Forceful response from school principals in the face of an error that will make the PISA test results in Catalonia incomparable with other territories or previous years. The association of school principals issued a statement this Saturday in which they blame the error with the tests, warning that it will have a "devastating consequence": "Catalonia loses the possibility of comparing the evolution of its education system with the rest of the world," they warn in the text.

Three days after the collapse that on Wednesday swallowed a crane at the R2 line's underground works, Adif and Renfe have announced key steps to restore traffic on the affected tracks, but without yet specifying when the R2, R2 Nord, and R11 will return to normal operation. This Saturday at noon, Adif declared the sinkhole repaired after finishing filling the hole that opened on the border between Barcelona and Montcada i Reixac with concrete. Once all safety checks were completed, Renfe began conducting empty test runs, with empty trains, before restoring service.

This Friday, the Government announced that an error in the sample of selected students has resulted in Catalonia's PISA test results being invalidated for comparison with other territories or previous years. The error by Education means that the sample is not representative and it will not be possible to know if the Catalan educational level has improved or worsened. L'ARA interviews Francesc Pedró, who has worked for a decade with the OECD in the educational field. He is also a professor at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and co-director of the 2026 Yearbook of Education in Catalonia from the Equitat.org Foundation.

A worker who was carrying out maintenance on the train tracks near Sant Mori (Alt Empordà) died early this Saturday morning. According to police sources, he suffered an electric shock while maintaining the railway line, halfway between the Sant Miquel de Fluvià and Camallera stations. At the latter, Adif has been carrying out works for some time. The victim is a 66-year-old man.

The Catalan education system has experienced a real upheaval: an error in the sample of students who took the PISA tests will make Catalonia's results in the OECD tests unrepresentative and incomparable with the scores of other countries or with the results that Catalan students achieved in previous editions. In other words, the PISA tests will not serve to know if Catalan schools have improved or worsened compared to the last report in 2022, which was a disaster for Catalonia, nor to know the level of Catalan students compared to that of boys and girls from other territories. Broadly speaking, the problem is that there was an error in deciding which students should be excluded from the tests due to learning difficulties: Catalonia exempted 23% of the students who were part of the sample, when the OECD sets a maximum of 5% of participants to be exempted. But what is the process for deciding which adolescents take the PISA tests?

It has been 121 years since Catalonia last saw a solar eclipse, and another 154 will have to pass before there is another. Between 7:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. on August 12, the southern strip of the country will experience a total eclipse. The Sun, however, will only be covered by the moon for a period of between 28 seconds and 1 minute and 32 seconds.

The race for gene therapy and the desperation of some parents have ended up costing the life of a six-year-old girl in China. The minor, named Mei – a fictitious name to preserve the family's privacy – died at Shanghai Xinhua Hospital in March 2025 due to thrombotic microangiopathy – that is, the formation of deadly microscopic clots –, seven days after receiving an injection of a virus at the base of her spine. The parents had opted for this therapy after learning that their daughter had an alteration in the CHD3 gene, which caused her a syndrome compatible with autism and a consequent delay in physical and cognitive development.

Serious setback in the Catalan education system. The results of the PISA tests in Catalonia, which will be made public in early September, will not be comparable with other territories or with previous years' editions. In other words, the PISA report will not allow us to see if the level of Catalan students has improved or worsened. The reason is what the Department of Education has described as a "technical, isolated, and isolated incident." Broadly speaking, Catalonia has not correctly applied the criteria set by the OECD – the initiators of the PISA tests – to justify that a student should not undergo the tests, which has resulted in the sample of students who did take the exams not being representative of Catalan students aged 15. The Government received an alert about the error in March and communicated it this Friday, July 24. An investigation has been opened to clarify the causes of this fiasco.

The first transplant between two people with HIV in Spain ends a prohibition that had been in place for almost forty years. Since 1987, people with the virus could receive organs from HIV-negative donors, but they could not become donors, not even for other people with the same infection. This limitation was repealed in 2025 thanks to a new protocol promoted by the National Transplant Organization (ONT), which authorizes these interventions as long as both the donor and recipient meet very strict clinical criteria, such as maintaining an undetectable viral load and not having suffered from certain opportunistic infections.

