating the case, has finally agreed to investigate the audio recordings of conversations between María Dolores de Cospedal and José Manuel Villarejo about the operation to try to steal information from Luis Bárcenas that could compromise the PP. The former general secretary of the PP, who was also Minister of Defense, had until now one of the big protected names of the case, but justice has finally decided to put a magnifying glass on it due to recordings that also implicate former president Mariano Rajoy.