The Commercial Court number 2 of Palma has forgiven a debt of 57,269 euros to a couple who had emigrated to Germany to "rebuild their lives", after applying the Second Chance Law.

After a weekend with several fires in the natural environment that have strained emergency services, the Minister of Interior and Public Security, Núria Parlon, has stated that it is necessary to "be alert" for the celebration of Sant Joan's Eve. She warned about this at the presentation of the special operation, and emphasized that "all prevention in the use of pyrotechnics is little". In this way, this year's Interior campaign for Sant Joan's Eve plans to deploy more than 200 rural agents throughout the territory and 133 professionals from CAT112 between June 22 and 28, and to reinforce the guard of the Generalitat Firefighters, with a 50% increase in staff. On the other hand, during these six days, 678 drug and alcohol controls will be set up on the roads.

"I need help, my father has fallen. We are in Collbató and he has fallen [...] I think he has fallen down a ravine". These were Jonathan Andic's first words in his call to 112 after his father, Isak Andic, fell down a ravine during an excursion in Montserrat. The audio of the call, a partial transcription of which had already emerged, was published this Monday by El matí de Catalunya Ràdio. "My father has fallen. But I can't see him, he's not responding. He has fallen down a ravine", states the son of the Mango founder in a later conversation with a technician from the Medical Emergency Service (SEM).

The impunity of big tech companies has ended in the United Kingdom. Or at least, that is what Prime Minister Keir Starmer intends, who this Monday made a 180-degree turn and announced the prohibition of access for minors under sixteen years of age to social networks. Furthermore, adolescents up to 18 years of age will also have their ability to continuously browse social networks until late at night restricted, in what has been compared to a kind of curfew, in this case, a technological one. The legislative reform also aims to go further with changes to video game and live streaming platforms, so that strangers cannot contact minors. Last week, Starmer already gave an "ultimatum to Google and Apple" to activate mechanisms that prevent minors from making, sending, or receiving sexually explicit images from their mobile phones.

His hands extracted the DNA of Lasa and Zabala, of the terrorists from 11-M and of the victims of the Civil War buried in Cuelgamuros. Antonio Alonso is a privileged witness to criminal history and forensic medicine in Spain. A forensic geneticist, he directed between 2019 and 2024 the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences. Retired, he now recounts in the book La huella invisible (Crítica) how DNA has changed the history of justice in Spain. 

Three fires are burning this Sunday in different parts of Catalonia. Firefighters are currently working to extinguish the flames in Cervià de les Garrigues, La Serreta, and Ponts. All three fires are, however, under control.

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.

"I have an average of 9 throughout high school and this has been the worst exam of my life," assured one of the students last week after leaving the exam – which some described as "terrible" – in mathematics of this year's PAU. Next to her, her teacher assured that this year's test "was affordable, but it asked things differently than how it had been done in class" and also said that nerves had to be taken into account. While waiting to see what happens with the grades of this exam, this scene can be an example of how the difference between the average high school grade and that of the general phase of the PAU is further away each year.

The Olot City Council has expelled 1,300 people from the municipal register for committing fraud. This is the balance of the first year of operation of the office responsible for inspecting "suspicious" homes. The council, consulted by the ACN, explains that the two most common ways of trying to "deceive" the administration are, on the one hand, registering in Olot to enjoy some municipal services and aid, and on the other, "doing business". In this case, the Local Police are working in collaboration with the Mossos and the National Police to detect people who charge for registering immigrants in their homes. The City Council explains that they have found cases of up to eight people in the same dwelling, without anyone living there. The council warns that it "will continue to apply pressure".

This Sunday's event was the last major mobilization of teachers before the end of the school year, and also the unions' final warning to the Government that the resumption of classes in September could be just as turbulent if an agreement is not reached. Thousands of teachers and professors took to the streets again this morning in Barcelona to force "a change in public education". This time, moreover, they had another objective: to show that they have the support of families and society.

