Catalonia is experiencing the second heatwave of this summer, which is expected to be extraordinarily long and will not end until next week. The Secretary of Public Health of the Generalitat, Esteve Fernàndez, warns in an interview with ARA about the serious consequences that high temperatures have for the health of citizens and calls for extreme precautions, especially among the most vulnerable.

Cora Farré was calmly sitting on the sofa at her home, in the Les Garrigues urbanization of Pobla de Claramunt, when her parents entered shouting that they had to leave, that their house was burning. The following 24 hours have been a constant fight against the flames in ground zero of the Anoia fire, which has burned almost 500 hectares and is now stabilized. "We were all crying, you don't know what to grab, what you leave behind forever," she recalls of the first moments. She explains that her father and brother were cutting down the trees closest to the house to prevent the fire from reaching it and losing everything while they waited for the Generalitat Firefighters, who worked all night to minimize the fire's impact on the houses. "Five firefighters slept on the living room floor of the house in case it flared up again," she explains.

The quality of semen in men from northern Spain is higher than that of men from the center and south of the country, despite similar lifestyles. This is the conclusion of a study presented this Tuesday at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), which links these differences to higher exposure to environmental contaminants. "Given the widespread presence of air pollution in many urban environments, its possible effects on male fertility deserve further investigation," argues Professor Rocío Núñez-Calonge, lead author of the study published in the journal Human Reproduction. To reach these conclusions, they analyzed the semen quality and lifestyle of 386 men who underwent a fertility assessment at seven assisted reproduction centers in Spain between June 2024 and December 2025. Factors such as place of residence, body mass index (BMI), medical history, physical activity, exposure to chemicals, medication use, smoking, alcohol, drugs, and coffee consumption were taken into account. The results revealed significant regional differences in semen volume, sperm concentration, motility, morphology, and total motile sperm count. The prevalence of asthenozoospermia (reduced sperm motility) and teratozoospermia (abnormal sperm morphology) was also considered.

It was expected to be a complicated week and the fire has not given respite since the first day. When the Generalitat Firefighters have not yet been able to declare the serious fire affecting La Bisbal d'Empordà since Friday under control, there are already three new fires burning simultaneously in the midst of a heatwave. The new fires broke out this afternoon in Sentmenat, in Vallès Occidental; in Artesa de Segre, in La Noguera; and in the region of Anoia, between the towns of Carme and La Pobla de Claramunt. The authorities have confined about 33,000 people from the south of Igualada and various towns in the Anoia region, as well as some urbanizations and scattered settlements between Sentmenat and Castellar del Vallès.

When Lluís Pascual started cycling, he says he was practically the only one and had to cycle 100 kilometers to meet another cyclist. That's why now that he's 75 years old, he's so excited to see that the Catalan roads and paths are packed with bicycles, one of his great hobbies which he also shares with his brother Francesc. Together they have cycled every inch of the Pyrenees, the Alps, and have done the Taradell-Rome excursion three times, one every 25 years, the last one in 2025. Every year they eagerly await the celebration of the Tour de France, which they have seen pass through La Seu d'Urgell, Sort, and, when they were younger, Tona. But they would never have imagined it would pass through their town, and when they found out, they didn't hesitate to sign up as volunteers. "We've been assigned a stretch of street that we'll have to watch. We're responsible for a part of the Tour," says Lluís excitedly.

Her name is Gaia, she is already over a year old and is a normal, everyday sheep, which makes her extraordinary due to the way she came into the world. When she was still a fetus, they removed her from her mother's womb, even though she was not developed enough to survive outside and her organs were not mature enough to perform basic functions like breathing or digesting. The people who did it, however, had a plan: to deceive nature.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines managed to reverse the worst health crisis of the 21st century: COVID-19. In recent years, billions of doses have been administered worldwide to prevent this disease. Despite the efforts of the scientific community to inform about the safety and efficacy of the technology used to develop them in record time, an anti-vaccine movement has emerged that has constantly questioned them with misinformation and fake news. Now, researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver (Canada) have conducted an exhaustive review of the scientific evidence on these vaccines and have concluded that they are "safe and highly effective" in preventing infectious diseases. This review, published in the prestigious scientific journal The Lancet, shows that this type of vaccine has the potential to develop new treatments against the flu, certain types of cancer, and some autoimmune disorders, among others.

It does not exceed three centimeters in length and seems harmless, but it is one of the hundred most harmful invasive species on the planet. It is the zebra mussel, which arrived in Catalonia 25 years ago and is fully established in the Catalan Ebro basin – in the Riba-roja and Flix reservoirs up to the river's headwaters – and in the Llobregat basin, in the La Baells reservoir. Experts admit that eradicating it from these colonized areas is now impossible, which is why they focus on preventing it from spreading to other basins, a growing risk due to its high colonization capacity. "A point is reached where we can only aim for containment," warns Joan Pino, director of the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), who explains that one of the main negative impacts of this species is that it clogs the pipes of water systems in river systems. In fact, this week Aitona was left for 24 hours without a supply of drinking water due to this invasive species, which had collapsed the water treatment plant.

The return of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States weakens research in public health, especially for countries with fewer resources to respond to a health crisis. The cutback of key American funds for disease control and the decline of international research projects threaten the scientific community – particularly the African one – which has repeatedly stated that health requires globally coordinated actions. A clear example is the Ebola outbreak declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which particularly concerns experts and health authorities: with over a thousand confirmed cases and 269 deaths, it represents the seventeenth epidemic in this country.

