For weeks now, the casteller world has been breathing a clear feeling: the teams have started the season at a very high level. This Sunday, in El Vendrell, this intuition has finally been confirmed with facts. The Diada de les Colles Campiones del Concurs de Castells has been the definitive proof that we are facing one of the best season starts in recent years, with records that recall, and in some cases surpass, those of 2016. And most significantly: on June 7th alone, the first gamma extra unloaded of the season have already been seen.

“When I was little I lived huddled in a dark street. The sea was humid there, but the sun was cheerful there”. This is how one of Joan Maragall's poems begins, masterfully recited by actor Jep Barceló in the show Maragall at home, a splendid monologue woven from articles, poems, and correspondence from one of the most listened-to voices in Catalonia at the turn of the last century. The show takes place in what was the dining room of Maragall's house, in Barcelona's Sant Gervasi neighborhood. In this room every afternoon, at five o'clock, punctually, the couple had tea (Joan Maragall's wife, Clara Noble, was of English origin on her father's side).

The French-Iranian illustrator and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi has died at the age of 56, as communicated by her family to the AFP agency. Satrapi had withdrawn from public life months prior due to the death of her husband, producer and actor Mattias Ripa, who died on April 8, 2025. "Marjane Satrapi died of sadness just over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life," states the press release made public by the illustrator's family, which does not specify the cause of death.

At more than 3,000 meters of altitude, on the Tibetan Plateau, Qinghai's landscape has ceased to be an arid and silent expanse, transforming into one of China's most ambitious energy experiments. Where until recently a cold desert with almost no vegetation predominated, today a complex of solar panels stretches out, which, along with wind turbines and hydroelectric power plants, forms one of the largest integrated renewable systems in the world.

The forecasts are coming true and May is bidding farewell with a new set of nine-story towers. The Castellers de Sants unload the first 3d9f of the season at the Pla de la Seu festival in Barcelona and become the fifth group to reach this category this 2026. The borinots complete their best performance of the course with the tower of 8 with folre and the 4d8, in a day that also leaves notable achievements for the Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls, the Colla Jove Xiquets de Tarragona and the Colla Castellera de Sant Pere i Sant Pau.

Casteller rehearsals have changed profoundly over the last decade. Safety nets have become an essential tool for the groups that want to work on constructions of maximum difficulty with the necessary guarantees. While many formations have been adapting their venues to these needs, some have had to live with space limitations that made it difficult to develop modern and efficient systems.

Designed for young people and brought to life by young people themselves, "Tal Qual: what interests young people" completely filled the Josep Rom auditorium at Blanquerna-URL, in Barcelona. This first debate forum, connected with the interests and concerns of students, brought together content creators, experts, and journalists to discuss gambling addiction, the consumption of journalistic content, and dating apps.

Russian oil does not disappear from the global market when it leaves Baltic or Far East ports. Often, it simply reappears under another name or label. In the waters surrounding Singapore – one of the planet's main energy and maritime hubs – hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil and fuel oil from Russia are transferred from ship to ship, mixed with fuels from other origins, and subsequently re-exported to Asian markets under a new commercial identity. The process, known as blending, supported by a system increasingly reliant on the so-called “ghost fleet” of convenience tankers, dilutes the product's traceability and allows derivatives linked to Russian oil to continue circulating legally within the global energy system despite Western sanctions.

For years, every time a young child tops a human tower in front of thousands of people, the debate about the safety of castells resurfaces. The image of children several meters high continues to generate admiration, but also apprehension among those who see this practice as a particularly dangerous activity. Now, a study by researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and the Santa Tecla Network provides data that question this negative perception.

The human tower season continues to advance and this weekend has seen a new team enter the nine-story group. Minyons de Terrassa have completed the first 3d9f of the season at the Patrimoni festival, and four teams have now completed a 9-story tower in 2026, after Castellers de Vilafranca, Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls, and Colla Jove Xiquets de Tarragona.

The third weekend of May has confirmed the good feelings that were already sensed in rehearsals, with various colles taking a step forward and, in some cases, advancing schedules. The squares of Valls, Vilafranca, and Gràcia have been the great epicenters of a weekend that is already leaving the first notable milestones of the season.

The world of castells has traditionally been explained through emotion, tradition, and major festivals. But in recent years, a new way of understanding this universe has been gaining strength: the scientific perspective. Physics, mathematics, psychology, and architecture are some of the disciplines that help explain why castells work and what happens within a group beyond what is seen in the square.

Niacinamide is a form of vitamin B3 that in recent years has not stopped gaining ground in all kinds of cosmetic formulas. Its triumph is explained because it offers several benefits to the skin. According to various scientific studies, it helps to reduce acne; it reduces dark spots and unifies skin tone; it strengthens the skin barrier, as it helps the skin retain more moisture; it reduces oil production, and has an anti-inflammatory effect. For all these reasons, it is easy to find it in creams, serums, and toners of all price ranges. Furthermore, even though its success is recent, it is a product with a long history, as the industry has been using it for decades. Below, some cosmetics that include it in their composition.

Spanish strawberries, mostly produced in Huelva, have flooded French supermarkets for decades. Their price is clearly lower than French varieties. But little by little, strawberries produced in France have been gaining ground. According to the sector, for the first time, 50% of this fruit consumed in France has been grown in the country. The rest is imported, mainly from Spain. "It hasn't happened suddenly. Over 15 years, we have gained 10% of the market share from Spanish strawberries. It hasn't been a sudden change," explains Emeline Vanespen, director of the main French association of strawberry producers (AOPn Fraises et Framboises de France).

The legend tells that when the land was still wild and peoples were just learning to call each other by name, a winged shadow began to soar through the skies, drawing a disturbing trajectory. No one knew where it came from. Only that, when night fell, the air thickened with a smell of sulfur and a suffocating heat that crept along the paths like an omen.

The human tower event of the second weekend in May has delivered the first major blows with the debut of the 9-story towers. The Castellers de Vilafranca completed the first 9-story tower of the season in Les Cabanyes by unloading the 3d9f, in a performance that also served to consolidate 8-story structures and those in the mid-range of 7. The 'verds' completed the 4d8 and the 2d7, in addition to the 9d7 and the 7d7.

The 2026 human tower season has already kicked off with a momentum not seen in a long time. For weeks now, rehearsal spaces have been buzzing with activity and that typical early-season excitement: new faces, reunions, shirts ready, and the shared feeling that this could be a special year. And it's no coincidence. As happens every even year, the calendar is marked by the Concurs de Castells, the major biennial event that ends up conditioning the objectives, rhythms, and strategies of all the human tower groups.

In the square, everything is ephemeral. It passes very quickly. The tower rises, trembles, is crowned, and comes down. It's a matter of minutes, very few. The epic lasts seconds. Afterwards, only the hugs remain, a photograph, and that feeling of having experienced something often inexplicable.

When Noemí Selfín felt strong enough to return to the labor market after 16 years away from work, she knew she had to reinvent herself. At 52, with a disability resulting from an aggressive cancer and a career interrupted for over a decade by treatment, she sensed her resume would hardly compete on equal terms. “So many years out of the labor market made my profile unattractive. I needed to retrain,” she explains. During the pandemic, she began to orient herself towards tech profiles and enrolled in one of the tech bootcamps – intensive training courses – driven by Eurofirms Foundation.

When the good weather arrives, it's not just our clothes that change, our footwear also adapts to the new temperatures. That's why brands are starting to present their star models before the heat arrives, for all those who like to get things done before it's completely mandatory. These are 4 models of women's shoes that will be very popular this summer.