Two years of waiting. Twelve of the best groups in the country. And a Tarraco Arena Plaça ready to once again become the epicenter of the casteller world. After a Saturday marked by mobility restrictions and warning messages, the Competition ended up starting at four in the afternoon to ensure safety. The wait, however, only made the anticipation grow. And when the groups entered the square, everything was left behind. What was foreseen as one of the best Competitions in history ended up becoming an afternoon difficult to forget. More than four hours of human towers, nerves, falls, overflowing joys, and feats that are already part of history.

The Saturday session of the Concurs de Castells always has something special and this year was no exception. The rain gradually gained presence as the afternoon progressed and ended up conditioning the final stretch of a day that, much earlier, had already left moments to remember at the Tarraco Arena.

"Picasso arrived in Barcelona in 1895 from Malaga, when he was a child. He was 13 years old," explains historian Daniel Venteo to the members of the Premium Club who have signed up for the tour of Picasso's Barcelona.

The Castellers d’Esparreguera won the first day of the XXX Castells Competition in Torredembarra with 1,940 points, in a day that was decided practically at the last moment. The team in the burgundy shirts surpassed the Castellers de Figueres by only fifteen points, while the Castellers de Cerdanyola completed the podium with 1,735 points. In total, 44 human towers were seen in less than three hours, and notably, there were only two falls.

The Catalan Book Week closed this Sunday its 44th edition with more than 130,000 visitors, 8,000 more than last year, and a turnover that will reach one million euros, 12% more than a year ago, pending the final figures. The organization assures that, taking into account the absolute sales data, the 2026 edition has been the best in the history of the Week. "We have experienced the best edition of the Week in its entire history, a fact that demonstrates the good work done in previous years and reaffirms the vitality of the book in Catalan, and we are already starting to think about the 45th edition so that it can once again be a great celebration of books and culture," asserted the presidentof Editors.cat, Oriol Magrinyà.

The Plaça de la Font became this Sunday the setting for the first Sunday of the Santa Tecla festivities, on a day that promised strong emotions and arrived with high expectations. With the four groups having ambitious goals and the Castells Competition ever closer, Tarragona was expecting a great day. And it has been, although not for everyone. The Castellers de Vilafranca fulfilled their program without problems and the Xiquets de Tarragona recovered the 'tripleta màgica', while the Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls and the Colla Jove Xiquets de Tarragona left the square with some of their most important goals still pending.

"Literature serves to say that, for the racist and unsympathetic piece of shit country that we are being left with, demographic replacement is welcome. It's already late!", said Biel Mesquida this Saturday during the inauguration of the 44th Catalan Book Week.The poet and writer, born in Castelló de la Plana in 1947, has spent decades defending freedom in all its nuances, and today his message has also claimed “insurrection”: "I have not come to bring you peace, but struggle; I have not come to bring you well-being, but insurrection. Literature has always been on the front line of humanizing struggles, against the trampling of rights, against ignorance, for wisdom, and for the practice of people's happiness", asserted the poet, who also sang a cappella the first stanza of Bella Ciao.

Little by little, the battle over consumption is shifting to the field of electric vehicles. An efficient electric car represents an absolutely undeniable competitive advantage in terms of range and ease of use, and in a market dominated by Chinese brands, Volkswagen has wanted to strike a blow on the table with its new electric prototype.

The forest has disappeared. Rice could not even be planted. In Kalumpang, in the center of the island of Borneo, about 200 hectares of forest were cleared last year to convert them into rice fields as part of the Indonesian government's program to achieve food self-sufficiency. Machines began working there in April 2025, and by September, almost the entire area had already been cleared. One year later, the fields remain practically abandoned. The land, largely formed by acidic peatlands, is not suitable for rice cultivation. For the inhabitants of the area, that forest had another value: it provided them with food and raw materials.

This Monday, September 21, at 6 p.m., ARA culture journalist Jordi Nopca will interview the writer and ARA columnist Sebastià Alzamora (Llucmajor, 1972) live, who has been awarded the National Poetry Prize, granted by the Ministry of Culture. The jury has chosen his work Sala Augusta followed by Llengua materna (Proa, 2025) for "its ability to transition, with identical genius, from the impassioned language of historical denunciation to the delicacy of the domestic space".

"What would happen if we lost the ability to love one another, to help each other selflessly, to touch each other, to raise our children, to feel pity for others?", asks Ada Castells (Barcelona, 1968). The writer has imagined a technified world where machines do everything, even when it comes to giving birth: clamps hold the mother's body, and once the creature is expelled, she doesn't even touch it. Obviously, these are pregnancies where sex plays no role. The baby goes directly to a nursery zone, where machines will raise it. Sílvia, the protagonist of the novel The Anthropologist (Edicions 62), turns everything upside down when her daughter, Maria, is born: she decides to trick the machine and keep the girl. From there, all kinds of doubts and a rebellion arise.