The last Friday of May, bathers and rod fishermen on Trabucador beach were astounded to see the body of a fin whale, almost 11 meters long, stranded on the sand a few meters from the Badia dels Alfacs beach. The animal, which was eventually returned to open sea, had multiple serious injuries consistent with a collision with a boat's propeller. A few days later, the lifeless body of a sperm whale in an advanced state of decomposition and with clear signs of having suffered trauma arrived on Les Botigues de Sitges beach.The stranding of large cetaceans on the Catalan coast is not a common sight, but in no case is it an isolated event, especially in recent years. One element that can explain this is the interaction of two high-density traffic routes between the peninsula's coast and the Islands. On the one hand, the Mediterranean cetacean migration corridor passes through this area, recognized and protected as a migration space for these animals; and, on the other hand, it is the entry route for vessels to three of the most important ports in the Mediterranean, those of the cities of Valencia, Tarragona, and Barcelona.Double danger: collisions and noise pollution  

"In recent years, the biggest threat to the common rorqual and the sperm whale is maritime traffic and underwater noise, which can come from traffic itself or from oil exploration or sonar tests," explains Miriam Romagosa, a researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences specializing in cetacean acoustics, about one of the reasons for whale strandings on the Catalan coasts. The recurrent death of large cetacean specimens is especially relevant considering that some of the Mediterranean whale species are listed as endangered, such as the common rorqual and the sperm whale. These two are among the most common on the Catalan coast and, in the case of the common rorqual, it is the second largest animal in the world. The threat to this group of mammals is growing. From 1992 to 2012, maritime traffic has quadrupled, and technological development has made vessels much faster, a fact directly related to the mortality of large aquatic mammals. "In fact, regarding collisions, the biggest problem is speed. From 14-15 knots onwards, mortality rises drastically due to the severity of the traumas that occur. At these speeds, mortality is between 80 and 100%," asserts Romagosa. Vessels such as ferries and cargo ships often exceed them.This speed makes it almost impossible for large cetaceans, whose movements are much slower than other aquatic mammals like dolphins, to evade boats. Collisions with maritime traffic, resulting in trauma or injuries, represent 20% of the reasons for strandings recorded in the northeast Mediterranean, a very high percentage, according to the scientist. Nevertheless, the vast majority of whales that die at sea sink without a trace. This makes it difficult to quantify the magnitude of the problem and understand the current impact of interaction with maritime traffic. The whales are calling

But beyond the visible collisions on the bodies of stranded cetaceans, whales have an invisible enemy: underwater sound. It is not surprising that some of these animals that reach the Catalan beaches show no sign of having suffered an impact. The head of the clinical and rescue area of the CRAM Foundation, Lucia Garrido, recalls that "all animals that reach the coast do so because they have some pathology that makes them in a poor state of health. Simple disorientation does not cause them to strand on the beach". For whales, hearing is the fundamental sense that allows them to communicate, orient themselves, feed, and mate. This is why the acoustic pollution produced by maritime traffic, oil activities, or sonar tests has effects that condition their behavior. In this regard, it has been observed that these species tend to increase the speed and duration of their dives, and indefinitely suspend habits such as feeding. A study published in May, which analyzed 1,336 communications from 18 cetaceans in an area with high anthropogenic pressure, has found that these animals have to shout to be able to communicate with each other.It also has immediate effects. In 2002, during NATO naval exercises, 14 beaked whales beached in the Canary Islands, specifically on the islands closest to where the exercises were taking place. They used medium-frequency sonars for anti-submarine training. The animals' necropsies revealed decompression effects. "The widely accepted theory is that it was caused by the suspension of the animals' dives upon hearing the sonar and suddenly surfacing. After this incident, tests of this type were restricted in the Canary Islands, and there have been no more mass strandings of these species," points out Romagosa. Alerts for boats, a solution?

Despite everything, the technology and knowledge to prevent the death of these species already exist. Part of the solution is being developed by the team led by Arantza Ugalde and Miriam Romagosa from the Institute of Marine Sciences of Barcelona, with co-financing from the Pure Ocean Foundation. The path the researchers have found involves using the existing fiber optic cables installed on the seabed. "An equipment called an interrogator is connected to these cables, which sends light pulses through the fiber optic and analyzes the returning signal. Whale vocalizations or the noise of a boat generate acoustic waves and vibrations that can induce small deformations in the fiber, which are registered in the optical signal. In this way, the fiber can act as a network of distributed sensors on the seabed," explains researcher Ugalde, who is an expert in the use of submarine cables for seismic monitoring. All this information has the potential to generate an alert system for ships when the sounds produced by common fin whales or other whales to communicate are identified and located. But implementing this measure would not only have benefits for biodiversity and endangered species, but would also reduce the economic impact on vessels due to collisions with cetaceans. "Most medium-sized vessels are completely aware of the vast majority of collisions with whales, and it is common for them to have to return to port or stop to make repairs to propellers and ship hulls," says Romagosa. Even so, Garrido recalls that part of this threat to the ecosystem exists due to the current commercial and economic system: it is estimated that 80% of the volume of goods exchanged worldwide arrives by sea. "Consuming locally and from businesses that do not depend on a large volume of imports reduces the dependence on goods arriving by sea, generating less environmental impact and, in turn, reducing maritime traffic which is directly related to the disorientation of whales," concludes the head of the clinical and rescue area of the CRAM Foundation.