In the metropolitan area of Barcelona, 905,000 people live in areas where social vulnerability and extreme heat converge. This means that more than a quarter of the metropolitan population lives in a neighborhood with old and poorly insulated buildings, streets without shade, and incomes and education levels below the Catalan average. This is one of the conclusions of ongoing research by the Institute of Government and Public Policies of the UAB (IGOP), which confirms that the postal code influences heat exposure.

Last May, about twenty people were evicted from their homes in the Born neighborhood of Barcelona due to the risk of collapse. The Barcelona Fire Department and the Guàrdia Urbana had to urgently evacuate the residents of the building, located on Sant Agustí Vell street, because of a water leak on the ground floor that had eroded the ground supporting one of the entrance walls of the building. The Catalan Socialist Housing Union assures that the leak occurred during a renovation, but the property, the investment fund New Amsterdam Developers, never repaired it correctly. Even so, neither the fund nor its real estate agency offered any alternative to the families when they had to leave their homes, who, despite not being able to access them, were obliged to pay rent. On the other hand, Barcelona City Council reports that for this property, the Ciutat Vella district has three ongoing cases for unlicensed works.

The heatwave will peak this Monday, with temperatures exceeding 40°C in several parts of the country, but it will still last until Wednesday and will be one of the main protagonists of the Sant Joan's Eve. The deputy director of Civil Protection, Imma Solé, has called for "prudence" and stressed that surveillance has been intensified to "minimize" the risk of fires, which is very high due to high temperatures, low relative humidity, and the coincidence with the festivities. For the Generalitat Firefighters, Sant Joan's Eve is the busiest night of the year, which is why the corps will increase by 30% the number of teams working during the festivities.

The neurologist Josep Dalmau is one of the world's most authoritative voices in neuro-oncology, the science that treats and studies tumors affecting the nervous system. The head of the Autoimmune Neuronal Diseases Pathogenesis group at IDIBAPS and researcher at the new CaixaResearch Institute received the Gregorio Marañón National Research Award for Medicine in 2025. Recently, the Conchita Rábago de Jiménez Díaz Foundation also honored him for his decisive contribution to the knowledge of autoimmune encephalitis, a group of brain diseases that for decades had no diagnosis or treatment.

It has been more than four years since the death of Munir and Jéssica in the shantytown of Montcada i Reixac. In this time, however, the situation of the settlement has not changed at all and its inhabitants continue to live in poverty between the Besòs river and the BV-5001 road, invisible to the administrations despite the tragedy. That day in January 2022 it was cold, the couple lit a fire to warm themselves and died of asphyxiation inside their makeshift home, leaving three children orphaned. The arrival of a new summer does not improve the neighbors' outlook, as with the rising temperatures they have to seek refuge outside the shack—built with sheet metal or materials not very resistant—when the sun beats down the hardest and makes the air inside unbreathable. This is the case of a man resting in the shade without a shirt. He does not want to give his name, nor have his photograph taken and be interviewed, he is tired of reporting the situation and angry about the lack of help they have received: "They died right next door and everything remains the same; I don't want to talk to you because it will be useless".

Last week, Petit tasted marijuana and benzodiazepines for the first time, and he did so against his will. He is a nine-year-old Majorcan terrier, very energetic and affectionate, who has lived with Manel and his family since his previous owner died. As he is always on the go and a restless soul, the family became worried when they saw him looking pale and drowsy after his walk. The sign that set off all the alarms was that he urinated himself. Manel didn't want to wait any longer and took him to the emergency room, where, to his surprise, they immediately suspected drug intoxication.

Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of premature birth and, when born, newborns exposed to nicotine are more likely to suffer respiratory problems and delays in cognitive development, among other complications. In severe cases, there may even be a miscarriage or sudden infant death. Although the adverse effects are widely known, half of women who smoke do not quit when they become pregnant, according to data from the Survey of Health of Catalonia (ESCA), published this Wednesday by the Department of Health.

Kevin will turn 12 in July, but he looks older when he speaks clearly about the illness he has been suffering from for a few months. Last February, he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare condition in which red bone marrow disappears and red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets stop being produced. He needs a bone marrow transplant. So far, no donor has been found, and the little one has started treatment at Vall d'Hebron Hospital, although it will still take a few weeks to see how he responds.

Although there is no cure yet, science is tightening the siege on neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis, and there are increasingly more and better diagnostic tools and new treatments that slow their progression. This Friday, the prestigious journal The Lancet published two investigations on new techniques that allow detecting Alzheimer's, which is the most common form of dementia, long before the first symptoms appear. They are a simple blood test, which has been shown in other studies to be a great tool for early diagnosis and is already used in hospitals, and a new brain scanner that improves the results of the technique currently used in the United States and Europe. The sooner the disease is identified, the sooner strategies can be deployed to delay its course, which is why it is essential to have early diagnosis tools.

New scientific milestone for Barcelona, which continues to take steps to consolidate itself as one of the European capitals of knowledge, research and innovation. This Thursday, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) has officially presented its third quantum computer, the EuroQCS-Spain, which with a cost of 9.8 million euros makes the institution one of the few centers in the world that combine supercomputing and quantum technology. "It is the only one with three quantum computers connected to a classic supercomputer," claimed the director of the BSC, Mateo Valero, during the presentation of the new technology, which has been co-financed by the European Commission and the Spanish government.

Menopause is a stage in all women's lives, with over a billion expected to be postmenopausal next year, according to the American Menopause Society. With the end of menstruation, the ovaries stop producing essential hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, leading to physiological and hormonal changes that until a few years ago were associated with the onset of old age. Some of these symptoms, such as hot flashes, are widely known, but there are others that are not usually associated with menopause and that many women also experience. To enter this new stage in the best way and with good health, it is necessary to make lifestyle changes, such as incorporating physical exercise and following a good diet, and even consulting with experts about whether hormone replacement therapy is necessary.