The relationship with Morocco has always been strategic for any Spanish government and, despite occasional incidents such as the dispute over the islet of Perejil in 2002, governments of different political stripes have tried to maintain good neighborly relations. In recent years, however, a series of phenomena have taken place that have increased Morocco's power and influence over Spain and also over the EU. Its role as a guardian of the southern European border, and the exponential increase in migratory flows, gives it great bargaining (and extortion) power, and its recent rapprochement with the United States and Israel has made it an increasingly fearsome actor. This is the context of the Ceuta migration crisis and also what explains what happened this Thursday in the Congress of Deputies, where Pedro Sánchez has been left alone defending that Rabat had no role in the massive entry of immigrants.

The leak of the existence of a police report pointing to the participation of Moroccan security forces in the mass entry of migrants into Ceuta on July 30th has triggered a political storm that threatens the already fragile position of Pedro Sánchez's executive on this entire issue. The report itself was prepared by a border intelligence unit that has no agents on the ground and arrives at this conclusion by analyzing the videos and images that circulated those days on social media, where Moroccan gendarmes were indeed seen guiding migrants towards the border. The report is relevant for two reasons. The first is that it refutes the version that the Spanish government has defended from day one, which is that there is no proof that Morocco had any involvement in the crisis. And the second is that the Director General of the Police himself, and therefore also Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and the rest of the executive, were unaware of its existence until this Wednesday. This is the case, according to their version, because the judge of the National Court who requested it to decide if there were grounds to open an investigation asked the agents not to send it to their superiors, which is highly irregular, because the police officers in question were not yet acting formally as judicial police.

Although many Eastern European countries had already accused Russia of practicing what is called "hybrid warfare" against them, it is now Germany that has directly accused Moscow of being behind the incident in early August at Leipzig airport, when a drone loaded with explosives impacted a Ukrainian plane without exploding. A month later, the investigation by German authorities reaches this conclusion after analyzing the drone's operation and characteristics. In August, the German Defense Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, was already very clear when he stated: "We are the daily target of hybrid warfare".

The Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, has finally given explanations about this year's PISA test fiasco, in which Catalonia will not be able to compare results with previous editions because the sample is not representative. Let's remember that in the Catalan case, up to 23% of students were discarded when the maximum allowed is only 5%. And this, despite the fact that the National Institute for Educational Evaluation (INEE), the state body coordinating the tests, warned Catalan authorities on seven occasions that this deviation was occurring. However, no one did anything to solve the problem, and the result has been disastrous, as Catalonia will live in the dark for six years regarding the evaluation of the educational system.

The images this Thursday of young Ceutans waving Spanish flags while blocking the distribution of humanitarian aid carried out by the Red Cross and while assaulting an immigrant camp on Benítez beach and setting fire to their (few) belongings are not a coincidence. They are the product, on the one hand, of erratic crisis management by the Spanish government and, on the other, of the manipulation and hate speech with which the far-right has flooded social media since July 30. Language, in these cases, is everything. PP deputy for Ceuta Javier Celay called for calm yesterday, saying that "the scenes of violence position the invaders who entered irregularly as victims, when the victims are the Ceutans." That is, violence is not bad in itself, but because in this case it benefits "the invaders." Clearly, qualifying immigrants as "invaders" has a very clear political connotation, it dehumanizes them and turns them into enemies, that is, into people who endanger Spain's existence. Hence, the young Ceutans in the images probably do not see themselves as racist and xenophobic, but as saviors of the homeland.

Six months ago, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced a military operation against Iran that was to last a maximum of six weeks. The start was spectacular, with the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his family, and of several top officials of the Iranian armed forces and their intelligence services. This beginning even led Trump to predict that the six weeks would not need to be exhausted, that everything would end sooner. Six months later, the outlook for Washington is bleak. The war has not only not ended, but has also become a major headache, a diplomatic, military, and economic labyrinth from which no exit is foreseen other than a humiliating acceptance of defeat.

