This Monday it became known that only two of the 79 minors arrested for the riots on October 24th will not face any precautionary measures. Five have been institutionalized and the vast majority, 72, have been placed under a probation regime. Now the justice system will begin its process so that in some cases those responsible for the minors, whether parents or guardians, may be fined due to the damages caused to public furniture. This action demonstrates that the immediate objective is to dissuade the youngest from participating in protests of this type, organized by someone not yet clearly known nor for what objective, but which led to scenes of looting and urban violence that have caused understandable public alarm.

Never a midterm election (midterms in English) in the United States had garnered such interest as those this Tuesday. And it is that surely never before had the United States had a president who has not only blown up the international order that has governed since the end of the Second World War, but has also undermined the democratic institutions of his own country from the first day of his second term. Curiously, it seems that neither of these two factors will be the deciding one in the elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate, but rather it will be the rise in prices caused by the war in Iran and the tariff policy. It is precisely economic policy that has eroded support for Trump among his base and has shot up support for the Democrats in traditionally Republican states.

More than a dozen Catalan towns are on alert this Saturday due to the Blocus calls, a youth pseudo-revolt forged in the anonymity of the internet, without a clear ideological inspiration and behind which there is no specific organization or hierarchy. Hence the difficulty in tracking down its promoters and, therefore, its unpredictability and volatility. The arrest of some possible leaders who have acted as drivers for the calls to take to the streets via social media serves more as a deterrent message than as a way to dismantle a protest that is not at all cohesive but, even so (or perhaps because of this), effective for being chaotic.

When such a terrible accident occurs as the one in Los Yébenes, in Toledo, and previously the one in Adamuz, a commotion and social alarm are produced that are so high that there is a tendency to seek quick answers where there are none. Experts point out that accidents are always multi-causal, and that it is not always easy to find a concrete explanation for them. In any case, two levels must always be distinguished. First, it is necessary to identify the error or the chain of errors that led to the misfortune. And second, to analyze the underlying causes that made the error possible.

The high-speed accident in Toledo could be an isolated tragedy, but the fact that it occurred only nine months after another fatal crash, the one in Adamuz, multiplies its impact and makes things really very difficult for the Spanish government to convince public opinion, just over four weeks before the elections, that there is no structural problem of management or resources in the railway system. It is true that, with the information available so far, it seems that the two accidents obey completely different causes. In the first case, the derailment was due to a crack in the track, therefore, to a problem with the road infrastructure. And in the second, the safety system, first, and the traffic management from the control center, later, would have failed.

An innocent comment by Real Madrid player Kylian Mbappé on a television show, where he said that one of the memes of himself he likes the most is one in which his face merges with that of Mao Zedong, whom he described as a "dictator," has caused an authentic earthquake between China and the French footballer and, by extension, Real Madrid and the Spanish league. Aside from the withdrawal of some Chinese product sponsorships from the French star, the most forceful reaction has been that of Chinese television, which has cancelled the broadcasts of the Spanish league and any match in which Mbappé plays. The immediate reaction from Mbappé himself and the Spanish league has been to apologize, almost on their knees, with the hope that China does not carry out its threats and that there is no economic damage to the League.

Beyond the internal effects for Brazil, Lula da Silva's unexpected victory in this Sunday's presidential elections has a major global impact, as it represents the first defeat of the reactionary wave driven by Trumpism in South America. Indeed, for Washington, Brazil was the big game piece on the continent after having achieved victories in Argentina with Javier Milei, in Chile with José Antonio Kast, in Colombia with Abelardo de la Espriella, and in Peru with Keiko Fujimori. The veteran Brazilian leader has achieved not only a historic comeback (never had a candidate who lost in the first round won before), but has broken a trend that seemed unstoppable.

