Which city would top a ranking of the world's major cities with the fewest homicides? And in what position would Barcelona appear? The fact that nine murders have occurred in six months has generated insecurity – especially for residents living near the scenes of the crimes – and criticism from the opposition, both in the Generalitat and the municipal government. As this newspaper has learned, the same number of crimes have been committed in Barcelona in six months as in the whole of last year, and the vast majority are linked to organized crime – such as the execution on Carrer Balmes – and clan disputes.

He was a white-skinned man, bald, with several tattoos all over his body and dressed in sportswear, with a Barça jersey and bermuda shorts. He was dead, lying on the ground on Balmes street, in front of a police station. He had been shot in the head. The police station cameras showed the whole scene: another white-skinned man, dressed in a beige t-shirt and bermuda shorts, with a helmet in one hand and a pistol in the other, had approached him and shot him in the back. Who was the victim? This is one of the first questions the investigators from the Mossos d'Esquadra asked themselves as they searched for the perpetrator, who left the weapon, the helmet, and a mobile phone at a bus stop in Gal·la Placídia and fled.

When a street shooting occurs, the Mossos d'Esquadra immediately consider whether it could be related to drug trafficking. And, in recent months, whether these drug traffickers could be from Eastern Europe. They do this after several almost identical murders have been attributed to these mafias, and now they are also investigating whether the constant revenge between Eastern clans is behind the latest crime, the one on Balmes street, there are also the constant revenges between Eastern clans.

Six people shot dead in three months. This is the balance of the latest firearm incidents in Catalonia that greatly worries the police. The first was registered at the end of March during a shooting in a music bar in Badalona and the latest took place this Tuesday in the upper part of Barcelona, coinciding with the visit of Pope Leo XIV. The second to last, however, was two days ago, this Sunday in the Zona Franca. On the same street, in fact, there was a new shooting execution fifteen days earlier.

Rarely has Catalonia been so fortified as for the visit of Pope Leo XIV. Police sources speak of an unprecedented and extraordinary operation, which will mobilize more police officers than ever before (up to 7,000) and which bears the name Albus. The Mossos have chosen it because it means white in Latin and white is the color of the pontiff's usual attire, becoming his most recognizable visual symbol.

L'Eixample and Ciutat Vella will be the two districts most affected by the visit of Pope Leo XIV this week in Barcelona. The pontiff will land this Tuesday at El Prat airport and an extraordinary security operation will begin, with up to 7,000 police officers. The Pope's passage will also involve closures that will last for days in some parts of the city and various impacts on transport.

In 2022, the Ministry of the Interior, then led by Esquerra Republicana, approved an internal instruction to try to stop sanctioning with the so-called gag law people who protest peacefully, especially in cases of preventing an eviction. We are talking about situations like sitting on the floor in front of the home, gathering around the residence, protesting by offering peaceful resistance and encouraging other people who are not part of the mobilization to participate, and which until then often ended with a fine for disobedience. Now, however, several entities report that with the new Ministry of the Interior, led by the PSC since the end of 2024, this has changed.

Night of riots in Mataró. The Mossos d'Esquadra had already reinforced their uniformed presence in the Cerdanyola neighborhood of the capital of Maresme after an eviction this Tuesday ended with three minors arrested for throwing blunt objects, such as paving stones, at the police line. These actions against the police, however, were repeated at night, according to Mossos sources. A group of young people burned a dozen containers and threw stones and incendiary devices at the police. In total, the Mossos made five arrests, four of them minors.

In the realm of security, there are often perceptions in society that do not quite align with police data. There is a reality: two highly publicized homicides have recently occurred, both in the street and with witnesses who saw them up close. But, with the data in hand, for the police, the increase in crime in Catalonia –or the idea that there is now more than before– is a perception: last year fifty-four homicides were committed, the same as a decade ago. This year nineteen have been committed and, if the pace of cases is maintained like this, the year could end with a similar balance to 2025.

Our cousins from Morocco told us that at school they received physical punishment, whether it was a shove from time to time or blows with a ruler on the palm of the hand. We, who had loving and close teachers, were dying of fear imagining those punishments, but it was even more terrible to know that if the boy or girl came home complaining about a teacher's slap, what happened was that the father gave them another without even asking what had caused the reprimand. Fortunately, that way of linking violence with teaching has long been left behind and no one believes that blood is needed to make letters enter any human being. In that context, the authority of teachers was imposed by force and it was fear that led to respecting it. Rereading Montserrat Roig's stories about terrifying nuns who educated her is a good way to understand this world that some have never experienced.

When the current extraordinary regularization process for immigrants is completed, up to 150,000 people who live and in many cases work in Catalonia –almost half a million throughout Spain– will go from not having papers and living in the underground economy, to being able to formally enter the labor system with legal residence permits. The regularization will have evident consequences in many areas, such as the labor market or social security, but research also indicates that it may have consequences for security.

A minor killed a man this Saturday night in the center of Barcelona. The events happened at midnight, and later the Guardia Urbana arrested the perpetrator of the stabbing. As of today, according to police sources, everything indicates that the alleged author of the crime – who was with his partner – would have been robbed by a group that included the victim. After the robbery, a few meters away, on Cera street, in El Raval, it would have escalated to a stabbing.

Wednesday was the Day of the Squads, the coming-out day for the Catalan police and an occasion when the heads of the Mossos d'Esquadra take stock and share future security challenges in a packed auditorium of officers. Chief Commissioner Miquel Esquius mentioned drug trafficking and extremism as the main challenges for the country. But he also highlighted a third element that has been the focus of the leadership for months: youth violence.