Almost a month later, the Ceuta crisis is not only far from being resolved, but has led to an unprecedented internal clash within the executive between Margarita Robles, Minister of Defense and head of the CNI, and Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Minister of the Interior and in charge of border surveillance. The former defended the CNI's role in the entire crisis on Tuesday and stated that they did verbally warn the Spanish government delegation of an increase in immigrant entries, without specifying the magnitude, however. The latter, on the other hand, insists that no one warned them of what was coming around July 30 – when around 70,000 people entered Ceuta by swimming – and even less so in writing. The government delegation in Ceuta even issued a statement on Tuesday to deny the minister, and this Wednesday Minister Ángel Víctor Torres, who holds the sole command of the crisis, has aligned himself with Marlaska, thus leaving Robles in a very delicate position within the executive. The PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, has tried to downplay the internal crisis by stating that

It is evident that a high salary level and a long working career translate into higher pensions or at least sufficient ones for a dignified life after the active working stage. And even more so if public benefits, which have a ceiling, are updated in relation to the consumer price index (CPI). There is an important element that explains a good part of the evolution that benefits have undergone in recent years, and that is the disappearance of the old revaluation index, which limited increases to 0.25% per year. This cap established by the government of Mariano Rajoy (PP) meant that the remuneration received by pensioners remained frozen in real terms, meaning they did not gain purchasing power, especially in periods when inflation was higher. Once the government of Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) recovered in 2022 the revaluation in relation to the CPI – which is calculated in November of each year with respect to the previous year with an increase that is applied the following January – the annual update has improved.

The crisis in Ceuta increasingly resembles the dinosaur from Augusto Monterroso's famous tale for the Spanish government. Every day they seem to wake up hoping it has been resolved as if by magic; but no, the problem is still there and forces them to make new decisions. This morning the National Security Council will meet for the first time and the single command to manage the crisis will come into effect. The problem is that these are two decisions that would have made perfect sense in the early days of the crisis, if not the first, and not almost a month later.

The political landscape offers little optimism regarding the possibility that the Congress of Deputies can approve the reform of the regional financing model proposed by the Ministry of Finance. The Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy (CPFF) that had been convened on July 29 to debate it had to be canceled due to the refusal of the communities governed by the PP or by the Popular Party and Vox to attend the meeting. Now a meeting has been rescheduled for September 4, but only the Spanish government itself and the Generalitat are in agreement with the proposal. Not even the socialist executive of Asturias is in favor, let alone the government of Castilla-La Mancha led by the critical Emiliano García-Page. In any case, this would not prevent it from moving forward by the Council of Ministers. Another matter is getting enough support for it to pass the examination in the lower house. And even more so, considering the existing polarization, with trench warfare politics and the almost perpetual pre-electoral scenario in which we live.

The Ormuz crisis, through which more than 30% of global oil and liquefied gas exports circulate, has brought to the fore the difficult balances in the control of maritime transport, which until now seemed stable and controlled but which wars and the race of the great powers, especially the United States and China, to control maritime routes are calling into question. 80% of everything that surrounds us has traveled by sea, be it fuel, raw materials, food, or manufactured products. Despite this central and strategic role, maritime transport and, in general, everything that happens at sea – even in the scientific field – is a generally unknown world. On the high seas, the law of the sea prevails, but this is variable and always clashes with that of the countries where calls are made, with those who have armed the ships, with the owners of the ports, or, also, with those who militarily or strategically control the ocean. The dispersion is so great that sometimes isolated information does not allow one to realize the complexity of the whole.

Tourism has become a key sector for the Catalan economy, with a contribution of over 12% of the gross domestic product (GDP). The attractiveness of this territory, and especially of Barcelona, is not diminished by the heatwaves that have occurred in recent weeks or by the increased cost of airline tickets and transport in general. In fact, visitors from other countries are the ones that have grown the most, with almost 2.7 million in July, a figure that represents an increase of 2.5% compared to the same period last year and a new record in the historical series, which collects data since 1999. As the data evolves, everything seems to be on track to set a real record, which would place Spain at 100 million tourists this year. Catalonia, with Barcelona as the main pole of attraction, receives around a third of the total foreign visitors.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Human Genome Project, the map of human DNA that was developed after more than fifteen years of titanic work, involving thousands of scientists from six countries and millions in investments. It is a map that is still being completed today, but it has allowed for a better understanding of the human body and has led to great advances in medicine. Many of the therapies that are now common and save lives have emerged from this map. In fact, the evolution of genetics and computer technology to read immense amounts of data with increasingly powerful AI has enabled advances in medicine that seemed unthinkable. The latest case we learned about this week: two pharmaceutical companies have announced that they have reached satisfactory results in phase 3 ofa vaccine to combat melanoma, one of the deadliest skin cancers.