The context is not very reassuring. Almost none of the certainties we had a decade ago remain standing. Russia is no longer a reliable energy partner for Europe but an enemy that seeks to seize Ukraine and tests European countries with drones, cyberattacks, electoral interventionism, and border provocations. Donald Trump's United States is no longer a secure ally and, despite signed treaties, it is not clear that they would come to the rescue of Europeans in a potential Russian attack; rather, they might support it, just as they have not come to the rescue of their Gulf allies either. China is not the cheap factory of the world but an industrial and technological competitor that wipes out the productive fabric of the European continent. The climate crisis is accelerating with a faster rise in temperature than expected, but instead there is a decline in awareness and government actions to stop it. The technological revolution of artificial intelligence has an unthinkable capacity to improve the world and also to destroy it. Inequality has increased, fascist ideology as well, and multilateral and humanitarian organizations are in retreat everywhere, which causes even more crisis.

Catalans are marrying less and doing so later. Life as a couple is being delayed, as is its formalization. Therefore, marriage is being postponed and statistically declining. Those who do marry end up doing so at an older age, often after a consolidated life together, sometimes even with children. While a few decades ago it was most normal to marry before starting a relationship under the same roof, and to proclaim it with a party, that has not been the case for a long time now. There is much more mobility in partnerships, and relationships are much more open and fluid, and friendships often play a role just as significant, if not more so, than the partner themselves. A youthful lifestyle dominates, without a fixed and firm commitment as a couple, for which a stable cohabitation is not necessary. In many cases, moreover, if there is a stable relationship, it is done without papers or celebration.

The PP and Vox have designed a campaign whose main objective is to prevent the left from mobilizing. It is for this reason that their candidates, Alberto Núñez Feijóo (PP) and Santiago Abascal (Vox), avoided an uncomfortable photograph this Wednesday with the Argentine president, Javier Milei, a character known for his buffoonery and insults towards what he calls leftists (zurdos, in Spanish). The strategy, however, did not work out very well for them. First, because the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, skipped the veto and did indeed meet with Milei and took a photo with him. And second, because a kind of Streisand effect also occurred, that is to say, there was more talk about their interest in not coinciding with him than about the visit itself.

Usually, on election night, little attention is paid to the results in the Senate. But this time it seems it will be different. Both the left and the right have understood that control of the upper house could be key in a legislature that, whoever wins, is expected to be of high political voltage. For this reason, the PSOE and the Broad Front have rushed to agree on joint candidacies and now the PP and Vox, who no longer hide the intention to govern together, as did happen in 2023, are exploring forms of collaboration.

Despite the PP's efforts to avoid any controversy before the November 29 elections, this Monday Alberto Núñez Feijóo once again took aim at the Catalan school language immersion system. Although his "Contract with Spain" only contains a generic commitment to "guarantee the teaching of Spanish throughout Spain" (as if that were not already guaranteed), in reality, what is being prepared, according to party sources, is the intervention of the Catalan system so that it more closely resembles the Galician one. And what is this Galician school system that Núñez Feijóo defends? Well, it is a system with 50% in each language and where the core subjects, such as mathematics, are taught exclusively in Spanish.

France woke up on Sunday in a state of shock after the riots caused a degree of destruction not seen for many years in the country's main cities, starting with the capital, Paris. The Parisian City Council has admitted that law enforcement was overwhelmed, on a day when between 550,000 and 800,000 protesters were counted across the country and there were about 2,000 arrests. The outburst of rage began to brew during student protests a few weeks ago and has quickly spread to other layers of society, who see their standard of living becoming lower and, in parallel, public services becoming weaker. The result is the shocking images of this weekend, with a town hall in flames, that of Limoges, and the looting of luxury shops in the heart of Paris in the face of police helplessness. A police force, by the way, that was also in the spotlight for the excessive use of force against students.