More than 900 activities and 23 decorated spaces will adorn Gràcia between August 15 and 21 for the main festival. This year, the journalist and Gràcia historian Vicenç Sanclemente will kick off the festivitieswith an opening speech in Plaça de la Vila. The festivities also come with a certain mystery – the theme of the decorations will not be announced until July 25, at the Vigílies Supper, to preserve the magic of the festival.

The woman investigated for allegedly abusing her baby, who was admitted to the ICU at five weeks of age, has once again explained herself to the judge this Thursday. The woman has denied at all times that she intervened in any aggression and has also maintained that she never saw her husband abuse him. Although her internet history shows that she was worried about the man's attitude, with searches like "my partner doesn't like the baby" or "my partner doesn't treat my baby well", his defense insists on distinguishing between having detected mistreatment and having noticed that the man was mistreating the child due to lack of skill or affection. During her statement, the woman affirmed that, "if I had seen it, I would obviously have gone to the police", according to legal sources.

The large flare that was burning since Wednesday night at the Plaça de Sants metro construction site has been extinguished, more than twelve hours after the explosion that left eight workers injured, two of them seriously. The Barcelona Firefighters have managed to completely cut off the gas flow and have declared the emergency over. Now, however, the drilling machine that caused the incident must be moved and its causes clarified.

The day after the collapse of the R2 works between Barcelona and Montcada, which caused a great scare and swallowed a large crane, the Secretary of State for Transport, José Antonio Santano, admitted that it would take "days" to fill the gap with concrete, but that, "if all goes well," train traffic could be restored next week. However, the secretary has asked for caution and acknowledged that a more concrete date for the resumption of service could be given from Saturday.

Let the majesty of orcas not deceive you: they are intelligent, strategic, and relentless predators in the oceans. An investigation published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ethology has recorded and documented for the first time a never-before-seen behavior in these cetaceans in the Gulf of California, Mexico. As can be seen in the images, the orcas coordinate to hold and ram a prey, throwing it into the air.

New incident with metro works in Barcelona. This Wednesday night, an explosion followed by a fire occurred at the metro works in Plaça de Sants, leaving eight people injured, all men. Two of the affected are in serious condition, three in less serious condition, and three in mild condition. Nine units from the Barcelona Firefighters and eight ambulances from the Emergency Medical System (SEM) were dispatched to the scene of the accident. This Thursday morning, a large flare-up continues to burn in the area while emergency teams work to control the gas leak.

After nine months, fifteen sessions and up to fifty appearances, this Tuesday the Parliament has approved part of the report of the investigation committee on the activity of the Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA) between the years 2011 and 2025. The committee was created, among other things, due to the case of the minor protected by the DGAIA who was a victim of sexual abuse between 2020 and 2021 and which led to the refounding and renaming of the service by the Government.

The Archbishopric of Barcelona has intervened in three church foundations after detecting alleged irregularities in their administration. The measure affects the Valldejuli Foundation, the Sant Josep Oriol Foundation, and the Mare de Déu dels Desemparats Foundation, as reported this Wednesday by the archbishopric in a statement.

A blockage in the connection well of the works to bury the R2 line, on the border between Barcelona and Montcada i Reixac, swallowed a large crane and more heavy machinery this Wednesday at noon, but it did not cause injuries. Adif sources explained to ARA that no personal injuries were registered as a result of the incident, but the sinkhole has forced to to preventively interrupt the railway traffic between Montcada i Reixac and Sant Andreu without a specific restoration date, with affectations on R2, R2 Nord and R11.

The Rodalies crisis has triggered demand for buses as a mobility alternative, and this, in turn, is saturating some points in Barcelona. Fabra i Puig, Gran Via and also the Maria Cristina area, on Diagonal, have been suffering for months from the effects of an avalanche of alternative plans that, added to the interurban bus lines, are overwhelming mobility. Solving the underlying problem requires rethinking the model, building new stations and interchanges; that is, years of constructing new infrastructure. Therefore, while that doesn't happen, Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat have decided to take a first step to try to "ease up," at least, the Diagonal corridor.

He operated from the Quatre Camins prison cell. Through various clandestine mobile phones, he communicated with his family. From home, his eldest daughter made videos loading and handling shotguns and revolvers. The man, from prison, distributed these videos to potential arms buyers, linked to organized crime and drug trafficking, and managed the sales.