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Single-parent families with one child in their care will have a 50% reduction in public university fees from the next academic year. Families with a single adult and two or more children, or with a disability or work incapacity, will be able to access public university free of charge. The Government will approve this coming Tuesday, at the executive council, the decree setting university fees, which will already incorporate the new measure, a "historic" demand from this group that equates these family models to large families – who already benefited from these discounts –, according to the Department of Research and Universities.

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Barcelona has experienced a tense afternoon due to a clash between two opposing demonstrations. The Mossos d'Esquadra have dispersed with baton blows several anti-fascist demonstrators who wanted to overcome a police cordon separating them from another concentration of the neo-Nazi group Núcleo Nacional, in front of the Spanish government's delegation in Catalonia.

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Three people have died this Saturday in a few minutes and in different parts of Catalonia while doing outdoor activities, as reported by the security forces of the Generalitat in a statement. It is an eighteen-year-old boy who drowned while bathing in the Llobregat river, in Berguedà; an elderly man who had done a scuba dive in Cadaqués, and a third person who died after falling down a mountain ravine in the port of Medacorba, in Pallars Sobirà.

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He leaves the tent, which by midday must already be an oven inside. “No problems, no police,” he says, looking from side to side. From the dozen tents in this corner of the ronda del Litoral, between L'Hospitalet and Barcelona, no one peeks out when they hear a strange voice. At the door of each one, there are trainers and pool flip-flops that reveal that the owners have preferred to remain oblivious to what is happening outside and avoid problems. They are afraid that making themselves visible will force them to move again. This group has settled in a vacant lot between roads, having come from evictions at the airport, the Ciutadella, and the Zona Franca. “They are looking for the periphery,” illustrate those from the organizations, who point out that they opt to go more unnoticed by the police and also by the neighbors.

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Between Girona and Salt, in a half-finished farmhouse, about twenty African boys, originally from countries like Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, and Mali, are living in hardship. The house has no electricity or water. It also lacks doors and windows in the openings, and inside, there is only the structure of the main walls. The young men have improvised compartments with cardboard and fabrics where they sleep on mattresses, blankets, and camping tents. In the middle of the building, there is a staircase without walls or a railing, with a very dangerous fall into the void, especially at night. They cook in a room with a wood fire on the ground or with gas stoves, shower with jugs from the well, and have no toilets.

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Manuel Heredia gets up every day at 5 in the morning to go to work. He washes his face and teeth, ties up his hair, takes the train, and at 6:20 am he enters the company door. Eight hours later, he showers and does the journey in reverse. Until the next day. It's the same routine for so many workers, but Heredia's particularity is that he lives on the street, an exceptionality that is becoming increasingly normalized, social entities warn. The FOESSA report from Cáritas estimates that in Catalonia 1.4 million workers are poor.

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The Generalitat Firefighters have declared the first major fire of the summer season under control tonight. It is a fire of agricultural and forest vegetation in Sanaüja (Segarra). The alert was received at one in the afternoon this Saturday and it started near the Masia dels Flares, on the border with the municipality of Biosca (Solsonès).

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In the latest edition of the Baftas, Robert Aramayo won the award for best actor for his portrayal of John Davidson (1971), a Scottish activist who has severe Tourette syndrome (TS), with involuntary physical and verbal tics. In 1989, a BBC documentary, John’s Not Mad, showed the misunderstandings and aggressions he endured as a young man. Over the years, he became one of the most visible faces of Tourette awareness in the United Kingdom, and in 2019 he received a decoration from Elisabeth II.

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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".

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