Sustainability, understood in environmental, social, and economic terms, is one of the factors that any business must include in its corporate values, and the energy transition is one of the challenges that, as a country and as a global environment, we must take on as soon as possible. A premise that the new Master's degree in Geosciences for the Energy Transition, which the UB is adding to its catalog of master's degrees this year, takes very much into account. The degree is based on the idea that knowledge of the subsoil is fundamental to being able to carry out an effective energy transition. "The energy transition is driving a structural change towards renewable and sustainable sources, which requires new scientific, technological, and educational approaches for the exploration, management, and efficient use of the subsoil," emphasizes Anna Martí, coordinator of the master's degree.The new master's degree at the UB trains specialists in geology and geophysics with a clear orientation towards the application of sustainable solutions to the challenges of the energy transition and is structured around three main axes: underground energy storage, geothermal energy, and responsible exploration of natural resources, integrating sustainability, energy efficiency, and emerging technologies content transversally. It also introduces, adds Martí, “the main social, legal, and economic aspects that influence the design, implementation, and evaluation of projects related to the energy transition and underground management”. A multidisciplinary approach that places special emphasis on understanding the subsoil and which its coordinator considers “essential to build solid future scenarios and make informed decisions in the face of the challenges of the energy transition and the climate emergency”.Sustainable and equitable transformationsIt is no secret that organizations must face urgent challenges linked to climate change, decarbonization, the efficient use of resources, and the transition towards fairer and more resilient development models compatible with planetary boundaries. According to the Catalonia Skills and Occupations Barometer, the demand for "green" jobs has increased by 17% in recent years and maintains sustained growth. As a result, companies, administrations, and social entities require professionals with rigorous and transversal training. Professionals prepared in key areas such as environmental legislation, corporate social responsibility, sustainable resource management, circular economy, and environmental impact analysis, disciplines that converge in the new UPC master's degree in Sustainability and Strategies for a Just Global Transition.

If there is one technology that has managed to revolutionize each and every industrial, business, and economic sector on a global scale, it is artificial intelligence (AI). It is a tool that, among other things, allows for the automation of a large number of processes, the analysis of a vast amount of data in parallel, and the improvement of decision-making in an increasing number of sectors of society, which explains why it is a discipline, however, with which both current and future professionals must familiarize themselves as soon as possible. Thus, it is not surprising that an increasing number of universities in our country have incorporated AI as a common thread in some of their new degrees.

Aina Fuster: I have been able to access a field that, without this knowledge, I surely would not have accessed

Aina Fuster, 31, graduated from the UOC master's degree in Digital Health in 2021. Fuster admits that, upon finishing her Pharmacy degree, she was not at all clear about where she wanted to go. At that time, she was working full-time in a community pharmacy and that summer the interoperability of electronic prescriptions began to function, which allowed for checking patient prescriptions from other autonomous communities. "I started to think about how it was possible that this interoperability had not been possible before, but at the same time, many doubts arose as to how it could be technologically possible," she recalls. At that moment, Fuster realized that, very soon, digital transformation would be a key issue. That is why she decided to look for a master's degree that would help her understand it a little better. "It had to be one that would allow me to combine it with my full-time job and shifts, so I looked directly at the UOC," she explains.

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Continuing education or long-life learning seems to be the ideal formula for developing in a labor market like the current one, in which the advance of AI, automation, and digitalization is changing the rules of the game by leaps and bounds and requires new skills from professionals. In fact, according to the World Economic Forum, six out of every ten workers will have to update their skills before 2030. With this scenario in the background, in the words of Paqui Blánquez, director of the UAB School of Lifelong Learning, lifelong learning is no longer an option, “but a necessity”. In this context, she continues, master's and postgraduate degrees “continue to play a fundamental role because they offer a solid and structured specialization that allows for delving into areas of knowledge that undergraduate studies, by definition, cannot address with the same level of detail”. A specialization, she highlights, “especially valuable in professional environments that evolve rapidly and require profiles with advanced knowledge and the ability to adapt”.

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The draw that took place this Saturday at the Pau Casals Auditorium in El Vendrell has finished outlining the scenario for the XXX Human Towers Competition (Concurs de Castells). The groups participating in the three days of the competition now know the position they will occupy in the square and, therefore, the moment when they will have to face each of their challenges. With the cards now dealt, the countdown begins for one of the most important events on the human tower calendar.

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While the town is still sleeping, the day has long since begun at the port. The boats sway gently at the dock, while weathered hands check the nets with the precision of inherited gestures. The ropes creak, the wood still holds the salt from the previous day, and the seagulls draw the first circles in the air, above the water. When the protection of the port is left behind, everything will be in the hands of the wind, the currents, and a sea that never promises how the day will end.

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The massive entry of immigrants into Ceuta on July 30 has triggered an unprecedented crisis in the city itself, but also in Spain and Europe. ARA journalists Albert Diumenjó and Núria Rius Montaner have produced numerous reports on this crisis from Ceuta. In this conversation, they explain what they have seen and what has surprised them. They were accompanied by the newspaper's Head of International, Francesc Millan, who provided a geopolitical perspective. The conversation was coordinated by deputy director Carla Turró.

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The 2026 Concurs de Castells now has the definitive list of participating groups. With the classification closed, it is now known who will compete in each of the three days of the event, which will be held on September 27th and October 3rd and 4th in Torredembarra and at the Tarraco Arena Plaça.

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On WhatsApp he appears prominently, serious and institutional, and in his status he has an owl emoji: "They are silent, they see everything and they do their job effectively." President of the Society for Military Studies (SEM) and author of New Flock. Re-establishing Catalan Naval Power, he works to correct the lack of knowledge of defense policy in the service of Catalan national interest.Where does your passion for military matters come from?

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