In Spain, the process of obtaining residency and work permits is so cumbersome and complicated that carrying out extraordinary regularization processes has already become a custom. The goal is to end administrative bottlenecks and pockets of irregular immigration that, in turn, fuel the black economy and the perpetuation of situations of social vulnerability. These regularizations have been carried out by socialist and popular governments. There were them in 1986, 1991, and 1996 under Felipe González, in 2000 and 2001 under José María Aznar, and in 2005 and 2006 under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The last one, therefore, was twenty years ago, before the migratory boom after the global recession of 2008-2012.

Where is the new Hungary of the conservative democrat Péter Magyar heading? Towards a return to Europeanism (against Putin, against Trump, and against the far-right), towards the reconstruction of the rule of law (against authoritarian and illiberal policies), and towards respect for plurality and minorities (against hate speech targeting groups like the LGTBI+ or against the rejection of identity diversity represented by immigration).

Amidst a fragile ceasefire, with Israel violating the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, the face-to-face negotiations in Islamabad, mediated by Pakistan, between the delegations of the United States and Iran have not yielded any concrete results. It was really very difficult.

A figurehead and ally of Putin and Trump in Europe, and a key figure of the anti-European and anti-immigration continental far-right, Viktor Orbán is much more than a nuisance to the European Union: he is the internal enemy who has called into question the EU's foundational values and short-circuited its system of unanimous governance. His eventual defeat at the polls this Sunday would therefore mean a respite and an injection of pro-European confidence, both to make Russia's support for Ukraine clear, to show the US president the limits of his influence on the Old Continent, and, thirdly, to deflate the far-right's rise.

Will we have Generalitat budgets at the beginning of summer? What, how, and at what speed are the PSC and ERC negotiating to approve them? We should have them. In fact, it is very relevant to have them. Normalizing institutional policy without approved accounts is an anomaly in every rule: resources are lost, processes are slowed down, initiatives and projects are stalled, sectors of civil society –economic, social, and cultural– that depend on public commitment, which are the vast majority, are harmed. Too many things suffer. The worst thing is to settle into a dynamic of budgetary frustration.

The real problem with what has happened in recent times in the Near East and Middle East is the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his permanent ultranationalist and militaristic forward flight to stay in power and thus evade the judicial cases that plague him. After the genocide perpetrated in Gaza in response to Hamas's terrorist attack, Israel has pushed the United States of Trump into a war against the ayatollahs' Iran and has taken advantage of the military escalation to unashamedly execute its expansionist ambitions in the region. The objective: to gain security space by destroying its historical enemies.

Against Iran, Trump has not won. Trump, certainly, has not lost either. The same could be said of the ayatollahs' regime, which has seen its leadership decapitated, but has responded by extending the conflict throughout the Middle East, especially to the crucial energy enclave of the Strait of Hormuz. The fairest verdict would be a draw, a tie, but a tie from which almost everyone for now – with the sole direct exception of Israel and indirect exception of Russia – has emerged worse off: the United States has not achieved the much-proclaimed change of regime in Tehran, Asia has suffered a very serious energy shortage, a hesitant Europe this time has remained on the sidelines of the calls to action from its American friend while seeing Ukraine's position weakened against Moscow, the Arab monarchies of the Gulf have lost their tourist-financial glamour and, of course, Iran has suffered a very severe attack on its political system and infrastructure.

Humanity has taken another step in its exploration of the Moon. A new leap forward to discover the hidden face of the celestial body. The space milestone of NASA's Artemis II mission, with a group of humans positioning themselves at a record distance from Earth – 406,771 kilometers away – has coincided with a dark moment on Earth itself, also with the United States as protagonists. The president who can boast of the lunar achievement is the same one who has threatened humanity with destruction, not of a religious dictatorial regime but of "an entire civilization." In this case, the name does make sense and evidences the mentality of a Donald Trump who acts like a barbarian announcing the end of a "civilization."

Spain and Catalonia continue to be European exceptions regarding the performance of the economy and job creation. With the data for March presented by the Ministry of Labour, Spain reaches for the first time in history the mark of 22 million Social Security affiliates, 3.4 million more than in 2018, when Pedro Sánchez arrived at Moncloa. In the case of Catalonia, the record was reached last summer, with 3.9 million affiliates, then it fell slightly and is now about to recover (3.88 million). Unemployment also decreased by 23,000 people in the State and by 3,777 in Catalonia. At the end of the month, we will have the data from the EPA survey and, therefore, a more accurate snapshot of the unemployment rate.

This week, two trials are set to begin in Madrid that will undoubtedly have a significant impact on Spanish politics. This Monday, the trial for the Kitchen case kicks off at the National High Court, and on Tuesday, the Supreme Court will try the former minister and former organization secretary of the PSOE, José Luis Ábalos, for the first case affecting him: an alleged scheme to collect commissions for selling masks to various state institutions.