The pilot plan of the Mossos d'Esquadra to introduce plainclothes officers in schools has a distant precedent. Beyond the data highlighted by the OECD – one in every two developed countries has similar cooperation programs between schools and authority agents "for preventive and community purposes" –, the United Kingdom began to do so shortly after the post-war period (1949, in Liverpool) with contact sessions with young people. But the most recognizable figure of agents in schools —school liaison officers— consolidated from the sixties. And the massive deployment arrived, especially, in the 2000s, under the governments of Tony Blair, with the safer school partnerships. As part of this initiative, officers —safer school officers— were assigned to specific schools, especially in vulnerable or considered problematic urban areas. In many cases, they worked physically within the schools, with an office, regular presence, and participation in the school's daily life, and also, occasionally, in the weekly and traditional assembly, the meeting of all students and staff, as a moment of reflection to strengthen the community. Usually, the officers were in uniform, as their role combined prevention and visibility.

When I saw that American high schools were divided between those that had a metal detector arch at the entrance and those that didn't, I thought how lucky we were in Catalonia to be so far from that situation. Until yesterday El País published that unarmed plainclothes police officers would enter high schools, for now as a pilot program. How we must see ourselves. The measure is a painful leap in scale, a before and after in the state of social conflict in our country.

35% of Mossos d'Esquadra agents suffer from depressive symptomatology, 39% from stress, and 36% from anxiety. This is one of the main conclusions of a study conducted by the Universitat Ramon Llull, which has been published by the scientific journal Frontiers in psychiatry. Apparently, it might seem that the critical situations that agents must face on the street could be a significant trigger for mental health issues, but the study reveals that internal factors such as lack of institutional support or bureaucracy have an even greater impact.

After having incurred millionaire losses due to the fiasco of the PureTech gasoline engines in recent months, the Stellantis group faces a new industrial crisis that will involve the recall of more than 40,000 vehicles in Spain manufactured between 2023 and 2026 due to a fire risk alert for the new PureTech engines. This new warning, generated by the European Union's alert system (Safety Gate), affects about fifteen Stellantis group models that use the 1.2 PureTech gasoline engine associated with a semi-hybrid, light hybrid, or Mild Hybrid system.The problem that generates the risk of fire in models with this engine is the small space between the particle filter and the alternator, which, by generating high temperatures and not cooling down properly, can lead to a fire in the vehicle. The Setllantis group admits this risk, although it points out that so far only about a dozen vehicles have been recorded as having caught fire worldwide and states that it has already begun to contact buyers of the affected cars to carry out a revision.

"Quantum computers are in their infancy, but they are already beginning to pose a threat. Encrypted data can be captured today, and later, when we have a quantum computer, that information can be decrypted." Faced with this scenario, described by Enrique Sánchez, head of the European Union's Quantum Flagship (QCN) project, the Catalan government (Generalitat) wants to make things difficult for post-quantum hackers—that is, cybercriminals who, in the near—but unspecified—future, could use quantum technology to steal public data, such as information processed by the Palau de la Generalitat (the seat of the Catalan government). To this end, the government has proposed creating the Barcelona Quantum Ring, a pioneering network in Europe that will cost 8 million euros and will be protected against attacks that could be perpetrated using future quantum technologies. This system will include the Catalan government's main strategic centers, such as the headquarters of the Catalan Government, health services, security and emergency services, corporate data processing centers, Barcelona City Hall, and other research nodes. Broadly speaking, the initiative will consist of installing QKD (quantum key distribution) technology equipment on the existing communications network using mechanisms that, instead of relying solely on mathematical methods, utilize properties of light to generate and share keys between points in the network. According to the Catalan Government, this will allow for the detection of any interception attempt and the establishment of "communications with very high guarantees of confidentiality." The bidding process to find companies capable of installing this quantum key distribution network, which the Catalan Government expects will connect 12 nodes, was launched this Monday. The first four will be connected in 2027, and three of them are already confirmed to be the Palau de la Generalitat (the seat of the Catalan government), the Center for Telecommunications and Information Technologies (CTTI), and Egara, the central complex of the Mossos d'Esquadra (the Catalan police force) in Sabadell, where strategic command and the force's most specialized units are centralized. Later, the following are planned: the headquarters of the Catalan Tax Agency; the Mossos d'Esquadra police station in Les Corts – the Mossos' command center in Barcelona; CATNIX (Catalonia's neutral internet point for the entire Catalan government administration); Santa Madrona, which houses administrative services and cultural facilities; the Bonanova node, which houses the control infrastructure for the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) network; and the Cerdanyola point, where data processing centers used by the Catalan government are located. With all this, the goal is for the Barcelona Quantum Ring to be ready in 2029.

The Mossos d'Esquadra commissioner, Eduard Sallent, will leave the police force in the coming weeks. He was currently the head of the South Metropolitan Police Region. The Catalan police chief has served in two different periods: first under the government of Quim Torra and then under that of Pere Aragonès. When Salvador Illa's PSC party returned to power in Catalonia, the new Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, and the new Director of the Police, Josep Lluís Trapero, dismissed him and appointed Commissioner Miquel Esquius in his place. Sallent's decision to request a leave of absence, as previously reported by The Country And confirmed by the ARA, it has already been communicated to police headquarters.

Salvador Macip, a doctor, researcher, writer, and science communicator, is being victimized by identity theft perpetrated by a company, currently anonymous, that is using his image to promote pills that supposedly aid weight loss. This supplement promises a 10-kilogram weight loss in three weeks, and the website features a photograph of Macip, along with his name, as if he were presenting the pill and discussing all its benefits. "I would never advertise that; I'm precisely against these things," he stated in an interview with ARA.