Twenty days after the Ceuta migratory crisis, the Spanish government seems to be starting to realize that it also has a humanitarian crisis to manage. After the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, insisted at first that all the people who crossed the border that day would return on their own as if by magic, the passage of days has shown a much more dramatic reality. Almost three weeks after the entry, there is not even an official figure of how many adult and minor migrants remain in the city. It is known, however, that 2,168 children are registered in the protection system, although registrations are ongoing. Estimates from NGOs and the Ceuta government are that between 5,000 and 8,000 migrants remain in the autonomous city. Returns, however, continue to be very slow. And, meanwhile, all these people, including minors, have spent days and days without any kind of attention or place to stay, thus creating a very critical situation in the city.

Food is not usually good or bad in itself. It all depends on how it is used (or abused). The same applies to social networks, from Instagram to X. On the other hand, there are activities that are not permitted for minors, such as the sale of alcohol or tobacco. So, why shouldn't there be any kind of limitation on minors' access to social networks, which, in addition to positive contributions, also have negative ones, especially for users who have not yet reached adulthood and are still developing?

Often when we see old photos of mountain villages, there's something that catches our attention: there are far fewer trees than now. Indeed, until the mid-20th century, wood was the main fuel that heated houses and there was an entire economic sector dedicated to it. With the change in the energy paradigm and the introduction of fossil fuels and electricity, forests and wood ceased to be profitable, and the result is that the forest mass has multiplied to such an extent that it now occupies 70% of the territory in Catalonia. Less wood is consumed, and moreover, what is consumed is mostly from abroad, specifically 80%.

In Spain, the past is not the past, but a political weapon of daily use. Unlike in Catalonia, where the anti-Francoist consensus of all Catalanist forces allows for a greater consensus, Spain has not resolved its historical memory. And the symbol that best represents this failure is the figure of the Granada-born poet Federico García Lorca, murdered 90 years ago, and whose remains have not yet been found. This is undoubtedly an uncomfortable anniversary for the Spanish right, as it breaks the narrative that one must look forward and opt for "concord". What "concord" is possible when there are thousands and thousands of families who do not know where their loved ones are, including a pivotal figure in Spanish and even world literature, studied in all universities worldwide?

Coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, after the hasty withdrawal of international forces after twenty years, ARA journalist Mònica Bernabé has returned to a country she knows very well to explain firsthand and from within what the situation is like. The result is a series of reports that offer a snapshot of the Afghan reality, from the current construction boom – with funding from the Gulf and China – to the discrimination suffered by women and the general climate of repression that prevails there.

This Friday will see the peak of the umpteenth heatwave of the summer, with suffocating temperatures that unfortunately we will have to get used to, as they are on their way to becoming a new normal. Tropical nights – above 25 degrees –, which were once exceptional, are now common in many Mediterranean cities, and are beginning to be felt strongly in Northern Europe, where until now they were unimaginable. In this context, the data contained in the Atlas of heat vulnerability are particularly interesting, a study that calculates the needs of the main Spanish cities in a scenario of rising temperatures. The study identifies variables such as the quality of the housing stock, per capita income, or urban planning and vegetation to mark the difference between cities that are better prepared to cope with heatwaves and others that are more exposed to their risks.

These days, much has been remembered about the total solar eclipse that could be seen in Catalonia in 1905 and which already generated great social expectation; the one in 1706, coinciding with the first Bourbon siege of Barcelona, and even the one in 1448, which was immortalized in the note of an anonymous scribe in the Generalitat's registry with a drawing that is today the corporate image of the "Dietaris". For this reason, although it may seem a worn-out phrase, the historical appellation fits perfectly with the total eclipse that could be seen this August 12, 2026, in southern Catalonia, northern Valencian Country, the Balearic Islands, Aragon, and the northwest of the Peninsula. And, indeed, seeing it live, one can perfectly understand the fascination it provoked in our ancestors.