The Costa del Sol, with its epicenter located in the city of Marbella, is the southern gateway for drug entry into Europe and a true hub where mafias from all over the world converge, to the point that police forces acknowledge their inferiority compared to organizations that move hundreds of millions and have practically no limits. L'ARA wanted to get a close look at the impact of the drug business on the Andalusian coast with two major reports, one focused on Marbella and another, to be published tomorrow, on Barbate. Marbella has been synonymous with luxury and glamour, but also corruption, for many decades. Barbate, on the other hand, represents the other side of the coin, that of old fishing villages where poverty has driven many young people towards drug trafficking, who are nothing more than pawns of international cartels.

Since Pete Hegseth was appointed Secretary of Defense of the United States, a name that would later change to Secretary of War, he has dismissed more than a dozen high-ranking military officials, including several four-star generals. The latest case occurred this very Friday, when Hegseth forced the early retirement of the chief of staff of the army, Randy George, right in the middle of the Iran war. But Trump and Hegseth's purge of the military goes back much further, to the beginning of their term, so they have ended up shaping a tailor-made military leadership.

The Islamophobic shouts at the Cornellà-El Prat stadium during the match between Egypt and Spain have gone around the world and are a very worrying exponent of the level of disinhibition of the extreme right everywhere. The case is especially regrettable because the best player of the Spanish national team and probably of the world is a Catalan of Muslim religion named Lamine Yamal, raised in the Rocafonda neighborhood of Mataró. The Barça star has sent a forceful message through social networks and has branded the "racists" and "ignorant" the scoundrels who on Tuesday chanted all sorts of insults, including to Pedro Sánchez, at the Espanyol stadium.

From April 15, those who have suffered sexual abuse in the past by members of the Catholic Church or in any other religious sphere will be able to opt for reparation overseen by the Ombudsman. Despite the system's imperfections, which do not include some of the victims' demands, yesterday's signing of the protocol should be read as a new success for this victims' movement that, for some years now, has managed to have the damage recognized and responsibilities accepted. The protocol establishes how people who until now could not go to justice because their case had expired or because the abuser had already died will be able to opt for reparation. And, most importantly, the arbiter will not be the same ecclesiastical institution within which the abuses were committed, and which has systematically denied or minimized them until very recently, but rather it will be the state, through the figure of the Ombudsman, that will act as arbiter and will ultimately decide what the restoration should consist of, which will largely be economic.

Vladimir Putin has launched his spring offensive in Ukraine. Taking advantage of a dry March after a brutal winter, the Russian army has intensified attacks against the last major Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donbas, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, with assault operations exceeding 600 attacks in four days and battalions of up to 500 soldiers. The objective is clear: to conquer what the military calls the Donetsk fortress belt before the diplomatic path, if it ever materializes, freezes the conflict map.

In a context of growing population pressure –in Catalonia with 8 million people, 100,000 new users are added to the medical system each year–, today in our country there are more than 200,000 people waiting for an operation, more than 200,000 awaiting a test, and more than 500,000 queuing for a first visit with a specialist. These figures, which the ARA has accessed, already speak for themselves, but to truly assess the magnitude of the issue, we must look at waiting times.

Pedro Sánchez on Thursday bid farewell to his closest and most loyal collaborator since he arrived at Moncloa in June 2018. Since then, María Jesús Montero has continuously held the Finance portfolio, one of the most sensitive in any government, and from there she has climbed positions to become, in December 2023, the first vice-president, i.e., number two in the executive. Undoubtedly, Sánchez is giving up one of the pillars of his government to send her to compete in Andalusia against Juanma Moreno Bonilla, a mission that currently seems impossible. It is true, however, that in politics, this month and a half remaining until the elections is an eternity.

Catalonia's current renewable energy capacity is 5,018 MW. The target for 2050, to meet the European requirement of zero emissions, is to reach 61,861 MW. The work to be done is enormous and urgent. The starting point is deplorable. We are at the bottom of the list in Spain. The philosophy nimby (not in my backyard(Not in my house) has made a hole. It's gone too far.

In his latest book, essayist and political advisor Giuliano da Empoli states, The hour of the predators (Ediciones 62), that "chaos is no longer the weapon of insurgents but the hallmark of power." In the book, he explains that new world leaders like Trump or Putin act as agents of chaos because it is the way to consolidate their authority in a world where there are no rules but brute force. Donald Trump's actions in the last few hours perfectly fit this definition.

The EU is going through difficult times, with two powerful enemies closing in and trying to undermine its autonomy in every area. One is Vladimir Putin's Russia, which, since the invasion of Ukraine, has not stopped threatening the European space, even militarily. The other is Trump and his administration, who have not stopped showing contempt for the EU and threatening it economically and even militarily, despite being historical allies. And, as if that weren't enough, there are the internal enemies, the main one being, and this is not too surprising, Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, who has not stopped throwing a wrench in the works of EU initiatives, especially those related to European support for Volodymyr Zelensky's Ukraine.