Little is said about unwanted loneliness. We have so many major social problems –housing, the education crisis, chronic poverty, mental health...– that unwanted loneliness, which is not very evident at first glance, does not generate alarm. But in the world we have built, it is a growing malaise: more and more people, of all social conditions and ages, from urban and rural environments, live the trauma of social isolation. Even people we would never imagine. It does not affect, as many think, only and above all the elderly. It also affects, and increasingly so, children, adolescents, and young people; and it also affects adults who apparently lead a conventional life. This harsh reality is well documented and known, but it does not receive enough attention, neither from the media nor from professional support. So it is not on the list of social priorities. Clearly, there is a lack of awareness of the seriousness it entails.

In 2024, 67,107 people died in Catalonia; of these deaths, 10,939 were due to avoidable causes. In fact, 16% of deaths had lung cancer as the primary cause, and it is no secret that the reason is almost always smoking. It is still hard for it to be understood to what extent tobacco kills in a clear and forceful way. The reason is simple. Large tobacco companies have invested thousands and thousands of millions of dollars in scientific research with the goal not so much of proving that tobacco does not cause harm – something that nowadays is indefensible – as of diverting attention toward other possible causes of the disease. That is to say, they have invested in research that has other, totally legitimate objectives, such as genetics, pollution, or stress. The idea, as explained very well in an interview by Robert Proctor, the scientist who helped convict the tobacco companies in the United States, is to spread doubt about the direct effect of tobacco by dispersing the causes and thus blurring the responsibilities.

We cannot let ourselves be carried away by environmental pessimism. All around us there are many people who work, who research, who transform. Many people who think and act in the service of others. Bringing this committed talent to the surface, giving it a voice and visibility, is a duty of the media that we at ARA take seriously. Of course, we must also explain what does not work, denounce corruption and injustices, and hold those in power accountable. We do this day after day. But the talent we have here at home, in universities, in research centers, in companies, which too often remains hidden, interests us just as much or more. It is a talent that acts in many fields: science, the humanities and the arts, medicine, gastronomy, sports... And also in technology, in a very relevant and transversal way, and often affecting and dialoguing with all other fields.

If there is one part of the repression unleashed after 1-O by the Spanish state against the Catalan independence movement that was especially unjust and arbitrary, it is the one that pivoted around the Court of Auditors. This body, which had never acted decisively against any administration or party, acted imbued with such a spirit of revenge that it considered that all the foreign policy of the Generalitat from the year 2011, when Artur Mas came to power, until 2017 was in reality improper and illegal expenses of the 'Procés' that needed to be reimbursed. This meant, de facto, an economic penalty for about thirty Generalitat officials, among whom were Mas himself and former minister Andreu Mas-Colell, who were forced to present guarantees for the amounts demanded from each of them (out of a total of 5.4 million), and who have had to live the last decade with this sword of Damocles hanging over them.

The chaos of Rodalies is an entrenched disaster. Promises of improvement drag on forever. The reality of delays, accidents, and breakdowns persists. Incidents are daily, a living hell for users. The latest rain episodes have once again highlighted the precariousness of a service that has its credibility in the dirt. And the covert strike by train drivers has only further aggravated the situation. Thousands of citizens have been living for a long time, a very long time, a daily disaster.

The so-called "energy ceasefire" between Russia and Ukraine announced by Donald Trump has not even begun. When he tried to impose it on Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy replied that he knew nothing about it but that they would accept it. "We are ready to respect an energy ceasefire if Russia is ready to do the same," he said. As of this edition's deadline, Russia has officially said nothing about it, but it hasn't been necessary. Last night, Russia attacked a power plant in Kharkiv and a gas production plant and a service station in Zhytomyr, according to Kyiv.

Laws are debated and approved to be applied. It makes no sense to publish them only for them to become a dead letter. The Food Chain Law, which came into force in January 2014, was reformed in 2021 in order to restrict abusive commercial practices. The text establishes that the purchase price set in the contract must always cover the effective production cost of the primary producer, in this case the farmer or the livestock breeder. It is expressly prohibited to buy below what it has cost to produce the food. It is a standard that the countryside demanded for a long time to be applied.